The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, March 22—
, 2004 -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
What TV reporters like least of all: pitching a story twice and having it rejected — and then having the same show to which the story was pitched demand it be crashed in a day, after the New York Times puts it on the front page.
What Dan Bartlett likes least of all: having to spend his weekend breaking the White House's "we don't do book reviews" rule.
What George Bush likes least of all: late people.
What Note readers like least of all: The Note being late (or on vacation).
What John Kerry likes least of all: people who run into him on the trail.
What Lisa Myers likes least of all: when the Los Angeles Times beats her to a story.
What Steve Rosenthal likes least of all: palm pilot malfunctions in the field.
What Rob Portman likes least of all: the question "Are you related to Natalie?"
What newspapers reporters like least of all: headline writers who top their stories with headlines that cause sources to complain.
As a matter of fact, a belated congratulations to the headline writers at the Los Angeles Times, who, per a recent Los Angeles Times story, won the nation's most prestigious headline award (headline: "National Headline Contest Gives Top Prize to Times Copy Editors"). LINK
Anyway, our point is, there are a lot of newspaper stories out there from today and the weekend that have headlines pregnant with meaning for the nation's leading presidential candidates, and here they are:
Headlines that seem good for President Bush and bad for John Kerry:
Bush Camp to Spotlight Kerry's Fiscal Policy
Bush Aide Sees $1 Trillion Gap in Kerry's Plans
GOP Sees Pattern of Fabrication by Kerry
Despite the Sluggish Economy, Welfare Rolls Actually Shrank
Headlines that seem good for John Kerry and bad for President Bush:
As Jobs Go Overseas, a City Struggles to Reinvent Itself
FBI Budget Squeezed After 9/11
Government Accounts of 9/11 Reveal Gaps, Inconsistencies Questions Arise About Who Put Nation on High Alert;
A Threat to Air Force One? Panel Assembles Timeline
Delivery Delays Hurt U.S. Effort to Equip Iraqis
Soaring Global Demand for Oil Strains Production Capacity
OPEC Hits Limit for Crude Used in U.S. Gasoline;
Price Volatility May Rise Soros Presses Anti-Bush Effort
Headlines whose true November, 2004 political meaning cannot yet be divined:
Former Terrorism Official Criticizes White House on 9/11
Rove, Small Circle Lead Bush Campaign (that one is listed here as a joke, Karl!!)
In Election Year, Fed Keeps Eye on Rates
Despite Political Crossfire, Records Show Policy Issues Tend to Prevail Over Politics
The Kerry campaign will unveil what communications director Stephanie Cutter calls a "major" new ad at noon today. Heavy hitters — campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill and senior advisers Jim Margolis and Michael Donilon will host the call.
The RNC plans a morning conference call with Ed Gillespie and a news conference at 4 p.m. ET, both on the Party's conception of Kerry's spending proposals.
Sen. Kerry remains on vacation in Idaho until Wednesday evening. On Thursday night he attends the Democratic Unity Dinner with former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and on Friday he campaigns in Michigan. See Ed O'Keefe's campaign report for more.
President Bush meets with the recipients of the Public Safety Officer Medals of Valor at the White House today. Tomorrow he meets with his Cabinet and the president of Columbia. On Wednesday he gives out a Congressional Gold Medal, speaks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and attends the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner. On Thursday and Friday he travels to battleground states New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Arizona to speak about home ownership.
Vice President Cheney speaks at a Lakewood, N.J. fundraiser this evening and attends a fundraiser luncheon in Dayton, Ohio on Friday.
First Lady Laura Bush hosts a symposium at the White House this morning. Tomorrow she travels to Chicago to speak about American Heart Month. On Wednesday she speaks at a luncheon on behalf of Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and at the Alzheimer's Association Gala in Washington.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court hears arguments in what is roundly referred to as "the Pledge" case. LINK
Also Wednesday, President Bush sneaks up to Boston for a BC04 fundraiser. And AFSCME holds an executive board meeting.
Wednesday and Thursday, The 9/11 Commission hears from Secretary of State Powell, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Richard Clarke, Madeleine Albright and others.
ABC News Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney re-elect: After focusing on Kerry's record on national security issues recently, the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign will shift its attention to a different policy issue and will "spend this week aggressively seeking to define Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, as economically irresponsible," reports Richard Stevenson of the New York Times.
