Jason Horowitz

Barack Obama needs to convince voters that he understands them and leave the dirty work to his surrogates, says Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who's also chairman of the DCCC.

Before Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in Denver last night, I asked Emanuel, a famously bulldoggish veteran of the Clinton White House, if the Democrats were being sufficiently aggressive in going after John McCain.

“The best line was Hillary’s line about the Twin Cities, you know, frick and frack [McCain and Bush] over there—you can’t tell them apart,” said Emanuel, who was surrounded by aides on the floor of the Invesco field.  read more »

DENVER—Former Hillary Clinton bundler Robert Zimmerman, one of Al Gore's biggest supporters, said last night on the floor of the Invesco Center that watching the former vice president "brings back many wonderful memories."

"I remember the first global warming lecture, reading the draft of his anti-war speech," Zimmerman said, as Gore delivered the line, "I know something about close elections."

"I think of the good times,"Zimmerman said.

The Obama campaign is not giving an inch when it comes to John McCain choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. In a statement released a few minutes ago, there was no warm language about the first female Republican vice presidential nominee, just a straightforward hit. From Obama spokesman Bill Burton:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.  read more »

As Prepared:

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

“The American Promise”

Democratic Convention

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Denver, Colorado

As Prepared for Delivery

To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;

With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest – a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you.

 read more »

Gore just finished, to the most raucous reception so far. Here's the prepared text of his speech:

One of the greatest gifts of our democracy is the opportunity it offers us every four years to change course. It¹s not a guarantee; it¹s only an opportunity. The question facing us is, simply put, will we seize this opportunity for change? That¹s why I came here tonight: to tell you why I feel so strongly that we must seize this opportunity to elect Barack Obama President of the United States. Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn¹t really matter who became president.  read more »

Ever since the Obama campaign announced that Barack Obama would be giving his acceptance speech of the Democratic nomination inside Invesco Field at Mile High—the enormous stadium where the Denver Broncos play football—critics and supporters alike have wondered whether the spectacle played too readily into the “Obama as celebrity” storyline that the McCain campaign has pushed so hard.

Already will.i.am, Sheryl Crow and other recording artists have performed live. The smooth female voice announcing the political speakers and performing artists is identical to the one that introduces actors at the Academy Awards.

But whatever the risks, there is at least one guaranteed upside to gathering such a big captive audience which was revealed by Ray Rivera, the chair of the Obama campaign in Colorado.  read more »

DENVER--Less than a day after the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama as its candidate for President, two of Hillary Clinton’s strongest supporters held a private meeting with top donors to talk about some close-to-the-ground methods of improving his performance in the critical swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“It was a mix of Obama and Clinton donors,” said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who hosted the event with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, as he left the meeting “Dodgeball” room of the Curtis hotel. “And a lot of those folks go back with me to 2000 when I was the DNC chair. We discussed ways to legally help the Pennsylvania and Ohio Democratic parties, to strengthen the parties, which will strengthen their abilities to get what is called a coordinated campaign going.  read more »

President Jimmy Carter acknowledged the tension between Barack Obama and the Clintons in an interview, but said it added excitement to the Democratic convention and set the stage for last night's dramatic speeches that ultimately left the Democrats better off.

“I thought Bill Clinton made a perfect speech,” said Carter, speaking to The Observer in the hallway of a downtown Denver hotel. “And I thought Joe Biden did superbly. It was the best night by far. I thought that Bill’s speech was much more total commitment to Obama, even than Hillary’s, and I thought that Hillary’s was a good speech. And I believe it will go a long way toward healing the, you know, competition – it wasn’t an animosity – between Hillary’s supporters and Obama’s.  read more »

DENVER—Spike Lee really liked Wednesday night’s speeches.

“Fired up! Fired up!” said the director walking down the main aisle of the Pepsi Center last night. He wore a white T-shirt with Obama’s face on it and a baseball cap. He gave a high five to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, sitting in the front row of the Jersey delegation. “We going to drop double nickels tomorrow night," Lee told Booker, who laughed and nodded his head. "Obama’s going Jordan in the Mile High Invesco field. Double nickels! Double nickels, baby!”

Booker gave his approving reviews. Waving a Biden sign, topped with an American flag, he said the vice presidential nominee had done an exceptional job of showing that John McCain’s “longevity doesn’t equal expertise.  read more »

DENVER--How fractious is Italy’s political left?

Senator Francesco Rutelli, former candidate for prime minister in Italy, who is attending the Democratic National Convention, said Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton provided a valuable lesson in unity for him and his fellow Italian politicians.

