Sen. Barack Obama's campaign spent the weekend dealing with fallout from comments he made about small town Pennsylvania voters last week during a private fundraiser in San Francisco. Obama, who remarks were first reported by Huffington Post on Friday, said at the event, "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they 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," according to the Washington Post. After drawing limited media attention on Saturday, the remarks began to generate a furor yesterday, and continued to reverberate in the latest news cycle, drowning out the candidates' appearance at the faith and compassion forum at Messiah College yesterday.
USA Today reports Sen. Hillary Clinton and her allies yesterday went on the offensive, charging that Obama's comments "showed him to be elitist and vulnerable to the kind of Republican attacks that have sunk Democratic candidates in the past." ABC World News reported in its lead story last night, "Here in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton is seeking to redefine Obama as a champion of the politics of bitterness." Clinton said, "I think his comments were elitist and divisive. And the Democratic Party has been, unfortunately, viewed by many people over the last decades as being elitist and out of touch." NBC Nightly News, also in its lead story, reported Obama's "recent depiction of small town voters as bitter and clinging to guns and religion is reverberating loudly on the campaign trail tonight. And while Obama admits those words were not well chosen, the Hillary Clinton campaign has made it the centerpiece of a new round of attacks." "
The AP reports Clinton "tried to portray herself as an ally of the middle class on Sunday by keeping alive Barack Obama's comments about bitter voters in small towns while taking her campaign door to door" in Scranton. Clinton said, "Senator Obama has not owned up to what he said and taken accountability for it. What people are looking for is an explanation. What does he really believe? How does he see people here in this neighborhood, throughout Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, other places in our country?"
The Washington Post reports that at the Messiah College forum, Clinton argued that the comments "reinforced a stereotype of 'out-of-touch' Democrats that doomed the party's last two presidential nominees." Clinton said, "We had two very good men, and men of faith, run for president in 2000 and 2004. But large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life." Clinton "repeated her view that Obama had been 'elitist...and frankly patronizing.'"
The AP reports that in Jim Thorpe, PA, yesterday, ex-President Bill Clinton weighed in on the controversy surrounding Obama's remarks, saying during an appearance at Jim Thorpe Area High School, "Right before I came out at my last event, a man came up to me and he said, 'Mr. President, I want you to know something about the working people of Pennsylvania. We're not bitter about anything. We're proud. But we do want a better deal for the people of our country and for our children.' And that's what Hillary wants to give you."
Obama Hits Back The AP reports Obama "lashed out" at Clinton yesterday at a union hall in Steelton, Pennsylvania. Obama said, "She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her." The AP adds Obama "reiterated his regret for his choice of words at the fundraiser but suggested they had been twisted and mischaracterized. He said he'd expected blowback from GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain, but had been 'a little disappointed' to be criticized by Clinton." The Chicago Tribune adds Obama, "stepping up his defense" yesterday, saying in Steelton, "She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the 2nd Amendment. She's talking like she is Annie Oakley."
Comments More Likely To Have Impact In General Election Than Primary. Despite the furor, there is still no clear indication of how it will impact the Democratic primary contest. The Wall Street Journal says the "storm caused by remarks Sen. Obama made about small-town Pennsylvanians at a private fund-raiser in San Francisco April 6 may not cost him the Democratic nomination. But it could undermine his chances in the general election." The Politico adds the comments "have suddenly reintroduced an unwelcome issue, undermining the progress made by concerted Democratic Party outreach to religious voters and reinvigorating criticism that the effort to woo religious voters is more rhetoric than substance."
Clintons Said To Have Made Similar Comments The New York Sun reports that as Clinton attacked Obama, "reports surfaced of similar comments made by both Clintons to explain voter concerns about issues like religion, guns, and immigration. In an article on Time.com in November, for example, Mrs. Clinton was quoted as saying: 'During the 1990s, I cannot remember being asked about immigration. Why? Because the economy was working. And average Americans didn't have to go around looking for others to blame.'"
The AP reports Sen. Hillary Clinton, at a forum on faith and compassion at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, "said Sunday that the potential for life begins at conception as she and" Sen. Barack Obama "answered questions about faith and religion in both their personal lives and the public discourse." The two candidates "talked about the presence of God in their lives and how often they read the Bible as well as divisive issues such as abortion, abstinence and human rights within the context of faith." The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal adds that both candidates "addressed the question of when life begins. Neither answered definitively. ... Obama bluntly said he did not know when life began." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports both candidates "said they would like to make abortion a rarity, but were clear that they did not think it should be outlawed."