Bush campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, "released an analysis that he said showed a $1 trillion gap over the next decade between spending increases Mr. Kerry has called for during the campaign and the tax increases he has already supported." LINK
With "events throughout the country," the Bush campaign today will focus on Kerry's national security record in an "effort to portray the presumptive Democratic nominee as a reckless spender whose promises would far exceed his capacity to pay for them," report Mike Allen and Dan Balz of the Washington Post . LINK
The Washington Times' Sammon writes on the BC04 new line of attack and Notes "the new offensive is aimed at defining the Democratic nominee while he continues a skiing vacation in Idaho."
"'You will see us discussing that aggressively this week as the Congress votes on budgets,' says Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman. 'We'll have surrogates out during the week, and you'll see this conversation joined on numerous different fronts.'" LINK
And Mehlman hinted to the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Malone that a new round of ads may come next. "'Stay tuned,' he said."LINK
Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times compares and contrasts how President Bush used to live on the campaign trail to how he does now as CinC/Potus.
"He feels cooped up at the White House, and running for president as president is a lot better than running as challenger," writes Bumiller. LINK
Also Note the Bush/remote control/Ozzy Osbourne-esque moment that Rep. Peter King relayed from his travels on Air Force One:
"Once on board, though, Mr. Bush had a little trouble with the controls. 'He gets the remote and nothing's happening,' Mr. King recounted. 'He calls the steward and says, 'What's wrong with my television?' The look on his face was, 'I'm the most powerful guy in the world and I can't get my television to work.'"
Have a question for the BC04 campaign? Need to get someone on the phone? Refer to the handy guide provided by AP's Tom Raum on who does what in the campaign and who makes up the exclusive group of advisers that are guiding the re-election effort from Courthouse and the White House. LINK
Raum looks at the inner circle which includes Karl Rove, Marc Racicot, Ken Mehlman, Vice President Cheney, brother Jeb, Karen Hughes, Ohio Rep. Rob Portman and BC04 finance director Mercer Reynolds.
Quick: which five human beings have their noses most out of joint because they are NOT listed???
"Laura Bush is becoming increasingly visible," writes Bob Kemper of the Chicago Tribune, "And she's talking about a personal agenda that has grown more sophisticated than many would have expected from her early days in the White House." LINK
Kemper sat down with the First Lady in her East Wing office last week and discussed her role in the campaign, and she dismissed recent media reports that had her and her mother-in-law upset at the direction of the re-election campaign.
"'I think the campaign is going great,' she said. 'What Barbara Bush and I do commiserate about sometimes is the press coverage of the campaigns, of all those campaigns that we've been involved in over all these years.'
'We just don't like to read mean things about our husbands.'"
The Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization that backed the president's election in 2000, is urging a Bush Administration appointee to restore information about sexual-orientation discrimination to an Internet site where federal employees can learn about their rights in the workplace," reports Stephen Barr of the Washington Post. LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: Bush vs. Kerry:
Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times examines the question of "how much America should weigh world opinion in devising an approach to national security."
Columnizes Brownstein, "Kerry's promise to collaborate more in the struggle against terrorism will help him only if he can convince Americans that more friends abroad mean more security at home." LINK
Once again, Ron is unhappy with the quality of the media-driven dialogue on big campaign issues.
Keying off the nation's unhappiness with corporate scandal, "Democrats are trying to make a case that this White House is a tool of powerful special interests, supports companies that ship American jobs overseas, allows pharmaceutical makers to gouge consumers, is more interested in corporate bottom lines than environmental protection and backs management over unions," reports the New York Times ' Dick Stevenson. LINK
For his part, Matt Dowd says he ain't worried …
The Boston Globe's Raphael Lewis reports that both President Bush and Senator Kerry put in phone calls to Sunday's politically and humorously charged St. Patrick's Day breakfast in South Boston. LINK
The AP's Mark Pratt writes that the two "engaged in some lighthearted, long-distance one-upmanship." LINK
The AP's Sharon Theimer offers a side-by-side look at the two campaigns' coffers. LINK
Reuters' Lori Santos reports that Sens. McCain and Lieberman pleaded to the president and Kerry on Sunday to keep things relatively nice. LINK
The Washington Post's Kurtz analyzes how Stewart and Leno and Letterman are focusing their punch lines when it comes to Bush and Kerry. LINK
Incidentally … here's a blind item for you.
Which Daily Show correspondent has agreed to accompany a lovely ABC News campaign reporter to the Radio/TV Correspondent's Association dinner on Wednesday?
