The Golden Report for Sunday September 21
It’s the final game at Yankee Stadium tonight and by at least one report the NYPD has twice the number of officers assigned to the game tonight in a large preemptive effort to prevent fans from taking pieces of the stadium (seats, dirt, etc) with them. Currently, the Yanks are up 5-3 in the Top of the 6th.
Earlier tonight, two consequential interviews on a special edition of 60 Minutes with the presidential candidates. Both were news-worthy—McCain’s perhaps was more so. Right off the back, McCain sharply and dismissively responded when asked whether or not the economy was in a recession, “sure,” while Obama confidently responded “absolutely.” The stark differences in answering this question could be fuel for a television or web ad at some point in the coming week.
When asked about who he would appoint to replace Chris Cox and chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission, who McCain called for the resignation of on Thursday, he suggested New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who served in the Clinton cabinet. This was immediately followed by McCain saying that he would move the political office out of the White House in his administration and back to the Republican National Committee. This would have essentially meant that Karl Rove would have operated from South Capitol Street instead of the West Wing in the early years of the Bush Administration. (Could this statement be, in part, prompted by the fact that McCain would serve as a one-term president, and not have the need of a political office to plan his reelection?).
McCain continued to distance himself from the Bush Administration, coupling it with Congress & special interests in the category of those whose failures have led to the current economic crisis. He also said that he differed with President Bush on a wide range of issues including detainee treatment and the 9/11 Commission.
And perhaps a hint at what is to come in Friday’s debate, McCain tried to draw a distinction between he and Obama saying that he was the more bi-partisan, with a proven record, of the two. Will this argument be effective, especially in a debate form? Or will the Obama side be able to draw on McCain’s 30 years of experience in Washington, DC to prove that Obama is the more independent. Further, if this is the argument that McCain wants to have, then has the campaign decided that the risks about their candidate’s ties to lobbyists is a storm that can be weathered?
The McCain campaign strategy at this point has to be considered as trying to move the dialogue to anything but the economy—although that may be an impossible task throughout the week as Congress debates (and questions) a Treasury Department proposal for $700 billion of emergency authority. This weekend we have seen McCain re-introducing Iraq and the Surge saying that Obama still refuses to admit its success.
On that point, Obama had a new line in his 60 minutes interview, where he said that when McCain talks about the surge “that is all that he has to talk about….they seem to forget that there were 5 years before the surge [that they were wrong about the Iraq policy].” Is this a new argument that we will seen defined and reintroduced in a debate form at the end of the week? It does Obama good to remind people of the prevalent anti-war sentiment in 2005 and 2006 and to remind the public that Osama bin Laden remains at large. Obama also said in the interview which aired tonight that although the courageous success of our troops in Iraq cannot be forgotten, there has still been little (no) progress on an energy sharing agreement or on provincial elections---essentially the political and governmental problems that co-existed along with a security threat remain.
The full 60 minutes interviews with McCain and Obama are available online here. While the interview was still airing, Mike Allen posted a story on Politico about McCain’s political office & Cuomo announcements. The lead is, “After holding his tongue for eight years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is getting his revenge on Karl Rove.”
This Weekend’s Tracking Numbers:
FRIDAY
Rasmussen: Obama 48/McCain 48
Gallup: Obama 49/McCain 44
Diageo/Hotline: Obama 45/McCain 44
SATURDAY
Rasmussen: Obama 48/McCain 47
Gallup: Obama 50/McCain 44
Diageo/Hotline: Obama 45/McCain 44
SUNDAY
Rasmussen: Obama 48/McCain 47
Gallup: Obama 49/McCain 45
Diageo/Hotline: Obama 45/McCain 44
Keep an eye on the launch of a new web section by the Washington Post tomorrow, to be called the Political Browser, which is to serve as a syndicate of the best political reporting on the web, although it will be separate entity from the traditional wapo.com
Make sure you read and try to envision the Maureen Dowd column in the Sunday Times this morning, outsourced to Aaron Sorkin. Coupled with the humor is this very good advice to Obama, “GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic.”
Another very important story in the Times today has to do with the presidential transition, which has already begun—and which has to, especially in this age. It should not be lost on this country that come January we will have the first presidential transition since September 11th, and although that may or may not present an opportunity for an increased threat, it means the transfer of an enormous expansion in government power and influence—with new agencies and directives, both classified and unclassified, to a new president of—as the case may be—a new political party. Such an orderly transition of power, meant to prime the next Chief Executive to capitalize on the First 100 Days of his new administration, needs to be a seamless action and is by every estimation an enormous undertaking. All of this is made all the more complicated by the fact that the leader of this transition will be just coming off of the longest election campaign in this nation’s history and through a final week which will by every count be the most grueling. Within hours, with no vacation time and little rest, the president-elect will have to begin the enormity of the presidential transition—with senior staff who are equally as tired and burned out. Of equal abruptness will be the media—and the public’s—shift in attention. This amazing year in all capacities will indeed continue.
The problem with such an exciting presidential election, especially as it enters its final stretch, is the loss of attention on the other big stories in our world which, ordinarily, would have captured front-page attention. (Although it is fortunate for us all that it will also attract attention away from the OJ Simpson Trial).
One of those stories was the formal resignation today of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (and does anybody remember that Ariel Sharon remains in a coma—and has now been in that state through the entirety of the term of his initial predecessor?)
Also today, news from South Africa that Thabo Mbeki has resigned as President. The next President will be the second leader post-Nelson Mandela.
NBC’s Ann Curry was doing an interview in Pakistan when the car bombing occurred in Islamabad. Curry, who has visited Pakistan consistently over the last two years, and who always seems to have a knack for being where breaking news is occurring, wrote about her experience, saying, “…I am haunted by what we saw and heard. On the scene, as the hotel was engulfed in flames with hundreds of people still inside, the wail of the ambulances and fire trucks was too distant, given the intensity of the disaster. As the fire roared red and out of control, with some flames a gas-fed blue, we could see people struggling to climb to safety.”
One week ago tonight we were watching with urgent anxiety the emergency FED action to ensure an orderly start of the trading day on what would become a bleak Monday. One week later, our attention will turn to Capitol Hill and the appearance of a fight for passage of a large emergency appropriation for the Treasury Department to have extraordinary authority. Neither side, and neither presidential candidate, seems to be extraordinarily supportive of the outline of the proposal which was sent to the Hill early Saturday morning. The buzzword seems to be caution, but caution is tough to administer when there are urgent needs. Faced up against an adjournment deadline that both sides would, practically and politically, like to remain intact, we are in for quite a week, when our attention will be both on Wall Street and the Capitol.
Not to mention that there is a presidential debate on Friday evening in Mississippi.
posted by Chris Golden @ 11:14 PM
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