We post this under cartoons - but it seems rather deadly serious (as \the great majority of our cartoons).

Obama went overseas and showed that the world looks up to hear what he has to say about bringing the US back among the Nations. They love to hear on how he will tackle the global warming/energy/ development issues. In the US he was criticized for going abroad in order to show to the US electorate what the world wants from the US.

Now McCain goes to South Dakota to show the US the Wild Women wrestling teams, beauty pageants and bikini girls. And You know what? We are afraid that he has his finger where it counts talking about the US electorate. Again, “The Onion” had it right (our Cartoon #129 ) when they wrote that Al Gore in desperation, sends his child to a different planet.

From:  cdsmith at twu.net
Subject: McCain Appears Today with Beach Babes (I’m not kidding)
Date: August 4, 2008

Tired of Obama’s pretentious globetrotting? Never fear. That reliable everyman John McCain will speak for an hour today at the 2008 Buffalo Chip Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The candidate will be squeezed between the Ringin’ Wet & Wild Women of Wrestling event, the Bikinis on the Beach Buffalo Chip Beauty Pageant, followed by Bikini contests in Hawaiian, and then Biker attire.

In this era in which candidates take themselves oh-so-serious, go overseas and talk shop with all those Euro stuffed shirts, its nice to have a regular Joe like McCain, who’s able to GO WIIIILD with the bikini-girls every once in a while. Kid Rock will be there, as well as bevies of topless babes and various striptease acts. Go get’em John. You’re a legend!!

Think I’m kidding? Here are the links:

The event website with lineup. Yes, McCain is listed: http://www.buffalochip.com/EVENTS/Schedu…

Here’s Arianna article and source, the only news organ with the courage to report the event.
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
and  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/03…

Like R. Kelly says, “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little bump n’ grind.” I think the girl to John’s left is particularly gorgeous. John with a hottie like that? Maybe she likes older men.

—————-

and

From: “Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager” <ecampaign@gop.com>
Date: August 4, 2008

(He will try to sell air-pressure gauges to these girls at $25 a stick.)

Americans across the country are feeling the effects of high gas prices and our need to expand domestic oil production.

John McCain says we need offshore oil drilling and we need it now. Senator Barack Obama has consistently opposed offshore drilling - calling it a “gimmick.” Senator Obama’s solution to high gas prices is telling Americans to make sure their tires are inflated.

Today, I’m asking for your help in putting Senator Obama’s “tire gauge” energy policy to the test. With an immediate donation of $25 or more, we will send you an “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure gauge. Will simply inflating your tires reduce the financial burden of high gas prices on your wallet?

It’s clear Senator Obama has no plan to address the energy challenges we face as a nation. He has said no to offshore drilling, no to expanding domestic drilling and no to nuclear energy. He has no plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

John McCain is prepared to lead our country as president to break our dependence on foreign oil with real solutions. John McCain believes we should lift the federal ban on offshore drilling, enabling you to decide where we drill for oil.

But John McCain won’t be able to enact these policies without your help in electing him as our next president.

Please help us put Senator Obama’s energy plan to the test - donate $25 or more for your very own “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure gauge.

————

And you bet on it - inflating to the correct pressure level, even these girls, will realize - that it helps them save more on gas then what they will ever get from investing in oil company ten years of Prospecting & Production Offshore Efforts that will leave us all addicted to their oil drible. The clever girls will answer - we want the stick and the alternative as well.

THE VEEP SEARCH CONTINUES IN THE DAILY NEWS of July 30, 2008 - When the two Walking in the Street Meet at the Corner - it could doom to them that the idea of McCain as Obama’s VEEP could get us all out of the present prolonged misery. The young man with charisma will get as running mate the older man with longer life experience, and the election will turn into a coronation, preserving everybody’s integrity.

