Subject: [big campaign] Re: Tracking Update: McCain Speech Kenner, LA 06/03/08
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: "Adam Jentleson" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 22:50:28 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

If MSNBC is correct, Obama had 100x the number of people at his event - 
17,000 inside and another 15,000 outside.

[email-masked] 
Sent by: [email-masked]
06/03/2008 09:54 PM
Please respond to
[email-masked]

To
"Adam Jentleson" <[email-masked]>, 
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Subject
[big campaign] Re: Tracking Update: McCain Speech Kenner, LA 06/03/08

Yes.  McCain consistently has problems filling venues.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Adam Jentleson" <[email-masked]>

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 21:39:18 
To:<[email-masked]>,<[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [big campaign] Tracking Update: McCain Speech Kenner, LA 
06/03/08

He could only get 300 in KENNNA?

----- Original Message -----
From: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>
To: big campaign <[email-masked]>
Sent: Tue Jun 03 21:23:24 2008
Subject: [big campaign] Tracking Update: McCain Speech Kenner, LA 06/03/08

Hello Big Campaign,

Just off the phone with our tracker Evan who is on the ground in Kenner, 
LA tonight.  Below are the notes from our call.

BIG HIGHLIGHTS: McCain addresses being a 'Bush Third Term,'  McCain tries 
to brand himself as a reformer and the 'right kind of change'

Kenner, LA - McCain Speech 06/03/08

Background Details:
- Audience size approximately 3-400 people; mostly white crowd
- Event was set up pretty much for media, press riser took up 1/4 of room; 
room very small overall
- Brass band played and cheerleaders entertained crowd before speech
- Former LA Gov. Buddy Roemer gave introductory remarks
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal introduced McCain
- Cindy McCain not seen at event
- Tracker had no problem getting into event
- Usual press -- traveling and local affiliates, no tables for print 
media, local independent media website bayoubuzz.com in press section
- Ron Paul supporters at event

Full Transcript 

Link: 
http://thepage.time.com/transcript-of-mccains-remarks-in-kenner-louisiana/

Good evening from the great city of New Orleans. Tonight, we can say with 
confidence the primary season is over, and the general election campaign 
has begun. I commend both Senators Obama and Clinton for the long, hard 
race they have run. Senator Obama has impressed many Americans with his 
eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton has earned great 
respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how 
compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of 
Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes 
received. As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring 
millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country 
beyond their reach. I am proud to call her my friend. Pundits and party 
elders have declared that Senator Obama will be my opponent. He will be a 
formidable o ne. But I'm ready for the challenge, and determined to run 
this race in a way that does credit to our campaign and to the proud, 
decent and patriotic people I ask to lead.

The decision facing Americans in this election couldn't be more important 
to the future security and prosperity of American families. This is, 
indeed, a change election. No matter who wins this election, the direction 
of this country is going to change dramatically. But, the choice is 
between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and 
going backward.

America has seen tough times before. We've always known how to get through 
them. And we've always believed our best days are ahead of us. I believe 
that still. But we must rise to the occasion, as we always have; change 
what must be changed; and make the future better than the past.

The right change recognizes that many of the policies and institutions of 
our government have failed. They have failed to keep up with the 
challenges of our time because many of these policies were designed for 
the problems and opportunities of the mid to late 20th Century, before the 
end of the Cold War; before the revolution in information technology and 
rise of the global economy. The right kind of change will initiate 
widespread and innovative reforms in almost every area of government 
policy -- health care, energy, the environment, the tax code, our public 
schools, our transportation system, disaster relief, government spending 
and regulation, diplomacy, the military and intelligence services. Serious 
and far-reaching reforms are needed in so many areas of government to meet 
our own challenges in our own time.

The irony is that Americans have been experiencing a lot of change in 
their lives attributable to these historic events, and some of those 
changes have distressed many American families -- job loss, failing 
schools, prohibitively expensive health care, pensions at risk, 
entitlement programs approaching bankruptcy, rising gas and food prices, 
to name a few. But your government often acts as if it is completely 
unaware of the changes and hardships in your lives. And when government 
does take notice, often it only makes matters worse. For too long, we have 
let history outrun our government's ability to keep up with it. The right 
change will stop impeding Americans from doing what they have always done: 
overcome every obstacle to our progress, turn challenges into 
opportunities, and by our own industry, imagination and courage make a 
better country and a safer world th an we inherited.

To keep our nation prosperous, strong and growing we have to rethink, 
reform and reinvent: the way we educate our children; train our workers; 
deliver health care services; support retirees; fuel our transportation 
network; stimulate research and development; and harness new technologies.

To keep us safe we must rebuild the structure and mission of our military; 
the capabilities of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies; the 
reach and scope of our diplomacy; the capacity of all branches of 
government to defend us. We need to strengthen our alliances, and preserve 
our moral credibility.

We must also prepare, far better than we have, to respond quickly and 
effectively to a natural calamity. When Americans confront a catastrophe 
they have a right to expect basic competence from their government. 
Firemen and policemen should be able to communicate with each other in an 
emergency. We should be able to deliver bottled water to dehydrated babies 
and rescue the infirm from a hospital with no electricity. Our disgraceful 
failure to do so here in New Orleans exposed the incompetence of 
government at all levels to meet even its most basic responsibilities.

