Los Angeles - AP Photo

LOS ANGELES, CA - Joe Biden made the talk show rounds on his first West Coast swing as a VP candidate - pitching the Democratic ticket on NBC’s Tonight Show and the day time talk show Ellen and getting in a few laughs at his own expense.

Leno’s show kicked off with Biden thanking Leno for having him on despite his many gaffes — then turning to the camera to say “Live From New York, It’s Saturday Night!”

And confronted with a recent screw-up — calling “jobs” a three letter word before spelling out “J-O-B-S” at a campaign stop in Ohio, Biden said “Iknew I shouldn’t have had lunch with Dan Quayle.”

The Delaware Senator also got in some digs at Joe the Plumber, saying “we’re kind of worried about Joe the fireman, Joe the policeman, Joe the real plumber with a license.”

And: “what about this Joe?” Biden asked, pointing to himself. “I hardly get any coverage. That’s why I wanted to be on this show. Thank you so much.”

While he acknowledged that the Democrats have a lead with less than three weeks to go, Biden said anything can happen. “Less than three weeks now is a lifetime in American politics here. And we’re going to have to work awful hard to be able to win this election. You’ve all got to show up and vote.”

Los Angeles - AP Photo

On Ellen, Biden did not partake in the traditional dancing on taking the stage — though the song, David Bowie’s “Changes,” wasn’t exactly conducive to getting down.He did, however, allow Ellen to call him “Joe,” though he set a condition: “only if you wink at me.”

Following heartthrob actor Collin Farrell, Biden complained “I’m playing the old guy role anyway, in this whole campaign, and now I gotta come behind him?”

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The McCain campaign unloaded on Barack Obama today for his remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser last weekend, where the Democrat said “bitter” Pennsylvania voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

“It is a remarkable statement and extremely revealing,” McCain advisor Steve Schmidt told reporters on board the McCain campaign plane today. “It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”

Schmidt said Obama’s remarks hit the “heart and soul of this country” and predicted Obama would have difficulty connecting with voters. “I think people will resent it and be very angry about it because that is not how most Americans view themselves. That’s now how most Americans view their lives in terms of practicing their faith or exercising their Second Amendment rights or having a desire to secure the borders in the country,” he explained.

When Obama later defended his remarks to voters in Indiana, a McCain spokesman fired back, “Instead of apologizing to small town Americans for dismissing their values, Barack Obama arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks. Only an elitist who attributes religious faith and gun ownership to bitterness would think that tax cuts for the rich include families who make $75,000 per year. Only an elitist would say that people vote their values only out of frustration. Barack Obama thinks he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can’t be more out of touch than that.”

Returning to Los Angeles for a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that capped off a 24 hour million-dollar West Coast swing, Hillary Clinton made it clear that she’s not going away any time soon. After thanking a children’s choir that sang about soldiering on, Clinton said “I loved their inspirational song. We are going to keep going and we are going to keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going.”

But the New York Senator made it clear how important two states that have already voted are to her nomination hopes. “I’m staying in this until Michigan and Florida have a chance to be heard,” she said. “Those votes should go right now into the popular vote, and those delegates need to be counted.”

“Neither Barack or I have the delegates we need. This idea that one of us does and one of us doesn’t, is not the case,” she argued. “This is a neck and neck close race in delegates and votes. And if we acted like Democrats and figured out how we were going to honor the efforts made by these 2.3 million voters to make sure that they were part of this process, it would be more clear that we have to keep going.”

Though the people in the room had already helped with donations and delivering their state for Senator Clinton, she told them she needs more help from California to bring home the nomination — asking donors to go to her website to contribute and get involved, and to bring their friends. “I’m being outspent in every contest,” she said. “I will be outspent in these next contests, but if we have enough money we are going to do just fine.”

Clinton was joined on stage by Hollywood actors and Clinton backers Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Daphne Zuniga and Fran Drescher,  while Hollywood director and Hillary supporter Rob Reiner emceed the event — and singled out one particular participant. “There is an uncommitted superdelegate in this room,” he told the crowd, “and I’m going to help them out.” Making Clinton’s case to this anonymous individual, Reiner joked “I’m talking to the superdelegate now, the rest of you can talk amongst yourselves.”

Hillary Clinton denied reports that she tried to pursuade NM Governor Bill Richardson to endorse her by telling him that Barack Obama could not win the general election in November.

At a media availability in Burbank, CA, Sen Clinton said “I have consistently made the case that I can win, because I believe I can win. And sometimes people draw the conclusion I’m saying somebody else can’t win. I can win. I know I can win. That’s why I do this every day and that’s what my campaign is about. I’m in it to win it, and I intend to do just that.”

Asked point blank whether she’d made the alleged remark, she said “that’s a no.”

As her campaign announced that it had raised $20m in March — just half as much as Sen Obama raised in the same period — Sen Clinton also denied that her campaign is in financial crisis. “I’ll have enough money to compete,” she said. “Obviously Senator Obama has more than enough money to compete.”

