SPARKS, NV — Sen. McCain took the “enthusiasm gap” head on Tuesday as he faced a question from a skeptical conservative voter at a Silver State town hall meeting.

“I’m a conservative and I have to say I think I speak for a lot of conservatives that I am not very excited about this election. And I think there is a lot of us that are voting against Obama more than anything else,” said Nevada resident Doug Englekirk, as he began to address McCain. Recent polls show that Democrats are significantly more engaged and excited about voting in November than Republicans and McCain has had more difficulty than ‘43 in riling up his base voters.

“Over the last number of years, there has been a lot of stuff I have disagreed with you on and I would like to know how you can assure me and other conservatives that you are going to hold to our values and give us something to be excited about so you aren’t the underdog,” Englekirk added, pointing out that he disagrees with McCain on global warming, drilling in ANWR, campaign finance reform and the “Gang of 14.”

McCain defended himself as an “unabashed conservative,” noting his fight against the GOP on spending and also attempted to assuage the voter’s concerns on the Gang of 14 and global warming.

“We have former members of Congress now residing in federal prison because we Republicans let spending get completely out of control. We betrayed our base when we started in on this pork barrel spending and let the spending increase,” he said. “I stood up and fought against the leaders of our party on that issue I wish I had been more successful. So I am very proud of my record of being a conservative and I am a conservative and I am and unabashed conservative. But I also believe that I am in the keeping of the tradition of one Ronald Reagan.”

McCain also noted that he believes that disagreements within the party are positive.

“It is healthy for us to have disagreements. It is healthy for us to have these discussions,” he said. “We have got to join together and put our country first that is why i want to be president of the United States.”

More McCain:

On the Gang of 14: “There was going to be an attempt that they called the nuclear option to blow up the Senate that would only require 51 votes in order to confirm a judge. I thought that was wrong because I believe the United States Senate preserving the 60 vote majority makes the Senate unique from the House of Representatives. Seven Republicans, seven Democrats sat down together and we agreed that we wouldn’t filibuster a judge unless there was quote, ’special circumstances’…you will have to find me a Republican senator today now that we are not in the majority who would support the so-called nuclear option. The Gang of 14 got em through. The Gang of 14 was the one that preserved one of the fundamental operating principles of the United States Senate.”

On Global Warming: “I have to tell you that in all due respect climate change is real, it is taking place and the question is is how do we address it. And I would say to you just on that issue, suppose that I am wrong and we adopt green technologies, nuclear power, wind, tide, solar, and all of those things necessary to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions and I am wrong–there is no such thing as climate change–all we have done is give our kids a cleaner planet. But suppose that I am right and we do nothing and then what kind of a planet are we going to hand off to our kids and our grand kids?”

LAS VEGAS, Nev — Barack Obama put some new spin on what’s become a familiar energy-related attack on the campaign trail — accusing John McCain of promoting an energy plan full of gimmicks that would do nothing to actually reduce the price of gas at the pump.

Speaking at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, a large park and water facility that’s a model of energy efficiency, Obama said McCain is “offering the same old gimmicks that will provide almost no short-term relief to folks who are struggling with high gas prices; gimmicks that will only increase our oil addiciotn for another four years.” Among them: McCain’s proposals for a federal gas tax holiday and his plan to open more offshore drilling.

Obama seemed incredulous that McCain himself acknowledged that more drilling wouldn’t effect the price of oil — but would have a positive “psychological” impact. “In case you were wondering, that’s Washington-speak for, ‘It polls well,’” he said. “Gimmicks like the gas tax holiday and offshore drilling might poll well these days.  But I’m not running for President to do what polls well, I’m running to do what’s right for America.”

Obama even ridiculed McCain’s plan to offer $300 million to anyone who can come up with a next generation car battery that would help lessen dependence on foreign oil — a plan his top political adviser David Axelrod seemed to back yesterday — calling it a bounty. “I commend him for his desire to accelerate the search for a battery that can power the cars of the future,” he said. “But I don’t think a [$300 million] prize is enough.  When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win – he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project.”

The Illinois Senator also criticized his own party — saying he’s against more government so long as the energy progress can be made with less. “I’m a Democrat, and there have been times in the past when I think Democrats have gotten so regulation happy that we don’t think in terms of just efficiency,” he said. “Sometimes, Republicans attack us as just being in favor of government.”

