Government is serious. Democracy is sacred. And then there is politics the way it is actually played. The Vote blog looks at politics the way the players talk about it among themselves after work.
Sarah Palin for VP? McCain pulls a mighty head-fake?
UPDATED at 10:21 AM
Rumors are swirling in media land about McCain's forthcoming VP pick. The same old names are out there:
Pawlenty, Romney, Lieberman, Ridge and Palin.
Palin?
Our friend Andrew Malcolm over at the LA Times brings up a longshot as a possibility this morning.
Another rumor has a chartered plane from Alaska landing a while ago near Dayton, Ohio. If true, that could mean McCain's selection could be an outside-the-box game-changer: picking Alaska's first female governor, Sarah Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five and political maverick in her own right, who went against her state's GOP establishment in recent years to drive a series of reforms through.
Not so fast
ABC News is knocking this rumor down however stating that Palin will watch the "fireworks" (referring to the vice presidential speculation) from Alaska.
"...one person who will not be there: Palin. The Governor's spokesperson, Sharon Leighow, tells ABC News she's going to the State Fair in Anchorage, Alaska.
A spokesperson would always tell the truth, right?
Land of the tubes
It is still fascinating to watch the conversation in the now-very-pertinent-way of describing the Internet -- "a series of tubes" -- borrowing from Alaska's senior Senator Ted Stevens's definition.
Hold everything...
The Associated Press is saying there is a plane from Alaska heading to Ohio right now. They even know something about the people on board:
A Gulfstream IV from Anchorage, Alaska, flew into Middletown Regional Airport in Butler County near Cincinnati about 10:15 p.m. Thursday, said Rich Bevis, airport manager. He said several people came off the plane, including a woman and two teens, but there was no confirmation of who was aboard.
"They were pretty much hustled off. They came right down the ramp, jumped in some vans here and off they went," Bevis said. "It was all hush, hush."
The insider info
The Chicago Tribune says it's Palin:
A Republican source confirms that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Campaign officials, however, remain mum this morning.
McCain is expected to announce his choice at a rally in Dayton later.
Hmmmmm.....
Obama's speech through the eyes of the media
What's the word on Obama's speech? Like anything else, it just depends who you are talking to. But there are some commonalities in the way reporters and columnists describe it. Searing, soaring, cutting, fierce, tough and strong seemed to be emerging as the words of choice.
Fierce
The Christian Science Monitor's Alexandra Marks used the word "fierceness" in describing the speech saying that it surprised some on the right.
“It was definitely a show of force,” says Lori Weigel, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm. “He took it straight to the Republicans and clearly laid down the gauntlet.”
Great delivery
The New York Times used both "searing" and "cutting" in one article describing the speech. As for Obama's delivery, it was spot-on.
"Mr. Obama looked completely at ease and unintimidated by his task or the huge crowd that surrounded him. And he chastised Mr. McCain for trying to portray him as a celebrity, an attack aides say has been particularly damaging, offering a list of people who he said had inspired him, from his grandmother to an unemployed factory worker he met on the campaign trail."
Back in time
The LA Times, as did so many news outlets, compared the speech to JFK's.
"Not since John F. Kennedy's speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960 has the Democratic Party staged a spectacle so grand for the acceptance speech of its White House nominee."
This is normal?
The Washington Post held an online chat immediately following the speech where one reader opined that the speech itself was full of energy but questioned the opening video which proclaimed Obama had a "childhood like any other":
" ... uh, a mixed race child of a black African and white Kansan, abandoned by his father, grew up in Indonesia before being shipped off to Hawaii to live with his grandparents? That's the new normal?"
The backdrop
Peggy Noonan, in this morning's Wall Street Journal, explains why she wasn't that impressed with the much-discussed backdrop.
"The famous Greek amphitheatre didn't look all Alexander the Great if you were there. It looked instead like the big front display window at Macy's during Presidents Day Sales Weekend. You expected to see "Sofas 40% off!" in a running line on the bottom of the screen. A friend said the columns looked like "a ballroom divider at the Hyatt Hotel."
Noonan goes on to write that because the event was - in her words - "muted," it gives the Republicans "a big opportunity to wield against him, in contrast, humor, and wit, and even something approximating joy."
If the Obama camp believes this, there is a one-stop solution: ask Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer to become Obama's chief speechwriter from here on out.
No rhetoric
Muted isn't the word Time's Joe Klein described it. Calling the speech "tough" he said it was "the perfect speech for a skeptical nation."
