I went over to the Ramada Inn near the vast Mall of America today, where the Alaska delegation is staying. There I found Alaska Republicans who absolutely adore Sarah Palin. The chairman of the delegation, Anchorage businessman Chris Nelson, says Palin is resilient, tough and often underestimated. He accuses the media of piling on with outrageous stories about her past, and thinks there will be a voter backlash against the media and in favor of Palin.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee stopped by Radio Row and told us all the same thing - that the media should be embarrassed about the way we're covering Palin, and her daughter's pregnancy.
Another Alaska delegate told us Palin's family troubles are just that - family matters - and neither relevant to the campaign nor anyone else's business.
Then I obtained a copy of the confidential "Republican National Convention Talking Points" memo that was distributed to all the Alaska delegates. No wonder they all sound the same - they were all carefully instructed to tell us the exact same thing. The memo urges Alaska delegates to "STAY POSITIVE when talking with reporters" and to emphasize that Palin "brought change and new energy to the Office of the Governor...she will bring this same new energy to the Presidential ticket." It continues with three bullet points about energy, and Palin's experience with energy resources in Alaska. And a second page tells delegates to say that Bristol Palin's pregnancy is "a personal issue for the family" and that media should "respect the family's privacy."
The memo also addresses corruption in Alaska and the challenges facing the state GOP. The best lines are about indicted U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, the dean of Senate Republicans, who's in deep trouble this fall as he runs for re-election against Democratic Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage. That's one of the seats Democrats are confident of snatching from the Republicans in November.
Here's what the delegates are supposed to tell us if we ask about Senator Stevens:
"Ted Stevens is our guy."
"He is the only person, except Governor Palin, who can beat Mark Begich in November." (The party was considering dumping Stevens and running Palin in the primary to replace him, but obviously abandoned that strategy).
And here's the kicker:
"As long as does not receive jail time he is legally capable of serving."
Indicted? Convicted? Hey, as long as he's not behind bars, he can still proudly represent Alaska in the Senate.
Now, in the interest of equal time and fair play, I have to report that I chatted with a TV cameraman from Anchorage. He has covered Palin for about five years, and says she was absolutely, positively pregnant last spring, and he has no doubt that little Trig is really the governor's son. He, too, heard the rumors that Bristol was really the baby's mother, but he says he saw Governor Palin throughout March and April, and says unless she was wearing a fake belly to perpetrate some elaborate cover-up, she was definitely with child. He says she was certainly showing signs of pregnancy in her seventh and eighth months, even though she doesn't look it in all those photos on the Internet. That's good enough for me; he seemed quite credible, so I think we have to accept that Sarah Palin really has five kids, and that Bristol is pregnant now with what will be the gov's first grandchild.
The cameraman also described Palin as friendly, open and pleasant, and said she was always ready and willing to welcome media to her office and do interviews. Suddenly, though, he says, that's all changed. The McCain campaign has clamped down and taken control, and she's been completely inaccessible here. The TV shooter believes Palin might make a fine vice president or president someday, but says she's in way over her head right now, and is clearly overwhelmed. We'll see how she performs tomorrow night.
ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE RNC:
Denver was overrun with button vendors, T-shirt stands and the like, all hawking vast quantities of creative Obama merchandise. Here? Hardly any McCain-Palin vendors. I found one souvenir stand in the arena, with a pathetic selection, and have yet to see a single vendor on the streets outside. Where are all the souvenirs? How will I maintain my button collection? The entrepreneurs are missing the boat here, because these delegates are enthusiastic and they have money. I suppose this could be construed as evidence that there's much more of a populist groundswell for Obama than for McCain, and that the vendors just don't see a market for McCain buttons, because trust me, those guys are bottom-line only types, and couldn't care less about the politics of a candidate if he or she can move merchandise and make them some money.
The protesters were out in force yesterday, with thousands of people blocking buses, clashing with riot cops, and getting pepper-sprayed. Today, there are hardly any. But we've just been warned by the Secret Service that they have "credible evidence" that the anarchists and anti-war groups outside are planning to target the media, and that we should exercise extreme caution. We're told that they have bags full of urine and feces, and plan to fling them at us, and that they may attack "news media personnel or property." My hunch is that they're more interested in targeting Fox News or CNN than little old KCBS radio, so I'm really not too worried. Besides, maybe this is just a ruse to jaundice our view of the demonstrators.
According to the daily Gallup tracking poll, Barack Obama is maintaining the bounce he got from last week's Democratic convention, despite, or maybe because of, McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate. After Obama's speech, the Democratic nominee opened up an eight-point lead in the poll. It dipped to six points Saturday, the day after Palin's debut, but is back up to eight points today. And notably, for the first time, Obama has hit the magic 50% mark. He leads McCain, 50-42; until now, his best showing was 49-40. We'll see if the lead holds as the Republican convention gets back on track. Tonight, President Bush will address the delegates by satellite from the White House, for about eight minutes, outside of prime time. Then it will be Fred Thompson and then, Joe Lieberman, with a hot rumor that Old Joe might announce he's switching to the Republican Party. Tomorrow night, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani will speak, and then Thursday, McCain gives his acceptance speech. All of that should eat into Obama's lead, and, barring any more Palin bombshells, I will be stunned if Obama's still eight points up by Friday.
On the other hand, we've just heard that Bristol Palin's baby daddy, high school classmate Levi Johnston, is being flown out here for his future mother-in-law's big speech tomorrow night, so that he can be part of the family portrait, and if that doesn't bring out the paparazzi and keep the Palin preggers story alive, I don't know what will...
Signing off for now...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
The Amazing Mrs. Palin
Last year, I watched a six-part British TV production on PBS called "The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard." It was about a suburban supermarket manager who's fed up with corrupt politics and decides to stand up against the system. She stands for Parliament, forms a new party - consisting mostly of women - and somehow, against all odds, wins the election and becomes Prime Minister. Her oldest daughter has trouble coping and causes a scandal by posing nude for a magazine. Her blue-collar husband also chafes at his wife's newfound celebrity and power, and admits to a sordid money-laundering incident from his past.
The sudden emergence of Sarah Palin reminded me of Ros Pritchard, from the fairy tale rise of the feisty mom-turned-politician right down to the wayward teenage daughter. And Palin's story is dominating the Republican National Convention so far here in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
These delegates absolutely adore Sarah Palin. They were already confident about beating Barack Obama in November, and the addition of Palin makes many of them downright cocksure - they've got the winning ticket in McCain-Palin.
"Wait until the country gets a load of Sarah Barracuda," longtime Republican strategist Mary Matalin told me today, using the nickname the governor earned as a scrappy high school point guard. "She's going to wow everybody on Wednesday night." But on Monday, the "wows" were in reaction to Palin's bombshell announcement that 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol Palin is five months pregnant, and as a result will marry the baby's father, a boyfriend identified only as "Levi."
