Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Tuesday, May 27, 2008
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 27 May 2008 07:14:27 -0400

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT NEWS BRIEFING (Executive Version)
Full version is attached and available online at http://www.bulletinnews.com/clinton

TO: CLINTON CAMPAIGN

DATE: TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008 6:30 AM EDT

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Clinton Stumps "With Gusto" In Puerto Rico.

+ Carter Calls For Clinton To Bow Out After Final Primaries.

+ Clinton Seen As Unlikely To Win Full Michigan, Florida Empanelment.

+ Both White House, Clinton Campaign Critical Of NBC.

+ Clinton Adds Reservation Stop To Montana Tour.

+ Clintons Seek Native American Support In South Dakota.

+ Obama Praises Veterans In Front Of Friendly Memorial Day Crowd In New Mexico.

+ Obama, McCain Offer Contrasting Messages On Iraq.

+ McCain To Appear With Bush At Fundraiser.

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

CLINTON STUMPS "WITH GUSTO" IN PUERTO RICO. ABC News (5/27, Tapper) reports on Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign events in Puerto Rico over the weekend, "where she shimmied to Enrique Iglesias, swigged from a bottle of Presidente beer and once again proclaimed her determination to continue her longshot campaign." ABC notes that while Clinton, in a New York Daily News op-ed, "acknowledged, for the first time, that the odds of her becoming her party's presidential nominee are stacked against her," Clinton "campaigned in Puerto Rico with her usual gusto. She promised she would bring voting rights to the island, saying, 'I believe you should have a vote in picking the president too.' On Sunday, however, she seemed to back off that pledge, saying, 'All people are entitled to a representative form of government. And all levels of government. The people of Puerto Rico should have the right to determine by a majority vote the status you choose from among all the options.'"

In previous coverage, the AP (5/26, Barrett) reported on the Clintons meeting with families in Puerto Rico, noting that "It is the Clintons' long history with Puerto Rico--and Hispanic voters in general--that gives Clinton a decided edge in the island's presidential primary on June 1, not to mention that her home state of New York has approximately 1 million Puerto Ricans." The piece notes, however, that Clinton faces long odds to defeat Obama.

In previous coverage, the AP (5/26) reports that on Sunday, Clinton "spoke of her determination to not give up her presidential campaign. Speaking to a congregation at the Pabellon de la Victoria evangelical church, Clinton spoke about faith in the face of adversity. 'There isn't anything we cannot do together if we seek God's blessing and if we stay committed and are not deterred by the setbacks that often fall in every life,' Clinton said."

Clinton Decries Puerto Rican Vets' Inability To Vote. In a posting on its 'From the Road' blog, CBS News (5/26, Suarez) reports, "During an evening Memorial Day service in old San Juan, Hillary Clinton spoke of the unfairness in U.S. policy toward Puerto Ricans who risk their lives in the U.S. military and have their voting rights stripped when they return home to the island. Clinton called the action 'an injustice and an insult.' Clinton's message on a day when Americans honor those service men and women who gave their lives in combat was simple: every U.S. citizen should be given a right to vote. 'I believe it is long past time that we give the people of Puerto Rico - United States citizens all - an equal voice in the vote for the commander-in-chief who sends young Puerto Ricans to war.'"

Clinton Holds "Raucous" Rally For Puerto Rican Union. CNN (5/27, Hamby) reports that Clinton's rally before the Servidores Públicos Unidos union in Ponce, PR, Monday was "the most raucous rally of her Puerto Rico campaign swing," noting that "[t]he union operates as an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed Clinton and spent millions on her campaign's behalf. AFSCME President Gerald McEntee was on hand in Ponce to introduce Clinton, but he spent a good chunk of his speech soliciting boos for Barack Obama." Meanwhile, Clinton "delivered a speech similar to others she has made on the island, pledging to offer economic incentives to the island, promising to resolve the issue of Puerto Rico's status by the end of her first term, and reminding voters that she represents an estimated one million Puerto Ricans in New York."

