Post Politics Hour

washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion

Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.

Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz was online live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday, Aug. 25 at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The transcript follows.

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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts

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Dan Balz: Good morning from Denver and thanks for tuning in for the opening of the Democratic Convention week. We're out and around the city this morning, checking in on early activities and trying to deliver full coverage for you. Please check our web site frequently as we're going to be offering lots of coverage and in lots of different formats.

Okay, enough of the commercial message. Now on to your questions.

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Manchester, Vt.: Dan, do you think the Obama campaign, in view of some reports, will be able to keep Bill Clinton on the national security message later in the week? Or will he revert to detailing his administration's accomplishments? Thanks!

Dan Balz: Many questions about the Clintons this week -- here on the chat and elsewhere. Bill Clinton would be prepared to talk about darn near anything. Because Wednesday's theme is national security, the convention organizers would prefer to stay on that subject. But Bill Clinton, if he is prepared to do it, could also make a powerful argument in behalf of Obama on the economy, and that might be helpful. People here expect the former president to deliver the goods on Wednesday, but between now and then there will be plenty of speculation about what's going on behind the scenes.

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Princeton, N.J.: There has been much talk about Hillary Clinton's campaign debt and whether or not Obama has done enough to help her out. Does this happen often? I don't recall ever hearing about a winning candidate helping to raise money for an opponent's campaign debt.

Dan Balz: It's been quite common for winning candidates, or front-running candidates to help a losing candidate who agrees to endorse with their campaign debt. But this is unprecedented in part because of the size of the Clinton campaign debt. It is extraordinarily large and it will take an enormous effort to get it paid off. There will be grumbling for some time that the Obama forces are not doing enough to help. The question is how much can they do. Many small donors to the Obama campaign do not want to help fund a candidate they opposed so strongly in the primaries.

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Denver: Welcome to our beautiful city, Mr. Balz. If one wanted to try to catch a glimpse of some Washington Post/Slate journalists one of these evenings, where would they go to do that? Any hangouts that anyone is preferring, or is everyone in the press box in the Pepsi center all evening long? (I'm a political junkie and would have more fun with celebrity-journalist sightings than anything!)

Dan Balz: We work very long hours, mostly in tents next to the convention site, and then we are ordered by our editors to return immediately to our hotel rooms and prepare for the next day.

Seriously, there's no one place to find Post folks or other journalists. Truth is we will be working at the Pepsi Center and our workspace until late each night, but if you're looking to see people, I'd say the bigger hotels downtown would be one place, although the security has gotten really tight at the entrances.

By the way, we love Denver.

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Arlington, Va.: Is Biden really as poor as reports I have read (net worth less than $200,000?) Does he really ride the train to work? This seems kind of unusual.

Dan Balz: I haven't rechecked his financial disclosure forms since the announcement, but Senator Biden is not a wealthy man. He's spent his entire adult life in the Senate and did not come from money. And yes, he does ride the train home each night. Very unusual and you'll be hearing much about it.

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La Vale, Md.: It seems to me the Obama campaign made one of its rare procedural blunders in the way it handled the Biden announcement. The campaign said it was going to text message supporters first. I'm a supporter and I got my text message at 2:45 a.m. What was the point of that? I found out about Biden from the news when I woke up, before I was able to get to my recharging phone. If the Obama campaign did not want the announcement to make the evening news on Friday (you know why that was exactly?) why make the text announcement at 2:45 in the morning, when hardly anyone would be awake to get it?

Dan Balz: I think what happened was inevitable. The campaign will tell you that the "official announcement" came in that text message. But with the decision made, there was no way the media was going to sit back and await the message. We're not trained to do that. Everyone wanted to break that story and so there was aggressive reporting and finally a leak that made it possible for CNN to confirm that Biden was the choice. I am pretty confident that CNN's source was not from inside the Obama campaign. So your disappointment is understandable, but what happened in the release of this was pretty predictable.

I do think it would have been wiser for Obama's team to send that message out pretty soon after the first media reports were aired or published. The several hour gap and the middle-of-the-night release were not good.

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Fossil, Ore.: It would seem the Democratic National Committee in allowing Florida and Michigan full voting rights is putting the system in a very weak position. Does this mean that any state can do anything it chooses in the next primary, without fear of sanctions?

Dan Balz: Good question. If you're a big battleground state, you probably would take that message away from what happened, although Florida and Michigan did pay some price through all this. They would argue they paid a real price in not having had real primary campaign in their states.

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Veepstakes Part 2: Conservatives seem to be pushing for Romney as McCain's running mate, saying he would "balance" the ticket with youth and budgetary expertise. But would McCain risk alienating as many voters, especially those who see him as different from traditional GOP conservatives such as Bush, by picking someone so identified as strongly conservative? Is Huckabee out of the running?

Dan Balz: It looks like Governor Huckabee is out of the running at this point, though he and McCain became friends -- even allies -- during the primaries. There is a lot of talk that the Biden pick may push McCain in the direction of Romney as someone who has been through the primary process, who can speak about the economic issues and who, because of his roots, can campaign effectively in Michigan. We'll see.

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Jackson, Miss.: Dan, thanks so much for taking our questions during this crazy busy time for you. How much is this Obama-Clinton rivalry becoming a story because reporters need something to write about? Is this rift genuine, or are the media trying to fan the flames? The Politico's story this morning seemed to be more of the latter. Thoughts?

washingtonpost.com: Tensions boil between Obama, Clinton camps (Politico, Aug. 25)

Dan Balz: Since I posted the earlier message about the Clintons and the debt, I ran into an ally of the Clintons (I'm doing this chat from the lobby of a hotel where Clinton folks are hanging out). A couple of thoughts. This person doubts that there will be big issues involving Bill Clinton's speech. But there are real issues remaining between Obama and Clinton camps. One is the money and the frustration by Senator Clinton that Obama and his folks just haven't done enough to help. Also, Bill Clinton is still unhappy over what he regards as the attacks on his administration during the primaries and his belief that the Obama forces labeled him a racist.

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Memphis, Tenn.: Is Al Gore at the convention? Thanks.

Dan Balz: Al Gore is due to speak Thursday night, the same night as Senator Obama accepts the nomination. I don't know when he arrives. The report that got the convention city buzzing this morning was that Senator Ted Kennedy had arrived overnight and may appear at the Pepsi Center tonight.

With that, we're out of time today. This was an abbreviated chat today because of all the convention business. But keep focused on our web site. Much more to come all week. Enjoy the convention and have a great week.

Dan Balz

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