Palin said she's "incredibly proud" of her pregnant teen, and "even prouder" at the prospect of becoming a grandmother at 44 (never mind that she preaches abstinence and opposes sexual education in the schools). But she only went public about her daughter's condition because of the barrage of rumors on the Internet - at Daily Kos, Atlantic Online and elsewhere - that Bristol is the real mother of Palin's newborn son Trig. The speculation centers on Bristol's five-month absence from school last winter and spring because of "mono"...the fact that no one even suspected Governor Palin was pregnant until she announced it in March, when she was seven months along and showing no signs of pregnancy...on photos that show Bristol sporting what could be a "baby bump" last winter while Mom was as svelte as ever...and on the way Palin gave birth to her premature son with Down Syndrome. The governor was in Texas to speak at a conference when she said her water broke. Rather than rush to the nearest high-risk maternity hospital, the 44-year-old mother of four, going into labor one month early with a chromosomally mutated fetus, decided to deliver her keynote speech, then board a plane back to Alaska, fly eight hours while in a labor that no one on the plane noticed, land in Anchorage and then drive all the way back to Wasilla before delivering Trig at her local hospital.
I am told by obstetricians that this is beyond ridiculous, medically insupportable and probable cause for a malpractice suit.
Suffice to say that there are those at this convention - they are not delegates - who find the pregnancy of Palin's daughter a tad on the suspicious side. By backdating Bristol's pregnancy to April, it becomes almost impossible for her to be Trig's true mother. She's not expected to give birth until after Election Day. But many observers here note that Bristol's being with child still doesn't explain away all those other odd circumstances from Sarah Palin's last pregnancy.
As far as the Republicans are concerned, this is Internet conspiracy talk - and they suspect the Obama campaign of spreading it. Obama denied that flat out today, and angrily said he will not tolerate any attacks on any candidate's family, especially the children. He said all the right things and seemed sincere.
Sincerity is what some critics think Palin lacks, and there will be enormous pressure on her when she accepts her vice presidential nomination Wednesday night. If she is engaging, forthright and personable, addressing the questions about her head-on, she could emerge from this convention as a formidable partner for McCain in the general campaign. If she falters, appears defensive or out of her league, or if there are any more sordid revelations, she could doom the ticket, or even be pulled from it by McCain. She hired a lawyer today to handle her end of Alaska's "Troopergate" investigation; her husband admitted a DUI conviction from 22 years ago. What's next? She hangs upside down in the rafters of the Juneau capitol during Alaska's long dark winters?
As I wrote the other day - and I've heard this echoed by several knowledgeable talking heads here in St. Paul - we underestimate Sarah Palin at our own peril. She is obviously a talented politician. But there's more to her than meets the eye. People roared during her introductory speech the other day when she announced that she had told Congress "thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere," the pork barrel project that's become emblematic of wasteful earmark spending.
The truth? She was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. She campaigned for it when she was running for governor. She went to Washington to lobby Congress for more money for it. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin pulled the plug on the bridge only when Congress balked at its rising cost - and she still took the $225 million from Washington. She simply used it on other projects, to the great dismay of the people in Ketchikan who would've benefited from the bridge - and is now building a "road to nowhere," which was supposed to connect to the bridge, which isn't being built. But if Alaska doesn't build the road, it will have to give back the $25 million for that portion of the project, so Palin is building the road anyway.
This is why I always tell everyone - Obamamaniacs, people who swoon over Arnold Schwarzenegger, those who thought Sarah Palin was a MILF and now think she's about to become a GILF - that you have to peel away the layers on these politicians to find the truth. There's always more there than you think. Few of them are as squeaky-clean as they seem. The breath of fresh air sometimes hides a nasty stink.
It will be up to the voters to decide whether they're bothered by a teenage pregnancy in the governor's family. Perhaps a little sex ed in the home would have done Bristol Palin some good. I know Alaska has the lowest population density in America, but it's not the Palin family's personal responsibility to fill in all that open space.
Republicans here don't care about any of this. They see Palin as the godsend they need to stop Obama. Right now, the voters at large aren't sure. As we fill in more of the blanks about her in the days ahead, we'll find out whether McCain pulled a rabbit out of the hat - no pregnancy pun intended - or made a rash, ill-informed decision that will haunt him, and the GOP, for the next eight years.
The sudden emergence of Sarah Palin reminded me of Ros Pritchard, from the fairy tale rise of the feisty mom-turned-politician right down to the wayward teenage daughter. And Palin's story is dominating the Republican National Convention so far here in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
These delegates absolutely adore Sarah Palin. They were already confident about beating Barack Obama in November, and the addition of Palin makes many of them downright cocksure - they've got the winning ticket in McCain-Palin.
"Wait until the country gets a load of Sarah Barracuda," longtime Republican strategist Mary Matalin told me today, using the nickname the governor earned as a scrappy high school point guard. "She's going to wow everybody on Wednesday night." But on Monday, the "wows" were in reaction to Palin's bombshell announcement that 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol Palin is five months pregnant, and as a result will marry the baby's father, a boyfriend identified only as "Levi."
Palin said she's "incredibly proud" of her pregnant teen, and "even prouder" at the prospect of becoming a grandmother at 44 (never mind that she preaches abstinence and opposes sexual education in the schools). But she only went public about her daughter's condition because of the barrage of rumors on the Internet - at Daily Kos, Atlantic Online and elsewhere - that Bristol is the real mother of Palin's newborn son Trig. The speculation centers on Bristol's five-month absence from school last winter and spring because of "mono"...the fact that no one even suspected Governor Palin was pregnant until she announced it in March, when she was seven months along and showing no signs of pregnancy...on photos that show Bristol sporting what could be a "baby bump" last winter while Mom was as svelte as ever...and on the way Palin gave birth to her premature son with Down Syndrome. The governor was in Texas to speak at a conference when she said her water broke. Rather than rush to the nearest high-risk maternity hospital, the 44-year-old mother of four, going into labor one month early with a chromosomally mutated fetus, decided to deliver her keynote speech, then board a plane back to Alaska, fly eight hours while in a labor that no one on the plane noticed, land in Anchorage and then drive all the way back to Wasilla before delivering Trig at her local hospital.
I am told by obstetricians that this is beyond ridiculous, medically insupportable and probable cause for a malpractice suit.
Suffice to say that there are those at this convention - they are not delegates - who find the pregnancy of Palin's daughter a tad on the suspicious side. By backdating Bristol's pregnancy to April, it becomes almost impossible for her to be Trig's true mother. She's not expected to give birth until after Election Day. But many observers here note that Bristol's being with child still doesn't explain away all those other odd circumstances from Sarah Palin's last pregnancy.
