Barack Obama may have had a much larger crowd watching his acceptance at Invesco Field in Denver than John McCain did inside the Republican Convention hall in St. Paul, but according to Neilsen ratings released today, more people watched McCain's speech on TV.
38.9 million people viewed McCain's address to his convention in St. Paul, while 38.4 million watched Obama's speech in Denver, according to the Neilsen ratings. More...
John McCain’s senior campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, who has become a central figure in the Republican Party, has drawn comparisons to Karl Rove, whom he worked with beginning around 2004.
But as Ana Marie Cox reported this week, those comparisons can be misleading. While Rove has hewed to the far right of his party over the course of his career, Schmidt has spent time working with candidates closer to the center, among them Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lamar Alexander and Matt Fong. While Schmidt was Fong’s spokesman, the candidate signed a pledge negotiated with the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, to protect certain rights for gays and lesbians.
“This is not something a Rove protege would have done,” Cox wrote. “Rove's career has been based on a very different approach to politics, driven more by polls and a tightly controlled narrative designed specifically to appeal to social conservatives.”
Now comes news that on the day that McCain was giving his GOP nomination acceptance speech before the Republican base in St. Paul, Schmidt met with the Log Cabin Republicans.
“I just wanted to take a second to come by and pay my respect and the campaign’s respect to your organization and to your group,” Schmidt told the group, according to The Advocate. “Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party.”
As The Advocate notes, “This convention marks the first in history that Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT rights organization, have been fully credentialed official guests of the GOP host committee.” Sen. Alren Specter, RNC treasurer Tim Morgan, and McCain political director Mike DuHaime also addressed the group this week.
By all accounts, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's address before the Republican Convention Wednesday night went over swimmingly with the Republicans' conservative base. But it appears to have had a similar effect on the Democratic side.
CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic reports that the Obama campaign confirms it has raised over $8 million since Palin's speech last night and is aiming to break $10 million by the end of the night.
Early on Thursday morning, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe sent an email to supporters urging donations of $250 or more to "clarify" to Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin that "community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies." Both Giuliani and Palin mocked Obama's post-collegiate stint as a community organizer in Chicago during their speeches to the RNC.
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The McCain campaign has released the following excerpts ahead of Republican presidential nominee John McCain's speech tonight at the GOP convention:
"I’m very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming."
"The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not."
"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”
(ST. PAUL) Sarah Palin was unknown to the public just a week ago, but it's going to be hard to say that about her anymore. The ratings from her speech at the Republican National Convention are in, and it's now clear just how all the buzz about her translated big time into viewership for the Republican convention.
According to Nielsen, 37.2 million people watched the speech on six networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC). That is just 1.1 million less than watched Obama's speech last Thursday night. Compare that to the estimated 24 million who watched Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden's speech last Wednesday night. You can also compare that to the about 34 million who watched the opening of the Beijing Olympics last month, 32 million who watched this year's Oscars and 31.7 million who watched last spring's American Idol finale.
According to Nielsen, Palin also attracted 19.5 million women, which is 4.9 million more than watched Biden. And 1.4 million Hispanic viewers watched, which is more than the 1.2 million who watched day 3 of the Democratic convention, even though Univision and Telemundo did not carry Palin's speech last night. In fact, it's also of note that Palin's speech was carried by four less networks than Obama's speech (BET and TV One also showed Obama).
Palin has certainly gotten people's attention now. Now the question is whether that will translate into votes for the Republican ticket.
A day after wowing Republican delegates in a convention address that was almost universally acclaimed, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin emerged from a meeting with Republican governors and went right back on the attack against Barack Obama.
Reviving a popular Republican line of attack—that Obama voted "present" dozens of times while in the Illinois senate—Palin said, "We don't have a 'present' button as governor. We are expected to lead, we are expected to take action and not just vote 'present.' So there's a big difference, of course, between the executive and legislative branches and our experience."
The Republican governors event in the Twin Cities marked the first time since John McCain made her his running mate—excluding her convention speech—that Palin appeared in public without the top of the ticket by her side.
