The Trail

Thursday, September 18, 2008

MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY

GOP Ticket Appears in Michigan, And Palin Takes a Few Questions

"John? John?" Sarah Palin called to John McCain. "Can I add somethin'?"

Turns out what the Alaska governor wanted to add to McCain's answer during a town hall meeting Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich., was that the man at the top of the Republican ticket is "a bit too humble."

The whole evening was a lot like that.

McCain and Palin made their first joint appearance in a town hall setting, but it was more like a pep rally.

Before a loud Republican crowd in the gym of Grand Rapids Community College, McCain and Palin fielded questions from a former Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter who now backs McCain; another woman who asked for advice on recruiting Hispanic supporters for the ticket; and a Vietnam veteran who told McCain, "May the grace of God be with you always, sir."

Hardball, it was not.

It was the first time the folksy Palin has taken questions from voters since she was named to the ticket, and many of them seemed designed to allow her to answer critics.

A woman wanted to give her the chance to address those who say Palin can't be a mother and vice president. "Well, let's prove 'em wrong," Palin said to cheers.

She talked about her role if the ticket is elected: "Let me tell you, I know a little bit about energy. That's gonna be my baby when I get to Washington, D.C."

She was less sure-footed when asked about her "perceived lack of foreign policy experience."

Palin said she expected criticism because she is a "Washington outsider" and ended by asserting, "I'll be ready" come Inauguration Day.

McCain piped in: "She's commander of the Alaskan National Guard."

McCain's senior advisers were cheering the performance, but not surprisingly, the Obama campaign was not impressed. "Senator McCain and Governor Palin may have taken questions together for the first time, but they didn't give a single answer about what they would do differently from George Bush to fix the economy," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the Obama-Biden campaign.

-- Robert Barnes

THE PALIN FACTOR

McCain Attacks Obama Over Clinton's Protest Withdrawal

Hillary Rodham Clinton has carefully avoided a showdown with Sarah Palin in the weeks since the Alaska governor was named John McCain's running mate -- and now her closest allies have become infuriated by an attempt to lure the two into a joint event.

Clinton canceled an appearance at a rally next week in New York, which she had planned to attend in her official capacity as the state's junior senator, after the event's organizers surprised her by extending a last-minute invitation to Palin. Clinton had agreed to appear weeks earlier.

Clinton advisers said that the senator did not want to turn the rally, intended to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations, into a political circus by having the two women share the stage. She has attended the event before and considers it important to her constituents, the advisers said.

In response, the McCain campaign on Wednesday accused Clinton of dropping out "presumably at the request of the Obama campaign" -- and used her change of heart as an opportunity to attack Obama over his positions on Iran.

"Instead of pressuring Senator Clinton to withdraw and pressuring the event's organizers to disinvite Governor Palin, we hope Senator Obama will consider lending his own voice to this cause. And if Senator Obama subsequently wishes to clarify any remarks that might be misconstrued, he will have the opportunity to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions after he speaks at the UN the following day," McCain-Palin spokesman Michael Goldfarb said in a statement. The Obama campaign declined to comment. Clinton advisers said the senator dropped out of her own accord.

While Palin has no record on issues involving Iran, one of her new advisers does: Mark Wallace, who is conducting her debate preparation, left his position as the Bush administration's U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform earlier this year and became executive director of United Against Nuclear Iran, an organization established this summer to draw attention to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The group, which was partially modeled on the Save Darfur Coalition, was set up by Republican and Democratic foreign policy experts, including former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross and former CIA chief R. James Woolsey. Its Web site blocks public access.

The group will hold its first public event, a cocktail reception and film viewing, on Monday at the Millennium Hotel across the street from U.N. headquarters. The event will take place hours after Palin is scheduled to appear at the Ahmadinejad protest. One of the protest's organizers, Malcolm Hoenlein, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, denied Tuesday that Wallace had arranged for Palin's participation in the event.

-- Anne E. Kornblut and Colum Lynch

THE RICH AND FAMOUS

McCain Campaign Brags About Endorsement by Wealthy Socialite

John McCain's election strategy has for weeks involved an aggressive push for support from disenchanted Hillary Rodham Clinton voters, particularly those white, working-class women who helped the former first lady win primaries in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

So it was with great fanfare that McCain's campaign alerted reporters yesterday morning of a development on that front: "A prominent Hillary Clinton supporter who is a member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee will endorse John McCain at a press conference at the Capitol Hill Club today, September 17," the advisory said.

As a headline, the announcement played great -- even landing a prominent spot on the Drudge Report. But McCain supporters who read further might not have found the payoff quite as satisfying.

The supporter was none other than Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, wife of British banking scion Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. When not engaged in politics, de Rothschild -- whom the Wall Street Journal dubbed a "New York socialite" and Portfolio has described as "the flashiest hostess in London" -- has the run of the sprawling Ascott House estate, north of London. In the United States, she summers on Martha's Vineyard. And she has not been shy with her feelings about Obama prior to today, telling CNN weeks ago, "Frankly, I don't like him. I feel like he is an elitist."

In the midst of the economic crisis, the Obama campaign decided to let the announcement speak for itself. And it countered with an endorsement of its own, from Lilly Ledbetter, the Alabama woman whose fight for equal pay led her to the United States Supreme Court and inspired the 2007 fair pay legislation that bears her name -- and which McCain opposed.

-- Matthew Mosk