ABC News Vote 2004: Sen. John Kerry:
The Los Angeles Times' Glionna takes a long look at the FBI's shadowing of John Kerry during the 1970s, writing that the files on Kerry "contain no information or suggestion that Kerry broke any laws. And a 1972 memorandum on the FBI's decision to end its surveillance of him said the agency had discovered 'nothing whatsoever to link the subject with any violent activity.'" LINK
Responded Kerry, "knowing the scope of the government surveillance against him had made him more conscious of selecting the right people to run intelligence agencies. If elected president, he said, he would appoint an attorney general 'who knows how to enforce laws in a way that balances law enforcement with our tradition of civil liberties.'"
With six you eggroll and with primary wins you get paper! The New York Times ' Glen Justice documents how Kerry fundraising totals climbed with each nomination win.LINK
The Washington Post's Edsall and Cohen also look at the fundraising battle, Noting that Kerry campaign officials report they are currently "raising $1 million or more daily — and the Massachusetts senator will begin a 20-city fundraising tour a week from today." LINK
From ABC News' Kerry campaign reporter Ed O'Keefe:
KETCHUM, IDAHO, March 21 -- After a week of skiing, riding, climbing, and hiking, Senator John Kerry will be running again. Coming out of Ketchum, the unchallenged Democratic nominee faces two immediate challenges: money and image.
In order to re-fill primary depleted coffers, Kerry will immediately embark on a 20-city fundraising tour. Squeezing campaign events and fundraisers into a tightly packed schedule, the Senator begins collecting in the Golden State, hitting four California cites-Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles-early next week.
In February, the Kerry campaign raised $8.4 million and spent $8.3 million, battling to secure the Democratic nomination. Since the decisive Super Tuesday primaries in which Kerry pushed his lone remaining rival Sen. John Edwards from the race, Kerry campaign officials claim to have raised nearly $15 million on the Internet alone.
Nevertheless, Kerry's efforts this next month will be focused on traditional events, such as larger dinners, house parties, and meetings. In total, the Kerry campaign aims to raise $80 million, including some post-Super Tuesday funds, meaning no matter how well the Senator's efforts pay off, he will still be well shy of President Bush's current total of $160 million.
However, flowing funds will ensure the Kerry campaign can re-hire furloughed staffers, allowing them to fill out their newly acquired campaign headquarters in downtown Washington, in addition to beefing up their national field team.
Of the Senator's post-vacation schedule, Kerry campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter says, "We have an aggressive schedule planned out over the next several weeks. We will travel all over the country, some days hitting more than one state."
Kerry's immediate schedule takes him back to Washington for a Unity Dinner featuring a guest list full of prominent Democrats including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Kerry will hold a rally with former nomination rival Howard Dean in Michigan, also traveling to Missouri before the end of the week.
Many of these events will focus on cultivating or, in some cases, establishing Kerry's image. Largely unknown outside Massachusetts, the Kerry camp needs to introduce the Senator to the nation while simultaneously battling back the Bush-Cheney campaign efforts to frame Kerry in an unflattering light.
Campaign officials refuse to cede ground in any of the contested states, with Cutter insisting, "We'll compete in all of them."
Some senior Kerry aides admit, however, that certain states are more decidedly in play, especially New Hampshire, West Virginia, Florida and Ohio, all states lost by Al Gore in 2000. Those same officials also suggested Kerry would play strongly for southern states such as Georgia and North Carolina, states which were more boldly red in the previous election.
As to when Kerry will choose a running mate, the Kerry camp remains coy, wisely choosing to keep the political water cooler buzzing for the next several months.
Since Kerry's quick pick of political ally and Ketchum neighbor Jim Johnson to lead his Vice Presidential Search Team, the Senator has remained mum, allowing local reporters from Florida to North Carolina to chatter about the possibility one of their own will soon be on the ticket.
Kerry remains on vacation-tiring several press corps members half his age-until Wednesday. Kerry then returns to Washington for Thursday's Democratic Unity Dinner before heading to Michigan, Missouri, and California.
ABC News' Jake Tapper reports that "in an interview several weeks before he voted against $87 billion in funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seemed to argue that such a vote would be reckless, irresponsible, and tantamount to abandoning U.S. troops." LINK
"On the Sept. 14, 2003, edition of CBS's Face the Nation, Kerry spoke at length about an amendment he and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., were offering which would have paid for the $87 billion by delaying some of the recent tax cuts. Asked if he would vote against the $87 billion if his amendment did not pass, Kerry said, 'I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible."
