Just after 8:30pm on a balmy Friday night outside of San Antonio, Texas, Obama looked out at a see of some 8,000 spectators. He was midway through his stump speech and then decided to sock it to Hillary Clinton for running a new campaign ad entitled “Children” - or as it’s being referred to in media and political circles, the “Red Phone” ad because of its similarity to a 1984 ad with the same name run by Walter Mondale in 1984.

“I want to take a moment to respond to an ad that Senator Clinton put up today,” Obama stated as the crowd began to jeer.  “We’ve seen these ads before. They’re usually the kind that play on people’s fears and try to scare up votes. But it won’t work. Because the question is not about who’s picking up the phone – the question is what kind of judgment will the person who answers the phone have?”

Senator Obama has made his consistent anti-war voice an example of his judgment in the realm of all things foreign policy - and once again, his weapon of choice to attack Senator Clinton’s foreign policy experience is her vote for the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.

“Senator Clinton may not be aware, but we already had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. And Senator Clinton picked up the phone and gave the wrong answer. And John McCain picked up the phone and gave the wrong answer. And George Bush picked up the
phone and gave the wrong answer,” he said, not so subtly linking her decisions with those made by Republicans McCain and Bush.

“I stood up and I said this war in Iraq would cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives. I said it would distract us from the real threat we faced. That’s the judgment I made on the most important foreign policy decision of a generation and that’s the kind of judgment I’ll show when I pick up the phone at 3am in the morning!” he exclaimed to rousing applause.

He then wacked President Bush for good measure - always a crowd favorite at Democratic rallies. He promised he would use his judgment to provide, equip, and train troops and to “use them wisely and not deploy them because of some ideological bent that you were on, but because it is absolutely necessary to protect the United States of America – that’s the answer that I’ll give when somebody calls me on the phone at 3am in the morning!”

Obama ended his rant by saying he won’t scare up votes using the threat of terrorism. “I intend to make sure that we rally the country together, against our common enemies – that we’re distracted by politics when it comes to our national security. That’s the judgment that I intend provide when I’m president of the United States of America.”

Today Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop at the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River in Brownsville, Texas, and dropped by a community carnival called the Sombrero Festival - two events that were not on the senator’s schedule. Soon after, Obama made another unscheduled stop to the back of his campaign plane. The candidate ambled back to informally chat with reporters – topics ranged from the Hispanic vote to faith outreach to the senator’s foreign language skills (he speaks 15 words in Spanish and some Indonesian).

When asked about the state of the race, he called the fight for the Democratic nomination “tight” and said the Clintons were very formidable. When Senator Clinton’s “Red Phone” ad came up, Obama said he hadn’t seen it – that he’d only read the script. When asked what he thought, he repeated with a smile, “I read the script.”

He then retreated to the safety of the candidate section of the cabin – but not before one reporter yelled out to ask him about the torta he consumed at the Sombrero Festival, and noted the taco was better. Obama raised his eyebrows. “You tried both?” The reporter joked, “(Communications Director Robert) Gibbs tried everything. Including a margarita.” Gibbs stood in the background, unaware of the joke.

The candidate did not hold a media availability today.

Watch some of his chat here:

Wooster, OH—

From parking lots in Texas to school gymnasiums in Ohio, President Bill Clinton is trying to persuade every last voter in these two states before March 4th to come out Tuesday for his wife . He’s convinced that if she carries Texas and Ohio she will go on to win the nomination and take the White House:

“If Hillary wins in Ohio and Texas, I believe she’ll win a very large victory in Pennsylvania and she will have the wind at her back and she will go on and be nominated and be the next President of the United States. It’s up to you to decide.”

These smaller venues allow him to cover more ground, shake more hands, and connect with more voters. Today while campaigning in northern Ohio–with former Senator John Glenn and Governor Ted Strickland–he told the cheering crowds that the election process does more for the candidates than the voters because they get to hear the stories of so many Americans. He also slung a veiled jab at Barack Obama’s oratory skills saying campaign speeches are easy:

“You ought to vote for her because she is a world class change maker who will never forget the look I see in your eyes tonight. You know it is easy to make a good speech when you are running for president and if you noticed they are all getting better and they are getting better in the debates you know why? You made them better, running for president does more for the candidates than it does for the people “ Clinton continued, “You hear the American people– their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their heartbreaks and you get better but when you get to be president you need to remember what you heard. “

The former president has been pressing that under his wife’s presidency she will be able to repair relationships with other countries often saying, “America is back!” to describe how the world will see the United States under a Hillary Clinton presidency. However, he did acknowledge today that there have been hard times during the campaign, but he urged her to continue on:

“I would not have urged her on in this campaign, would not have encouraged her never to quit when times were tough, if I didn’t believe she’d be the best president for you,” Clinton said, “But she’s the best change agent I’ve ever known.”