As far as the Republicans are concerned, this is Internet conspiracy talk - and they suspect the Obama campaign of spreading it. Obama denied that flat out today, and angrily said he will not tolerate any attacks on any candidate's family, especially the children. He said all the right things and seemed sincere.
Sincerity is what some critics think Palin lacks, and there will be enormous pressure on her when she accepts her vice presidential nomination Wednesday night. If she is engaging, forthright and personable, addressing the questions about her head-on, she could emerge from this convention as a formidable partner for McCain in the general campaign. If she falters, appears defensive or out of her league, or if there are any more sordid revelations, she could doom the ticket, or even be pulled from it by McCain. She hired a lawyer today to handle her end of Alaska's "Troopergate" investigation; her husband admitted a DUI conviction from 22 years ago. What's next? She hangs upside down in the rafters of the Juneau capitol during Alaska's long dark winters?
As I wrote the other day - and I've heard this echoed by several knowledgeable talking heads here in St. Paul - we underestimate Sarah Palin at our own peril. She is obviously a talented politician. But there's more to her than meets the eye. People roared during her introductory speech the other day when she announced that she had told Congress "thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere," the pork barrel project that's become emblematic of wasteful earmark spending.
The truth? She was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. She campaigned for it when she was running for governor. She went to Washington to lobby Congress for more money for it. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin pulled the plug on the bridge only when Congress balked at its rising cost - and she still took the $225 million from Washington. She simply used it on other projects, to the great dismay of the people in Ketchikan who would've benefited from the bridge - and is now building a "road to nowhere," which was supposed to connect to the bridge, which isn't being built. But if Alaska doesn't build the road, it will have to give back the $25 million for that portion of the project, so Palin is building the road anyway.
This is why I always tell everyone - Obamamaniacs, people who swoon over Arnold Schwarzenegger, those who thought Sarah Palin was a MILF and now think she's about to become a GILF - that you have to peel away the layers on these politicians to find the truth. There's always more there than you think. Few of them are as squeaky-clean as they seem. The breath of fresh air sometimes hides a nasty stink.
It will be up to the voters to decide whether they're bothered by a teenage pregnancy in the governor's family. Perhaps a little sex ed in the home would have done Bristol Palin some good. I know Alaska has the lowest population density in America, but it's not the Palin family's personal responsibility to fill in all that open space.
Republicans here don't care about any of this. They see Palin as the godsend they need to stop Obama. Right now, the voters at large aren't sure. As we fill in more of the blanks about her in the days ahead, we'll find out whether McCain pulled a rabbit out of the hat - no pregnancy pun intended - or made a rash, ill-informed decision that will haunt him, and the GOP, for the next eight years.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Palintology
Wow, did John McCain really just pick Tina Fey as his running mate?
Oh wait, that spunky, bespectacled woman with the upswept hair is actually Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. The people at Saturday Night Live must be doing cartwheels right about now.
McCain dropped a big fat news bomb right on top of Barack Obama's post-convention bounce this morning. Talk about a buzz kill. We all knew his vice presidential pick was coming today, but everyone expected Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, with Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman as the dark horses.
But there was a filly most pundits forgot about. We did blog about Palin back in May (check the archives), but I took her off my list later as too young and inexperienced, and tainted by an abuse of power investigation, which is still ongoing. My colleague Marc Sandalow, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, is the only one I know who still thought she had a shot at the veep spot. She was so little-known that McCain's press secretary, Tucker Bounds, still can't pronounce her name. He keeps calling her PAL-lin, but it's PAY-lin, like Michael Palin from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
So here's what I know about Sarah Palin: she's 44, married to a fisherman/oil field worker (very Alaska), and has five kids. They have the unlikely names of Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. I have no idea what's going on there. She's a pistol-packin' hockey mom (soccer moms die of frostbite in Alaska; they have hockey moms instead. Also, ice-fishing moms). She likes to hunt and eat moose. She could probably teach Obama and Biden how to handle a gun. She favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and could probably do it herself, with her husband. She just had her fifth child last spring, and little Trig has Down Syndrome, which means he's probably incredibly sweet and loving, and she's a seriously devoted mother.
(Although - and will this become an issue in the campaign? - how in the world is a mom with a four-month old, with Down Syndrome no less, going to campaign full-time for vice president for the next two months? Who will take care of that baby? Dad and the four older kids? Will America, for the first time ever, see a candidate for national office tote a newborn around? And how can the McCain campaign afford all that jet fuel bringing Palin back and forth from Alaska?)
More about Governor Palin: She is staunchly anti-abortion, pro-gun rights, devoutly Christian and is quite conservative. She was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska - it's REALLY small, I've been there and that's like being mayor of oh, say, San Bruno? I believe Wasilla has about 5000 people. Her family makes up seven of them.
She's been Governor of Alaska for less than two years, riding into office on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment up there. But she's caught up in her own little ethics difficulty. Her sister had a messy divorce from an apparently bad dude, who was a state trooper. Someone on Palin's staff called the state public safety commissioner to get the trooper fired. Palin's husband may have placed a call too. The commissioner refused, so Palin fired him. Now the state legislature is investigating whether she did anything wrong. She denies any knowledge of the phone calls.
If you saw her speech, you know why she's been considered a Republican up-and-comer. She's charming, personable, feisty and has a great backstory. She also has a classic northern accent, which sounds like a Minnesotan who went out moose-hunting and strayed a little too far. She pronounces nuclear "nook-u-lar," which always drives me crazy, but hey, it worked for President Bush.
OOPS: Gotta run, they're boarding my flight home from Denver. I will finish this post when I get home tonight and then send it out!
OKAY, I'M BACK. Ahh, home sweet home. Looks like I missed a heat wave in the Bay Area....But now back to our blog:
So. Sarah Palin. A game-changer for McCain. A guarantee that America will make history this year, with either our first black president or our first female vice president. Stop and take that in for a moment. 2008 really will go down in history, and we're all witnessing it.
But in the next 67 days, will Palin prove to be the clincher for McCain...or will she turn out to be a huge mistake? She seems a little over her head, but underestimate her at your peril. Sure, she has no national or foreign policy experience, but her oldest son is about to go fight in Iraq and she commands the Alaska National Guard (what exactly do they guard? the caribou herd from Russian invasion?), and that definitely counts for something. She can answer any questions about her lack of experience with a pretty powerful retort - hey, I'm raising five children while governing the largest state in the Union, what in the world could be harder than that? Joe Biden is likely to say something extremely, inadvertently sexist during their lone vice presidential debate. He probably can't help it. McCain certainly just guaranteed the highest veep debate ratings in history - and thank God we've been spared a Biden-Romney dronefest.
