Memo could keep Clinton-Obama rift open

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A policy memo by Sen. Hillary Clinton's one-time chief strategist challenging Sen. Barack Obama's "American roots" could make it difficult to close any remaining gaps between the former rivals, the magazine writer who revealed the memo said Tuesday.

In a March 2007 memo, Mark Penn, Clinton's former chief strategist, wrote, "all of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared toward showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050," according to Atlantic magazine writer Joshua Green.

"It also exposes a very strong weakness for him -- his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values," Penn wrote.

Penn was forced out of his position as chief strategist in April after revelations that he lobbied for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal on behalf of the Colombian government despite Clinton's opposition to the measure. Penn, however, never left the campaign entirely.

The magazine article was posted on The Atlantic's Web site Monday evening. It will also appear in the September edition of the magazine, which is expected to hit newsstands August 19.

"Her top adviser suggesting that angle is striking," Jonathan Martin of Politico said. "These are the kinds of things you see in e-mails that you see circulating about Obama in this sort of subterranean smear campaign against him. You never see these things voiced by the candidates."

Green noted that Clinton did not pursue the strategy Penn suggested during the contentious Democratic primary battle, which resulted in Obama winning more delegate than the former first lady and locking up their party's presidential nomination.

"Had Sen. Clinton followed Mark Penn's advice, it would have caused her more angst than good," said James Carville, a Democratic strategist and a CNN contributor.

The revelations could keep any remaining animosity between the Obama and Clinton camps alive, Green said.

"What's going on right now is that a lot of Obama supporters and fundraisers are trying very hard to retire Sen. Clinton's debt. One reason they've had difficulty doing so is the dislike among Obama people for Mark Penn specifically," Green told CNN on Tuesday. "They tend to blame him for the nature of these negative attacks."

In the Atlantic article, which is based on internal Clinton campaign memos and e-mail messages, Green highlighted bitter fighting among Clinton's staff, writing that her advisers "couldn't execute strategy; they routinely attacked and undermined each other and Clinton never forced a resolution."

Frustrations over how the New York senator's campaign ended drove many Clinton staffers to turn over the campaign's internal communication, Green said.

"This was a historic campaign. People thought it would be an easy march to the nomination and then an easy win in the fall. And instead, we've had this historic presidential election where she's collapsed and a first-term senator has won the Democratic nomination," Green said. "So I think it's just the nature of the defeat has made a lot of people frustrated, and there's certainly people out there who really want the kind of full story to come to light so people can understand exactly what happened."

The internal communication suggests that the lack of clear lines of authority within the campaign meant that issues that ultimately led to Clinton's defeat -- her lack of support in the Iowa caucuses, the absence of a strategy to capture delegates after the Super Tuesday primaries and her failure to prepare for a protracted primary fight -- went unaddressed for months, Green wrote.

"What is clear from the internal documents is that Clinton's loss derived not from specific decisions she made but rather from the preponderance of the many she did not make," Green wrote. "Her hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency."

The documents also suggest that Clinton's staff remained divided throughout the campaign on whether she should run a positive campaign or attack Obama and her other rivals for the Democratic nomination as being untrustworthy and underqualified, Green wrote.

"Clinton's top advisers never agreed on the answer. Over the course of the campaign, they split into competing factions that drifted in and out of Clinton's favor but always seemed to work at cross purposes. And Clinton herself could never quite decide who was right," he wrote.

Surprised Hillary rejected Penn and Bill's advice to take the low road. McCain has already started this with his first ad saying he was "The American Candidate," and seizing on Obama's staement that he was a citizen of the world.

The whole thing disgusts me. Only in America can someone rise from nothing, become president of the Harvard Law Review, be a professor of Law at U of Chicago, aauthor two books, become a U.S. Senator, be smart, articulate and able to have a huge following all by the age of 47, and have those pluses be used against him.

I don't know about his website, but supposedly here are campaign song possiblities for each candidate. Not bad, but seems like they both could come up with better songs. ( don't know the Fugees, Kanya West or Doolie Wilson (?) songs. The rest I know.