The Boston Globe's Pat Healy reports that Kerry requested his staff to FedEx chapters of Richard Clarke's book to him in Idaho. LNIK
USA Today's Martin Kasindorf thinks that Kerry clearly "needed rest," but his "time off coincides with early, fierce and sustained attacks by the cash-rich Bush campaign. Some Democrats worry that Kerry has let down his guard, has slowed his responses and is doing little but carving turns in the snow for TV news cameras while Bush attacks without letup." LINK
Dan Payne's Armchair Strategist takes stock of a busy week. LINK
Weekend must reads:
The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg on the BC04 90-day plan to define Kerry: "The aides are following a tight timetable, they said, and they want to have defined Mr. Kerry on their terms between now and early June, when they expect voters to stop paying close attention to politics, at least for a time. In addition, Mr. Kerry will very likely have a much larger war chest with which to fight by then, reducing the effect of the Republican media blitz." LINK
This blind quote is key key key: "The (Bush) advisers contended that that would be relatively easy to do because impressions of … (Kerry) are so ill-formed with many voters. 'He peels like an onion,' said an associate of Mr. Bush. 'People aren't like, "I really believe in this guy and I'm not willing to accept that information." They accept it very easily. With some candidates there's a hard shell. With him there's a soft skin.'"
The Boston Globe said that by the time Kerry hit Ketchum, he "had inflicted more bruises on his own candidacy than his Democratic rivals had during the months-long primary season." Do see the promise of a "barrage" of spring ads from the Bush-Cheney side.
The Los Angeles Times' Gold wrote on the Bush team's tackling of Kerry and gets Donna Brazile to give Team Kerry a grade of "B" in its handling of recent run-ins with campaign "potholes." LINK
The New York Times duo Nagourney and Halbfinger offered Democrats the opportunity to openly fret about John Kerry's response rate to the "incoming" and came up with mostly benign advice for the candidate LINK
"While no one was ringing any alarm bells, Democrats around Mr. Kerry were contemplating some changes in course. Among the most prominent suggestions was that Mr. Kerry accelerate his selection of a running mate so that he has help raising money and making the Democratic case against Mr. Bush."
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler took a long look at Kerry's foreign policy approach of engagement. LINK
BIPAC preps to flex its biceps: The Washington Post's Birnbaum on businesses push to turn their workers out come November. LINK
The Washington Post's Kurtz on the religion of rapid response. LINK
The New York Times' John Tierney produced a Sunday look at the "wide gulf between George W. Bush and John Kerry" during their days at Yale LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: the politics of national security:
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice reasserts President Bush's record on terrorism since 9/11 and stresses their commitment to fighting terrorism in the days and months before that tragic day in an op-ed in today's Washington Post. LINK
Rice's piece was part of a VERY coordinated White House offensive to strike back at Clarke.
Barton Gellman of the Washington Post writes up Richard Clarke's new book, Noting that "among the motives for the war, Clarke argues, were the politics of the 2002 midterm election. 'The crisis was manufactured, and Bush political adviser Karl Rove was telling Republicans to 'run on the war,'" and of course that is NOT what Rove said (and, Sen. Kennedy, it was in Austin, not California … ) LINK
The AP's Ted Bridis, the Boston Herald's Jennifer Rosinski, the New York Times' Judith Miller and USA Today's Andrea Stone report on Clarke's new book. LINK, LINK, LINK, and LINK
The Washington Post 's Dana Milbank reports that in the days after Sept. 11, "the Bush administration cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI." Milbank Notes that the papers obtained by the Post were given to them by the Center for American Progress, a liberal group run by former Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta and that "the papers show that Ashcroft ranked counterterrorism efforts as a lower priority than his predecessor did, and that he resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding before and immediately after the attacks." LINK
Bob Novak seems to believe that Al Qaeda has intentions to strike here before the U.S. presidential elections. LINK
The Wall Street Journal's Scott Paltrow writes that "some official accounts of Sept. 11 are incorrect, incomplete or in dispute" and Notes that "events of Sept. 11 itself are likely to be revisited often in coming months, in part because of the commission, and in part because Mr. Bush's speeches and advertisements have made his performance on that day and its aftermath a pillar of his re-election campaign."
The Wall Street Journal 's ed board didn't and doesn't like one bit the idea of the Sept. 11 commission publishing its report during a campaign year, writing that the commission is "turning into a fiasco of partisanship and political score-settling. To be precise, Democrats are using the commission as a platform to assail the Bush Administration for fumbling the war on terror, implicitly blaming it even for 9/11."
