Elizabeth Edwards On Health Care

By EUGENE MULERO, Correspondent

Most political scientists agree senior citizens are the kingmakers in national elections. And, for much of the campaign, those 65 and older eluded Barack Obama’s steady sweep across the country, especially in the swing states of Florida and Pennsylvania. But in the final stretch Sen. John McCain found it difficult to keep this older demographic, which eventually leaned toward the Obama column. One of the reasons this happened, according to some experts, was that voters found Obama’s health care proposal more agreeable than McCain’s. Health care has always been one of the leading priorities for seniors.

A week before the election, Elizabeth Edwards was at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., addressing an audience of nearly 300 on health care, her cancer and Obama’s plan. She said she took on this role because the issue had taken a “back seat” during the campaign. The financial crisis and the wars in the Middle East had eclipsed the matter. But, she explained, “the financial crisis would be solved through health care” reform.

After her husband dropped out of the presidential race, Edwards became one of the ambassadors of Obama’s health care plan, which called for, among other things, universal coverage by 2012.

“Sometimes you get politicians who dig their feet into the sand and aren’t willing to listen to another voice. That’s not the case with Senator Obama,” she told National Journal On Air. “I think that’s a very encouraging sign about him.”

Edwards would not confirm rumors that she would have an active role in the Obama administration. Sources have told National Journal on background that Edwards would be called on to join the new administration.

Edwards, a Center for American Progress senior fellow, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2004. Two years later, she wrote “Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers,” a book about her son’s death and her battle with cancer. Then, in the spring of 2007, she announced her cancer had returned, and in a 60 Minutes interview she said doctors told her the cancer was treatable but not curable.
Mammograms are recommended for women beginning at 40, earlier if there are risk factors or a history of cancer in the family. Overall, she advocates a greater emphasis on prevention.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the Congressional Budget Office’s former director, headed McCain’s health care team. Holtz-Eakin could not be more different than Edwards. He seemed uncharismatic, and too much of a suit-and-tie Washington insider. Holtz-Eakin pushed McCain’s proposal, which focused less on maintaining the employer-based health care system than on giving individual incentives to buy insurance. Edwards criticized McCain’s plan for relying heavily on insurance companies, which she said were being shortsighted about costs.

“In response to me, [McCain] added a new section [to his health care plan] which was to put people with pre-existing conditions in high-risk pools,” Edwards told National Journal On Air.

Edwards dismissed comments from the audience at the George Washington University forum that consumers should be making their medical decisions without government support, stressing that the issue is much more complicated.

“It’s a moral imperative,” she said. “It’s immoral to know that [the health care system] is disadvantaging good people and not do anything about it.”

Eugene Mulero may be reached at eugene.mulero@gmail.com.

Tanking Economy? How About Tanking McCain Campaign?

By SARAH N. LYNCH, Correspondent

Remember when the Twin Towers crumbled and President Bush sat there in a grade school classroom, engrossed in a copy of “My Pet Goat”? It didn’t instill much confidence that he could lead in a time of chaos.

Well, these past few weeks have been the equivalent of a financial 9/11, only this time, the companies on Wall Street did it to themselves. But this time around, the American people got the benefit of previewing how our presidential nominees might respond to such a gargantuan crisis.

So far, it appears McCain is batting zero for zero. And if Obama plays his hand right, he may just have a shot of drowning out the Palin-mania that has swept over conservatives across the country and win this election.

McCain has admitted before that economics are not his strong suit, which is problematic enough. He demonstrated that about two weeks ago when he called for the firing of Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Chris Cox, when in fact a president does not even have the power to fire an SEC chairman. He also made a huge gaffe by claiming the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” at a time when Wall Street’s largest banks were falling to their knees. He made matters worse later when he said he was referring to the American people, demonstrating that he doesn’t really know the definition of “fundamentals.”

If that seemed like a bad move, it only got worse when he pulled a John Kerry and “flip-flopped” his positions, both on the bailout of AIG and the dramatic change in his policy position, to suddenly call for more regulation of the financial industry.

But perhaps his biggest public relations nightmare may come from the people he has chosen to advise him on economic policy – one of the biggest bull’s-eyes on McCain’s back that Obama can shoot at if he wants to win this debate.

Most notably of course is Phil Gramm, a former senator and fellow “de-regulator.” He’s the one who made the big mistake of calling Americans a “nation of whiners” caught up in a mere “mental recession.”

Phil Gramm is the man behind much of the deregulation of the banking and over-the-counter derivatives industries. In particular comes to mind the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, a piece of legislation tucked into an appropriations bill that essentially carved much of the multitrillion dollar “swaps” industry outside the reach of any federal regulator.

