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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Face the Nation | Late Edition | Meet the Press | Special Features | Talk Shows, | This Week — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, June 29, 2008

PREFACE:

On FNS, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said that though both he and President Clinton are disappointed that Obama won the Dem nomination, Bill Clinton will do whatever he is asked for Obama. Rob Portman said that though he's pleased to be home in Ohio with his family, he would like to get back into public service at some point. He seemed to think it would be as a cabinet secretary, perhaps, though everyone has the veepstakes on their minds.

Bob Barr was next for host Chris Wallace on FNS, and he insists that he is a Libertarian despite having voted for the war, for the Patriot Act, and against medical marijuana. He said that his votes were mistakes made because he trusted the Administration. BushLied™.

On ABC's TW, Rahm Emanuel and Tim Pawlenty made the case that they have been friends for a long time. The highlights were when Pawlenty asked when Obama had ever led on anything. Emanuel searched his mind and came up with once back when Barry was in the Illinois State senate. Pawlenty later asked when Obama has fought his party when he thought they were wrong. Emanuel had nothing.

Next for host George Stephanopoulos on TW was Ralph Nader, who attacked Obama. Steph begged him to attack McCain, so he did that. Then Nader declared the two-party system to be broken.

On NBC's MTP, host Tom Brokaw talked to Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, both Dems. Both men talked of the independence of the west. They support Obama but do not agree with all that flies from the candidate's trap. (Freudenthal is in favor of domestic energy exploration, for example, and Ritter is pro-life.)

Same show, Arnold supports McCain, loves the environment and fears global warming, but doesn't agree with McCain on everything. He said that Tim Russert had promised that he'd repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution and insisted that now, Tom Brokaw had the power to do this.

On FTN, Joe Lieberman explained that the Dem Party was no longer the party of JFK which he had joined as a young man. He pointed out that Iran and al Qaeda would be the greatest influences in a chaotic Iraq if we had followed the Dem lead and gotten out when they wanted out.

Next on FTN, Wes Clark claimed that Obama is more prepared to be President than is John McCain: "I do not think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for being President."

On LE, with Candy Crowley in for Wolf Blitzer, Senate Republic leader Mitch McConnell talked about the Republicans "drill more, use less" bill regarding oil. He said that he expected that Republicans, running with a strong candidate in John McCain at the top of the ticket, would hold steady in the Senate despite the numbers.

Next up, Obama surrogate Jon Corzine said that Congress must break us of our oil habit and that offshore drilling is a "short-term gimmick."

Also on LE, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that Obama must be held accountable, as he too often says one thing and does another. He also did not rule out a gubernatorial veto of a Dem pay grab by the State legislature.

(The show-by-show review is below the fold.)

RENDELL, PORTMAN ON FNS. On FOX News Sunday this morning, host Chris Wallace opened by conversing with Obama surrogate Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, and former OMB director Rob Portman in for McCain.

Wallace confronted Rendell with survey stats indicating that 24% of all Hillary voters say they will vote for McCain this fall, while 14% say that they either have no preference or will not vote at all. Rendell countered that they all will vote for Obama this fall because of his "economic message." Obama's tax cut, Rendell boasted, as thrice the size of McCain's. Portman pointed out that Obama wants to raise taxes of Social Security and on investments. Rendell complained of the "typical Republican mantra," calling Democrats "tax-and-spend."

Rendell said that Bill Clinton, like himself, is disappointed that Obama won the Dem nomination but will do whatever Obama asks because "the stakes are so high."

Wallace declared that both candidates are guilty of multiple flip-flops. McCain, he said, once favored background checks for gun purchasers, so isn't the gun issue "off the table"? Portman said that there is a big distinction between Obama and McCain on guns. Rendell said that Obama believes that the Second Amendment is an individual right but that there have to be some "common sense rules." He talked about shouting fire in a crowded theater

Rendell, who had just boasted that Obama's tax cuts were three times those proposed by John McCain, whom he said wanted to be the third Bush term, asked: "Who could expand on the Bush tax cuts given the economy we have today?"

