McCain steps up push to win over disaffected Clinton backers
John McCain is ramping up his efforts to win over disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who could hold the balance of power in several swing states this fall.
McCain's campaign yesterday announced a virtual town hall meeting tomorrow aimed at independents and Democrats, particularly backers of Clinton who aren't enamored of the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. The event will feature, along with McCain, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of
"As a woman I take great pride in the fact that Hillary Clinton ran for president," Fiorina said in a Web video, adding that bold women and women in power like Clinton are treated differently.
Therese Murray, the first female leader of the Massachusetts Senate, said yesterday that she was deeply disappointed that Clinton didn't win the Democratic nomination, though she plans to vote for Obama in November. "We thought that certainly in my generation that glass ceiling would have been able to break by now," Murray, one of Clinton's most forceful backers in the Bay State, said at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast. "And it looks like certainly in my lifetime I will not see a woman president, and that is not lost on me or many other women of my age group."
FOON RHEE
AND MATT VISER
Obama, McCain promote their tax cut strategies
Barack Obama promoted his middle-class tax cuts yesterday in Wisconsin, a potential battleground state in November, and said the proposals of Republican rival John McCain would help the wealthy.
McCain retaliated by hitting Obama again on another pocketbook issue - gas prices.
Obama was armed with a study that suggests that his proposals would give families making between about $38,000 and $66,000 a year an average tax cut of $1,042 - three times more than the $319 in savings they would get from McCain's plans.
The biggest gap would be for the 0.1 percent of taxpayers with incomes of more than $2.9 million a year, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington. They would pay $270,000 less under McCain, but pay $702,000 more under Obama. Both plans, however, would dramatically increase the federal deficit, the study found.
Meanwhile, McCain, who supports a summer-long suspension of the federal gas tax, is trying to capitalize on Obama's remarks on CNBC this week about high gas prices. "I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment," Obama said, adding that "ultimately, we can come out of this stronger and have a more efficient-energy policy than we do right now."
That prompted a missive yesterday from McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: "Barack Obama's assertion that the only problem with higher gas prices is that they've gone up too fast . . . shows how clearly out of touch he is with Americans struggling with record gas prices."
FOON RHEE
Fox News Channel adds Huckabee to political team
Mike Huckabee, whose quips and one-liners livened up the Republican nomination race, has a new gig: political commentator for Fox News Channel.
Huckabee will regularly contribute to the "America's Election HQ" coverage, the network announced yesterday.
Huckabee's humor and homespun turns of phrase won't hurt either. One recent joke fell flat, however, when at the National Rifle Association conference last month he quipped about Barack Obama ducking for cover when a loud bang sounded offstage while Huckabee was speaking.
The former Arkansas governor, who dropped out of the race and endorsed John McCain after the March primary in Texas, apologized for that one.
FOON RHEE
Candidates turn spotlight on rivals' controversial ties
With the resignation of James Johnson, the leader of Barack Obama's vice presidential vetting team, John McCain reminded reporters yesterday that another vetter, Eric Holder, has a checkered past as well.
"Mr. Holder recommended a pardon for Mr. Rich, and all of those things should be taken into consideration by the media and the American people," McCain said at a news conference in Boston.
McCain was referring to Holder's role as deputy attorney general in the final days of Bill Clinton's presidency in 2001, when financier Marc Rich was given an unusual pardon, leading to a congressional investigation. Holder denied any wrongdoing, but acknowledged he would have handled the case differently if he had known all the details.
The Obama campaign has this week targeted one of McCain's vice presidential candidate vetters, Arthur Culvahouse, who served as President Reagan's White House counsel and who is now in a prominent Washington law firm.
"It's too bad their campaign is still rife with lobbyist influence and doesn't see a similar 'perception problem' with the man currently running their own vice presidential selection process, a prominent D.C. lobbyist whose firm has represented Exxon and a top
FOON RHEE
