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Bonney Kapp and I turned our cameras around on ourselves recently to provide a behind the scenes look at life on the campaign trail covering Sens. McCain and Obama. In short, great access and a front row seat to the election coupled with little sleep and a hectic travel schedule. It aired Saturday night during Fox News’ “The Y Factor” youth voting special.

See you on the campaign trail…

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN — As he spoke to more than 2,000 members of the National Sheriffs’ Association Tuesday, McCain earned the endorsement of one deputy sheriff more well-known for his performance as a TV cop.

“I always admired him and I consider him one of my heroes because of what he has been through the fact also the he is a loving father, terrific husband from what I hear. And he’s a good man, he’s a man’s man and I want to support him and I want him to be my next president. And I will do what I possibly can,” Erik Estrada told FOX after McCain’s speech.

Estrada, known for his role as Francis “Ponch” Poncherello on the late 70’s TV show CHiPS, attended the speech in his role as a Bedford County, VA Deputy Sheriff. He also serves a few days a year with the Muncie, IN police department.

Asked why he is supporting McCain, Estrada said the presumptive GOP nominee supports the issues he most cares about.

“Law enforcement, number one which is he, as you heard today the way he feels about it. The welfare of children, which is my biggest concern and passion. And the fact that he has had experience and he has been situations that no other candidate at hand has been in and he has come out with flying colors,” he said, adding that he is planning to host a $250k plus fundraiser for McCain in Laguna Beach.

Though when asked if he supported McCain in the primary, Estrada paused for a few moments of silence.

Estrada said while he is still open to acting roles, he now spends almost all of his time committed to law enforcement, battling internet crime and fighting for children.

“I am a law enforcement officer first now. Before I was an actor playing a cop and now I am a cop who will act once in a while,” he said, but added that we can still call him “Ponch.”

CHICAGO, Ill — Barack Obama said he’s not worried that Bill Clinton hasn’t delivered a splashy endorsement, and that he’s committed to helping Clinton’s wife pay down her substantial campaign debt in a wide-ranging press conference at the Westin Hotel today.

Obama also objected to the characterization that his decision to opt out of the public financing system he once promised to work to preserve was a flip-flop — denying that he’d ever committed to staying within the system in teh first place. “If you recall my original statement, it was prompted by the fact that everybody had said, including John McCain, that they were looking to opt out of the system,” he said. “It was on our own initiative without any prompting that we wrote to the FEC” to preserve the option of remaining within the system. “So the answer is no, I don’t think that it is going to damage my credibility at all.”

John McCain’s called that an “arrogant refusal to concede that he broke his word to the American people.” Spokesman Tucker Bounds writes that “everyone in American knows that Barack Obama refused to keep his commitment to public financing because of the money,” calling it “typical politics.”

On the Clintons, Obama said he’s looking forward to having Bill Clinton campaign for him across the country — and that the former president’s low profile support in the form of a statement from an aide is understandable. “I’m going to be appearing with Senator Clinton, the former president’s wife who was involved in an epic, historic primary with me, and then I’m going to be campaigning with her on Friday,” he said. “The former president wouldn’t want to upstage what is going to be, I think, a terrific unity event.”

“If the question is do I want Bill Clinton campaigning for us, for the ticket, leading into November, the answer is absolutely yes. I want him involved. He is a brilliant politician. He was a outstanding president. And so I want his help not only in campaigning but also in governing. And I’m confident that I’ll get that help.”

(more…)

Just how poisonous is President Bush for incumbent Republicans running for reelection? Well, one of them is running a TV ad touting his ties to the Senate’s most liberal member: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Oregon Moderate Gordon Smith says the two senators worked closely together on increasing gas mileage for automobiles, touting his ability to work across party lines on a key issue in the heavily Democratic state. “Who said Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama,” the ad’s narrator says, as the camera pans from a highlight of Smith’s name to Obama’s logo. “He joined with Gordon and broke through a 20 year deadlock to pass new laws which increased gas mileage for automobiles.”

But Obama’s campaign isn’t embracing his Senate colleague or his ad. “Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton in a statement. “But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington.”

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ALBUQUERQUE, NM — While he focused on courting women voters at a local New Mexico bakery today, Obama wasn’t asked many questions on specific women’s issues. Instead, he was confronted with a central GOP talking point: is he all talk, or will he deliver on his campaign promises?

“You’re a very charismatic person,” said a young woman named Erin, an employee of Flying Star Bakery. “How do you keep yourself true to the things that you say? And if you are to become President, how are you going to follow through?”

The RNC immediately sent an email with a YouTube link to the question, which seemed to make their case that Obama has no real history of producing tangible results. In his response, however, Obama pointed not just to his record as a community organizer and a lawmaker and to his family — but also to his set of Lucky Charms.

“What I find, the longer I’m in politics, especially at this level, is that if you’re not actually getting something done then its probably not worth it, because I’m away from my daughters all the time and I’m away from my wife all the time,” he said. “The only way it makes it worthwhile is if I’m actually getting something done.”

While he’s become a mainstream celebrity, inspiring T-Shirts and rap songs, Obama says that desire to produce results trumps any star status he’s achieved. “If you’re not getting something done then its all just vanity, then its all just ‘oh I like being in the limelight’” he said. “All of us who get into politics probably at some point enjoy the attention, but what I find at least is the longer you’re in it the less cool it is.”

“I’ve gotten more than enough attention to last me a lifetime now,” he continued. “I’ve done Letterman, I’ve done the Daily Show, been on the cover of Rolling Stone.”

What motivates him to keep pushing for results? The people he meets on the campaign trail — many of whom come bearing gifts. “People are so generous to me investing their hopes in me,” he said — proceeding to put his hand in his pocket and draw out a handful of small trinkets. “I usually don’t show these in these town hall meetings,” Obama said. “I carry around all these — I have all these things that people give me. They’ll hand it to you and they’ll say I want you to be well but I want you to fight for me.”