Now, the idea of Republican Senator John McCain as a Vice President for a Democratic President is not crazy at all - in effect this is exactly one of the possibilities that were considered by McCain and Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Contender in the 2004 US Presidential elections. Sure, we realize that if McCain thinks he can win in November 2008 this is a “no-brainer.” But, if he continues on the self destructive activism route that is set for him by his party hacks - he, basically a decent person, may , we hope, be disgusted himself by what went on these last two weeks and decide, in the National interest, to go for a “Unifier” administration. We think that had he taken such a step with full courage when considering the consequences, rather then standing on the side when his party cronies went out on their “swift boating” of Senator Kerry, we could have been spared of the second Bush term. { Now, it was announced that - a new book — “The Case Against Barack Obama” — will be released next week. It is published by the same group that brought you “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.”} If McCain wins under these conditions, he will have a hard time avoiding his party cronies turning his time in office into a third Bush term. McCain’s best chance to change the Republican party - that Great OLD Party - into a party for the 21st Century - is by doing just that - sealing an agreement with Senator Obama on the basis of a National energy & Global climate change platform. Continuing a campaign that is based only on discreditation of Senator Obama, while not producing any solid ideas for his own campaign, may be what part of the Republican electorate was trained for years to expect, but is that what a former prisoner of the Hanoi Hilton dedicated his life to?

***

Saturday 8/02/08
Elections News Main Political Machine Blog

McCain at War With The New York Times.
By DEVLIN BARRETT, AP, posted: August 2, 2008

WASHINGTON (Aug. 2) — It is a tradition at many kitchen tables to yell at the newspaper. At John McCain’s kitchen table, it is becoming a tradition to yell at one paper in particular: The New York Times.

The latest dustup between the Republican presidential candidate and the big-name newspaper centered on the editorial board’s back-to-back criticisms of McCain, one dispatch accusing him of taking the low road and another contending that he was playing politics with race.

The second editorial, which appeared on the Times Web site, said McCain’s ads conjured up loaded racial images and raised the specter of O.J. Simpson.
“The presumptive Republican nominee has embarked on a bare-knuckled barrage of negative advertising aimed at belittling Mr. Obama,” the editorial board wrote.
The response from the McCain campaign was equally cutting.
“If the shareholders of The New York Times ever wonder why the paper’s ad revenue is plummeting and its share price tanking, they need look no further than the hysterical reaction of the paper’s editors to any slight, real or imagined, against their preferred candidate,” said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb.
Goldfarb compared the editors to a blogger “sitting at home in his mother’s basement and ranting into the ether between games of Dungeons & Dragons.”
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment on Friday.
The relationship between McCain - a frequent reader of the newspaper - and the Times, has been rocky. Yet such a grudge could pay political dividends for the presidential candidate, as criticizing the liberal media often improves a candidate’s standing with Republican Party conservatives. That’s critical for McCain, who has never been their favorite.

Back in January, the Times endorsed McCain’s candidacy for the Republican nomination, saying, “Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe.” Since then, it’s been McCain v. The New York Times.

In February, the newspaper printed a story about McCain and a female lobbyist, reporting that unnamed McCain associates years ago had become concerned the relationship may have become romantic. Both McCain and the lobbyist have unequivocally denied that it was, and the newspaper’s editor said he was surprised at the reaction to the story.

A month later, McCain flashed his temper at a Times reporter, repeatedly cutting her off when asked whether he had spoken to Democratic Sen. John Kerry about being his vice president in 2004.

Then last month, Republicans complained that the paper rejected an Op-Ed piece by McCain about the Iraq war after one by Obama was printed and received widespread attention. The paper said it had only tried to get McCain to rewrite the piece to be more specific about his plan.
“McCain is still, I think, upset about the Op-Ed not being printed,” said Mike Paul, a former aide to New York Republicans who is now a consultant.
Paul said several recent moves by McCain show the presidential candidate is consciously moving away from his role as an unconventional politician.
“A lot of the maverick positioning is now turning into more conservative positioning, and some of that includes not being afraid to go negative, not being afraid to call a liberal a liberal, and not being afraid to go after a newspaper,” said Paul.

Beyond any personal pique there may be, there is a strategy to attacking the Times because it is a bogeyman of conservatives who still may not be entirely sold on the Arizona senator.
Senior advisers are fully aware that assailing the Times could help endear McCain to his talk radio skeptics and their followers. So, they go after the newspaper often — and send the message: McCain stands with you.

Advisers also recognize the power of the newspaper to influence how other media organizations cover the campaign, so they are aggressive in pointing out where they feel McCain was wronged.
McCain, though, is hardly the first Republican to want to tear up the paper.
Back in 1992, aides to President George H.W. Bush complained that the Times and other media outlets had mischaracterized his examination of a grocery check-out scanner by suggesting he was unfamiliar with the long-used technology and implying he was out of touch with everyday Americans’ economic issues.

