The Note

W A S H I N G T O N July 21&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

—12:10 pm: President Bush and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hold joint press conference, Crawford, Texas—1:00 pm: John Kerry conference call with reporters on Iraq—2:30 pm: Senator Bob Graham has lunch with the League of Conservation Voters, San Francisco—5:50 pm: President and Mrs. Bush arrive at the White House—7:15 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at Bush-Cheney fundraiser in Omaha

NEWS SUMMARY

MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL EVENTS OF THE DAY

1. President Bush's midday press conference.

2. John Kerry's press conference call on Iraq.

3. DNC/RNC uranium ad tussle.

4. Dick Cheney fundraises in Nebraska.

5. What Walter Pincus does for lunch.

MOST IMPORTANT NEWSPAPER STORIES OF THE DAY

1. Dan Balz in the Washington Post on the leader-less Invisible Primary. LINK

2. Janet Hook in the Los Angeles Times on the Republicans trying to move to hegemony. LINK

3. Steve Thomma on the president's "trifecta of bad news." LINK

4. David Rogers in the Wall Street Journal on Chairman Thomas' temperament.

5. The New York Times David Sanger deconstructs the Bush stump speech. LINK

BEST STORIES OF THE WEEKEND

1. The Washington Post 's Jonathan Weisman on why the president isn't paying that much of a political price with some voters on the economy. LINK

2. Anne Kornblut in the Boston Globe on the change in the Democrats nomination calendar that makes Iowa and New Hampshire at least a little less important. LINK

3. Mike Allen in the Washington Post on the president's economic plans. LINK

4. The Washington Post 's Ann Gerhart hanging out outside a Bush Texas fundraiser. LINK

5. (tie) The Washington Post 's profile of Dick Gephardt and the piece on sushi in DC. LINK and LINK

THE NOTE'S "PERSPECTIVE" (Note to Washington Post Company counsel: please sue us (just kidding); we need the free publicity, but in the future, we will probably call this "Note's Quotes," ripping off the concept — a la Time — but not the name, from Newsweek.):

1. "I've done focus groups in three cities this past week, and I think this is already adding up to something quite big … There is an erosion of trust."

-- Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg in the Washington Post

2. "I voted for the president, and I think he's done a great job. As for the economy, he inherited it more than caused it. Eight years of [Bill] Clinton got us to where we are. Nobody I know blames President Bush.'"

-- Economically hard-hit Janet Wood of Michigan in the Washington Post

3. "Is there ever a bad-looking Secret Service agent?"

-- Mary Kay gal Nancy Brock of Alabama in the Washington Post

4. "If Bush doesn't get us into another war, and that's a big "if," and if the Democrats can stay on message about the economy, and if soldiers [in Iraq] continue to be picked off once a day, maybe … "

-- Lana Boldi, a retired United Auto Workers representative, her voice trailing off in frustration to the Washington Post in discussing the chances of beating President Bush

5. (tie) "Art majors and theater majors support Howard Dean … .They dress a lot less formally. It's the hippie-style, I guess."

--Andrew Woods, a political science major and supporter of Senator Joseph Lieberman in the Charleston Post and Courier

"The best pork chop I ever had in 1988 was in Amana."

-- Howard Dean as quoted in the Des Moines Register from "Iowa Press"

MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL DYNAMICS TO WATCH

1. Where do the press, the Democrats, the polls, events on the ground, and the evidence take the Iraq story this week?

2. Can the White House get a truce with the CIA?

3. Could the Gray Davis recall actually be in September or October?

4. How will speakers at this week's Republican National Committee meeting in New York talk about going "to the country" on national security "because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America"?

5. Will Democratic presidential candidates fire more on each other or on Bush?

In California recall news today:

-- Court proceedings haven't been going Governor Davis' way, setting the stage for a recall election that could take place as early as September 30th.

-- Governor Davis rallied his base in San Francisco over the weekend with the help of Nancy Pelosi, Terry McAuliffe, and Mayor Willie Brown.

-- Senator Feinstein's personal history battling a recall may make her less likely to change her intentions about running as a replacement.

President Bush holds a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. President and Mrs. Bush will return to the White House tonight.

The president meets with the Argentine and Palestinian prime ministers on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. He has a full day of stumping, campaigning, and fundraising on Thursday in Philadelphia and Michigan.