Asked if he'd be McCain's veep, Portman said that he likes being at home with his teenaged sons: "I'm not interested in going back to Washington right away." He mentioned people serving as cabinet secretaries and said that he would like eventually to get back into public service.

BOB BARR ON FNS. Next up for Wallace was Libertarian Party Presidential nominee Bob Barr. Barr opposes FISA because, he asserts, it allows the federal government to spay on any U.S. citizen in this country for any reason. Barr said that he is for limited government.

Wallace pointed out that Barr is polling at 3% and asked if he was concerned that he might tip the election to Obama. Barr answered that if Obama wins, his message will have better resonated with a plurality of the voters. Barr said he's in this race to break the "artificial constraints of the two-party system."

Wallace reminded Barr that he had voted for the Patriot Act, for the war in Iraq, and against medical marijuana, so how is Barr a Libertarian? Instead of mentioning that this is the new "BIG TENT" Libertarian Party, as they indicated at their convention, Barr said that these votes were mistakes. He faulted the President for lying: "I was wrong to trust the Administration."

Barr said that his campaign HQ will be in Atlanta. He's hired people from both the Ross Perot and the Ron Paul campaigns.

I need not editorialize.

EMANUEL AND PAWLENTY ON TW. These two, Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago) and Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-Minnesota), are friends from way back, it seems. It was chummy, which seemed out-of-place given the words issuing. Say it with a smile.

Emanuel called Obama a reformer, and Pawlenty wanted to retitle Obama's book: The Audacity of Hypocrisy.

Pawlenty wanted Emanuel to cite on instance in which Obama had led on any issue. Emanuel answered that Obama had led once when he served in the Illinois State senate.

Emanuel insisted that John McCain "doesn't know who he is."

It was friendly.

Emanuel mentioned household income in Pawlenty's home State of Minnesota, and Pawlenty quipped that he should "go serve in the Senate." The U.S. Senate is where Rahm will almost certainly go should Barry be elected, so I winced a little, but the two kept stressing that they've been friends for a long time.

Emanuel quipped that President Bush's tax cuts "have been a disaster." Pawlenty disagreed.

Pawlenty asked another one: Where has Obama every stood up against his party when he thought they were wrong? He qualified it: as a U.S. Senator. Emanuel did not have an answer.

NADER ON TW. this was Steph trying to convince his viewers that Ralph Nader was redundant and should not be running for President. Steph told Nader that Obama has acted on all of Nader's issues. Nader replied that all Obama does it to talk. Steph protested that Obama has promised that he would act if elected President and Nader did not believe Obama: "He's back off on so many things."

Nader complained that Obama favors the "Israeli occupation of Palestine."

Steph demanded to know why Nader was attacking Obama instead of McCain. He asked if Nader weren't helping McCain by taking votes from Obama.

Nader spat that McCain would be worse, would be the third term of Bush, etc. He then sneered that it was the two-party system which hurts our country.

FREUDENTHAL AND RITTER ON NBC. On NBC's Meet the Press, host Tom Brokaw, formerly of NBC's TODAY show, opened with Governors Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyoming) and Bill Ritter (D-Colorado), both Dem governors of western States attending the Western Governors Association conference in Jackson Hole.

Ritter said that Obama had a "great opportunity to win in Colorado" because he is as optimistic as the people of Colorado. He doesn’t know if Hillary as a running mate will help or hurt Barry in his State.

Freudenthal, who had said that he disliked the entire Dem field until April, when he leapt onto Barry's bandwagon. He complained that "John McCain is not the John McCain of 2000, 2004. He's molded into a Bush-Cheney lookalike." Brokaw mentioned "scurrilous things about Barack Obama" from the Blogosphere – and it seemed strange to see Brokaw use that term – and Freudenthal said most of that was not coming from Wyoming. The people in Wyoming don't know who Obama is, Freudenthal said, and he "wouldn't be the ranch" on Obama winning in Wyoming.

Ritter thinks Obama wins Hispanics "hands down." He said: "They're going to be excited about Obama in a big way."

Freudenthal said no drilling for oil domestically. He said that like Bush, McCain ignores coal, nuclear, and solar. He called this: "The same song, second verse."