NBC Nightly News (5/26, story 4, 2:10, Cowan, 9.87M) reported Clinton's "three day weekend" in Puerto Rico "make her look pretty carefree, but weighing on her mind were her comments on Friday when she reminded an editorial board that Bobby Kennedy's run for the White House ended tragically in June. In a letter to the 'New York Daily News' on Sunday she insisted the media had taken them entirely out of context. She never intended to bring up something completely unthinkable and any link to Barack Obama was construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for. The Obama campaign backed off its criticism."

The CBS Evening News (5/26, story 5, 1:50, Assuras, 7.66M) reported, "Puerto Ricans can't vote for president in November and only 55 delegates are at stake in its Democratic primary. But Senator Hillary Clinton is embracing the islanders as potential saviors. Clinton has spent the last two days on the island drinking in the atmosphere and admiration, some El Presidente beer too, campaigning for every vote in Sunday's primary. She seems intent on taking the fight all the way to the convention floor in August."

CARTER CALLS FOR CLINTON TO BOW OUT AFTER FINAL PRIMARIES. The AP (5/27) reports, "Jimmy Carter says Hillary Clinton should give up her fight for the Democratic presidential nomination soon after the final round of primaries next week. ... Carter has not declared a favorite. But as a former president, he's one of the party's superdelegates and he predicts there will be a rush of announcements soon after the last primary a week from tomorrow. Carter says at that point, he thinks it will be time for Clinton to 'give it up.'"

Clinton Defends Decision To Remain In Race. In an op-ed in the New York Daily News (5/26), Sen. Hillary Clinton "set the record straight" that her comments about the campaign of Robert Kennedy were merely a comparison of the relative lengths of Democratic primary races, continuing to "more fully answer the question I was asked: Why do I continue to run, even in the face of calls from pundits and politicians for me to leave this race?" Clinton continues to cite her belief in the possibility to win, adding, "I am not unaware of the challenges or the odds of my securing the nomination - but this race remains extraordinarily close, and hundreds of thousands of people in upcoming primaries are still waiting to vote. As I have said so many times over the course of this primary, if Sen. Obama wins the nomination, I will support him and work my heart out for him against John McCain. But that has not happened yet." Clinton expresses her belief that a continued race will "help unite the Democratic Party" and adds that she is continuing to run "because my parents did not raise me to be a quitter," and for all those women in their 90s who've told me they were born before women could vote, and they want to live to see a woman in the White House."

Writer Applauds Clinton's Campaign, But Says It's Time To "Move On." In a posting on The Nation's (5/26) "Campaign '08" blog, Katrina Vanden Heuvel refutes Bill Clinton's assertion that a media "cover up" has hurt Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign, suggesting instead that she "made the mistake of running a top down campaign in a rules-changing year, and acceding to a sexism within her campaign that advised her not to apologize for her disastrous vote supporting Bush's war resolution." She continues to lament the "lost" and "squandered" opportunities of Clinton's campaign, and calls for Clinton to "move on," writing, "That is not to say that Hillary Clinton doesn't have every right to campaign through the last primaries on June 3rd. ... But when the polls close on June 3rd, superdelegates should move, expeditiously, to make their decision so that this campaign can refocus on what is at stake in this defining election. And their decision should follow the will of the people."

