The Financial Times reports Vice President Cheney and Sen. John McCain, both of whom were in Iraq yesterday, "promised" officials there that "Washington's commitment to Iraq would not waver despite signs of a recent resurgence in violence in the country which has brought the number of US military personnel killed close to 4,000." The two men's comments "contrasted with a setpiece speech on Iraq by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential hopeful, in which she highlighted her vow to start bringing American troops back home within 60 days of taking office." NBC Nightly News briefly mentioned that Clinton "repeated her call to withdraw troops from a war she said, 'we cannot win.'"
The Wall Street Journal notes Clinton also accused McCain "of wanting to continue indefinitely the Bush administration's 'failed' policies in Iraq." McCain "fired back during an ostensibly nonpolitical visit to Baghdad, telling CNN Sen. Clinton's policies would mean 'al Qaeda wins.'" MSNBC's Hardball showed the New York senator saying of Bush and McCain, "They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win." The Washington Times reports McCain "said the United States must do the exact opposite [of Clinton's plan]: maintain its commitment in Iraq, where a US-Iraq military operation is under way to clear al Qaeda from its last urban stronghold of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad."
The New York Times says "the day left little doubt that the issue would be a major area of difference between the two parties this fall. ... Of the three" major presidential candidates, Clinton "moved the most aggressively, and perhaps most unexpectedly, given the extent to which her vote in 2002 to authorize the war has caused her problems with Democratic primary voters."
Barack Obama on Tuesday will address the controversy over the inflammatory rhetoric of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in a speech in Philadelphia that will also address the broader issue of race. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that after a Pittsburgh town hall forum, Obama said, "I'm going to be talking not just about Rev. Wright, but about the larger issue of race in the campaign, which has just ramped up over the last few weeks." Obama "reiterated that he believes the reverend's statements are 'wrong and I strongly condemn them.'"
The Chicago Tribune reports Obama has "been struggling to deal with the comments" by Rev. Wright "for several days, since videotaped sermons surfaced in which Wright said, among other things, that African-Americans should sing 'God Damn America' instead of 'God Bless America.'" The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes Obama "again repudiated some of Wright's remarks but said the selected video clips paint only a caricature of the minister."
The New York Times reports, "Faced with what his advisers acknowledged was a major test to his candidacy," Obama "sought on Monday to contain the damage from incendiary comments made by his pastor and prepared to address the issue of race more directly than at any other moment of his presidential campaign." CNN's "The Situation Room" reported, "Obama says his speech tomorrow will touch on Wright's remarks, remarks Obama has called -- and I'm quoting now 'inflammatory and appalling.'" The Politico reports Democrats who "worry that Barack Obama is untested can put their concerns to rest." Rev. Wright's "inflammatory rhetoric...has confronted Obama with the most severe test of his presidential campaign and, quite likely, of his public career. He is now facing a full-blown and fast-moving political crisis in which his reputation as a leader with a singular ability to transcend racial divisions and unite Americans is in jeopardy."
Wright Controversy Dragging Down Obama Poll Numbers The Los Angeles Times noted, "Revelations of Barack Obama's pastor's objectionable sermons have apparently eroded public perceptions of Obama, according to a fresh analysis by the Rasmussen Report tracking poll." The poll "found Obama's favorable rating nationally had dropped five points to 47% since Thursday, and his unfavorable rating had risen from 44% to 50%. Among white voters, the unfavorable numbers jumped to 54%."
Aide Defends Obama Before Jewish Leaders The Hill reports that in remarks "before a group of young Jewish leaders, a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Monday pushed back against attacks that the Illinois senator is too close to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's longtime pastor." Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, "reiterated Obama's rejection of Wright's inflammatory comments, including Wright's statement of 'God damn America' for treating citizens as 'less than human.'"
In his Washington Post column, Dana Milbank reports on Krutzer's reception at the United Jewish Communities debate, where the Clinton campaign was represented by Ann Lewis and the McCain campaign was represented by Lawrence Eagleburger. Milbank notes the announcement said Obama would be represented by "'a high-level representative of Barack Obama's presidential campaign (TBA).' TBA? Obama's Jewish problem must be getting worse."