The talismans include a small eagle given to him by a Native American, and what looked to be a guitar keychain, among other things. At least one of the Lucky Charms was coveted by adviser Robert Gibbs; the Obama communications director later tried to get his hands on a lucky poker chip as the campaign headed to Las Vegas for an event on energy on Tuesday.

Senator Barack Obama spoke to about 600 paying guests at a fundraising reception in downtown Jacksonville, where attendees paid between $500 and $2,300 to Barack Obama for America. The Illinois senator spoke for about twenty minutes to his devotees, and noted the clear choice this November on issues surrounding the economy, health care, the war, and overall philosophy.

“Most of all we can choose between hope and fear. It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me,” Obama said, just one day after he he told reporters that Republican 527 groups will emerge this election and run negative ads during the election.

Obama continued that the Republicans’ message would invoke the Democrat’s race. “He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black? He’s got a feisty wife,” Obama told the crowd, which cheered.

“We know the strategy because they’ve already shown their cards. Ultimately I think the American people recognize that old stuff hasn’t moved us forward. That old stuff just divides us,” he said.

Listen to audio from that fundraiser here:

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Before Barack Obama was the presumptive Democratic nominee - before he was even the frontrunner - the then long-shot candidate signed a pledge in February 2007 that if he would accept public financing in the general election if the Republican nominee agreed to do the same.

The candidate touted this pledge in a candidate’s questionnaire from the Midwest Democracy Network in November of last year. He wrote, “In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election….If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

The candidate is opting out of some $84 million in public funds - he’ll be the first to do so since Congress passed the legislation in the 1970s. John McCain has recently taken steps to opt in and today his campaign jumped on Obama’s decision, saying he has “revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.”

Of course Obama has raised more money than any other presidential candidate, raking in some $265 million (as of the end of April).

In a video taped message to supporters this morning, Obama made his announcement. “It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections, but the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system.”

The last time Obama was asked about the issue was just one day after he secured the Democratic nomination. He told reporters, “We’re not going to unilaterally disarm, and we’ve already had John McCain’s campaign finance chairman, for example, boast about the amount of money that’s been raised by the Republican National Committee that can be used to help John McCain and attack me. I was very clear at the outset that I would not put ourselves in a position where third parties and independent groups are outspending the Democrats by substantial margins, and John McCain - who’s now the leader of the Republican Party - is, you know I’m going to want to hear from him some assurances that we could actually shut that down.”

Watch Obama’s message to supporters here:

UPDATED: 3 pm ET (per Mosheh Oinounou)

Reporters shouted questions at Sen. Obama as he arrived and exited his meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus near Capitol Hill Thursday, but the presumptive Democratic nominee did not respond, choosing only to smile and wave at the assembled press.

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HOUSTON, TX — As American consumers cope with more than $4-a-gallon gasoline, Sen. John McCain called for ways to increase the nation’s energy capacity, including lifting a ban on off-shore oil drilling, while also stressing the importance of conservation.

“America’s most vital interests call us to the mission of energy security, and so does our sense of honor. And the straightest, swiftest path to energy security is to produce more, use less, and find new sources of power — so that no commodity can determine our security, and no crisis can undermine our economy,” McCain said before a crowd of more than 300 supporters, local business leaders and a handful of oil company executives.

Among his major initiatives, as disclosed yesterday to reporters, is the removal of the federal moratorium on states’ abilities to explore and drill for oil and natural gas off of their coasts.

“For reasons that become less convincing with every rise in the price of foreign oil, the federal government discourages offshore production,” he said, calling for profit sharing between states and the federal government. “We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use…as a matter of fairness to the American people, and a matter of duty for our government, we must deal with the here and now, and assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production.”

McCain has pounced on a popular issue with voters across the country–even though it is extremely unlikely that California or Florida, both states with known coastal deposits, will initiate any deep-water drilling.

The presumptive GOP nominee also attacked Sen. Obama for what he says is the revival of 60’s and 70’s ideas–a new favorite line on the stump–beating up his rival for opposing new domestic production and for his call for a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

“He supports new taxes on energy producers. He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it’s because that was President Jimmy Carter’s big idea too — and a lot of good it did us,” he said to a chorus of boos from the crowd. “Now as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I’m all for recycling — but it’s better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970’s.”

For his part, Obama attacked McCain today for flipping on the the drilling issue, since the GOPer opposed off shore drilling during his 2000 race.

“This is yet another reversal by John McCain in terms of his earlier positions and I think we could set up an interesting debate between John McCain 2000 and John McCain 2008,” Obama told reporters. “The biggest problem with John McCain’s position is that it seems like a classic Washington political solution which is to go out there and make a statement without any clear evidence that this would result in strengthening the US economy or providing relief to consumers. There is no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now at best you’re looking at 5 years or more down the road and even the most optimistic assumptions indicate that offshore drilling might reduce the overall world price of oil by a few cents so this is not something that’s gonna give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems.”

The campaign says Tuesday’s address was the first in what will be a series of a speeches on energy.

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WASHINGTON, DC — Sen. McCain made a brief statement to reporters on the passing of NBC’s Tim Russert upon landing in DC Friday afternoon.

“I would like to just make a brief statement concerning the shocking news about the untimely death of a great journalist and a great American, Tim Russert.

Tim Russert was at the top of his profession. He was a man of honesty and integrity. He was hard but he was always fair. We miss him. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and we know that Tim Russert leaves a legacy of integrity of the highest level of journalism and we will miss him and we will miss him a lot.

Again, he was hard, he was fair, he was at the top of his profession. He loved his country, he loved the Buffalo Bills and most of all he loved his family.”