This is a public service announcement for anyone in Britain expecting to stay up to watch Sarah Palin take the stage in St Paul on Wednesday. You may want to think about getting up early instead. Even though we are one hour less removed here than we were in Colorado, it doesn't help much because Republicans don't seem to understand the concept of going to bed early. All the big name speakers this evening - Tuesday - are being saved for the nine o'clock hour tonight (after 3 am UK time.) I assume Ms Palin will speak in that same period today. We won't get the precise time till morning.
"Another who put country first". That would be George Herbert Walker Bush, who came into the arena a few minutes ago with Barbara, just in time to watch a video biopic about his life, from fighter pilot to President. 'Country First' is the slogan of this week's convention and is spelled out on LED signs all around the area balconies, just in case we forget. You can be sure, the crowd went pretty potty for George and Barbara. I should report, however, that from where I am sittin at least, George Sr seems to have aged, looking a lot more unsure of step than I would have expected.
That lateness thing is all about prime-time television of course. The networks are only willing to give the conventions one hour of live coverage these days, and not before 10pm eastern coast time. Anyway, it will be time soon for tonight's key noters - Joe Lieberman, Fred Thompson and that other George. (But - lucky McCain - the President will appear only via satellite.)
Presidential candidates love to moan about media bias. This year, it is John McCain playing the victim, accusing reporters of liking him less than Barack Obama. It certainly seems they cover him less than the Senator from Illinois - the Washington Post has just admitted it has published three times as many front pages stories on Obama than on McCain since the two of them secured their parties nominations. Of course this may just be because Obama is more interesting.
But the Associated Press news wire might feel compelled to issue an apology pursuant to a piece written in Chicago about the runners and riders in the Veep-stakes. Read the following carefully and see if you don't agree that Senator Lieberman might have cause to grouse. (Though we assume the typo was inadvertant.)
"John McCain's top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent".
No harm done, apparently. The prick is still being talked about everywhere as a McCain running mate.
Poor John McCain. There is Obama running around the Middle East and soon western Europe and Mac can't seem to get any media traction at all.
Friends from the Manchester Union newspaper report the scene late Monday night as the Republican nominee touched down in New Hampshire for a quick campaign visit. Waiting on the tarmac as he stepped out from his gleaming campaign 737 plane: precisely one reporter and one photographer. And they were unkind enough to mention that McCain, due to turn 72 in August, was limping as he came down the steps. (Hopefully aides avoided showing him the latest New Hampshire polls which have him losing the state to Obama, albeit by a small margin.)
Well, I am. Just a little. It's a long time since I found myself traipsing through a General Motors plant in deepest Michigan with Mike Huckabee and wife Janet looking their finest in oversized safety goggles. Janet had blue masking tape around her wedding ring too, another work-place precaution.
Huck stayed longer in his nomination race than perhaps he should have (hmm, who else has that disease?) but finally bowed to the inevitable. Disappear totally he did not, however.
I am just returned from American Legion Field here in downtown Indianopolis - a stunning natural arena of grass with the city's monumental World War Memorial at one end, where the Obama rally happened. I was perplexed going there. My hotel is far from the park, certainly a mile, yet the end of the line to get into the event was virtually at my front door, snaking from one end of downtown to the other. A LOT of people - white, blacks, old and young - were willing to wait a LONG time to see the man. The local news says the head count was 21,000. And when he got on stage finally, Obama seemed like the candidate he used to be before all that tricky stuff - Wright, bitter voters and so forth - shattered his focus. Aides told me the line to get in actually stretched two miles. They also said that in the course of a day attending events here and in North Carolina, Obama also squeezed in 22 media interviews.
If there are moments when you think you might scream if you hear another syllable about the nomination fight between Barack and Hillary that never ends, spare a thought for the voters in the primary states. The television ads are more obnoxious that you could imagine. And they never stop coming. She's a liar, no he's a liar. Lift the gas tax, don't lift the gas tax. And on and on and on. If I could open my hotel window here in Indianapolis, the ageing TV set would already be in a million pieces on the pavement below.
Anyway, it's time to leave my room and find some entertainment. It's Obama time! It's a super tight race here in Indiana - the CW says she will win by a small margin - so he is having another of his mega-rallies downtown. It's a beautiful evening, it's a few blocks away and I'm out of here. Of course I know what he will say more or less, but these things are pretty festive. But there's more. The local TV news reader tells me (between ads) that there will be surprise major star on stage with him. Who?
It is possible that by 25 May the Clinton-Obama drama will be resolved and we will have a Democrat nominee for 2008. (I stress possible, depending partly on what happens next Tuesday.) If so, political junkies will not need to despair thanks to the cable network HBO which on that date will release Recount, a film starring Kevin Spacey, Dennis Leary, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern about another not so distant episode of high anxiety (and, for some, pure despair) in American presidential politics.
If I mention hanging chads, the Supreme Court and Florida, you will know which one I mean.
He has been so quiet we almost forgot he was still out there, but finally Michael Dukakis, the '88 Democratic nominee (hapless eventually, if you remember) has offered some thoughts on the tug of war that knows no end between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. If he doesn't actually spell out who should win the nomination, he does make pretty plain which of the two he thinks is most likely to.
His answer, dropped during an interview at his Brookline home (just outside Boston) to the New York Observer does not carry the initials HRC but rather BO. "All I can tell you is at this point it looks as if he is likely to be the nominee," he tells the newspaper. He adds that it will surely be all over for Hillary if the man from Illinois scores a double whammy in North Carolina and Indiana next week. (Polls tonight show them pretty much neck and neck in the latter and Obama holding a healthy-ish but narrowing advantage in North Carolina.)
Sitting in the media room inside National Constitutional Center in the historic district of Philly waiting for tonight's debate between Hillary and Barack to begin. It's nearly seven weeks since they were last on stage together (and I was similarly waiting) in a much chillier Cleveland, Ohio. Best I can remember that turned out to 0-0 draw more or less. Hillary, of course, went on to win that state by 10 points.
A few more numbers in no particular order of insignificance. Tonight's debate will be the 20th in 15 months of full-out campaigning between Democrats. There may or may not be one more in North Carolina on 27 April. Hillary says she will be there (NC votes on 6 May) while Barack has not said if he will play.
For a candidate so intent on bridging the political and social divides in America, Barack Obama has sometimes seemed oddly deaf to the gay and lesbian community. Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, became so infuriated by his inabilty to secure an audience with Obama he left part of the front page of his latest issue blank - white space where the interview would have appeared. It was a good tweak - and it seems to have worked.
Recent Comments