"It wasn't filled with lofty rhetoric or grand cadences. It did not induce tears or euphoria. It didn't have the forced, kitschy call and response tropes — "and that's the change we need!" — that defaced nearly every other major speech at this convention."
Instead, writes Klein, the speech was "lean, efficient, practical and very very tough."
Yes rhetoric
It leads one to wonder if Klein and the San Diego Union-Tribune's George Condron saw the same speech. Condron called it "rhetorically dazzling." He did capture the significance of the speech nicely.
"...this speech will stand as one of the pivotal moments in American history and race relations, right alongside Rosa Parks' refusal to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, the passage of the Voting Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was given 45 years ago to the day of Obama's acceptance speech."
History
The Washington Post's Kevin Merida discusses the historical significance:
"Forty-five years ago, many of those who jammed the Mall in Washington to hear a young Baptist preacher exhort the nation to be better were just trying to get the foot off their necks, win the right to vote, stay at a highway motel, eat at a decent diner. They were trying to send injustice packing. Not elect a black man president. Most had not yet envisioned that.
"But imaginations have expanded this campaign season, soaring beyond Invesco Field, where Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination Thursday night, becoming the first African American to stand before his nation and ask for its November vote."
Speech: great. Backdrop: hilarious
The Financial Times clearly thought Obama nailed his speech. Clearly impressed.
"Those who came to the Invesco Field on Thursday witnessed something they are unlikely ever to forget. Barack Obama gave an electrifying speech that silences—for the moment at least—doubts in the Democratic party that they have backed the right candidate. He commanded this vast sports stadium with calm authority, there were no false notes, and the attention of his audience never wavered."
The rest of the evening, they say, didn't stand up calling the warm-ups a "dreary succession of second-rate speakers." As for the backdrop?
"Who in the world thought that the Greek temple stage-set was right? If the designer’s brief had been ”low-budget hubris”, it worked; by any other standard it was a calamity. With the Republicans calling Mr Obama a vapid celebrity, this was outright self-parody."
What?
Could the oddest headline come from US News & World Report? "Barack Obama is not an alien" comes pretty close to something you'd see from the Weekly World News, but there is no mention of Bat Boy.
It was a homerun
USA Today said the speech and the convention were a success.
"Obama's 43-minute speech was the capstone of a convention that seems to have succeeded on two critical fronts: stitching together a Democratic convention that had been split in two nearly even factions by the primaries and giving Obama a bit of a bump after several weeks when his race against McCain seemed stalled."
No, it was more like a double
Toby Harnden, over at RealClearPolitics, gave the speech a thumbs-up but wasn't so high on the convention
"It was a fine speech. Beautifully crafted phrases that inspired, though they perhaps did not inform, floated high above the Doric columns on the stage at Invesco Field. At the same time, Barack Obama, his feet on the ground, delivered the meat and potatoes, reciting a checklist of the concerns of ordinary Americans who are hurting.
"There wasn't a coherent message from the convention. Mark Warner's keynote was a bust - Paul Begala's reminder that this wasn't the Richmond Chamber of Commerce just about summed it up. McCain and Bush were hardly talked about during the first two days. It did genuinely feel like a surprise when Obama made his surprise appearance at the close of day three because before then so little of the proceedings had been about him."
The other "O"
And the LA Times looks at one of the biggest celebrities to attend the event with "Oprah so moved by Obama she cries her eyelashes off." Yes, it is safe to say she liked the speech.
"I thought the speech was transcendent," she said. That's "what I thought. I thought the speech made us all feel we can do better, be better, walk taller, be higher. I just have never experienced anything like that.'' And she said "ANYTHING" as if it was all capitalized.
Obama speech excerpts: "Eight is enough"
The following are excerpts of Barack Obama's speech, as prepared for delivery:
"Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story -- of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
"It is that promise that has always set this country apart -- that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
"It is why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women -- students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
"We meet at one of those defining moments -- a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
"Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay and tuition that is beyond your reach
"These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush.
"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this."
********
"This moment -- this election -- is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
"Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
"But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change."
"You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
"We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put away a little extra money at the end of each month so that you can someday watch your child receive her diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president -- when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
"We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job -- an economy that honors the dignity of work.
"The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great -- a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight."
********
"That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president. . . .
"Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
"Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
"I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
"I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
"And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
"Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
"As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy -- wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced."
*****
"We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans -- have built, and we are to restore that legacy.
"As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
"I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing so that America is once more the last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future."