Brokaw pointed out that NASA's Jim Hanson has said we cannot use coal-driven power plants because they will increase global warming. Freudenthal pointed out that stopping such activity in the United States won't affect it elsewhere. More importantly, he said, stopping the coal-driven plants will cause a shift to natural gas, which has even higher CO2 emissions. He did not mention that Hanson is a hyperbolic jackass who has called for putting oil company execs on trial for "crimes against humanity and nature."

Brokaw asked if we will have to have one set of gun laws for inner-cities and another for everywhere else. Freudenthal said that he didn't know if we had to, "but I think that's where you end up."

Ritter is a practicing Catholic. Brokaw asked him if he expected that there will be a pro-choice plank in the Dem platform. He suspects that there will be such a plank, but that this does not mean that the party will not embrace people with differing views, "and I'm a great example of that." (Yet he supports a pro-choice candidate. Go figure.)

Brokaw asked Freudenthal if the war was still an issue. The governor said that the war is on people's minds, but it's fallen down the scale. He doesn't think it will be determinative on how people vote on November. He said he probably doesn't endorse Obama's GET OUT OF IRAQ strategy. He thinks Barry will also take his cue from the commanders on the ground. He said that he's endorsed Obama, but he's not marching in lockstep with Obama or with the Democratic Party.

Ritter sees Obama picking up Evangelicals because they now support the Earth "as a created entity."

ARNOLD ON MTP. Tom next spoke with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ran as a Republican. Arnold recalled that Tim Russert once promised to amend the Constitution so that Arnold could run for President. Brokaw said he could not make the same promise, and Arnold disagreed: "Come on, Tom, you can. You have the power."

Brokaw said that Arnold first ran for governor with a "business-like approach," but given the condition of California right now, if it were a private company, the board of directors would fire him. Arnold said that he's change a lot of things for the better, and that Dems and Republicans have come together. Other states are struggling too, he added.

Tom said that Arnold was spending at the same rate as had Gray Davis. Arnold said that Tom ought to know that this was misleading, as some of his spending has been for paying of Davis's debt.

Brokaw pointed out that Arnold's approval rating is plummeting, but Schwarzenegger said he enjoys his job and he doesn't shy away from the challenge.

Arnold thinks the Republicans have a change of keeping all nineteen of their Congressional seats in California.

Brokaw said that Schwarzenegger had supported McCain, calling him as "crusader" for the environment, but now McCain favors offshore drilling and nuclear power. Does Arnold still stand by McCain in that regard? Arnold is proud of McCain and supports him 100%, though they disagree about some things. Arnold confessed that he disagrees with his wife about some things.

Arnold said McCain was there and supported him on all sorts of occultish environmental stuff. He said that California usually ignores the federal government on environmental issues anyway.

JOE LIEBERMAN ON FTN. On CBS News' Face the Nation this morning, host Bob Schieffer talked first to McCain supporter Joe Lieberman, who said that his problem is with the "Democratic Party overall." This is mostly on foreign policy, and he asserted that the current Dem Party is not the party of JFK which he joined.

Lieberman complained about the "poisoned partisanship which stops our government from working," and said that McCain would be best to lessen that.

He said that McCain is "more ready" than is Obama to be President "because of his tremendous experience."

Lieberman pointed out that Obama and the Dem leadership is still for retreat and defeat in Iraq, even despite the progress there. He said that if we had drawn down when the Dems wanted us to do so, Iran would now be running Iraq. Chaos, genocide, civil war. It would be run by Iran and al Qaeda, to the extent that it was governable.

Schieffer asked what would happen if Obama won and we had to withdraw over the next 18 months. Lieberman rejected a timetable which was not associated with what is happening on the ground. What if there is a crisis or if Iran became aggressive?

Schieffer asked about Charlie Black's comment that a terrorist attack would help McCain. Lieberman said that both he and McCain disagreed and that it is easy for even the best strategists to say things they do not mean.

Lieberman pointed out that terrorists attacked the WTC the first time in the opening months of the Clinton Administration, the second time early in the Bush Administration. John McCain is read right now, he said.

