April 2008 - Posts
Hardball's Chris Matthews takes a look at some interesting Decision 2008 topics and shares his thoughts.
The Clintons’ recipe for success
The Clinton campaign has had a tough time managing former president Bill Clinton in this election. He was supposed to be the secret weapon but against whom? Sen. Barack Obama or his own wife? His gaffes, outbursts, and misstatements have dogged the Clinton campaign since the beginning.
But as we head into the final days of the Pennsylvania primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton is once again trying to use the Bill Clinton years to her advantage. On Thursday, at a Philadelphia dinner yesterday she said:
"Sometimes during this campaign my opponent criticizes the 90s and criticizes what my husband did. And that's fair. But when I hear him criticizing the 90s, I keep wondering what part he didn't like, the peace or the prosperity, because I liked both."
Unfortunately it wasn't "just" the peace and prosperity. It was also the Clinton sitcom. The Clintons assume memory loss on the part of the voters. That's a secret to their success.
President for a term?
The wondrous Peggy Noonan has an interesting suggestion for John McCain on Friday. She wrote in her Wall Street Journal column,
“It seems to me it would be a brilliant thing for him to announce he means to be a one-term president, that he means to have a clean, serious, one-term presidency in which he will do things those under pressure of re-election do not and cannot do."
Peggy Noonan says voters in the middle would love it because you get a good man, and Obama gets time to grow. The problem is that one-term presidents are almost lame ducks to begin with.
Clinton needs the popular vote
In order to have any shot at the Democratic nomination at this point, Clinton needs to beat Obama in the overall popular vote. Right now, she trails Obama by over 700,000 votes, not including Florida and Michigan.
If she were to win the overall popular vote, Clinton might be able to make a case for superdelegates to back her. But in order for that to happen, she first needs a major win in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. How much does she need to win by, in my estimation?
At least 200,000 votes! A 200,000 vote win in Pennsylvania to begin the uphill battle of winning the popular vote. Watch video.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appeared on Tuesday's Hardball College Tour from Villanova University.
Below are highlights from the broadcast:
On the difference between him and Pres. Bush
Chris Matthews: How will you be different than President Bush?
Sen. John McCain: Well, I think that there's many philosophies and views and vision that we share for America. There are other areas, specific areas, in which we are in disagreement. Chris, I think the American people will make their choice for the presidency on who they believe, not only their record, but how they articulate a vision for the future. That‘s why forums like these, very honestly, are things that are important to me to be on so I can communicate directly not only with the people of this country but with the young people of this nation. So what‘s an area of disagreement? Climate change. Climate change. I believe that climate change is real. I think we have to act... And I've said that for many, many years. I would just like to put the question this way to my fellow Americans. Suppose that we are wrong and there's no such thing as climate change but we go ahead and adopt green technologies and we reduce greenhouse gas emissions? All we've done is give our kids a cleaner planet...
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
On torture
McCain: My point is that for the future of this country, we have to make sure that we remain a nation that does not do things that our enemies do. And I promise you, my friends, I`ll close Guantanamo Bay and we will never torture another person in our custody again.
On whether or not he's a "typical white person"
Student: Senator McCain, the day following Barack Obama's speech on racism at the National Constitution Center, he remarked on comments he made during his speech about his racist grandmother, referring to her as a "typical white person." Would you characterize
yourself, as Barack Obama would phrase, as a typical white person?
McCain: May I say first that I thought that Senator Obama's speech was an excellent speech and I think it was well presented. I think it was an important statement that he had to make at the time, and I think it was good for all of America to have heard it. I can`t comment directly as to how I portray myself, except to say that I hope that all of us learn over the years the need and the importance of treating everyone in this nation only and solely on the attributes they have and their ability to follow their ambitions and their hopes and dreams as far as they`ll take them.
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Did you miss Chris Matthews' guest appearance on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" last night?
Colbert grilled Matthews on whether or not he hopes to run for senator in 2010.
For his part, Matthews only said, "Some people growing up, some kids want to be a fireman. I want to be a senator."
Check out the clip below:
Sen. Barack Obama kicked off the Hardball College Tour Wednesday in West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
Below are some highlights from the broadcast:
Photo: Alex Brandon | AP
On bowling
Chris Matthews: One of the perks, senator, of being president of the United States is that you have your own bowling alley. Are you ready to bowl from day one?
Barack Obama: Obviously, I am not.
(Laughter)
Matthews: Ha!
Obama: But I figure there might be some bowlers here at West Chester. I just want to thank all of them for hosting us. This is a wonderful group. Thank you so much for having me.... And basketball I can play.
On whether or not he's tough enough
Matthews: That was the warm-up. How do we know that you're tough enough to take the heat from the right, right-wing radio and from the right-wing columnists, if you begin to pull our troops out of Iraq and they start screaming, "Who lost Iraq?" How do we know you're as tough as Dick Cheney to ignore public opinion and do what you believe in? Because he's certainly tough enough to do it.
Obama: Well, first of all, you don't ignore public opinion. You try to shape public opinion. And you try to shape it with the truth, not with false facts, not by shading intelligence reports.
And you know, in terms of my toughness, look, first of all, I come from Chicago. And you know, politics in Chicago, as it was once said, is not tiddlywinks. It's not beanbag. It's a tough town.
But what I've been able to do is to rise politically without compromising my ethics, without compromising my principles. I think during the course of this campaign, we're going up against a pretty tough political operation with the Clintons. Nobody's ever accused them of being soft. And so far, we're doing pretty well. And you know, I am very confident that when it comes to issues like Iraq, a war that I stood up against at a time when it would have been politically convenient to be for it, or at least to be silent, when it comes to tough issues like talking to leaders we don't like, something that defies some of the conventional wisdom in Washington but I feel very strongly about, then I'm going to stick to my guns and try to persuade the American people that we need to go in a new direction and fundamentally break with the failed policies of the past seven-and-a-half years.
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