[big campaign] Media Monitoring Report - Morning 6/12/08

podesta-emails 3,636 words email

P17 V11 D6 P19 V16

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*Main Topics:* "Not too important" remark, McOld'n'confused, McCain on defensive Summary of Shift: McCain left Philadelphia for New Hampshire and New York today, abandoning scripted speeches for town halls as he tries to stay in his element, dodging fallout from his remark to Matt Lauer yesterday that finding a date for withdrawals is "not too important." The economy remains the most important issue and the networks spent a significant time comparing and contrasting the candidate's plans. However, political news took a backseat this morning, losing coverage to weather coverage as tornados pounded Northwest Kansas and a Boy Scout Camp in Iowa. Highlights: 1) McCain on the defensive a. Crist plays down "not too important" remark on *Morning Joe* b. McCain campaign on damage control after Lauer interview and poor image on the road c. Fox: All recent attacks on McCain are just code for "old" and "cranky" d. In light of poor speech performance McCain campaign pushes town halls 2) McCain not old or confused, just wrong 3) Fox News calls Michelle Obama, "Obama's Baby Mama" 4) McCain still confused on Iraq 5) While pushing McDifferent line, McCain lays out a classic Republican economic plan 6) John Stewart reports on McCain calling Cindy a c*nt 7) McCain's "not too important" remark mentioned on NBC by Howard Fineman [no clip] 8) CNN compares McCain and Obama's tax plans, shows benefit to wealthy with McCain's plan, benefit to the poor with Obama's [no clip] 9) CBS-KYW in Philadelphia interviews McCain [no clip] 10) Pundits on CNN and FOX use Johnson's resignation from the Obama to justify lobbyists on McCain's campaign [no clip] 11) McCain girl *Incredible Hulk* parody YouTube video released [no clip] Clips: Highlight #1 *Crist Defends McCain on His "Not Too Important" Remark* (MSNBC 06/12/08 7:32am) [. . .] JOE SCARBOROUGH: . . . the Obama campaign is suggesting that he's old and confused, John Kerry came out yesterday, said he's just confused, Susan Rice, he's confused . . . makes him sound like he's playing suffleboard on a carnival cruise. Is he confused? Is he a doddering old man? CHARLIE CRIST: No, not at all. SCARBOROUGH: What's going on here? CRIST: Well, I don't know, it sounds like negative campaigning to me. Um, and it's not as respectful as it should be. [. . .] SCARBOROUGH: So talking about John McCain, obviously, the Obama camp is trying to make his age an issue. should it be an issue? CRIST: I don't think so . . . you know, this is one of the most energetic people I've ever had the pleasure to be around. He is strong. He is sharp. He is on his game. He gets it. . . [. . .] SCARBOROUGH: . . . Barack Obama has said that he has lost his bearings. that he's confused because he said that it doesn't matter how long our troops stay in Iraq. talk about that. CRIST: Well, you know, we have bases and troops that are around the globe in Germany and South Korea . . . that's just good foreign policy and John McCain understands that . . . is there a pattern here, though, that the Barack Obama campaign is pointing to in terms of perhaps maybe he is overselling his national security knowledge? . . . CRIST: I don't think that Senator McCain ever oversells anything. . . [. . .] SCARBOROUGH: It's interesting. you say that he's been in war and he has seen war . . . Wesley Clark had this to say about John McCain . . . [Wesly Clark quote, as follows, on screen] "The truth is that, in national security terms, he's largely untested and untried. He's never been responsible for policy formulation. He's never had leadership in a crisis, or in anything larger than his own element on an aircraft carrier or [in managing] his own congressional staff." CRIST: He was speaking about Senator McCain with that quote? SCARBOROUGH: Wesley CLark speaking about John McCain yesterday. . . what do you think about that? CRIST: . . . it sounds like they are oversensitive about a lack of credential on the other ticket as it relates to military experience. That's what it sounds like to me. . . . to say, or even suggest, that Senator John McCain doesn't have the breadth. experience as it relates to foreign policy or our military or how that works is rather stunning. [. . .] <https://www.box.net/shared/static/czk9uq64g8> *McCain Campaign on Damage Control after "Not Too Important" Remark and Poor Image on the Road *(CNN 06/12/08 8:27am) JOHN ROBERTS: McCain holds town hall meetings today in Nashua New Hampshire and later in New York city. The McCain campaign is doing damage control after his latest statements on troop withdrawal . . . DANA BASH: . . . it's interesting, what the McCain campaign's goal is right now is to get him away from, frankly, some awkward settings he's been in lately and get him back into his comfort zone . . . a town hall meeting . . .John McCain came to Pennsylvania