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To quote the late Rep. Bono (R-California): "And the beat goes on..."

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Face the Nation | FOX News Sunday | Late Edition | Meet the Press | Special Features | This Week — Comments (25) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Preface:

On FNS, Obama campaign boss David Axelrod told host Chris Wallace that he was "encouraged" by the McCain campaign's proposal to hold joint town hall meetings this summer. Next up, Clinton mouthpiece Howard Wolfson argued that the race for the Dem nomination would not be over until someone garnered the support of 2209 delegates, the number required to nominate if both the Florida and the Michigan delegations are counted.

On TW, Harry Reid told host George Stephanopoulos that Americans have outgrown the 2nd Amendment as an issue in Presidential campaigns and that John McCain was a "flawed" candidate because of his temper. Asked for evidence of this temper, Reid said that "everybody knows" about it. Carly Fiorina, McCain advisor, was up next, and she made a point about "incentivizing" private companies to develop green technologies to combat the global warming threat. (She didn't use the term "global warming threat"; rather, I get a kick out of it.)

On MTP, Obama supporter Chris Dodd said that he was not upset that Hillary was still in the race; rather, he didn't want her trashing Barry. Hillary's campaign manager, Terence McAuliffe, threatened that if the Democrats nominate Obama, they'll lose both the Presidential election and the House of Representatives.

On FTN, host Bob Schieffer talked to John Edwards who said that he might eventually endorse. He added with a twinkle in his eye that John McCain seemed to be open about his proposal to create a cabinet-level Poverty Czar. (I hope not.) Next up, Terence McAuliffe answered questions about Hillary being the candidate of white people.

On LE, host Wolf Blitzer first talked to Obama, who opined that the American people want change and that he wanted to appoint Supreme Court justices who saw the court as a "refuge for justice." With two shrubberies so you get the two-level effect with a little path running down the middle. He next spoke to Roy Blunt and Chris Van Hollen, with Van Hollen spouting memorized notes he clearly did not understand.

The complete, show-by-show review is beneath the fold. …

DAVID AXELROD ON FNS. This morning, host Chris Wallace opened FOX News Sunday by speaking to Obama's boss strategist, David Axelrod, who let flow the expected bit about Hillary Clinton caring about the party and the country, and about how this circus-process has been great for the Democrats, registering 3.5-million new ones and just being this wonderful "strengthening process."

About Hillary's comments about white Americans loving her and hating Obama, Axelrod offered that she did not mean to say it like that and it is not a true statement regardless. White love Obama, he said. He allowed that she did not mean that only whites work hard. He thinks that the Democrats could, "for once," win white, working class voters, who now hate George Bush, he said.

Wallace asked Axelrod about Barry's comment that John McCain was "losing his bearings." Axelrod maintained that it was not about McCain's age and that the McCain campaign was "oversensitive."

Axelrod is "encouraged" by the McCain campaign's proposal of joint town hall-style meetings across the country before the conventions and is considering it "very seriously." Axelrod spoke highly of a "free-flowing conversation."

HOWARD WOLFSON ON FNS. Next up, Wallace spoke to the Clinton campaign's mouthpiece, Howard Wolfson. He humored Wolfson by allowing him to pretend that Hillary could in fact be the Dem nominee. Wolfson argued that there will be a nominee only when someone had gained the support of 2209 delegates, the number required if party counted the delegations from Florida and Michigan.

If Obama is the nominee, Wolfson said, Hillary will support him; he expects the same in reverse of Obama. He added, though, that more superdelegates would line up behind Barry next week.

On Hillary's racist remark about hard working whites support her and not Barry, Wolfson said that Hillary was using an AP analysis. (She did not label it at the time.) He remarked that the voters are going to decide the outcome of this nominating process, not "pundits" like Rahm Emanuel. (Wallace had Wolfson back down from the assertion that Rahm was a "pundit.")

Of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, Wolfson stated that the voters of West Virginia can end this nominating process on Tuesday, presumably by handing Barry a win. He did not later that Obama was not contesting WV, which he called an "important swing State."

Asked about Teddy Kennedy's bit about Hillary being unfit to be Obama's veep candidate because she does not appeal to the "nobler aspirations of the American people," Wolfson kindly dismissed Kennedy's opinion. But he did not call the Massachusetts Senator a drunk. Wolfson said that any veep talk was "premature."

In how much debt is Hillary's campaign? Wolfson said that they were $10-milllion in the red, but this does not include the $10-million Hillary lent her own campaign. That is "separate," Wolfson argued and Wallace allowed. (NOTE: The actual figure, the amount Hillary has loaned her campaign, is over $11.4-million.)