“This is one of the important lessons America gives us,” said Rutelli, speaking to Italian reporters after a panel on transatlantic views on national security at the Sheraton.

(After yet another government collapse by a left-leaning Italian government in January, the raucous factions have tried to meld into a new “Democratic” Party. Its candidate, Walter Veltroni, who took to saying “yes we can” -- in English -- on the campaign trail, lost to conservative Silvio Berlusconi.  read more »

DENVER—Bill Clinton walked onto the stage of the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night to sustained, roaring and amorous applause. Instead of signs with the names of Obama or Hillary, the hall waved American flags. Every time the ovations seemed to subside, they roared back up again. The time clock above the teleprompter froze at 10 minutes. With the tribute not eating into his speech, Clinton let them applaud. Not that he could have stopped them if he wanted.

When the applause finally died down, Clinton didn’t waste any time putting to rest the speculation about how enthusiastically he would make the case for Barack Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden.  read more »

DENVER—“It was a very powerful moment,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said, after Hillary Clinton suspended the roll call and made Barack Obama the nominee by acclamation.

Cuomo said that with Clinton’s speech last night and her remarks today, she had clearly sent the message that unity behind Obama was the party’s priority.

"It had to come from her mouth,” he said. “And it did.”

Also: When asked if he was planning to run for mayor or governor, Cuomo said, “I’m doing what I’m doing.”

He's everywhere. Moments after he accompanied Hillary Clinton onto the floor here for her big roll call moment, he went up on stage to deliver the big rah-rah speech for the Democratic Senate candidates. Here's a slightly blurry version of what it looked like for the New York delegates.

“With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country let’s declare together in one voice, right here and right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate, and he will be our president.

“Madame secretary -- madame secretary, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules and suspend the further conduct of the roll call vote. All votes cast by the delegates will be counted, and that I move Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.  read more »

Democrats lose because they don’t talk about economic success.

That was the argument congressmen Anthony Weiner and Steve Israel and Third Way vice president Jim Kessler made at a press conference in the Denver on Wednesday morning, where they said that while Democrats were seen as the party of economic security, they needed to win the middle class by talking more about economic success.

“The middle class actually hasn’t voted for us,” in recent congressional elections, said Kessler. “We haven’t been making the connection.”

During the primaries, Weiner was an aggressive advocate for the idea that Clinton, and not Obama, knew how to appeal to these middle-class voters.  read more »

DENVER--During the speeches leading up to Hillary Clinton’s primetime address to the Democratic Convention last night, the New York delegation seemed distracted.

"We don't need McCain here -- put them down!," Maria Luna, a Clinton delegate from Manhattan, screamed at her delegation, which was waving "McCain More of the Same" signs above their heads. She jumped out of her aisle seat and onto the steps. "Down," she screamed. "Down!"

"Maria. Calma," said State Senator Bill Perkins, who sat in the second row. “Calma.” Then he saw a friend trying to pass through the convention’s clogged main corridor just below the delegation. "Guillermo, Guillermo, como vas?" Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was telling his life story on the stage.  read more »

Kathleen Strand, a spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton, just told me that Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton immediately after her speech, and that they spoke for five minutes. Also, she said, Clinton got a standing ovation from Obama's staff when she walked backstage.

I asked Joe Biden how Hillary Clinton did. "How did she do?" he said. "She blew the roof off."

Also: Corzine called it "the speech of a lifetime and the foundation for victory in the fall."

Loud.

DENVER—Walking into the Pepsi Center here on the morning of Aug. 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia had a message for the supporters of Hillary Clinton.

“I think they ought to do whatever she wants them to do,” said Mr. Webb.

 It seemed a little late for that.

By the time of Mrs. Clinton’s Tuesday night prime-time convention speech, which her senior aides said would honor her supporters but strongly make the case for Barack Obama, it all seemed a little beside the point.

The story of the convention, as broadcast to the nation over its first two days, had not been a tale of unity.  read more »

Ladies and gentlemen: Bill Burton and Terry McAuliffe.

DENVER—Brit Hume, Bill Kristol, Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes were kicking around some ideas to discuss on the air as they climbed the stairs to Fox’s Election HQ newsroom, when they bumped into Howard Wolfson.

“You caused a huge uproar today,” Kondracke said approvingly, referring to a piece Wolfson had written urging Obama to reach out to Bill Clinton. “You were on the top of all the blogs.”

