Who would make the best VP?
Biden or Lieberman?
HP-Howard Fineman Says It’s Biden: The columnist says sources have told him Obama will likely pick the Delaware Senator.
Within the last few hours I’ve spoken with two of the finalists for the role of Barack Obama’s running-mate, and to two other sources who are close to the process.
My bottom line is this: Barring a big surprise or last-minute change of heart, the choice is likely to be Sen. Joe Biden of Deleware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
HP-Joe Lieberman As McCain’s Vice President?
There’s been plenty of speculation since self-described Democratic-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman started stumping for Sen. John McCain in December that Al Gore’s 2000 runningmate might reprise that role for his Republican friend.
McCain did little to dissuade Washington Wire of that notion. The Arizona senator was speaking Wednesday evening at town hall-style meeting at T-Bones Steakhouse and Saloon in Lake Wylie, S.C.
FYI
Biden their time? Lieberman, Graham head to Georgia, too
Politico-McCain men Joe Lieberman (a rumored veep choice) and Lindsey Graham are leaving today for a two-day tour of Poland, the Ukraine and Georgia, where they will meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Senate Armed Services Committee Codel comes in the wake of (rumored veep choice) Joe Biden’s ballyhooed trip last weekend. It was in the works for a week — probably before Biden’s excursion was announced, a Graham staffer said.
The schedule includes stops in Kiev, Warsaw, Tblisi and a bank of microphones.
The purpose of the trip, says Lieberman, is to discuss the Russian invasion with local leaders and assess its impact on NATO and future U.S.-Russia relations. They return late Thursday.
FYI
Nader predicts Obama to pick Clinton
Politico-Count Ralph Nader as unimpressed by the crop of supposed finalists to be Barack Obama’s running mate.
“I don’t think he’s that dumb,” said Nader, commenting on widespread speculation that Obama’s choices are down to Sens. Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.
The smart pick, according to Nader, is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nader phoned into Politico Tuesday afternoon to offer his prediction that a surprise nod to Clinton is actually what Obama has in mind—never mind the talk of mistrust between the Clintons and Obama.
“He just has to swallow hard and do what JFK did” in picking rival Lyndon Johnson in 1960, said the liberal activist and maverick presidential candidate.
According to Nader’s logic, Obama may dislike Hillary, but will conclude he has no choice but to get over it if he hopes to leave next week’s convention in Denver with a unified party and a decent shot against John McCain in the fall: “The polls show 25 percent of her supporters have not gotten on board.”
“He’s got to be very concerned by the [neck-in-neck] polls and by what happened at Saddleback,” added Nader, referring to the recent candidates forum hosted by evangelist Rick Warren. “He got beat in Saddleback—big time.”
Nader said his own sources—and, to be blunt, they sound a bit sketchy—lead him to believe that Clinton remains in serious consideration. A friend, he said, recently saw Clinton family intimate Vernon Jordan on Martha’s Vineyard and reported the “usually very effusive” Jordan to be suspiciously “tight-lipped.”
Nader said he does not see how Biden, Bayh or Kaine would help Obama politically, and believes the speculation about them is a “smokescreen.” If it’s a traditional white male politician Obama is after, Nader offered, the better pick would be former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, who brings national security heft and could put his home state in play.
It might be tempting for the Obama partisans to brush off Nader’s freelance handicapping, but dismissing him as a crank is a risk. Many Democrats believe he siphoned votes and cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000.
As for his own reading of the vice presidential tarot cards, Nader admitted, “I may have egg on my face in a few days.”
FYI
Veep short-listers mix positives and negatives
NPR-When Barack Obama shows up Saturday in Springfield, Ill., on his way to the Democratic Convention, he’ll have his new running mate grinning beside him. But that man or woman is still unknown, even as speculation rises to a fever pitch.
Same with John McCain, just days away from his Republican convention.
A big reason the jobs are still open: The contenders believed to be still in the running could pose significant risks as well as helping the presidential candidates.
