While there are strategists in both parties who are eager to make the candidates’ wives a political issue this fall, both Sens. McCain and Obama have declared that they will run clean campaigns and keep the focus on one another.

Obama set the bar high last month when he said, “I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue and if I saw people doing that–I would speak out against it.”

So do accusations made by a Democratic strategist last night about Mrs. McCain’s go too far?

Democratic National Committee Adviser Jamal Simmons told CNN Tuesday night that Mrs. McCain’s financial transactions raise “red flags,” and there are questions about “whats going to happen to…Cindy McCain if he goes into the White House,” noting that she is an heiress to a beer distribution company estimated to be worth upwards of $100 million.

Simmons also alleged that the presumptive GOP nominee was only able to keep his once cash-starved campaign afloat partly because his wife incurred $750,000 in personal credit card debt during the primary season.

“They would not have been able to keep the John McCain campaign alive had he not had this personal wealth,” Simmons added, alluding to what would be an FEC violation given that McCain has said– and federal filings show– that he never borrowed from his personal wealth to keep his campaign in the black.

While the DNC and some outside observers have taken issue with the campaign’s reimbursement–or lackthereof –for the use of Cindy McCain’s private jet and releasing her tax return summaries instead of the full filings, Democrats have yet to solely target her wealth.

And though it can be argued that the use of the private jet saved the campaign some dough, citing her personal credit card debt to allege impropriety looks to be taking up the criticism a notch.

When asked about Simmons’ assertion, DNC spokesman Damien LaVera would only say that Democrats will continue to highlight what he called the McCain campaign’s “potentially illegal” use of her jet and “insufficient” financial disclosure.

“This isn’t about Cindy McCain. This is about John McCain and his promise to run a new kind of campaign with a new level of transparency,” LaVera said, noting McCain’s oft-repeated commitment to run the most “transparent” campaign in history. “We are going to hold John McCain accountable to his own campaign promises and we are going to make sure that when he doesn’t, the voters know about it.”

With his pool crew in tow, Barack Obama headed to the Clark Chateau Museum, a stately brick mansion on Washington Street in Butte, Montana. The candidate was to do some sort of taping, the campaign said. We were initially told the taping had something to do with the DNC Convention, but the campaign later advised pool reporters waiting outside on the press bus that the taping was a routine taping with the campaign’s new media division, a group of staffers who shoot on DV cameras for the campaign’s website, much as the embed producers for the networks cover presidential candidates.

After an hour and ten minutes inside, the candidate emerged and got back on his bus. Following him out of the building - crews carrying Super 16 film cameras and one Davis Guggenheim, the director of the Academy Award winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

A woman named Aleish riding on the press bus - not a regular in the traveling press corps - informed the pool that she was a makeup artist hired by Essence, and spilled that they were inside doing a documentary for the DNC. Not so said traveling press secretary Jen Psaki, who emailed this producer, “It is a new media taping and [I] don’t have anything else to add.”

Poolers scratched their heads on the ride back to Obama’s Butte hotel, and when we arrived, Guggenheim emerged from Obama’s bus. The pool approached Mr. Guggenheim in the hotel parking lot, and the filmmaker admitted he’d interviewed Obama. Seeing cameras running and pens scribbling, he told the press he’d talk to us after he cleared it with the campaign as he wasn’t sure the mystery taping was on the record. He added with a laugh that he was traveling with his young son, who stood by his side.

Perhaps realizing Guggenheim and his crew then boarded the press bus to a hotel around the corner, Psaki sent the pool another email reading, “Was a new media taping for the dnc. I am sorry we were not more specific. We don’t have additional details to share at this time.”

Watch Guggenheim talk to press here:

Paging Bill Burton, Damien LaVera, Dag Vega and company….

With the launch of the new McCain plane, it is about time the DNC and Obama campaign come up with new puns for the flying version of the “Straight Talk Express,” and they did not disappoint today with this zinger from the email box of DNC spokesman Damien LaVera….