Former Congregation Defends Wright The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Rev. Wright "spent 36 years teaching this congregation how to recognize injustice, and his parishioners sense it all around them now. On Sunday, more than 3,000 of them filled Trinity United Church of Christ on the city's South Side to pray for their former pastor. They read a handout that described Wright's newfound infamy as a 'modern-day lynching.'"
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Florida Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman on Monday announced the party would not conduct a mail-in primary vote, a development that observers said could handicap Hillary Clinton's efforts to seat that state's delegates. McClatchy reports the Florida Democrats' decision set "the stage for a contentious fight well into the summer," leaving it "to the national party or rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to hammer out a solution." The "failure of Florida to come up with another means for selecting delegates augurs a continued standoff over its delegates and, perhaps, if neither candidate can clinch the nomination, a divisive floor fight at the convention itself over whether to seat the delegates based on the Jan. 29 results."
The Palm Beach Post reports, "Florida is widely considered Clinton country. Neither she nor Obama truly campaigned in the state before the Jan. 29 election, but Clinton's 17 percent victory margin showed the adoration she receives from voters after 15 years of campaigning and fund raising in the state."
NBC Nightly News reported, "Members of the Florida Democratic Party were not united behind this plan. You had supporters of both Senator Clinton in Florida and supporters of Senator Obama, not for this idea of a mail-in balloting, worried, frankly, about Florida's reputation as being sort of a fiasco of a state when it comes to holding elections." The New York Times reports Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Karen L. Thurman "essentially threw up her hands after failing to secure approval for a new election from state officials or the" Clinton and Obama campaigns. The Washington Post reports Clinton spokesman Phil Singer "expressed disappointment with Florida's decision, saying it 'brings us no closer to counting the votes of the nearly 1.7 million people who voted in January.'"
Michigan May Back Second Primary The AP reports Democrats in Michigan moved closer to holding another contest on June 3. Legislative leaders reviewed a measure Monday that would set up a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary, The Associated Press learned." The New York Times reports Clinton "has agreed to the plan; aides to Mr. Obama, of Illinois, have refused to commit to it."
The Hill reports Clinton aide Harold Ickes "slammed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Monday for not doing enough to pave the way for a re-vote in Michigan." Ickes said in a statement, "If Barack Obama's campaign stands in the way of a new vote, he will be putting his own political interests ahead of the people of Michigan."
The AP reports former President Clinton "on Monday called the notion that he unfairly criticized his wife's rival, Barack Obama, 'a total myth and a mugging.'" Clinton had "compared Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988."
CNN's "The Situation Room" interviewed former President Clinton. Asked if his "role in the campaign changed at all from South Carolina," Clinton said, "No. No. First of all, what happened there is a total myth and a mugging. And I think it's been pretty well established. Charlie Rangel, the most important African-American official today, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in unequivocal terms in South Carolina that no one in our campaign played any race cards. That we had some played against us, but we didn't play any."
The New York Times reports Clinton's responses "came as public opinion polls show damage to his reputation since he became Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's most high-profile surrogate in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination." A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Thursday "found that more Americans view Bill Clinton negatively than positively, 45 to 42 percent."
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Much of the extensive reporting about the economy, last night and this morning, paints the nation's economic prospects in markedly dour terms. And some reports even raise the specter of a "Great Depression." NBC Nightly News, for example, reported, "Not since the Great Depression has the federal government stepped in to help a failing financial institution in this country the way they did over this past weekend, brokering a deal for JP Morgan Chase to step in and take over Bear Stearns. This deal was brought on by a crisis and it is quite a deal." McClatchy, in a dispatch headlined "Are We Headed For Another Great Depression?", says "the stunning weekend 'fire sale' of investment banking giant Bear Stearns to JP Morgan Chase at $2 a share has raised concerns that the US financial system may be at risk." To the question, "Shouldn't I just put all my money under the mattress?", McClatchy responds, "In times of turmoil, it's seldom clear what to do."