Obama,McCain Campign Song choices Any suggestions?

BARACK OBAMA

1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am


JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters


TIS

Bill Krystol is reporting that Colin Powell will endorse Obama and speak at the Democratic Convention.

Now Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC states that Powell has not decided to endorse anyone and he won't be at either convention.

Same Krystol who said that Kaine would be the Democratic VP?

As for the story itself....that rumor has been going around for months, and if it happens, while leftie bloggists will bitch, that endorsement will help that campaign with the masses.

Powell himself has now said he is not going to the Democratic Convention. Powell wimped out to the neocons over Iraq, and had he been possessed of any guts he would have resigned. He also chickened out of running for president. Personaly I think he's gutless, and will either stay neutral or give McCain a lukewarm endorsement.

And what does Bill Kristol know? He should stick to doing stand up and comedic movies.

Bill Kristol could use a lobotomy.

Ready or Not for Obama, or possibly City of Blinding Lights would capture the excitement and inexperience that are associated with him.

For McCain I'd pick Sweet Caroline because it's a comfortable and familiar tune for a comfortable and familiar guy. Good Vibrations is a good choice too as it has the same qualities, but projects more energy.

Just in case your post was not in jest: it's Kristol, not Crystal.

In any case, I'm thinking that Powell could provide subtle support for the Dems. And I now wouldn't be surprised if McCain picks Tom Ridge as his VP. Both candidates need PA's 21 electoral votes. Obama leads there now, but Ridge could help McCain close the gap. Obama's choice: I thought maybe Richardson, but now I'm not so sure.

I know the difference between Billy Crystal and Bill Kristol. They are both great comedians.

I wish that Howard Wolfson would just shut the fuck up.

Have you heard his latest pearls of wisdom? He made a statement the other day that Hillary would have won had the media not waited to expose John Edwards' affair. Whether that's true or not is inconsequential. He's supposed to be helping to unify the party, but he still can't admit that his horse lost the race.

I find it hard to believe that Hillary Clinton can't stop her people from making these outbursts. Bottom line: She doesn't want to. I've really come to loathe her.

The Clinton Convention
Friday, August 15, 2008

By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann

Hillary and Bill have hijacked the Denver convention, making it into a carbon copy of what it would have looked like had she won until the last possible moment. By the time Obama gets up to speak and put his stamp on the convention, Hillary will have had one prime time night all to herself. Bill will have pre-empted a second night. Hillary will have had all the nominating and seconding speeches she wants. And the roll call of the states would record, in graphic detail, how the voters of state after state rejected Obama's candidacy in the primaries. Only then, after three and a half days of all Clinton all the time will the convention then, finally, turn to its nominee and allow him to have an hour in the sun!

And what leverage did the Clintons have to achieve all of this? None! Hillary could not have taken the convention by storm and any show of party disunity would marginalize her forever in the Democratic Party. Had she or her supporters tried to pull off distracting demonstrations or to recreate Lafayette Park in Chicago in 1968, she would have paid a permanent price among the party faithful for sabotaging Obama's candidacy.

This Clintonian tour de force raises a key question about Barack Obama: Is he strong enough to be president or can he be pushed around? His failure to stand up to the Clintons makes one wonder how effective he will be against bin Laden, Iran, Chavez, or Putin.

And now word emerges from the Obama camp that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is on the short list for vice president. To select Bayh would bring Obama's nemesis, Mark Penn, in through the campaign's back door. Penn and Bayh are an item. Mark's second (and current) wife, Nancy Jacobson was the key fund raiser for the Senator during his Senate campaigns. Penn has always been Bayh's consultant and chief advisor. Penn played the key role in 1996 in getting Bayh a slot as the convention keynote speaker. Bayh has always marched to Mark Penn's tune.

This, of course, the same Mark Penn who structured the vilification of Barack Obama as a marginal American and orchestrated the campaign to summon the white working class in opposition to his candidacy.

How much will Obama take?

