Morning Show Wrap
NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2004 — --
A product of Noted Now and The Note
On Monday, GMA will air a Charlie Gibson interview with President Bush and a Diane Sawyer interview with former President Clinton.
At the top of its broadcast, NBC's Matt Lauer reported that a new poll by the Associated Press shows "it's a dead heat."
ABC's George Stephanopoulos noted how scripted both of Kerry's Thursday appearances were, from "playing offense" with Dana Reeve for suburban married women, to "playing defense" with hunting gear with rural men; "John Kerry can't win this vote... But he's got to hold down President Bush's lead there. People like President Clinton believe Al Gore got beat because of the hatred of gun owners..."On surrogates, Stephanopoulos said Bill Clinton's job will be to "turn out the African-American vote in big numbers" and reported that the "biggest star in the Democratic party" will campaign with Kerry in South Florida on Tuesday. Stephanopoulos also reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger will campaign for President Bush next Friday in Columbus, where he has strong ties, to "bring out young voters there."
Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein said on CNN's "American Morning that "Almost all polls do show John Kerry running better in [battlegrounds] than he is nationally… and it does raise the possibility of a divergence between the popular vote and the electoral vote."
ABC's Dan Harris: "The Kerry campaign knows it needs to do better among women, so today here in this room at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Kerry will be making a speech aimed directly at women talking about equal pay and he will have with him a surprise guest: Caroline Kennedy." Harris reported that Kerry argued for more federal funding for stem cell research on Thursday alongside Dana Reeve, whose husband Christoper Reeve, died just a week and a half ago. Harris noted that Kerry went hunting yesterday in an attempt to woo male rural voters and that he was quickly ridiculed by his opponents. President Bush will highlight Kerry's "liberal record" when he campaigns in Ohio, a crucial state the President has not visited for nearly three weeks now. In Canton, Ohio, President Bush will be unveiling a new speech today. The Kerry campaign says Bush's absence from the crucial battleground state of Ohio is a sign of weakness. The Bush campaign says no, it's just a "scheduling glitch."
NBC's Norah O'Donnell said Bush will visit all three big battleground states today: Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. O'Donnell said the race is turning on "values and who is more macho." Photo of Bush with the Archbishop of Philadelphia used to show Bush courting Catholics. NBC played sound of Bush and Cheney ridiculing Kerry's hunting. O'Donnell said Bush will "toughen his stump speech" on national security, Social Security, values.
NBC's Carl Quintanilla included sound of Edwards asking "Who's minding the store" about what he says are political appearances by Bush Cabinet members.
CBS' Byron Pitts led the "Early Show" with a package featuring extensive sound from Dana Reeve.
In CBS' second package, Bill Plante included mention of Bush's private meeting with the Philadelphia archbishop and sound about immigration from the President's interview with Univision.
ABC at 7:09 gave nearly 90 seconds of time to sound from Dana Reeve.
Similarly, NBC's "Today" played a LONG excerpt from Dana Reeve endorsing Kerry.
"Today" played an excerpt from Bush's interview with Telemundo. Bush is told by the interviewer that he hears from people "in the community" that Bush is "a very good man" and that he is a "man of values" but he also hears from people that Bush is "very stubborn." Bush laughed and said: "I listen to very smart, capable people. But on big matters: I stand on principle. It's very important for people to recognize that. America must not show weakness or uncertainty. That will lead to tragedy. This is a job where the buck stops here.
McCain called the rhetoric in this campaign "bad on both sides." McCain said mistakes are made in every war but that the key is moving Iraq to elections and a functioning, if not flawed, democracy much as the United States did in Afghanistan. McCain said of Clinton: "We will never see his likes again." But he doubted what impact Clinton would have on the race for President: "He did a good job at the Democratic convention but it didn't affect the numbers much."
RNC Chair Ed Gillespie appeared on "Fox and Friends" and said Kerry is "very adept" at trying to convince people that he is something that he's not. But Gillespie doesn't believe that Kerry saying life begins at conception or going hunting will change the way people look at him because they know his record in those areas.
DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe who appeared on "Fox and Friends" later in the program said: "In 2000, if we had gone to Kinko's in the morning and Xeroxed that Butterfly Ballot and showed it to people in West Palm Beach, Al Gore would be President right now."
ABC's Jake Tapper had a light-hearted piece on Barbie running for President that included interviews with Bush advisor Mark McKinnon and Kerry advisor Tad Devine.
ABC's Bob Woodruff handled a new National Geographic documentary on the Secret Service.
CBS' Steve Kroft previewed his Jon Stewart piece which will air Sunday on "60 Minutes." Kroft interviewed Stewart before his appearance on CNN's "Crossfire."