The New York Times reports the forum "was held on the eve of the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the United States. Both candidates made indirect appeals to Roman Catholic voters. Mrs. Clinton mentioned the pope's impending visit and praised his commitment to health and poverty issues around the world." Obama "highlighted his own ties to the Roman Catholic Church, saying that he had once attended a Catholic school in Indonesia and shared the experiences of a Catholic education with many Americans."
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A Zogby International poll of 1,002 likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters taken April 9-10 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 47%-43%. Zogby says Clinton "enjoys strength in western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, and central Pennsylvania, including Harrisburg, both regions of which are heavily populated by conservative Democrats. Obama enjoys an edge in the eastern part of the state, including Philadelphia."
The AP reports this morning Democratic Party officials are continuing their efforts to challenge Sen. John McCain's ability to withdraw from public funding for the presidential primary, which would severely limit his campaign spending if he stays in it. Unable to get the Federal Elections Commission to act on their complaint against McCain (it currently has too few members to achieve a quorum), the Democratic National Committee is expected to file suit today against the FEC, with the objective of getting a federal judge to rule "to order an investigation into whether" McCain "violated election laws by withdrawing from public financing."
The Los Angeles Times, in the first part of a two-part series titled, "John McCain returned from Vietnam determined to lead," reports on its front page in a generally positive story on McCain's military service following his return from Vietnam, including his return to flying status and his command of a Navy attack squadron. The Times notes that when McCain is "asked about his qualifications to lead and manage, he points to his command of that squadron as proof he has the right stuff to be president. ... A review of Navy records and interviews with more than a dozen of his former colleagues paint a picture of a commander who was lionized by his troops as a war hero and respected by aviators as a fair and effective manager." However, "those Navy records also cast some doubt on the importance of a claim McCain makes in his autobiography -- that he took bold steps to improve the readiness of the squadron. Some of McCain's contemporaries don't recall key parts of a management initiative that he describes in that book."
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President Bush's Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on Sunday warned Iran's involvement in Iraq could prove destabilizing. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Hadley said, "Iran is very active in the southern part of Iraq. They are training Iraqis in Iran who come into Iraq and attack our forces, Iraqi forces, Iraqi civilians. ... So we have illegal militia in the southern part of the country that really are acting as criminal elements that are pressing the people down there." Hadley added, "One of the good things is we believe the Iraqi government now understands more clearly what they are doing. They will put diplomatic pressure to bear on Iran. That is a good thing. And, in addition, we'll continue to do with Iraqi security forces what we have been doing for some time: We will go after their surrogate operations in Iraq that are killing our forces, killing Iraqi forces."
Similarly, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on CBS's Face the Nation, said, "I think that one of the interesting developments of Prime Minister Maliki's offensive in Basra is that it has revealed to the Shia, particularly in the Iraqi government, the level of Iranian malign influence in the south and on their economic heartline through Basra. And so I think what has happened is that the hand of Iran has been exposed, in a way that perhaps it had not been before, to some of the Iraqi government."
Lugar: US Couldn't Fight Iran Sen. Richard Lugar, on CNN's Late Edition, said the US "simply do[es] not have presently enough armed forces to accomplish our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, quite apart from anything else that might occur in the world. And, yet in this hearing on Iraq, Iran kept being mentioned -- the fact that the Iranians are intruding. A proxy war is being fought. In other words, it was almost as if we were justifying our continued presence in Iraq with the fact that we may be in a conflict with Iran, and furthermore, the al Qaeda, wherever they may be."
Iran "Abruptly" Cancels Talks With IAEA. The AP reports the head of Iran's nuclear program, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, on Sunday "abruptly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing a blow to the UN monitor's efforts to investigate allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms." A "senior diplomat had told the AP that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei likely planned to use the meeting...to renew a request for more information on allegations Tehran had tried to make atomic arms."
Secret US-Iran Talks? The UK's Independent reports this morning the US and Iran "have been engaged in secret 'back channel' discussions for the past five years on Iran's nuclear programme and the broader relationship between the two sworn enemies." According to the newspaper, "one of the participants, former senior US diplomat Thomas Pickering, explained that a group of former American diplomats and experts had been meeting with Iranian academics and policy advisers 'in a lot of different places, although not in the US or Iran.'" In an interview with The Independent, Pickering said, "Some of the Iranians were connected to official institutions inside Iran."
U.S. News and World Report reports Iran's "determined campaign to enrich uranium...is spurring more criticism of the Bush administration for its refusal to negotiate with Iran as long as it is making nuclear fuel." The Administration "is revealing no indication that is moving to soften its stand. ... But some of Washington's diplomatic partners are already thinking about new ways to break the stalemate." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "predicts that the United States and other powers involved in Iran strategy would offer new incentives to Iran in the areas of security, energy, and economy."