His weakness, if the face of the Clinton demands coupled with his refusal to debate McCain in the town forum meetings raise the question of whether he is tough when the teleprompter is turned off. Why is he afraid or unwilling to do tough interviews? It is not enough for him to say that he is the front runner and ask why he should risk such confrontations. In case he hasn't noticed, he's not the front runner. The tracking polls all suggest a tied race where taking certain risks would be reasonable, unless his handlers worry about his vulnerability in difficult or extemporaneous situations.

Is an unscripted Obama a pushover? Will foreign leaders conclude that he is not up to the job, just as Khrushchev did with JFK at his 1961 Vienna summit that presaged the Cuban Missile crisis? If he does so poorly in negotiating with the Clintons, how will he do with the Russians?

So Dick Morris doesn't recognize politics when it slams him in the face. Hijack the convention? Sure. What a stupid opinion. A relatively inexperienced candidate who outmaneuvered a hugely experienced candidate and is outmaneuvering a 26 year veteran of the US Senate is weak?

Madonne!

Yeah, he's a moron. Don't forget, he has a longtime love-hate thing going on with the Clintons. He's probably just using this as an excuse to call her out as a bully. Plus, he works for FOX News, so who really cares?

Won't happen. McCain is getting part of the conservative base for the GOP to his side, and picking Ridge will tell them the overall same story of this campaign:

It's not McCain vs Obama, but Yes or No on Obama.

What you expect from the same guy who wrote a fucking BOOK back in 2004/2005 where he predicted Hillary Clinton would triumph over Condi Rice(!) in the 2008 elections.

To be fair, Bob Woodward(yes, Watergate) at the same time predicted it would be Hillary/Cheney(!)....opps.

Wait a minute. If McCain chooses Ridge, Ridge's pro-choice stand will alienate any number of conservatives. Thus, the election won't be just a referendum on Obama.

I couldn't post the image for some reason, but this should put on smile on many of our faces. At long last......

TIS


http://images.cafepress.com/jitcrunch.as...HJlc3Npb249OTV8

Wait a minute. If McCain chooses Ridge, Ridge's pro-choice stand will alienate any number of conservatives. Thus, the election won't be just a referendum on Obama.[/quote]

Exactly.

TIS - I definitely need to order me one of those!!! Or maybe 8 or 10 of them!

Well, it seems Obama will be announcing his running mate any time now; McCain supposedly will announce his on the 29th I believe.

For anyone following, the PUMAs supposedly will be protesting at the Dem convention to eliminate caucuses. Don't know if this will fizzle out or not, but talk about whiners.

TIS

I'm almost convinced that McCain has to pick Ridge to enhance his chance of picking up PA's 21 electoral votes. Obama? Either Richardson or Biden.

I can't say what Ridge as a VP candidate will do nationwide, but it will win Pennsylvania for McCain. Otherwise, I think Obama will carry the commonwealth in a fairly close race.

There is always a problem when you pick someone simply to try to win a state, one that may or may not go to Obama regardless of your VP.

I mean, using this logic that Olivant is pimping, why doesn't McCain simply try to score Pawlenty (Minnesota) or Crist (Florida)?

Pimping, huh?

Both Minnesota and Pennsylvania went Democratic in '04. Ridge is nationally known and is Catholic. In addition, he is pro-choice. Thus, he is a much stronger potential vote-getter for McCain. Pawlenty doesn't have a national reputation, is evamgelical, and is pro-life. McCain already has the great majority of evangelicals and pro-life support. Florida went Republican in '04. Chris wouldn't be much of an advantage.

At this point, McCain is trailing in electoral votes. He needs states such as Pennsylvania to catch up.

That is assuming if McCain can retain the Bush states from 2004...and that is in doubt.

Plus, why are you assuming McCain has the majority of the Evangelicals?

I think you're missing my whole point of Ridge. Why did McCain win the GOP nomination? Because at the time, he was seen as the one guy who could beat Hillary in a national election in spite of Bushie. But did he have the Conservative kiss from the onset?

No.