That bill is perhaps most infamous for creating the “Enron loophole” that helped the company escape regulation. But it’s now becoming equally infamous for exempting many other types of derivatives including credit default swaps. Credit default swaps are essentially bond insurance that one company will issue for a premium to another company as protection in case a borrower can’t cough up the funds. These financial instruments are traded in secret, off regulated exchanges and outside the reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Unlike regulated exchanges, they don’t have the backing of a centralized clearing house to protect companies from default.

Credit default swaps were behind the collapse of AIG, which issued these insurance-like instruments to protect against toxic mortgage-backed securities, but couldn’t pay up when many of those debts went bad. And now, the very man who de-regulated them could become the next treasury secretary if McCain has his way.

Yes, things didn’t seem like they could get worse for the McCain campaign on the economy in recent weeks as company after company continued to collapse. The possibilities for attack by the Obama campaign seemed endless.

And then, it did.

Catastrophes on Wall Street got worse, and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told Congressional leaders he needed them to give him the power to spend up to $700 billion to buy the illiquid assets that were poisoning Wall Street. He didn’t want the plan to have a shred of oversight, and both Democrats and Republicans cried foul.

In a very theatrical move, the former de-regulator announced he planned to suspend his campaign and flee to Washington where he hoped to help push through the passage of Henry Paulson’s unprecedented $700 billion bailout plan. He even threatened to boycott the debate for good measure.

But Murphy’s Law decided to follow him along for the ride.

He arrived right when a deal had been announced and sat in a meeting with President Bush where he offered few words. And then, after previously expressing cautious support for the plan, his own party turned sour and staged a coup.

Democrats pointed fingers at McCain, claiming he was to blame for the failure. He pushed back, telling reporters he was working the phones to get the plan back on track. (But he still showed up to the debate, and did not return to Capitol Hill).

After a long and tedious weekend, progress appeared to be made. Republican House leaders seemed more likely to support the plan. McCain’s chief Republican strategist Steve Schmidt even gave McCain credit on Meet the Press for saving the bailout by claiming he was critical to helping win more votes on the Republican side of the aisle.

Perhaps McCain was starting to turn things around. Maybe his connections to Phil Gramm would not seem so bad now. Perhaps suspending the campaign had done some good.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The bailout failed.

Its stunning defeat has made McCain appear the fool.

And the only person who could be more foolish than McCain right now is Obama, if he doesn’t take advantage of this opportunity to kill his opponent when he’s at his lowest point in this campaign.

Sarah N. Lynch can be reached at sarahnlynch@gmail.com.

Off the Wall: Obama vs. McCain in Cyberspace

BY CASEY HYNES, CORRESPONDENT

It’s no secret that Sen. Barack Obama has developed an intense and enthusiastic following among voters who are in their 20s and 30s. Now that the general election is all but underway, Obama’s supporters are as ardent as ever, especially in their online participation.

But young voters rallying behind Obama’s opponent, Sen. John McCain, appear to be finding their voices as well, and both are taking their cases to message boards, blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, often carrying out passionate debates via wall postings.

Numerous Facebook groups and applications have been created for both candidates, including “Smart People for Barack Obama,” “Barack Obama Is My Homeboy” and “McCain: Get Involved.” The number of members, wall posts and messages left by each group varies by site, with some comments inspiring a heated back and forth among site users.

Members of the groups say being able to post their opinions and exchange views are at least one way of engaging young adults in this election.

Jenifer Ruano, 33, is a volunteer for the Obama campaign and has used Facebook as a forum for supporting the Democratic candidate. She says the networking site has opened up politics to a younger generation.

“I believe social networking has provided supporters with healthy, lively conversations about the political process,” Ruano said in an e-mail.

A mother of two who is working toward a bachelor’s degree in organizational management, Ruano is passionate about Obama because she says he connects with young people on several levels.

“He is someone that most of us can relate to,” she said. “For those in college, he gets the struggle to pay student loans and work and struggle to move along in life because he at one time did that.”

Ruano believes Obama appeals to people who are out of college, as well as young professionals establishing their lives.

“He has a young family and he knows as a father what morals and values we want for our kids. I think he speaks to a large demographic of people,” she said.

Daniel Romero, a 25-year-old graduate student at Cornell University, said he believes young voters “are more ready” for an Obama presidency, and that many look forward to having a black man elected president.

But, he added, “If you have an open mind and a little bit of common sense, you should definitely vote for Barack Obama.” Romero said in the past he voted Democratic because he was voting against George W. Bush, but this is the first time he will cast his ballot for someone he truly supports.