Palin could siphon off just enough disenchanted Hillary supporters to swing a state like Ohio or Florida to the Republicans. She will certainly galvanize the party's conservative base, who will lap this pick up. She checks off more boxes for McCain than any other possible choice - working class, likes guns, pro-life, a mom, Christian conservative, union member, humble roots - check, check, check. But let's see how the perky routine holds up on the grand stage. She could start to grate on people a bit with her frontier mom routine and that irritating accent. Do you think Hillary Clinton is fuming right now at the prospect of this Alaskan upstart usurping her rightful place in history? Yah, you betcha.
THINGS I HAVEN'T HAD TIME TO BLOG ABOUT YET:
Getting stuck on the jam-packed convention floor just before Hillary Clinton's speech, and finding myself smushed against Spike Lee, then trudging shoulder-to-shoulder with him from the California delegation all the way to New Jersey, while dozens of people snapped pictures with him.....
Wandering the corporate suite level, which was awash in Senators, Governors, lobbyists and titans of corporate America, not to mention food far superior to what we proles were getting...
Discovering the 1000 free bikes available to ride around Denver during the convention, complete with helmet and lock, that you could leave at one of seven parking lots when done. The bike pared a 35-minute shuttle bus and hike across town for Clinton's meeting with her delegates, to just four minutes...and they'll have the bicycles in Saint Paul too!...
Interviewing Barack Obama's 84-year-old godmother in the front row of the Invesco Field crowd...asking Jesse Jackson for some perspective on Obama's historic nomination - maybe the only guy who, when you ask, Did you ever think you'd see a black man nominated? has a different answer - as in, yes, 1988, when I was running...
And so much more...maybe later this weekend....time for some sleep now!
Oh wait, that spunky, bespectacled woman with the upswept hair is actually Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. The people at Saturday Night Live must be doing cartwheels right about now.
McCain dropped a big fat news bomb right on top of Barack Obama's post-convention bounce this morning. Talk about a buzz kill. We all knew his vice presidential pick was coming today, but everyone expected Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, with Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman as the dark horses.
But there was a filly most pundits forgot about. We did blog about Palin back in May (check the archives), but I took her off my list later as too young and inexperienced, and tainted by an abuse of power investigation, which is still ongoing. My colleague Marc Sandalow, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, is the only one I know who still thought she had a shot at the veep spot. She was so little-known that McCain's press secretary, Tucker Bounds, still can't pronounce her name. He keeps calling her PAL-lin, but it's PAY-lin, like Michael Palin from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
So here's what I know about Sarah Palin: she's 44, married to a fisherman/oil field worker (very Alaska), and has five kids. They have the unlikely names of Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. I have no idea what's going on there. She's a pistol-packin' hockey mom (soccer moms die of frostbite in Alaska; they have hockey moms instead. Also, ice-fishing moms). She likes to hunt and eat moose. She could probably teach Obama and Biden how to handle a gun. She favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and could probably do it herself, with her husband. She just had her fifth child last spring, and little Trig has Down Syndrome, which means he's probably incredibly sweet and loving, and she's a seriously devoted mother.
(Although - and will this become an issue in the campaign? - how in the world is a mom with a four-month old, with Down Syndrome no less, going to campaign full-time for vice president for the next two months? Who will take care of that baby? Dad and the four older kids? Will America, for the first time ever, see a candidate for national office tote a newborn around? And how can the McCain campaign afford all that jet fuel bringing Palin back and forth from Alaska?)
More about Governor Palin: She is staunchly anti-abortion, pro-gun rights, devoutly Christian and is quite conservative. She was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska - it's REALLY small, I've been there and that's like being mayor of oh, say, San Bruno? I believe Wasilla has about 5000 people. Her family makes up seven of them.
She's been Governor of Alaska for less than two years, riding into office on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment up there. But she's caught up in her own little ethics difficulty. Her sister had a messy divorce from an apparently bad dude, who was a state trooper. Someone on Palin's staff called the state public safety commissioner to get the trooper fired. Palin's husband may have placed a call too. The commissioner refused, so Palin fired him. Now the state legislature is investigating whether she did anything wrong. She denies any knowledge of the phone calls.
If you saw her speech, you know why she's been considered a Republican up-and-comer. She's charming, personable, feisty and has a great backstory. She also has a classic northern accent, which sounds like a Minnesotan who went out moose-hunting and strayed a little too far. She pronounces nuclear "nook-u-lar," which always drives me crazy, but hey, it worked for President Bush.
OOPS: Gotta run, they're boarding my flight home from Denver. I will finish this post when I get home tonight and then send it out!
OKAY, I'M BACK. Ahh, home sweet home. Looks like I missed a heat wave in the Bay Area....But now back to our blog:
So. Sarah Palin. A game-changer for McCain. A guarantee that America will make history this year, with either our first black president or our first female vice president. Stop and take that in for a moment. 2008 really will go down in history, and we're all witnessing it.
But in the next 67 days, will Palin prove to be the clincher for McCain...or will she turn out to be a huge mistake? She seems a little over her head, but underestimate her at your peril. Sure, she has no national or foreign policy experience, but her oldest son is about to go fight in Iraq and she commands the Alaska National Guard (what exactly do they guard? the caribou herd from Russian invasion?), and that definitely counts for something. She can answer any questions about her lack of experience with a pretty powerful retort - hey, I'm raising five children while governing the largest state in the Union, what in the world could be harder than that? Joe Biden is likely to say something extremely, inadvertently sexist during their lone vice presidential debate. He probably can't help it. McCain certainly just guaranteed the highest veep debate ratings in history - and thank God we've been spared a Biden-Romney dronefest.
Palin could siphon off just enough disenchanted Hillary supporters to swing a state like Ohio or Florida to the Republicans. She will certainly galvanize the party's conservative base, who will lap this pick up. She checks off more boxes for McCain than any other possible choice - working class, likes guns, pro-life, a mom, Christian conservative, union member, humble roots - check, check, check. But let's see how the perky routine holds up on the grand stage. She could start to grate on people a bit with her frontier mom routine and that irritating accent. Do you think Hillary Clinton is fuming right now at the prospect of this Alaskan upstart usurping her rightful place in history? Yah, you betcha.
THINGS I HAVEN'T HAD TIME TO BLOG ABOUT YET:
Getting stuck on the jam-packed convention floor just before Hillary Clinton's speech, and finding myself smushed against Spike Lee, then trudging shoulder-to-shoulder with him from the California delegation all the way to New Jersey, while dozens of people snapped pictures with him.....
Wandering the corporate suite level, which was awash in Senators, Governors, lobbyists and titans of corporate America, not to mention food far superior to what we proles were getting...
Discovering the 1000 free bikes available to ride around Denver during the convention, complete with helmet and lock, that you could leave at one of seven parking lots when done. The bike pared a 35-minute shuttle bus and hike across town for Clinton's meeting with her delegates, to just four minutes...and they'll have the bicycles in Saint Paul too!...