Clinton also said the recent spate of bad economic news makes her feel like “Paulette Revere. ‘The recession is coming, the recession is coming.’ And at some point, maybe somebody will actually do something about it.”

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Los Angeles, CA — Sen. John McCain is set to deliver a major foreign policy address this morning where he will emphasize the need for the US to be a good world citizen and listen to world opinion if the country expects to be listened to.

“When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them,” he is expected to say. “America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad.”

Here is a short excerpt from the prepared text (full text after jump):

In such a world, where power of all kinds is more widely and evenly distributed, the United States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone. We must be strong politically, economically, and militarily. But we must also lead by attracting others to our cause, by demonstrating once again the virtues of freedom and democracy, by defending the rules of international civilized society and by creating the new international institutions necessary to advance the peace and freedoms we cherish. Perhaps above all, leadership in today’s world means accepting and fulfilling our responsibilities as a great nation.

One of those responsibilities is to be a good and reliable ally to our fellow democracies. We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves, and we do not want to. We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact — a League of Democracies — that can harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.

At the heart of this new compact must be mutual respect and trust. Recall the words of our founders in the Declaration of Independence, that we pay “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed. We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them.

America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad. We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundation of our society. We can’t torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. I believe we should close Guantanamo and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control.

There is such a thing as international good citizenship. We need to be good stewards of our planet and join with other nations to help preserve our common home. The risks of global warming have no borders. We and the other nations of the world must get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand off a much-diminished world to our grandchildren. We need a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner. We Americans must lead by example and encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India.

While he has previously emphasized the importance of diplomacy at times on the trail–the collective impact of the above section sends a powerful message—-an olive branch from a McCain White House to the world and veiled jabs at Bush foreign policy and the perceived damage it has done to the US relationship with it’s allies.

Also, the topics he hammers on a daily basis–Iraq and the war on terror—are pushed back into the last 1/3 of the speech . He takes a very sweeping, macro-look at the major issues facing the world, choosing to discuss AIDS and Africa, China/India, diplomacy and Latin America all before he gets to Iraq.

Though he does connect Iraq and the America as a good world citizen riff towards the end with this notable line:

“Our critics say America needs to repair its image in the world. How can they argue at the same time for the morally reprehensible abandonment of our responsibilities in Iraq?”

I will post some video excerpts after the speech.

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Santa Ana, CA — Sen. John McCain called for a cautious approach to the current economic situation, criticizing Democratic proposals for increased government intervention as he laid out his economic principles before a group of Golden State business leaders.

“I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy,” McCain said in a speech before about 300 small business leaders before taking questions from the group. “Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners…(and) must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t.” (Full remarks below)

While noting that he is open to “any and all proposals” and he will not “allow dogma to override common sense,” he dismissed Sen. Hillary Clinton’s proposal for the creation of a $30 billion federal fund to buy out troubled mortgages.

“I am open to ideas. That idea, I believe, is a very expensive one. I don’t believe it works. And I’d like to know how its paid for,” McCain told reporters after the event.

McCain also expressed optimism during the roundtable that he is “hopeful that the worst is over,” noting that yesterday’s housing reports showed a “little glimmer of hope.”

“I believe I can tell you that I think that perhaps we are seeing the worst of…(the) subprime lending crisis which then led to the collapse or dramatic fall..in home values,” he said. “I think we may be seeing the beginning of the end of that.”

Among the immediate policy proposals McCain called for Tuesday:

• the nation’s top mortgage lenders to meet and “do everything possible to keep families in their homes and businesses growing.
• top accounting professionals to assess current systems.

The initial remarks took on a more formal feel than most McCain campaign events–with the AZ Senator delivering prepared remarks using a teleprompter.

At an availability later Tuesday, Clinton responded to McCain’s speech as a plan for “further inaction.”

“It sounds remarkably like Herbert Hoover and I don’t think that’s a good economic policy. We have a framework of regulation, it needs to be updated and modernized. The government has a number of tools at its disposal that are well-suited for just this situation,” she said. “I think that inaction has contributed to the problems we face today and I believe further inaction would exacerbate those problems…I don’t think it’s an adequate response to say the government shouldn’t be helping either banks or people because I think that would be a downward spiral that would cause tremendous economic pain and loss in our country and I don’t see why we should wait by for that to happen.”

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Chula Vista, CA — Just back from his trip to Iraq, Sen. John McCain focused Monday on the progress being made on the ground during a San Diego-area town hall meeting without commenting on the news today that the U.S. has lost 4,000 soldiers in the conflict.

During a subsequent media availability, McCain was asked why he did not mention the latest milestone in the five-year war. The presumptive GOP nominee said he honors the troops every day.

“I have commented on hundreds of occasions of the sacrifice the great and brave, young Americans have made in Iraq and elsewhere in the world in the struggle against radical, Islamic extremism. I wear a bracelet on my hand…not only as a symbol of the sacrifice that a brave young man named Matthew Stanley made, but that…of 4,000 other brave, young Americans who have served and sacrificed as well. My thoughts and my prayers go out to those families every day, not just on the day that 4,000 brave, young Americans have sacrificed. And I have said that repeatedly on hundreds of occasions.”

