Jason Horowitz

John McCain is now delivering the negative message against Barack Obama himself, asking a crowd in Alburquerque, New Mexico today, "Who is the real Senator Obama?"

Here's a key section of the remarks, sent out moments ago by the McCain campaign:

"My opponent’s touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book. It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that.  read more »

Before the vice-presidential debate in St. Louis on October 2, I asked David Axelrod what he expected Republicans to produce as an October surprise this year, and whether his campaign was prepared to defend against them.  read more »

At the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Rudy Giuliani set the tone for Governor Sarah Palin and the sharp, well-delivered attack speech that brought her to national prominence. Then, last night, after a poor stretch for Palin highlighted by embarrassing interview performances, Giuliani was back to confidently herald Palin’s return to form.

“I mean, this was a fabulous performance,” said Giuliani, walking at a two-step-per-minute rate with his wife, Judith, in a frenzied scrum of reporters in the media center at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 2.  read more »

ST. LOUIS—This time, Sarah Palin wasn’t going to let the questions get in her way.

“I may not answer the questions the way either you or the moderator want to hear,” she said. “But I’m going to speak straight to the American people.”

In her closing remarks, she suggested she’d like to debate again and answer questions “without the filter of the mainstream media.”

What she wanted to do was talk about taxes and energy (and energy, and energy). She delivered polished attack lines with derision, and made check-marks on the papers on her podium.  read more »

The McCain campaign says that its decision to pull his campaign operations out of Michigan is no big deal, because there are plenty of other states to compete in. The Obama campaign begs to differ, and jumped on the news today, portraying it as an omen of McCain’s undoing.

In a conference call before the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden here at Washington University in St.  read more »

ST. LOUIS—Beth Bextermueller, from Rolla, Missouri, is holding up a sign that says "Rednecks For Obama" on the quad of Washington University. She said that there are two people in the group, not counting herself, because she's helping out her father, who she called a founding member. "We're just the assistants," she said.

One passing student, originally from Oklahoma, said the group would go over big back home.

Bextermueller handed him one of the group's cards.  read more »

ST. LOUIS—Asked by reporters in the media room here at Washington University how nervous he was about tonight’s debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said that he was “an even-keeled five.”

He tried several times to downplay the significance of tonight’s outcome, arguing that, historically, vice-presidential debates have not been decisive in determining the winner of the election.  read more »

Here's the press filing center at Washington University in St. Louis where Joe Biden will debate Sarah Palin tonight.

Except for Lynn Sweet, chatting with a couple of the filmmakers who have been working on an Obama documentary since the beginning of the campaign, it's pretty much empty.

Ever since Sarah Palin crinkled her nose and dismissed the media and “all those reporters and commentators” during her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, the media strategy of John McCain’s presidential campaign has been to assault it as biased, inaccurate and elitist.

It doesn’t seem to be working out so great.

Not only have the refs, by and large, declined to be gamed—the coverage in The New York Times has often been harshly critical and, by Times standards, remarkably unequivocal—but the media-hating public has reacted, more or less, with indifference. After holding a brief, post-convention lead in national polls, Mr.  read more »

Jose Serrano didn’t expect to be the only city congressman to oppose the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.

“I’m surprised to find out that I’m the only New York City person to vote no,” said Mr. Serrano in a telephone conversation a few hours after he cast his vote. “I thought other people would vote no. Not saying it’s a good or bad thing, but I was surprised.”

Mr. Serrano, a Democrat and a Puerto Rican native who represents a majority Latino district in the South Bronx, said that politically speaking, the vote was a vote of no confidence in George Bush, John McCain and the House Republican leaders who thought they had enough members to pass the legislation.  read more »

The McCain campaign just came out with a statement that blames Barack Obama for the defeat of the proposed bailout in the House today. While McCain's decision to "suspend his campaign" to go to Washington seemed not to have had a helpful effect on the initial round of negotiations over a bill, his campaign nevertheless argues that the partisan attacks of Barack Obama, who kept a greater distance from the negotiations, have now put people at risk of losing their homes.

The McCain campaign also uses the Obama "phoned it in" attack again, presumably because Obama never announced a "suspension" of his campaign.  read more »

Four members of the New York Congressional delegation—three Democrats and one Republican—voted against the bailout bill that just stalled in the House.

The Democrats are Kirsten Gillibrand, Maurice Hinchey and Jose Serrano. The Republican is Randy Kuhl.