For Obama, for instance, picking a senator like Delaware’s Joe Biden or Indiana’s Evan Bayh would bring experience to the ticket but would also make it harder to emphasize his own signature campaign theme of change.
For McCain, former rival Mitt Romney would bring economic experience and ties to battleground Michigan. But Romney has his detractors, even among Republicans, and McCain’s primary-season attacks on him would provide ammunition for Democrats.
For all the talk, running mates seldom are a factor in November outcomes. A party’s No. 2 hasn’t played a truly key role since John F. Kennedy chose Lyndon Johnson in 1960.
But the selection is the most important decision each candidate makes before formally gaining his party’s nomination, and it could reveal much about his judgment.
“It’s an opportunity for them to show that they know how to do it,” said Paul Light, a professor of government at New York University. “In this regard, a bad choice hurts much more than a good choice helps.”
Obama is believed to have narrowed his list to Biden, Bayh, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is still seen by some Democrats as a possibility — but a longshot one.
Republican McCain, with an additional week or so to decide, is believed to have a short list that includes Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Possibly also in contention: former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick in 2000 who now is an independent.
Here is a look at the potential strengths and liabilities of the prospective running mates.
First, the Democrats:
— Biden, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would bring a wealth of foreign policy experience, something the first-term Illinois senator clearly lacks. Just this past weekend he was in Georgia at the request of President Mikhail Saakashvili.
He’s been in the Senate since 1972, a full ten years before McCain was first elected to Congress.
But the fact that Obama would turn to Biden in an effort to offset his own foreign-policy inexperience could be seen as a lack of confidence in himself.
Also, Biden, 65, has a spotty political history. He fared poorly as a presidential contender in this year’s Democratic contests. He has a reputation for verbosity. And he is still dogged by his decision to drop out of the 1988 presidential campaign after he was caught lifting lines from a speech by a British Labor Party leader. Earlier this year, he apologized for describing Obama as “articulate” and “clean.”
Geographically, Biden would bring little. Delaware has voted Democratic in recent presidential contests and has just three electoral votes.
— Bayh, 52, a popular two-term former governor of Indiana and son of former Sen. Birch Bayh, could help put red-state Indiana and its 11 electoral votes in play. Indiana has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964, but Democrats view it as competitive this year.
Bayh has a centrist record and executive experience as governor. He sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. He also supported Clinton in the primaries, and that could help Obama with her supporters.
On the down side, having two senators from neighboring Midwestern states wouldn’t amount to much geographic diversity. Also, Bayh’s early support for the Iraq war could be a liability.
— Sebelius, 60, as governor of a traditionally Republican state would bring executive experience to the ticket and could help reach out to both moderate Republicans and to those intent on seeing a woman on the ticket.
In Michigan on Tuesday, Sebelius wouldn’t say if she expected to be chosen. “I think a week from tomorrow we will all know,” she said, stating the obvious since the Democratic vice presidential nominee will address the convention next Wednesday evening.
Sebelius spoke to The Associated Press by telephone before speaking on behalf of Obama at a town hall meeting.
Sebelius is the least well-known contender among those Obama is believed to be considering. And her presence on the ticket still might not be enough to win over her solidly red state and its six electoral votes.
Also, die-hard Clinton supporters might react negatively to Obama’s decision to put a woman on the ticket other than Clinton.
— Kaine, 50, is a charismatic speaker and popular Democratic governor in a traditionally Republican state. That could help reinforce Obama’s outside-Washington theme and help to put a GOP state in play. Kaine, a Catholic, might also appeal to voters of that faith.
But Kaine is a lot like Obama in terms of age and relative lack of experience. Some view the fact that Obama has already given a convention speaking role to another Virginian, former Gov. Mark Warner — who is also mentioned as a possible contender for the No. 2 spot — as an indication that Kaine may not get the nod since it seems unlikely two prime speaking spots would go to Virginians.
Virginia has 13 electoral votes.