Vice President Cheney attends a fundraiser at the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, Nebraska tonight, which is open press.

The Republican National Committee meets in New York from Wednesday through Saturday.

The Congress' 9/11 report is due out Thursday.

Senator Lieberman campaigns in California and Arizona today through Wednesday. He'll visit Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, and Window Rock, Arizona as part of "Joe's Jobs Tour."

Congressman Gephardt will speak about Iraq tomorrow in San Francisco.

Governor Dean has no public events scheduled for today. He'll campaign in New Hampshire on Tuesday and Wednesday and in Iowa on Thursday and Friday.

Senator Graham raises money and has lunch with the League of Conservation Voters in San Francisco before traveling to Beverly Hills to meet with the "Democratic Leaders of the 21st Century" in Beverly Hills.

Senator Edwards has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll be in South Carolina to campaign tomorrow and Iowa later in the week.

Senator Kerry has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll be campaigning in Texas and Iowa later in the week.

Reverend Sharpton is in Ghana and Liberia this week.

A number of leading Democrats, including presidential candidates, have spoken or will speak to the trial lawyers out in San Francisco.

Politics of national security:

The AP's Jennifer Loven has a very unwirelike look at the changing White House tactics and stories on the uranium matter. LINK

It traces things in a quite lovely and orthodox chronological fashion, and we only subtract two points for the (apparently NOT tongue in cheek) "only time will tell" conclusion.

The AP's Will Lester couldn't reach any Madison, Wisconsin TV station reps over the weekend, so the status of the DNC's attempt to run their "ad" at low levels (and the RNC's attempt to stop it) couldn't be determined. LINK

The Note finds nothing harder in politics than tracking the attempts of one side to get stations to not run the ads of the other side.

The Washington Post 's Pincus flies high today with a look at the implications of some of the interstices of Friday's declassified intelligence report (very un-Cheney-like, that release). LINK

With a Pincus assist, yesterday the Washington Post 's Dana Milbank went onto the front page to at least partially debunk the "ready in 45 minutes" claim the administration made on occasion about Iraqi WMD attack preparedness. LINK

Same paper, same day, same first name, same Pincus assist, different gender: Dana Priest did more work on the uranium claim timing. LINK

The New York Times long Sunday story about the intelligence leading up to the war could make one wonder (if one were the type to wonder about such things) if the White House ever saw polling data that led them to believe that making the nuclear argument strengthened its hand, and it certainly keeps the CIA/White House feud alive. LINK

Of course, it's possible they made the decisions about which arguments would work best not on research, but just gut and consultation with, say, Capitol Hill.

The Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein filed yesterday on the political stakes for the three camps and the war: the White House, the pro-war Democrats, and the former Vermont governor. LINK

Do Republican pollsters have data to counter the Greenberg experience?

"'I've done focus groups in three cities this past week, and I think this is already adding up to something quite big,' said Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg. 'There is an erosion of trust. And whereas before people were almost unwavering in support of the direction he was taking the country in fighting terrorism, now I think people are unsure about the direction he is taking on terrorism.'"

The Hartford Courant's Tara Weiss addresses the White House's lurching spin control, in a piece peppered with some fine Tony Snow quotes, to wit:

"The way they're handling this, it raises the B.S. radar … This is the story of damage control gone bad. The White House has not been sure-footed. When they act like that, reporters think they're trying to hide something. They should have said, 'The statement was true. Britain told us it was true. The British are standing by their intelligence, and we trust them.'" LINK

The Miami Herald runs a grim op-ed by Senator Bob Graham, who condemns what he considers to be a host of shady war-related White House practices. LINK

AP's William Mann reports on Democrats' latest Sunday talk show attacks on the White House. LINK

While Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) talked credibility, Senator Bob Graham dragged in Vice President Cheney.

"'You cannot tell me that the vice president didn't receive the same report that the CIA received, and that the vice president didn't communicate that report to the president or national security advisers to the president.'" Graham said.

Our favorite two parts of the Katie Couric/Howard Fineman Today colloquy: Katie asking Howard what advice he would have given if he were Karl Rove (Ah — the GLEAM in Howard's eye!), and Howard's repeated reference to what people inside the Beltway are obsessed with.