looking for votes . . . . [. . .] BASH: He spoke off the cuff, surrounded by supporters at a town hall, instead of a planned speech on climate change. An attempt to recover from what advisors admit has been a presentation problem. Last week's green backdrop, teleprompter stumbles . . . but finding his general election mojo hit a bump earlier in the morning when McCain was asked if he knows when troops can come home from Iraq. [plays clip from Lauer interview] BASH: Not a new theme for McCain who consistently argues the emphasis should be on stability in Iraq before troop withdrawal. But Democrats heard the phrase, "not too important" and pounced . . . Harry Reid saying, "He just doesn't get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course, it was reminiscent of another McCain line Democrats made infamous . . . [plays the hundred years clip] BASH: The McCain campaign scrambled a conference call with allies to fight back. LIEBERMAN: I view the attacks on Sen. McCain . . . as another partisan attempt to distort John McCain's words. [. . .] BASH: McCain's blunt statement that it's not too important for how long US troops are in Iraq . . . was a gift to Democrats. Clip Label: KYRA PHILLIPS: John McCain is the Republican nominee here, we've been living under eight years of a Republican administration, gas prices 4-plus a gallon, foreclosures a nightmare across the country. Is his plan like the Bush plan or is he able to step back and say no, I'm different? DANA BASH: . . . .John McCain, I've been following him around for months now, trying to tell voters he's a different kind of Republican on a host of issues. But on this issue, the economy, he is really pushing a classic Republican conservative credo. He really is. You just heard him. Low taxes, low regulation, don't raise taxes at a time when there's economic problems. I mean, that really is what Republicans have been pushing all along. The one thing that he is different on, Kyra, is this idea of a gas tax holiday. You know, a lot of economists call it a gimmick . . . his campaign thinks that is the one way that he can separate himself from President Bush, from other Republicans, by saying, you know what, I understand how, frankly, a lot of low income Americans are feeling right now. Just give them a little bit of a break that, they hope, is his way to connect with people who aren't espousing traditional Republican philosophy. PHILIPS: The question is, is that enough? I mean, Mitt Romney said to me yesterday, oh no, his plan is much different from Barack Obama and we can definitely separate the two. BASH: That is the question, whether it's enough. I'll tell you what, for John McCain, he's trying to walk this really, really fine line of trying to keep Republicans in line with him and bring Republicans back into the fold. You heard him in that sound bite talking about how we have to get rid of wasteful spending in Washington. A big problem for Republicans right now is that the deficit is sky high and the government has been spending a lot on a Republican's watch. So he's tying to bring Republicans back into the fold. At the same time, he is trying to, to, distance himself from the Republican party. But taxes is really the one area where he thinks he can appeal to a broad swath of Democrats and Republicans. PHILIPS: Well, he didn't appeal to people when he made this comment on *The Today Show* about Iraq . . . [plays "not too important" clip] PHILIPS: . . . some say he was saying Iraq is not too important. BASH: The rest of that sound bite . . . he went on to say whats important is keeping stability in Iraq . . . the way he said that really did appear to be callous. And what was fascinating was the way Democrats jumped on it . . .said that's something that shows that he's out of touch, he doesn't get it . . . <http://www.box.net/shared/7srjrxygos> *Fox: Recent Attacks on McCain are Just Code Words for "Cranky Old Man" *(FNC 06/12/08 8:14am) STEVE DOOCY: So yesterday a Barack Obama surrogate said John McCain, "confused." Now a lot of people are wondering whether or not she was using confused as a code word for him being too old. ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Alright, John McCain was asked yesterday, when are the troops going to come home, how long are they going to stay there. Take a look at his answer. [plays "not too important" minus the Lauer question] NAPOLITANO: Now this caused a firestorm, the Democrats jumped all over him, saying, what do you mean it's not important when they're going to come home? . . . [. . .] GRETCHEN: . . . maybe it could have been said in a slightly different way, but in John McCain's defense, you need to play the whole entire interlude of what he said to get the gist of what he said. Which brings me back to that 100-year thing that Barack Obama hammered him on as well. DOOCY: So yesterday, you've got this, "he's confused" thing. But also John Kerry said that John McCain, "out of touch," also yesterday you have Harry Reid saying, "he's got a really big temper." Drip, drip, drip, you add it all up. [. . .] DOOCY: They're trying to portray him as an old guy who is cranky. And maybe he is, I don't know. NAPOLITANO: Here is Sen. John Kerry . . . yesterday . . . is it a code word for being old when he says out of touch?