The rest of the 29-member delegation voted for it.

UPDATE: Unrelated but marginally interesting bailout-vote fact: all eight members from John McCain's home state of Arizona—four Republicans and four Democrats—voted against the legislation.

UPDATE: Here's an explanatory statement from Hinchey's office, arguing against the notion of putting all of the proposed $700 billion at the discretion of the current administration:

"While I recognize the need for some kind of a financial rescue package to free up the credit markets and restore stability to the entire financial system, I could not in good conscience vote for a bill that gives away $700 billion to the presidential administration that got us in this mess in the first place and doesn't make any sound economic investments in working and middle class Americans who are the ones in need of real financial assistance.  read more »

On the morning of September 24, George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, waited patiently in the lobby outside a ballroom at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in the Sheraton New York, wearing a wool pinstriped suit and aggressively biting a red apple.

On a stage inside the ballroom, Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, talked about the progress his foundation had made in making the world a better place. Bush’s entrance and their announcement of a plan to visit hurricane-ravaged states together again was meant to be a surprise. So he stayed out of sight behind the ballroom doors, chatting with aides, amiably posing for pictures, looking over his speech and then tossing the apple core at a trash can.  read more »

OXFORD, Miss.—It was hours before Friday night’s debate at the University of Mississippi on September 26 and rows of reporters in a hangar-size white press tent were typing the background and context graphs of their stories. Dozens of flat-screen televisions in front of them counted down the hours and seconds to the debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. University volunteers circulated, making sure each desk space had free Anheuser Busch notepads (“About one in seven Anheuser-Busch beers in the United States is expected to be brewed using renewable fuel by the end of 2009,” was printed behind the cover) and free red, white and blue Anheuser Busch pens.  read more »

OXFORD, Miss.—In their first head-to-head debate, John McCain sought to portray Barack Obama, again and again, as dangerously inexperienced and naïve about the real world while Obama tried to argue that he had better judgment and understanding of the challenges facing America in the 21st century.

Throughout the debate here at Ole Miss University in Mississippi, Obama was more willing to address himself directly to McCain, but McCain often talked over Obama’s objections, which on the television sounded like muttering. McCain, time after time, on the Middle East and on the former Soviet states, sought to make the case for his credibility by saying that he had actually gone to the global hot spots while Obama had not.  read more »

OXFORD, Miss.—Eames Henley, a 20-year-old civil engineering major at Ole Miss, was standing in the University's mall, called "the Grove," listening to bluegrass and wearing a pin that said "I'm Anti-Socialism."

I asked him what he thought of the Bush administration's bailout plan.

"It seems a little socialistic," he said.

So, did he oppose it?

"No, because the economy's about to collapse. Something needs to be done."

Asked whether he thought John McCain, whom he supports, helped or hindered the chances of a plan passing, he said, "It seems like he's doing his job," he said. "Taking care of business."

Judging from the cornucopia of all things debate-related here in the center of Oxford, Mississippi (at the Bottletree Bakery in the center of town, this rendering of John and Cindy McCain was for sale for $8000), McCain's absence would not have gone over well at all. Besides the contemporary art, storefronts painted with elephants and donkeys sold debate-themed t-shirts and bunting hung from the brick facades of local bars. Venders sold Obama shirts and BBQ under a sign that said "Obamaland," and McCain signs were draped from the windows of charming Ole Miss frat houses. On a temporary stage, musicians played bluegrass music for a few hundred college kids wearing candidate buttons was called "Rock the Debate.  read more »

Introducing a panel on urban development at his Clinton Global Initiative conference, Bill Clinton said of Mike Bloomberg, “There is no job to be done in America important to our future in which he would not do better than just about anyone I’ve ever met.”

On his way to the podium at the Clinton Global Initiative conference this morning at the Sheraton New York in midtown Manhattan, John McCain met Bill Clinton in the middle of the stage. They shook hands and grasped each other's shoulders purposefully, but when the candidate settled at the lectern he realized he had lost something along the way.

During the brief clasp-fest, the former president had accidentally fleeced McCain's speech.

There was an awkward moment before Clinton suddenly stopped in his tracks. He waved the extra set of notes in the air.

“I took his speech,” said Clinton, in an astonished, aw-shucks fashion that earned the applause of the ballroom packed with dignitaries and do-gooders.  read more »

An Obama campaign source tells me that the candidate is planning to make an announcement shortly about the idea of suspending the campaign—he's against it—and that he will indeed push for the debate to go forward Friday.