“I’m not in favor of government just for the sake of government, there’s nothing inherent about government that makes me want to have more of it. I want enough government to do what needs to be done.”

“Al Gore I thought had some good ideas in terms of reinventing government,” he said. “Not all of them got implemented. I want reinventing government 2.0 under the Obama administration.

Washington, DC — Sen. John McCain repeated his call Thursday for supporters to conduct a ”respectful campaign” after the latest incident in which one of his surrogates ridiculed the personal characteristics of his Democratic rivals.

Standing in for McCain at a Nevada GOP county convention this weekend, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff reportedly mocked Obama’s family background–referring to his two foreign fathers–and said that “when Hillary gets the call at 3 a.m., the call is, ‘Do you know where your husband is?”

McCain distanced himself from the remarks Thursday, arguing that the GOP will have a better chance of victory in November if it sticks to the issues.

“I can’t prevent or control rhetoric that people use–that are members of my party. But I have been very, very clear that we need a respectful campaign and the American people want it,” McCain said outside his U.S. Senate office this morning.  “We certainly don’t need any impugning of character, integrity or anything else in this campaign. So I again urge Republicans and anybody else, to just–lets show respect and make Americans proud of this campaign…frankly, it will enhance our chance of winning if people say, ‘look, those people are running a respectful campaign.’”

It is the fourth time in as many weeks that McCain has had to rebuke a conservative supporter for going overboard rhetorically, having recently condemned the Tennessee Republican Party, radio talk show host Bill Cunningham and Iowa Congressman Steve King.

McCain’s comments come in the wake of a memo circulated by Campaign Manager Rick Davis this week that calls upon supporters to “follow John’s lead and run a respectful campaign focused on the issues.”

“Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents distract from the big differences between John McCain’s vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats’. This campaign is about John McCain: his vision, leadership, experience, courage, service to his country and ability to lead as commander in chief from day one,” Davis wrote. “Throughout his life John McCain has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues. We expect that all supporters, surrogates and staff will hold themselves to similarly high standards when they are representing the campaign.”
 

The Obama campaign released a new ad today, airing nationally on CNN and MSNBC - pretty innocuous except that it will hit airwaves in Florida (as well as 49 other states). Because Democrats signed a pledge sponsored by the DNC promising they would not campaign in the Sunshine State after Florida pushed its primary up against the DNC’s wishes. The state was stripped of delegates and Democrats vowed not to campaign there.The Clinton campaign picked up on the Obama ad and pounced, saying on a conference call this was a violation of the pledge and that Clinton would now consider campaigning in Florida in retaliation.

“Both national cable networks told us it would be impossible for us to run advertising nationally that excluded only Florida.  For that reason we consulted with the South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler who told us unequivocally she did not consider this to be in violation of pledge made to the early states,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in response.

The Obama campaign then arranged its own conference call with campaign manager, David Plouffe, who said he believes the Clinton campaign has been looking for a way to break their own pledge not to compete in Florida. This seemingly small window was their opportunity and is part of a pattern of “playing outside the lines” on the part of the Clinton campaign. As evidence, Plouffe cited previous incidents in Nevada, when Clinton precinct captains allegedly tried to shut caucus sites early, and Iowa, where the Clinton campaign didn’t approve of Obama encouraging out of state students to caucus. This type of behavior, Plouffe said, shows that Clinton is willing to “win at all costs.”

The Obama campaign will not campaign in Florida - even if Clinton does. This campaign is about delegates, and Florida has none.

In an editorial board meeting with a Reno, Nevada, newspaper last week, Senator Barack Obama said what turned out to be ammunition for rival campaigns. “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,” Obama told the newspaper. “I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.”

Both John Edwards and the Clinton campaign used these comments to make it clear that they, good Democrats, did not approve of Ronald Reagan’s policies. “I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change,” Edwards told the Associated Press. His campaign later put out a statement. “The breadth of change Ronald Reagan brought was crippling for millions of Americans, with the two worst recessions since the Depression, a complete disregard for the rights of American labor, and tax cuts that lined the pockets of the richest Americans at the expense of fiscal sanity and the well-being of the most vulnerable in our society,” said Edwards campaign manager David Bonior.

