Daily Digest
39.txt
Will her gender sway women to Palin?
(CNN) – As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John
McCain’s pick for vice president, makes her case to the
convention Wednesday night, Republicans hope she will
sway Democratic women toward their ticket.
Palin already has been working on that.
”It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary
[Clinton] left 18 million cracks in the highest and hard-
est glass ceiling in America, but it turns out the women
of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that
glass ceiling once and for all,” she said as McCain in-
troduced her as his choice Friday.
But some of the most ardent Clinton supporters —
even those still loath to vote for Sen. Barack Obama
– found McCain’s choice of Palin patronizing. Video
Watch more of Palin’s comments
”Well, first were just laughing. I mean laughing not
in the sense of ’Oh my God, what has he done?’ but
”Does he think that’s really going to work?’” Allida
Black, a Clinton supporter for Obama, said.
”I mean does he think that women voters who are
with Hillary is some Lego block ... you can take out a
red one and put in a green one?”
She said Palin and Clinton have only gender in com-
mon. Palin is anti-abortion rights, belongs to the Na-
tional Rifle Association and is a conservative Repub-
lican. And she’s been critical of Clinton, calling the
New York senator’s charges of ”sexist” news coverage
– whining.
”When I hear a statement like that coming from
a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine
about the excess criticism or maybe a sharper micro-
scope put on her, I think, man, that doesn’t do us any
good,” Palin told Newsweek magazine in March.
That’s not to say all Clinton supporters would be
adverse to a McCain-Palin ticket. A group called PUMA,
which stands for ”Party Unity My A**”, were Clinton
supporters – both women and men –who are threaten-
ing to vote McCain.
The McCain camp has been aggressively courting
those disaffected with Obama, especially after he an-
nounced Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his running
mate. Video Watch more on Palin’s readiness to lead
Just as the Democrats’ convention was getting started
in Denver, Colorado, last week, the McCain campaign
and the Republican National Committee unveiled four
TV ads geared toward Clinton supporters.
1
The most recent McCain ad involved the famous
Hillary Clinton ”3 a.m.” spot and will be aired during
the convention. The 30-second spot uses footage from
Clinton’s original ad and declares, ”Hillary’s right.”
The ad, which ran in key battleground states and
specifically in Denver last week, also goes a step fur-
ther than the New York senator’s original ad, in detail-
ing what it claims are the national security threats the
United States faces.
Clinton, speaking to a member of the New York del-
egation in Denver on August 25, said she was opposed
to Republicans using her words against Obama.
But it is still unclear as to how many will go the way
of the PUMA. Read more on the PUMA movement
A recent Rutgers University study said historically,
women don’t vote for a candidate because a woman is
on the ticket. They tend to vote Democratic.
That happened in 1984 for former New York Rep.
Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential of
a major political party. Despite the historic nature of
the race, her addition to Walter Mondale’s ticket proved
fruitless.
The Mondale-Ferraro ticket lost big time to Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush that year:
525 electoral votes to Mondale’s 13.
Reagan carried 49 out of the 50 states, with Mon-
dale’s only electoral votes coming from Minnesota – his
home state – and the District of Columbia.
Ferraro’s ties to New York, which is a notoriously
blue state, were unsuccessful for the ticket.
In that race, 44 percent of Democratic women voters
and 56 percent of their Republican counterparts voted
in the presidential race; 51 percent of all voters were
women, according to exit polling.
Twenty-four years later, there’s another woman on
a presidential ticket – this time a Republican. It’s some-
thing that Ferraro hopes will not bring sexism back into
the campaign.
”I believe that people will look back and assess how
Hillary was treated by the media during the campaign
primaries. And it remains to be seen whether or not
the ugly head of sexism – in the media – will raise its
head again,” said Ferraro on August 29, the day after
Obama’s speech at Invesco field.
”I have always said that I wish I would have never
been the only woman, until now,” she said last Friday.
But if Democratic women were swayed this year, it
was toward a woman in their own party. iReport.com:
Are you a woman backing Palin?
 That woman was Hillary Clinton , and it wasn’t
because of her gender, but what they pointed to as her
experience and fitness to lead the country.
Claudine Montano, initially a Clinton supporter,
said last week at the Democratic convention that not
many Clinton backers will support McCain after Clin-
ton’s rousing speech endorsing Obama.
