The Note: White House Road Trips

May 9, 2007— -- The White House has two crucial storylines to sell today -- one in Iraq, one in Kansas -- and is sending the top dogs to make the sales. But as with so many aspects of the unpopular war in Iraq, it's not clear that the public is ready to buy what they're pitching.

Vice President Dick Cheney is in Baghdad, in an unannounced visit aimed at delivering a stern message to the Iraqi government -- and bucking up the confidence of the American people. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, traveling with Cheney, hadn't landed in Iraq before pronouncing the Iraqi parliament's upcoming two-month break "impossible to understand." As a "senior administration official" told reporters on Air Force Two this morning -- nothing to suggest that his cufflinks read "RBC" -- that the message to the Maliki government will be: "We've got to pull together. We've got to get this work done. It's game time." Cheney and other US officials have an 11 am ET press conference scheduled. LINK

President Bush is headed to Greensburg, Kan., in a choreographed visit aimed at displaying a robust federal response to a tragedy – and erasing memories of the response to Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.) quickly blamed the Iraq war for depleting the National Guard's manpower and equipment, in a stark display of the unpredictable politics of war. That prompted a sharp response from the White House, and while the dust is already settling, it felt like Katrina again for a few hours. "The debate was reminiscent of the Bush administration's skirmishes with Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana, also a Democrat, after Hurricane Katrina," write Susan Saulny and Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times. LINK

The Bush administration's core problem is that the public is starting to tune out a president and vice president whose approval ratings are near record lows. It all comes back to Iraq: The latest USA Today/Gallup Poll shows the public unconvinced that staying in Iraq helps in the fight against terror, or even in keeping Iraq from descending into civil war. The results "underscore the limited traction the Bush administration's arguments have gotten as White House officials and congressional Democrats negotiate an interim bill to finance the war," Susan Page and William Risser write in USA Today. LINK

The debate over war funding will move forward in the House Thursday, ABC's Jake Tapper reports, though the White House is not likely to love what gets to the president's desk. LINK

And anti-war VoteVets.org this morning unveils a new ad campaign featuring retired generals – including Maj. Gen. John Batiste, a former commanding general in Iraq - directly criticizing the president for not listening to "commanders on the ground." The ads take aim at moderate Republicans up for reelection in 2008, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who found out yesterday that she's got a top-flight challenger on her hands.LINK

In 2008 news today:

As Rudy Giuliani (R-N.Y.) heads to the Deep South – Alabama – he is facing growing scrutiny over his abortion record, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in particularly sensing an opportunity. The McCain camp jumped on news of the former mayor's Planned Parenthood contributions, with top strategist John Weaver telling The Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan: "He's well outside the mainstream of rank-and-file Republicans on this issue, not only as someone who is pro-abortion, but someone who has supported one of the most radical pro-abortion groups in the country." LINK

Former governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), who is set to address an anti-abortion group in his home state on Thursday, puts his campaign war chest to work today touting his proposal for an expanded military. It's a hot topic given the latest dust-up over the National Guard, though his new ad doesn't mention the Guard or Iraq. "If we lock our arms together, we can forge the political will to rebuild our military might," Romney says in the ad, which is set for heavy play on Fox News. LINK

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was first of the '08ers to jump on the Sebelius comments, but his message was eclipsed when he said "10,000 people died" in Kansas. (The real number was 12.) The slip-ups by the freshman senator aren't helpful (remember him botching the timeline of his family history in Selma?) but they haven't yet reached critical mass. LINK

Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) is expanding his ad buy into Iowa, with an ad featuring "real Iowans" calling on Congress to stand firm with the president on Iraq, Chris Cillizza reports in his Washington Post blog. LINK

Meanwhile, Edwards told the AP's Nedra Pickler yesterday that he worked at a hedge fund "primarily to learn" more about poverty – but he still isn't saying how much he was paid for this particular education. LINK

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) picks up a pair of gubernatorial endorsements, from home-state Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley, with whom she'll appear this morning in Annapolis. LINK

It will be "Stump Speech 2.0" for former senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) Saturday night in Virginia, after a coming-out speech last Friday that was received coolly by the conservative powers that be, Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin report in Politico. LINK

In another piece of war fallout, Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine) yesterday jumped into the Senate fight against Collins. Allen has been representing half of Maine since 1996 – as long as Collins has been in the Senate – and his candidacy gives Democrats a strong chance against one of their top 2008 targets. It also means every vote Collins casts over the next 18 months will be dissected for broader meanings – particularly when it comes to Iraq. "That is the worst foreign policy mistake maybe in our history," Allen said, according to Bart Jansen of the Portland Press Herald. LINK

The kicker:

"A Mormon, by definition, believes in God. They don't believe in God the way I do, but by definition, they believe in God," Rev. Al Sharpton. Imus' nemesis is in his own hot water after saying Monday that "those of us who believe in God" will defeat Romney in his White House bid, a comment he later said meant to convey his commitment to beat any Republican. LINK

Today's Must-Reads: LINK

The Sneak Peek: LINK

This weekend, Senator Obama will be George Stephanopoulos' guest on "This Week," and ABC is taking viewer-submitted questions: LINK