The Clinton campaign dispatched surrogates to respond. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) wondered, “I would like to know what Republican ideas he thinks are great ideas.” Brown then listed Reagan-supported plans to privatize Social Security and abolish the National Education Association as well as provide tax breaks to the rich. President Clinton also weighed in, saying Obama “said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. So now it turns out you can choose between somebody who thinks thinks our ideas are better, or the Republicans had all the good ideas.”

Today Senator Obama responded to their criticisms at his Columbia, South Carolina rally, saying his statements have been mischaracterized - just another Washinton “trick.”

“I didn’t’ say I liked Ronald Reagan’s policies,” Obama explained. “What I said was that was the kind of working majority we need to form in order to move a progressive agenda forward. So when I see, you know, Senator Clinton or President Clinton distort my words, say somehow that I was saying Republican (sic) the only ones who had good ideas since 1980 – then that is not a way to move the debate forward. That is not a way to help the American people. And I am not running for president just to become president – I’m running to help the American people and move the debate forward. I’m not willing to say or do anything just to win an election, because when you start operating that way, you lose the trust of the American people and we need trust if we’re going to build the kind of country that all of us want for our children and our grandchildren.”

Obama told the crowd that Reagan “was able to tap into the discontent of the American people and he was able to get Democrats to vote Republican – they were called Reagan Democrats.” This skill of bridging party divides is one that Obama admits he hopes to emulate. “We as Democrats right now, should tap into the discontent of Republicans. I want some Obama Republicans!”

Seems like the Obama campaign has been thinking about this - or at least they came up with a snazzy name for these Obama Republicans: “Obamacans.”

Barack Obama’s pledge to “directly confront” President Bill Clinton over what Obama says is Clinton’s “troubling” attacks against him on the campaign trail prompted a stinging response from Camp Clinton.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Obama blasted the former president for getting too involved on his wife’s behalf — and for distorting Obama’s record. “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether it’s about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit, and one of the things that we’re gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate.”

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer shoots back, “We understand Senator Obama is frustrated by his loss in Nevada but facts are facts. Senator Obama’s allies in Nevada engaged in strong arm tactics and intimidation against our supporters and his record against the war has been inconsistent.”

“President Clinton is a huge asset to our campaign and will continue talking to the American people to press the case for Senator Clinton.”

Clinton has called Obama’s claim to consistently oppose the war since 2002 a “fairy tale,” citing Obama’s 2004 claim that he didn’t know how he would vote on Iraq had he been in the senate at the time. Obama says he didn’t want to be seen as criticizing the party’s presidential nominee John Kerry, who voted for the Iraq war resolution.

And Clinton claimed to have witnessed intimidation of potential caucus goers by Obama supporters in the influential Culinary Workers union in Las Vegas firsthand as he toured a casino caucus site yesterday morning. The campaign backs up his assertions here.

On a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign attorney Bob Bauer discussed concerns over how the Nevada caucuses were conducted Saturday.

According to state law, “In order to participate in the Nevada State Democratic Party Caucuses, attendees MUST be in line, or signed in, by noon. At noon, Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any person in line, and after that point, no Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any new arrivals, as they will not be allowed to caucus.”

The Obama campaign claims to have received a “significant amount of reporting from precinct locations that doors were closing well before noon, many times as early as 11:30.” The campaign also described reports that a manual had been distributed to Clinton precinct captains that said that registration deadline for caucus ended at 11:30. They had an “unusual high number reports that the Clinton campaign was insisting” that this be enforced.

After setting up a hotline for voters to report irregularities, the campaign says it has received “hundreds of calls” from “all over the state.” Although many of these complaints came from Obama voters, the campaign said they want to make sure that no voter, no matter who he or she supports, is disenfranchised.

Other than the number of calls, the campaign doesn’t know how pervasive these early closings were and stressed they “are not calling the results into question at all.” They will notify the Nevada Democratic Party and request that they look into the matter along with the DNC to “collect all the relevant facts.” The Obama campaign stated that they wanted to make sure “this sort behavior was highlighted.”