CLINTON SEEN AS UNLIKELY TO WIN FULL MICHIGAN, FLORIDA EMPANELMENT. The Washington Examiner (5/27, Ferrechio) reports that despite the fact that the Democratic Party panel that will meet next weekend to determine "whether to resurrect some or all of the disqualified delegates from Florida and Michigan" is heavily seeded with such Clinton supporters as top Terry McAuliffe, Harold Ickes, and Alexix Herman, "political experts say there is little chance the panel will grant Clinton's wish of seating every delegate from Florida and Michigan with a full vote proportional to the primary results, as Ickes said they would request. 'Get real,' University of Virginia political science professor Larry J. Sabato said. 'There is no way that is ever going to happen. Ickes knows that and is just using it as a bargaining point.' Sabato and many other political analysts say the DNC's 30-member Rules and Bylaws Committee will likely favor a compromise solution that seats some of the delegates from those two states."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (5/27, Sherman) reports that the Rules Committee's meeting "could be the Clinton campaign's final stand, noting that in the face of Obama's "sizable lead," Clinton is "arguing that the party should reverse its decision and give Michigan and Florida their full slates,...calling it a matter of justice. ... If the party gives Mrs. Clinton what she wants, she'd get 105 delegates from Florida and as many as 73 delegates from Michigan. Mr. Obama would get at least 67 from Florida and 55 from Michigan, if he receives all of the state's 'uncommitted' votes."

Clinton Seen As Maneuvering For Michigan Delegate Issue To Remain Unresolved. "The lead editorial in this morning's Detroit News (5/27), titled "Clinton in Wonderland," argues that as the DNC's Rules Committee takes "another stab next weekend at doing right by their voters in Michigan and Florida," Hillary Clinton, if she "has her way" may well leave Michigan "dangling." Clinton "has an interest in keeping the fate of the Michigan and Florida delegations up in the air. Without a resolution, the delegations of these two influential swing states will have not been accounted for in her duel with Sen. Barack Obama, and that will give her at least a thread of hope to hang onto." Clinton is asking "for an overwhelming majority of the delegates based on her 55 percent vote total" as well as "most of the undecided vote, which totaled 40 percent," a claim that is "as illegitimate as Michigan's Jan. 15 Democratic primary itself." By "continuing the standoff between the two states and the national party," Clinton "can keep her campaign alive all summer and wage a floor fight at the convention."

BOTH WHITE HOUSE, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CRITICAL OF NBC. The AP (5/27, Bauder) reports, "NBC News has managed to achieve the near-impossible this election season in getting Hillary Rodham Clinton and George Bush to agree on something. That something, however, is antipathy toward NBC News." The AP adds that "through its unusual public criticism of NBC's handling of Richard Engel's interview with the president, the Bush administration struck at the soft white underbelly of the news division's co-existence with the opinionated personalities of MSNBC." Bush counselor Ed Gillespie wrote to NBC News President Steve Capus, "I'm sure you don't want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the 'news' as reported on NBC and the `opinion' as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines." Clinton's campaign "didn't want to talk publicly about NBC, but it has been unhappy about the Democratic candidate's treatment by 'Hardball' host Chris Matthews. That culminated in Matthews' apology in January for saying that the reason Clinton is a US senator and candidate for president 'is that her husband messed around.'"

CLINTON ADDS RESERVATION STOP TO MONTANA TOUR. The AP (5/27) reports that the Clinton campaign "says her Montana visit on Tuesday will include an appearance in Pablo on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Clinton is scheduled to hold a town-hall-style meeting at Pablo's Salish Kootenai College at 3:30 p.m. She plans to be in Billings for a rally at 8 p.m. Clinton last visited Montana in April at the same time as Barack Obama, her rival in the race to win the Democratic nomination for president."

The Missoulian (5/26) also reports on Clinton's scheduled event in Pablo.

CLINTONS SEEK NATIVE AMERICAN SUPPORT IN SOUTH DAKOTA. The Rapid City Journal (5/26, Woster) reports, "Bill Clinton began the last full week of South Dakota's primary season on Sunday with a three-stop reservation blitz aimed at inspiring potentially crucial tribal voters to support his wife for president. The former president began the day with an appearance at the Fort Thompson Fire Department hall, speaking from the bed of a pickup truck to a gathering of about 250 members of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and non-Native Americans from nearby ranches and towns. Clinton then moved on to the Rosebud and Yankton Sioux reservations for appearances there. The real Clinton candidate in the campaign, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will follow her husband's reservation tour with a stop at Kyle on the Pine Ridge Reservation during a West River trip Wednesday, as she makes her final push for support before the nation's last two primaries in Montana and South Dakota June 3."