In the 2004 election, a conservative anti-tax group called Club for Growth ran an ad decrying Democrat Howard Dean as a “latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading” tax-raiser.
“It’s not complicated,” said Club for Growth spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik. The paper, she said, “has really become a symbol for a lot of conservative grievances.”
“For starters, their editorials are decidedly liberal. That’s a no-brainer. And there are often complaints that even their general reporting is biased in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The New York Times has come to be associated with the Northeast liberal establishment.”

Paul, the consultant, said he thinks the McCain campaign’s criticisms of the paper may look good to some but won’t work in the long run. “You might get that base, but you won’t win the election,” he said. “It goes back to the old saying, ‘Don’t throw rocks at people who own ink barrels’ … and people have gotten sick and tired of the excuse that all media is liberal.”

—————
The article has a whole collection of McCain photo-ops with solar panels and references to energy policy. We once thought that McCain is capable of coming up with the needed energy policy - but seeming his running after the votes of the hicks has got him entangled with the energy policy interference of his party regulars. Things look dim indeed as he might indeed win. And then what? Can one trust that once in the White House McCain will change his skin color?

———-
- With solar panels in the background, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. gives a campaign a speech on energy, Wednesday, June 25, 2008, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
- US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks on energy policy during a campaign visit to the University of Nevada Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 25, 2008. - REUTERS/Steve Marcus/ Las Vegas Sun
- A supporter takes a photo of US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) after McCain’s speech on energy policy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 25, 2008. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/ Las Vegas Sun
- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on his energy policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
- US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is shown during an energy policy speech at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 25, 2008. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/ Las Vegas Sun

BAN DRESSES DOWN TO ‘COOL’ THE UN - as per an August 1, 2008, UN press release.

In lieu of his usual business suit, United Nations Secretary-General donned a more casual outfit, as part of the “Cool UN” initiative which seeks to curb the world body’s greenhouse gas emissions, which kicked off today.

The three-pronged scheme seeks to limit the use of air conditioning, slash emissions and save money for the UN.

“We are not just cutting back suits and ties,” Mr. Ban told reporters, adding that the month-long “Cool UN” programme at the Secretariat in New York will make a 10 per cent saving in energy consumption. Use of steam will be cut by more than 4 billion pounds, the equivalent of 300 tons of carbon dioxide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN estimates that the scheme will also result in financial savings of more than $100,000.

If the initiative is extended beyond August and into the winter, savings will be even greater, the Secretary-General noted.

Calling on the support of the UN family and Member States, he said that
“ultimately, this will be important for our common efforts in addressing
climate change issues.”

The main UN premises in Bangkok, which houses over a dozen of the
Organization’s entities, joined the Secretariat today in rolling out the
“Cool UN” scheme.

Like the Secretariat in New York which is raising the thermostats by five
degrees from 72 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit in most parts of the landmark
building, ESCAP turned up the temperature by 2 degrees Celsius. Most of its
staff members also came to work today in lighter clothing, including
national dress.

“Cool UN” is just one of several schemes ESCAP is involved in to slash
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2002, it has cut
back electricity consumption by 16 per cent yearly by replacing old and
inefficient appliances such as power transformers, elevators, air
conditioners, lights and pumps.

ESCAP’s service also has pilot solar panels and wind turbines, and water
usage has been reduced by 30 per cent every year through new
higher-efficiency water closets and using recycled water for the main
gardens.

—————–

UN’s Ban in Shirt-Sleeves, a Cooling Room Next Door, Asked about Double-Standards by Fox.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 — Television camera crews were waiting for the UN’s Ban Ki-moon on Friday morning; he showed off for them a short sleeved shirt and lack of tie. To set an example, he said, of action for climate change, the UN will raise the temperature in the building by five degrees. A photo opportunity was scheduled for 9:15 in Ban’s office, but upon arrival the Press was told there would not be enough space. It was said Ban would take no questions, that no reporters should go upstairs.

Ultimately questions were allowed, by CNN, Fox and Inner City Press.