Interviewing Barack Obama's 84-year-old godmother in the front row of the Invesco Field crowd...asking Jesse Jackson for some perspective on Obama's historic nomination - maybe the only guy who, when you ask, Did you ever think you'd see a black man nominated? has a different answer - as in, yes, 1988, when I was running...
And so much more...maybe later this weekend....time for some sleep now!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
A Stack of Blog Items a Mile High
My apologies for not blogging since Tuesday. When you work 16-hour days for radio and TV, the Internet is the first casualty. Or something like that!
Oh wait...I can't blog now either. A CBS News runner just came with my floor pass - I have a 30-minute window to run down to the field, interview people and get the lay of the land here at Invesco Field at Mile High (where the Broncos play). It's my only chance for a couple hours to go down there...so I will be back next hour to really fill you in!
Okay, I'm back. Whew. This has been a whirlwind week. I could blog for days - so many things I haven't had time to talk about on the radio, or even here.
Here's a brief sample:
Making the transition the Pepsi Center to Invesco was no simple feat, for anyone involved with this production. The technicians started working at 2am, moving everything over here and setting it all up. Just as we were all settling into a routine, figuring out short cuts to move around the convention hall and the like, we were uprooted and had to start all over. They moved the media here in a convoy of buses, but rather than wait in a long bus queue at the Pepsi Center, I caught a Democratic National Committee shuttle downtown, which went directly to Invesco. That is, as directly as the Secret Service would allow, which was about a mile away. When I got off, I found that I had to enter through a special media security entrance - except the Secret Service wouldn't allow anyone through on foot. So I backtracked and flagged down one of the special Press buses, and the driver was kind enough to let me on.
Upon boarding, I discovered I had gotten on the bus for Obama's traveling press. So suddenly, I was on a coach full of finely coiffed network correspondents, tough-as-nails network cameramen, and reporters from all around the world speaking everything from French to Japanese. But when the bus reached the Secret Service barricades, it was stopped cold. Two agents climbed aboard and asked if we all had credentials. We did. But it turned out the bus didn't have the proper pass, and neither did the driver. The agents said we'd have to wait for a supervisor to come and clear the bus, bring a credential and have the bomb-sniffing dogs work it over. Or, they said, we could get out and hike the last half-mile or so. That was just fine with me, since I only had about 25 minutes at that point before my next live shot, and I needed to be inside the stadium. But the network crews had huge amounts of gear, and none seemed too eager to hike in the hot midday sun.
I got off, left them behind, and made it in, just in time. For all I know, they're still waiting for the hound dogs.
Speaking of hounds...the scene when Hillary Clinton released hers...I mean, released her delegates...was amazing. She convened a special meeting of all her delegates at the Colorado Convention Center, a sprawling facility across town from the Pepsi Center. Most of the 1900 Clintonistas poured in, jamming the room. They brought friends and family and other interested parties along with them, joined by maybe 300 media, again from all over the globe. I was stuck on the platform between a Hassidic reporter from Orthodox Jewish Radio (or something like that) and a woman from Radio France. As I was plugging into the audio box, I recognized the woman in front of me. She looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place her. She exclaimed, "Oh my God, you're..." then looked at my press pass to get my name. It turned out to be Liz Moore, who lived down the hall from me in my college freshman dormitory. We didn't have time to catch up, but we reminisced for about 30 seconds and then focused on the bedlam at hand.
Hillary Clinton came in to a roar from her delegates. She thanked them, and then said, in keeping with tradition, that as the losing candidate, she was releasing them from their commitment to vote for her on the first ballot. They were free to vote how they saw fit, however their heart and conscience dictated. She had already cast her ballot, for Barack Obama.
The delegates screamed "No! No!" and many started to weep. Eventually, many of them did vote for Obama, and later that evening, Clinton herself interrupted the state-by-state roll call on the floor and called for his nomination by acclamation. Now he's the Democratic nominee for president. But wait, it's time to go back to work! More blog soon...
I promise.
Oh wait...I can't blog now either. A CBS News runner just came with my floor pass - I have a 30-minute window to run down to the field, interview people and get the lay of the land here at Invesco Field at Mile High (where the Broncos play). It's my only chance for a couple hours to go down there...so I will be back next hour to really fill you in!
Okay, I'm back. Whew. This has been a whirlwind week. I could blog for days - so many things I haven't had time to talk about on the radio, or even here.
Here's a brief sample:
Making the transition the Pepsi Center to Invesco was no simple feat, for anyone involved with this production. The technicians started working at 2am, moving everything over here and setting it all up. Just as we were all settling into a routine, figuring out short cuts to move around the convention hall and the like, we were uprooted and had to start all over. They moved the media here in a convoy of buses, but rather than wait in a long bus queue at the Pepsi Center, I caught a Democratic National Committee shuttle downtown, which went directly to Invesco. That is, as directly as the Secret Service would allow, which was about a mile away. When I got off, I found that I had to enter through a special media security entrance - except the Secret Service wouldn't allow anyone through on foot. So I backtracked and flagged down one of the special Press buses, and the driver was kind enough to let me on.
Upon boarding, I discovered I had gotten on the bus for Obama's traveling press. So suddenly, I was on a coach full of finely coiffed network correspondents, tough-as-nails network cameramen, and reporters from all around the world speaking everything from French to Japanese. But when the bus reached the Secret Service barricades, it was stopped cold. Two agents climbed aboard and asked if we all had credentials. We did. But it turned out the bus didn't have the proper pass, and neither did the driver. The agents said we'd have to wait for a supervisor to come and clear the bus, bring a credential and have the bomb-sniffing dogs work it over. Or, they said, we could get out and hike the last half-mile or so. That was just fine with me, since I only had about 25 minutes at that point before my next live shot, and I needed to be inside the stadium. But the network crews had huge amounts of gear, and none seemed too eager to hike in the hot midday sun.
I got off, left them behind, and made it in, just in time. For all I know, they're still waiting for the hound dogs.
Speaking of hounds...the scene when Hillary Clinton released hers...I mean, released her delegates...was amazing. She convened a special meeting of all her delegates at the Colorado Convention Center, a sprawling facility across town from the Pepsi Center. Most of the 1900 Clintonistas poured in, jamming the room. They brought friends and family and other interested parties along with them, joined by maybe 300 media, again from all over the globe. I was stuck on the platform between a Hassidic reporter from Orthodox Jewish Radio (or something like that) and a woman from Radio France. As I was plugging into the audio box, I recognized the woman in front of me. She looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place her. She exclaimed, "Oh my God, you're..." then looked at my press pass to get my name. It turned out to be Liz Moore, who lived down the hall from me in my college freshman dormitory. We didn't have time to catch up, but we reminisced for about 30 seconds and then focused on the bedlam at hand.