Wolfson, the longtime Democratic strategist and former communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, smiled at their good-natured ribbing. They laughed when he laughed. Noisy, full of camaraderie and good cheer, the five of them almost looked like a team.  read more »

After Michelle Obama's remarks concluded the first day of the democratic Convention, I ran into Senator Chuck Schumer of New York waiting for a car outside the Pepsi center. He was very pleased with the way things had gone so far.

"Flawless," he said. "Michelle Obama—if 25 percent of Americans were watching that, we'll go up 5 percent in the polls. It was beautiful. I had tears in my eyes with Kennedy and I had more tears in my eyes with Michelle Obama. How beautiful."

"The whole key to this convention," he added, "is that the only way McCain wins is to say Barack is not like us, and they do it in a nasty way.  read more »

After Caroline Kennedy addressed the Democratic convention on Monday night, the hall watched a movie about her uncle Ted Kennedy.

It showed Kennedy in black-and-white images as a young man pounding lecterns. It showed him in middle age hitting the campaign trail and then as a grandfather sailing with his children and grandchildren. Colleagues and family spoke about him, some in the past tense, and the film ended with Kennedy, only a few months ago, at yet another podium, shouting, “It is time now for Barack Obama.”

It had all the trappings of a lifetime achievement award, but Kennedy, it turned out, showed that he isn’t done.  read more »

Hillary Clinton is still sending mixed messages.

Speaking at a press conference this morning following a breakfast with the New York delegation at the Sheraton hotel in Denver, during which called on her supporters to support Barack Obama, she said she would release her delegates to vote for Obama on Wednesday and would vote for Obama herself. But Clinton also argued that her delegates should have the chance to vote for her during Wednesday’s convention roll call.

Clinton spoke for about 15 minutes about the steady process of party unity and all the work she had done to convince her supporters to vote for Obama during the convention and in the election.  read more »

At around 7 p.m. on Sunday night, Representative Charlie Rangel walked out of a Sheraton ballroom in the heart of downtown Denver and told The Observer that Hillary Clinton had instructed him to spread the word to New York delegation to vote for Barack Obama.

This was very bad news for members of the Clinton-holdout group PUMA, or "Party Unity My Ass," whose members started gathering on the other side of town about an hour after Rangel made Clinton’s wishes clear.

In a flat, windswept part of Denver known, depending who you ask, as LODO, for lower downtown, or RINO, for River North, where the city’s yellow cab company once had their depot and where office and loft space now sit in the middle of parking lots and tall body-dumping grass, the PUMA women, and a smattering of PUMA men, held a premier of the anti-Obama movie, “The Audacity of Democracy.  read more »

Hillary Clinton has released New York’s delegates from any obligation to vote for her and asked them to vote for Barack Obama instead, according to Representative Charlie Rangel.

Just a few moments ago, as Rangel left a gala thrown by Sheldon Silver welcoming the New York delegation, I asked him why so many officials in the delegation, of which he is dean, are still confused about what to do at the convention.

“Clinton told me to tell everybody that they are released and to vote for Obama,” said Rangel. When asked why so many in the delegation still didn’t know that, he responded, “Now that’s a stupid question.  read more »

DENVER—One simple way to measure the progress of unification between the Obama and Clinton camps is to keep track of how many of Clinton's biggest donors are only coming for her Tuesday night speech or who are not coming at all.

In the latter category, place Alan Patricof, one of Clinton's biggest bundlers and a co-chairman of her campaign's finance committee. He is skipping his first convention since 1992.

Patricof, in a brief phone call today, warned against reading too much into his absence.

"It doesn't mean anything at all," said Patricof, who explained that he was spending time with his family and grandchildren in East Hampton this week.  read more »

This woman was standing at the bottom of an the escalator that leads to the press registation area at the Sheraton Hotel. Her sign, which includes the web address for the P.A.C. Emily's List says, "When women vote, Democrats win."

Emily's List founder Ellen Malcolm was a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton during the primary, but endorsed Barack Obama shortly after the primary was settled, and urged pro-choice women not to vote for John McCain.

Unclear if the message on the sign is a threat or an appeal to Clinton supporters who are still sore over her loss.

DENVER—The New York delegation to the Democratic convention still doesn't know whom it is supposed to vote for.

Four days before Barack Obama's official acceptance of the party's nomination for president, New York delegates are checking into the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Denver and saying they have not received any guidance on whether to cast a symbolic vote for Hillary Clinton during roll call or whether to vote for Obama.

