The Christian Science Monitor

For Pelosi, no early notice on Biden pick

By Dave Cook | 08.24.08

Denver – House speaker Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking Democrat in the US government, standing just after Vice President Dick Cheney in the line of succession to the presidency.So how much advance word did Speaker Pelosi, permanent chair of the 2008 Democratic Convention, get of Barack Obama’s decision to pick Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mate?

“I didn’t have any advance word,” she said Saturday at a Monitor-sponsored lunch with reporters at Denver’s historic Brown Palace Hotel. “You found out before I did because I was asleep. We had to get up early for a plane that would not get here in time.”

Pelosi, who seemed unconcerned about the lack of advance notice, said she had advised Senator Obama to choose a running mate “where the chemistry is right for you.” The Obama campaign announced the vice presidential selection by sending out e-mail and text messages early Saturday morning.

When Pelosi is commuting between her congressional district in San Francisco and Washington, she flies in a US Air Force jet. But for political travel, Pelosi flies commercial. Thus it was that at 11 a.m. Saturday, one of her top aides called to say she would be late for our 1:30 lunch.

Her flight was delayed and it was packed, because the airline had canceled the next flight to Denver. Then, she said, the airline decided to unload those who would not make their connections. “It was like, does anyone know about service?” she said.

It may have been a long day on the road, but when Pelosi stepped out of the elevator with her husband, Paul, she looked flawless in a blue pin-striped pantsuit and pearls. Paul Pelosi, a successful investor with an easy, friendly manner, is tall and strikingly handsome, and was dressed in a blazer and open-collared shirt.

After walking around the table greeting reporters, Pelosi sat down and immediately attacked the chocolate mousse at her place and began an energetic presentation.

“You are getting me right off the plane, with chocolate,” she quipped. And midway through the lunch, in a supreme sacrifice for the Monitor, I offered her my dessert, which she also polished off.

As might be expected, Pelosi was enthusiastic about her party’s ticket. “I am very sure we will leave this convention with all of the enthusiasm in the world and the greatest unity and with Barack Obama and Joe Biden – is that a ticket! That is great – a terrific platform and just a campaign ready to win in November and to govern in January.”

Most impartial forecasters expect Democrats to pick up seats in the House in the 2008 election. Pelosi said, “We will have a stronger and bigger Democratic majority in November.” Patting her chest she said, “pitter-pat, pitter-pat, that is my heart beat. We are in great shape.”

The closing question focused on comments Senator Biden made about his wife, Jill, at Saturday’s Springfield, Ill., unveiling of the Democratic ticket. Biden called his wife “drop dead gorgeous.” He then quipped, “she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem.”

Pelosi responded, “You know what? I am going to tell you something. Lighten up, folks. We have a planet to save. Nothing less is at stake than civilization as we know it today. The economy of our country, the health of our children, the state of our deficit, and the rest. These things are anecdotally humorous, funny, lighten up a bit. But the fact is there is so much at stake, and if Senator Biden happens to find his wife attractive, that is A-OK with me.”

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Obama’s lead narrows amid energy worries

By David Cook | 08.01.08

Congress headed home Friday for a five-week recess without passing legislation to deal with high energy prices that are at the top of voters’ concerns.

Both parties in Congress played a role in blocking action on energy. Senate Republicans prevented action on a measure to curb speculation in oil futures. House Democratic leaders employed voting procedures that effectively blocked Republicans from forcing a vote on opening new areas to oil exploration, a step with widespread Congressional support.

The stalemate has been driven, in part, by each party’s desire to keep the other from seizing the political high ground on an issue of paramount importance to voters as the November elections draw closer.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed that energy and the gasoline crisis have “emerged as the dominant economic issue,” said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute. Mr. Richards spoke at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Thursday morning.

The new Quinnipiac poll examined voter attitudes in three key battleground states – Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. “We gave people a list of retirement values, real estate, gasoline prices and food prices and said which one of them is the most important and more than one third picked gasoline prices,” Richards said. “The campaign seems to be focusing on energy.”