Lieberman suggested that with the North Koreans, you have to "mistrust and verify.

WES CLARK ON FTN. Next up for Schieffer was Wesley Clark, another former Hillary supporter. Wes Clark said that "Joe" had it "absolutely backwards": Barry was qualified to be President on day-one. Barry has good judgment, he said, and "excellent communications skills."

Schieffer quoted Clark as saying that John McCain is "untested and untried." Clark explained that McCain has never been en executive and has never been held accountable. Clark said, "I do not think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for being President."

Clark explained that Barry was going overseas to meet foreign leaders because he had a "window of opportunity." He said that there will be no time to learn on the job for the next President, and by taking this trip, Obama is readying himself.

Wes said that he'd like to see Hillary on the ticket, but that was Obama's call.

MCCONNELL ON LE With Candy Crowley in for Wolf Blitzer, the first guest was Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. She asked him about oil producers, and McConnell wants to see America find more oil domestically and to use less. "Find more, use less." He wants to get rid of the Dem moratorium on oil shale, as we have three times the amount of oil in that than has Saudi Arabia.

Mitch said his bill contains incentives for battery-operated cars and predicted the day would come when we would plug our cars in at night to get them ready for the next day. He said that beginning to react to oil prices in this manner would send a signal to the market that we were doing more than sitting here and this would affect the price of oil this year and beyond.

Crowley brought up McCain's comment that drilling in ANWR is the same as drilling in the Grand Canyon and in the Florida Everglades. There is disagreement even amongst Republicans, she said. McConnell explained that they left ANWR out of his bill and they left it up to the States on whether or not there can be drilling off their shores.

Crowley played an audio clip of John McCain saying that the GOP would lose Senate seats this November. McConnell said that the numbers were stacked against them this year, but that he is optimistic that they will keep it pretty close to where they are. ("The election doesn't take place in June. We have excellent candidates who are well funded.") He said that McCain was strong as the top of the ticket.

Crowley read from a Sy Hersh article about "covert operations." IT'S HERSH, CANDY? COME ON! She wanted to know if there were hundreds of millions on special operations into Iran, as Candy averred. McConnell hadn't read the article and had no comment.

McConnell thinks McCain is running very well even in the blue States and that Obama might not even contend in Obama.

JON CORZINE ON LE. Next, Crowley spoke with New Jersey mob boss Governor Jon Corzine. She spoke first of "oil and gas prices." Crowley said that Obama opposes offshore drilling while McCain "changed his mind" and now favors it. Is Barry on the wrong side of this issue?

Corzine said that he wasn't. Government must force us to get off our oil habit. He thinks we should conserve and find alternative energies instead of fueling our cars. He called offshore drilling a "short-term gimmick."

Candy asked what proactive Obama would do to solve our energy problems. Corzine said that conservation and alternative fuels are "very proactive." He blamed President Bush's policies for the cost of oil.

Corzine said that Barry would "change the [public] attitude about the use of oil." He promised that Barry would "supervise" the oil markets, reducing "unfettered speculation."

Crowley asked about Obama's issue shifts, and Corzine called it the "silly season of campaigns," as Barry did not lie. He'd never committed to public financing of his campaign. By going forward, he asserted, Obama had leveled the playing field. He said that Barry was engaged in campaign finance reform by self-funding.

BOBBY JINDAL ON LE. Crowley spoke with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who said that this election was about the future, not the past. Crowley had a twinkle in her eye when she claimed that Bush was the most unpopular president ever and would certainly be a drag on McCain. Jindal replied that McCain was his own man. Both Obama and McCain wanted change, but the difference was in the type of change sought.

Crowley pointed out that just this morning, McCain had said that Obama lies. Jindal answered that Obama has to be accountable. He says one thing and he does another.

Jindal wants to ask Obama when he had ever broken with his party, split with Dems over an important issue where there was disagreement.

Crowley asked Governor Jindal why he was letting the Louisiana legislature raise their pay, and Jindal replies that there was still time and there were still ways to prevent that. This time, he did not rule out a veto if it came to that.

= = = = =

Have at it. Do what you will with this.