New York Times
12-20-07
The Early Word: Tancredo to Withdraw
By Kate Phillips and Ariel Alexovich
After months of single-digit polling, Tom Tancredo, the Republican candidate
who campaigned largely on an anti-immigration platform, will drop out of the
presidential race during a news conference in Des Moines later today. The
Denver Post examines the Colorado congressman’s decision.
His campaign had never gained much traction, and the field may thin out even
more in the coming weeks between the Iowa caucuses and the first primaries.
Last October, Mr. Tancredo announced he wouldn’t run for a 6th House term, but
back then he didn’t rule out challenging Democrat Ken Salazar when his Senate
seat is up in 2010.
Mr. Tancredo’s touchstone, immigration, remains the first concern among Iowa
voters, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released today.
Two indepth articles in The Times today examine practices of Democratic rivals
Barack Obama, and the way he voted “present” on some tough issues while an
Illinois lawmaker, and of the potential for fund-raising donor overlap between
Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her husband’s foundation, whose contributors are
not disclosed publicly.
Mr. Obama’s nearly 130 votes of “present” in the Illinois State Senate have
become fodder in the presidential race:
The record has become an issue on the presidential campaign trail, as
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, his chief rival for the Democratic
nomination, has seized on the present votes he cast on a series of anti-abortion
bills to portray Mr. Obama as a “talker” rather than a “doer.”
Although a present vote is not unusual in Illinois, Mr. Obama’s use of it is
being raised as he tries to distinguish himself as a leader who will take on the
tough issues, even if it means telling people the “hard truths” they do not want to
hear.
Mr. Obama’s aides and some allies dispute the characterization that a present
vote is tantamount to ducking an issue. They said Mr. Obama cast 4,000 votes in
the Illinois Senate and used the present vote to protest bills that he believed had
been drafted unconstitutionally or as part of a broader legislative strategy.
On the Clinton foundation/library track, The Times looks at how Mrs. Clinton’s
campaign has snared some brains and big money fund-raisers from her
husband’s charity.
In raising record sums for her campaign, Mrs. Clinton has tapped many of the
foundation’s donors. At least two dozen have become “Hillraisers,” each bundling
$100,000 or more for her presidential bid. The early library donors, combined
with their families and political action committees, have contributed at least
$784,000 to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate and presidential coffers.
The foundation and Mrs. Clinton’s political campaigns have been intertwined in
other ways. Terry McAuliffe, who led the foundation’s fund-raising and sits on its
board, is now Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman and chief fund-raiser. Cheryl
Mills plays a similar dual role, sitting on the foundation board and serving as the
general counsel to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. And Jay Carson recently traded a
communications position at the foundation for a job as her campaign’s press
secretary.
The Washington Post wonders if Mrs. Clinton can reach out to enough male
voters to giver her the nomination.
Her lead in the national polls has been attributed primarily to female
supporters, and her campaign has worked doggedly to cultivate them. She also
has an edge with male primary voters nationally within her own party. But
introduce independents, those precious swing voters she will need to win a
general election, and the picture is not as kind. Let’s just say that if this were high
school, she wouldn’t make prom court.
Women’s rights advocates attribute male skepticism about Clinton to longingrained sexism — and a sense that men, no matter what they say, just aren’t
ready for a female president. And political conservatives have exploited those
often-unspoken fears of female power to caricature Clinton for years. But in
several interviews with Democratic men across the country, the stated reasons
for their aversion to Clinton seem more complicated, and in many cases, far
more visceral than substantive.
On the Democratic side, former Senator Bob Kerrey apologized to Barack
Obama’s campaign for any unintentional insult he may have caused after
speaking about the candidate’s Muslim heritage, according to the Associated
Press. Mr. Kerrey made the remarks about Mr. Obama, a Christian, while
endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Kerrey sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday, lauding the Illinois senator’s
qualifications to be president and saying that he never meant to harm his
candidacy. Kerrey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he
sent the letter on his own and had not spoken to Clinton or her campaign about
the comments he made Sunday in Iowa.
