CBS Reporter's opinion on the campaigns

weslinder · Oct 9, 2008

I thought this was an interesting view.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/07/politics/fromtheroad/entry4507703.shtml

After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days. The differences between the two are striking.

Obama is the big time orator, McCain is the guy who struggles with a teleprompter or even note cards strategically placed nearby. Obama's crowds are larger, more enthusiastic. McCain's events are smaller, but to my eye, better choreographed. And now with the addition of Sarah Palin to some of his events, McCain can boast of crowds that match Obama's in energy.

There is an urgency to the McCain campaign now that I don't think was there before. Due to the fact that he is running second, no doubt, but it may also be because McCain has a finishing kick. Whatever the case, he is sharper on the stump than he was before. (Though I would suspect a candidate running behind would want to schedule two or three appearances per day, instead of the one McCain usually does.)

It is true that McCain enjoys taking questions from the audience in town hall-style settings. That doesn't mean he is the master of that kind of forum, it just means he's good at it. He likes to converse with voters. Obama does it well too, but seldom achieves that intangible bond with the people that all politicians crave -- or fake.

Behind the scenes, where the public is not allowed, there are other differences.

Obama's campaign schedule is fuller, more hectic and seemingly improvisational. The Obama aides who deal with the national reporters on the campaign plane are often overwhelmed, overworked and un-informed about where, when, why or how the candidate is moving about. Baggage calls are preposterously early with the explanation that it's all for security reasons.

If so, I would love to have someone from Obama's campaign explain why the entire press corps, the Secret Service, and the local police idled for two hours in a Miami hotel parking lot recently because there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was not an isolated case.

The national headquarters in Chicago airily dismisses complaints from journalists wondering why a schedule cannot be printed up or at least e-mailed in time to make coverage plans. Nor is there much sympathy for those of us who report for a newscast that airs in the early evening hours. Our shows place a premium on live reporting from the scene of campaign events. But this campaign can often be found in the air and flying around at the time the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" is broadcast. I suspect there is a feeling within the Obama campaign that the broadcast networks are less influential in the age of the internet and thus needn't be accomodated as in the days of yore. Even if it's true, they are only hurting themselves by dissing audiences that run in the tens of millions every night.

The McCain folks are more helpful and generally friendly. The schedules are printed on actual books you can hold in your hand, read, and then plan accordingly. The press aides are more knowledgeable and useful to us in the news media. The events are designed with a better eye, and for the simple needs of the press corps. When he is available, John McCain is friendly and loquacious. Obama holds news conferences, but seldom banters with the reporters who've been following him for thousands of miles around the country. Go figure.

The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama's, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.

The other day in Albuquerque, N.M., the reporters were given almost no time to file their reports after McCain spoke. It was an important, aggressive speech, lambasting Obama's past associations. When we asked for more time to write up his remarks and prepare our reports, the campaign readily agreed to it. They understood.

Similar requests are often denied or ignored by the Obama campaign aides, apparently terrified that the candidate may have to wait 20 minutes to allow reporters to chronicle what he's just said. It's made all the more maddening when we are rushed to our buses only to sit and wait for 30 minutes or more because nobody seems to know when Obama is actually on the move.

Maybe none of this means much. Maybe a front-running campaign like Obama's that is focused solely on victory doesn't have the time to do the mundane things like print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters.
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BigBenito · Oct 9, 2008

The other day in Albuquerque, N.M., the reporters were given almost no time to file their reports after McCain spoke. It was an important, aggressive speech, lambasting Obama's past associations. When we asked for more time to write up his remarks and prepare our reports, the campaign readily agreed to it. They understood.

How considerate of the McCain camp!

studogg · Oct 9, 2008

so your saying if you campaign for president twice, you become more efficient and organized?

BigBenito · Oct 9, 2008

studogg said:

so your saying if you campaign for president twice, you become more efficient and organized?
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That and you realize you can't let reporters talk to your vp or to your supporters.

Experience matters!

SamFisher · Oct 9, 2008

Maybe none of this means much. Maybe a front-running campaign like Obama's that is focused solely on victory doesn't have the time to do the mundane things like print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters

WAAH-mbulance dispatched...

rhadamanthus · Oct 9, 2008

What an entirely irrelevant and inconsequential piece.