When I asked City Comptroller Bill Thompson, who supported Clinton in the primary, whether the Clintons expressed a preference, he said, "At least not that I've been made aware of.  read more »

DENVER—This morning at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Denver, convention volunteers distributed six-pound black canvas bags to accredited reporters. The bags are filled with guides, cans of Joint Juice (Glucosamine - Hydrate and Lubricate Your Joints), magnetic poetry from SEIU ("Si, Se Puede," and "Progress"), a "Protecting America" emergency radio ("Know Your Evacuation Plan"), a ringtone gift card, a combination lock, mints from UPS, chapstick from FedEx, antibacterial Hand Sanitizing Gel, a notebook from Staples, and a bottle of Joint Juice ("Take Once a Day.")

The latest edition of Ricki Lieberman's ELECTABILITY WATCH (EW) daily memo includes this curious paragraph:

I have been flooded with emails from delegates telling me they are staying with Hillary and proud of it! In addition, Hillary delegates are hearing directly from "Hillary people" to please vote for her on the first ballot. There is no longer any ambiguity about that, if there ever was.

Should have a better sense of what she means as Hillary delegates keep flowing into Denver.

Barack Obama, it seems clear, selected Joe Biden as his running mate both to compensate for a lack of official foreign policy experience and because the Delaware Senator can be a forceful and aggressive voice in a campaign that could use some toughening up.

Biden spoke to some of those concerns well over a year ago, during a lengthy interview back in February 2007 in a Delaware diner, in which he attributed the Democratic Party’s failure to win the last two general elections to timorousness and questioned whether Obama was prepared enough to lead the country.

“I think one of the things wrong with my party is that we are too timid,” Biden said at the time.  read more »

A Democratic official told Politico today that Hillary Clinton has never been put through the vetting process for a potential position as Barack Obama's running mate. (When I asked Clinton in Yaphank, Long Island, last month if she had been vetted, she laughed and said, "For a lifetime," and then walked away.)

The well-documented grievances of the diehard Hillary Clinton supporters have made their way into the artistic imagination, or at least into a summer class at N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. A reader, who goes by the pen name "Sarah Gold," asked if we could see to it that this, this final project from her musical theater workshop, be seen by Ricki Lieberman and Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, two of the highest-profile Clinton-supporter holdouts on Barack Obama. We're very happy to oblige.

Here's a taste:

Are we safe, Barack Hussein? Who's safe, and who's sane? When Obama ends his campaign. Who's practical, He or the Mrs.  read more »

The RNC is countering Obama's opportunity-maximizing assault on McCain's failure to keep track of his seven houses with a new Web site called "Obama-Rezko Shady Deal."

According to the RNC announcement, "The Web site will provide users with videos and the latest news pertaining to Barack Obama's lack of judgment and questionable dealings with campaign fundraiser and convicted felon Tony Rezko."

The Obama campaign is doing everything it can to turn John McCain's failure to name how many houses he owns into a major campaign narrative. They just sent out audio of the Politico interview.

Rudy Giuliani is not the first person many conservatives would have picked to deliver the keynote address at the Republican convention later this month, but given the uphill battle many of them see John McCain facing in November, it appears to be a choice they can live with.

"Maybe in other years I'd be more picky about it," said Gary Bauer, an evangelical leader who is an informal adviser to the McCain campaign. Citing Republican fatigue and a severely sluggish economy, Bauer said, "People understand that this is a tough year and that Rudy Giuliani is admired nationally for both his success as New York mayor but also his performance after 9/11.  read more »

The McCain campaign just held a conference call with Rudy Giuliani--recently named the Republican National Convention keynote speaker-- ostensibly to talk about an reported meeting between an Obama adviser, Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, and Syrian government officials.

It didn't go so well.

At one point during the call, Giuliani seemed to suggest that McCain would be open to picking a pro-choice running mate. A follow-up questioner was subsequently cut off by the McCain campaign.

Earlier in the call, a reporter asking Giuliani about his own association with hostile foreign entities seemed to disappear, mid-query, from the call entirely. (The reporter subsequently said that he was dropped.  read more »

A keynote address by Rudy Giuliani at the Republican National Convention signals John McCain's commitment to winning the moderate and independent voters, according to a former senior adviser to Giuliani.

"The battleground is always in the middle, it's not the party regulars on the left or the right but smack dab in the center," said the adviser, speaking on background. "Yes, Rudy will help with the independents, but he'll also rally the troops by his ability to get the convention rocking and rolling."