Hillary Clinton painted Barack Obama as all talk and no substance on national security in Waco, TX — saying “Senator Obama talks about these issues, but when it came time to act, he was missing in action.”

“There’s a big difference between delivering a speech at an anti-war rally as a state senator, and picking up that phone in the White House at 3am in the morning to deal with an international crisis,” she said. “Senator Obama talks about these issues, but when it came time to act, he was missing in action.”In particular, Senator Clinton claimed Obama’s failure to show up for an important vote on Iran and his inability to hold “substantive” hearings on his Senate committee that oversees NATO make him a less qualified choice to be commander in chief. She also attacked the central claim of his candidacy — that he’d opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, while she voted to authorize force.

“There’s a difference between making a speech when you have no responsibility, and having to step up and take charge and take responsibility for your actions,” she said.

Flanked by generals and admirals who are supporting her candidacy, including Gen Paul Eaton and Gen Wesley Clark, Clinton echoed her new ad on national security — arguing that she understands what it means when the crisis phone in the White House rings at 3am. “There isn’t any time to convene your advisers.To do a survey about what will or will not be popular. You have to make a decision. And in the world that we face with both the challenges and opportunities, we need a president who picks up that phone ready to decide.”

“Senator Obama says if we talk about National Security in this campaign, we’re trying to scare people,” she said — referring to Obama’s claim that the new ad plays on people’s fears. “I don’t think people in Texas scare all that easily.”

“The American people aren’t afraid of the challenges and dangers we face in the world. They want a president with the strength and wisdom to take those challenges and dangers head on.”

Round Rock, TX — Sen. John McCain defended the endorsement of controversial evangelical pastor John Hagee, noting Friday that he does not embrace the views of every one of his backers.

“I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions,” McCain said after a town hall at Dell computers headquarters outside Austin, TX.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is calling on McCain to renounce the Hagee endorsement, arguing that the San Antonio-based preacher is an anti-Catholic bigot who has referred to the Catholic church as a cult, the anti-Christ and “the Great Whore.” Hagee also espouses radical views about what he sees as the impending Armageddon.

“For the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church,” Donohue said Thursday. “Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee.” The Democratic National Committee also slammed McCain for the endorsement Friday.

As McCain attempts to unify the GOP for the general election, he will have to bring together a number of disparate elements of the party, including the evangelical groups key to President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 victories. Hagee boasts more than 19,000 followers and is a major pro-Israel voice for the evangelical community.

“I am very proud of Pastor John Hagee’s spiritual leadership to thousands of people and I am proud of his commitment to the independence and the freedom of the state of Israel,” McCain said, but repeated again that in accepting the pastor’s backing does not mean he agrees with everything “Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues.”

(more…)

Round Rock, TX – Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are sending “the wrong message to the world” by stating that they will renegotiate NAFTA with Canada, Sen. John McCain said Friday–adding that their trade stances could also lead America’s neighbor to the north to reconsider it’s role in the war on terror.

“I believe there is very little doubt if we say we are going to…change the terms of a treaty that was negotiated for years, signed into law by President Clinton, then I think that could have an adverse affect on the situation as regards to their commitment to Afghanistan,” McCain told a town hall meeting at Dell Computers today.

“I believe that those agreements should be kept…and every time in history that we have practiced protectionism we have paid a very heavy price for it,” McCain added.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have ratcheted up their anti-NAFTA rhetoric recently as they compete for votes in next week’s Ohio primary, a state that has been heavily hit by economic losses related to manufacturing jobs moving across the border. Both Democrats said at a debate Tuesday night that they would be willing to use the threat of a NAFTA pullout to demand the Canadians renegotiate the terms of an agreement.

“One of the greatest assets we have in Afghanistan today frankly are our Canadian friends…it can in no way help our relations with Canada in any way if we tell them we are unilaterally going to renegotiate a treaty without their agreement. It’s just a fact,” McCain said, noting that maintaining troops in Afghanistan is a divisive issue for Canadians.

McCain’s criticism on free trade comes after he hammered for Obama for the last two days on the war on terror.

A new Clinton ad asking who voters want as their commander in chief has the Obama campaign charging her with exploiting the politics of fear.

In the ad, a narrator says “It’s 3am and your children are safe and asleep, but there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing.” Showing children asleep, the narrator says “Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military - someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world,” asking “who do you want answering the phone?”

While he said the ad raised a “legitimate question,” Obama said the it and other ads like it “play upon peoples’ fears and try to scare up votes.”

“We have had a red phone moment,” he said. “It was the decision to invade Iraq. Sen Clinton gave the wrong answer.”

