April 03, 2007
Hotline After Dark: It Figures
It was money, money, money talk on cable last night:
Newt Gingrich: "If there is a money primary, that the first three real winners were Senator Clinton, who performed about as people might have expected, Senator Edwards and Governor Romney performed better than people might have expected. And I suspect all three of them will get a little bit of a boost going into the next round" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 4/2).
NBC's Mitchell, on Obama's fundraising: "The best guidance we have from people in the know in the campaign ... is that he may be as high as $25 million, all of which he can spend on the primary campaign. And as you know, of that $26 million that she's raised, she won't say how much of that is primary campaign dollars. Some of it may be money that she can't spend unless she wins the nomination" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 4/2).
FNC's Cameron, on McCain's numbers: "They say they didn't really do much in January or February, which is hard to understand for a candidate that's been in this so long. They do say they got 80,000 contributions, so they're some silver linings in the clouds. ... The bottom line is they know they have to regroup. They are going to start, but the senator's not back yet. So they're not quite prepared to start saying how. Generally, in these circumstances, the solution is to attack. So he may get tougher" ("Special Report," 4/2).
James Carville, on what those numbers mean for Romney: "That he's got a good fundraising operation. That's a good figure for him. It's a horrible figure for McCain. But I think that the really big news here is that, if it's correct -- there are reports that Obama is going to report $22 million -- that would mean that the Democrats raised $75 million in one quarter. I mean, to call this historical is to not even give its proper credit" ("Situation Room," CNN, 4/2).
MSNBC's Matthews: "I find this so unsavory. ... They're going out and killing people around the world to spread democracy, and what are we spreading? A form of government based on how much money you can raise from rich people mainly" ("Hardball," 4/2).
TUBE TALK
Joe Biden was on "Countdown":
On McCain saying Iraq is safer: "I've been there seven times. The first time I went, I was able to walk through those town squares with no vest on, in the open, right after that statue went down in that circle that everybody remembers so vividly. And what happened was, we did not do what we were supposed to do then, what many of us urged, which was to get immediately get paramilitary police in there, to increase the number of troops we had to stabilize the country, to begin to pass on responsibility to the Iraqis quickly. What did we do? We had too few troops, we didn't do any of what I suggested, and civil war broke out. Now, what John may be looking at is a specific neighborhood, a specific place. ... You may be able to bring order into a neighborhood, but you don't have enough troops to bring order to the country, and even if you did, it doesn't produce a political solution. A political solution, the only way you're going to do that is separate the parties, give them local control, with a limited central government."
On his new website: "I think this campaign is not about money but about issues. And I took what other, what the other candidates put up as their preference of what they state their position is, and they put on YouTube, and put them side by side. And some of them are good, and some of them are better, and some of them are worse" (MSNBC, 4/2).
WHO'S THE BEST CONSERVATIVE OF THEM ALL?
Tommy Thompson was on "Hannity & Colmes":
Asked if he's a better conservative than McCain or Giuliani: "I'm not going to disparage anybody. I am running a very positive campaign. I believe they're excellent individuals. And I just believe that I have a program and ideas that this country could badly use."
Asked his position on abortion: "Abortion should be illegal, yes."
FNC's Colmes: "You want to arrest women who have abortions and arrest doctors?"
Thompson: "No, I would not want to arrest women, Alan, and you know that."
Colmes: "I didn't know that. That's why I asked the question."
Thompson: "You and I have discussed this before. That's always the way that individual liberals try and embarrass Republican conservatives."
Colmes: "I'm not trying to embarrass you. I'm trying to ask your position, your state of position."
Thompson: "The question is whether or not you're pro-life or pro-choice, and I happen to be pro-life" (FNC, 4/2). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 07:20 AM
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