Results tagged “johnmccain”

In an interview with Politico, Senator John McCain said, "These are terrible, perilous times, so I will seek ways to work with the president of the United States. I don’t want him to fail in his mission of restoring our economy.” However, he has problems with how President Obama and his administration have been handling budget issues so far, as well as the measures enacted by President Bush, “We’re pouring billions and billions of dollars into (banks) with not only no improvement, but their stocks continue to plummet. I think we have been pursuing the wrong strategy.” McCain added that the Obama administration "would have to present a blueprint that not only convinces me but frankly that convinces the Warren Buffetts and the Jack Welches ... people we would look up to who are experts who would say this plan will work. We don’t hear that.” Well, Warren Buffett did say yesterday that the GOP should support Obama.

Politicker NY reports that Mayor Bloomberg's 2009 re-election team has added Jill Hazelbaker, the communications director for Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential bid, as a "move to boost his credibility with Republicans." (The independent Mayor wouldn't mind being on the Republican line in the voting booth.) The Mayor Mike 3X team includes notable Democratic strategists, including Hillary Clinton's longtime communications bulldog Howard Wolfson. Wolfson said of Hazelbacker's hiring, "Jill is one of the most talented communications professionals in the country. We are lucky to have her aboard." Even McCain weighed in, "Jill brings to the table a skill set that is valuable to any campaign and Mayor Bloomberg is fortunate to have her onboard. I wish him and the campaign all the best."

Remember how the NY Times had a front page story about John McCain's relationship with an attractive blond lady lobbyist, implying they were having an affair? And then John McCain and his campaign called the article full of lies and the Times full of liberal bias? (The article also examined McCain's close ties to lobbyists.) Well, now with the election well over, the lobbyist is suing the Times! The NY Times, ahem, reports that Vicki Iseman has sued the paper and some editors and reporters for “falsely communicat[ing]" that she "had an illicit ‘romantic’ and unethical relationship in breach of the public trust in 1999." Iseman, seeking damages of $27 million, says the article was based on "minimum factual support" and says she suffered an "avalanche of scorn, derision, and ridicule." The Daily News notes the statement from the Times: "We fully stand behind the article. We continue to believe it to be true and accurate, and that we will prevail."

President-elect Obama met with former foe John McCain at his transition offices in Chicago today to discuss issues that have the potential to unite them once Obama takes office. Aides of the two said they discussed climate change, ethics reform and national service. Obama may have also been looking for assistance with McCain's sway among Republicans who are likely to be resistant to the economic stimulus package the president-elect would like to see passed ASAP.

The Today show aired another part of Matt Lauer's interview with Alaska Governor and Sarah Palin. This one includes Lauer asking about Palin's infamous interview with Katie Couric and whether she think President-elect Obama can handle the crisis in Iraq. Yesterday's interview (video after the jump) had Palin discussing the rumors about the $150,000 wardrobe and why the McCain-Palin ticket lost, "I think the economic collapse had a heckuva lot more to do with the campaign's collapse than me personally."

Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin didn't rule out running in 2012 when asked about her future in politics earlier today. She said, "2012 sounds like years away. 2012 ... what will we be doing there, guys. Enrolling Trig in kindergarten and watching Willow get ready to go off to college. There are a lot of good things that will happen in 2012." And she told the town of Wasilla after her concession, "We're going to be just fine. It is a shining moment tonight in history. We do congratulate Barack Obama. It's a great night in history. But I'll tell ya, Wasilla - and everybody there in Alaska - I am just proud to be able to represent Wasilla. I am neither bitter nor vanquished, but very confident in the knowledge that there will be another day. "

               

11:57 p.m.: The "next First Family of the United States" is introduced and Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama walk onstage to the cheering crowd. President-elect Barack Obama seems tired and moved--it's been an emotional few days for him. But he gives a rousing speech outlining his plans and rallying the country:

If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Continue reading "Barack Obama is Elected the 44th President:
"Change Has Come to America""

The people at Crumbs are giving away 1,000 free cupcakes today at each of their locations (and free cupcakes all day Friday). Following Zaro's lead--they're using baked goods to conduct a delicious poll. They tell us there will be an “official count posted...and while it won’t be a scientific poll, it should shed some interesting light on neighborhood leanings."

