The McCain people are telling the AP they had McCain speak before a tiny audience “by design.”
From the AP …
In a symbolic move, Obama spoke in the same hall where McCain will accept the Republican nomination at his party’s convention in September. Campaign officials, citing the local fire marshal, put the crowd at 17,000 inside the eXcel Energy Center, plus another 15,000 outside.
McCain addressed a smaller crowd by design, an estimated 600 in his audience and another 600 outside.
I’m not sure who sounds sillier, the McCain camp for saying that or the AP for buying it.
TPM Election Central picks up another sign that Hillary may be angling for the veep slot.
TPM Reader CN …
Let’s be clear about what Hillary is doing here. By signaling that she’ll take the VP slot if offered — and insinuating that a joint ticket is necessary to heal the party(!) — she is foregoing the normal diplomatic niceties in order to screw Obama. It sticks him with the choice between looking like the bad guy (for not offering) and doing something he really doesn’t want to do (putting her on the ticket). Either way, he loses. And either way, she wins: she gets on the ticket or else she engenders a lot of bitterness in her supporters, hurting Obama’s chances in November (and thereby increasing her chances for a 2012 run).
I don’t agree that it’s necessarily the intention; but it is the effect. Obama absolutely cannot give in to pressure to give Clinton the VP slot. If he decides she helps him, that it makes sense for the campaign and his potential presidency, great. It might be a unstoppable combination. But he cannot and I suspect that he will not allow himself to be muscled.
The long, long, long-awaited Phase II report, from the Senate intelligence committee, on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, is scheduled to be released tomorrow, according to a press release from Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
From Minnpost.com …
The crowd kept pouring into the Xcel Energy Center. All ages. All races. All backgrounds. Young Somalis chanting “O-bama!” And older, white women, bedecked in sparkling red, white and blue and holding up a sign, “Women for Obama!”
But most noticeable was the arrival of such people as Buck Humphrey, who once had headed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Minnesota campaign. And Jackie Stevenson, a DFL activist, a feminist and a Clinton-supporting superdelegate, who at the last minute had changed her mind about attending the event. And St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, who was a Clinton supporter until sometime Monday. And Rick Stafford, another Clinton superdelegate.
From Roll Call …
Furthermore, during a Senate vote Wednesday, Obama dragged Lieberman by the hand to a far corner of the Senate chamber and engaged in what appeared to reporters in the gallery as an intense, three-minute conversation.
While it was unclear what the two were discussing, the body language suggested that Obama was trying to convince Lieberman of something and his stance appeared slightly intimidating.
Using forceful, but not angry, hand gestures, Obama literally backed up Lieberman against the wall, leaned in very close at times, and appeared to be trying to dominate the conversation, as the two talked over each other in a few instances.
Still, Obama and Lieberman seemed to be trying to keep the back-and-forth congenial as they both patted each other on the back during and after the exchange.
Afterwards, Obama smiled and pointed up at reporters peering over the edge of the press gallery for a better glimpse of their interaction.
Obama loyalists were quick to express their frustration with Lieberman’s decision and warned that if he continues to take a lead role in attacking Obama it could complicate his professional relationship with the Caucus.
Still in Louisiana today, following his epic speech in Kenner last night, John McCain was asked by a local reporter why he had voted against creating a federal commission to investigate the Katrina disaster.
McCain’s response? “I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy. . . .”
The problem is that’s just not true. He voted against such a commission — twice.
If you needed a reminder of McCain’s most painfully ironic connection to the Katrina debacle, here’s President Bush on the morning Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, celebrating McCain’s birthday in Arizona:
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), in hearings today with DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine on the Justice Department role in torture:
I do see here things that seem to be fraternity boy pranks and hazing pranks that I do not — they might be unacceptable, but they certainly don’t fit into the category of torture, which is the word that’s been bandied around here.
As TPMmuckraker’s Kate Klonick reports, Rohrabacher managed to use some variation of the phrase “panties on the head” eight times in his 13-minute statement.