“What I found myself getting into in Iowa and it was my own fault it was the
wrong moment to do it and it was insulting,” Kerrey told the A.P. “I meant no
disrespect at all.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator accepted Kerrey’s apology,
sent to the campaign in the mail and via e-mail.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who spent yesterday campaigning in Missouri, spent the
night in a St. Louis hospital with flu-like symptoms.
But, come again, Mr. Giuliani was in Missouri? Not, say, Iowa or New
Hampshire? Right. The ex-mayor’s campaign is based on winning big, delegaterich states that will hold their primaries on Super Tuesday, write The Times’s
Michael Cooper and Marjorie Connelly.
Mr. Giuliani’s decision to zag while the rest of the candidates zig reflects his
unconventional campaign strategy: his team is concentrating on winning the
Florida primary on Jan. 29 in the hopes that a victory there will position him to do
well on Feb. 5, when more than 20 states, including Missouri, New York, New
Jersey and California, go to the polls.
Mr. Giuliani likened the primary process to a baseball game here on
Wednesday. “A baseball game, you’ve got to play nine innings,” he said,
explaining his decision to focus on the big states at the end. “And whoever gets
the most runs at the end of nine innings wins.
“So our strategy from the beginning has been an eight-, nine-inning game,” he
said. “And as soon as we realized that California was going to be a Feb. 5
primary, we started campaigning in California, and putting a political organization
in California. As soon as we realized that Illinois was going to be, we did the
same thing in Illinois. Missouri, same thing in Missouri. That’s the strategy. I call it
a proportionate strategy.”
However, the L.A. Times writes that Mr. Giuliani is slightly altering that campaign
strategy to spend more on-the-ground time in New Hampshire.
Now, with his lead shrinking in national polls, and even in Florida, according to
some measures, Giuliani is retooling.
After seeing no results from expensive TV advertising on Boston stations,
whose markets include the populous southern part of New Hampshire, he has
scaled back. He is spending more time in New Hampshire and waging what
some call a “stealth campaign” in Iowa. He is also doing something that is
potentially far more challenging for him: He is recasting his belligerent persona.
Maybe, he seems to have realized, it’s not enough to be the toughest guy on the
block.
Fred D. Thompson seems to be picking up the campaign pace in Iowa, says The
Times’s Cate Doty.
He has a rigorous schedule planned until the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, not
counting a few days off for Christmas. And he seems to have loosened up: taking
more questions, shaking more hands and making more jokes. In some respects,
it seems to be an attempt at an antidote to his lackluster earlier performances,
when some Iowans found him lacking in passion.
But for all that, he is still reserved, his expression changing only when he
cracks a one-liner or gives a single, disapproving side-shake of the head to ideas
— or candidates — he finds unappealing. And Iowans who have seen him before
say the Thompson they are seeing is the same old Fred: firm on his stances but
easygoing on the trail.
Mitt Romney’s closing argument of sorts to New Hampshire voters is that his
business acumen will translate into excellent leadership in the executive branch,
says The Times’s Michael Luo.
“The skills you have and that you develop in the private sector, whether it be
small business or big business, they’re desperately needed in government,” Mr.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor seeking the Republican
presidential nomination, told a crowd here Monday.
The theme has essentially become Mr. Romney’s closing argument to voters
before the nominating contests, marking a subtle but significant shift from the far
more ideological frame that has often been at the forefront of the campaign. The
change speaks to the campaign’s broader strategy in its final push to slice away
supporters from Mike Huckabee in Iowa and bolster Mr. Romney’s lead in New
Hampshire.
Erin Crawford of the Des Moines Register explores why Mr. Romney appears to
have been holding back tears on two occasions as he campaigned this week.
Romney may be trying to soften his image because his closest competition,
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is seen as so likable, said Dianne
Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and
Politics at Iowa State University.
“He’s trying to show he’s caring because he’s also doing something else right
now,” Bystrom said. “He’s attacking Huckabee in the ads.”
