By: Suzanne Rosenberg In today?s review of newspaper campaign blogs: President Bush does and then doesn?t comment on America?s financial turmoil, John McCain invents the BlackBerry, and is judged on his health care plan. Palin to sharpen foreign policy skills at the United Nations.
President decides not to comment on country?s financial deterioration
The Swamp
The Chicago Tribune
By Mark Silva
After first assuring the press pool that he would have a comment for them once he?d met with his Working Group on Financial Markets yesterday, the President was a no show. President Bush sent White House Press Secretary Dana Perino out to the waiting press in the West Wing after the closed door session to say, that ?The President was briefed this afternoon by his working group on financial markets. He appreciates their work to strengthen and stabilize the markets.? As Mark Silva said, ?Must have been a lot of good news in there.?
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Al Gore invented the Internet and all John McCain did was invent the BlackBerry
When McCain?s domestic policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin was asked about his candidate?s grasp of high tech matters, he held up his BlackBerry and referred to McCain?s tenure as head of the Senate Commerce Committee. ?He did this," Holtz-Eakin continued, ?telecommunications in the US comes through the Commerce Committee and it is the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that?s what he did. ? As Mark Silva pointed out in the world of politics only one sentence leaped to mind: ?Al Gore invented the internet.? Silva?s posting also includes the ?guarded retreat? from the McCain camp regarding the Holtz-Eakin comment, so I gather McCain doesn?t want Gore tag this time regarding the BlackBerry.
Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin making news for McCain again
The Caucus
The New York Times
By Kevin Sack
As noted in the BlackBerry blurb, Senator John McCain?s top domestic policy advisor, Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin is stirring up controversy again. Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget Office director, said in a conference call with reporters that Mr. McCain?s health care proposal would ?put 25 to 30 million individuals out of the ranks of the uninsured, into the ranks of the insured.? If true this would be quite an achievement since the ranks of the country?s uninsured is now estimated to be approximately 47 million. The only problem is that in an article published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs, a panel of prominent health economists concludes that Mr. Holtz-Eakin?s projection may be off by perhaps 25 to 30 million people. Estimates made in the journal match those made in July by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution which project that one million people would gain coverage after one year under Mr. McCain?s plan, 5 million in four years, and afterwards the numbers would creep upward. As in the BlackBerry incident, Kevin Sack notes that Mr. Holtz-Eakin had no comment.
McCain surrogate, Carly Fiorina and her CEO ?gaffe?
Top of the Times
The Los Angeles Times
By Don Frederick
By the end of the day on Tuesday the pundits had their way with Ms. Fiorina?s statement that Palin?s credentials would not qualify her to run a major company such as her former employer (Hewlett Packard), yet they would qualify her to be the Republican vice presidential nominee. Fiorina stood by her comments but insisted that her opinion also applied to Obama, Biden, and McCain. Don Frederick of Top of the Times points out the incredibly astute observation made by the journalist Michael Kinsley. He simply noted that ?gaffe? is so often the noun used when a politician actually just tells the truth.
Palin to attend UN rally with Clinton
The Trail
The Washsington Post
By Colum Lynch
Although the details have not yet been worked out, Colum Lynch of the Trail reports that both Governor Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton will appear at a rally outside the United Nations Monday morning to protest the appearance of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The rally is being organized by a coalition of American Jewish organizations, under an umbrella group called the National Coalition to Stop Iran Now, which are clearly concerned about the threat President Ahmadinajad poses to Israel. The rally which will also be attended by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel has not announced whether Clinton and Palin will appear together on stage.
Trail Mix's Featured Blogs:Chicago Tribune:
The SwampLos Angeles Times:
Top of the TicketThe Boston Globe:
Political IntelligenceThe Denver Post:
Politics WestThe New York Times:
The CaucusThe Wall Street Journal:
The Washington WireThe Washington Post:
The Trail and
The FixUSA Today:
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