McCain's Veep speculation hits frenzy
Didn't we just do this last week?
It looks like John McCain is rolling out his VP pick tomorrow. No need for the fancy-schmancy texting, this one looks like a traditional roll-out. In front of the cameras and in a key state - Ohio.
The official line from the McCain campaign? Bland. But this is expected. It's how campaigns work.
McCain spokesman Ben Porritt offered, "McCain is going to pick a VP based on merit; a proven leader with sound judgment and well rounded experience that will give the public confidence that he/she is able to step in and govern at a moment's notice."
The excitement is over at the Drudge Report where they claim the Senator has made his decision and there could be a leak today at 6pm (ET) followed by a confirmation two hours later...
But that would be stepping on Obama's acceptance speech tonight. They surely wouldn't do that, would they?
In the meantime, we'll run through the oft-talked about short-list.
Mr. Massachusetts
Mitt Romney's name has been brought up numerous times -- getting perhaps an audition at the Democratic National Convention in the role of attack dog earlier this week.
James Carville, a guest at yesterday's Christian Science Monitor-sponsored Breakfast, said Romney doesn't worry him too much. Carville said the goal in the selection of a vice presidential candidate should be to "make the opposing campaign manager throw up."
“I don’t think if they pick Romney, David Axelrod will reach for the trash can,” said Mr. Carville, referring to Senator Obama’s chief strategist.
Carville later said he predicts the choice will be a surprise candidate.
“McCain and I share something in common,” he said. “We’re both craps shooters. And just by nature, craps shooters always want to put their stack in the middle of the table.”
Don't move so fast
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is still mentioned - a lot - and it appears that he's auditioning today.
Pawlenty's message: Obama's got no substance.
On Good Morning America today, he compared his experience to that of Obama's:
"I've been governor for six years and commander in chief of the Minnesota National Guard for six years," Pawlenty said. "When I was in the legislature I was also majority leader and did a variety of other things."
"His [Obama's] accomplishments are nonexistent or essentially nonexistent and he hasn't run anything," he continued. "He hasn't been an executive or been in charge of anything and lastly, the big problem or one of the big problems facing our country is the ability to work across party lines and get things done. John McCain actually has a record in that regard. Barack Obama does not. He has good oratory but when you shut the teleprompter off there's not much else there."
On Fox and Friends, Pawlenty went straight to the talking point of "worldwide celebrity."
"It looks like they are getting ready for the emperor to arrive," he said. "The facade is metaphor for production purposes, but there’s not much behind it. It’s the perfect metaphor for Barack Obama’s readiness to be President of the United States."
Two Joes?
As for Joe Lieberman, the buzz today is Politico's report that Karl Rove has actively sought to have Lieberman's name thrown out of the running.
"Republican strategist Karl Rove called Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) late last week and urged him to contact John McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation."
Rove denies this was true.
Jonathan Martin, the reporter who broke the news, has since written a follow-up where he cited a conversation between Rove and FOX News.
"Uh. Look, I'm not going to get into who I call and don't call," Rove said. "But this report that I called Sen. Lieberman and told him, 'You call Sen. McCain and withdraw from the vice presidential' is incorrect. "
To which Martin responded, "I stand by my reporting."
What if it is Lieberman? The Washington Times reports that an organization that pushes for conservative judges - the Committee for Justice -- have come up with a special plan that could make conservatives stomach the selection.
They offer three steps he could take to assuage conservatives' fears he would push for pro-choice, liberal judges: Recuse himself from helping McCain pick judges, promise not to run for president himself, and agree to caucus for the rest of the year with Republicans.
Get out the duct tape
As for Ridge, another pro-choice possibility, U.S. News & World Report today writes that he was the son of a meat salesman.
If that's not enough, there is more. The Associated Press is reporting that McCain on a talk show in Pittsburgh spoke "glowingly" of the former Governor.
"He's a great American and a great and dear friend and I rely on him and I have for many years," McCain said.
Who?
As for bland, McCain at least added a little color to the overwhelming blandness musing that he may pick actor Wilford Brimley.
"He's a former marine and great guy and he's older than I am, so that might work," he said.
Hanging chads in Alaska primary? Don Young waits...
We know this: one embattled lawmaker from Alaska has made it past the primary. He would be the longest serving Republican Senator in the history of our country, Ted Stevens.
His friend, Representative Don Young is, as new Democratic hero Governor Brian Schweitzer would put it, "dead-dang tied" with Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.