The Obama campaign put on a hastily arranged conference call today, hosted by campaign manager David Plouffe and director of delegate selection, Jeff Berman, to claim victory on Nevada’s delegate count.

Plouffe said Senator Obama chipped away at Senator Clinton’s huge lead and closed strong to come within just several percentage points of winning the caucus. Instead, they settled for a win in the all-important delegate count - Nevada has 25 delegates who vote for a nominee at the convention. After multiple news outlets called the race for Clinton, the Associated Press reported that Senator Clinton won 13 of those delegates while Obama took 12.

Not according to team Obama. It was, in fact, the opposite, according to their math. They explained that Obama won the district with odd numbers of delegates while where Hillary won, the numbers of delegates were even, so the delegates were split evenly. The campaign explained that the state Democratic Party gave incomplete information to the news outlet. An Associated Press reporter on the call piped up during the question and answer period of the call to say the campaign “might be right.”

Plouffe stated that the campaign will have “20 lifetimes” between now and the end of February and ” it does seem like we are headed for a long and protracted fight here.” That campaign, he said, will increasingly turn into a contest for delegates. To rub it in a bit, the campaign announced their conference call today with a quote from Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson, who spoke to the Washington Post three days ago. “This is a race for delegates. It is not a battle for individual states. As David knows, we are well past the time when any state will have a disproportionate influence on the nominating process.” The “David” Wolfson was referring to, of course, was Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.

The Nevada State Democratic Party put out a statement of their own. “No national convention delegates were awarded. The calculations of national convention delegates being circulated are based upon an assumption that delegate preferences will remain the same between now and April 2008. We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press updated their story, which was forwarded to reporters by the Obama campaign. The first line: “Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama split the spoils in the Nevada caucuses Saturday night, a race marred by late charges of dirty politics.”

The Obama is set to hold a conference call in the next few minutes to discuss what it sees as at least a partial victory here in Nevada - they are claiming that while Hillary won 12 delegates, Senator Obama won 13. In an email advising the conference call, the campaign quotes Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson from a 1/16/08 Washington Post story, during which Wolfson said, “This is a race for delegates. It is not a battle for individual states. As David knows, we are well past the time when any state will have a disproportionate influence on the nominating process.”

Here is the statement sent by the Obama campaign to reporters on the Nevada caucus.

—-

Statement from Barack Obama:

“We’re proud of the campaign we ran in Nevada. We came from over twenty-five points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled. The reason is because tens of thousands of Nevadans came out to say that they’re tired of business-as-usual in Washington and ready for a President who can bring this country together, take on the lobbyists and special interests, and end the politics of saying and doing whatever it takes to win an election. It is the kind of politics that feeds our cynicism and distracts us from taking on the real challenges facing America – an economy that’s left working families struggling, a broken health care system, and a war in Iraq that must end.

“We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people’s hopes instead of their fears. That’s the campaign we’ll take to South Carolina and across America in the weeks to come, and that’s how we will truly bring about the change this country is hungry for.”

Statement from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.

“We will investigate all of these thoroughly and would encourage anyone who had concern about actions at the caucus sites to call (866) 675-2008.”

Hillary Clinton thanked the campaign team and volunteers that helped put Nevada in the win column in a victory speech at the Planet Hollywood on the Vegas Strip — saying “I guess this is how the West was won.”

She also gave a special shout-out to those culinary workers who chose to buck their union (which had endorsed Barack Obama) to caucus for her. Her campaign, and even her husband, had alleged that union reps had engaged in intimidation to pressure union members who supported her to caucus for Obama or not caucus at all.

In the end, Clinton ended up with about a 5 point advantage in the state — and won Las Vegas’s Clark County, with its many culinary workers, by double digits. She even split the at-large caucus sites on the strip, which were expected to go heavily to Obama. But according to a complicated caucus formula, Obama actually came out on top in the delegate count, 13-12.

As of late last night, the campaign still wasn’t sure what they’d be doing on caucus day; they were weighing whether to St Louis before the caucuses, or stick around for the results. Once they learned they’d won, the advance team hastily assembled the press and a stage on the mezzanine level of the hotel — just a quick escalator ride up from the casino — for her address to supporters.

Check out some of her victory speech here.

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