Romero has also used Facebook to voice his opinions on the election, taking advantage of the platform that draws young Internet users to debate and exchange ideas. The Obama Facebook page has about 1.5 million supporters; McCain’s has more than 256,000.

For young voters like Ryan Piehl, it’s McCain’s positions on the war in Iraq and social issues that drive their support.

Piehl, 24, who graduated from St. Louis Christian College in May 2008, said McCain’s experience and conservative stance on abortion and gay marriage make him the right fit for the country.

“I think McCain has a pretty good pro-life record,” Piehl explains. “I think especially among evangelical Christians that might help them get the edge.”

Piehl, who describes himself as a moderate whose political opinions are “sometimes liberal” but more frequently fall to the right, also said McCain is more capable of handling the situation in Iraq.

“McCain promises to kind of clean up what Bush started in the war,” whether that means staying in Iraq for an extended period of time or ending the war altogether, Piehl said.

The St. Louis native was compelled to write on the wall for the group “John McCain,” in support of the Republican nominee and his newly announced running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Piehl said he was impressed with Palin’s stance on social issues.

“She stands upon what she believes in,” he said. And he’s not the only young supporter who felt strongly about the pick.

Facebook users took to the John McCain page to debate Palin’s qualifications, whether she or Obama is more (or less) qualified for the positions for which they are running and discuss rumors that her youngest son is actually her daughter’s. McCain’s MySpace page received similar postings, the majority of which were supportive and enthusiastic toward Palin.

Piehl said the McCain ticket represented fresh opportunities as much as Obama’s.

“I think McCain promises change as much as [Obama], he just doesn’t say ‘change.’ ”

The candidates’ MySpace pages appear, by and large, to be places for people to express their enthusiastic support for each ticket. Obama’s page contains many posts addressing him as “Mr. President,” and thanking him — for what, is not always clear.

The most recent posts on McCain’s page are messages of support written in Palin’s defense as her family comes under scrutiny after the recent announcement that her unmarried daughter is pregnant.

Despite the use of these sites by many to advocate the candidates’ platforms or debate key election issues, there are the occasional posts that add nothing to the conversation. Posts on pages for both candidates are oftentimes grammatically incorrect, but seemingly well-intentioned. Others, however, include ridiculous statements, such as McCain “acts like a five year old” or has “mental issues.” Though they stand in stark contrast to other arguments, they appear to go largely unacknowledged.

As both tickets come under increased scrutiny during the final months of the election, these sites will offer at least one place where voters can debate their merits and their platforms.

Casey Hynes may be reached at casey.hynes@gmail.com.

Success Found Where Politicians Rove

By EUGENE MULERO, Correspondent

Two years ago, I stood in the back of a lavish master-planned community for retirees in Sun Lakes, Arizona, to report on a visit by John McCain. The affair was supposed to be a chance for Maverick to address local resident concerns regarding a nearby airport and the likelihood of increased noise pollution.

Instead, the audience appeared fascinated with McCain’s presence and lobbed softball questions at him that centered around the senator’s next bid for the White House. The palpable excitement in the air quickly evaporated when the late Democratic governor from Montana, Thomas Judge, who was living in Sun Lakes, confronted McCain about his decision to seek the support of his one-time rival, George W. Bush.

Judge tried to torment the senator with the reminder that it was Bush and his campaign staffers who smeared Maverick’s name in the 2000 primary. Judge referred to: “little black charm” — McCain’s adopted daughter, which became a talking point in the Bush camp to persuade South Carolinans to vote for Bushworld, not Maverickland.

McCain grinned while Judge spoke, as if he expected such feedback. He then thanked Judge and said, “With all due respect governor, I don’t hold grudges. I’ve learned that the hard way.”

He answered a few more easy ones, before he signed copies of his latest book for the true believers.

That moment showcased a new John McCain. The McCain of the past — the old man with the bad temper — was gone. This McCain was forgiving, caring and ready to move on.

And that’s why I think he hired Steve Schmidt, or as his friends call him, “Schmidty,” to strategize his campaign against Barack Obama. In their epilogue to “Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Architect of George W. Bush’s Remarkable Political Triumphs,” the writers end with the notion that perhaps Karl Rove will go on to mastermind the candidacy of another presidential hopeful:

“It already appears that Rove will have first pick from among a large stable of eager Republican presidential candidates in 2008, a potential list that includes Jeb Bush, Bill Frist, Rudy Giuliani, and two Pennsylvanians, Tom Ridge and Senator Rick Santorum.”