On the Republican side:
— Romney, 61, who was McCain’s closest competitor in the GOP primaries, would bring to the ticket economic and executive experience that McCain himself doesn’t have. The former Massachusetts governor was chief executive officer of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. He earned millions as a business consultant and venture capitalist. As head of Bain Capital, he helped launch the Staples office supply chain and buy Domino’s Pizza.
Romney is popular in Utah and Colorado, states with large numbers of residents who, like Romney, are Mormons. And he grew up in Michigan, where his father, George Romney, was governor and a GOP presidential contender.
Still, questions remain about Romney’s shifting stance on issues like abortion and gay rights as he abandoned once-moderate politics to court social conservatives.
And neither man appeared especially fond of the other during the campaign. Romney cast McCain as outside the GOP’s conservative mainstream. McCain argued that Romney’s equivocations and reversals indicated a willingness to change positions to fit political goals.
— Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, could bring McCain the support of conservative Republicans and help in a state that has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 1976. Minnesota has 10 electoral votes.
At 47, he is Obama’s age. Growing up in St. Paul, site of the GOP convention, he has a blue-collar background and a reputation as a budget cutter and tax-cut advocate.
His veto of a string of bills has made him unpopular with Minnesota’s Democratic-dominated Legislature.
While generally seen as a safe choice, Pawlenty is little known outside his home state. He also comes across to some as bland.
— Ridge, 62, is a popular former Pennsylvania governor and, like McCain, a Vietnam war veteran. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush named him as director of the Office of Homeland Security, and later secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security.
Ridge’s biggest liability, from a GOP viewpoint, could be his support for abortion rights. McCain’s recent comments that he might consider someone with such views generated a torrent of criticism from social conservatives. Still, Republican officials say top McCain advisers have been reaching out to big donors and high-profile delegates in key states to gauge the impact of putting an abortion-rights supporter on the ticket, underscoring how seriously McCain might be considering Ridge or Lieberman.
Such a choice could raise the prospect of acrimony at the GOP national convention next month.
— Picking Lieberman, 66, one of McCain’s most outspoken campaign-trail partners, would signal a reach across the political aisle. Lieberman was Democrat Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 and currently represents Connecticut in the Senate as an independent.
While the choice might be applauded by some as a bold bipartisan move, it could also trigger a backlash both among conservative Republicans and Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for instance, recently accused Lieberman of “totally irresponsible” remarks about Obama.
FYI
Double gulp: Source says Lieberman’s staff busy building dossier on him; Update: “I’m not the guy,” says Biden; Update: Pawlenty leads short list?
HOTAIR-Could have gone in the other thread as an update but that one’s already Dramamine-worthy. How apparently serious has the vetting process gotten? If Politico’s to be believed, serious enough that the research director of Joementum’s 2004 presidential campaign is involved:
Top aides to Joseph Lieberman have reached out to former staffers in recent days with “substanative questions” about the issue areas they worked on while working for the Connecticut senator, according to a source close to Lieberman…
Without saying defnitively that the information-gathering was being done to share with McCain’s campaign, this source said “it would be unusual if not in the context of being vetted.”…
Another strong clue is that one of the former aides contacted was Lori McGrogan.
A longtime Lieberman aide, McGrogan served as Research Director on the senator’s 2004 presidential bid where she was tasked with investigating her candidate’s record as well as those of his Democratic primary rivals.
Meanwhile, ABC corroborates NR’s report that not only were top McCain aides calling around to float the idea of a pro-choice VP yesterday but they’re still doing so today. Exit question: Have we officially reached crisis stage now? Time to start phoning Maverick HQ and begging them to cease and desist? It worked with amnesty! (Well, no, not with McCain it didn’t.)
Update: Might as well dump all the VP rumormongering into one thread. Granted, every potential nominee denies that they’re being considered, but would Biden really say something this definitive with Obama’s choice (allegedly) having already been made?
As he pulled out of the driveway in the driver’s seat of his car he then said to the press gathered near his gate, “You guys have better things to do. I’m not the guy.”
