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W A S H I N G T O N, July 9 2004—<br> -- NOTED NOW
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Yesterday, America's most influential political journalist who doesn't bring make up on the campaign trail interviewed the person in charge of planning and executing the President's re-election strategy.
The Associated Press' Ron Fournier did an interview with Karl Rove at some point Thursday, and the most succulent fruit was buried deep inside the AP's new poll story -- with numbers suggesting a smallish Bush-Cheney resurgence in the horserace, even as John Edwards was being brilliantly unfurled.
"The conditions for a Bush victory are all there -- a strong economy, an improving position in the global war on terror and a growing sense that there are sharp and clear differences in values between the two campaigns," Rove told Fournier.
For months, the Bush campaign has said that this election is about national security and the economy, and all of a sudden, the dyad has become a three-legged stool -- with the addition of values.
Does this have to do with the naming of Edwards and the Kerry campaign's push on the values front?
We leave that to greater minds than ours.
Such things are hard to measure, but yesterday felt to some of us like the most intense day of the presidential campaign so far.
And today, this weekend, and next week are going to be big too.
Today, the President plans to escalate the values fight with a speech in Pennsylvania, some new print and broadcast ads, and serious surrogate work (read those muscular talking points . . .). This follows on the new BC04 TV ad unveiled yesterday and some strong POTUS and FLOTUS words on values. Jenna Bush is on Air Force One this morning . . .
The Kerry-Edwards ticket has already hit back on the values issue today, pre-butting the President at a morning Manhattan event, with John Edwards taking the lead.
The Edwards rollout continues -- having already achieved the morning success of getting the Kerry, Edwards, and Heinz adult children on both GMA and Today -- with Sunday impacting hard with newsweekly covers and a passel of serious newspaper interviews, along with "60 Minutes."
With the Kerry campaign planning a media conference call with its high command this morning, then, the Edwards rollout is now competing with the values fight for media attention.
And last night, after the network newscasts and right-on newspaper deadlines, KE04 did something that could fade away or could become the top political story of the day.
If a Republican presidential candidate, running against an incumbent Democrat, appeared with his newly-minted extremely conservative running mate in front of a packed house of fat cat donors in the capital of the GOP base at a fundraiser at which, say, country and western stars and conservative entertainers attacked the president in personal, mocking, and disrespectful ways, its pretty likely that the press would be in high dudgeon.
The coverage of last night's Radio City event in print has some elements of this, but not enough for the Bush campaign. And the TV coverage has largely ignored it.
Although the Kerry campaign and the DNC did not allow the event to be recorded by news organizations, the words of Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg, and others are out there for all to read.
Although a Kerry spokesman has said that the Democratic ticket doesn't necessarily agree with everything that was said, does anyone believe that the President would be let off the hook that easily if the situation were reversed?
Of course, national security is front and center too, with the reports about bin Laden and a terror threat; the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on pre 9/11 events; the Atta-Cheney churning; and, most of all in some ways, Democrats suspicions that the Bush Administration will use terrorism warnings to enhance the President's re-election prospects (suspicions that will receive a sympathetic media ear all year).
While we wait to see where this all goes, there are an usually large number of must-reads today for you to look at:
-- USA Today's Judy Keen and Jill Lawrence have what we think is the first Edwards interview since he was picked, and look at the "values" competition that began in force yesterday with the new Bush ad and the Democrats' potty-mouthed Hollywood fundraiser at Radio City. LINK
-- Adam Nagourney's lay of the land about Sen. Edwards' appeal to rural and independent voters in the New York Times. LINK
--The New York Times' Dick Stevenson on the Bush camp painting a picture of Sen. Kerry as out of step with voters' values. The definition wars continue. LINK
--The debate over whether Sen. Kerry should opt out of public financing for the general election, as outlined by the New York Times' Jim Rutenberg and Glen Justice. Whether the idea is insane depends on where you stand. For their part, the Bush campaign says they have no plans to opt out, according to spokeswoman Nicolle Devenish, but the story points out that BC04 could pull the trigger on a change after Kerry has already committed. LINK
-- Carla Marinucci's look at the financing of the Nader-Camejo campaign in the San Francisco Chronicle. LINK
--Carl Hulse's look at the Senate taking up gay marriage and what it means to the election year in the New York Times. LINK
-- The New York Times' Ralph Blumenthal reports that "Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon." Among the records destroyed -- and for which no back-up paper copies could be found -- are payroll records covering three months in 1972 and 1973 during which questions about the President's National Guard service in Alabama have been asked. LINK
"There was no mention of the loss . . . when White House officials released hundreds of pages of the President's military records last February in an effort to stem Democratic accusations that he was 'AWOL' for a time during his commitment to fly at home in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."