McCain bringing Schmidt on board was a significant move — a power play if you will — given that Schmidt is Karl Rove’s protégé; a man walking in the footprints of the Boy Genius who got Bush in the White House.

I’m amazed that it actually comes down to a line from “The Godfather”: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Yet, that’s what Maverick has done — aligned himself with the Boy Genius he once publicly despised.

With so much talk about how historic this election is, the (mainstream) media still doesn’t seem ready to challenge the candidates. Even New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when he spoke at National Journal’s office earlier this summer, criticized the media for not telling the public where these candidates stand on issues and who’s working for them. There’s no doubt Rove is controlling the McCain campaign, yet, with few exceptions (Jonathan Adler, among them) hardly anybody is reporting this story.

Schmidt, just like Rove in 2000, is already relying on the politics of race to win this election for Team McCain. And this is what many Americans expected — McCain and the Republicans asking us: Who’s afraid of a big black man?

The McCain camp believes the reason Obama and McCain are tied in the polls is because Obama is African-American. They might be correct, only because there’s no other reason to explain why the candidates are tied. Obama has been nearly flawless in the general election. He is looking to succeed a lame-duck president with historically low approval ratings, and his opponent, who was never seen as the party’s favorite, supports an unpopular war.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released July 29 shows that it’s not hard to find the voters afraid of a big black man in the White House. According to the results, Obama lacked the support of white Gen X blue collar men — the newest NASCAR dads. This demographic is sitting comfortably in the McCain camp. While Maverick has to fight to keep them there, Obama has to draw them to him, which seems to be easier said than done.

Evidence of the Rovian influence is becoming more obvious by the day. McCain has begun to compare Obama to Paris Hilton and is telling the public Obama is inexperienced about Washington, he’s naïve on foreign affairs and he’s African-American.

Unfortunately, to many voters from red states, that last point is a trump card.

“This election is about Senator Obama’s fitness to be president of the United States,” Peter Brown, associate director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said last month at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in D.C. “From Senator McCain’s point of view he has no choice, if he wants to win, but to convince the American people that Senator Obama is not fit to be president of the United States. And you don’t do that running a positive campaign.”

The potential is that we may live, once again, in Karl Rove’s America. You’d think that would make news. But through Schmidt, Boy Genius Rove has McCain, and the world, on a string.

Eugene Mulero may be reached at Eugene.Mulero@gmail.com.

Obama and McCain Will Always Have Paris

BY CASEY HYNES, CORRESPONDENT

With recent numbers indicating that the presidential race is tightening in national polls, it seems John McCain’s campaign is gaining momentum toward the end of a turbulent summer. In recent weeks, ads lobbing attacks at Barack Obama have been fast and frequent, perhaps the most notorious of which was the “celebrity” ad that cast Obama as a popular public figure who is unprepared for the presidency, comparable to pop star Britney Spears or hotel heiress Paris Hilton.

Much has been made of the ad, including the assumption by some news organizations that it suggests that Obama is superficial, certainly not to be taken seriously as someone who is ready to lead the country. Whether or not this image will play with voters in November remains to be seen, but perhaps more importantly, the ad reflects an unfortunate tendency toward the trivial in this campaign and reinforces the notion that both of these men are out of touch with the people they seek to lead.

Despite the rather serious issues facing the country in this election, including an unpopular war, a struggling economy, an increasingly unstable situation in Afghanistan and rising health-care costs, the media has given extensive coverage to campaign issues that seem unlikely to affect whether or not a candidate is prepared for the job.

Stories have abounded about Obama’s workout schedule and whether or not he is too thin to be commander-in-chief. Given the gravity of this election, it seems almost laughable that stories like this would be given much play, considering that there is likely much to learn about someone who is relatively young and promises to bring a fresh approach to the political scene. But these stories do receive attention, much to the chagrin of the McCain campaign, which has shot back by dubbing Obama “The One,” and criticizing the media for a love affair with the younger senator.

Instead of taking a sharp and effective aim at Obama in the “celebrity” ad, where they have control of the content and can get their message across, the McCain camp ultimately led the eyes of the nation back to Spears and Hilton, as if the two have not received enough undue attention as it is.

The ad, for those who have not seen it, paints Obama as “the biggest celebrity in the world,” a declaration highlighted by throngs of people chanting the Democratic candidate’s name. The narrator questions whether Obama is ready to lead, and criticizes his stance against offshore drilling to address the nation’s energy crisis. A USA Today/Gallup poll indicates that Americans favor offshore drilling by a 2-to-1 margin after seeing gas soar to more than $4 a gallon this summer. Both candidates had said they opposed increasing offshore drilling in the past, but remained open to the possibility as costs rose.