Hillary Clinton came in to a roar from her delegates. She thanked them, and then said, in keeping with tradition, that as the losing candidate, she was releasing them from their commitment to vote for her on the first ballot. They were free to vote how they saw fit, however their heart and conscience dictated. She had already cast her ballot, for Barack Obama.
The delegates screamed "No! No!" and many started to weep. Eventually, many of them did vote for Obama, and later that evening, Clinton herself interrupted the state-by-state roll call on the floor and called for his nomination by acclamation. Now he's the Democratic nominee for president. But wait, it's time to go back to work! More blog soon...
I promise.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Altitude Adjustments
It must be the altitude.
That's everyone's excuse for everything here at the Democratic National Convention. Tired feet? Hot and sweaty? Parched throat? Having hallucinations about giant blue donkeys and red elephants on the street? Oh wait - those are really there.
We're only a mile high, which is less than going skiing at Tahoe. Maybe the fatigue and the thirst are actually from working 16-hour days on four or five hours' sleep, which is what almost all the media types are doing here in Denver.
I thought I might be suffering some sort of heat stroke when I ducked into a downtown restaurant today, seeking succor, and ran smack into Susan Sarandon instead. "Is there bottled water here?" I asked her. She smiled quite sweetly. "Yes, I'm sure there is. Ask over there," she said, pointing to a scantily clad hostess. I thanked her, spun around and stumbled into actress Anne Hathaway, actor Josh Lucas and director Spike Lee. Was this a political convention or the Vanity Fair Oscar party? It turns out it was a luncheon thrown by the Congressional Black Caucus, or maybe it was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It was one of those groups with lots of C's in the name. I got my water, went back out into the blinding sun, and nearly got flattened by a shuttle bus. Someone handed me a free burrito and a "Burritos for Obama" t-shirt. Someone else gave me a "Listen To Your Mama and Vote for Obama" fridge magnet. I stuffed all my swag into my bulging pockets and staggered towards the convention center. It's about a 20-minute walk in the mountain sun from where the light rail lets you off.
The burrito was delicious. If I keep walking this much, the t-shirt will fit by the time I get home.
I've learned the hard way that it pays to bring outside food to this convention. Since it's in a sports arena, the only food for sale is arena concession stand food: nachos, pizza, churros, hot dogs, donuts. I managed to find a small iceberg lettuce salad with no dressing yesterday. So today, I bought a delicious pesto chicken/fresh mozzarella sandwich and some tarragon chicken almond salad at a gourmet market nearby. That, plus the burrito, should get me through another marathon day.
It's a green convention, which means they emphasize recycling and such. They actually have garbage monitors who stand by the bins, trying to figure out whether your cardboard french fries box is compostable or not. A glance inside the barrels reveals utter confusion. Plastic bottles mixed with trash; paper Coke cups - oops, I mean Pepsi; it's the Pepsi Center - piled on top of non-recyclables. One big melting pot of trash. This is the party of diversity, after all. And as far as I could tell, it all ends up going to the same place anyway.
But then efficient staffers run around bringing us printouts of every single speech. Sheaf after sheaf of impenetrable remarks by the Chicago City Clerk and the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Corrections for American Samoa. Never mind that we get them by email, too. I try to wave off the runners and tell them I don't need the handouts, but their feelings seem so hurt that their only task - performed quite well - is so unappreciated, that I take them anyway. These texts pile up at our feet, until someone crumples them up and takes them away. We've been encouraged to throw them in the recycling bins, but they're already full of Pepsi cups and cold French fries.
Not to mention those water bottles. We're consuming a lot of water, since it's so hot and muggy. I think I lost three pounds of water weight just walking through all the security checkpoints, which are more like X-ray-equipped saunas.
I didn't know the insides of my elbows could sweat that much. Must be the altitude.
That's everyone's excuse for everything here at the Democratic National Convention. Tired feet? Hot and sweaty? Parched throat? Having hallucinations about giant blue donkeys and red elephants on the street? Oh wait - those are really there.
We're only a mile high, which is less than going skiing at Tahoe. Maybe the fatigue and the thirst are actually from working 16-hour days on four or five hours' sleep, which is what almost all the media types are doing here in Denver.
I thought I might be suffering some sort of heat stroke when I ducked into a downtown restaurant today, seeking succor, and ran smack into Susan Sarandon instead. "Is there bottled water here?" I asked her. She smiled quite sweetly. "Yes, I'm sure there is. Ask over there," she said, pointing to a scantily clad hostess. I thanked her, spun around and stumbled into actress Anne Hathaway, actor Josh Lucas and director Spike Lee. Was this a political convention or the Vanity Fair Oscar party? It turns out it was a luncheon thrown by the Congressional Black Caucus, or maybe it was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It was one of those groups with lots of C's in the name. I got my water, went back out into the blinding sun, and nearly got flattened by a shuttle bus. Someone handed me a free burrito and a "Burritos for Obama" t-shirt. Someone else gave me a "Listen To Your Mama and Vote for Obama" fridge magnet. I stuffed all my swag into my bulging pockets and staggered towards the convention center. It's about a 20-minute walk in the mountain sun from where the light rail lets you off.
The burrito was delicious. If I keep walking this much, the t-shirt will fit by the time I get home.
I've learned the hard way that it pays to bring outside food to this convention. Since it's in a sports arena, the only food for sale is arena concession stand food: nachos, pizza, churros, hot dogs, donuts. I managed to find a small iceberg lettuce salad with no dressing yesterday. So today, I bought a delicious pesto chicken/fresh mozzarella sandwich and some tarragon chicken almond salad at a gourmet market nearby. That, plus the burrito, should get me through another marathon day.
It's a green convention, which means they emphasize recycling and such. They actually have garbage monitors who stand by the bins, trying to figure out whether your cardboard french fries box is compostable or not. A glance inside the barrels reveals utter confusion. Plastic bottles mixed with trash; paper Coke cups - oops, I mean Pepsi; it's the Pepsi Center - piled on top of non-recyclables. One big melting pot of trash. This is the party of diversity, after all. And as far as I could tell, it all ends up going to the same place anyway.
But then efficient staffers run around bringing us printouts of every single speech. Sheaf after sheaf of impenetrable remarks by the Chicago City Clerk and the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Corrections for American Samoa. Never mind that we get them by email, too. I try to wave off the runners and tell them I don't need the handouts, but their feelings seem so hurt that their only task - performed quite well - is so unappreciated, that I take them anyway. These texts pile up at our feet, until someone crumples them up and takes them away. We've been encouraged to throw them in the recycling bins, but they're already full of Pepsi cups and cold French fries.
Not to mention those water bottles. We're consuming a lot of water, since it's so hot and muggy. I think I lost three pounds of water weight just walking through all the security checkpoints, which are more like X-ray-equipped saunas.