--The Washington Post's Al Kamen on Sen. Kerry's pre-convention schedule and the pinch-hitting Secretary of State Colin Powell did for Glenn Kessler in Indonesia. LINK
-- The Washington Post's Robin Wright and Glen Kessler on Sen. Edwards' foreign policy ideas and record -- an incredibly favorable portrait of the Senator as a young politician on these issues. LINK
-- Whether you agree with the New York Times' Paul Krugman or not, he distills the tax-cuts-versus-health-care-expansion argument down quite nicely today. LINK
Ralph Nader and Howard Dean will debate today at the National Press Club at 2:00 p.m. ET. ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?
President Bush barnstorms through Pennsylvania on a bus tour today, stopping for an "Ask President Bush" event in Kutztown (11:00 am ET), a speech at Lapp Electrical Service in Lancaster in which he is expected to extend his criticism of Kerry and Edwards' "values," (3:25 ET), and a rally in York (6:10 pm ET).
Sens. Kerry and Edwards are traversing the country meanwhile, beginning with two fundraisers in the same place (Pier 94 in New York) this morning, followed by an airport hanger rally in Beaver, W.Va. (1:15 pm ET), and another rally at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M. (8:00 pm ET).
In Washington, Ralph Nader and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean debate at 2:00 pm ET. In a different kind of drinking game, Nader has asked his supporters to donate $5 each time Dean uses one of 10 phrases, including "Florida 2000."
Today was the deadline for Ralph Nader to register for the Nevada ballot; Nader's campaign submitted 11,000 signatures, twice the required number, yesterday.
And today in Hollywood, Fla., the Democratic National Committee's platform committee begins a two-day hearing to approve the draft of the 2004 Democratic Party platform.
Over the weekend, President Bush is in Washington, D.C. On Sunday at 4:00 pm ET, he'll spend a little time taking in a T-Ball game on the White House lawn. Sens. Kerry and Edwards start their Saturdays with speeches to UNITE and LULAC in New Mexico before heading to Edwards' home state for a Raleigh rally. On Sunday they attend church together in Raleigh before ending their buddy film rollout and heading to Boston and Washington, respectively. Don't expect Edwards back on the trail again until mid-week.
ABC News Vote 2004: Kerry-Edwards '04:
Despite the focus on Sen. Edwards' appeal in the South, his biggest strength may be his appeal to rural and independent voters in battlegrounds outside the region, the New York Times' Adam Nagourney writes.
It's all about the margins -- even a small percentage of voters in rural areas, not to mention independents, could make the difference. And Nagourney throws in a couple of interesting quotes from Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio that outline some of the reasons why President Bush may have been a little cranky the other day -- even though we'd caution against buying into the "magical transformation" line pushed by party officials.