The Fox TV reporter demanded that Ban address the “double standard” in the cooling of rooms on the 38th floor. Ban’s office felt warm, but a conference room next door was, the Fox team estimated, closer to 60 degrees. Ban said, “I have been sometimes very warm in this room, I have to switch to the next conference room.” To some, this meant that he will have his own cooling spot upstairs, which Fox called a meat locker, while other UN staff, particularly in rooms facing the sun and East River, sweat through August.

The Staff Union, in a July 31 meeting, questioned whether Ban had consulted with the UN medical service.

UN’s Ban and “two advisors,” cooling room and Fox’ double-standards question not shown

Inner City Press asked Ban if he is encouraging Presidents like George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy to follow his lead. “I don’t have any control over member states,” he said. “They are sovereign member states… I will be happy if member states follow.” In fact, South Korea and Japan, for example, already have such programs. Ban added that when he met with Japan’s foreign minister, they did so without ties.

 

The Press was then escorted down to the UN’s third and fourth sub-basements, control and machine room. One staffer said, “This won’t really reduce greenhouse gasses, but it might save us money.” He said that under Kofi Annan, something similar was tried, in order to save money. When Inner City Press asked how much money had been saved, he said to ask the spokesperson’s office. Inner City Press did, at Friday’s briefing, and will publish the answer when received.

And at 6:16 p.m. on Friday the following arrived –

“The UN introduced a cost-savings program in 2002 in response to significant budget cuts made by the General Assembly at the time. The program included the total shutdown of the fan system every night after 6 p.m. There were other measures that were introduced, such as reduced service to the conference rooms and reduction in mail service. Most of the services were later restored. No specific savings figure is available.”

We can further report that, at least for today, complaints were becoming widespread about being too hot, about whether the savings were worth it and, yes, about what some called Ban Ki-moon’s cool room on the 38th floor…

As the UNSG, Ban Ki-moon Hosted the Foreign Minister of Israel Ms. Tsipi Livni, we wonder if she was received in the “cool room.” We know she never wears a tie, but we also know that when Israel’s Founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’a office had no air conditioner or a fan, this applied also for him. Further, unless he had to come to the UN, he never wore a tie anyway. Could the UNSG be asked to allow himself the same measure of equality as David Ben Gurion instituted in the new reborn State of Israel? As we predicted in our first version of this posting, the one that did not include the Matthew Lee material, we were clear that the above was instituted by the UN only when it will deal this to the staff, but will have no meaning when the UN potentates show up.

FRIDAY 7/25/08

Obama Considers GOP Running Mate

By Amie Parnes and Ben Smith , Politico.com
posted: 19 MINUTES AGO

(July 25) - Barack Obama’s vice presidential search team has floated the name of a member of President Bush’s first-term Cabinet, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, as Obama’s running mate.
The search committee, now led by Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, raised Veneman’s name — among others — in discussions with members of Congress, two Democrats familiar with the conversations said.

Obama Running Mate Contenders

Martial Trezzini, KEYSTONE / AP

Ann M. Veneman, executive director of UNICEF and former Agriculture Secretary under President Bush, has been discussed as a possible running mate by Barack Obama’s search committee, Democratic lawmakers said.

————————–

At www.SustainabiliTank.info we are flabbergasted. We think this a very good step for the UN where some Gucci-party story, right or wrong, was attached to this lady’s name. It is known that her UN position is safe as long as the will of the present Administration in Washington - but as an Obama VP ?? Her professional Washington life was that of a lobbyist for the Cattlemen’s Association - she could not even help Obama increase sales of meat - this because of the fact that she was blamed with the cover-up of the mad-cow disease case that was found in the US !! She had to be sent away to desert of the UN in New York in order to stop the blood-letting of the industry that she was supposed to support at USDA - the US meat industry.

Caroline Kennedy, please, did you have anything to do with this joke? If this is true, and if I were any of the other mentioned names, I would simply go on vacation. If this is not true, if I were you, I would take the two folks mentioned above to court under claims of defamation of my good name.

Obama Abroad: We Get the Picture
The Candidate Looked Good This Week. Did the Press?
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 25, 2008; C01

After saying little in public during a weekend in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama met with traveling reporters near Jordan’s Temple of Hercules, a gladiator standing his ground against the media hordes.

But even as the likes of NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and ABC’s Jake Tapper rose to press the Democratic candidate on Tuesday, television viewers back home heard nothing but faint voices in the wind. The journalists weren’t miked; only Obama’s answers came through loud and clear.