He's been fighting to get their love, and if he goes with Ridge...it sends them the message that a GOP retainment of the White House isn't necessarily hardcore pro-life, and you think such Evangelicals will go down for that?

Come on, really?

I know you're a nerd for Ridge and all, and I can understand that, but shit remember 1988 when Dukakis' VP was a Conservative Democrat from Texas, and guess what? Dukakis got his ass whipped like cookie dough that fall by Bush Sr.

Clinton strategy working for McCain

(CNN) -- John McCain's attacks on Barack Obama on national security issues seem to be working: Polls show McCain has cut the Democrat's lead in half.

Sen. John McCain speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Orlando, Florida.

According to CNN's average of several recent national surveys, Obama's lead is now a slim 3 points over the Arizona senator, 46-43 percent -- half of his advantage in a CNN poll of polls one week ago, and down from a high of 8 points in mid-July.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll out Tuesday evening was the latest national survey to indicate Obama's lead is dwindling, putting the Illinois senator ahead of McCain by only 2 points, well within the poll's margin of error. The CNN poll of polls also includes new surveys from Quinnipiac and Gallup.

Russia's invasion of Georgia gave McCain an anvil to hammer away at Obama's inexperience, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said.

"The McCain campaign believes that some of Hillary Clinton's tactics, especially questioning whether Obama is ready to lead, can be a real winner," Schneider said. Watch how McCain is borrowing moves from Clinton »

Clinton nearly overtook Obama during the primary campaign after she started airing ads asking who voters would rather have answering a 3 a.m. call to the White House.

"The McCain team has been very open that they went to school on the Hillary Clinton campaign, that they learned from that," said CNN contributor David Gergen, a former counselor to three presidents.

"And, on this 3 a.m. ad, what's very striking, as some have pointed out over the last few days, is that Barack Obama was winning a steady streak of victories against Hillary Clinton," Gergen said. "And then she ran that ad, and she really went on the attack on the experience question. And she won the bulk of the primaries thereafter in the closing months of the Democratic primaries, and won 500,000 more votes than he did and almost took it away from him."

When Russian troops invaded Georgia two weeks ago, McCain vigorously denounced the action and warned of consequences. Obama's reaction was more measured, and potential voters noticed, Schneider said.

"Which candidate do voters believe is better qualified to deal with Russia? McCain by better than 2-1," Schneider said. "More experience in military matters and foreign affairs."

That argument may be even more effective for McCain than it was for Clinton, said political analyst Marc Halperin, a former Democratic strategist.

McCain is "going after more centrist voters, more swing voters, more conservative voters who will be a much bigger deal in the general election than they were in those primaries and caucuses," Halperin said.

That's exactly why Obama is making appearances this week in Ohio and Indiana, key swing states with plenty of those working-class voters, said CNN political correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

By at least one important measure, McCain already has overtaken Obama. The Republican's current lead in key states would give him enough electoral votes to win the election, Gergen said.

McCain has taken other pages from the Clinton playbook, saying that Obama has great style but little substance.

"Not only did the Clinton campaign give McCain and his advisers a road map, but [they] actually started the McCains down that path," said Dan Schnur, who was McCain's communications director in the 2000 campaign.

"That's why you're hearing from Obama very specific policy-oriented proposals here," said Malveaux. "There's not a lot of that kind of flash, if you will, from the earlier days."

But the recent downturn in the polls for Obama may not last. The Democratic White House hopeful is headed for a week of what is likely to be overwhelmingly positive coverage as he names his running mate and officially accepts his party's presidential nomination.

"The big question now is whether Obama can successfully regain control of the campaign agenda as we head into the Democratic convention," said Alan Silverleib, CNN senior political researcher.

Clinton did ultimately lose to Obama, after all. But she showed how to hurt him.

"What the Clinton campaign demonstrated is when you bring (Obama) back down to earth, it's a better battle," Schnur said.

This is a story from my neck of the woods. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Clinton backer, is a superdelegate. According to the local news reports, she is not expected to survive. She was scheduled leave for the Democratic Convention in Denver.

Tubbs-Jones