Iran Says Fatal Mosque Blast Was Accident The Financial Times reports, "An explosion in a Shia mosque in Iran that killed 12 people and injured about 190" on Saturday "was an accident and not an attack," a senior Iranian official said on Sunday. Though "no group has so far claimed to have set off Saturday's explosion," the Times notes that "early reports by some unofficial media suggested the blast was carried out by Sunni radicals in an attempt to stop speeches against Wahhabism."
The New York Times, meanwhile, reports that "a terrorist attack has not been ruled out, but officials said the blast could have been an accident." Iranian officials said Sunday "that ammunition kept at the Shohada mosque for the past five years for an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 war with Iraq could have caused the explosion."
After they failed to perform their duties during clashes with Shiite militias in Basra, the Iraqi government took moves to purge 1,300 deserters from its army and police force. While US military leaders insist the Iraqi security forces had performed well in the standoff with Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al Sadr, media reports continue to differ. Today they're portraying the dismissals as further evidence that the Iraqis' effectiveness was overstated. NBC Nightly News noted, "Officials say during the attack, members of a security force refused to fight." ABC World News reported, "The Iraqi soldiers and police officers who refused to fight Shiite militias in Basra last month, were fired today. No doubt, a similar fate awaits these men, who two weeks ago, in Sadr City, actually handed over their weapons to the local office of the cleric Muqtada al Sadr, the very man whose Mahdi army they were supposed to be fighting." The Iraqi government's "decision to get tough on the deserters comes the same day American military leaders insisted that Iraqi security forces are stepping up."
USA Today reports, "The failure of Iraqi forces to capture Basra despite superiority in numbers and firepower was an embarrassment" to Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki, "who ordered the offensive March 25 and supervised its first week." The Washington Post reports from Baghdad, "The problems in Basra have raised questions about the preparedness of Iraq's military and police, which the United States has spent more than $22 billion to build up."
U.S. News and World Report reports President Bush "says he will follow" Gen. David Petraeus' "recommendation to delay setting a further withdrawal schedule" from Iraq. US News compares Lincoln to Gen. Ulysses Grant, who "went on to get elected president a few years later -- which some pundits see as a nice promotion for Petraeus if the Iraq war is eventually won."
U.S. News and World Report reports President Bush "often argues that history will vindicate him. So he can't be pleased with an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted by the History News Network. It found that 98 percent of them believe that Bush's presidency has been a failure, while only about 2 percent see it as a success. Not only that, more than 61 percent of the historians say the current presidency is the worst in American history."
President Bush is extending an unprecedented welcome to Pope Benedict XVI as he visits the US. The AP reports, "The leader of the world's Roman Catholics has been to the White House only once in history. That changes this week, and President Bush is pulling out all the stops: driving out to a suburban military base to meet Pope Benedict XVI's plane, bringing a giant audience to the South Lawn and hosting a fancy East Room dinner. These are all firsts." The Washington Post notes that the Pope will not attend the "final event Wednesday night in the East Room, when the Bushes will host a dinner in honor of His Holiness. ... White House aides attribute the pontiff's absence from the dinner to a busy schedule during his first visit to the United States. Wednesday also happens to be Pope Benedict's 81st birthday. USA Today adds that Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley "says US and papal security authorities are trying to strike a delicate balance between the need for protection and the demand for public access, competing forces that are rarely a concern during visits by presidents and prime ministers."
Bush, Benedict Said To Share Iraq Concerns The Wall Street Journal, in an article tiled, "Pope, White House Bonds Expected To Strengthen: Benedict XVI Agrees On Need to Fight Extremists in Iraq," reports, "Vatican watchers predict less public criticism of the Iraq war and more agreement on the broad need to combat radical Islamists when Pope Benedict XVI meets with President Bush this week. The Vatican opposed the war but now is concerned that a rapid pullout of American troops could lead to more widespread violence, including against the remainder of the Iraqi Christian community, observers said."
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Jay Leno: "More bad news for the Detroit Tigers," who "lost again last night." The Tigers are "now 1-8," or "as Hillary Clinton calls that, first place."
Jay Leno: "Well, experts are now suggesting if Hillary loses Pennsylvania, she could be finished. I don't want to say Hillary's days might be numbered, but her Secret Service code name? Katie Couric."
Conan O'Brien: "According to his tax return last year, Vice President Cheney donated $166,000 to charity. ... Yeah, most of the money went to Cheney's favorite holiday charity, Coal for Tots."
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