The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions 
that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. I have a few 
years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in to 
so many failed ideas. Like others before him, he seems to think government 
is the answer to every problem; that government should take our resources 
and make our decisions for us. That type of change doesn't trust Americans 
to know what is right or what is in their own best interests. It's the 
attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith 
in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people. That attitude 
created the unresponsive bureaucracies of big government in the first 
place. And that's not change we can believe in.

You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every 
interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third 
term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the 
Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to 
repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult 
to get Americans to believe something they know is false. So he tries to 
drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate 
honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country. 
But the American people didn't get to know me yesterday, as they are just 
getting to know Senator Obama. They know I have a long record of 
bipartisan problem solving. They've seen me put our country before any 
President -- before any party -- before any special interest -- before my 
own interest. They might think me an imperfect servant of our country, 
which I surely am. But I am her servant first, last and always.

I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I 
have not seen eye to eye on many issues. We've disagreed over the conduct 
of the war in Iraq and the treatment of detainees; over out of control 
government spending and budget gimmicks; over energy policy and climate 
change; over defense spending that favored defense contractors over the 
public good.

I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration's mismanagement of the 
war in Iraq. I called for the change in strategy that is now, at last, 
succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably. I was 
criticized for doing so by Republicans. I was criticized by Democrats. I 
was criticized by the press. But I don't answer to them. I answer to you. 
And I would be ashamed to admit I knew what had to be done in Iraq to 
spare us from a defeat that would endanger us for years, but I kept quiet 
because it was too politically hard for me to do. No ambition is more 
important to me than the security of the country I have defended all my 
adult life.

Senator Obama opposed the new strategy, and, after promising not to, voted 
to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job of 
carrying it out. Yet in the last year we have seen the success of that 
plan as violence has fallen to a four year low; Sunni insurgents have 
joined us in the fight against al Qaeda; the Iraqi Army has taken the lead 
in places once lost to Sunni and Shia extremists; and the Iraqi Government 
has begun to make progress toward political reconciliation.

None of this progress would have happened had we not changed course over a 
year ago. And all of this progress would be lost if Senator Obama had his 
way and began to withdraw our forces from Iraq without concern for 
conditions on the ground and the advice of commanders in the field. 
Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential 
candidate who says he's ready to talk, in person and without conditions, 
with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn't traveled to Iraq to meet 
with General Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to 
reverse.

I know Americans are tired of this war. I don't oppose a reckless 
withdrawal from Iraq because I'm indifferent to the suffering war inflicts 
on too many American families. I hate war. And I know very personally how 
terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course Senator Obama 
advocates could draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices; put 
peace further out of reach, and Americans back in harm's way.

I take America's economic security as seriously as I do her physical 
security. For eight years the federal government has been on a spending 
spree that added trillions to the national debt. It spends more and more 
of your money on programs that have failed again and again to keep up with 
the changes confronting American families. Extravagant spending on things 
that are not the business of government indebts us to other nations; fuels 
inflation; raises interest rates; and encourages irresponsibility. I have 
opposed wasteful spending by both parties and the Bush administration. 
Senator Obama has supported it and proposed more of his own. I want to 
freeze discretionary spending until we have completed top to bottom 
reviews of all federal programs to weed out failing ones. Senator Obama 
opposes that reform. I opposed subsidies that favor big business over 
small farmers and tariffs on imported products that have greatly increased 
the cost of food. Senator Obama supports these billions of dollars in 
corporate subsidies and the tariffs that have led to rising grocery bills 
for American families. That's not change we can believe in.

No problem is more urgent today than America's dependence on foreign oil. 
It threatens our security, our economy and our environment. The next 
President must be willing to break completely with the energy policies not 
just of the Bush Administration, but the administrations that preceded 
his, and lead a great national campaign to put us on a course to energy 
independence. We must unleash the creativity and genius of Americans, and 
encourage industries to pursue alternative, non-polluting and renewable 
energy sources, where demand will never exceed supply.

Senator Obama voted for the same policies that created the problem. In 
fact, he voted for the energy bill promoted by President Bush and Vice 
President Cheney, which gave even more breaks to the oil industry. I 
opposed it because I know we won't achieve energy independence by 
repeating the mistakes of the last half century. That's not change we can 
believe in.

With forward thinking Democrats and Republicans, I proposed a climate 
change policy that would greatly reduce our dependence on oil. Our 
approach was opposed by President Bush, and by leading Democrats, and it 
was defeated by opposition from special interests that favor Republicans 
and those that favor Democrats. Senator Obama might criticize special 
interests that give more money to Republicans. But you won't often see him 
take on those that favor him. If America is going to achieve energy 
independence, we need a President with a record of putting the nation's 
interests before the special interests of either party. I have that 
record. Senator Obama does not.

Senator Obama proposes to keep spending money on programs that make our 
problems worse and create new ones that are modeled on big government 
programs that created much of the fiscal mess we are in. He plans to pay 
for these increases by raising taxes on seniors, parents, small business 
owners and every American with even a modest investment in the market. He 
doesn't trust us to make decisions for ourselves and wants the government 
to make them for us. And that's not change we can believe in.

