June 2007 - Posts
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(From Hardball Intern Lindsey Weller) The steamy summer weather only adds to the heat created by the stimulating guests that sit outside on Hardball Plaza. Ann Coulter appeared on Tuesday , while Christopher Hitchens and the Rev. Al Sharpton were in the Plaza hot seats on Thursday (video) . Before the shows, Ann Coulter and Al Sharpton stayed inside to keep cool in anticipation of the heat they would face outside, while Hitchens was busy with a last-minute podcast at Johnny’s restaurant in the Plaza.
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UPDATE: We had to bump this segment for breaking news, but we hope you enjoy this amusing video anyway. Be sure to check back next week for more must-see Vide08!
On Hardball, we're bringing you the hottest, most talked-about videos from the 2008 campaign. Tonight, as we roll into the July fourth holiday next week, we thought we'd have a little fun. Here's a holiday treat from the guys at Jib Jab.
Ann Coulter wrote about her Tuesday 'Hardball' appearance in her latest column.
"The Edwards campaign is apparently still running low on donations, so this week they went back to their top fundraiser: me."
"I think I may have tuned out at some point, so I can only speak to the first 45 minutes of Elizabeth Edwards' harangue, but it mostly consisted of utterly dishonest renditions of things I had said on my "Good Morning America" interview this week and a column I wrote four years ago. (You can't rush Edwards' "rapid response team"!) She claimed I had launched unprovoked attacks on the Edwards' dead son and called for a terrorist attack on her husband."
Though she didn't mention 'Hardball' by name, she did say, agreeing to go on was "a mistake I [she] won't make again." Read more.
by David Shuster, Hardball correspondent
In November 2003, Ann Coulter wrote a column attacking John Edwards and accusing him of using his son’s death for political gain. Coulter wrote: “If you want points for not using your son’s death politically, don’t you have to take down all those ‘Ask me about my son’s death in a horrific car accident’ bumper stickers?” The shocking comments ignited a political fire storm.
Earlier this year, Coulter continued to target Edwards when she used a derogatory word to describe him at a conservative political conference. CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro, as posted on First Read
A day after his wife Elizabeth called in to MSNBC’s “Hardball” to confront conservative commentator Ann Coulter , Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards made his own appearance on the show.
“I don’t think [Coulter] has any shame; there’s no doubt about that,” Edwards said. “I think that's just the way she behaves. That's who she is. And I think that's a lot of what we see from these people who are just -- that are crazy.”
Read the transcript from today’s Hardball . Click here for video.
Every day, Hardball’s Vide08 will deliver the hottest, most debated, most talked-about videos from the 2008 campaign. It could be a new YouTube clip, a killer campaign ad, an unscripted moment on the trail, or a lethal bite from a speech.
....one from the Obama campaign in Iowa , and finally, Paul Newman’s fundraising pitch for the Democrats.
By Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
Coulter, the controversial conservative commentator, appeared on an outdoor set with host Chris Matthews -- and also with dozens of supporters and detractors waiting to ask questions. But there was another person waiting to pose a question to Coulter: Elizabeth Edwards.
According to an Edwards campaign aide, Elizabeth Edwards wanted to call into the show when she heard that Coulter would be taking questions, and she called a Hardball producer to get the phone number needed to dial into the show. The result is the exchange below (click here to watch the video) :
Chris Matthews: You know who's on the line? Somebody to respond to what you said Edwards yesterday morning -- Elizabeth Edwards. She wanted to call in today we said she could. Elizabeth Edwards go on the line you're on the line with Ann Coulter
Elizabeth Edwards: Hello, Chris.
Matthews: You wanna say something directly to the person who's with me?
Edwards: I'm calling you … in the South when someone does something that displeases us, we wanna ask them politely to stop doing it. Uh - I'd like to ask Ann Coulter -- if she wants to debate on issues, on positions -- we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today -- but uh it's quite another matter for these personal attacks that the things she has said over the years not just about John but about other candidates. It lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely stop the personal attacks.
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Today, my producer Jen Yuille and I managed to corner Michael Moore in a Capitol Hill hearing room and interview him about “Sick-o." (video) The movie argues for taking the “for profit” side of health care completely out of it while giving health insurance to every American.