The adviser noted that Giuliani, while moderate on social positions, was a favorite of the conservative tax group The Club for Growth.  read more »

Barry Wynn, an important Rudy Giuliani supporter and former Bush campaign finance chair from South Carolina, thinks that Giuliani's selection as the Republican National Convention's keynote speaker is more the result of a close relationship with John McCain than a desire to reach out to independent voters.

"It just says that John McCain's his own guy and beats to his own drum," said Wynn. "They have been friends for 20 years and somebody is not going to tell John McCain not to have one of his longstanding best friends, who does have a star quality, not to be the keynote speaker. As far as whether it is orchestrated to appeal to a certain group or not, I just don't think that's the case.  read more »

In this week's paper, I profiled some of the leading figures in the group of Hillary loyalists making the Obama campaign nervous before the Democratic convention. But the phenomenon also has foot soldiers like Carol Fasano.

Ms. Fasano's apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn has two Hillary stickers on the door. Inside, Bill and Hillary photographs, some bought off ebay, hang on the wall. Her cat Billy, named after Bill Clinton, slinks around the heavily upholstered couches and the armchair where she sat in front of a fan, wearing a blue house dress and sipping ice water from a straw. Ms. Fasano receives and avidly reads the anti-Obama Electibility Watch e-mail and has replied asking for more than her share of 18 superdelegates to lobby.  read more »

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild doesn’t look like a radical.

Surrounded by bike paths, ponds and the Atlantic Ocean in her Martha’s Vineyard farmhouse, not far from where Bill and Hillary Clinton usually summer, the lifelong Democrat and Clinton fund-raiser opened a laptop to her “Together4Us” Web site, an online petition that features Hillary Clinton looking luminous above a series of demands made of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.

Ms. de Rothschild, 54, dressed in matching blue pants and sweater, blond hair tucked behind her ears, said she plans to send copies of the more than 6,000 signatures she has collected to superdelegates, Mr.  read more »

Harmony-building joint exercises notwithstanding, there's still plenty of animosity toward Barack Obama in the Clinton camp at the major-supporter level.

Here's an email sent out by donor Ricki Lieberman last night to other Clinton supporters urging them not to give up on the idea of getting Hillary nominated in Denver. The event she refers to is this one.

This evening at a "thank you, Hillraisers" event, Senator Clinton told me how honored she is by the people who are working to have her name put into nomination and appreciative of those signing the petition. So, like the proverbial laser, I am focusing on getting Hillary's name in nomination and nominated in Denver.  read more »

Hillary Clinton held a private meeting for supporters last night at Cipriani's, thanking them for their help during the primary.

Introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer, who spoke about local issues in Mount Vernon and Westchester County, Clinton addressed key supporters, including Hassan Nemazee, Alan Patricof, and Fred Hochberg, and elected officials like Tom DiNapoli and Tom Suozzi.

According to one of the attendees, Clinton did not discuss her future plans.

The event wasn't explicitly a fund-raiser, but at one point Patricof asked guests, once again, to work to help Clinton erase her campaign debt.

UPDATE: The attendee described Clinton as "very much at peace" and characterized the meeting as a sort of final thank you for the campaign.  read more »

Barack Obama, in a somewhat unusual move, just released a statement about a Democratic primary in Tennessee that has become particularly charged, although he mentions neither candidate by name:

Statement of Senator Barack Obama on Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District primary

 

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country,” said Barack Obama.

It's worth noting that the general consensus is that any talk of playing the race card, or of race itself, does a disservice to Obama in the presidential election.  read more »

Barack Obama's fund-raising and registration drive has caught the attention of the Republican opposition.

The R.N.C. is sending mail soliciting donations of $100 for a "Two-Month Emergency Pledge" to help John McCain. Saying the next two months will determine the winner of the election, the mail comes with a letter from McCain, who writes "The Obama Democrats have launched a massive 50-state registration drive which will result directly in dramatically increasing Democrat voter turnout on November 4th."

"With enormous fundraising resources at their disposal – including wealthy special interests, Big Labor, and unregulated "527" soft-money groups – they have already registered more than 200,000 new Democrats in Pennsylvania, more than 165,000 in North Carolina, and more than 150,000 in Indiana.  read more »

This is the week that Barack Obama got sick of the high road.

“And while Senator McCain’s plan won’t save you at the pump anytime soon, I have to say this, it sure has done a lot to raise campaign dollars,” said Mr. Obama, speaking at the Austintown Fitch High School in Youngstown, Ohio, on the morning of Aug. 5. “Senator McCain raised more than one million dollars from the oil industry just last month, just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling to a room full of oil executives.”

The crowd booed. Mr.  read more »