Voters say they are more concerned about energy than the war in Iraq, according to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, who also spoke at the Monitor breakfast.

The new poll found that while Senator Obama leads Senator McCain in all three states, Obama’s lead has narrowed in the past month. Florida and Ohio are now too close to call. “It appears that Senator Obama’s trip to Europe and the Middle East did not help him,” in terms of poll numbers, Mr. Brown said.

Energy has played a key role in Senator McCain’s improved position in the battleground state polls, Richards said. McCain favors increased offshore drilling for oil, something Obama opposes.

“Senator McCain has narrowed Sen. Barrack Obama’s lead in Pennsylvania by five points, probably because his energy policy is more in line in Pennsylvania  – the Three Mile Island state where a surprising six in 10 voters now favor building new nuclear power plants, “ Richards said.

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One in, one out

By Dave Cook | 07.08.08

Speculating about who Senators McCain and Obama will pick as running mates is one of the few summer joys for those of us trapped in muggy Washington. So far this week, the score is one in and one out of the vice presidential fray.

On Monday, Virginia Senator Jim Webb issued a statement saying he had, “communicated to Senator Obama and his presidential campaign my firm intention to remain in the United States Senate, where I believe I am best equipped to serve the people of Virginia and this country.”

Meanwhile, at a Monitor breakfast with reporters on Monday former Hewlett Packard Board Chairman Carly Fiorina did nothing to dampen speculation that she is interested in being Senator McCain’s running mate. When asked if a former corporate official could be an appropriate vice presidential pick she said, “I think there are things that government can borrow and learn from business.”

Ms. Fiorina “couldn’t be any more plain about her vice presidential ambitions without taking out an ad,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank said in his piece about the breakfast.

Senator Webb was considered attractive as a vice presidential nominee because his resume is strong where Obama’s is weak: on national security issues, notes Los Angeles Times congressional correspondent Janet Hook.  The first term senator, elected in 2006, served as President Reagan’s Navy Secretary and is a decorated Vietnam War veteran from a state Senator Obama intends to contest.

Webb took himself out of consideration after being asked to provide Obama’s vice presidential vetting team with information and documents, according to reporting by theatlantic.com’s Marc Ambinder.  Being asked for documents is a sign a vice presidential candidate is under serious consideration.  The leaders of Obama’s vetting team are Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

As MSNBC’s “First Read” observes, Webb is the second prominent Democrat to make a Sherman-esque statement regarding being picked as Obama’s VP.  Popular Ohio governor Ted Strickland – a Hillary Clinton supporter – was the first potential running mate to opt out of the vice presidential sweepstakes.  One Virginia elected official who remains on Obama’s list is Governor Tim Kaine.

Under the headline “Risky Business” Post humorist Milbank had fun with Fiorina’s health care policy observation that, “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication.”  Still, the Post column noted that Fiorina’s “attributes are many: a woman who could appeal to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters; a corporate hotshot to balance the “economy-is-not-my-strong-suit” McCain; and an outsider untainted by President Bush, Washington and politics.”

The Stanford and MIT grad is certainly image savvy.  With gasoline prices a major political issue, Fiorina rolled up to front door of the St Regis Hotel for breakfast not in the black SUV favored by many top officials but in a campaign staffer’s subcompact.

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A Revealing Pelosi Moment

By Dave Cook | 06.25.08

One of the pleasures of hosting the Monitor’s Washington breakfasts is watching some of the best political reporters in the business interact with top government officials.

Sometimes our guest manages to glide past questions with an unremarkable utterance.

But other times, the interaction between reporter and official in a relaxed, civilized setting produces a wonderfully revealing moment.

That was the case Tuesday when USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether sexism had contributed to Hillary Clinton’s failure to capture the Democratic presidential nomination.