That may have been unintentional, but it underscored the degree to which Obama has controlled the message — and, more important, the pictures — during his exhaustively chronicled trek across the Middle East and Europe. Obama meeting the troops, meeting the generals, meeting prime ministers and kings, drawing a huge crowd in Berlin yesterday — the images trump whatever journalists write and say.

In short, though Obamapalooza was not quite the lovefest that some expected, news outlets provided a spotlight so bright that their own people were left in the shadows.

“The pictures bring people into the story,” says Jerry Rafshoon, who was President Jimmy Carter’s media adviser. “In the television age, the more people who can see him in the role of commander in chief, the better it is for him.” By contrast, Rafshoon says, when John McCain was seen riding around Kennebunkport in a golf cart with former president George H.W. Bush, “you’re seeing him with his generation, the older generation. They looked like the past.”

Dorrance Smith, President Bush’s former Pentagon spokesman and a onetime ABC News producer, agreed that “the pictures have dominated. . . . In a campaign, that’s as good as gold. The pictures would have broken through whether there was a one-camera pool or every anchor in the world.”

Beyond the images, most journalists and pundits have depicted the trip as an unalloyed triumph. “A slam-dunk success,” in the words of Time’s Joe Klein; “a real grand slam,” as Salon Editor Joan Walsh put it on “Hardball.”

Obama became increasingly accessible as the week wore on. He held a second news conference in Israel, granted interviews to Time and Newsweek, and agreed to sit-downs through the weekend with CNN, Fox and “Meet the Press.” Beyond that, he did something he rarely does: joking around with reporters on his plane.

Singling out New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd yesterday, Obama said: “What are you guys going to do in Berlin? Huh? Dowd? You got any big plans?”

He brushed aside a scribe’s suggestion that he would attract “a million screaming Germans. Let’s tamp down expectations here.”

One reporter lowered the estimate to 900,000; another said, “Let’s start a pool.”

“We could!” Obama said.

While the scene looked cozy, the reporters asked substantive foreign-policy questions in more formal settings. And the three network anchors, whose presence came to symbolize complaints that the media were blanketing the trip as if it were a state visit, earned their paychecks.

CBS’s Katie Couric repeatedly pressed Obama on why he wouldn’t acknowledge the military success of Bush’s surge in Iraq. ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked about public sentiment that he’s inexperienced and challenged him about changing his position on the status of Jerusalem, questioning whether that was a “rookie mistake.” NBC’s Brian Williams invoked a poll finding that a majority of Americans view him as the riskier choice for president. All three newscasts, whether out of guilt or a sense of fairness, also featured interviews with McCain.

All week, McCain was asked whether the media were favoring Obama. He deflected the question with the mantra: “It is what it is.”

The loudly debated charge that news organizations are fawning over the Obama trip — especially when contrasted with the meager attention paid to McCain’s foreign travels — seeped into the coverage itself.

“This has got to be very frustrating for John McCain . . . that he wants to make his points, he wants to get coverage, and yet everything seems to swarm around Barack Obama,” Gibson told viewers. Couric, playing a clip from a McCain video mocking the media for swooning over the Illinois Democrat, asked, “Will the summer of love last?”

There were some dust-ups. Some reporters complained about the lack of a press pool in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the military orchestrated all pictures and public statements (the Obama camp says the schedule was packed and the Pentagon was in charge, although he did squeeze in interviews with CBS’s Lara Logan and ABC’s Terry Moran). When the campaign pitched a background briefing in Jordan with aides who could not be identified, the correspondents balked, saying only the White House could get away with that.

Still, the tone of the coverage sometimes bordered on gushing, as in this Associated Press dispatch before the appearance in Berlin:

“In this city where John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all made famous speeches, Obama will find himself stepping into perhaps another iconic moment Thursday as his superstar charisma meets German adoration live in shadows of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. He then travels to Paris and London where he can expect to be greeted with similar adulation.

“It’s not only Obama’s youth, eloquence and energy that have stolen hearts across the Atlantic. . . . Obama has raised expectations of a chance for the nation to redeem itself.”

A Rasmussen poll this week found that 49 percent of those surveyed expect the media to favor Obama this fall, while 14 percent expect favoritism toward McCain.

