April 01, 2008
Hotline After Dark -- We Could Be Heroes
There was a variety of WH '08 TV talk last night. First up, the reviews of John McCain's "Bio" tour:
New Yorker's Lizza: "Look at the last four competitive elections. You had Kerry. You had Gore. You had the first George W. Bush. You had Bob Dole in '96. These are all war heroes who lost. So, being a war hero on its own does not guarantee that you will be the president if your opponent isn't a war hero. I think it's a strategy born of a couple things. One, McCain does have a compelling biography. Biography is important. Character is important in presidential politics, no doubt about it. But, at the same time, I don't think they have figured out where he's going to be ideologically. And to the extent they have figured it out, he's out of step with where the public is on the war and on the economy. ... I don't think they have figured out the policy piece" ("Election Center," CNN, 3/31).
Karl Rove: "The focus is not so much on his military record, the medals that he won. It's on a broader
life story. What are the values that inform his life? What's his character like? What's the narrative, the arc of his life? What's he done with it? And I think it's frankly a very smart move on his part. ... As the Democrat battles continued and the Republican battle has ended, he's been lost. So he's smartly saying I need to come back and introduce people to me in a way that's riveting and personal and powerful. And I think it's a pretty good start to it" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 3/31).
MSNBC's Scarborough: "Biographies don't win campaigns. It certainly didn't win it for John Kerry, didn't win it for Al Gore. In the end people want to know where you stand, what you're going to do over the next four years and that's how they vote" ("Race for the WH," 3/31).
WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS?
There was also discussion about right-winger Richard Mellon Scaife, who who uncovered damaging information about Hillary and Bill Clinton in the '90s, changing his mind about HRC:
Clinton adviser Kiki McLean: "I think he recognized the courage that it took for her to walk in there, answer the questions they had. That's the great thing about Hillary Clinton. She's not afraid to deal with what other people might shrink away from, to address it head on and deal with it. I think Mr. Scaife responded appropriately" ("LKL," CNN, 3/31).
CNN's Toobin: "I wrote a book about all this. ... What Scaife did was deeply dishonest and unfair to the Clintons. And that newspaper, you know, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review is not a real newspaper in the sense that the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is a newspaper. I mean it is a fringe element. And I am surprised she even talked to them. And I think he's a nut" ("Situation Room," 3/31).
THE "L" WORD
And FNC looked more closely at Barack Obama's liberal answers to '96 camp questionnaires:
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: "He signed it. He put his name on it there. If you look at that closely, question No. 35, Barack Obama says he is for a complete ban on the sale and possession of all handguns. That's radical. ... I think his problems are just starting. The inspection of Barack Obama and his radical politics and his past, very left-wing politics today, is just starting" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 3/31).
The Hill's Youngman: "I think it's potentially dangerous on two fronts. One ... this is somewhat of a pattern, something of a pattern for Senator Obama in that, 'it wasn't me, it was my staff.' ... On the other front, here again, we're painting this picture now of a more liberal senator than what we're seeing on a daily basis. You take this in combination with National Journal's rankings, which put him as the most liberal senator in the entire body, and you're starting to see advertisements being filmed without any cameras yet" ("On the Record," FNC, 3/31) [KATHERINE LEHR].
Posted at 09:33 AM
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