Monday, May 07, 2007
CNN Political Ticker AM
Compiled by Stephen Bach, CNN Washington Bureau
Making news today... "The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979." (Newsweek) "The presidential debates are an integral part of our system of government, in which the American people have the opportunity to make informed choices about who will serve them. Therefore, CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate." (CNN Release) Sarkozy possesses "an admiration for the U.S. that is unusual for a French politician..." (Chicago Tribune) "An unabashed admirer of America," (Washington Post) Sarkozy had a message for the U.S.: "I'd like to appeal to our American friends to say that they can count on our friendship... But I would also like to say that friendship means accepting that your friends don't necessarily see eye to eye with you." (mult.) President's Schedule: Tonight, the Queen and Prince Philip attend a white-tie dinner in the State Dining Room, followed by entertainment in the East Room. WH fact sheet on the Queen's visit Also on the Political Radar: Michelle Obama attends a 12:30 pm ET house party in Windham, NH, and a 2:30 pm ET meet and greet at Bedford's Old Town Hall. ================================================================= Political Hot Topics (Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country) BUSH APPROVAL AT 28 PERCENT: It's hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every '08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public's approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.'s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP's chances for victory in '08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups. Newsweek: The Elephant in the Room MORE POLL RESULTS FRANCE'S NEW PRESIDENT: [Nicolas Sarkozy is] a bit of an outsider, the first son of an immigrant to rise to the French presidency in a country struggling to integrate second-generation immigrants, the grandson of a Sephardic Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism in a country still riddled with anti-Semitism and a graduate of France's creaky state university system in a country long governed by technocrats trained at a handful of small, elite "great schools." He has always been nakedly ambitious, pragmatic, calculating and not beyond betrayal to reach his goals. He is full of nervous energy, often rocking on his toes when not at the center of attention - a habit that sometimes makes him look taller than he is in photographs but otherwise draws attention to his small stature. New York Times: Sarkozy Wins the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong BOEHNER: IF NO CLEAR SUCCESS, MEMBERS WILL ASK, "WHAT'S PLAN B?" A key Republican House leader said Sunday that if President Bush's current strategy in Iraq is not working by fall, members of Congress will demand to know what the White House's next plan is. Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, said the troop buildup had shown some success and noted that it was not yet complete. But he embraced the idea of setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government and requiring Bush to assess the Iraqis' progress on a monthly basis. "Over the course of the next three months or four months, we'll have some idea how well the plan is working," Boehner told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "Early signs are indicating there is clearly some success on a number of fronts. But... by the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B?" Los Angeles Times: Boehner says GOP will want results in Iraq LATEST ON SEARCH FOR "WAR CZAR": Now that the White House is searching for a "war czar," it begs the question of who has been coordinating U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan the past four years. A team of West Wing players led by national security adviser Stephen Hadley has tried to keep turf-conscious agencies marching in the same direction on military, political and reconstruction fronts. A few Bush aides say privately, however, that the White House probably should have recruited someone to oversee the war effort a year ago. Critics say the administration's job of coordinating the war has never gone smooth enough or fast enough. And now two key members of the White House team focused on the war are leaving. AP via Yahoo! News: White House searches for war czar "WHAT WOULD $456 BILLION BUY?" While there is some disagreement on the idea of troop deadlines for US soldiers in Iraq, all sides seem to be on board with the amount included in the bill to fund the war. Including the $124.2 billion bill, the total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending. The amount got us wondering: What would $456 billion buy? Boston.com Photo Gallery REPAIRED NOLA LEVEES MAY HAVE "SERIOUS FLAWS": Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws, a leading critic of the corps says. The critic, Robert G. Bea, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said he encountered several areas of concern on a tour in March. The most troubling, Dr. Bea said, was erosion on a levee by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a navigation canal that helped channel water into New Orleans during the storm. Breaches in that 13-mile levee devastated communities in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, and the rapid reconstruction of the barrier was hailed as one of the corps' most significant rebuilding achievements in the months after the storm. New York Times: Critic Says Levee Repairs Show Signs of Flaws CLINTON CALLS KATRINA RESPONSE DISPLAY OF BUSH'S "INCOMPETENCE": Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina and pledged Saturday to