I cannot express the amount of "I don't give a ****" I feel in regard to the alacrity of either campaign to supply campaign schedules.

It's hysterical to me that weslinder finds the one journalist who apparently is not concerned with the lack of access reporters have been given to Palin, or the fact that it appears reporters are being instructed not to talk to the supporters in the crowd, but instead focuses on scheduling and how "nice" the people on the phone appear to be.

What, pray tell, did you find so interesting weslinder? Perhaps the "interesting" part was the subjective generalities and prevalent uselessness of the espoused viewpoint?

B-Bob · Oct 9, 2008

Wow, look at that liberal media bias in action! CBS is the worst, right? (and by right, I am talking to The Right.)

CBS is the worst, right, Right?

Uprising · Oct 9, 2008

Ride Ride?

Oski2005 · Oct 9, 2008

B-Bob said:

Wow, look at that liberal media bias in action! CBS is the worst, right? (and by right, I am talking to The Right.)

CBS is the worst, right, Right?
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This kind of reminded me of Colbert's town hall bit the other day: "You're asking if it's ok to talk about a candidates Reverand, right?"

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Faos · Oct 9, 2008

The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama's, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time.
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I have no idea what that smell is. (Not a good role model for the kids I might add.)

Obama Admits Bumming Cigarettes on the Campaign Trail
by Bonney Kapp

NASHVILLE - The Associated Press got a preview of Barack Obama’s interview with Men’s Health magazine to grace next month’s issue, where the senator admitted bumming a smoke “a couple of times” along the campaign trail. He explained, “I figure, seeing as I’m running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack.”

The candidate regularly chews Nicorette after kicking the habit at his wife’s request to run for president.

For those who want to quit, Obama advises, “Eliminate certain key connections — that first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink…If you can eliminate those triggers, that should help.”

Obama also told the fitness magazine that he gets in 45-minute workouts six days a week.

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/obama-admits-bumming-cigarettes-on-the-campaign-trail/

DonkeyMagic · Oct 9, 2008

What an entirely irrelevant and inconsequential piece.
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that's right up your alley.

But it is an interesting look at behind the scenes. Reminds me of the documentary that was done during Pres Bush's first campaign...a very candid veiw of the campaign trail

DonkeyMagic · Oct 9, 2008

The candidate regularly chews Nicorette after kicking the habit at his wife’s request to run for president.
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i wonder if she lets him stand up to pee?

mc mark · Oct 9, 2008

The extreme anxiety among the haters is palpable!

Deckard · Oct 9, 2008

Whining about the plane? The horror!!!

rhadamanthus · Oct 9, 2008

DonkeyMagic said:

that's right up your alley.
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Pardon? That's a rather weird thing to say coming from someone who never posts more than one or two ambiguous and jaded sentences without any rationale or specifics.

But don't let me rain on your little parade of feigned superiority. I don't care.

Just like I don't care what a campaign plane supposedly smells like.

BigBenito · Oct 9, 2008

It is a good thing that cbs is in the tank for obama, I'd hate to see what they'd write if they weren't.

cson · Oct 9, 2008

DonkeyMagic said:

i wonder if she lets him stand up to pee?
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How old are you?

Not smoking is nowhere near the same as she-peeing. ...and:

rhadamanthus · Oct 9, 2008

Bummer about the smoking thing:

Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I do not succumb."
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Roxfan73 · Oct 9, 2008

Smelly planes, missed deadlines, bummed Marlboros and idling motorcades, you say? All of this is great news for JOHN MCCAIN!!!!

rimrocker · Oct 9, 2008

Another compare and contrast article that is more representative of the governing philosophies of the candidates....

Obama, McCain Transition Efforts Are Worlds Apart
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/obama-mccain-transition-e_n_132976.html?view=print

As the 2008 campaign nears its conclusion, the presidential transition efforts of the two major candidates have become a study in contrasts: Sen. Barack Obama has organized an elaborate well-staffed network to prepare for his possible ascension to the White House, while Sen. John McCain has all but put off such work until after the election.

