Media accounts on the impending release of Scott McClellan's White House memoir this morning reflect the strong Administration push to rebut the former aide's charges. But while comments by current and former officials dominate the coverage, media reports and analyses continue to offer a sharply negative portrayal of the Bush White House. The AP reports the former aide's book offers "a glimpse into Washington's world of spin and even outright deception." On its front page, the Los Angeles Times describes McClellan as a man who "for years" was "the consummate loyalist, exhibiting faithful, unquestioning devotion to his boss, George W. Bush. As White House press secretary, he scrappily presented the administration's talking points on everything from domestic policy to the Iraq war. No longer."
USA Today notes that today McClellan "will make an unlikely guest on NBC's Today show, National Public Radio's Morning Edition." Next week, he will appear on "liberal commentator Keith Olbermann's Countdown show on MSNBC." Rich Galen, "a Republican strategist who has worked with Bush's team over the years, said McClellan has aided Bush's political enemies. 'When he stood behind that podium, nobody believed a word he said,' Galen said. 'Now that he's saying bad things about the president, he's a Delphic oracle.'" McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, said, "This is a wholesale jumping-ship, using the language of the other side in a very harsh, accusatory manner." Likewise, the Washington Post notes "Karl Rove compared McClellan to a 'left-wing blogger.'" The New York Times, meanwhile, reports "Dana Perino, the current White House press secretary, had harsh words for Mr. McClellan, calling the situation 'sad' and suggesting that he mischaracterized his years in the West Wing to sell books."
Former Bush aides blanketed the nation's TV screens last night. Among other appearances, former White House counselor Bartlett, Karl Rove and Ari Fleisher appeared on the CBS Evening News. Bartlett was also interviewed on NBC Nightly News, CNN's Election Center and CNN's The Situation Room. Fleischer was on CNN's Election Center, MSNBC's Hardball, CNN's Larry King Live and Fox News' America's Election Headquarters. Fleischer also gave an interview to NPR's Day To Day, in which he said, "There's just something about it that doesn't make any sense to me. And I'm heartbroken about this. Scott was always a great deputy to me, very reliable, trustworthy, and never once did he come up to me and express any misgivings that he had or to anybody else that I know of about the war or the manner in which the White House prepared for the war. ... And even after Scott left the White House he went on TV shows and defended President Bush and the war. So I don't know what changed so dramatically for Scott in the last few months -- several months -- that led him to write a book that was so different from everything I saw about Scott personally and privately." The former aides' comments also dominate the stories in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, The Politico and AP.
ABC World News, meanwhile, said, "One thing to remember, McClellan was essentially fired from his job. Of that, he writes, 'I thought how long I had worked for the President about how loyal I had been and now he's ready to throw me to the wolves.' And that...says a lot."
Addressing the graduating class at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, President Bush yesterday defended the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, describing the War on Terror as a "battle of wills." The story, overshadowed by Scott McClellan's White House memoir, is receiving little attention from national media outlets. The Rocky Mountain News notes Bush told "the 1,012 new second lieutenants that their country was grateful for their decision to choose a military career in a post-9/11 world." In his remarks, Bush "drew distinctions between the realities of World War II and those of today. 'Our new enemies know they can't defeat us militarily,' Bush said. 'So their new strategy calls for us to lose our nerve, and leave before the job is done." A number of news accounts note Bush's remark on rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.
The AP reports Bush said that rebuilding "is proving difficult as the wars rage on, and 'we're learning as we go.'" The Washington Post says Bush "acknowledged that his administration is 'learning as we go' in building democracy in Iraq," and noted that "in Iraq 'we learned from hard experience' that political and economic progress is hard without first establishing "some measure of security.'" A brief, 180-word article in the New York Times covers similar ground.
The Denver Post, meanwhile, notes the President "congratulated each of the 1,012 graduates as they received their diplomas, shaking hands, embracing and occasionally banging his chest against a graduate's chest."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pleading with the world to help the Iraqi government. The AP reports Rice on Wednesday "acknowledged widespread skepticism about the improvement of conditions in Iraq but said the world must support the Iraqi government. Despite those concerns, the Iraqi government should be rewarded for fulfilling pledges to boost security and enact political reforms, she said." Iraq is now a "fully functioning system" and aid "should no longer be held back for security reasons, as much of it has, nor should debt relief or diplomatic recognition be further delayed, Rice said, noting that some donors still must be convinced."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says another AP dispatch, "is expected to push for debt relief and demand that some countries cancel debt and war compensation dating back to Saddam Hussein's regime when he addresses" today's conference. Al-Maliki, who arrived in Stockholm with "several of his Cabinet ministers" yesterday, told reporters, "Iraq is demanding world countries to reopen embassies and to cancel debts." Iraq Finance Minister Bayan Jabr "said the demand was particularly aimed at Arab countries."
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports that in "an upbeat appeal for development partnerships and technical assistance," the Iraqi government said yesterday in a report that "with its oil and gas reserves in greater global demand than ever, Iraq has sufficient economic resources and 'does not require extensive financial assistance.'" The report, prepared by Iraq's finance and development ministries for today's conference, said that Iraq offers "a unique opportunity to engage with one of the most resource rich countries in the world," with "oil revenue this year is expected to reach $70 billion and overseas cash reserves will increase to $34 billion."