Update: It’s … it’s a head fake! “Some conservatives went so far today as to suggest that the McCain camp was raising the issue of naming a pro-choice running mate just as a way to woo moderates, even though he has no intention of doing so. And it all comes as we are receiving word from Republican and conservative officials that pro-life Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has moved to the top of McCain’s vice presidential short list.”
FYI
McCain weighs a Lieberman surprise
POLITICO-John McCain is seriously considering choosing a pro-abortion-rights running mate despite vocal resistance from conservatives, with former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) very much in the mix, close McCain advisers say.
Under strong consideration: former Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, and Lieberman, who was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000.
Multiple GOP sources say that party officials in Washington and in the states have been contacted by the McCain campaign in the past two weeks and asked about the fallout from such a choice. One person familiar with the calls said the party was being instructed to prepare for different candidate prototypes — including one in the mold of Lieberman, who is an independent but still caucuses with the Democrats
One obstacle for Lieberman may be legal. A GOP official said that since he is not a Republican, Lieberman may have a challenge being certified on some state ballots.
But GOP sources say McCain and his close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) still haven’t given up hope on making what some believe would be a game-changing decision by tapping Lieberman.
Lieberman’s office declined to discuss the topic. “Those questions are best left to the McCain campaign at this time,” said Erika Masonhall, Lieberman’s Senate press secretary.
Ridge also appears to still be on the short list, GOP sources say. McCain likes the fact that Ridge is a Vietnam War hero with a working-class background. Ridge worked in the White House as Bush’s homeland security adviser before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, and could help McCain with his further reform of the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
“He’s McCain’s kind of guy,” said a close friend of the candidate.
McCain, who in the past had said it would be hard to choose a supporter of abortion rights, told Steve Hayes of The Weekly Standard last week that he would not rule it out.
One source close to the campaign who is sympathetic to such a plan sketched out a scenario in which Lieberman was the choice.
“First, if your instinct is to run on experience, it doesn’t hurt to have a vice president who’s got it, too,” said this source, a conservative.
But more than that, according to this source, picking Lieberman would dramatically support McCain’s theme that he puts “country first” above all else.
“It would fit well into the narrative of his not having any politics in the White House,” said the source. “No more Dick Morris, no more Karl Rove — we’re governing here. It’s an easy, natural message for McCain and it implies a one-term pledge without actually saying it.”
As for the inevitable blowback from the right, this person acknowledged the convention would be “a messy week,” representing a “shock to the system of a pro-life party.”
But would it be worth it? “The question is: On Sept. 15 or 25, is he in better shape or not?” the source asked.
McCain allies are hopeful that the candidate’s strong statement on abortion Saturday night at Rick Warren’s California church could assuage any concerns from the right-to-life community about what a supporter of abortion rights on the ticket would mean.
“I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies,” McCain said at Saddleback. “That’s my commitment; that’s my commitment to you.”
Others in the party — including several veterans of President Bush’s past campaigns — say such a choice would be untenable and are dreading the prospect of what Lieberman, or perhaps even Ridge,would mean to a base that is already less than enthusiastic about McCain.
“Lieberman would blow things up,” said the American Conservative Union’s David Keene. “That would be like Obama picking some right-winger that agrees with him on one thing.”
As for the convention, Keene said Lieberman’s selection would set off some sort of “protest” among the party’s rank and file. Tapping Ridge, Keene said, wouldn’t be as bad, but would still “overshadow” St. Paul.
Already, one website has begun a petition aimed at dissuading McCain from tapping a supporter of abortion rights.
“Please keep Senator McCain and his key advisers in your prayers as he nears a decision on his VP pick, and please sign the petition and pass on to like-minded pro-lifers,” Billy Valentine, a young Republican and former supporter of Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback’s presidential bid, writes above the petition on “Catholics for McCain.”
Other Republican regulars, speaking anonymously so as not to anger the party’s nominee, warn of the consequences.
Another well-placed Republican official who is in regular contact with McCain’s campaign predicted a contentious gathering in St. Paul.