”I think when they heard Hillary ... they will go
with Obama,” said Montano, a New Mexico resident
who is not a delegate.
Pledged Clinton delegate Anne Price Mills, with
tears in her eyes, said Clinton was ”presidential” on
August 26.
Price Mills, of Washington state, was a staunch
Clinton supporter. As for her vote in November?
”Obama has two months,” she said. ”I won’t vote
for McCain, but [Obama] has to get me here, and I
haven’t connected with him.” Read more on Clinton
supporters on the fence
Palin has five children. Her 17-year-old daughter,
Bristol, is pregnant, and she recently had a Down syn-
drome baby. Anti-abortion groups and conservatives
have praised her and her daughter’s decisions to keep
their babies.
Elder statesman of the evangelical movement, Fo-
cus on the Family founder James Dobson, released a
statement lauding the Palins for acting in keeping with
the group’s policies and practices:
”We have always encouraged the parents to love and
support their children and always advised the girls to
see their pregnancies through, even though there will of
course be challenges along the way. That is what the
Palins are doing, and they should be commended once
again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-
family values, but living them out even in the midst of
trying circumstances,” his statement said.
But an anti-abortion stance is unlikely to sway Demo-
cratic women.
A recent survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Re-
search shows that the issue of choice can have a large
impact on the election.
The poll, conducted May 29-June 8, showed: Pro-
choice is an issue that swings key blocs of women voters
to Obama’s side.
Obama gains 13 points among pro-choice indepen-
dent women – who make up 9 percent of the sample
– and 9 points among pro-choice Republican women,
who account for 5 percent of the sample, according to
the poll.
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”Among pro-choice independent women, pro-choice
Republican women, and liberal to moderate Republican
women, the issue of abortion produces a larger advan-
tage for Democrats than the economy, the war in Iraq,
or health care,” according to the Greenberg Quinlan
Rosner/NARAL poll report.
Also, a recent New York Times article looked at
2
working mothers and found both support and criticism
that Palin might not be able to handle a big family
and the role of vice presidency at the same time and
reservations about her going back to work right after
giving birth to a disabled baby.
38.txt
Palin to call for reform in convention speech
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) GOP vice presiden-
tial candidate Sarah Palin will highlight her record as
Alaska’s governor and a former smalltown mayor when
she speaks Wednesday night to the Republican Na-
tional Convention, a top aide to Palin said.
Sen. John McCain’s running mate also will call for
reform in Washington, Palin aide Tucker Eskew said.
”She will speak as a governor, a former mayor and
someone with both hands on the steering wheel of Amer-
ica’s energy economy,” Eskew said.
”She will detail her record of shaking up the status
quo in Alaska and standing up to entrenched interests
to put the government back on the side of the people.
She will make the case for Sen. McCain as the only
candidate who has fought for America and the best
man to protect us in dangerous times.”
Palin is slated to speak during the 10 p.m. ET hour
at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Video Watch
more on Palin’s speech
Palin took a tour of the podium at the convention
site Wednesday morning, hours before she’ll return to
give what will be the most scrutinized speech of her
career.
She walked through the nearly empty hall and spent
about 10 minutes checking out the podium where she’ll
give her primetime acceptance speech.
Palin told reporters that she feels ”great.”
”I’m excited to speak to Americans. This will be
good. It’s about reform,” she said. Video Watch Palin
tour the podium
Top McCain staff, including campaign manager Rick
Davis and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace, accompanied
Palin on her tour.
Her address is sure to generate a lot of attention
since McCain surprised many political observers last
week with his selection of Palin over betterknown con-
tenders such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Rom-
ney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Revelations that Palin’s 17yearold unmarried daugh-
ter, Bristol, is pregnant also generated a flurry of media
buzz as the GOP convention got under way this week.
On Tuesday night, Republican leaders strongly de-
fended Palin, who has won praise from influential con-
servatives for her opposition to abortion and her probusi-
ness record.
 Actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson led the
charge, berating ”Washington pundits and media big
shots” who have questioned her experience as a first-
term governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla,
Alaska.
”She is from a small town, with smalltown values,
but that’s not good enough for those folks who are at-
tacking her and her family,” he said to cheers.