“John McCain’s new flying “Straight Talk Express” hit turbulence on its first trip out today. After complaining this morning about the “demagoguery” surrounding “privatization” of Social Security (despite his steadfast support of President Bush’s failed privatization scheme), McCain attempted to fly away from his record on college loans at his town hall in Pipersville this afternoon,” LaVera writes in an e-mail sent to the the press this afternoon.

Reporters’ email inboxes are usually clogged with the often-repetitive statements and attacks from the two campaigns and political parties each day but the traveling press corps appreciates a little creativity once in a while.

For their part, Democrats often attempt to use McCain’s Straight Talk Express (STE) bus as a vehicle (no pun intended course) to attack the presumptive GOP nominee.

Among our favorites:
–the STE taking a detour…
–the STE running out of gas/got a flat tire/needs a jump start….
–the STE coming off it’s tracks…(only .5 points awarded per use since we are talking about a bus–not a train)
–the campaign throwing (name surrogate here) under the bus…

So now it’s brainstorming time for the folks in Chicago and at the DNC but here are a few suggestions from a few bored members of the McCain press corps today:

–the bumpy ride is causing us to reach for our air sick bags/gripping seat cushions
–the STE never took off
–the STE is coming in for a bumpy landing
–the campaign threw (name surrogate) off without a parachute

Though for the record, we should note that the quotes the DNC is attacking were said on the ground, but we get the point.

Don’t worry Tucker, Brian, Danny et. al.—a version of this post is on the way for the new Obama plane set for launch later this summer…

At a town hall meeting in Southwest Virginia this morning, Barack Obama described the 16 month long, 54 contest race for the Democratic nomination “historic” while praising Hillary Clinton as a worthy opponent.

The nation’s first African American candidate for president also shared his thoughts on his monumental feat. “I stand before you as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America. I’m very proud of that. I’m very proud of that, and I’m proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know that it’s a sign of enormous growth in this country. But we’ve still got work to do. Just winning the nomination is not the endpoint. The end point isn’t even winning the general election. The endpoint is making your lives better. That’s the reason that we are in this, that’s why we’re in this auditorium here today,” he said.

The candidate also announced today that the DNC will adopt the Obama campaign’s policy on refusing contributions from federal registered lobbyists and PACs. Said Obama, “Going forward the Democratic National Committee will uphold the same standard, we will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACS – we’re going to change how Washington works. They will not fund my party, they will not run our White House, and they will not drown out the voice of the American people when I am president of the United States of America.”

Hillary Clinton’s finance team has begun spinning the Rules and Bylaws Committee decision with donors, sending a list of talking points expressing the campaign’s frustration with the Michigan decision to strip Clinton of 4 delegates — and pointing out that the ruling gives Clinton a clear lead in the popular vote.

“In the coming days, superdelegates will have a clear choice: who is ready to serve as President on day one and who is best able to beat John McCain in November?” writes Clinton’s Congressional Affairs officer Kris Balderston. “When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against Sen. McCain in head-to-head matchups, there’s no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate.”

While pointing out that Clinton reserves her right to challenge the Michigan decision, Balderston also strikes a conciliatory note. “Regardless of the outcome, our Party will unify behind the nominee and do everything in our power to elect them the next President of the United States,” he says.

Perhaps the most important from the campaign’s perspective is the argument that by seating the full Michigan and Florida delegations, the Rules Committee has legitimized the popular vote in those states. “Today’s decision also reaffirms Hillary’s lead in the popular vote. She has earned more votes than anyone in the history of the Democratic primaries-more than 17 million,” Balderson argues. “When the primaries conclude on Tuesday, Hillary will maintain her popular vote advantage.”

Balderston also notes this article in the Democratic Daily arguing that any tally of the popular vote must now include the count in Michigan in Florida — which would give her an undisputed lead. “Hillary has now legitimately received more votes than any other candidate this cycle, and in fact, ever,” it reads. “Superdelegates now have to decide whether popular vote, winning the big and important states, and being the stronger candidate against McCain is important.”