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As President Bush continues to hold private fundraisers for Sen. John McCain, the media continues to focus on the balancing act McCain is performing, careful not to get too close to an unpopular president who nonetheless is still able to help McCain politically. In an article on its web site headlined "President Delivers At Two Utah Fundraisers" the Salt Lake Tribune reports President Bush attended two fundraisers for Sen. John McCain in Utah. On Friday, Bush will have his first meeting with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints president "Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors since they were installed in February after the death of President Gordon B. Hinckley."
McCain Mostly Agrees With Bush On Nukes The AP reports John McCain's "nuclear proposals are largely in line with those of the unpopular President Bush, and even where the two disagree, the Republican presidential candidate has waffled." McCain "favors extending arms control deals with Russia, opening strategic nuclear talks with China and pressing on multiple fronts to limit the spread of nuclear arms technologies."
McCain May Split With Bush On Telecoms The Washington Post reports a "top lawyer for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign said telecommunications companies should be forced to explain their role in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program as a condition for legal immunity for past wiretapping, a statement that stands in marked contrast to positions taken by President Bush, McCain and other Republicans in Congress."
The AP reports with the nomination "in sight, Barack Obama is willing to give rival Hillary Rodham Clinton the lion's share of the delegates from Florida and Michigan but is stopping short of her demand to fully recognize the two renegade states." The Democratic National Committee is "trying to work out a compromise to the long-running dispute over Michigan and Florida."
The New York Times reports in a front page story that Democratic Party lawyers "have determined that no more than half the delegates from Florida and Michigan can be seated at the party's August convention, dealing a blow" to Clinton's "efforts to seat the full delegations from those states." The legal analysis, "based on party rules and contained in a 38-page memo to the committee, says the committee can either seat only 50 percent of the delegates or seat them all but give them only half a vote, which amounts to the same thing."
On ABC World News, George Stephanopoulos said, "It's pretty clear that Senator Clinton is not going to get what she wants. These delegations are not going to be seated at full strength." That would "effectively raise the bar for Barack Obama, increase the number of delegates he needs to get the nomination by about 25 or 35." Gibson: "How far would that actually leave him from having the requisite needed number of delegates?" Stephanopoulos: "Today, he's 45 delegates away. That will probably bring it up to about 70 or 80 delegates away."
The Los Angeles Times reports both campaigns "and thousands of voters have been lobbying the committee members, who are used to working in anonymity. E-mail messages are flooding in. The 500 tickets set aside for spectators were snapped up within three minutes on the Internet." The Washington Post reports Clinton's "prospects of persuading Democratic officials to override party rules and recognize all delegates selected in the Florida and Michigan primaries suffered a setback yesterday after lawyers for the party ruled that no more than half of those delegations could be legally recognized."
The Hill reports even if "the Democratic Party would seat Florida's full delegation according to results of the state's January primary," Clinton "would gain less than a quarter of the delegates she needs to overtake Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the presidential nomination race, according to a state party memo."
The Washington Post reports in "its quest to secure support from evangelical Christians," John McCain's campaign "did not note a long record of inflammatory statements" by the Rev. Rod Parsley "and the Rev. John Hagee of Texas, another TV evangelist, until long after McCain had accepted their endorsements." The move "backfired last week when clips of the ministers' sermons gained national attention, prompting McCain to reject their support." But the "abrupt turnabout brought criticism not only from secular viewers" but "also from evangelicals, who said he may have alienated a powerful bloc of potential Republican voters."
Meanwhile, the AP reports Sen. Joe Lieberman "said Wednesday he will address a conference hosted by the Rev. John Hagee, who was spurned by" McCain "for his claim that God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land." The "liberal advocacy group Democracy for America called on Lieberman to cut his ties to Hagee and his extremist views."
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The Washington Post reports that although Lilibet Hagel, the wife of Sen. Chuck Hagel, endorsed John McCain in 1999 and contributed $1,000, Mrs. Hagel is now "a proud donor to McCain's likely general-election opponent, Sen. Barack Obama," giving $500. Her donations "are the latest twist to the long-running saga of Chuck Hagel's drift from McCain. He was once considered McCain's closest friend in the Senate -- Vietnam veterans with adjacent offices. Now Hagel is a lonely voice against the Iraq war in the GOP conference."
USA Today reports Barack Obama and John McCain "are devising strategies that challenge long-held assumptions about what states each party targets to reach 270 Electoral College votes, the number needed to win the White House." Among the "factors reshaping the battlegrounds: a prospective flood of young voters in the West, growing numbers of Hispanic voters in the Southwest and the serendipity of popular candidates running for the Senate or governorship in Virginia, Oregon and elsewhere." The "new must-have state could be Colorado, a state that's voted Republican in the last three presidential elections but has been moving toward the Democrats."
The Financial Times reports that on Wednesday, McCain and Obama "completed their third consecutive day campaigning in the south-west, which includes New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, targeted by both men as important swing states. Previously Republican-leaning, at least three of the five states could go Democratic in November because of a strong rise in Hispanic immigration."