Palin is slated to begin campaigning on her own Monday, and she told reporters she's eager to travel across the country.
"I intend to give this campaign all that I have to give," she said. "And I look forward to these 60-plus days on the trail. My family looks forward to this, we're up for it, we're excited about it."
(ST. PAUL) It’s one of those mythologizing details that can help a well-received speech be remembered an epic one: According to RedState, citing “sources close to the McCain campaign,” Sarah Palin’s teleprompter malfunctioned during her speech last night.
The faulty prompter, RedState reported, forced the Republican vice presidential nominee to recite her speech from memory, with the help of occasional glances at the printed text sitting on the podium.
“Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved,” wrote Erick Erickson. “Sarah Palin. Winner.”
The claim was picked up by the highly-trafficked Drudge Report, immediately launching it into the larger conversation. According to Jonathan Martin at Politico, however, it isn’t accurate.
“Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech,” Martin wrote. “But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the Teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.”
After Martin’s post, Erickson defended his report in an update. “MSNBC and Fox both report that there were problems with the teleprompter,” he wrote.
“BTW, I've gotten one more clarification from the McCain campaign: by the end of the speech the problem had been resolved,” Erickson added. “But you can clearly see during the middle Palin looked at her text often.”
I just ran into Kevin Farley, who stars as a bumbling Michael Moore in the new film “An American Carol.” The trailer for the film, which you can see here, debuted on “The O’Reilly Factor”; O’Reilly himself has a cameo in the movie, which the Fox host describes as “a spoof of the far left.”
Farley was working the halls of the RNC to promote the film, which screened for about 2,000 people here earlier this week.
(CBS/Brian Montopoli)
“We thought it would be smart to come here and talk to the people that would like it the most,” Farley said, shortly before Gail Stanart, a Texas delegate who had been standing next to Farley, broke in to say she had seen the film and found it “hysterical.”
“It’s so over the top that I don’t think it will be offensive, but it also has a message,” she added. “It makes you think.”
Farley, who has never spoken to Moore, describes himself as a “conservative person.” He said Moore is “a pretty nice guy, probably,” but that people can get justifiably upset by some of the things he has said in the past.
Farley said he is not working in any way with the McCain campaign or the RNC, adding that he did not expect the film to have an impact on the outcome of the presidential election.
“I don’t think it will at all,” Farley said. “I think people will make up their own mind. A movie won’t make up their mind for a person.”
The Republican Party has released advance excerpts from several of the big speakers tonight, including vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and three of McCain's former rivals for Republican nomination -- Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.
"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities."
On why she is going to Washington, D.C.:
"I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country."
On energy policies that the McCain-Palin administration will implement:
"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines...build more nuclear plants...create jobs with clean coal...and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers."
On John McCain:
"Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change." More...
(ST. PAUL) The buzz around Sarah Palin continues to grow with each passing day since she was picked as John McCain's running mate. And her speech is shaping up to be the key moment of this convention, even surpassing McCain's own speech tomorrow night. So what's should we expect from her? We asked members of the CBS News political team for their take on what she has to do tonight and whether she should address the allegations that have been raised this week.
CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer: "This is the most anticipated, and will be the most closely watched vice presidential candidate speech I can recall. Usually it’s all about what the candidate says in his speech. But there's far more interest in what she's going to say.
"It's because no one knows who she is. She simply has to, number 1, not make some sort of blunder, which I don’t think she will… but what she has got to do is introduce herself to the American people. Every poll shows the vast majority of the American people have no idea who she is. First impressions are always the most important.
"I think this is something that is either going to be seen as one of the most astute and smartest nominations in the history of politics, or it's going to be a flop. I don’t think there is going to be any in between."
CBS News political analyst Joe Trippi: "I think she's got to use this moment not to so much explain any of the controversies around her, but explain who she is and to take her strengths -- her strength of reform, taking on corruption -- and project that as to how that affects the McCain-Obama fight. More...
Katie Stands Up To Cancer (4:16) Doctors are working to adapt cancer treatments previously used for adults in order to treat related illnesses found in children. Katie Couric examines this new potential hope for many young patients.
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