McCain focused Monday on the importance of winning the current battle with insurgents in Mosul, adding that he doesn’t believe he will change the current strategy from the one President Bush is pursuing in Iraq.

Waco, TX — Though he recognizes the fiscal difficulties and political challenges associated with competing in California in November, Sen. John McCain said Monday he will “insist” on campaigning in the Golden State.

“It’s the biggest state in America. I think as a Western Senator I understand their issues. I think the environmental issues are very important in California. I think I can appeal to the Hispanic vote, I think I can appeal to the Asian vote, I think I can appeal to the independent voter–which is a larger and larger percentage of registered voters,” McCain said aboard his “Straight Talk” bus after a townhall meeting in Waco, TX. “I just want to compete in California, and I understand the drawbacks of that, the cost of media, and all of those aspects of it…I don’t think, as a candidate, that I want to say that we’re not going to compete in the largest state in America, which is next door to my home state of Arizona.”

McCain also suggested yesterday he would try to compete in New Jersey. (audio from bus below)

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While a Republican has failed to win California since 1988, GOPers have long wanted to paint the state red again. Most recently, Karl Rove advised then-Governor George W. Bush to make a significant effort there in 2000 and received some backlash after Dubya still lost by 12 percent and more than 1.2 million votes in the state.

While senior campaign advisers said they believe they will start with an edge among Golden State Hispanic voters because of McCain’s leadership on the immigration compromise (and will also have an advantage within the group if Obama is their Democratic rival), they also acknowledge privately that winning California will be challenging.

At worst, they say a McCain push in the state would force the Democrats to defend what should be safe territory.

However among other issues, the presumptive GOP nominee will be at a severe financial disadvantage (outraised almost 4:1 by Clinton and nearly 5:1 by Obama in February alone) and California is a very expensive paid media state. Given that McCain will likely have to play defense in some of his own red states as Obama and Clinton have said they are intent on competing in the south and mountain west, the AZ Senator’s financial resources will be limited.

She may not have much support among the younger generation of Hollywood stars like Jessica Biel or Scarlett Johannson — both of whom are backing Barack Obama — but Hillary Clinton got some help at a rally in East LA from some old guard celebrity endorsers.

Before Hillary arrived, the crowd of 5,000 at Cal State Los Angeles heard from Oscar winning actress Sally Field and West Wing star Bradley Whitford (who’ll always be the villain in “Billy Madison” to me). Clinton friends Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen were in the audience. And NBA legend Magic Johnson talked about the need for someone with experience to bring change in America.

As for Sen Clinton herself, she sharpened her final argument leading up to Super Tuesday — and borrowed a popular theme from a former opponent, John Edwards, who made his Two Americas a stump speech staple in 2004.

Hillary turned those two Americas into “the America I see,” where there’s a prosperous middle class, families can afford to send their children to college, and everyone will have health care. That America, she said, will begin on January 20, 2009 — when the next president is sworn in.

She used the new framework to draw some old distinctions with her rival, Sen Barack Obama.

-On  change vs experience: “I offer in this campaign a record of making positive change, of standing up with those who are voiceless, powerless, hopeless, year after year after year after year after year after year. Because I know, talk about change is easy. Making change is hard.”

-And on providing universal health care: “This is a fight worth having. My opponent will not commit to universal health care,” she said — drawing boos from the crowd. “I do not believe we should nominate any Democrat who will not proudly stand here today, tomorrow and the next day” for universal coverage.

And as the GOP comes closer to selecting its eventual nominee, Sen Clinton threw some punches at a likely general election opponent.  “We need a president and commander in chief who understands we have to withdraw from Iraq,” she said, “unlike Senator McCain, who said he’d be happy to be there for 100 years.”

“I just want you to think about this: I believe that we can have an election this time where all of the issues including National Security are ones that Democrats can stand and proudly promote,” she said. “I take a back seat to no one in my commitment to protect and defend this country .”

Senator Clinton rallied 7,000 students and supporters in San Diego, highlighting the differences between her health care plan and Sen Obama’s.

But two student protesters nearly stole the show. They held up a big red banner directly behind Sen Clinton that read “Nepotistic Tyrant Hands Off Iran.” One waved a picture of Hillary with horns and the caption “complicit criminal.”

They silently held the sign uninterrupted for just a few minutes before two of Clinton’s burlier supporters in bright yellow union shirts confronted them. One ripped down the big red banner and started to walk away - when one student reached out to grab it back. Bad idea. The rather large union guy lurched back at him and seemed ready to come to blows before he was restrained by his friend.

The man then ripped the Hillary picture out of the other student’s hands to cheers from the crowd. As the two surly union guys returned to their seats, the two protesters were escorted out of the building by security, complaining the whole way up the stadium steps.

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