FOR FUTURE WHITE HOUSE AIDES, REQUIRED READING (Dan Balz, Washington Post) The people who should sit down and read Scott McClellan’s blockbuster new book are the people least likely to take the time to do so right now. They are the aides to Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton – and perhaps the candidates themselves… The simple reason is that many of the people now staffing the candidates’ campaigns share the qualities and traits of a younger Scott McClellan – caught up in the excitement of a great cause (to elect their candidate president) and now fully knowing what will await if they end up in the next White House as aides to the 44th president of the United States. McClellan’s subtext is how the permanent campaign continues to define and sometimes destroy the governing process. His warning is that, having gone through the experience of a hard-fought campaign (and he admits that he has no reservations about the way campaigns are waged), it is virtually impossible for a new administration to set aside those tactics in the White House. This will be a particular challenge if either Obama or McCain becomes president. They have preached a new style of politics (albeit from different perspectives), but can either of them and their advisers break out of campaign mode if they end up in the White House?
LEADERS IN CONGRESS SEEK TO SETTLE ON A NOMINEE (Carl Hulse, New York Times) Hoping to bring their party’s presidential nomination fight to an end, the two top Democrats in Congress said they were pressing superdelegates who had yet to declare a preference in the race to make their choice public by the middle of next week. Party officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, had been contacting uncommitted superdelegates, encouraging them to prepare to go public and resolve any last question about the contest between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. “By this time next week, it will all be over, give or take a day,” Mr. Reid said… Given Mr. Obama’s lead in the delegate race and potential support among the approximately 200 members of Congress and Democratic insiders who have yet to declare, the push to wind up the race works to his benefit. While Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid have remained publicly neutral in the nominating clash while emphasizing its potential benefits to the party, they now appear to have concluded that prolonging it much further could be detrimental… “We all are going to urge our folks next week to make a decision very quickly,” said Mr. Reid, who added that “simple math” indicated that by next Tuesday Mr. Obama would have the necessary number of delegates to prevail.
MORE: Clinton Faces New Pressure on 2 Fronts (Peter Nicholas and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times) The push, which began this week, is damaging to Clinton, whose fading candidacy would be best-served by prolonging the contest. Clinton could use the time to press her case to superdelegates – the elected officials and other insiders whose votes will decide the nominee – that she is more electable than her front-running rival, Barack Obama. A delay also would improve the odds of a game-changing stumble by Obama. The party’s leadership seems more intent on bringing the protracted nomination fight to an end, so that Democrats can pivot to the general election matchup with John McCain, who has been the presumed Republican nominee for months.
SENATE’S ALLURE DREW MCCAIN FROM MILITARY (David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times) After five and a half years of listening to senators’ antiwar speeches over prison camp loudspeakers, Mr. McCain came home in 1973 contemptuous of America’s elected officials, convinced Congress had betrayed the country’s fighting men by hamstringing the war effort. But in the halls of the Senate, he discovered a new calling, at once high-minded and glamorous. One of several Senate military liaisons assigned as advocates for their services and escorts for official travel, Mr. McCain quickly emerged as the senators’ favorite. He had a thick head of hair as white as his dress uniform, and he showed a natural politician’s gift for winning over an audience. He excelled at leavening official business with a spirit of fun — telling deadpan stories about his years “in the cooler,” playing marathon poker games on flights overseas or surprising senators at a refueling stop in Ireland with a side trip to Durty Nelly’s, a 17th century pub.
MORE: McCain Found His Land of Opportunity in Arizona (Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times) It was in that first run that McCain showed his political mettle. His life perhaps half-done, his war heroics behind him, McCain had tasted the nectar of official Washington as the Navy’s liaison to the Senate and was eager to forge his own way. In what many describe as typical McCain-style determination, he plunged right in. Though new to politics and Arizona, McCain quickly assembled a circle of influential friends and wealthy backers. And he was not shy about running on his record as a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war. Some people look back and realize that in the early 1980s, McCain already was trying to position himself for higher office. But in his political debut, McCain showed he could be impulsive and sharp-tempered – traits that still haunt him politically.
THE REALITY SITUATION (David Brooks, New York Times) We don’t understand the Iranians because the Iranians don’t understand themselves. The regime isn’t sure whether it is an ideological movement championing global jihad or whether it is merely regional power seeking Middle East hegemony. Until the Iranians resolve this internal ambiguity, you can talk to them all you want, but they won’t be able to make a strategic shift or follow a more amenable path.
MCCAIN’S WEB GAP IS SHOWING (James Rainey, Los Angeles Times) The presumed Republican presidential nominee is taking a serious drubbing on YouTube, the most popular video-sharing service on the Internet and the virtual town square for millions of new young voters… That’s not good for a candidate who’s built his reputation on constancy and authenticity. There’s McCain stumbling over a debate question and, worse, his cringe-worthy answer wickedly paired with the hapless Miss Teen USA contestant who went blank on a query about Americans and geography. There’s McCain seemingly on the verge of swallowing his tongue, so great is his discomfort when Ellen DeGeneres asks him why women like her shouldn’t be allowed to marry other women. Six of the top 10 videos returned by a “John McCain” YouTube search Thursday pegged the 71-year-old as inconsistent, extreme, wooden or a combination of the three. (The one clearly favorable piece came from the McCain campaign and focused on his Navy service.)… With about five months to go before the general election, Obama will face his own uncomfortable video moments. Elsewhere in the fractured media universe, say AM talk radio, he’ll feel the heat. But that doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t worried about the YouTube imbalance.
ICKES AT THE ALAMO (Thomas Edsall, Huffington Post) Harold Ickes, Clinton’s chief delegate hunter, warned that there may be some defections among the 13 RBC members who have endorsed Hillary. If Ickes and his allies cannot hold all their troops in line, a motion before the RBC to seat all 210 Florida and 156 Michigan delegates with a full vote each would face certain defeat. If defeated at the RBC on Saturday, the Clinton forces are expected to file an appeal to the Democratic convention credentials committee and possibly, failing that, to the full convention. One of the publicly unstated reasons that Clinton is remaining in the race is to be positioned to step in immediately in the increasingly unlikely event that damaging new material emerges about Obama. In such an event, retaining the right to force pre-nomination fights over credentials becomes crucial to a delaying strategy to allow any conceivable controversy to gain momentum.
HOUSE BROKER (Michelle Cottle, The New Republic) With the Democratic presidential contest running hot, in March a reporter with Boston TV station NECN asked the House speaker about the possibility of a dream ticket uniting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Doe eyes wide, the nation’s highest-ranking Democrat flashed her trademark smile ominously. “I think that the Clinton administration [sic] has fairly ruled that out by proclaiming that Senator McCain would be a better [long pause, dismayed half- laugh] commander-in-chief than Obama. I think that ticket–either way–is impossible.” Pelosi turned to walk off, then retraced her steps and added, with another half-laugh, “I didn’t want to leave you with any ambiguity.” No ambiguity here, say supporters of Team Hillary. As party elder and chairman of the upcoming Democratic convention, Pelosi maintains that she will not pick favorites in the nominating contest. But, as many of Hillary’s people see it, Pelosi’s repeated rejection of a “unity ticket” is just further proof that, official neutrality notwithstanding, the speaker wants Barack Obama to be the nominee–and will use her influence to make sure there is no place for Hillary on his ticket. Pelosi is “anything but uncommitted,” insists one Hillary adviser, echoing colleagues.