<http://www.box.net/shared/wl59ldc840> *McCain Not Very Good at Giving Speeches, Campaign Pushing Town Halls *(CNN 06/12/08 8:29am) JOHN ROBERTS: Back to the issue of the town hall vs. the scripted speech. He does so much better in the town hall than he does in the speech. But it can't be all town halls between now and November. BASH: . . . that is part of the problem that the McCain campaign has. You know, for the past three months. . . John McCain has given speech after speech, laying out his policies and he's been doing it on the teleprompter because he wants to give very specific, very scripted speeches laying out what he wants to do as president. But they realized that it's definitely not the best setting for him at all. So they're trying to have this combination of that and these town hall meetings. That's one of the reasons why they want to have these . . . town hall meetings with Barack Obama . . . you hear more and more from the McCain campaign, we understand that our candidate isn't someone who gives eloquent speeches, that Barack Obama is perhaps the most eloquent politician ever, they're trying to lower the expectation for McCain, raise the bar for Obama . . . because they realize there's not much they can do. <http://www.box.net/shared/mfsn4ch4o4> *Highlight #2* *McCain Isn't Wrong Because He's Old, He's Just Wrong *(MSNBC: 06/12/08 08:23am) HAROLD FORD JR: [�] There is a lack of a strategic understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well they say he's confused. Was he appearing confused? We keep hearing confused and he's lost his bearings and sometimes he has trouble finding his way back to the shuffleboard court. [�] FORD: Well these are basic facts about Iraq. No one is going to question this man's heroism and patriotism. John McCain. But these are 3 fundamental mistakes on his understanding on what's going on on the ground in Iraq. [�] FORD: His support for what is happening in Iraq and his approach to what should be happening in Iraq is based on a lot of the statements that he has been making. I don't think its unfair for the Obama Campaign [�] to surmise that Senator McCain believes what he believes about Iraq because of these statements. Some of these statements just so happen to be fundamentally false. [�] SCARBOROUGH: They are also raising that he's old and confused. And "lost his bearings" FORD: [�] He made these comments. If he was 29 or 39 or 49 years old and said this he would still be wrong. SCARBOROUGH: [�] Would you say that a 29 year old was losing his bearings like Barack Obama said about 71 year old John McCain? And confused! FORD: [�] Senator Obama has every right. [�] [McCain] is wrong and he may be wrong because he has the facts wrong. It took Joe Liebermann correcting him in his ear on the ground in Iraq. [�] That's got nothing to do with age, he's just wrong. [�] <https://www.box.net/shared/static/7vfzjjww8s> *Highlight #3* *Fox News Calls Michelle Obama "Obama's Baby Mama" *(MSNBC 06/12/08 07:00am) WILL GEIST: Check out the banner on this. This is an interview about Michelle Obama. [Clip of interview] Do you see what it says there? "Outraged Liberals: Stop picking on Obama's Baby Mama!" Yea that was yesterday. Now there are so many ways to attack that. Lets look beyond the obviously racist angle of it and then we can focus on the fact that's it's factually incorrect. A Baby Mama of course is an unmarried mother. Seriously that's the banner. Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mamma. Ok. If you see on the bottom of our screen we've made a new rule in the spirit of Bill Maher, news dorks may not use the term baby mama ever again. <https://www.box.net/shared/static/nqhm4bkkk4> *Highlight #4* *McCain: Still Confused on Iraq *(MSNBC: 06/12/08 06:45am) JONATHON CAPEHEART: [�] It seems to me that Senator McCain might not have his finger too closely on the pulse of the country to say that it doesn't matter when the troops come home. Try telling that to some of the families out there who are desperate for their sons and daughters and nieces and nephews to come home from Iraq. [�] It was kind of a rift of what he's been saying for months now. Which is as long as our troops are not being fired at and are not being killed, how long we stay in Iraq is inconsequential. [�] But to say it doesn't matter, I can understand why some folks out there in the rest of the country might hear that as a clanging banging gong. JOE SCARBOROUGH: The Obama campaign jumped on this and once again suggesting that Senator McCain might be confused. They went back to Sunni and Shia issue, said he was confused. They seem to be trying to paint him as an old man. Some would