DINGY HARRY ON TW. Harry Reid was George Stephanopoulos's first guest on this weeks' This Week, over on ABC. On his party's nominating process, Reid argued: "I think we have to let this play out." After June 3rd, Reid held, Hillary and Obama can make their final cases to the superdelegates. "These two people are great candidates," Reid unenthusiastically enthused. (I maintain that this is existentially possible.)

Reid said that Obama "will do fine with rural Americans just like he did with rural Nevadans," drawing a fictional distinction between those who live in Nevada and U.S. citizens.

Reid said that Republicans cannot win by running on the 2nd Amendment, because "we're past that." Americans, it seems to Reid, have outgrown their guns.

Reid called John McCain a flawed candidate, citing his temper: "Everybody knows that he has an unusual temper." Steph added, "He just can't get along with people."

Reid admitted that he once tried to recruit John McCain to the Democrat bloc, but he argued that John McCain is not the man he once was. McCain has become, in Reid's view, "a clone of George Bush"; on the other hand, Obama "is a bipartisan guy."

CARLY FIORINA ON TW. Carly Fiorina, the McCain advisor and former CEO of HP, was next up for Steph. She talked of McCain's battle to fight global warming. McCain, she said, wants to do this by incentivizing the private sector to create innovation through green technology. He also favors the use of nuclear energy.

Steph talked about the "cap and trade" incentives, and Fiorina again said that this would "encourage people to go after these new technologies."

She talked about jobs leaving the United States because our business taxes were too high, and she spoke of the example of Ireland, where countries are wont to do business and manufacture because the Irish government has cut their corporate taxes.

Fiorina also spoke of educating workers who are left without jobs to do new jobs, not just leaving them there, collecting benefits.

DODD ON MTP. On NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert spoke with former DNC bosses Chris Dodd, an Obama supporter. Russert displayed that Barry led in the pledged delegates count, but that Hillary led the superdelegate count, 276.5 to 274 (according to NBC). Russert is probably using figures gathered by that idiot MSNBC sportscaster, because FNC has Obama in the lead, as did the Associated Press.) Obama leads in contests won and in the popular vote. Dodd said that it was "very clear" that Obama would be the nominee and he has "every bit of confidence" that the party will unite behind Obama "very, very quickly."

Russert pointed out that Dodd was ticked that Hillary would have the people of West Virginia vote for her then turn around and have them support Obama a few weeks later. Dodd clarified that he was not angry that Hillary was still in the race, only in the way that she's been trashing Obama. He said he's confident that Hillary knows to cut it out.

Russert argued that Hillary had a "broader coalition" to win in November. He quoted McCain campaign manager Rick Davis as saying that non-negligible percentages of Hillary's supporters claim that they'll vote for McCain over Obama. Dodd laughed the statistics off as "coming from the McCain campaign."

He allowed that Hillary loves the country and the party, and she would not allow four more years of George Bush.

Dodd argued that he was "probably" over-the-top when, as a candidate for the Dem nomination, he said that Obama did not have the background to be President. He said, basically, that all candidates lie.

Dodd doesn't think that there will be an Obama/Hillary ticket.

TERENCE ON MTP.Next on MTP, Russert spoke to Hillary's campaign chairman, Terence McAuliffe. Russert cited Rahm Emanuel as saying on Friday that Obama was "the presumptive nominee." Terence argued that "no one is the nominee." Terence counted the popular votes from Florida and Michigan, saying that "they voted."

He argued that Hillary was up 43 points in West Virginia and 40 points in Kentucky. "What does it say about the candidate whom you say has won the nomination that he can't win two States that Bill Clinton carried in 1992 and 1996?" He argued that "this is about winning the election on November 4th," and only Hillary can beat John McCain. She'll also win the "down-ballot races which are key" to the Dems' retaining control of the House of Representatives. So, he's saying, if the Dems nominate Barry, they lose both the Presidential election and the House of Representatives.

He argued that "likely nominee" was not the actual nominee, and that seven-million Dems had yet to exercise their franchise. He asked Russert if he thought it was possible that Hillary could conceivably win the nomination. An uncomfortable Russert stammered, "Well… Let's… I want to stay with the questions."

McAuliffe argues that after West Virginia and Kentucky, Hillary will have won the popular vote and that they would talk to the superdelegates.

Russert played the audio clip of Hillary's racist comment about how hard-working, white Americans hate Obama. McAuliffe said that she was "quoting" an AP story. (The story did not specify that white Americans were the "hard-working" Americans.)

McAuliffe said he could put up 40 superdelegates who would "talk about what the Clintons have done on the race issue."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

JOHN EDWARDS ON FTN. First up on CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer spoke to John Edwards (taped Saturday). Edwards thinks Hillary "has become a stronger and stronger candidate," but it is "mathematically" almost impossible for her to wrest the nomination from Barry.