A popular vote win is important in making the case to superdelegates, but also gives her a face-saving out; she can exit the race a winner in one of the most important primary metrics.

Read the full list of talking points below.

(more…)

Barack Obama told reporters traveling with his campaign yesterday that, while he believes he conceded Hillary Clinton a net of delegates in states where he did not campaign or compete, he’s satisfied with the ruling.

“[Hillary Clinton] nets a significant number of additional pledged delegates, but I also understand that many members of the Florida and Michigan delegation feel satisfied, that the decision was fair and our main goal is to get this resolved so we can immediately turn the focus of the entire party on winning Florida and Michigan and delivering on the needs of the people in Florida and Michigan, states that are enormously important, states where a lot of people are struggling. I recognize that there were compromises on all sides in resolving this issue. I’m glad that the DNC worked it through, and I hope that we can start focusing our attention on the substance ads opposed to just the process of politics and start explaining to the American people how the Democrats are going to improve their lives,” he said in a media avail that largely focused on his decision to leave his controversial church.

When asked if he would try to dissuade Senator Clinton from challenging the Michigan decision, Obama said he would not. “I think that Senator Clinton and former President Clinton love this country, they love the Democratic Party. I think they deeply believe that Democrats need to win in November so I trust that they’re gonna do the right thing,” he said.

And what is that?

“Well I think that they’ll have to make a determination on it, but I think that they will be motivated by an interest in bringing the party together and making sure that we’re in a position to win Florida, Michigan and the presidency.”

On a conference call yesterday, DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Committee Member and Clinton supporter Tina Fluornoy told reporters that the Clinton campaign has four goals for today’s committee meeting to decide what to do about seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan.

First, the campaign wants the popular vote from the two states to count in the official tally. Then, they’d like those results to be the basis for any delegate formulation - meaning no splitting the delegates 50-50. They’d also like the full delegations from both states seated at the convention, and for every delegate to be given a full vote.

But privately, several aides concede that the campaign may be willing to compromise on the last of those goals in exchange for fully meeting the first one. They would, for instance, accept giving each pledged delegate a 2/3 or 1/2 vote if it comes down to that — so long as Clinton’s advantage in the popular vote in Michigan and Florida would be officially added to her vote count, giving her an undisputed lead there.

The thinking is that Clinton can’t catch up in pledged delegates no matter how favorably the committee views her arguments today. But she can force Democrats to acknowledge her as the popular vote leader — a status she already claims unofficially on the campaign trail. She’s already begun to call that measure more democratic than the delegate system, and Democrats have a sensitive spot for popular vote leaders after Al Gore won more in 2000 but still lost to George Bush’s superior electoral performance.

The Clinton camp believes a significant popular vote lead is something superdelegates will have to pay attention to; but even if they don’t, it allows Clinton to claim a certain kind of victory and save face at the end of this long primary season.

Clinton delegate master Harold Ickes says now that the Obama campaign has declared its willingness to seat delegations from Michigan and Florida at the Party Convention in August, the number of delegates once thought to be required to win the nomination is no longer operable.

“There’s an unwritten assumption that 2026 is the number to get the nomination. That could not at this point be further from the truth,” Ickes told reporters on a conference call. “Obama seems to have crossed the Rubicon, and is in favor of some resolution of Michigan and Florida. Until they are fully resolved, there is no fixed number for the nomination.”

“2210 is the high mark,” he said — referring to the number of delegates needed if the Michigan and Florida delegations are seated fully — “and it appears 2026 is the low mark. But that low mark is no longer in my view a reasonable number to even talk about.”

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on May 31st to decide what to do about the two states. But Communications Director Howard Wolfson acknowledged that even if the Clinton campaign gets everything it wants from the committee, her path to the nomination still relies on convincing uncommitted superdelegates that she’s the stronger general election candidate.