Writing in (the Blumenthal-edited) Salon, John Podesta writes on the perils of excessive government secrecy. LINK
"Senior American commanders in Iraq are publicly complaining that delays in delivering radios, body armor and other equipment have hobbled their ability to build an effective Iraqi security force," write the New York Times ' Shanker and Schmitt. LINK
The new prime minister of Spain has tried to be a "reliable ally" while railing against the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq, writes the New York Times' Elaine Sciolino as she outlines the new Prime Minister-elect's "somewhat contradictory approach" in Spain-U.S. relations. (We bet the White House really enjoyed the invocation of the phrase "'neo-colonial'" over the weekend … )LINK
Clarke v. Rice:
Clarke gave his first live interview this morning to ABC's "Good Morning America" and faulted the Bush Administration's response to 9/11.
Asked if he thought U.S. servicemen and women had died in vain in Iraq, Clarke said: "Not that they died in vain. They died for the president's own agenda which had nothing to do with the war on terrorism. In fact, by going into Iraq the president has made the war on terrorism that much harder. "
Asked by ABC News' Charlie Gibson if the new Department of Homeland Security had made us safer, Clarke said: "No. I think it was a mistake. When you are in a war on terrorism, you don't start reorganizing everything in the middle of that war. It hasn't come together. We were better off with those parts distributed in their home agencies than we are now."
Clarke responded to criticism that he is merely angling for a position in a Kerry administration by saying: "Let me say right here: I will never work in any Kerry Administration because I'm not going to work in the government again. I have done 30 years in the government. I have done my public service. Now I want to get the facts out."
Condi Rice pushed back against Clarke's allegations by making the rounds on the morning shows -- appearing on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox.
On CNN's "American Morning, Rice was asked to speculate about Clarke's motivations and said: "I don't know what his motivations are, but he had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to. In fact, when he came to me, and asked if I would support him with Tom Ridge to become the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, the department which he now says should never have been created, when he asked me to support him in that job, he said he supported the president. So frankly, I'm flabbergasted."
ABC News Vote 2004: the battlegrounds:
The Detroit Free Press runs a piece saying "less than four months after he signed it into law on Dec. 8, Bush's Medicare reform dream has turned into a nightmare and a potential drag on his bid for re-election." LINK
The Detroit Free Press reports Gov. Jennifer Granholm "will sign a pair of executive directives today to prohibit the state from contracting with businesses that would do the work in foreign countries," Noting that "since 2000, more than 2 million jobs have been lost nationwide, including 300,000 in Michigan. The manufacturing sector has been particularly hard hit, with more than 170,000 jobs lost in Michigan alone." LINK
The Arizona Republic's E.J. Montini follows the outsourcing issue across the state and the creation of RescueAmericanJobs.org.LINK
The Arizona Daily Sun reports that Sen. H.R. Clinton (D-NY) will fundraise for the state with an appearance on May 26. LINK
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that "Louisianans also have given more than $1.1 million to the Republican Party, more than six times what they have given to the Democratic Party." LINK
Gary Martin of the San Antonio Express-News reports on the Bush and Kerry campaigns, who, seven and a half months before the general election, are already duking it out in a handful of strategically important states. LINK
Bill Sloat of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on Appalachia's struggles as jobs continue disappearing in the state of Ohio, Noting that residents blame a mix of things, including NAFTA and the World Bank, for the lack of prospects open to residents. LINK
Rebeccah Cantley-Falk of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports on local West Virginia schools who are helping individuals train for skilled jobs in a professional workforce, Noting that the workforce training students receive is proving to be the most beneficial support for volatile state industries. LINK
The Manchester Union Leader states that Bush's Thursday visit comes in light of University of New Hampshire survey showing Bush trailing Kerry 53 to 38 percent and quote American Research Group pollster Dick Bennet, "'For a Republican sitting President in New Hampshire, these are not great numbers.'" LINK
There was a Nevada poll over the weekend with boffo presidential numbers.
The AP's Glen Adams reports on how Maine Democrats upstaged Republicans in this year's caucuses. "State Republican Party rules — or the lack of them — leave party activists without a clear process for selecting their presidential favorites." LINK
The Land of 5 + 2 = 7:
ACT, Media Fund, and Suzy Ballantyne rolled into one: The 527s get profiled in the St. Pete papers as the battle on the ground starts to get serious in the Sunshine State. Do check out the handy list of groups at thebottom! LINK
It's not the NFL, not even the WWF … But NARAL, Planned Parenthood, League of Conservation Voters and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund can stay up on the air all the way to Nov. 2 because of the "MCFL!" LINK
Dean:
Howard Kurtz uses his Washington Post media criticism column to hit back at Howard Dean:
"Howard Dean is disputing an article by this reporter that said he had told colleagues he didn't care about being president and at one point was worried he might win. 'The piece is "not accurate,' Dean told Fox's Alan Colmes, and said those comments were based on 'unnamed sources.' But then he dismissed it as 'a gossip column.' Gossip? A 3,800-word article with 10 campaign officials on the record? Just writing gossip would be so much easier." LINK
Nader:
The Boston Globe's Anne Kornblut updates the Nader campaign. Kornblut appeared at Nader's DC HQ without an invite and was turned away without a tour. The lack of courtesy leads Kornblut to surmise that something may be fishy.