Moore was wearing his trade sartorial combination: tennis shoes, suit pants, untucked shirt, and a jacket. But, it was a bit surprising to see him without a baseball cap. Every time I’ve seen him before, starting with his film “Roger and Me” or “Fahrenheit 9-11,” he wears a baseball cap.
In any case, we started by asking Moore about the general criticism of his views on health care. He joked, “I expect no criticism.” Then he became a bit more serious. He said, “millions of Americans have been suffering through this system, dealing with these lousy HMO’s. You have 47 million who don’t have insurance. I think there will be a groundswell of support to fix this very broken system.”
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(From Jeremy Bronson, Hardball supervising producer)
As a build-up to the announcement, the campaign released this video , a spoof on the final episode of The Sopranos. Hillary plays Tony, Bill plays Carmela, and Johnny Sack makes a little cameo. Yeah, it’s kinda hokey, and yeah, it was probably the brainchild of some staffers, and sure Celine Dion is Canadian, and yeah, the Sopranos are mobsters, but all in all, it works. It shows that Hillary wants to confront any perceived likability deficit head-on.
You can see Clinton’s earlier campaign-song contest videos right here .
You’ll recall the earlier optimistic tunes that swept candidates into the White House. George W. Bush chose “We the People” by Billy Ray Cyrus, Bill Clinton used Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” George H. W. Bush used “This Land is Your Land” by Woodie Guthrie, and Ronald Reagan picked Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
Only time will tell if Celine can get it done for Hillary.
(From Chip Reid, NBC correspondent)
Some Examples: Hillary Clinton’s first big applause line came after she (predictably) professed her support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize, a top legislative priority for unions. (Opposing it would be political suicide in front of this crowd.)
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(From Brooke Brower, Hardball producer) Today’s AFSCME presidential forum was a change of pace compared to our last presidential event (MSNBC’s GOP debate at the Reagan Library ). A pumped up crowd came running down the aisles (literally “Price is Right” style) when they opened the ballroom doors and blasted “Shake a Tail Feather” by Ray Charles . The vast majority of the thousands of AFSCME members there wore t-shirts (like these ), which made for a sea of green looking out from the stage. They may have been dressed in green, but they were true blue when they booed mentions of bold faced red names like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The first two candidates, Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), got the crowd fired up even more with explicit labor-friendly pledges. Richardson said he’d appoint a union leader as labor secretary and Kucinich said he’d cancel NAFTA and the WTO. It’s debatable as to whether Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), or Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) (the top three candidates according to our newest NBC/WSJ poll ) landed the loudest welcome from the audience. Event officials told us that a large piece of the crowd was made up of AFSCME members from New York, but that didn’t mean all the applause and flashbulbs were for Clinton alone. Edwards and Obama both received raucous ovations when they hit the stage.
One sidebar: there was a noticeable difference between the security presence for Clinton and Obama. During Clinton’s time, we saw one or two Secret Service members on each side of the stage. During Obama’s time, there were several people from the security team both in front of the stage and next to it.
From NBC's Chuck Todd
My friends at Hardball ask me to keep tabs on the AFSCME forum and share my extraneous thoughts as these folks were speaking. Here you go -- random thoughts from the morning so far. First off, what a great show. Forums are usually a bore but this one was fun to watch and Chris kept it moving. These candidates tried hard not to make news, but they certainly fed off the crowd which also kept the energy level up. Overall, it's a forum format other groups (both left and right) ought to copy. This works. Now, for some candidate-by-candidate chatter ... please forgive the stream of consciousness of it. Between morning conference call planning and "First Read," it was necessary to keep thoughts short and, well, all over the map: Richardson: He is so much better in a forum format than a debate format. One of the surprises of this campaign has been his weakness at the debates. Today was a better day for him; he looked good and he sounded confident.
Kucinich: He has an amazing ability to not seem like he's in the same room as other folks on stage. He's very self-aware, almost too much so that it makes him seem somehow aloof. It's odd, I wish I were a better writer so that I could explain it better. Bottom line: He's more in line on the issues with the rank-n-file than anyone else on stage and yet, he's getting less traction this cycle than he did four years ago.
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Super Tuesday ” coverage on June 19, the 2008 election campaign has begun to gallop. he’s joined Rudy Guiliani as an equal bet to win the nomination. Mitt Romney has dropped to third in the odds, while John McCain has fallen horribly off the pace.
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