It really is that close. With 437 out of 438 precincts in, the count shows Young leading by 152 votes - 42,539 to 42,387.
This raises the question - what about that other precinct?
Well, that precinct is in the town of Hughes which appears to be just northwest of smack-dab-in-the-middle in the nation's largest state. And according to the Anchorage Daily News, the phones are out, and election officials haven't been able to phone-in the results.
Hughes, according to Wikipedia, appears to be a good place to earn a living if you're a guy. Not so much, if you're female:
Males had a median income of $90,957 versus $0 for females.
So even if Parnell were to get all 63 of those votes, it would be over, right? Nope. And this is where the flashback to Florida begins.
There's still the issue of absentee ballots. The state sent out some 16,000 and has received about 7,600 of them back. If they are postmarked by election day, they can be received 10 days after being mailed in (15 days for overseas ballots). That puts us in the second week of September.
Then there's the issue of hanging chads. Yep. The Anchorage Daily News says there could be "between 5,000 and 10,000 questioned ballots that could be counted or disqualified due to people who voted in the wrong polling place, who didn't have ID, or whose ballot had some other kind of irregularity."
Ugh.
The guys over at SwingStateProject have dug deep into this race and determined that Young has the edge with those outstanding absentee ballots. It appears that of the collected absentee ballots so far, Young is outpolling Parnell by one percent.
One percent is a lot when you consider Young has a .16 percent lead in the regular vote count.
Right now, both Young and Parnell's campaign have estimated there are around 4,000 absentee ballots left. Assuming the breakdown we saw with the nearly 5,000 counted absentee votes carries over, Young should exceed Parnell by approximately 40 votes among the remaining 4,000 absentee votes, and his lead should thus hold.
If Young clears this hurdle, then he's not out of them Alaska woods. He's got a formidable challenge in front of him. Former state senator Ethan Berkowitz is popular and sounding like a prize-fighter. "I'll take either one of them," he said. "I could beat either one of them."
Then there's that legal thing.
Young is under federal investigation for his ties to an oil company. This is the same investigation that resulted in the recent indictments of Ted Stevens. He, thus far, has reportedly spent more than $1 million in legal fees.
Barring a primary loss, general election loss, or indictment/conviction/prison, Young will breeze to a 19th term in the US House.
Geo Beach, the host of a popular History Channel program, has it right when he says things are "Tougher in Alaska."
Romney comes out swinging at Dem convention
Mitt Romney knows what he's doing -- he's getting in a shootout. Although outnumbered by hordes of Democratic gunslingers, the former Republican presidential candidate is doing everything he can to get out the Republican message.
Is he welcome? Sure. Maybe the convention-goers don't want him there. But reporters surely do.
It appeared Romney was everywhere yesterday as the main GOP mouthpiece, with his"Obama's not ready" talking point seeming to be perfectly synchronized with the McCain commercials currently airing.
At a Christian Science Monitor-sponsored forum with reporters yesterday, Romney went for the running-mate -- perhaps a prelude to the sparring we will see this fall if McCain points to him for co-pilot.
The problem with Biden, according to Romney? Everything.
To be a bit more specific -- with Joe Biden's speech tonight expected to discuss national security issues, Romney says "everything" is wrong with Biden in this area.
“As you stand back and look at Joe Biden, you see someone who has spent 30 years dealing with foreign policy, but has usually been wrong for 30 years,” Romney said.
Monitor colleague Gail Chaddock has the full accounting of the one-hour lunch with reporters here, but suffice to say Romney believes Obama just doesn't have the cred.
“I don’t think he has the judgment which is developed through years of experience in life that prepares him for assuming the title of president of the United States and commanding the most powerful military and guiding the most powerful economy," he said.
Another potential Veep pick for McCain is slated to assume the attack dog role at the convention on Thursday. Minnesota Governor (and rumored short-lister) Tim Pawlenty will offer his insights, which are likely to be similar to Romney's.
Who will get the nod? CBS's Katie Couric thinks it'll be Romney, writes one Denver Post reporter.
Venturing a political prediction, she thinks McCain will pick Mitt Romney as VP running mate, “he has become more conservative on the issue of abortion…But I was wrong about Evan Bayh.”
Mark Warner? Hillary Clinton? Bring back Brian Schweitzer
Policy speeches are one thing. You can expect a lot of them at any convention. And we've had plenty of them. But is it physically possible to give an energy policy speech and have fun?
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer did the equivalent of summiting Everest for the first time yesterday, getting the crowd to roar while discussing renewable energy.
