The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, April 27—<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
NEWS SUMMARY
Today: Specter's primary; Cheney's date with SCOTUS; Iraq war; Kerry in Ohio; and Bush in Baltimore.
But the short-term is (usually) for suckers.
Here's what's going on inside the brains of the senior party and presidential campaign strategists for both sides:
Republican "Oh yeahs!!" 1. It appears as of today that John Kerry might never have a message. 2. How easy it is to goad Kerry into making mistakes on the trail. 3. The press blithely accepts the nonsensical GOP patter of "this election is about who has the best ideas for the future and/so let's talk about John Kerry's life 30 years ago." 4. Oregon, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. 5. Bay State gay marriages starting May 17.
Republican "Oh no's" 1. July 1. 2. Right track, wrong track. 3. Ohio. 4. Neither the press nor the FEC seems willing to stop the overlapping personalities of those flush-with-cash 527s. 5. Toomey and McCollum.
Democrat "Oh yeahs!!" 1. The least dysfunctional presidential candidate-DNC operation in a generation (which is not to say it isn't dysfunctional . . . ). 2. ACT and Cecile Richards. 3. All that (easy) money. 4. The solid Blueness of California, Illinois, and New York. 5. John Sasso has started his new job.
Democrat "Oh no's" 1. "My Life." 2. Fear of the boogeyman: where has all the GOP soft money gone? 3. West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Florida. 4. Liberal speakers at the Boston convention. 5. It appears as of today that John Kerry might never have a message.
The polls are open and voters are voting in Pennsylvania — with the focus on whether the Bush White House's chosen candidate (incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter) can win his primary. The first results should be in shortly after 8:00 pm ET.
The only voting systems issue we're following is the new type of identification required of voters — the requisite forms have to show both name and address. That might cause some confusion, though the state has provisional ballots in place.
If the margin is close, absentee and military ballots may make up the difference, so we might be facing a long night — or days of waiting. (The safe harbor date for some of those ballots is May 17.)
There is no statewide recount; candidates must get county election officials to approve them individually.
President Bush participates in a "Conversation on the Benefits of Health Care Information Technology" at a VA Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. before returning to the White House.
Sen. Kerry is in Ohio for a jobs rally in Youngstown and a "Manufacturing Jobs Summit" in Cleveland. He then attends a Cleveland fundraiser for himself and one for the DNC.
The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case involving White House privacy in the case of Cheney v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Be sure to catch John Donvan's extensive report on today's arguments on "Nightline."
Although the locals have been covering it since Friday, the following big news seems to have largely escaped the attention of the national press:
President Bush will hit the road next week for a bus trip to key Midwest battleground states Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and Wisconsin to take his campaign two major themes to voters there.
Leaving the Rose Garden to do this kind of thing is quite pricey; most campaign-funded (non-official) events are done as part of daytrips, because keeping the POTUS apparatus out on the road overnight costs a bundle.
Just you wait, Ken Mehlman, to see the Democrat bracketing on this one!!!
A senior campaign official said that the President will focus on winning the war on terror and strengthening the economy, the top two issues for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign this year.
The Toledo Blade reported that the President is expected to arrive in Toledo the evening of May 3 and stay overnight there before making two campaign stops the next day. LINK
And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Notes that the bus trip will mark the President's 10th visit to Wisconsin. LINK
The Wisconsin newspapers are also atwitter (but perhaps not as much as the Edina papers were for the President yesterday) about a potential visit from the Vice President on Friday. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Cheney will be the keynote speaker at $1,000-per-plate Republican Party luncheon. LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: Sen. John Kerry and the medals:
The controversy over Sen. John Kerry's medals, ribbons, whatever you want to call them got lots of front page treatment this morning. Looking at what's out there, it seems there are two camps: those who took the Kerry-on-the-defensive angle, and those who took the Kerry-on-the-attack angle.
The regional and battleground state papers picked up Nedra Pickler's AP story, which is very much a "Kerry challenges Bush on Guard" point of view, rather than a "Kerry Fuzzed His Medals" point of view.
