The Daily Digest: 8-17-08

Posted at 11:33 AM on August 17, 2008 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

Gov. Pawlenty's VP tryout leads the digest. Pawlenty was on Face the Nation (video up soon - I hope) this morning and said he had "no news to report" when asked if he was asked to be the VP nominee or whether he was taking his name out of consideration.

Pawlenty appeared alongside Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. Pawlenty stuck to several talking points "Who do you want sitting across Putin?" and "McCain was crisp, Obama was wandering..." regarding the Saddleback Forum. Bayh shot back that McCain dropped the ball on seeing the Georgia crisis because he was too focused on Iraq. He also surprised Pawlenty by saying Pawlenty was initially against the surge. Pawlenty replied he was against the surge because he felt it was too late and should have occurred earlier.

The bottom line: Bayh and Pawlenty looked like twins and stuck to their talking points. You can read more about it here.

Former PA Gov. Tom Ridge said the GOP could accept a pro-choice VP. Ridge is pro-choice.

Democrats are bracing for Obama's pick.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden is headed to Georgia.

This Scottish newspaper said both candidates need running mates who can deliver votes.

2008 Race for President

The Star Tribune says the candidates are holding their hands out in the same zip codes.

Democrat Barack Obama raised $51 million in July.

Obama and Republican John McCain met in the Saddleback Forum. They differed on abortion and the U.S. Supreme Court. AP and Politico have stories.

2008 Race for Senate

Forum Communications says no debates are set yet.

The Pi Press says the Senate candidates are spending their money on mud.

AP says GOP Sen. Norm Coleman is holding his own in the Senate race. The story focuses on how the Democrats will pick up Senate seats.

AP picks up on the YouTube debate.

2008 Race for Congress

The Hill says the GOP efforts to call for more drilling equates to Groundhog Day. GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann is mentioned.

The 3rd District candidates head to GameFair. DFLer Ashwin Madia is also headed to the DNC.

Congress

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson talks about the Bovine TB management plan.

He also said implementing the Farm Bill is the next step.

2008 RNC

The RNC organizes a mass clean-up.

Forum Communications says convention delegates are happy despite the costs.

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Comments (2)

Bayh did better against Pawlenty than Tim Kaine did on Fox in early June. Then again, that's not saying much, since Kaine seemed incapable of saying anything negative about anyone, while Pawlenty was in full attack dog mode.

I still think McCain and Obama would be better off picking governors as their VPs - Pawlenty for McCain and Sebelius for Obama. Picking members of Congress is lose/lose.

For McCain, most GOP Congresspeople have pro-Bush voting records in the 80-90-something percents, which feeds into the "Bush's 3rd Term" attack from the Ds. Picking someone with a more independent record would anger the right-wing base that McCain already has had trouble with.

For Obama, one of the central rationales of his candidacy during the primaries was that he has superior judgment to all these other Democrats who spent '01-'04 voting for the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind, the 2001 Bankruptcy Bill, etc. Hillary Clinton was supposed to lack the judgment to be President because of her support for these items, according to Obama, who wasn't in Congress at the time. Picking someone like Bayh, who also supported all these things, potentially leads to more "flip-flopper/moving to the right/business as usual" stories from the press and GOP. On the other hand, there were only 23 Senate votes against the Iraq War, 10 votes against No Child Left Behind, and 15 votes against the 2001 Bankruptcy Bill. If Obama chose one of those guys as his runningmate, he'd get all these "Most Liberal Ticket Ever" stories from the press and the GOP.

There's also Congress' single-digit approval rating as an institution right now.

Governors don't have voting records, can fudge on "what would you have done?" questions, and can shape their views on national/international issues to the moment. I think that's a big part of why so many governors get elected president.

Posted by Chris | August 17, 2008 6:22 PM

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It doesn't matter, McCain, after he just got finished lying and cheating within the house of GOD!! How dare he. He was asked flat out how his room of silence was, in which he replied "I was trying to hear through the walls"... Ha Ha funny man, to bad you weren't even in the building sitting comfortably in your motorcade listening to the whole darn thing!!!!! How dare he indeed.

Posted by eric | August 17, 2008 11:42 PM

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