funnel more federal aid to the still-recovering Gulf Coast if elected. Speaking to the National Conference of Black Mayors, Clinton and Sen. Sen. Barack Obama both took President Bush to task, although Obama focused mostly on the Iraq war and Clinton on domestic issues. Clinton and Obama are leading the pack in early polls measuring the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton said she was angered when she saw images of New Orleans residents on their rooftops, begging to be rescued from the floodwaters that followed the August 2005 hurricane. She said Bush's response was a display of "incompetence." AP via Yahoo! News: Clinton, Obama criticize Bush on Katrina EARLY CA PRIMARY PUSHES GLOBAL WARMING, OTHER DOMESTIC ISSUES INTO SPOTLIGHT: In the months since California moved its presidential primary to Feb. 5 from June, the major presidential campaigns have sought to measure how the early nominating contests being held here and in about 20 other states that day will shape their tactical calculations: where to travel, whom to hire, how to spend money. The primary calendar - and, potentially, the relative influence of the states — is still very much in flux. Just this week, Florida voted to move its primary up to Jan. 29 in an effort to ensure that it would play a vital role in the nominating process and that the candidates would pay attention to the issues its residents deem important. Other states with important early roles, like Nevada and South Carolina, are also hoping to draw attention to issues rooted in their regions or in the makeup of their populations. New York Times: California Gains Clout With Earlier Primary THE PITFALLS OF NEVADA CAMPAIGNING: The Strip dazzles like a giant fishing lure, dangling promises of easy money, sex, and margaritas-by-the-yard inside grand hotels that make up America's most notorious adult theme park. It could also be a potential minefield this campaign season for stressed-out candidates and their staff members, who must maneuver through a difficult political landscape while resisting the temptations of Sin City. After all, the current governor, Jim Gibbons, won election last year despite allegations during the heat of the campaign that the Mormon politician shoved a casino cocktail waitress against a wall when she refused his sexual advances. Gibbons said he was just helping her keep from falling. Yet candidates don't dare duck the state. Since Nevada brought forward its presidential caucuses to next January, the Silver State has become one of the must-visit states for candidates hoping to secure an early victory and gain momentum going into the Feb. 5 slew of primaries. Boston Globe: Resisting Sin City, candidates give in to Nevada WILL WHITE VOTERS GET BEHIND OBAMA? They watch him. They listen to him talk. Is he the kind of person they think he is? The kind of black man? The stakes are oh so high. It's the presidency he's after, the breaking down of a historic barrier. Can he transcend racial divisions? Is it safe to support him? Is he safe from harm while running for president in a nation of such abiding racial tension? For Sen. Barack Obama's white supporters, this is the dialogue of race, the parsing of perceptions and expectations as they watch their man campaign... If the United States is to elect its first black president, it is white voters... who largely will make that choice. Though much has been made about whether Obama is "black enough" for black voters, perhaps a more relevant question is this: Has the nation's white majority evolved to a point where it can elect a black man as president? Washington Post: How Big a Stretch? OBAMA "SOME KIND OF YOUTH MOJO THING GOING ON": When John Kerry sought the Democratic nomination in the last presidential election, his biggest Iowa crowd before the state caucuses was about 1,500 people. At a University of Iowa rally last month, Barack Obama drew 10,000 -- many of them students. The Illinois senator's candidacy has helped spark a surge in campus activism that he has moved quickly to harness, establishing 300 college chapters and working with students to organize many of his largest rallies. The ferment may be unparalleled since 1968, when young voters rallied behind Senator Eugene McCarthy and his anti- Vietnam War platform, said David Rosenfeld, campus program director for the Student Public Interest Research Group, which encourages campus activism. "It's a generation that was already civically minded," Rosenfeld said, citing a series of close elections that have piqued student interest, debate over Iraq and the growth of online technology. "Obama, who is charismatic and has some kind of youth mojo thing going on, steps up, and the thing takes off." Bloomberg: Obama's 'Youth Mojo' Sparks Student Activism, Fueling Campaign OBAMA'S MYSPACER NO LONGER "AS STAUNCH A SUPPORTER": Joe Anthony, at the center of a raging debate over the role of netroots volunteers in Barack Obama's presidential bid, said Sunday his once ardent support for him is shaken as a result of the Obama campaign taking over the Obama MySpace page Anthony created. I am not as staunch a supporter like I was in the beginning," he told me. Anthony is the 29-year-old Los Angeles paralegal who in November 2004 launched an Obama page on MySpace, the social networking site, attracting 160,000 "friends." Last Wednesday, the Obama campaign, wanting total control of the page, shut him down, replacing his content with official information from the campaign and leaving in the wake a dispute over whether Anthony was fairly treated. Chicago Sun-Times: Obama's MySpace fan: 'I'm stressed' EDWARDS KEEPS THE FOCUS ON POVERTY: As he makes his second bid for the White House, the former senator from