Not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass wrote of the coverage: “McCain is now cast as the crabby uncle who visits and shrieks there’s no gin in your house,” while Obama is “busy fighting off throngs of reporters, a cast of thousands as urgent and impassioned as in those old Hollywood biblical epics.”

Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN correspondent who is now journalist in residence at the University of Delaware, says the notion that Obama was making real news — as opposed to exploiting pretty backdrops — is “a sham argument. Of course it’s a photo op. If he wanted to go to Afghanistan as a senator, he could have done it.”

An unspoken assumption is that Obama, who enjoys a slight lead in the polls, is the odds-on favorite to win. In an upcoming People cover story, a reporter asks the candidate and his wife, Michelle, about their daughters: “How are you preparing them for possible life in the White House?”

Some journalists defend the coverage as a matter of marketing: Obama is hot, McCain is not.

“The Obama phenomenon is so much the better story — an obscure African American senator from Illinois, little known to most Americans two years ago, emerges as very probably the next president,” says Terence Smith, a former correspondent for CBS and PBS. “That is a fantastic story. Of course it’s going to get two or three times the space and attention and airtime of John McCain, who, while he may be a very appealing semi-maverick on his bus, is a much more conventional candidate.”

By that standard, though, journalists can continue to lavish more coverage on Obama simply by declaring him a more fascinating guy.

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” says no one has to apologize for covering the “extraordinary” trip. And, he says, “there is no question in my mind there is more interest in Obama. It’s the news business; you want to sell magazines. Some of it is flavor of the month. And there is some bias.”

But overall, says Wallace, “I don’t know that that’s a good excuse. One would hope there would be rough parity in the coverage.”

The power of stirring images was on display again yesterday in Berlin. Moments after finishing his speech at the Victory Column, as 200,000 Germans cheered, Obama strolled off with Brian Williams, camera crew in tow, to talk about what had just transpired.

===============

McCain and the Safety of Offshore Drilling
McCain says Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn’t cause spillage. But the spills were large enough to be seen from space. | More »

JOHN MCCAIN
As Obama Visits Germany, McCain Visits German Restaurant

By Michael D. Shear
Sen. Barack Obama was in Berlin today, for a lofty speech to throngs of people about the roots of American-German cooperation and the development of freedom in the world.

Sen. John McCain went to Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus.

Located in the German Village section of Columbus, Ohio, the classic restaurant is owned by 58-year-old Geoff Schmidt, the fourth Schmidt to offer what his to go menu claims is “The Best of the Wurst!”

McCain had lunch with Schmidt, picking from a menu that included: Hoffbraii Schnitzel ($12.50), Haus Sauerbraten und Gravy ($12.50) and Wiener schnitzel und Gravy ($14.75). There are also five “Signature Sausage Platters,” all of which are “served over hot kraut with German
Potato Salad, Chunky Applesauce and Split Top bun.

Before lunch — according to the pool report — he asked about dessert.

MCCAIN: “Can we have a coupla cream puffs to go too?”

SCHMIDT: “Oh well, get ‘em. Oh yeah. Peanut butter or chocolate or…”

MCCAIN: “Chocolate.”

SCHMIDT: “Chocolate.”

MCCAIN: “Chocolate.”

Asked whether he was trying to make a point by coming to a German restaurant while Obama was in the real country, McCain took a mild swipe at his rival.

“Well I’d love to give a speech in Germany to — a political speech — or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in. But I would much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of the presidency.”

McCain promised to continue campaigning across the country on issues like offshore oil drilling. He was supposed to have been in Louisiana today, visiting an oil rig to emphasize his support for America’s need to produce more energy at home.

“I’m sorry we were unable to go to an offshore oil rig because I think the drilling off shore is a vital step in addressing the price of oil and America’s energy needs and I hope that Senator Obama will change his position and support offshore drilling. We need to do it,” he said.

====================

McCain May Act Soon on VP Pick
Aides Predict Announcement Before Olympics
By Michael D. Shear and Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 25, 2008; A01

Anxious to counter the blanket media coverage that has followed Sen. Barack Obama on his overseas journey, Sen. John McCain is weighing whether to announce his running mate in the coming weeks before the spotlight shifts to China and the opening of the Olympic Games next month.

“He’s in a position to make [the decision] on short notice if he wanted to,” said Charles R. Black Jr., one of McCain’s top political advisers.