"'He appeals to the Southern moderates, who in the past may have voted for the Republicans,' Mr. Fabrizio added. 'He's got a populist message, so it can go to union members; a sizable number of union members might have voted for George Bush. I think Edwards is appealing to female voters.'" LINK
The Washington Post's Jim VandeHei reports "Sen. John F. Kerry and President Bush escalated a fight Thursday over values that is increasingly coloring the election-year debate heading into the national conventions." LINK
The Boston Globe's Raja Mishra looks at why the Kerry-Edwards visit to the battleground state of Florida yesterday was so important. "Half-a-dozen crucial voting blocs are scattered up and down the state: blue-collar conservatives in the Panhandle, a diverse group of Latino neighborhoods in and around Miami, middle-class suburban and exurban communities in the center of the state, a massive veterans population on both coasts, and seniors everywhere. Even Cuban-Americans, once solidly GOP, could be within Kerry's reach." LINK
Kerry and Edwards tell Florida that "every vote is going to be counted" this year even if they have to send Jack and Emma Claire, who are reportedly very good at math "down there to help those Republicans in West Palm Beach count those votes," the AP reports. LINK
The Chicago Tribune's Jeff Zeleny wraps KE04's visit to Florida, where Sen. Kerry stoked a little anger over the voting and vote counting process in the Sunshine State, and the BC04 TV ad launching in North Carolina. LINK
The New York Times' Jodi Wilgoren wraps the star-studded fundraiser that raised a whopping $7.5 million for the Kerry campaign and the DNC. LINK
Kerry-Edwards get by -- and a get $7.5 million richer -- with a little help from their strictly A-list celebrity friends. And John Edwards has a new pet name from Whoopi Goldberg -- "kid." LINK
The New York Post's Deb Orin reports on last night's Radio City bash, where, believe it or not, some celebrities said not-so-nice things about the President. LINK
New York Daily News headline: "Stars Burn Bush." LINK
"The battle between John F. Kerry and Washington's mainline business groups ratcheted up yesterday, when the Kerry campaign assembled a half-dozen executives to declare their support for the Democratic ticket, even if a former trial lawyer has second billing," reports the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman. LINK
Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times Notes the Jack and Emma Claire frequent mentions, "As Kerry barrels around the country on his debut run with Edwards, he invokes the North Carolina senator's two youngest children nearly as much as he talks up their father." LINK
"Intended or not, the playful antics of Emma Claire and Jack reinforced the campaign's broader message of optimism."
Special Note: Sen. Kerry knows how to make animal-shaped pancakes.
The Los Angeles Times took to Robbins, N.C. to check out Sen. Edwards' "small town," which he often references in campaign speeches. "What Edwards does not mention in these speeches is the deep vein of Republicanism that runs through his hometown. Edwards did not carry the county, Moore, in his run for the U.S. Senate; in Robbins, the town that formed his political identity, he won 394 to 267." LINK
The Boston Herald ties Sen. Kerry to Ken Lay. "Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry reported more than $250,000 in Enron stock ownership before the firm's 2003 collapse. Kerry also was forced to return a campaign contribution from an implicated Enron executive." LINK
"And Heinz Kerry served on a charity board with Lay, even after he was implicated in the alleged fraud, records show."
Brian McGrory observes in the Boston Globe that the vice presidential nominee search process shows signs of a new man in Sen. Kerry, who he describes as being an "intellectual sieve" beforehand. "It was a most un-Kerry moment at the end of a most un-Kerry journey." LINK
Knight Ridder's Tom Fitzgerald thinks that Kerry has loosened up on the trail since Edwards came on board. LINK
The Raleigh News & Observer's Rob Christensen writes about how Edwards is handling his new role -- with Christensen even using an Ed McMahon metaphor. LINK
John Edwards' secret weapon: Elizabeth Edwards. LINK
A preview of the Kerry-Edwards visit to New Mexico today by the Albuquerque Journal. LINK
The Raleigh News & Observer's John Frank and Barbara Barrett preview Saturday's rally in Raleigh. LINK
A Note exclusive: only because we are firefighting buffs did this next bit of news prick up our ears: The Ohio DNC/Kerry-Edwards Victory 2004 Campaign will open its new headquarters in a converted firehouse (Station 17) at 2300 West Broad Street in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus. The DNC informs us that Engine 17's first crew was African-American. The opening is Saturday, at 10:00 am ET. LINK
The open field next to the office space is tailor-made for all sorts of things.
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