North Carolina is sounding a clarion call of a sort not heard on the presidential campaign trail since Robert F. Kennedy's run in 1968. A millworker's son who became a multimillionaire trial lawyer, Edwards brings to the subject a hard-edged rhetoric and a host of proposals culled from the University of North Carolina's poverty center, which he started and ran after his losing campaign for vice president in 2004. Advocates and researchers praise Edwards for focusing on an issue they say too many have shied from over the years. Washington Post: On Poverty, Edwards Faces Old Hurdles GIULIANI'S ABORTION STANCE "SHOULD NOT DISQUALIFY HIM": Two leading Republican lawmakers said yesterday that former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's pro-choice stance on abortion should not disqualify him from becoming their party's presidential nominee or from receiving the support of conservative voters. Making the comments were House Majority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, one of Mr. Giuliani's rivals for the nomination. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a social conservative also running for the party's nomination, said during the Republican presidential debate last week that he could accept a candidate with differing views on abortion. "I think it's an uphill fight on that issue," Mr. Boehner said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." "But I think a lot of Republican voters see Rudy Giuliani as competent and able to do the job." Washington Times: Pro-choice Giuliani called acceptable HOW DANGEROUS IS DIVORCE? Rudolph W. Giuliani's first inauguration as mayor here was a family affair. His 7-year-old son, Andrew, mugged for the cameras as Papa Rudy toasted his television hostess wife, Donna, as "my partner, my inspiration and my lover." Then daughter Caroline, 4, hid behind her hat as the couple kissed that Jan. 2, 1994. Thirteen years later, that familial unit is nowhere to be seen in the Giuliani presidential campaign. The once rambunctious Andrew, now a burly Duke sophomore, has indicated that he has no plans to stump for his father - he's too busy working on his golf game. Neither he nor Caroline, now poised to enter Harvard, are even mentioned on the campaign's website, JoinRudy2008.com. And the woman shown now with Giuliani is not their mother, but wife No. 3, nurse-by-training Judith Nathan Giuliani, who recently volunteered to New York tabloids that this was her third marriage as well. Los Angeles Times: Private Giuliani tests public tolerance "POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST" FOR RUDY BUSINESSES: A pair of companies owned by Rudy Giuliani represented both a debtor and a creditor in a recently concluded bankruptcy proceeding, a potential conflict of interest that wasn't disclosed to the federal judge overseeing the case, records show. The matter could heighten pressures on Mr. Giuliani's presidential campaign to be more forthcoming about the candidate's stable of businesses, their clients and the services they provide. Wall Street Journal: Giuliani Firms Had Potential Conflict of Interest GINGRICH ON GOP DEBATE... "LUDICROUS": The Republican presidential field is matching records for crowded primary debates, making it challenging for viewers to figure out which candidate is which - much less what each stands for. Ten white men stood onstage last week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, and the same 10 are set to meet next week in Columbia, S.C. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, both mulling candidacies, could push the total higher. "Ludicrous," Gingrich said of the debate. Candidates averaged "seven minutes and 20 seconds apiece, split up into 25- to 30-second answers," he said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. Republicans set a record with a 10-person debate in late 1995, according to Mitchell McKinney, a debates expert at the University of Missouri. Ten Democrats attended a debate in fall 2003. USA Today: Crowded fields trim candidates' time in debates INSIDE THE "DRAFT BLOOMBERG" MOVEMENT: The national director of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg is building a network of volunteers to complement what would undoubtedly be a well-financed campaign for the White House, should the mayor run for president. Joseph Oddo, a freelance writer, consultant, and five-time candidate for public office, has signed up 100 volunteers in 20 states and hopes to eventually gather 1,000. The recruitment effort has been slow going, but gains momentum with each mention of Mr. Bloomberg as a potential presidential candidate in the press, he said. "It's a very basic start, but you set everything up in preparation," Mr. Oddo, who lives in Springfield, Va., said. Mr. Bloomberg "could certainly bring a lot to the table for our cause." Bloomberg: How Mr. Oddo Is Seeking Draft Of Mr. Bloomberg CHOCOLATE, SODA, CIGARS AMONG CANDIDATE BAD HABITS: When The Associated Press asked the presidential candidates about their bad habits, they did not fess up to anything that would sink the republic. John Edwards drinks his bad habit out of a can or bottle - he is a voracious consumer of orange soda. Barack Obama is chewing nicotine gum these days to beat his bad habit and chose something else to mention here. Joe Biden, known for being gabby, was a model of brevity on this matter. But another candidate owned up to a talkative trait. Bill Richardson acknowledged what has been obvious at various campaign functions: He has been eating what's in front of him, breaking from his regimen of protein shakes. AP via Yahoo! News: Look at personal side of 2008 candidates |
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