Two top aides to the presumptive Republican nominee said the decision is likely to be announced after Obama returns from Europe on Sunday and before the Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8. They said the campaign fears that unanticipated events coming out of China — whether in the form of athletic accomplishments or human rights protests — could deflect attention from the announcement if it were made during the Games.

The Olympics conclude the day before the Democratic nominating convention opens in Denver, and the GOP convention begins in Minneapolis-St. Paul just four days after the Democratic gathering ends.

Aides to the most likely candidates to join McCain on the ticket, meanwhile, offered terse “no comment” replies when asked whether they have been asked to provide documents that the campaign can use to vet backgrounds.

The list of likely contenders includes former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former U.S. budget director Rob Portman and former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge.

Asked several questions about the selection process, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom repeatedly declined to comment. Representatives for Portman, Jindal and Pawlenty also would not say whether they have provided documents to McCain aides.

Ridge, a close friend of McCain’s, said in an interview that he has had no conversations with the senator or his staff about being a running mate.

“I have not. I can only be interested if John is,” Ridge said Tuesday. “I’m not lobbying for it. I’m not seeking it.”

Ridge, who was first elected to Congress in 1982, at the same time McCain came to Washington, bonded with the Arizona Republican as a fellow Vietnam War veteran. He has been considered as a potential running mate before, providing vetting documents during the 2000 campaign to Richard B. Cheney, who was handling the selection process for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

In the end, it was Cheney who was chosen.

This year, McCain has tapped Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., chairman of the Washington law firm O’Melveny & Meyers and a counsel to President Ronald Reagan, to oversee the selection of a running mate. Culvahouse has declined requests to comment, and McCain has been circumspect on the topic.

“I can’t comment on it,” McCain told reporters as he traveled through Wisconsin last week. He promised to describe his search process after it is over, declining to elaborate before then. “I don’t think it’s fair to the people we are considering,” he said.

Asked this week about Pawlenty, McCain again declined to comment on the governor’s standing in the search but quickly ticked off a list of attributes that would argue for his selection.

“He’s a great, fine person,” McCain said. “Reelected in one of the toughest reelection years in the history of the Republican Party. His father, I am pretty sure, drove a truck. He has been pretty successfully . . . able to work across the aisle in Minnesota with the Democrats.”

Pawlenty was in Washington this week, conducting media interviews on behalf of McCain and attending what the campaign described as “meetings” at McCain’s national headquarters in Arlington. Portman accompanied McCain to a fundraiser in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday.

Jindal appeared on Fox News this week to tamp down expectations, telling “Fox & Friends” that he intends to remain governor of Louisiana, a job he has held only since January.

“Let me be clear: I have said in every private and public conversation, I’ve got the job that I want,” Jindal said. “And I’ll say again on air: I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president. I’m going to help Senator McCain get elected, as governor of Louisiana.”

Aides said Romney is vacationing this week with his family on the Canadian side of Lake Huron and is scheduled to be at his home in Wolfeboro, N.H., next week.

“What I can say is that there is a lot of guessing and speculation going on,” Fehrnstrom said. “Governor Romney expects to be campaigning for Senator McCain as a supporter of the ticket, not a member of the ticket.”

The timing of McCain’s announcement has been hotly debated within the Republican Party as he and Obama eye a calendar that is tightly packed with major national and international events.

This week, syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak wrote that McCain was poised to make an announcement before week’s end, but Novak later complained that he may have been used by aides to the McCain campaign to gin up attention for their candidate. If it was a ploy, it worked, as speculation about McCain’s vice presidential choice provided a rare news breakthrough for the senator during Obama’s overseas trip.

Many Republicans say the traditional time frame for an announcement — the days leading up to the GOP convention — is not practical this year, because the Democratic convention ends so soon before the Republican gathering. It’s unlikely, they said, that McCain would announce his pick the day after Obama gives his convention speech.

And several McCain aides said they oppose the idea of making a vice presidential announcement during the Olympics.

“It’s not that it wouldn’t get covered. But if you are looking for a calm sea and no waves . . . you don’t do it during the Olympics,” said one senior Republican adviser.

“We don’t know when some breakthrough performance will happen,” the adviser said. “All sorts of news can come. . . . What if there’s some sort of human rights protest?”

washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza contributed to this rep