              

Americans all over the country are heading to their polling places to cast their votes for President as well as a number of other races. Polls opened at 6 a.m. in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and they close at 8 p.m. in NJ and CT and at 9 p.m. in NY.

A reader sent in this photo taken at a Manhattan 7-Eleven this morning. Barack Obama is the clear winner, and if the 7-Eleven demographic is any indication, he has this in the bag -- the 7-Election map shows he's even got the lead in the battleground states. The Slurpee set is really doing us all proud today, America.

Barack Obama's campaign announced that his grandmother, 86-year-old Madelyn Dunham, passed away Sunday night. Recently Obama took time off the campaign trail to visit her one last time. He and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng issued a statement, calling her "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.” John McCain offered his condolences to the family, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives." Obama and Soetoro-Ng also thanked people for the flowers and cards sent to Dunham in recent weeks; they added they would hold a small private ceremony for her at a later date.

John McCain is really pulling all the stops as Election Day draws nigh. With Obama (and even Ralph Nader) getting so much love from street artists over the past year, someone finally threw the republicans some wheatpaste. The above was seen in DUMBO this morning, just look at that lil' guy dance!

John McCain may have been more involved during his appearance on SNL, but his running mate Sarah Palin is still stealing his thunder. While she got the show its highest ratings in 14 years (15 million viewers), McCain's appearance only drew 12 million. Overall, however, the Daily News reports that Saturday's show had its "second highest audience in Nielsen's sample of major markets in 11 years" (whatever that means), and "Saturday's telecast was up 73% when compared to a year ago." Perhaps an Obama appearance would have delivered SNL its highest ratings ever, but he chose to spread the wealth with his network-spanning informercial. Meanwhile, NBC points out though McCain can take a joke, the Palin ones can bother him, which might "explain... 'frosty' chemistry between Tina Fey and McCain." Good thing they didn't refer to that prank call.

After months and months (practically ) of politicking, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are entering the final hours of their presidential campaigns. Both candidates visited battleground states over the weekend in hopes of ensuring a victory tomorrow.

With less than 48 hours left before the election, John McCain stopping into Saturday Night Live to perform in a couple of sketches seems like it should be huge news. But with so much attention being showered on the show this year throughout the campaign season, somehow it just felt par for course at this point in a period that Tina Fey for one calls "the weirdest time in my life."

Trick, not treat: Drudge reported that The Washington Times, Dallas Morning News, and the NY Post lost their seats on Barack Obama's campaign plane. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton confirmed it, saying, "We're trying to reach as many swing voters that we can and unfortunately had to make some tough choices. but we are accommodating these folks in every way possible." Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon said, "This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama's campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporters' pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign." Flashback: New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza was excluded from an Obama overseas trip in July, after his critical article about Obama's ascension in Chicago politics (that accompanied that controversial NYer cover) was published?

In 2002 John McCain was the first Senator to host Saturday Night Live. Since then he's returned to the studio to make appearances, and the Huffington Post now reports that he'll be back three days before the presidential election. His aides say he'll "make a detour from battleground states to the late-night weekend show," which he last appeared on in May. Expect lots of Joe the Plumber jokes, and an awkward McCain-Feylin skit. Earlier this month it was rumored that Barack Obama would make an appearance on the same night, so this could get catty!

Tonight, Barack Obama will get 30 minutes of prime time on CBS, NBC, Fox , Univision, MSNBC, BET and TV One to deliver his campaign message. It's a rare, but not unprecedented, move (Ross Perot bought 30-minute informercials during the 1992 presidential campaign). The campaign's chief strategist David Axelrod explained why they went with a 30-minute option, "The airways are glutted with 30-second ads and it's hard to break through."