OBAMA PRAISES VETERANS IN FRONT OF FRIENDLY MEMORIAL DAY CROWD IN NEW MEXICO. The Washington Post (5/27, A4, Shear, Vick), in an article that fails to mention Hillary Clinton, except to say that she was ignored by Obama's and McCain's Memorial Day speeches, reports that "the two leading candidates for president made Memorial Day pilgrimages on Monday to this critical swing state, where a closely divided electorate may help determine the outcome of the 2008 battle for the White House." While McCain "used the backdrop of the state's veterans memorial in Albuquerque to pledge his fealty to the military" Obama "went to Las Cruces and praised the 'spirit' of America's diverse fighting corps, which he called the source of the military's true strength." Later, at a town-hall meeting, "Obama did not mention McCain or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton," but in a speech "made clear his support for [Senator] Webb's bill and said Congress would override a threatened veto by President Bush."

Later, in a post on the Washington Post's "The Trail" blog, (5/27) correspondent Karl Vick posts that, "Sen. Barack Obama spoke for most of an hour about doing right by America's veterans without crossing swords with Sen. John McCain, in a carefully measured Memorial Day appearance that kept the focus on the former service members seated around him on three sides." Obama told the veterans, "I speak to you today with deep humility...My grandfather marched in Patton's Army, but I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so many of you. My grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line, but I cannot know what it is for a family to sacrifice like so many of yours have...I am the father of two young girls, and I cannot imagine what it is to lose a child. My heart breaks for the families who've lost a loved one." Then Obama "edged into his critique of military and veterans affairs under the Bush administration," and "endorsed legislation that he said would give veterans the same benefits his grandfather's generation enjoyed under the GI Bill."

CBS News (5/27, CBS) reports on its web site that "Hillary Rodham Clinton ended a three-day campaign swing across Puerto Rico the same way many Americans mark Memorial Day - with family, friends and a salute to the sacrifices of military men and women." Clinton is "trying despite the odds against her to catch up to Barack Obama" and "needs something approaching a mathematical miracle." Meanwhile, "Obama marked Memorial Day in New Mexico, a battleground state in the general election," where he addressed a group of Veterans, and, alongside New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, "laid wreaths at a memorial to the state's fallen soldiers." The CBS story then returns to Puerto Rico, where one veteran criticized Clinton for waiting "until the third day of her campaign swing to meet with veterans," noting that "Obama's first stop during his appearance Saturday was to visit with veterans."

Reporting from the Obama Campaign in its "On the Road" Political blog, CBS News (5/27, Gavrilovic) posts, "Despite not having served in the military himself, Barack Obama used his Memorial Day remarks to speak about his family's service. Obama, in supporting the new GI Bill, said "We should make sure that today's veterans get the same benefit that my grandfather got when he came back from World War II...It was a good investment not only for him, but it was a good investment for the country, built our middle class. So we're going to make sure that that gets passed."

OBAMA, MCCAIN OFFER CONTRASTING MESSAGES ON IRAQ. The New York Times (5/27, Zeleny, Falcone, 1.18M) reports Memorial Day "offered at least a preview into the summertime duel between" John McCain and Barack Obama, "who for the first time were campaigning in the same swing state on the same day." As McCain "spoke about the costs and sacrifices of the Iraq war at the Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque, Mr. Obama praised the patriotism of America's soldiers before taking voters' questions - and hearing their frustrations about Iraq and a host of other concerns - at an outdoor forum against the backdrop of the Organ Mountains here." The campaign stops "provided a window into how both men, should they become the nominees of their respective parties, are shaping their candidacies, employing the power of their biographies and honing their arguments in their appeal to voters." In a "20-minute speech, with the flags of all branches of the armed forces at his back, Mr. McCain made 14 references to Iraq." In "10 minutes of prepared remarks, Mr. Obama did not mention Iraq, only raising it when someone in the audience spoke critically of the war in a 30-minute question-and-answer session."

