For the first time since being named the Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is going home. After she and Senator John McCain headline an event this morning in Fairfax, Va., she’ll catch a flight to Alaska and attend a welcome rally in Fairbanks upon arrival.
But the trip will also be a test for Ms. Palin, who has encountered an onslaught of both praise and criticism during her short time on the national campaign trail. While there, she will sit-down for her first major news interview since joining the Republican ticket with ABC’s Charlie Gibson.Meanwhile, the Democrats are stepping up their attacks on Governor Palin, report the Politico’s Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen. They write that it’s not just “Democratic officials who are fixated on Palin”:
Media outlets on the left – from Talking Points Memo to Huffington Post – are loaded with hard-hitting stories about Palin. McCain often seems like he’s playing second fiddle.
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The Obama campaign is calculating that it must reckon with Palin and the big public boost she has provided McCain in the past week. When Palin was first named, the Obama staff attacked, then he pulled back. Now, reflecting the threat posed by Palin, Obama is taking the unusual route of attacking the opposition’s No. 2, a job that would more typically be left to Biden, who focused more on McCain and President Bush.
Recently, Ms. Palin has been taking heat for billing Alaska taxpayers a per diem for nights that she spent working from home rather than in the State Capitol, which was first examined in The Washington Post yesterday. The Times’s Michael Luo and Leslie Wayne report that aides to the governor are defending the practice while Democrats continue to use it to “challenge the image of fiscal discipline” that she’s been trying to convey.
Nevertheless, the Washington Post’s Anne E. Kornblut writes about one of Gov. Palin’s biggest strengths – her appeal among women – in particular, “conservative women … with the addition of some independents and even Democrats — women who are “fed up with a man’s world,’ ”: “Several senior officials in both parties said they think Palin’s attraction is the result, in part, of a generally negative mood among some female voters this year, first, as Clinton faced a “boys’ club” mentality in the Democratic primaries and then as Palin faced intense questioning, much of it highly personal, after McCain named her as his running mate.”
And according to the Los Angeles Times’s Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook, “The emergence of Sarah Palin as a political force in the presidential race has left many top Democrats fretting that, just two weeks after their convention ended on an emotional high, Barack Obama’s campaign has suddenly lost its stride.”
State of the Race The lengthy primary contest and an increase in the number of states that allow early voting “is forcing both campaigns to recalibrate the pace of television advertisements, accelerate voter turnout operations and tailor the candidates’ traveling schedules to accommodate states where voting is imminent,” reports The Times’s Adam Nagourney.In the rapid-fire world of campaign messaging, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Weisman notes how “untrue accusations and rumors have started to swirl at a pace so quick that they become regarded as fact before they can be disproved.”
Time Magazine’s Jay Newton-Small observes that the “surge in Republican enthusiasm and John McCain’s poll numbers generated by the emergence of Sarah Palin as a GOP superstar” has Democrats “hitting the panic button”:
The Obama campaign, however, isn’t sounding any alarms, and it’s not just because it believes the post-convention glow will disappear soon enough and voters will get back to focusing on issues more than personality. Much of its confidence stems from a tactical advantage on the ground it showcased to great effect in the primary battle with Hillary Clinton, one which it believes could be the deciding factor in the general election as well.
And Senator Obama is also going after Senator McCain and Gov. Palin more directly and more aggressively, reports The Times’s Jeff Zeleny. One clear sign: Mr. Obama is using Senator McCain’s name where he once might have referred to him only as his opponent.
On the Trail In Ohio on Tuesday, Senator Obama outlined in greater detail his plan for fixing America’s public education system. The Times’s Sam Dillon takes a closer look at how the Illinois senator developed his policies. And Mr. Dillon also compares Mr. Obama’s plan to that of Senator John McCain.Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, has been weighing in on stem cell research, which he supports, prompting swift responses from the Republicans.
And as the federal government moves in to bail out the mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The Times’s Jackie Calmes notes that both candidates “have ties to the fallen giants that will complicate the next president’s job of reshaping the mortgage finance companies that have been essential to the economy.”
Downballot Congressional Quarterly rounds up the results of primary races in several key states on Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights:
Entertainer-turned-candidate Al Franken easily won the nomination of Minnesota Democrats to challenge Republican Sen. Norm Coleman ; Delaware Democrats narrowly decided their primary for the state’s open governor’s seat in favor of state Treasurer Jack Markell, who will run on a party ticket topped by six-term Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. as he runs simultaneously for vice president and for Senate re-election; and voters in New York and New Hampshire decided the matchups for some of the year’s most competitive U.S. House races.
Campaign Trail Roundup
* Senator Barack Obama holds a discussion on education in Norfolk, Va. and attends a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute dinner in Washington, D.C.
* Senator Joe Biden holds a town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H. and fund-raisers in Boston and Holyoke, Ma.
* Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin hold hold a “Road to Victory” rally in Fairfax, Va. Later Senator McCain participates in a roundtable discussion in Philadelphia. Gov. Palin attends a “Welcome Home” rally in Fairbanks, Alaska.