Obama Fares Well With Key Voting Blocs The AP reports Obama "is competing strongly against" McCain "for women, Catholics and other groups that have shunned him in the Democratic primaries but will be pivotal in this fall's presidential race, early polling shows." Besides "women and Catholics, these include the elderly, the less educated and suburbanites, leading" primary rival Hillary Clinton "to argue she is her party's stronger candidate." But polls "this month show" Obama "leading McCain among women, running even among Catholics and suburbanites and trailing with people over age 65."
The Wall Street Journal reports for the "first time since the presidential election of 1988, the observant white Catholic vote might be up for grabs this November." The shift "may be bad news for" McCain, "but "it also poses a challenge for Sen. Barack Obama in some critical swing states where a majority of Catholic voters supported Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries."
And in a New York Times op-ed, Democratic pollster Mark Mellman says, "Democrats running for president have been losing white, non-college-educated voters since before Mr. Obama was elected to the Illinois legislature." Al Gore "lost them by 17 percentage points while winning the national popular vote," and John Kerry "lost them by 23 points and the country by fewer than two and a half points." By comparison, Obama "is only two percentage points behind John McCain among these voters in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Karl Rove says Obama's "problem is a campaign that's personality-driven rather than idea-driven. Thus incidents calling into question his persona and character can have especially devastating consequences. Stripped of his mystique as a different kind of office seeker, he could become just another liberal politician -- only one who parses, evades, dissembles and condescends. That narrative is beginning to take hold."
Libertarian Barr Could Hurt McCain The Christian Science Monitor reports, "Newly minted presidential nominee Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party may not be a household name, but the former Republican congressman from Georgia has caught the attention of the GOP's most passionate wing: supporters of libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R) of Texas." If "a significant number of Paul supporters coalesce around Mr. Barr, that could spell trouble for McCain."
The AP reports Barack Obama is "considering a visit to Iraq this summer, his first to the war zone since becoming a presidential candidate." Obama "revealed his plans to The New York Times. He has been under criticism from Republican rival John McCain for failing to visit Iraq since 2006."
The New York Times reports Obama "declined an invitation from Senator John McCain to take a joint trip to Iraq, saying, 'I just don't want to be involved in a political stunt.'"
McCain Reiterates Offer For Joint Trip The Los Angeles Times reports that in a Reno event on Wednesday, "speaking with evident condescension," McCain "offered to travel to Iraq with Barack Obama to help the Illinois senator gain a better understanding of the war and the consequences of withdrawing troops." The "attack by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in line with his campaign's attempts to portray Obama as too young and inexperienced to lead the nation." The CBS Evening News reported, "John McCain took aim again at Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials." McCain: "Now, why is it that Senator Obama wants to sit down with the president of Iran, but hasn't yet sat down with General Petraeus, the leader of our troops in Iraq?"
The Hill reports that in "an effort to highlight" Obama's "lack of national security experience, the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Wednesday unveiled a clock on its website that is counting the days since the Democratic front-runner last visited Iraq." The clock "shows that it has been 871 days since the Illinois senator visited the country."
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The New York Times reports with his "experience and leadership credentials under sharp criticism," Barack Obama "and his advisers are trying to clarify what has emerged as a central tenet of his proposed foreign policy: a willingness to meet leaders of enemy nations." While Obama has "said he would depart from the Bush administration policy of refusing to meet with certain nations unless they meet preconditions, he has also said he would reserve the right to choose which leaders he would meet, should he choose to meet with them at all." Already the McCain campaign "was accusing Mr. Obama of 'backtracking,' particularly in the case of whether he would talk with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran."
USA Today reports Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "took her campaign to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation this afternoon, promising to be a champion for Indian Country if elected president." About 350 people "gathered in the courtyard of the Little Wound School at Kyle for Clinton's visit, her fourth South Dakota appearance leading to Tuesday's primary election."
Clinton Says She's The Stronger Candidate McClatchy reports Hillary Clinton's campaign "tried again Wednesday to convince Democrats, especially those on the party's rules committee, that she's their strongest candidate this fall, while her rival Barack Obama talked compromise and calm." Clinton's campaign "sent a letter to the party's uncommitted superdelegates, who may have the final say on the nominee, telling them, 'When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against (presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John) McCain in head-to-head matchups, there's no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate.'"
The CBS Evening News reported, "Senator Obama picked up three more superdelegates today and is just fifty-three delegates short of clinching the nomination." ABC World News reported Clinton is "pushing her electability to superdelegates with this exaggerated claim." Sen. Hillary Clinton: "Based on every analysis of every bit of research and every poll that's been taken and every state that a Democrat has to win, I am the stronger candidate against John McCain in the fall."
But in his Washington Post column, Robert Novak says after Hillary Clinton "cited the 1968 murder of Robert F. Kennedy as reason for remaining a candidate for the presidential nomination, I contacted many activist Democrats -- both pro-Clinton and pro-Obama. Without exception, they felt Clinton had crossed a line and inflicted a grievous wound on the party that will be difficult to heal."
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Once again, the late-night talk-shows were re-runs last night.
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