Fox News Special Report (5/26, Cameron) reported, "For John McCain, a presidential candidate and decorated Vietnam POW whose ancestors served in every American war since the revolution, Memorial Day is both political and deeply personal." Though "politicking is risky on a day honoring the fallen, he didn't hesitate to describe his dissatisfaction and differences with the Bush Administration's prosecution of the Iraq war." McCain: "As we all know, the American people have grown sick and tired of the war in Iraq. I understand that. Of course, I, too, have been made heartsick by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders and the terrible, terrible price we paid for them." McCain: "Though he didn't mention Barack Obama by name, McCain urged veterans and voters to reject Democrats' calls for withdrawal."

NBC Nightly News (5/26, story 5, 2:05, O'Donnell, 9.87M) reported, "Given the holiday McCain turned down the volume of his campaign but still without naming Senator Obama laid out key differences. On the Iraq war McCain urged patience." McCain: "As long as there is a reasonable prospect for succeeding in this war then we must not choose to lose it." O'Donnell: "McCain suggested that he is more willing to take political risks than Obama over a veterans' education bill that McCain claims will discourage re-enlistment. But Obama supports the bill sponsored by Virginia Senator Webb."

MCCAIN TO APPEAR WITH BUSH AT FUNDRAISER. The Wall Street Journal (5/27, Meckler, 2.06M) reports, "President Bush and John McCain will appear together at a fund-raiser in Phoenix Tuesday, the first time in nearly three months that the Republican presidential candidate will be seen beside the man he hopes to succeed." But "with Mr. Bush's popularity at a record low, the McCain campaign has made sure that television footage of the two men together will be minimal. The maneuvering is the latest example of Sen. McCain's aggressive effort to separate himself from the White House, even as he embraces many of the policies that Mr. Bush has promoted throughout his presidency." The Journal adds, "Some congressional Republicans are doing the same, as Republicans brace for what they fear will be a brutal election year. Party leaders now talk openly about the badly damaged 'Republican brand,' as does Sen. McCain."

CNN's The Situation Room (5/26, Henry) also notes that while the event "was initially planned to be open to cameras at the Phoenix Convention Center, it's been moved to a private residence and is now closed to the media. So, there will only be brief pictures of McCain and the president on an airport tarmac."

In Break With Bush, McCain And Lieberman Co-Author Hawkish North Korea Policy Article. The Washington Post's Glen Kessler, who yesterday had a front-page article about the successes of US Diplomacy in North Korea (5/27, Kessler) reports in the Trail blog, that "Sen. John McCain broke today with President Bush's new policy on North Korea, co-authoring an opinion article with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in which he called for a return to Bush's original demand of a complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament of North Korea's nuclear programs." The more hawkish position taken by McCain and Lieberman urges the US to "use the leverage available from the U.N. Security Council resolution passed after Pyongyang's 2006 nuclear test to ensure the full and complete declaration, disablement and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear facilities, in a verifiable manner, which we agreed to with the other members of the six-party talks." Kessler notes that the "language concerning North Korea in the article ... is remarkably similar to President Bush's first-term rhetoric, which the White House has largely dropped in recent months."

McCain Will Avoid Bush, Except Where Fundraising Is Concerned. Bloomberg News (5/27, Nichols, Chen) reports, "McCain's challenge in winning the presidency isn't unique. George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Al Gore in 2000 also struggled to chisel an identity separate from a two- term incumbent president of their party." However, "in 1988, Ronald Reagan had a 51 percent approval rating, according to Gallup surveys, and in 2000 Bill Clinton's was 57 percent. Today, President George W. Bush's rating is 28 percent." But according to Republican Strategist Jim Pinkerton, "any sitting president, even one whose approval rating is in the low 30s, can raise money." McCain "has until the Republican nominating convention in September to establish an identity separate from Bush," at which point he must "execute 'his final pivot from the Bush presidency.'"

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