ABC News' The Note: First Source for Political News

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 6, 2004&#151;<br> -- NOTED NOW

TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)

FUTURES CALENDAR

Morning Show Wrap

Evening Newscasts Wrap

24 days until the Republican convention88 days until election day

NEWS SUMMARY

Secret meetings/conference calls for which we wish we could turn a Googling monkey into a fly on the wall:

1. the Washington lobbyists for the Saudi government meeting to discuss how to deal with John Kerry

2. the PR people for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth meeting to deal with George Elliott's retraction of his affidavit (go ahead and link to THAT story, Matt Drudge!!)

3. Senator Kerry meeting with his vast polling and political staff to have it explained to him YET AGAIN why he got no bump/bounce from his convention

4. the leading Republican 527s meeting to discuss how they are going to get these rich people to pony up

5. the White House communications staff preparing President Bush for his UNITY speech, and explaining to him that the journalists there gave John Kerry repeated (sometimes standing) ovations

6. the Kerry campaign traveling press corps trying to remember if they ever asked John Kerry to condemn 527 ads attacking President Bush

7. tax lobbyists chewing on the trial balloons about "tax reform"

8. any meeting Ralph Reed is in, ever

9. the gatherings in local TV station news rooms and business offices where discussions are under way on whether or not to run the swift boat ad

10. the Kerry communications staff meeting to discuss which Michael Moore allegation the candidate will stress today

11. the Homeland Security Department meeting to discuss how future terror alerts will be announced and when that meeting with Gail Collins will be scheduled

12. the "Politics Live" planning meeting at which Chris Cuomo, Mark Halperin, and the show's producers go over today's 1:30 pm ET episode, on ABC NEWS NOW (available in Washington, DC on Channel 194, in Manhattan on Channel 730, and here LINK) (Note Note: that is a meeting we WILL be at . . .)

13. Dr. Frist's chat with his state director about the results of Thursday's primary in Tennessee and all of the Republican candidates who will be on the ballot there in November

14. the Crossfire morning call where Novak and Carville agree on some things

15. the RNC and DNC field directors and staff plotting their meticulous targeting and massive get-out-the-vote plans

As for today . . .

Under the headline "U.S. employment growth surprisingly weak in July," Reuters writes that a "paltry" 32,000 workers were added to payrolls last month, the Labor Department reports today. The much-weaker-than-expected "will come as unwelcome news for President George W. Bush ahead of the presidential election."

The unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent in June in a separate government survey of households.

Says ABC News' Betsy Stark: "This is a very disappointing number. It raises serious questions about the sustainability of the economic recovery, especially with record oil prices. May and June payroll numbers were also revised downward. Look for a weak stock market open."

The Wall Street Journal 's E.S. Browning brings some pretty grim economic news, Noting that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 163 points yesterday, consumer spending is down and the price of crude oil has risen to more than $44 per barrel, and a separate Journal story says that the Fed is still gonna raise interest rates, even with the apparent slowdown.

We think it is safe to say at this point that the Gang of 500 will view the economy as mixed at best by election day; what the American people will think (and feel) is another matter.

President Bush speaks at the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention in Washington at 9:20 am ET before heading to Stratham, N.H. to speak at a picnic at 12:35 pm ET. The president spends the weekend at his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he will attend the wedding of his nephew, George P. Bush.

Vice President Cheney participates in a town hall meeting at Cabela's Sporting Goods Store in East Grand Forks, Minn., at 1:00 pm ET. On Saturday he attends a private fundraiser in Westchester, N.Y.

Sens. Kerry and Edwards discuss energy independence at a family farm in Kansas City, Mo., at noon ET. In the late evening, they chug along on their train tour, heading to Lamar, Colo., for their first stop.

On Saturday, the Senators travel from Lamar to La Junta, Colo., where they hold a 1:45 pm ET rally. Following the rally, they travel to Las Vegas, N.M., and finally to Albuquerque where they overnight.

On Sunday, Senator Kerry heads to Arizona for a tour of the Grand Canyon. He overnights in Flagstaff.

Senator Edwards departs for Chicago for an event on Monday. He rejoins the tour from Aug. 11-13 to complete the journey across the country.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth:

So what's next? Or is this story basically over, Kranishized, cycled through one news day and digested by cable news viewers?