Romney’s campaign aides had a more straightforward explanation. “As the
governor has said, he is a normal person and has emotions just like anyone else.
You will see that on the campaign trail,” said Tim Albrecht, Romney’s Iowa press
secretary.
Ron Paul’s campaign received – and is keeping – a $500 donation from a leader
in the white supremacist community.
Don Black, of West Palm Beach [Fla.], recently made the donation, according
to campaign filings. He runs a Web site called Stormfront with the motto, “White
Pride World Wide.” The site welcomes postings to the “Stormfront White
Nationalist Community.”
“Dr. Paul stands for freedom, peace, prosperity and inalienable rights. If
someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he
can influence Ron in any way, he’s wasted his money,” Paul spokesman Jesse
Benton said. “Ron is going to take the money and try to spread the message of
freedom.”
One Iowa woman, Teri Hawks Goodmann, has supported Democrat Joe Biden
since he first ran for president in 1988 and is one of the senator’s greatest
organizers.
Four years ago, fewer than 3,000 of Dubuque’s 58,000 residents participated
in the Democratic caucuses. To reach those precious few voters, the Biden
campaign has turned to unpaid but dedicated loyalists like Goodmann.
Goodmann knows her community, its political mores and habits. She knows
who married who, where they moved to and how they voted in previous
elections.
“These people open doors politically, and these are serious caucus
operatives,” said Biden’s national political director, Danny O’Brien. “They give us
stature in the community.”
Condolences: Perry Kucinich, the youngest brother of Democrat Dennis J.
Kucinich was found dead yesterday at his home in Cleveland, and the Ohio
congressman rushed home from Washington to be with his family. The cause of
the death is under investigation, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Upon arriving in Cleveland, the congressman said that his brother was a
talented artist whose style and structure was influenced by such modern artists
as Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso.
“He was a genius,” the congressman said. “He had extraordinary insights.
Although he struggled with mental illness, with the help of friends and family he
led a productive life. We are a close family. It’s just devastating.”
Primary shuffle: G.O.P. strategist Karl Rove opines in the Wall Street Journal
today about what he’d do to improve the nominee selection process.
“If primaries and caucuses were spread out with weeks, not days and hours,
between them, then voters in more states could learn more about the candidates.
Candidates would have more time to come back from an early loss to a
contender who was briefly the flavor of the moment in one state,” he says.
Campaign trail roundup:
* Fred Thompson continues his bus tour through Iowa with stops in Carroll and
Denison. Later, he participates in a radio town hall meeting in Atlantic and drops
by the Missouri Valley Times-News in Missouri Valley. In the evening, he meets
with local residents in Council Bluffs.
* Hillary Clinton meets locals in Grundy Center, Tipton, Centerville and
Burlington, Iowa.
* John Edwards campaigns in Council Bluffs, Le Mars and Sioux City, Iowa.
* Mike Huckabee also spends the day in Iowa. He meets with locals in
Marshalltown, Dike, Waterloo and Manchester, and later attends a dinner with
the Iowa Christian Alliance in Cedar Rapids.
* Barack Obama campaigns in Exeter, Portsmouth and Rochester, N.H.
* Ron Paul, himself a former obstetrician, heads to Plymouth, N.H. for a
discussion with local doctors. Later, he holds a town hall meeting in Berlin, N.H.
* Bill Richardson talks about Iraq in Waverly, Oelwein, Independence and Cedar
Rapids, Iowa. He also delivers a speech on veterans and their families in
Waterloo.
* Mitt Romney holds a town hall meeting in Indianola, Iowa. Later, he speaks
about national security in Fort Dodge, Orange City and Council Bluffs.
* Chris Dodd campaigns in Iowa, with stops in Council Bluffs and Des Moines.
* Tom Tancredo makes a major announcement about his campaign at the
Marriott in Des Moines.
* Joe Biden speaks at a Java with Joe event in Sioux City, Iowa. Later, he
speaks at Caucus Countdown events in Mason City, Webster City and Marion.