”Let’s be clear. The selection of Gov. Palin has the
other side and their friends in the media in a state of
panic. She is a courageous, successful reformer who is
not afraid to take on the establishment.” Video Watch
Thompson defend Palin
Thompson said Palin has the experience needed in
Washington, calling her ”a woman who has actually
governed rather than just talked a good game on the
Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail cir-
cuit.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice pres-
idential nominee and now a Connecticut independent,
also called Palin ”a reformer.”
”She’s taken on the special interests and the polit-
ical power brokers in Alaska and reached across party
lines to get things done,” Lieberman said. Video Watch
more of Lieberman’s speech
And President Bush, speaking to the convention by
video link from the White House, said McCain could
govern in Washington with ”an outstanding leader at
his side.”
Also on Wednesday night, McCain’s former rivals
for the GOP presidential nomination will take center
stage at the convention.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Romney
and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will speak
in prime time, party officials said.
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Giuliani scrapped his run for the presidency in Jan-
uary. Romney, who was on the shortlist of potential
running mates for McCain, gave up his bid for the
White House in February. And Huckabee dropped out
a month later.
All three men backed McCain after ending their
campaigns.
37.txt
Democrats attack Lieberman, saying he lied to del-
egates
(CNN) – Democrats accused former colleague Sen.
Joe Lieberman of misleading the Republican National
Convention when he addressed them in a speech Tues-
day night.
A senior Barack Obama campaign adviser said Lieber-
man flat-out lied when he told delegates that Obama
never successfully reached across party lines.
3
”Joe Lieberman ought to be ashamed of himself for
some of the things he said tonight, not as a Democrat
but as an American,” adviser Robert Gibbs said on
”Larry King Live.”
Lieberman, an independent senator from Connecti-
cut who was the Democratic vice presidential candidate
alongside Al Gore in 2000, has thrown his support be-
hind John McCain, a longtime friend.
Lieberman urged Democratic and independent vot-
ers to make a change and vote for a McCain because, he
said, he would do whatever it took to help the American
public. iReport.com: Do you agree with Lieberman?
Lieberman attacked Obama’s rhetoric, saying ”elo-
quence is no substitute for a record.”
”In the Senate, [Obama] has not reached across
party lines to get anything significant done, nor has
he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in
the Democratic Party,” Lieberman said in his speech.
Gibbs stressed that it was a ”flat-out lie” that Obama
hasn’t reached across party lines during his time in pub-
lic office. Gibbs cited Obama’s work with Sen. Richard
Lugar, R-Indiana, to keep nuclear weapons out of the
hands of terrorists and with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-
Oklahoma, on the government budget.
Gibbs blamed what he called lies like those perpe-
trated in Lieberman’s speech for disillusioning voters
and making them cynical of the government.
”I think [Lieberman] owes it to the American people
to look into the camera and tell them the truth,” Gibbs
said. Watch New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s take
on Lieberman’s speech Video
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spokesman Jim
Manley said Reid too was unhappy with the tone of
Lieberman’s speech.
”As the American people have made very clear, the
last thing this country needs is another four years of
the same old failed Bush-McCain policies of the past,”
Manley said.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said in
a statement that the convention speeches also showed
how out of touch the McCain campaign and Republi-
cans are with the American people, neglecting to talk
about one of the country’s biggest problems: the econ-
omy.
”At a time when millions of Americans are strug-
gling like never before to pay their mortgage, their
medical bills and their gas bills, tonight’s speakers at
John McCain’s Republican convention proved how out
of touch their candidate is by saying not one word about
his plans to put our economy back on track and provide
real relief to middle-class families,” Vietor said. ”Ap-
parently, John McCain’s belief that we’ve made ’great
progress’ economically over the last eight years means
he doesn’t have to offer any plans at all to fix our ailing
economy.”
The Obama campaign also used a short speech de-
livered by President Bush via satellite to once again tie
McCain to the unpopular president, as it has attempted
to do throughout this election season.
”Tonight, George Bush enthusiastically passed the
torch to the man who’s earned it by voting with him
90 percent of the time and who will continue this pres-
ident’s legacy for the next four years: his disastrous
economic policies, his foreign policy that hasn’t made
us safer and his misguided war in Iraq that’s costing us
10 billion a month,” Obama campaign manager David
Plouffe said.
”The man George Bush needs may be John McCain,
but the change America needs is Barack Obama.”