Will Senator McCain continue to put public pressure on the White House to denounce the ads? And will this re-open the rift between himself and the president? He told ABC's Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview yesterday: "I condemn the ad, it is dishonest and dishonorable, I think it is very, very wrong. I hope that the president will also condemn it."

Tapper looked at the ad for "Good Morning America" in a piece that included McCain's comments and called into question the credibility of George Elliott, a Vietnam veteran who appears in the new anti-Kerry ad.

Elliott says in the ad, "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam." But back in 1996, when Kerry was running for re-election in Massachusetts, Elliott came to Kerry's defense, saying at a press conference, "The fact that he chased armed enemies down is not something to be looked down on."

This morning, CBS News' Cynthia Bowers Noted that a Houston-based Republican was behind the ad, and that the Kerry campaign has asked local television stations to pull it.

On CNN's "American Morning," Bill Hemmer interviewed two Vietnam vets — anti-Kerry Bob Elder and pro-Kerry Dal Sundusky.

Elder said his gripe with Kerry was not only his betrayal that followed the Vietnam War, but also the way he "grossly exaggerated and lied" to get his first Purple Heart — an honor, Elder said, that did not meet the military's requirements for the award, which is that it come from hostile fire. Asked if he was there that day, Elder said, "No," but that he could "fill this studio with eyewitnesses." Why is his group only coming forward now? Elder said, "We have sat in silent and actual visceral contempt of this man for so many years because of his betrayal." Elder said they are only coming forward now because Kerry has decided he wants to be commander in chief.

Sundusky vouched for Kerry's Bronze Star, Silver Star and two of his Purple Hearts though he was not there for Kerry's first incident either. Sundusky said, "John Kerry is a warrior" and that the United States needs a "warrior" in the White House because we are facing a "mess in Iraq."

What will Rush say today? LINK

Tim Russert's Today treatment was very on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-handish.

Democratic lawyers are putting pressure on stations not to run the ads — will any station manager accede to their request? (The Kerry campaign claims three already have . . .)

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth promises to send an additional $200,000 to stations today to round out their ad buy.

But the buy features, among other vets, George Elliot (as mentioned above) and Adrian Lonsdale.

Elliott is backing away from his assertion that Kerry shot a fleeing teenager in the back, telling the Boston Globe that he made a terrible mistake by signing an affidavit to that effect. LINK

And who will first get to Lonsdale, who, in 1996, quite easily praised Kerry for the same conduct he is now criticizing him for in an ad?

"As far as I was concerned, the war was won over there in that part for that period. And it was mainly won because of the bravado and the courage of the young officers that ran the boats, the SWIFT boats and the Coast Guard cutters and Senator Kerry was no exception. He was among the finest of those," he said in 1996.

The Washington Post 's Jim VandeHei and Mary Fitzgerald Note how the president's men handled McCain's call for condemnation: "White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to do so and instead criticized the financing of the ad, saying the president 'deplores all the unregulated soft-money activity.'" LINK

The biggest battleground state is paying attention — the Columbus Dispatch's Darrel Rowland leads with this: "Steve Gardner says John Kerry is a liar, traitor and unfit to serve as commander in chief." LINK

The Los Angeles Times' ed board writes, "The GOP has no monopoly on deceptive tactics. But the smear campaign against Kerry relies on highly dubious accusations to sow doubts about a well-documented military record." LINK

A brief New York Times wrap: LINK

More: LINK

Historian Douglas Brinkley, who has studied Senator Kerry's war record "extensively," tells Salon's Martin Lewis that the accusations in the Swift Boat ad are lies. "These are malicious fabrications in the heat of the election." The veterans in the ad "are simply malcontents who have never forgiven Kerry for his actions in speaking out against the war. They seek retribution by fabricating stories to destroy him." LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney v. Kerry-Edwards:

John Kerry said Thursday he would have jumped into action more quickly than President Bush did on Sept. 11, 2001, raising the stakes in the political fight over terrorism as Bush warned that the United States can't afford to "grow timid and weary and afraid" in Iraq or elsewhere," reports the AP's Ron Fournier. LINK