Senator Obama thinks we can improve health care by driving Americans into 
a new system of government orders, regulations and mandates. I believe we 
can make health care more available, affordable and responsive to patients 
by breaking from inflationary practices, insurance regulations, and tax 
policies that were designed generations ago, and by giving families more 
choices over their care. His plan represents the old ways of government. 
Mine trusts in the common sense of the American people.

Senator Obama pretends we can address the loss of manufacturing jobs by 
repealing trade agreements and refusing to sign new ones; that we can 
build a stronger economy by limiting access to our markets and giving up 
access to foreign markets. The global economy exists and is not going 
away. We either compete in it or we lose more jobs, more businesses, more 
dreams. We lose the future. He's an intelligent man, and he must know how 
foolish it is to think Americans can remain prosperous without opening new 
markets to our goods and services. But he feels he must defer to the 
special interests that support him. That's not change we can believe in.

Lowering trade barriers to American goods and services creates more and 
better jobs; keeps inflation under control; keeps interest rates low; and 
makes more goods affordable to more Americans. We won't compete 
successfully by using old technology to produce old goods. We'll succeed 
by knowing what to produce and inventing new technologies to produce it.

We are not people who believe only in the survival of the fittest. Work in 
America is more than a paycheck; it a source of pride, self-reliance and 
identity. But making empty promises to bring back lost jobs gives nothing 
to the unemployed worker except false hope. That's not change we can 
believe in. Reforming from top to bottom unemployment insurance and 
retraining programs that were designed for the 1950s, making use of our 
community colleges to train people for new opportunities will help workers 
who've lost a job that won't come back, find a job that won't go away.

My friends, we're not a country that would rather go back than forward. 
We're the world's leader, and leaders don't hide from history. They make 
history. But if we're going to lead, we have to reform a government that 
has lost its ability to help us do so. The solution to our problems isn't 
to reach back to the 1960s and 70s for answers. In just a few years in 
office, Senator Obama has accumulated the most liberal voting record in 
the Senate. But the old, tired, big government policies he seeks to dust 
off and call new won't work in a world that has changed dramatically since 
they were last tried and failed. That's not change we can believe in.

The sweeping reforms of government we need won't occur unless we change 
the political habits of Washington that have locked us in an endless cycle 
of bickering and stalemate. Washington is consumed by a hyper-partisanship 
that treats every serious issue as an opportunity to trade insults; impugn 
each other's motives; and fight about the next election. This is the game 
Washington plays. Both parties play it, as do the special interests that 
support each side. The American people know it's not on the level. For all 
the problems we face, what frustrates them most about Washington is they 
don't think we're capable of serving the public interest before our 
personal ambitions; that we fight for ourselves and not for them. They are 
sick of the politics of selfishness, stalemate and delay, and they have 
every right to be. We have to change not only government policies that 
have failed them, but the political culture that produced them.

Both Senator Obama and I promise we will end Washington's stagnant, 
unproductive partisanship. But one of us has a record of working to do 
that and one of us doesn't. Americans have seen me put aside partisan and 
personal interests to move this country forward. They haven't seen Senator 
Obama do the same. For all his fine words and all his promise, he has 
never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for 
yours; of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for 
our country. He is an impressive man, who makes a great first impression. 
But he hasn't been willing to make the tough calls; to challenge his 
party; to risk criticism from his supporters to bring real change to 
Washington. I have.

When members of my party refused to compromise not on principle but for 
partisanship, I have sought to do so. When I fought corruption it didn't 
matter to me if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. I exposed it 
and let the chips fall where they may. When I worked on campaign finance 
and ethics reform, I did so with Democrats and Republicans, even though we 
were criticized by other members of our parties, who preferred to keep 
things as they were. I have never refused to work with Democrats simply 
for the sake of partisanship. I've always known we belong to different 
parties, not different countries. We are Americans before we are anything 
else.

I don't seek the presidency on the presumption I'm blessed with such 
personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its 
hour of need. I seek the office with the humility of a man who cannot 
forget my country saved me. I'll reach out my hand to anyone, Republican 
or Democrat, who will help me change what needs to be changed; fix what 
needs to be fixed; and give this country a government as capable and good 
as the people it is supposed to serve. There is a time to campaign, and a 
time to govern. If I'm elected President, the era of the permanent 
campaign of the last sixteen years will end. The era of reform and problem 
solving will begin. From my first day in office, I'll work with anyone to 
make America safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the 
credit as long as America gets the benefit.

I have seen Republicans and Democrats achieve great things together. When 
the stakes were high and it mattered most, I've seen them work together in 
common purpose, as we did in the weeks after September 11th. This kind of 
cooperation has made all the difference at crucial turns in our history. 
It has given us hope in difficult times. It has moved America forward. And 
that, my friends, is the kind of change we need right now.

Thank you.

-- 
Cammie L. Croft
Tracking/Media Monitoring Director
Progressive Media USA
[email-masked]
202-609-7679 (office)
206-999-3064 (cell)

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