Sir Edmund Hilary would be proud. (The momentous video is below).
Wearing cowboy boots and a bolo tie, the burly governor from the Big Sky state had people electrified from the get go - including someone who is, well, pretty well known for his speaking prowess - former President Bill Clinton.
Video cameras cut often to the former President -- all smiles -- applauding and laughing at the governor's powerful and entertaining delivery.
His prepared remarks are one thing. But putting him in front of the crowd and letting him rip was another.
"We need all of you to stand up," he yelled. "Colorado! Stand up! Florida! Stand up! Pennsylvania! Get off your hind end! In the cheap seats! Stand up! We want to hear you from Denver to Detroit, from Montana to Mississippi, from California to Carolinas."
He even made the chant "four more years" work. But in a different context than what you would normally hear in a convention.
"Can we afford four more years?" he asked the crowd. "No!" was the thunderous response.
"Is it time for change?" he yelled. On cue from the crowd, "Yes!"
"When do we need it?" raising the decibel level even higher. "Now!" screamed the crowd.
Schweitzer's appearance demonstrated once again that the Obama folks believe this historically red state could be winnable.
NewWestPolitics had a unique take on the speech. The reporter described how she was standing in a basement hallway when Schweitzer began speaking. No one was listening she said. But it didn't take long ...
Pepsi Center workers began to pause at their jobs and hang around the screens. Journalists and political staff did the same. The center of the hall was still a thruway, but now many Schweitzer-watchers leaned on the walls.
When Schweitzer hit one of his winning applause lines or did his twinkly-eyes thing, the housekeeper standing next to me, Lorena, would clap and laugh. “Why didn’t you people nominate HIM?” she wanted to know.
Like President Clinton, vice presidential candidate Joe Biden seem enthralled by the rancher-governor as well:
"When Schweitzer began to shout out the names of the states and called in his high-spirited way for the delegates to stand, the in-house cameras cut to Joe Biden’s face. He looked so amazed and delighted by Schweitzer’s speech that the two young Biden guys looked at each other. “Joe is so loving this,” one said."
The rest of the convention will undoubtedly be interesting. For sheer fun, however, they might want to request Schweitzer do an encore.
Alaska's Ted Stevens gets primary win
One down, one to go.
The longest serving Republican in the history of the U.S. Senate took the first step on Tuesday toward winning his eighth term with more than 63 percent of yesterday's vote. He topped his closest competitor by more than 35 points.
Alaska is a key battleground state for the Democrats this year with both Stevens and incumbent Representative Don Young mired in legal issues.
Last month, Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven felony counts involving a failure to report gifts. At issue is his house - or the expansion and remodeling of it. He is charged with accepting some $250,000 for improvements to his home along with other gifts.
After his primary victory, the senator, known for speaking his mind, quickly compared his general election opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, to national Democrats and energy exploration - particularly ANWR.
"This is still a Republican state," Stevens said, according to the Anchorage Daily News. "You think they’re going to go for Obama? You think they’re going to go with Schumer who’s against drilling in the arctic and offshore?" He was referring to Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York.
"This is a Republican state — don’t forget that," he continued. "And we know why we’re Republican — because the Democrats have opposed our development every inch of the way. … Biden voted against the oil pipeline five times."
The man the newspaper once described as "the second-largest engine of the Alaska economy," has, as Monitor Colleague Yereth Rosen put it, "been lionized as a pillar of the economy here."
That being said, he is also lampooned or revered (depending on one's point-of-view) for his explanation of how the Internet works. And it is always worthwhile to let those words speak for themselves:
"An Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
"Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially...
"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
"It's a series of tubes.
"And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."
Dem convention: Hey, where's the Biden bounce?
The bounce is supposed to go the other way, isn't it? Well, it is. It just hasn't bounced yet -- at least in the right direction.
The rolling three-day-average poll from Gallup is out and shows John McCain besting Barack Obama by a 46% to 44% margin -- the first time McCain has led since June.
Significant? Say the folks at Gallup, not so much. It's within the margin of error.
"The 46% currently supporting McCain is technically his best showing since late May/early June, but is not a statistically significant improvement over his recent range from 43% to 45%," the Gallup report says.
What about Joe?
But what it does show, they say, is Obama's vice presidential selection didn't help him out so much.
"It's official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate," Gallup wrote.
Cause for concern over in the Obama camp?
Nope, said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, grasping the opportunity to take a dig at Senator McCain.