“Senator Clinton is ahead in the popular vote. Senator Clinton has won the key swing states a Democrat has to win, she’s ahead in the key swing states in polling,” he said — pointing to new Quinnipiac polls showing her beating John McCain in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania while Obama wins only Pennsylvania and by a lesser margin. “She runs better against John McCain than Senator Obama in rural areas, and all of this adds up to the stronger candidate. And that’s a case we’re going to have to make.”

Wolfson also called Obama’s initial steps to being the Vice Presidential search “premature in the sense there’s no nominee yet,” and said he was unaware of any similar effort in the Clinton campaign.

Check out my notes on the rest of the conference call below.

(more…)

For the McCain campaign, the final April fundraising numbers provide some good news and some bad news.

While the presumptive GOP nominee raised a personal record total of $17.8 million and finished the month with more than $21.7 million in cash on hand according to his campaign’s Federal Election Commission filing, McCain’s money figures still pale in comparison to the numbers put up by likely rival Barack Obama.

Despite facing an ongoing primary fight and losing four of five contests (TX, OH, RI and PA) in April, Obama still raised $31.3 million and went into May with $37.3 million in the campaign war chest. Additionally, more than 50 percent of Obama’s cash came from small donors in increments of $25 or less, while April saw McCain attend nearly daily big money fundraisers around the country. Additionally, the McCain campaign is increasingly focusing it’s attention on big donors, setting up a Victory Fund in coordination with the RNC last month that enables supporters to give up to $70,000 through multiple channels.

However, McCain campaign advisers are pointing to the large haul last month by the Republican National Committee and it’s mammoth cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee. The RNC outraised the DNC by $11 million in April–$15.7 million vs. $4.7 million–and finished the month with a nearly $35 million cash advantage–$40.1 vs. $4.4 million.

When combined, McCain/RNC fundraising nearly matches the Obama/DNC total and the GOPers hold a $20 million+ advantage in cash on hand. While Obama, Clinton and the DNC set up a joint fundraising committee in the last week and the DNC has launched multiple ads and efforts attacking McCain, the continuing primary fight still formally prevents Obama and the DNC from completely coordinating fundraising, messaging and political efforts. McCain and the RNC have no such issue have been working in unison for nearly three months.

President Bush will hit the money trail with McCain in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon for a major fundraiser–including a private reception for donors giving $25,000+. The President will then join Mitt Romney (without McCain) for two fundraisers in Utah the following day, including an evening event for donors giving or collecting a minimum of $30,800 at Romney’s Park City, UT home.

North Bend, WA—

Even though he came to the Pacific Northwest to talk about the environment, Senator John McCain had to deal with a controversial endorser making news. McCain supporter, John Hagee apologized to Catholics today for offensive comments he has made. He wrote a letter to Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights saying, “I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.” Donohue has accepted Hagee’s apology.

McCain has heavily courted the religious right, but flatly rejected many of Hagee’s more controversial remarks. Even with those repudiations the presumptive Republican nominee faced heavy criticism for seeking out the evangelical leader’s endorsement.

McCain denied having anything to do with brokering today’s apology, but that he appreciates the reconciliation, “I believe the fact that these two individuals came together is a laudable thing and a testimony to both individuals and their principles, which are Judeo-Christian values.”

He added that he hasn’t “endorsed everything that he said,” referring to Hagee, but that he saw the apology as helpful, “Whenever somebody apologizes for something they think that they did wrong then I think that that’s a laudable thing to do.”

The Democratic National Committee reacted to Hagee’s apology saying that McCain should renounce his endorsement immediately and issued a scathing response, “Now that Reverend Hagee is apologizing for his anti-Catholic comments, does John McCain think that Hagee should also apologize for his other comments?  If so, will he have the courage to say so publicly? Unless John McCain’s idea of being a new kind of Republican includes cozying up to radicals who compare women to dogs, hold racially insensitive fundraisers and call one of the worst natural disasters in our country’s history God’s punishment, he should renounce John Hagee’s endorsement immediately. Given John McCain’s history of putting political calculations ahead of his principles, we’re not holding our breath.”