I didn't know the insides of my elbows could sweat that much. Must be the altitude.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Rocky Mountain Highs - And Lows
The first of many brief posts over the next four days in Denver...
I have arrived at the Democratic National Convention, and so far the nightmarish logistics outweigh the excitement and fun. I'm sure there will be some fun at some point. At least I hope so.
It's 85 degrees, with 85% humidity. Denver doesn't have enough hotel rooms, so the 15,000 media, 5000 delegates and party officials, and thousands of other people here are spread out across 50 miles of Colorado. I'm about 15 miles away as the crow flies - about 75 minutes, as the light rail/shuttle bus/walking reporter crawls.
The security is intense, as you might imagine, and it's a long walk from anywhere to anywhere else - slowed down by metal detectors and big crowds.
The layout in the Pepsi Center is less than ideal, but hey, this is why they pay me the big bucks, right?
On the fun side, I did go down in the elevator with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity, who greeted me like a long-lost friend. Not recognizing him, I was confused and asked if we'd met before. He took off his sunglasses and introduced himself, praising KCBS and said he knew our station well, and that we run a solid news operation. This brilliantly disarming move kept me from sharing my honest opinion of his radio show. I asked him how he was doing here so far, and he muttered something about trying to avoid the liberals. I wished him luck with that.
Then I literally ran into the entire "Daily Show" political team - all four of Jon Stewart's reporters - taping a not especially funny bit about how the food vendors in the arena are trying to outgreen each other (the pretzel stand recycles; the nacho stand has green salsa, etc.). I thought I would do a funny bit with them for the radio, since I did that at the last convention (GOP in 2004) with then-Comedy Central correspondents Mo Rocca and Stephen Colbert. The new guys? Not so funny. When the camera was off, they were as grumpy and stone-faced as all the other hot, sweaty, tired-legged media. Rob Riggle - I think that's his name - swore into my microphone. I guess I won't be using that on the radio!
I have scored some excellent Obama-Biden buttons for my collection, not to mention a pack of Obama playing cards - the kind of thing you only snag at a convention.
Maybe Hannity will want to play a little Texas Hold 'Em during some interminable speech by the assistant state treasurer of Iowa later.
I'll get back to you.
I have arrived at the Democratic National Convention, and so far the nightmarish logistics outweigh the excitement and fun. I'm sure there will be some fun at some point. At least I hope so.
It's 85 degrees, with 85% humidity. Denver doesn't have enough hotel rooms, so the 15,000 media, 5000 delegates and party officials, and thousands of other people here are spread out across 50 miles of Colorado. I'm about 15 miles away as the crow flies - about 75 minutes, as the light rail/shuttle bus/walking reporter crawls.
The security is intense, as you might imagine, and it's a long walk from anywhere to anywhere else - slowed down by metal detectors and big crowds.
The layout in the Pepsi Center is less than ideal, but hey, this is why they pay me the big bucks, right?
On the fun side, I did go down in the elevator with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity, who greeted me like a long-lost friend. Not recognizing him, I was confused and asked if we'd met before. He took off his sunglasses and introduced himself, praising KCBS and said he knew our station well, and that we run a solid news operation. This brilliantly disarming move kept me from sharing my honest opinion of his radio show. I asked him how he was doing here so far, and he muttered something about trying to avoid the liberals. I wished him luck with that.
Then I literally ran into the entire "Daily Show" political team - all four of Jon Stewart's reporters - taping a not especially funny bit about how the food vendors in the arena are trying to outgreen each other (the pretzel stand recycles; the nacho stand has green salsa, etc.). I thought I would do a funny bit with them for the radio, since I did that at the last convention (GOP in 2004) with then-Comedy Central correspondents Mo Rocca and Stephen Colbert. The new guys? Not so funny. When the camera was off, they were as grumpy and stone-faced as all the other hot, sweaty, tired-legged media. Rob Riggle - I think that's his name - swore into my microphone. I guess I won't be using that on the radio!
I have scored some excellent Obama-Biden buttons for my collection, not to mention a pack of Obama playing cards - the kind of thing you only snag at a convention.
Maybe Hannity will want to play a little Texas Hold 'Em during some interminable speech by the assistant state treasurer of Iowa later.
I'll get back to you.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Biden His Time
That text message you were waiting for from Barack Obama came while you were sleeping, if you live on the East Coast - and maybe even if you live in California. Lucky for you, the Sovern Nation never sleeps (well, it just seems that way).
Just after midnight Pacific time, it jingled my iPhone: "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."
The news actually leaked out about two hours earlier, when first the Associated Press, then the New York Times and CNN, and finally, CBS News, quoted anonymous Obama campaign sources as saying the Delaware Senator was Obama's vice presidential pick.
It's hard to imagine that such a carefully controlled campaign could let something this important trickle out, but if the leak was intentional, then the Obama camp really bungled this one. Many of those who signed up for the text were already getting irritated by the drawn-out running mate drama. Imagine how they'll feel when they wake up in the morning to learn that they were NOT the first to know, as promised by the Obama campaign.
The text alert campaign was a shrewd move, allowing Obama to stockpile even more email addresses and cell phone numbers - which are already being used to solicit even more campaign contributions. Having joined the Obama email list a long time ago, to keep up on the campaign's activities, let me warn the newbies: you're in for almost daily pleas for money. Every new twist in the race becomes an excuse to hound supporters for cash.
But that brilliant marketing ploy could backfire, if some of those supporters feel cheated by the way this went down. And the Biden pick itself could boomerang, too.
Joe Biden is a gifted politician. I first met him 30 years ago, near the end of his first term in the Senate. We were both freshmen - I in college, he in Congress. At the invitation of my professor, he came to talk with my foreign policy class. He was already becoming a highly regarded Senate expert on foreign affairs, and he held us in rapt attention. At the end of the allotted hour, we were still thirsty for information. He glanced at his watch, took off his tie, rolled up his sleeves, and told us, "What the hell, I've got nowhere else to be. I'll stay here as long as you kids have questions." And he proceeded to stay long into the night, maybe three hours more, discussing the nitty-gritty of the international issues of the day, which at that time included South African apartheid, the Cold War, looming changes in Iran, and, as always, the Middle East.
I remember thinking, "Man, this is one ambitious politician. Who comes hundreds of miles north from Delaware to spend an evening talking with out-of-state college kids? We're not even his constituents." There was only one answer: a guy who plans to run for president someday. Which he did, ten years later. And again, 20 years after that.
The remarkable thing is that when I interviewed him for KCBS during this 2008 campaign, Biden remembered that long, wonky evening in Providence back in 1978. At first, I thought it was just a bit of Biden bluster, but he recalled specific details that proved he wasn't bluffing.