“This is a tight race. It will remain a tight race. The lead will fluctuate between now and November. If the spread were greater than the number of houses John McCain owns, then we’d be concerned,” Vietor said.
National polls? Yawn.
Further, Obama's head honcho doesn't even pay attention to these.
At a press briefing yesterday, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said national polls aren't that important anyway. Rather, they focus on just two things: the key battleground states (they've identified 18 of them) and making sure that Obama supporters get out to vote.
"We stay laser-focused on these two factors each and every day," Plouffe said.
Thursday night is key
Although Wednesday night features new running mate Joe Biden and the former President Bill Clinton, day four is the most important, explained Monitor colleague Peter Grier.
Conventions today are a kind of starting line for the fall campaign, geared towards framing a candidate for voters. Even for Senators Obama and McCain, the acceptance speech probably represents an opportunity to speak to more people – via the media – than they have ever addressed at a single point in their lives.
“That speech for both candidates constitutes a very important introduction to the nation,” says Mr. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.
If history is any guide, both candidates have a better than average shot of getting the vaunted bounce:
Almost all of the 22 national conventions held since 1964 produced an increase in voter support for their nominees, notes a just-released Gallup Poll analysis. The median increase has been five points. The only nominees to get no bounce, or fall backward, were Democrats: Senator Kerry in 2004 and George McGovern in 1972.
Hillary, Bill and Obama - a love story?
You expect partisan politics to be bare-knuckle boxing these days. But Night One in Denver was remarkable for the polite way the Democrats treated the Republicans -- when they mentioned their arch-rivals at all.
With Ted Kennedy's inspiring address and Michelle Obama's highly-praised speech, it was a feel-good night.
Tonight, we'll see something different. Maybe.
Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner told reporters on Monday that his speech will focus on bipartisanship, not on McCain.
"There may be parts of the speech that aren't going to get a lot of applause, but I've got to say what I believe will get our country back on the right path," Warner said.
That's led to some high-profile criticism. Paul Begala said, "This isn't the Richmond Chamber of Commerce."
On CNN, James Carville thought the first night was too happy.
"I guarantee on the first night of the Republican Convention, you're going to hear talk about Barack Obama, commander-in-chief, tax cuts, et cetera," Carville said. "You haven't heard about Iraq or John McCain or George W. Bush... If this party has a message it's done a hell of a job hiding it tonight, I promise you that."
Democratic chair Howard Dean, not known for a lollipops, gumdrops, and puppies approach to Republicans, oddly, signaled restraint.
"We don't need to attack McCain" during the convention's opening events, Dean told delegates from Ohio, a battleground state. "There will be plenty of time for that."
It's more important, he said, "to make sure people know who Barack Obama is, who Joe Biden is."
As Monitor colleague Ariel Sabar explained yesterday, the stakes for tonight's speech are high:
If she pleads with the 18 million Americans who voted for her to bury the hatchet and get behind Barack Obama, Democrats may regain the White House. If she signals the slightest ambivalence, enough of her supporters may stay home – or vote for GOP rival John McCain – to cost Democrats the race.
Hillary's other half, former President Bill Clinton, speaks tomorrow night. Something that Monitor colleague Linda Feldmann explains carries its own risks.
But with the Clintons speaking on separate nights, that generates two days of headlines instead of one. And with Clinton speaking the same night as Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the former president threatens to overshadow Obama’s running mate.
What are we going to see tonight?
Unity is the buzz. We may have received a preview of that message when Senator Clinton spoke to the United Farm Workers constitutional convention this past Sunday.
"I have campaigned with him for more than 16 months, I've debated him, and I've watched," Clinton said. "I've seen his passion and determination, his grit and his grace, and I know that he has lived the American dream. And now it is time for us to have a president again who believes that every person is entitled to be given the chance to fulfill his or her dreams, and that is what Senator Obama will do as our president."
Hillary Clinton's former communications director, Howard Wolfson, said Senator Clinton is OK; it's the former President that the Obama campaign needs to take care of.
"There is still work to do on the Bill Clinton front," writes Wolfson in The New Republic. "He feels like the Obama campaign ran against and systematically dismissed his administration's accomplishments. And he feels like he was painted as a racist during the primary process.
"Senator Obama would go a long way towards healing these wounds if he were to specifically praise the accomplishments of the Clinton presidency in a line or two during his speech on Thursday.
"That should be painless---he isn't running against the Clinton legacy any more, and it would probably be a good idea to remind voters that the last time Democrats were in charge of the White House, we had peace and prosperity."
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