Ms. Pelosi, making her eighth visit to one of our gatherings, responded in a way that acknowledged sexism but cast doubt on whether it placed a decisive role in the primary process, as some Clinton supporters believe.

“I think Senator Clinton got the benefit of being a woman because women are wildly enthusiastic about her candidacy, not just a woman for president but this woman, this talent, intellect, commitment, stamina, don’t forget stamina when it comes to these races,” Pelosi said.

She added, “Is there sexism?  Probably so.  Is it responsible for the defeat? I really wouldn’t have the scientific…all of the information to know that.  But I do think that being a woman had a positive upside in the campaign, probably offset by more sexism, I don’t know. Of course there is sexism, we all know that, but it is a given.”

Then the Speaker went on in a way that shed some revealing light on her own feelings.  “I am a victim of sexism myself all the time but I just think it goes with territory. I don’t sit around to say but for that…”

For those of us sitting around the table with her, it was a striking and poignant moment.  Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government, third in the line of presidential succession.  She arrived for our meeting in an armored SUV, guarded by plain clothes Capitol Police officers.   She is ferried home on weekends in a private Air Force plane.  The Almanac of American Politics notes that Pelosi and her husband, Paul, are multi-millionaires and have a home in San Francisco, a vineyard in the Napa Valley, a town home in the Sierras, and a condominium in Washington. And yet, there is a part of her that stills feels like a victim.

Her comments had a matter of fact, not a self-pitying tone. “I am a full steam ahead person,” Pelosi said.  The record bears that out.  She climbed in the House of Representatives to be her party’s whip in 14 years, leader of her party in 15 years, and Speaker in less than 20.

Pelosi went on to talk about dealing with sexist remarks directed at her. “My impression is yes there was sexism, my knowledge is yes there is sexism.  I myself find I get a tremendous upside being a woman and I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about sexist remarks that people make.”

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Message Control

By Dave Cook | 06.23.08

Last Thursday, for apparently the first time in the Monitor’s 42-year history of hosting newsmaker breakfasts, reporters assembled at the St. Regis Hotel without knowing who our speaker would be.

The reason tells you how tightly the Obama campaign controls its message.

I had been writing to senior Obama campaign officials for months, inviting them to speak at one of our breakfasts. Senator Obama was the guest at memorable Monitor lunch at the Democratic convention in Boston in August, 2004. The headline on my blog that day was “Catching a rising star.”

But despite repeated entreaties and the appearance of senior officials from the Clinton and McCain campaigns at Monitor-sponsored gatherings this year, top Obama strategists had remained illusive.

So I was delighted last Tuesday morning to find a message on my Blackberry saying Obama officials were willing to meet with us on Thursday. “It will be a couple of senior campaign officials, but we plan to make some news that day and if we put out who the officials are I think it will tip people off,” the Obama press office said.

So the language I could use in writing to Washington bureau chiefs about the gathering was “senior Obama campaign staff.” Despite not knowing who would appear to be interviewed, 47 political reporters and columnists signed up for the session. It tells you how hungry political reporters are for contact with top Obama campaign officials.

It wasn’t until 5:40 a.m. Thursday when I was given the name of the guests – Obama Campaign Communications Director Robert Gibbs and campaign General Counsel Robert Bauer.

For understandable reasons, the Obama media team did not want to leave it to scribes from newspapers and newsmagazines to be the ones to break the news that Senator Obama was changing his position and would not accept public financing for the general election.

So at 8:50 a.m., while journalists were still assembling for the Monitor breakfast, the Obama campaign emailed supporters and journalists a video of their candidate announcing his decision not to participate in the public financing system. In the video, the Senator explained, “the public financing system of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters of gaming this broken system.”

And in another bit of skilful message management, later the same day the campaign released the first TV ad of the general election season stressing the candidate’s patriotism, filled with evocative photos from Obama’s past. It gave the networks and cable outlets additional newsworthy video not tied to the controversial decision to avoid public financing.

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