UPDATE: He doesn't bite.

In an aggressive response, Obama says that "presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time."

He also disputes the morning-phone-call chronology as presented by the McCain campaign.

I just talked to a prominent Obama donor, who had the following reaction to news of McCain’s suspension announcement: “It sounds as though McCain has tried to steal Obama’s idea and thunder.”

I asked him whether they had succeeded.

“These guys are good,” the donor responded. “They don’t know how to govern, but they sure as shit know how to campaign.”

Here’s Democratic strategist Bob Shrum’s read on the dramatic McCain announcement:

“Just like with Sarah Palin, they are trying to find another game-changer.”

Shrum said he suspected that McCain’s move reflected debate preparations that “didn’t go so well” or a strategy to “try and crater the debates altogether – not just his, but Palin’s as well.”

Standing onstage with Bill Clinton and Lance Armstrong at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative in the New York Sheraton this morning, Bloomberg appeared to hint strongly (as if his maneuverings to this point weren’t a strong enough indication) that he likes the idea of running again for mayor.

Armstrong, who was there to promote his cancer foundation and health issues, talked about his return to competitive racing after initially retiring.

Bloomberg, who spoke directly afterward, addressed himself to Armstrong and said, “I did like your comments about coming back and doing it again. But that is a whole nother issue.”

After Bloomberg spoke, Clinton commended the job he had done serving the city (and country, he said) as mayor and told the audience, "My guess is there's a lot more ahead.  read more »

Mayor Michael Bloomberg shrugged his shoulders, turned up his palms and rolled his eyes in what is now his well-practiced impression of an exasperated person.

It was another question about whether he would consider helping the next administration by swooping into Washington to rescue the economy as secretary of the Treasury or as the appointed overseer of a proposed $700 billion fund to buy and resell troubled mortgages. This time, a reporter wanted to know if he felt qualified for the job.

“It’s sort of pressing it to say that I was interested in running a mortgage business, which I don’t have the expertise in, incidentally,” Mr.  read more »

As John McCain struggles to find a consistent message on the economic crisis, his new TV ad, "Chicago Machine," looks a lot like something from that Franken-authored S.N.L. skit. Seriously.

ANNCR: Barack Obama. Born of the corrupt Chicago political machine.

BARACK OBAMA: In terms of my toughness, look first of all, I come from Chicago.

ANNCR: His economic adviser, William Daley. Lobbyist. Mayor's brother. His money man, Tony Rezko. Client. Patron. Convicted Felon. His "political godfather." Emil Jones. Under ethical cloud. His governor, Rod Blagojevich. A legacy of federal and state investigations. With friends like that, Obama is not ready to lead.

JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the country's highest-profile experts on financial markets, has been remarkably careful in the past week not to publicly favor either Barack Obama or John McCain when discussing the Wall Street crisis. And after speaking with Obama about the economic challenges in a telephone conversation last night, Bloomberg seemed to agree with McCain--and not agree with McCain--on one contested issue relating to the meltdown.

McCain's remarks this week that he would, as president, fire the S.E.C.'s chairman, Christopher Cox, prompted criticism from the Obama campaign, which, in another effort to paint McCain as ignorant on economic issues, pointed reporters to articles arguing that the S.  read more »

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Barack Obama, will meet with some of New York's top fund-raisers at the office of Mark Lasry in New York on Friday, according to one of the invitees.

The meeting of about 15 major bundlers is being characterized as a chance for Jarrett to get to know the elite of New York's donor community better, but one of the fund-raisers gave me a different take.

"They are getting concerned because they are in a serious money crunch and they really need to engage New York more," said the source.

GOLDEN, Colo.—It’s almost as if the ghost of John Kerry’s 2004 campaign is scaring Barack Obama into action.

After watching a lead erode following weeks of the same withering, often-as-not-untrue assaults that Republicans used to sink Mr. Kerry in 2004, the Obama campaign is dialing up the candidate’s level of aggression, particularly in regard to John McCain’s reaction to the financial crisis quaking under Wall Street.

In the minutes before the campaign plane took off this week from Chicago for a swing through Colorado, Linda Douglass, an Obama spokeswoman, came to the back of the plane and, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, advised reporters to keep their ears open for some especially “spirited” things the candidate had to say about Mr.  read more »

GOLDEN, Colo.—After spending most of yesterday on the stump and the airwaves attacking Republican stewardship of the economy and promising more financial heartache under John McCain, Barack Obama today sought to articulate in stark and substantive terms why his proposals would have averted the financial crisis and will return stability to Wall Street.