“You will not have a unanimous vote at the convention, that much I can tell you,” said this source. “There will be some blowback.”
Many leading conservatives have strongly pushed back on McCain’s suggestion that he might choose a pro-choice running mate.
For the third day in a row, talk radio guru Rush Limbaugh castigated the idea Tuesday on his radio show, saying the mainstream media — “the drive-by media,” in his parlance — is enthralled by the idea.
“The drive-bys are just hoping for it, because they know the base will totally turn on McCain if this is the case,” Limbaugh said. “If he picks a pro-choice running mate, it’s not going to be pretty, and the drive-bys know it.”
“The question is how to get the message to McCain,” he said. “You don’t get in McCain’s face and say, ‘Don’t do it.’ That’s a dumb thing to do. [You have to say something like] ‘Sen. McCain, we know you’re smart … and we know you don’t want to lose.’”
The answer to what McCain is thinking could come soon. Republicans were told that barring a change, McCain plans to appear with his pick at an arena in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug. 29 — a week from Friday, and the day after Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination in a Denver stadium.
Campaign advisers said Obama’s performance is likely to be so strong they think it will “scare” Republicans, and they’re eager to change the conversation to their own No. 2 the next morning.
Obama is likely to make his pick this Friday, Saturday or Sunday, according to advisers. But they warned it could come any time.
ALSO DRIVING THE VEEP CONVERSATION:
• Tom Ridge gets hit from back home, as Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, says the GOP would not accept a vice president who supports abortion rights.
Gramley: “The last time I checked [there] was still…a pro-life plan in the platform, so he needs to do some research, I believe, in where his party stands on the issue of life.”
• Obama hasn’t notified his future running mate of his decision.
• The Associated Press reports Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty is headed East this weekend on what looks like one more leg of a veep audition tour, heading to Ohio and Pennsylvania to stump for McCain.
• Obama refers to “my friend, Sen. Joe Biden,” in a passage about Georgia in his VFW convention speech.
• In Michigan, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declares: “Women are the key to this election.”
• Pelosi fave Rep. Chet Edwards speaks up on veterans issues on behalf of the Obama campaign.
• Bobby Jindal talks up his accomplishments as governor.
• Former H-P CEO Carly Fiorina keeps campaigning on economics in Pennsylvania.
• AP has a problem with Joe Lieberman.
• Lynn Sweet reports that the Obama team has reserved the Springfield, Ill., Old State Capitol for an event with the running mate-to-be this Saturday.
FYI
GOP leaders try to foil Lieberman pick
WT-Pro-choice views trouble conservatives
Republican Party officials in several states are in a frenzy over how to persuade Sen. John McCain not to invite pro-choice Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman to be the Arizona senator’s running mate.
One of the state GOP officials said he talked with two “high-level” Mr. McCain campaign officials who said that “Lieberman is a very real possibility.”
Mr. Lieberman, a former Democrat who was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, is now an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate.
McCain campaign officials made a series of conference calls Monday and Tuesday with supporters around the country to discuss the possibility of naming a Democrat or a pro-choice Republican to the ticket, a GOP source confided.
Mr. McCain last week played up former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, as a possible running mate. Mr. Ridge was President Bush’s first secretary of homeland security. Conservatives and evangelicals threw cold water on the idea.
All the while, McCain confidant Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, has been making the case for Mr. Lieberman, a Republican official said.
Concerned state GOP officials on Tuesday discussed by telephone and e-mail whether to organize delegates to reject Mr. Lieberman if his name comes up for a floor vote for the vice presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention – if Mr. McCain actually does name him, either before or at the beginning of the Sept. 1-4 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
But heading off a Lieberman pick beforehand would avoid having to embarrass the GOP nominee by publicly rejecting his judgment on the choice for vice president at a convention watched on television by much of the nation.
Whether Mr. Lieberman would transform the McCain campaign into a bipartisan winner or a disaster is open to debate.
The McCain campaign has said the Arizona senator might choose someone who is “transformational” for American politics – a vice presidential pick who would be “out of the box.”