We aren't doing the work of the RNC when we point out that Kerry's refusal to show anyone the medals/ribbons he has now could still become an issue.
And we'll be interested to see if the candidate himself or the campaign keeps up on the offensive on Bush — provoked or otherwise.
The Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant was there on April 23, 1971 — four or five feet behind John Kerry and saw him reach into his breast pocket. "There couldn't have been all that many decorations in his hand — six or seven — because he made a closed fist around his collection with ease as he waited his turn. I recall him getting stopped by one or two wounded vets in wheelchairs, clearly worried that they wouldn't be able to get their stuff over the looming fence, who gave him a few more decorations. Kerry says he doesn't remember this." LINK
More Oliphant: "The night before, the men had had a long, loud argument about whether to throw their stuff or simply place it on a long table in front of the Capitol. I watched Kerry argue for the less dramatic approach and lose."
Oliphant's account, though, doesn't address the WRC interview conclusively.
The Washington Post political duo of the day Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen look at how the medal controversy is part of a bigger back-and-forth between the Bush and Kerry camps. The Republicans attack Kerry on the medals, Kerry attacks Bush's National Guard service, Cheney questions Kerry's judgment, etc. LINK
"The dueling charges reflect the effort of each side to discredit the national security credentials of the other in an election dominated by Iraq and the fight against terrorism. Yet strategists from both camps say Bush and Kerry run the risk of appearing too political or too focused on long-ago events."
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and Jodi Wilgoren give front page treatment (with some excellent accompanying artwork) to yesterday's playbook politics. LINK
"The developments on Monday illustrated how the White House is planning to anchor Mr. Bush's re-election campaign to the war on terrorism and showed the imperative his aides see in trying to undercut Mr. Kerry's foreign policy credentials, including his decorated service in Vietnam. Democrats hope Mr. Kerry's résumé will help neutralize Mr. Bush's presumed advantage on these issues."
Westminster College president Fletcher M. Lamkin's surprise and disappointment at the tone of Cheney's speech get some prominent play here. Ms. Devenish — in full Stepford quote mode — says that surprise is unfortunate.
Pat Healy of the Boston Globe takes his stab at the story from the Kerry-on-the-defensive angle. "Kerry was asked yesterday to reconcile differing explanations for why he did not throw his own medals: In 1985, he told The Washington Post it was because he did not want to, and in 1996, he told the Globe that he did not have time to go home and get them before the protest. He answered yesterday by saying he 'threw away the symbols of the war. I'm proud I stood up and fought against it. Proud I took on Richard Nixon and, I think, to this day, there is no distinction between' ribbons and medals." LINK
Kerry's other hometown paper, the Boston Herald, from the Kerry-on-the-attack side: LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Wallsten and Anderson write up the "escalated" and "nasty" back and forth on the campaign trail. And check this out from former Kerry aide Chris Lehane. LINK"Even some Democrats concede the GOP has turned the debate in its favor."
"'The guy without the service record ought to be the one on the defensive here,' said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, who worked for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000."
The AP's Nedra Pickler takes the Kerry-on-the-attack side as well. "John Kerry, a decorated Navy veteran criticized by Republicans for his anti-war activities during the Vietnam era, lashed out at President Bush on Monday for failing to prove whether he fulfilled his commitment to the National Guard during the same period." LINK
But under a headline that includes the phrase "medal muddle," Brian Blomquist of the New York Post watched an "agitated" and "defensive" John Kerry. LINKUSA Today's Lawrence on the back-and-forth: LINK
And the Los Angeles Times is apparently totally confused and headlines Michael Finnegan's wrap-up as a "Meal Flap." LINK
Morning show wrap:
All three morning shows led with violence in Iraq. The national party chairs squared off on NBC, CBS and CNN. On ABC's "Good Morning America," Jake Tapper previewed Cheney's Supreme Court challenge and George Stephanopoulos analyzed the medals controversy and reported that the Kerry campaign was going to put out unanswered questions about George Bush and Vietnam. Sen. Joe Lieberman called into Don Imus' show (although Imus was absent).