Speaking in a college gym, Obama said, “Since this turmoil began over a year ago, the housing market has collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America’s five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress.  read more »

PUEBLO, Colo.—Barack Obama is definitely taking the be-more-aggressive directive to heart.

Picking up where he left off hours earlier, Obama told a 13,000-person crowd in Pueblo that the party of John McCain had failed to prevent the crisis roiling Wall Street.

After again forcibly characterizing McCain as out of touch with regular Americans and the difficulties that face them – especially when it comes to securing fundamental economic needs such as jobs that pay the bills, savings for retirement and housing – Obama went after McCain’s remarks today that the economy remained fundamentally sound despite the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch.  read more »

Part of an appeal to supporters from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe:

Even Karl Rove had to admit yesterday that the McCain campaign's lies and negative attacks have gone "too far."

John McCain is running the most negative and dishonest campaign in modern presidential history. He has demonstrated that he'd rather lose his integrity than lose this election.

It's right out of the Bush-Rove playbook. Unfortunately, as Karl Rove knows better than anyone, these shameful tactics have worked in the past.

This year, we can't let that happen.

Our goal is to bring 50,000 new donors into our movement by Friday at midnight.

And if you make your first online donation today, your gift will go twice as far. A previous donor has promised to match every dollar you donate.

Double your impact right now. Your matched donation of $5 will become $10 if you donate today.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—Barack Obama seized on the Wall Street crisis this morning to make the argument that the  country can't afford another four years of Republican rule.

With an arid bluff behind him, Obama called the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the problems with other major financial institutions on Wall Street “a serious, serious situation. As bad as anything we have seen.”

Later in his speech he said, “We just woke up to news of financial disaster and this morning he said the fundamentals of our economy are still strong. Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?”

He launched into a Clintonesque discussion of "fundamentals.  read more »

CHICAGO--Barack Obama is expected to frame the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch as indicative of the mismanagement of the economy by Republicans over the last eight years at a campaign stop in Grand Junction, Colorado today. The remarks are part of a more aggressive stance the Obama campaign is taking this week, with vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden arguing that John McCain has changed for the worse and a new ad calling the McCain campaign dishonorable. Obama's remarks, according to Obama staff on the campaign plane, will seek to make the point that with Wall Street imploding, McCain’s stewardship of the economy will be similar George Bush’s.  read more »

In a conference call just now, the Obama campaign sought to refocus the terms of the debate back onto the economy and John McCain’s close connection to George Bush and his detachment from the struggles of the American middle class.

But it was clear from the questions asked on the call that the media is not done talking about Sarah Palin.

One reporter asked if the McCain campaign was effectively swift-boating Obama with Palin.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe responded with little mention of Palin, but said that with McCain, “You will get two for one.”

“George Bush’s economic policies and Dick Cheney’s foreign policy,” he said.  read more »

John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin disagree on at least one thing: the importance of community organizers. “Of course I respect community organizers,” said McCain during a candidate forum about service last night at Columbia University.

He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with the evisceration of community organizers at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. (During the convention, Palin and former mayor Rudy Giuliani, among others, mocked the community organizer job, which Obama had after law school, as meaningless and without real responsibility.)

He added, “And Senator Obama’s record in that area is outstanding.”

For the most part, the forum consisted of staid answers from McCain and Barack Obama about the meaning and forms of service in America.  read more »

John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin disagree on at least one thing: the importance of community organizers.

“Of course I respect community organizers,” said McCain, responding to a question about whether he agreed with the evisceration of community organizers at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. (During the convention, Palin and former mayor Rudy Giuliani, among others, mocked the community organizer job, which Obama had after law school, as meaningless and without real responsibility.)

Speaking during a forum about service tonight at Columbia University, McCain added, “And Senator Obama’s record in that area is outstanding.”

McCain also blamed the poisonous tone of the presidential debate on Senator Obama’s decision not to accept his invitation to appear in town hall meetings together around the country, which he suggested would have gone a long way in keeping things civil.  read more »

With just over two months to go before Election Day and after months of hard feelings, a handful of phone calls, and fitful, uncomfortable contact between respective staffs, Barack Obama paid a visit to Bill Clinton's Harlem office today, where the former president said he would hit the trail for the Democratic nominee.

