I had a drink yesterday with a smart Democrat mega-donor. I got a little lost looking for him in one the Big Cheese hotels and stopped in the bar. I wound up talking to a decent assortment of smart political types, ranging from a cagey former statewide office-holder in a very key swing state, to some top level money guys to a couple …
Barack Obama
Surprise Guest
As Biden started speaking Obama’s protective press pool hustled into the press area, which means Obama’s in the building…
Update:
Obama spokeswoman Jenn Psaki tells us Obama will join Biden on the stage when he’s done speaking.
Mount Olympus…
Just heard Obama Manager David Plouffe’s view of the world at a groovy TIME magazine event. I’ll post some thoughts on it a bit later. But for now, a quick review of last night’s Hillary speech and a dire prediction about tomorrow’s planned spectacular at Invesco field.
Hillary gave the best speech of her career. It will do …
A Mini Preview of Obama’s Speech
Given Obama’s statements in Moline that he wasn’t aiming for soaring rhetoric in his acceptance speech tomorrow, it’s not entirely surprising that a reporter on Obama’s flight in to Denver from Billings, Montana today asked David Axelrod: Is Obama aiming for boring?
Axelrod laughed and snarkily replied: “Yeah, that’s why …
PUMAs Without Claws…
I know a rock-ribbed Republican operative who was a key Reagan sergeant back during the heated Reagan – Ford primary in 1976. He is still so mad that the Mississippi delegation switched to Ford that he promises physical violence should he ever by chance run into the guy who chaired that delegation. No doubt, these convention emotions …
Slouching Toward Denver
Billings, Montana
Here’s a dispatch from the road on Obama’s migration west. As I note in the story, Gore made a surprise stop to the floor of the convention in Los Angeles when he arrived that Wednesday to see his daughter speak. Obama is currently not scheduled to set foot in the Pepsi Center but his aides won’t rule out that he …
Re: Bill Clinton’s Convention Role
Moline, Illinois
In a press conference on the tarmac before leaving for Kansas City, Obama just batted down stories that there’s any dissention between himself and the Clintons.
“She could not have been more clear today, she could not have been more clear in the course of the last several months,” Obama said. “President Clinton …
Obama Gets a Reading
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
The reading this morning at the First Lutheran Church here where Obama – totting his own bible – attended services may have just been coincidental, though the reader Don Etnier, did preface it with this:
Paul tells us that you shouldn’t be cocky just because you’re an excellent singer. Or musician. Or public
…
The Man Behind the Curtain
Obama Campaign Plane
We’re on the ground in Chicago waiting for the good senator, who was up late working on his convention speech, to surface this morning to head to Eau Claire. In the meantime, here’s an exclusive profile I did on the man behind the curtain in Denver. I don’t envy Matt his job. A lot of what will make or break the …
Dispatches from Springfield III
Chicago, Illinois
My story on the day’s events. Tomorrow we go to church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin followed by a picnic at the somewhat politically named Rod and Gun Park. I’m unsure if we’ll actually see Obama with a gun or a rod, but BBQ is promised.
Dispatches from Springfield II
Springfield, Illinois
Okay, seems I was wrong about the crowd size. We’re told there’s 35,000 people here. Obama had a bit of a slip of the tongue introducing Biden. “The next president… The next vice president of the United States!” The crowd laughed. Biden, I’m told accepted the offer on the call Thursday night. There’s …
Dispatches from Springfield I
Springfield, Illinois
We just arrived at the state capitol. We’re told Biden is en route and on the plane Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass told us that Obama called Biden Thursday night to offer him the job
It is literally 90 degrees warmer than it was on February 10, 2007. The lectern’s all set up with the new Obama/Biden logo. …
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…
So it’s Biden. It strikes me that Obama essentially picked himself.
20 years ago Joe Biden was the Barack Obama of his day. Elected to the Senate as a whiz-kid at 29, Biden was young, smart, talky, telegenic, and ambitious. He had an impressive personal story, as well as the possession of a very healthy ego. It all came …