"Either Nader is running a stealth operation or his campaign has not raised enough money to operate in a traditional manner." LINK
That may be so. We'll find out about Nader's financial situation on March 31, the deadline for first-quarter FEC campaign finance filings. But if the campaign itself is to be believed, things are peachy. The campaign says it raised over $550,000 in February.
"Nader campaign officials say that despite the fierce opposition from the Democratic establishment, they are doing better than they were at this stage of the 2000 race, raising money at a faster clip and signing up at least 7,000 volunteers to help put their candidate on state ballots nationwide."
Ballot access has been the key item on Nader agenda. Lately, the independent candidate has been focusing his energies on states like Texas and Oklahoma, where he faces an uphill road getting on the ballot.
Using Rick Hertzberg's New Yorker piece from a few weeks ago, Bill Duryea of the St. Petersburg Times takes a look at how the Bush Administration's policies have dismantled Nader's career efforts as a consumer advocate.
Examining everything from public health to workplace safety to clean air and water, Duryea says the administration has indeed had an effect … they are conservatives, after all. And in the end, he reaches this conclusion:
"Taken together these actions by the Bush administration don't suggest a point-by-point attack on Nader — no one has proposed doing away with seat belts, air bags or fireproof pajamas, for example. Rather, they represent diametrically opposed philosophies about the nature of government regulation." LINK
The economy:
USA Today's Kathy Kiely profiles Reading, Pa., which "is now a symbol of one of the most controversial topics on the campaign trail: the 'outsourcing' of jobs overseas." LINK
The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip Notes that under the conventional wisdom the Fed avoids changing interest rates during an election year … but that that's not always the case … and he offers this fun-fact-filled graph: "This is the fifth presidential election since Mr. Greenspan became Fed chairman. In 1988, he raised rates six times, twice in August and twice after the election. In 1996, he cut rates in January — and then left them untouched for the rest of the year. In 2000, he raised rates three times, the last time in May."
In a piece we know the White House will be reading, the Wall Street Journal's Bahree writes that global demand is "straining" the world's oil supply, "potentially adding to price volatility even as the cost of oil approaches 20-year highs."
Reports the venerable Robert Pear of the New York Times, welfare rolls actually have "declined over the last three years, even as unemployment, poverty and the number of food stamp recipients have surged in a weak economy." LINK
Democratic National Convention:
The Boston Globe's Rick Klein updates us on Mayor Menino's efforts to appease city employees and labor unions with small raises in the short term and bigger ones in the long term that would be contingent on expected economic growth for the city. link
The politics of same-sex marriage:
USA Today's John Ritter looks at the series of events and careful planning that led to San Francisco being in the national political spotlight. LINK
NEWS SUMMARY
TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET): —7:00 am: Former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke appears on ABC's Good Morning America.—7:00 am: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice appears on the morning news programs—8:00 am: Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson delivers a speech to the Border Trade Alliance, Washington, D.C. —9:00 am: Rep. Robert Wexler appears before the 4th District Court of Appeals to argues that touch-screen voting machines violate Florida's election laws, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.—9:45 am: Off-camera press gaggle by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan—10:00 am: U.S. Supreme Court meets to release orders and hear arguments, Washington, D.C.—10:30 am: First Lady Laura Bush hosts a White House Symposium on Classic American Stories, Washington, D.C.—12:00 pm: U.S. House of Representatives meets for a pro forma session—1:00 pm: On-camera press briefing by Secretary McClellan, Washington, D.C.—1:00 pm: Sen. Allard and Rep. Musgrave hold a news conference to announce their Federal Marriage Amendment, Washington, D.C.—2:40 pm: President Bush participates in a photo-op with the recipients of the Public Safety Officer Medals of Valor at the White House, Washington, D.C.—4:30 pm: The weekly gasoline pump prices are released—6:30 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at a fundraiser reception for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. Lakewood, N.J.