NBC Nightly News interviewed Mort Zuckerman, "a billionaire, well known in New York for his money, his real estate holdings, and these days, for his view that the US is facing an economic crisis, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades." Zuckerman, who is editor-in-chief for US News & World Report was shown saying, "I think we are about the fourth inning of a nine-inning ballgame, we're nowhere near the bottom of this problem and nobody knows exactly where the bottom is, but we're going to have a very serious recession that is going to go on for a couple of years."
USA Today, under the headline "Red Flags In Bear Stearns' Collapse," reports, "If the US economy were a car, all of its warning lights would be flashing red. The breathtaking collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns over the weekend is the latest -- and perhaps the most alarming -- indicator to flash on the economy's dashboard."
The Los Angeles Times reports from Tokyo, "Stocks dropped worldwide today as investors fretted about the dollar's continuing fall and questioned whether the Federal Reserve's cut in lending rates and the buyout of Wall Street brokerage Bear Stearns would avert a global financial collapse."
More bad news: The Wall Street Journal says the Federal Reserve "reported that industrial production fell 0.5% in February after rising 0.1% in January. ... In a separate report, the Fed's New York district bank said its Empire State manufacturing survey stood at minus 22.23 in March, down from minus 11.72 in February. The previous low was minus 19.6, in November 2001." The AP (3/18, Crutsinger) says the industrial production reading was "far weaker...than the slight increase of 0.1 percent that many analysts had been expecting. It served to underscore the severity of the current economic slowdown."
And even if the stock market dodged a full-fledged panic last night (the Dow ended up 21 points), the New York Times reports that "under the surface, the scene was far from serene," as "nervousness pervaded Wall Street despite the efforts by the Fed and the Bush administration to soothe investors who have been on edge for months and assure them that Washington would do everything in its power to restore order to the financial system." The Washington Post runs a similar story under the headline "Markets Shudder At Bear Stearns."
Fed Expected To Slash Rates The AP reports the Federal Reserve "is primed to aggressively cut a key interest rate even lower on Tuesday, racing to contain spreading financial fires that threaten an economic meltdown. ... To limit the damage," Chairman Ben Bernanke "and his colleagues may ratchet down a key interest rate, now at 3 percent, by as much as a full percentage point, to 2 percent, which would put that rate at the lowest it has been since late 2004. Because that rate affects a wide range of rates charged to millions of consumer and businesses, it is the Fed's most potent tool for reviving economic activity." The Financial Times reports, "In early trading on Monday, options prices indicated roughly even odds of a 75-basis-point cut or a 100-basis-point cut with some traders betting on an even bigger 125-basis-point reduction." This "puts the US central bank in a difficult position. Before the latest deterioration in financial markets and the crisis at Bear Stearns, policymakers were signalling their reluctance to cut rates by more than 50 basis points at this meeting. ... But developments in the economy and above all the financial markets in recent days are likely to push policymakers to consider" larger cuts.
Media coverage of the economy took on a markedly political tone last night this morning, with a number of stories noting the financial crisis' effect on the presidential campaign. In addition, media outlets report that after the President endorsed the Federal Reserve's moves to help Bear Stearns, Democrats were quick to take exception and note that he has opposed their proposals "designed to help ordinary homeowners," as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put it in a statement. The AP (3/18, Feller) reports Bush, "trying to calm turmoil in financial markets, said Monday that his administration is 'on top of the situation' in dealing with the slumping economy." After meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other economic advisers, Bush said, "One thing is for certain, we're in challenging times. ... But another thing is for certain: We've taken strong, decisive action." Noting Bush's comments, CNN's "The Situation Room" said he was "again being cheerleader in chief."
On its front page, the Los Angeles Times remarks on another Bush statement yesterday, one that "in some ways it was a throwaway line, the kind of praise a boss tosses out casually. But as the economy teetered Monday...Bush's words to...Paulson struck many as discordant and disengaged." Said Bush, "I want to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for working over the weekend. You've shown the country and the world that the United States is on top of the situation." The Times adds that "many analysts and critics said" that "by focusing on Paulson's working hours instead of on the fear gripping Main Street and Wall Street, the president seemed to show just the opposite -- that he has failed to grasp the gravity of the country's economic crisis." Bush's "working over the weekend" line also "suggested a comparison to another disaster in which he was accused of acting too slowly: Hurricane Katrina." In a similar story, the New York Times says the Bush Administration "faced accusations Monday that it supported the bailout of a prestigious investment bank while doing little to address the hardships faced by Americans facing foreclosures on their homes." The issue "spilled into the presidential campaign, drawing reactions from both Democratic contenders and the presumptive Republican candidate, underscoring how much the economy has overshadowed the war in Iraq, even as the fifth anniversary of the start of that war approaches on Wednesday." On its front page, the Washington Post also notes "critics accused Bush of bailing out big Wall Street firms while ignoring ordinary homeowners."