"Would it would been more to Obama's advantage to have engaged more proactively earlier with President Clinton? Sure," said former Clinton finance chair and Obama fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee. "But the fact that they are getting engaged now, and that Hillary is doing everything asked of her and campaigning wherever asked, is of tremendous value to the Obama campaign.  read more »

Here's the pool report describing the moments before Bill Clinton and Barack Obama met behind closed doors. It includes the following line: "There was no handshake and your pooler did not see the two actually look at each other There was a brief Q&A."

Pool report

Brief comments from Sen. Obama and former President Bill Clinton during photo spray before their lunch

Barack Obama & accompanying motorcade left the Parker Meridien just before 11:15 a.m. and drove up Madison Ave. to the offices of the William J. Clinton Foundation at 55 W. 125th Street, on top (14th) floor of an office building on the main thoroughfare of Harlem.

 read more »

The harshest thing Hillary Clinton could come up with about Sarah Palin at a Sept. 6 campaign event at Wagner College on Staten Island was that there was no evidence at the convention in St. Paul to suggest Republicans would “guarantee equal pay for equal work for women.”

“I heard nothing!” she said.

Reporters tried to get Mrs. Clinton to talk about John McCain’s running mate at a tiny press conference after the event, but she refused even to mention Mrs. Palin’s name, saying only, “I am campaigning for Senator Obama and advocating on behalf of the Democratic Party and our positions.  read more »

"I think what the Republicans have done is manufacture criticism of Governor Palin and then attacked," Governor David Paterson told me before the Labor Day parade on Saturday. "In other words, creating a straw man and then knocking it down."

He added, "Nobody has really questioned anything about Governor Palin and nobody has really anything against her—other than the policies that we think are just wrong for this country."

Paterson also thinks there's an element of hypocrisy among Republicans who are vocally defending Palin's choices about her family and private life:

"Some of these people who now are talking about women working—they are advocates for women working? I have never heard that before. They are advocates for people minding their own business and letting families work things out themselves? Really? That is really stunning."

The McCain campaign will take what it can get in New York.

A release just sent out--"McCain Manhattan Volunteers 'March for McCain'"--about a demonstration planned for Sunday ("Supporters Take Third Avenue By Storm"), includes this:

"It was an amazing experience," said Andrew Eristoff, the Manhattan Coordinator for McCain-Palin 2008. "We had dozens of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all walking and working together for McCain-Palin. We couldn't have asked for a better reception: even in this bastion of blue, we found lots of enthusiastic support for Senator McCain's experience, character, and maverick brand of leadership, especially when people saw proof-positive that plenty of their neighbors feel the same way!"

Dozens?

Blake Zeff, a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton, will be the new director of communications in New York for Barack Obama, effective today.

Zeff, who confirmed the move, was part of the muscular press office Clinton assembled from veterans of Chuck Schumer's legendary communications operation, but unlike Howard Wolfson or Phil Singer, Zeff stayed mostly below the radar. Since Clinton dropped out of the race he he has remained well-liked and highly regarded by the Obama campaign.

He's especially valued for his knowledge of the New York press corps, an expertise he gained working for Schumer from 2002 to 2005 and then as the communications director state Democratic party in 2006. In the interim between the two campaigns he helped Schumer with his book about how to win back the middle class.

ST. PAUL—Here's Sean Hannity, Fox newscaster and conservative hero, signing autographs on the floor of the convention as though he'd just won the nomination.

"Where in Alabama, darlin? What's your name darlin? Destiny? Your destiny is in politics."

"Where you from? I'm from Santa Barbara. High five."

Guards told the crowd to "back up. Back up. Ma'am don't push."

He was interviewed by a woman from KGMB Channel 9 Hawaii.

"If I have one word for Sarah Palin, it is 'authentic.' I love Hawaii. I can't wait to get back. Aloha," he said.

"Sean, you are a great American," said one man.

"No, you are a great American," said Hannity.  read more »

ST. PAUL—Eight years after he first ran for president, Senator John McCain of Arizona accepted his party’s nomination tonight with a speech that touched necessary bases, but was considerably less well received than the one his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, delivered the night before.

The speech was short on applause lines, and the early inconvenience of a protester in the rafters booing with a “McCain Votes Against Vets” sign in his hands didn’t help. Nor did the response of “U.S.A., U.S.A.” from the crowd, an attempt to drown out the heckling. McCain even seemed bothered when people