The Democratic nominee has enlisted the assistance of dozens of individuals -- divided into working groups for particular federal agencies -- to produce policy agendas and lists of recommended appointees. As evidence of their advanced preparations, officials provided a copy of the strict ethics guidelines that individuals working on the transition effort are required to sign.

John McCain, by contrast, has done little. Campaign spokespersons did not respond to requests for elaboration. But one official with direct knowledge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed concern with McCain's approach. The Arizona Senator has instructed his team to not spend time on the transition effort, according to the source, both out of a desire to have complete focus on winning the election as well as a superstitious belief that the campaign shouldn't put the cart before the horse.

Virtually every modern non-incumbent presidential candidate has organized, during the course of the campaign, a transition effort to prepare for the early months of a potential administration. These teams help build lists and vet individuals who could serve in key government posts. They hammer out proposals to facilitate policy making from day one. And they work closely with outgoing administration officials to better understand the true lay of the political land.

Governance scholars consider the process invaluable, particularly as the nation struggles with a major economic crisis, two active wars, and a range of domestic security threats. "Our enemies understand how potentially vulnerable we are in the transition from one administration to the next," Clay Johnson III, former Executive Director of the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition, said recently at a forum on transition planning. "This is something we need to be very, very seriously prepared for."

With 100 or so days before the next president takes office, Obama's transition effort has been organized into roughly a dozen teams of six to eight people to plot out the approach for each agency, according to a Democratic official. The ethics code governing the process prohibits staff from working on subjects that could be deemed a financial conflict of interests, either to that member or that member's family.

Under the code - a copy of which can be viewed here - lobbyists will be able to serve on the Obama transition team provided it has been more than a year since he or she lobbied on the subject to which they have been assigned. Current federally registered lobbyists will not be "permitted to serve in a titled role for the Obama Transition Project," nor for that matter will they be allowed to "contribute to or collect contributions for the Obama Transition Project."

There is less known about what the McCain campaign has been doing, partially because there are fewer details to unearth. The GOP nominee has tasked his transition to William Timmons, a well-known Washington hand and long-time lobbyist. According to a source close to the effort, Timmons has held conference calls with campaign officials and is plotting out various aspects to the impending transition. There is not, at this time, an ethics policy in place, the source says.

A call to Timmons went unreturned. "Bill does not talk to the press but I'll tell him you called," said his secretary. "Thank you."

The disparate approach that each campaign has taken to the transition process is in some ways a reflection of the personality of the candidates themselves. Obama's efforts have been criticized as presumptuous by the McCain campaign. But veterans of the process argue that the well-organized plan that Obama is pursuing will help ensure smooth continuity between administrations, not to mention avoid embarrassing political hiccups.

"Government is becoming more complex and the time it is taking to put a leadership team in key departments is taking longer," said P.J. Crowley, who heads the Homeland Security Presidential Transition Initiative at the Center for American Progress. "I think that if a campaign is waiting until November 5 to start the transition process, they are going to be behind. It is not being presumptuous -- it is being prudent to be prepared before the election so that you can at least make the transition process effective as possible and be ready to govern on January 20."

The president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, former White House chief of staff John Podesta, is reportedly heading up Obama's transition team.

McCain, in contrast, appears willing to tackle important aspects of his potential transition in real time. It is a stance that fits the Senator's sometimes ad hoc approach to politics, and one that allows him to focus staff and resources on the pending election. McCain's transition would also be less drastic than Obama's since, in all likelihood, there will not be as vast an ideological and staff shift.

But this approach could create significant obstacles down the road. For example, as Crowley notes, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had only a fraction of his leadership team in place on 9/11 - roughly eight months after his President Bush took office.

"It is irresponsible not to have a well organized, thoughtful vigorous transition, right now," said Mickey Kantor, a Clinton administration official who was there for the 1992 transition and who has consulted with the Obama campaign about its efforts. "I am surprised that John McCain would take that position. This government is very complicated. And I don't care how many years you have spent on it you don't truly understand it until you get to the middle of it."
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CBS Reporter's opinion on the campaigns

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CBS Reporter's opinion on the campaigns

weslinder Contributing Member

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B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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