The AP quotes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying, "While there is no quick fix to repair our struggling economy, more must be done to begin to reverse the economic mismanagement of the past seven years. ... In contrast to the president, we believe that further decisive action is needed now." The AP adds the Democrats' criticisms "were a fresh sign that the economy, which now tops voters' list of concerns, has become a central election-year issue for Democrats, who are offering populist plans that address the public's anxiety." The Los Angeles Times reports, "All of the candidates signaled an openness to consider at least some type of government intervention, such as increased regulation of financial markets. It was a noteworthy stance for McCain, who has staked out a more free-market approach to economic policy."
Who Gains From Turmoil? Several media analyses suggest the emergence of the economy as a top issue may boost the Clinton campaign. The Wall Street Journal reports that Clinton criticized not only Bush, but also Obama, "for being slow-footed and more wary of government intervention. "When I first called for a lot of these steps, I was ridiculed by the Bush administration and, frankly, my Democratic opponent,' she said. 'Now we are in the soup, and we better get ourselves out of it.'" Clinton "sought to cast herself as the experienced hand who could do just that."
Gallup Poll: 76% Say Country In Recession USA Today reports on its front page this morning, "More than three in four Americans think the country is in a recession, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll over the weekend shows, reflecting a crisis of confidence that economists say could make the economy worse. ... Seventy-six percent of those polled said the economy is in recession, compared with 22% who said it's not. Not since September 1992, two months before President George H.W. Bush lost re-election, have so many said the economy was in such bad shape."
Coverage of Vice President Cheney's visit to Iraq tends to focus a skeptical eye on what commentators generally regard as his overly optimistic assessments of the situation there. The AP, for example, reports "Cheney used words like 'phenomenal' and 'remarkable turnaround' to describe a drop in violence in Iraq, and he hailed recently passed legislation aimed at keeping Iraq on a democratic path." The AP adds "security has improved markedly since last summer," but notes that "shortly after the vice president arrived at the base for the night, there was a sustained burst of 50-caliber machine gunfire in downtown Baghdad. Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber killed 39 people in Karbala and a bomb in a parked car in a Baghdad neighborhood killed three civilian bystanders." The New York Times runs a similar report under the headline "Suicide Blast In Iraq Eclipses Cheney's Visit." McClatchy contrasts Cheney's assertion that "a massive troop buildup had achieved 'phenomenal' improvements in security" with reports of a suicide bomber killing "at least 40 people," and the US military announcement of the "deaths of two soldiers who were killed Monday when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, bringing the number of American troop deaths to at least 3,990 since the war began." Cheney, adds McClatchy, "spent Monday in a tightly choreographed hopscotch."
ABC Poll: 55% Of Iraqis Say Their Lives "Going Well" ABC World News reported last night, "How are Iraqis doing five years later? We have polled inside Iraq. There is some good news. Today, 55% of Iraqis say their lives are going well. Last summer that number was 39%." ABC added, "You cannot say that life is good in Iraq today. Not yet. Only that life is less bad. As our poll takers spread out across the country they found that for the first time in three years, people were more worried about economic and social problems than violence. And almost half think their country will be better off in a year."
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Jay Leno: "It seems Barack Obama's longtime pastor is raising eyebrows at some of his more outrageous comments," but Obama "denies being in church when" the pastor "gave these sermons. In fact, Barack is now claiming, 'Look, I'm a Muslim. I was at the mosque. I know nothing about this.'"
David Letterman: "President Bush is concerned about the economy. He admitted today that the economy is a little sluggish...right now. Yeah, in the same way Elvis is a little sluggish right now."
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