FYI
EDITORIAL: Keep looking, Mr. Obama
WT-Looking at the possible vice presidential running mates for Barack Obama – chiefly Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine, Jack Reed, Kathleen Sebelius, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark – it is clear that among those most discussed there are few good choices, which is why the Illinois senator’s No. 2 may be someone else entirely. The crux of Mr. Obama’s problem is Hillary Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton was arguably the preferred choice for vice president when it was clear that she could not win. But the negative tone of her campaign alienated Mr. Obama’s supporters, and Mrs. Clinton is still a looming issue when it comes to some of the names being vetted. Mr. Obama’s convention concessions prove he will go to the end of the Earth to please the Clintons.
Geraldine Ferraro said this week that the Obama-Clinton ticket was dead. Along with other supporters of the New York senator, she said that Mr. Obama could not select any woman other than Mrs. Clinton as his running mate. That almost assuredly knocks Mrs. Sebelius, the governor of Kansas, off the list – despite the benefits she would bring Mr. Obama in her traditionally conservative state.
Mrs. Clinton also looms heavily over Indiana’s junior senator, Mr. Bayh, an early and outspoken Clinton supporter and a member of the Democratic Leadership Council, whose regional help Mr. Obama could certainly use. Mr. Bayh, a moderate, may be an excellent choice with good foreign-policy credentials, a proven cross-party vote-getter and a bipartisan professional, but there will always be a question among staff and supporters about whether Mr. Obama can trust him. The same goes for Gen. Clark, an Arkansan and early supporter with deep Clinton ties, but even that doesn’t trump the dislike military rank-and-file have for him or his lack of judgment in criticizing John McCain’s war record last month.
The remaining four have problems uniquely their own.
Although Mr. Obama has marshalled all of his forces toward winning Virginia – he would be the first Democrat to do so since 1964 – Gov. Tim Kaine has shown that he is not ready for national politics on this scale. He said himself that he is not likely to be selected. Mr. Kaine also has had lackluster results in working out party differences on state transportation, taxes and energy. And those latter issues are tops in this election.
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico is a nonstarter with women. His exploits with Lt. Gov. Diane Denish – who has said she avoids him at functions because, “He pokes me. He pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg” – would certainly be revisited ad nauseam. The backlash would negate his strong regional presence, his experience as an executive, and as a former energy secretary and U.N. ambassador.
That seemingly leaves only two truly safe choices: Mr. Biden of Delaware and Mr. Reed of Rhode Island. Both men bring strong foreign-policy credentials – which Mr. Obama sorely needs – although Mr. Reed isn’t as well known. Mr. Biden, though, might draw criticism because of his gaffes – whether it is his assertion that, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent,” or that Mr. Obama is “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”
In the end, none offers Mr. Obama the running mate he really needs – Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman is an “Israeli Firster”. That’s how far we have sunk. If the American people had one ounce of working brain matter, they would run both McCain and Obama out of the country!
And this whole Lieberman-Lindsey Graham connection! Anyone who follows Graham, knows what an evil slime he is. As they say, birds of a feather stick together!
Mr Konop,
The questions seem to be confused. There are two:
1) Who is likely to be the VP nominee for each party?
2) Who would you like to be the VP nominee for your favorite candidate (no fair picking Cheney to be VP to the guy you don’t like).
- – - – - – - – - –
Hugh,
Trying to link Lieberman and Obama is a real stretch, even for you.
Most Likely
I think Biden and Ridge
The best Pick for each Party
Biden or Webb for Dems
Bloomberg or Paul for GOP
How about your picks?
David
You are correct in that I did not develop the connection between Lieberman and Obama. But its there! Did you not notice the AICPA event recently where Obama, McCain, and H.Clinton all spoke and groveled and paid homage to their first loyalty ISRAEL? Heck, most our our U.S. Congress was there. The Congress doesn’t attend any of the patriotic events I attend!
I might be mistaken, but I believe that Obama and Lieberman each get a rating of 100 by NARAL.