While the McCain camp was right to target their opponent on a pressing issue that has dominated the news throughout the summer, the message seems weakened by the use of Spears and Hilton in the ad. It may have been that they were trying to play up the image of Obama as overhyped, big on talk but very short on action. It’s a theme they might do well to run with, since there are many lingering questions about the senator. His former political rival Alan Keyes has compared him to the wizard in the “The Wizard of Oz.”

During an appearance on “Fox & Friends Sunday,” Keyes described Obama as having been “hyped by the Democrats as something he’s not.” That was in 2004, but it’s a notion that continues to ring true for Obama critics in 2008.

McCain campaign spokesman Rick Davis may have alluded to this point in regards to the “celebrity” ad. He told CBS that “the focus on events and activities is much more something you would expect from someone releasing a new movie than running for president.” Neither campaign was available for comment for this article.

While this theme does warrant attention in what looks to be a tight race for the White House, the campaign would have been wise to drop Spears and Hilton from the ad and focus on Obama’s weaknesses. The use of the two celebrities was no doubt going to draw attention, but the forthcoming focus that has been placed on that aspect of the ad takes away from the seriousness of other possible implications.

There has been talk of McCain being the first of the candidates to go negative, despite both men having pledged to run campaigns free of the negativity and the sense of “politics as usual” that people are tired of seeing. Still, it seems almost inevitable that harsh attacks will be thrown from either side as the country heads into the final stages of the election. That McCain should be seen as the first to go negative, however, will not play well for him with voters who claim to be fed up with the old ways of Washington.

The question of whether or not Barack Obama is ready to lead the country is a worthy one. Whoever takes office in January faces tough tasks that will take more than eloquent promises and grand rhetoric to solve. Obama has been big on talk of hope and change. Based on recent polls that have the two within a few percentage points of one another, however, he has not effectively argued that he is up to meeting those challenges. But if the media is sympathetic to Obama, McCain has to get his message across in a smart and effective way that maximizes his time on the air, right?

The “celebrity” ad in some ways seems to have been a gamble. To an extent, it may have resonated with voters; the idea of Obama being on the level of Hollywood stars who look good but haven’t shown that they have much else to offer may raise concern for those who are looking for real answers rather than hype. However, the focus on Spears and Hilton, and the negativity of the message, also allowed Obama to dismiss it by saying he doesn’t pay attention to John McCain’s ads.

Not surprisingly, Hilton took advantage of the publicity after the ad was released and shot her own video spot in response. After calling McCain wrinkly and white-haired, and assuring the country that she wasn’t promising change “like that other guy,” Hilton unveiled her “all of the above” energy plan in the spoof. The heiress suggested limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight, and tax incentives for automobile manufacturers to create hybrid and plug-in cars. CNN reported that Republicans used Hilton’s tongue-in-cheek ad for publicity and to push for a plan that would call for offshore drilling. Even though it’s difficult to take anything from the Hilton spoof seriously, her compromised approach may actually be what’s needed to solve a serious issue, the solution to which currently seems bogged down in partisan politics.

It has been widely reported that moderate and independent voters will decide this election. If Paris Hilton represents a more balanced response than either of the presidential candidates, perhaps both of them should reconsider their energy platforms. Although a gallon of gas has dipped in some areas below $4 again, Americans are still paying considerably more than they were four years ago. The energy issue is not going away and both need to demonstrate that they can address the problem effectively, which may mean leaving open possibilities their parties have claimed to be against.

Reaching that middle ground among voters has become a sensitive area for both Democrats and Republicans. Both campaigns have tried to paint the other as elitists and out of touch with the problems faced by average Americans.

The debate was heightened last week as McCain stumbled when a Politico reporter asked how many houses he owns. In June, Karl Rove suggested Obama was an elitist, and described him as “coolly arrogant,” according to ABC News. Last week, the Obama campaign got to return the favor, casting McCain as a millionaire steeped in Washington traditions and unable to appreciate the plight of the middle class.

Americans are looking for a president who is ready to dig in and take action on issues like gas prices and energy independence. Both candidates must be able to demonstrate that despite their personal wealth and success, they can relate and are ready to wrestle with the nation’s biggest concerns.

To hear the rival campaigns tell it, Americans can choose between an aloof and out-of-touch millionaire or a vacuous celebrity. Well, at least we have Paris Hilton to fall back on.

Casey Hynes may be reached at casey.hynes@gmail.com.