On a conference call, chief Clinton strategist Mark Penn noted that Obama never had to vote on the Iraq issue in 2002, saying “when he actually had to make cecisions and not just give a speech, he voted in the senate exactly like Senator Clinton.” He said the question of whos best equipped to become commander in chief, along with who would best manage the economy, is essential for voters, saying “I hope by the way that he wouldn’t view asking who would be best to manage the economy playing to people’s fears. In fact, it plays on the very thing people look for in a president.

By Maggie Lineback

There’s early voting in Texas, so for eleven days ending the Friday before March 4th, voters can avoid the mad dash on Tuesday and head to the polls at their leisure. But a funny thing happened on the way to the precinct. There’s been something of a mad dash EVERY day of early voting. Election workers knew they were in for it from day one. We were in Harris County (Houston) and the head of the elections told us the first day numbers were higher than the ones from the last day of early voting in the previous primary. That’s important, since the last day of early voting is usually when they see the big numbers—because procrastinators like me finally figure they’d better go down and vote. But in this election, the numbers have started and remained solid each and every day.

When I went down to vote (a full day before the deadline, thank-you very much) a poll worker toll me they’d had about eight or nine hundred people come through each day. And that’s just one precinct. But it’s not an anomaly. Across Texas, the same thing is happening. The Texas Secretary of State says in the fifteen counties with the most people, the vote’s been building, from about 80,000 to 140,000 voters casting their ballots each day.

The head of elections in Dallas County, Bruce Sherbet, told me he’s just thankful there is early voting. He says it gives his department a sense of what to expect Tuesday. He adds, “Can you imagine this kind of event if there was only an election day only?”

There’s no such heads up for the people organizing Tuesday night’s precinct conventions (caucuses.) In Texas, Democrats split their delegates between the primary and the caucuses. You go to vote at the polls and then come back to your polling place at 715pm to caucus. Unfortunately for organizers, the decision of where to hold the caucuses was made months ago, before anyone knew Texas would be a big deal. The Chair of the Party in Harris County told me usually only a few of the party faithful- at most ten or twenty- show for the precinct conventions. Now, in every speech, you’ll hear both campaigns urge their voters to caucus. So how many will follow through? 50? 500? Who can tell? Organizers are anxious there may not be room for everyone.

What’s driving all this? Experts say it’s the excitement that the Texas primary might actually decide something. I, for one, can’t wait till Tuesday.

Read all ELV Blogs >>

Hillary Clinton’s new ad entitled, “Children” poses the question, “It’s 3am and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?” The ad is referring to the “red phone” in the White House - their point: Hillary Clinton has the experience to handle crises while Obama is still untested.

The Obama campaign responded to questions about the ad in a conference call this morning - Campaign Manager David Plouffe called the ad ineffective and said Hillary Clinton has already had her “red phone moment” when she supported the war in Iraq. “She, John McCain, and George Bush all gave the wrong answer,” Plouffe told reporters.

Obama himself weighed in at the top of his veterans town hall at a Houston American Legion Post this morning. “Since I am in the midst of an election, before we open this up for conversation, I do want to take a moment to respond to - the press is, I’m sure, curious - to an ad that Senator Clinon is apparently running today,” he began.

Watch his response here:

Later in the day, the campaign released it’s counter ad - using much of the same effects as Clinton’s ad, including similar sound effects and video clips. Watch it here:

Dayton, OH–

Comparing the election process to a symphony, President Bill Clinton told a crowd of about 700 students, parents, and community members at a high school here that “campaigns are overwhelming” and as the campaign goes on the candidates–presumably his wife and Senator Obama– are getting better in debates because they are listening to voters:

“Every for years it’s almost as if the American people were composers and they write a new symphony. The words are notes, the words are always the same, just like the notes are the same, but it’s always a little different. And that’s why all these candidates get better as this campaign goes on,” Clinton said, “They hear you. They hear your pain, they hear your hopes, they hear your dreams, they learn about your problems. And they absorb it. And they grow; you can almost see them rise before your eyes, all of them, in both parties. It just happens. It’s a beautiful thing.”

A heckler interrupted the former President screaming, “9/11 truth!” Clinton usually laughs off or ignores hecklers who frequent his events, but this time he launched into a fiery response to cheers from the crowd saying his wife will go after Al Qaeda:

“You know what this guy thinks? They think 9/11 was an inside job. I think 9/11 was a murder committed by foreign terrorists associated with Al Qaeda and I think that we haven’t gotten the leadership of Al Qaeda because we’ve been too obsessed with Iraq. We know who killed 3,000 Americans including more than 200 Muslims and people from 70 other countries and these people can’t get any publicity on their own so they are here coming to our rally interrupting my speech to perpetrate this,” Clinton continued to a roar from the crowd, “I don’t like being told a bunch of hokum. We know who killed them and it’s time we went after ‘em and if you elect her she will. “

Days before Super Tuesday Two, Clinton told the audience that he believes with all his heart that on March 4th Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island will vote for his wife mentioning “it’s all on the line.”