suggest that 71 is old. [�] Are we going to have this kind of code talk about McCain's age? CAPEHEART: [�] Individually on their own, each one of those slips, missteps that senator McCain has made don't mean a whole lot but when you put them all together and then you start throwing in words like confused [�] you start looking at the trend of these things [�] Senator McCain is 71. <https://www.box.net/shared/static/v3h27h9c0s> *Highlight #5* *Bash: McCain's Economy Platform "Classic Republican," Withdrawal Comments "Callous" *(CNN 06/12/08 7:12am) KYRA PHILLIPS: John McCain is the Republican nominee here, we've been living under eight years of a Republican administration, gas prices 4-plus a gallon, foreclosures a nightmare across the country. Is his plan like the Bush plan or is he able to step back and say no, I'm different? DANA BASH: . . . .John McCain, I've been following him around for months now, trying to tell voters he's a different kind of Republican on a host of issues. But on this issue, the economy, he is really pushing a classic Republican conservative credo. He really is. You just heard him. Low taxes, low regulation, don't raise taxes at a time when there's economic problems. I mean, that really is what Republicans have been pushing all along. The one thing that he is different on, Kyra, is this idea of a gas tax holiday. You know, a lot of economists call it a gimmick . . . his campaign thinks that is the one way that he can separate himself from President Bush, from other Republicans, by saying, you know what, I understand how, frankly, a lot of low income Americans are feeling right now. Just give them a little bit of a break that, they hope, is his way to connect with people who aren't espousing traditional Republican philosophy. PHILIPS: The question is, is that enough? I mean, Mitt Romney said to me yesterday, oh no, his plan is much different from Barack Obama and we can definitely separate the two. BASH: That is the question, whether it's enough. I'll tell you what, for John McCain, he's trying to walk this really, really fine line of trying to keep Republicans in line with him and bring Republicans back into the fold. You heard him in that sound bite talking about how we have to get rid of wasteful spending in Washington. A big problem for Republicans right now is that the deficit is sky high and the government has been spending a lot on a Republican's watch. So he's tying to bring Republicans back into the fold. At the same time, he is trying to, to, distance himself from the Republican party. But taxes is really the one area where he thinks he can appeal to a broad swath of Democrats and Republicans. PHILIPS: Well, he didn't appeal to people when he made this comment on *The Today Show* about Iraq . . . [plays "not too important" clip] PHILIPS: . . . some say he was saying Iraq is not too important. BASH: The rest of that sound bite . . . he went on to say whats important is keeping stability in Iraq . . . the way he said that really did appear to be callous. And what was fascinating was the way Democrats jumped on it . . .said that's something that shows that he's out of touch, he doesn't get it . . . <http://www.box.net/shared/nki8pjlgcs> *Highlight #6* *Stewart Reports on McCain Calling Cindy a C*nt *(Comedy Central 06/11/08 11:35pm) JOHN STEWART: There's an old saying in Washington, that the nastiest four-letter word in government is c*nt. [laughter] And you know that adage is as true today [laughter] as it was when the saying was first etched on the side of the Jefferson Memorial. [laughter] Now, you may be sitting there, wondering, a) why you let the kids watch with you tonight and b) why the dry history lesson professor? Well, it turns out that one of the gentlemen running for president has been accused of dropping the c-bomb while engaged in a heated debate on the floor of the living room of his own house. According to a new unauthorized biography, *The Real McCain*, one time, after his wife Cindy told him his hair didn't look good, Sen. McCain responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt." Buh-buh-buh [gesturing for audience to quiet down] Ok, seems a little harsh. But, in his defense, Sen. McCain's a Navy man. It's just salty navy talk. He's not trying to hide it, you've seen his campaign slogan, "John McCain, Experience You C*nts Can Count On." You know, you can't spell "count on" without c�[laughter] Is, ahem, this story true? Who knows? But the important thing is it's out there. Signaling that we have officially moved into the character assassination portion of our presidential campaigns. <http://www.box.net/shared/cw9gjjy80g> -- Evan Whitbeck Progressive Media USA 202.609.7677 (office) 360.480.0786 (cell) [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. To post to this group, send to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] E-mail [email protected] with questions or concerns This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---