Now he will be the Democratic nominee for vice president, perhaps capping a career of outstanding service in the Senate, where he has become one of its most knowledgeable and venerable members, outranking even John McCain. Biden brings a lot to the ticket - Washington experience, foreign policy expertise, gray hair and gravitas - all of which Obama is sorely lacking. He can counter some of the doubts about Obama's readiness, and there's no doubt he will be a pit bull on the campaign trail when the Democrats need one. Being from Delaware doesn't help, but Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so he might help swing that state to Obama. He is Irish Catholic, from a blue collar background, and has a moving history as a devoted family man who's overcome personal tragedy.
But he brings a lot of baggage along with all those international frequent flier miles, and I don't mean the kind they charge you $25 to check now. Biden's two presidential bids failed miserably. He's been caught embellishing his resume and plagiarizing. His gift of gab sometimes extends to a bit of the blarney - and take it from me, when you talk that much, you will inevitably open mouth and insert foot. I will be stunned if Biden doesn't commit some verbal gaffe at some point this fall. He already embarrassed himself by describing Obama as "articulate and clean" at the start of this campaign. His selection could be taken as tacit admission by Obama that he needs help running the country from someone with more seasoning. And Biden's presence on the ticket neutralizes Obama's ability to attack McCain as a Washington insider who's part of the problem - since he just chose a running mate who's been in D.C. even longer than the Republican nominee.
As I wrote last month, Obama-Biden sounds an awful lot like Osama bin Laden. How long will it take for the conservatives to start mocking the Democratic ticket as "Obama bin Biden"?
Joe Biden is Barack Obama's version of Dick Cheney - an eminence grise who can balance his relative youth and inexperience. But if Obama represents change and newness, why, when making his most important campaign decision, did he emulate President Bush? That's not exactly taking the country in a new direction.
Ultimately, running mates don't typically matter much. The choice of Biden gives the Republicans some new ammo, but if he's an effective campaigner - and we already know he can be funny, forceful and smart in debates - he may help more than he hurts. If McCain chooses Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, as expected, then the veeps are probably a wash. The race will still be a referendum on Barack Obama. If the American people are comfortable with him, he will be president. But if and when he says he will deliver his State of the Union message by text, I want to read it first on my cell phone, not in the Washington Post.
Just after midnight Pacific time, it jingled my iPhone: "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."
The news actually leaked out about two hours earlier, when first the Associated Press, then the New York Times and CNN, and finally, CBS News, quoted anonymous Obama campaign sources as saying the Delaware Senator was Obama's vice presidential pick.
It's hard to imagine that such a carefully controlled campaign could let something this important trickle out, but if the leak was intentional, then the Obama camp really bungled this one. Many of those who signed up for the text were already getting irritated by the drawn-out running mate drama. Imagine how they'll feel when they wake up in the morning to learn that they were NOT the first to know, as promised by the Obama campaign.
The text alert campaign was a shrewd move, allowing Obama to stockpile even more email addresses and cell phone numbers - which are already being used to solicit even more campaign contributions. Having joined the Obama email list a long time ago, to keep up on the campaign's activities, let me warn the newbies: you're in for almost daily pleas for money. Every new twist in the race becomes an excuse to hound supporters for cash.
But that brilliant marketing ploy could backfire, if some of those supporters feel cheated by the way this went down. And the Biden pick itself could boomerang, too.
Joe Biden is a gifted politician. I first met him 30 years ago, near the end of his first term in the Senate. We were both freshmen - I in college, he in Congress. At the invitation of my professor, he came to talk with my foreign policy class. He was already becoming a highly regarded Senate expert on foreign affairs, and he held us in rapt attention. At the end of the allotted hour, we were still thirsty for information. He glanced at his watch, took off his tie, rolled up his sleeves, and told us, "What the hell, I've got nowhere else to be. I'll stay here as long as you kids have questions." And he proceeded to stay long into the night, maybe three hours more, discussing the nitty-gritty of the international issues of the day, which at that time included South African apartheid, the Cold War, looming changes in Iran, and, as always, the Middle East.
I remember thinking, "Man, this is one ambitious politician. Who comes hundreds of miles north from Delaware to spend an evening talking with out-of-state college kids? We're not even his constituents." There was only one answer: a guy who plans to run for president someday. Which he did, ten years later. And again, 20 years after that.
The remarkable thing is that when I interviewed him for KCBS during this 2008 campaign, Biden remembered that long, wonky evening in Providence back in 1978. At first, I thought it was just a bit of Biden bluster, but he recalled specific details that proved he wasn't bluffing.
Now he will be the Democratic nominee for vice president, perhaps capping a career of outstanding service in the Senate, where he has become one of its most knowledgeable and venerable members, outranking even John McCain. Biden brings a lot to the ticket - Washington experience, foreign policy expertise, gray hair and gravitas - all of which Obama is sorely lacking. He can counter some of the doubts about Obama's readiness, and there's no doubt he will be a pit bull on the campaign trail when the Democrats need one. Being from Delaware doesn't help, but Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so he might help swing that state to Obama. He is Irish Catholic, from a blue collar background, and has a moving history as a devoted family man who's overcome personal tragedy.
But he brings a lot of baggage along with all those international frequent flier miles, and I don't mean the kind they charge you $25 to check now. Biden's two presidential bids failed miserably. He's been caught embellishing his resume and plagiarizing. His gift of gab sometimes extends to a bit of the blarney - and take it from me, when you talk that much, you will inevitably open mouth and insert foot. I will be stunned if Biden doesn't commit some verbal gaffe at some point this fall. He already embarrassed himself by describing Obama as "articulate and clean" at the start of this campaign. His selection could be taken as tacit admission by Obama that he needs help running the country from someone with more seasoning. And Biden's presence on the ticket neutralizes Obama's ability to attack McCain as a Washington insider who's part of the problem - since he just chose a running mate who's been in D.C. even longer than the Republican nominee.
As I wrote last month, Obama-Biden sounds an awful lot like Osama bin Laden. How long will it take for the conservatives to start mocking the Democratic ticket as "Obama bin Biden"?
Joe Biden is Barack Obama's version of Dick Cheney - an eminence grise who can balance his relative youth and inexperience. But if Obama represents change and newness, why, when making his most important campaign decision, did he emulate President Bush? That's not exactly taking the country in a new direction.
Ultimately, running mates don't typically matter much. The choice of Biden gives the Republicans some new ammo, but if he's an effective campaigner - and we already know he can be funny, forceful and smart in debates - he may help more than he hurts. If McCain chooses Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, as expected, then the veeps are probably a wash. The race will still be a referendum on Barack Obama. If the American people are comfortable with him, he will be president. But if and when he says he will deliver his State of the Union message by text, I want to read it first on my cell phone, not in the Washington Post.
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