Edwards said, magnanimously, that he withdrew from the race when he did because it became clear to him that he would not win and he thought that by his withdrawing, it would be easier for the party to coalesce behind on person. WRONG.

Schieffer played Clinton's "whites hate Barry" clip, arguing that she should have made that comment before North Carolina. Edwards excused her, saying that it is very hard to campaign, she was tired, etc. Edwards said that it's important that Hillary not damage the party.

Edwards said he might eventually endorse someone, but he does not think it’s a big deal. He said that endorsements have "not particularly helped with the [Dem] divide."

John Edwards is going to "launch a plan to cut poverty in half" this week, Schieffer noted, and both Hillary and Barry have promised to make poverty an important issue in their campaigns. Edwards said that John McCain gave him a positive response about fighting poverty and might even be open to a cabinet-level anti-poverty position (Poverty Czar?). Edwards talked about "strengthening the middle class."

TERENCE MCAULIFFE ON FTN. Schieffer next spoke to Clinton's campaign czar, former Clinton (Bill) fundraiser Terence McAuliffe. He was "in the studio." Schieffer asked how far Hillary plans to take this, now that she says that she's the "candidate of hard-working, white people." Schieffer asked McAuliffe if Hillary were, in fact, the "candidate of white people."

Schieffer brought up that Terence, when he ran the DNC, wouldn't let Michigan move their primary earlier, Terence spat back that he would have taken away 50% of Michigan's delegates. He argued that Hillary fares better against John McCain than does Barry.

Hillary asked McAuliffe if Hillary meant to say that she was the candidate of white people, and McAuliffe argued that Hillary was "paraphrasing an AP article." He added that white people were part of her coalition. Schieffer said that the AP did not use the descriptive "hard-working," so did Hillary mean to imply that blacks do not work hard? Terence talked about unity and "talking about the issues."

OBAMA ON LE. Wolf Blitzer opened his show with an interview with presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He talked about the people wanting change in Washington, DC, and how he looks forward to going after John McCain. Obama said that he looks forward to taking on McCain, "if I win" the nomination. "I don't want to get ahead of myself."

Wolf played a clip of Mitt saying that Barry hadn't accomplished anything in his life. Barry cracked that the argument hadn't worked for Mitt in the past when he used it against John McCain. He added that the American people wanted judgment in their foreign policy.

Domestically, Obama said he'll be "running against the failed policies of the Bush Administration, which John McCain wants to see continued." He said that the Bush economy had failed but that we hadn't shared the prosperity. Barry said that he'd cut middle class taxes and raise them on CEOs. He said that the country "grows from the bottom up," so tax the rich. We need a "sense of shared sacrifice."

Obama wants capable and competent people on the Supreme Court who can interpret the law. He said that he doesn't like judicial law making. He likes Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter. He wants a judge who is "sympathetic enough to those on the outside." He wants his court to be a "refuge for justice." With two shrubberies so you get the two-level effect with a little path running down the middle.

BLUNT AND VAN HOLLEN ON LE. Wolf next spoke with House GOP whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Congressional Dem campaign committee boss Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. Van Hollen argued that, though Obama was the frontrunner, the race was not over until Hillary decided to get out. He said that Hillary and Barry had to go forward with a "positive tone."

Blunt said that it will be McCain vs. Obama, but he's glad that Hillary is still in the race, "continuing the discussion." He said that McCain is the only candidate from inside Washington who could bring change to Washington, and that no one believes that McCain would bring a third Bush term.

Van Hollen said that the Bush economic policies "have driven this country into a ditch." He said that McCain would continue them, and continue Bush's war policies. Blunt countered that McCain would change "business as usual."

Blitzer argued to Blunt that on the economy and the war, McCain would be four more years of Bush. Blunt responded that the American people do not want to lose in Iraq.

Van Hollen snarled that the Republicans were the party of "no" and "veto," spending money on a war while refusing to help disabled vets. Blitzer went to a commercial promising Congressman Blunt a chance to respond, but he did not offer it. Instead, when they returned from the commercial, he asked what Congress could do the help the faltering economy.

Blunt talked of ceasing to fill the reserve, a gas tax holiday funded with money which otherwise would have gone to earmarks, and stopping the slide of the dollar. Van Hollen said that the Dems had a "common sense plan." They want to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. They want to jawbone OPEC about price manipulation. Wolf said that the gas tax holiday was a John McCain idea. Van Hollen argued that it was "too short termey."

Blunt argued that we needed both short term relief and a long term plan, while the Dems argue that proposed plans are too this or that. Van Hollen argued that the Dems made the earmarks process "transparent," and he called for increasing taxes on the oil companies.

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Okay. Have at it.