The Siena Research Institute says Barack Obama's lead in NY has grown to 62% over John McCain's 31%. As it happens, Siena also reported last month that Obama's lead over McCain was just 5 points. The poll also found the nearly eight in 10 New York residents agree with Governor Paterson that the economy is as bad at the Great Depression. In other political news, the ATF reports that it stopped a skinhead plot to kill Obama and other blacks, some doofus has a Sarah Palin effigy outside a house in Los Angeles, every day is voting day with early voting and radio ads has made a comeback thanks to campaign ads, which have also lined the pockets of local and network TV shows.

Dissension within the McCain campaign has begun spilling over into the public with campaign aides speaking out about Sarah Palin taking her cues less and less from within their camp and instead deciding to "go rogue." The rift appears to be pretty sizable with one aide telling CNN, "She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone...Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

During the second part of his interview with the Republican ticket, NBC News anchor Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin to explain, "Who is a member of the elite?" Palin characterized them as, "Anyone who thinks that they're better than someone else." (Full transcript here) But then McCain chimed in, laughing, that he knew "where a lot of 'em live... in our nation's capital and New York City." The exchange starts at about four minutes in, after talk about Williams Ayers, the washed up terrorist McCain supposedly doesn't care about.

Will Ferrell—who will be appearing in a one man show on Broadway in January called You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush—turned up for the cold opening of Saturday Night Live's election special last night. Portraying a 'see-no-evil' Dubya who has declared the Oval Office "a bummer-free zone," Ferrell joined Tina Fey as Palin and Darrell Hammond as McCain. But with McCain on the run from Bush's endorsement (last seen "travelin' on foot through the Adirondacks"), Dubya focused on Palin first:

FERRELL AS BUSH – "My God you are folksy."

Continue reading "Will Ferrell, as Bush, Endorses Palin-McCain on SNL"

A bit of red in a blue city: Amin Torres took this photograph last night outside the NY Times Building. While they seem to be less common than Obama supporters, McCain supporters do exist in NYC--some have been profiled recently and at least one has been a victim of this heated election.

A new AP-GfK poll says John McCain and Barack Obama are "essentially running even among likely voters... The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's 'Joe the plumber' analogy struck a chord." An AP-GfK poll from three week earlier gave Obama a 7 point lead. Other polls have Obama leading by many more points--a University of Wisconsin poli sci professor explains that the poll differences are due to the randomness of respondents, "If they all agree, somebody would be doing something terribly wrong," but added the wide variation means "there's something to explain." Well, we'll only know for sure after November 4. FiveThirtyEight.com has been keeping track of polls--both national and statewide--to project what will happen in 13 days.

During an appearance on Meet the Press, former Secretary of State under President Bush (and native New Yorker) Colin Powell announced his endorsement of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate. He said he had been studying both candidates in the past few weeks and concluded that Obama was a "transformational figure," citing his inclusive campaign and intellectual curiosity.

Sarah Palin is currently at 30 Rock getting ready for her big (intentional) comedy debut tonight on SNL. There's no official word under what guise she'll appear or even if it will be alongside Tina Fey as expected, only that there were "multiple scripts" for Palin when she arrived. Those who caught Fey on The Late Show last night heard her fretting the possibility of being placed next to Palin because "she's pageant quality." And unlike the vice-presidential nominee, who finds the comedienne to be "a hoot," today a rally of supporters booed Fey when John McCain brought up her name. Palin may be wondering if Fey supporters in Studio 8H will give her as warm of a welcome tonight.

Politico's Ben Smith got confirmation from the Manhattan DA's office about an incident last month where a female McCain supporter was assaulted at Lexington Avenue and 51st Street. According to conservative blog The Silent Majority, a man--without provocation--grabbed the woman's McCain sign, ripped it up, and hit her with it, bruising her face. The victim followed him into the 6 train subway station and found police officers on the platform; she added that he was only arrested after she showed the cops her bruised face. The assailant allegedly said, "I don’t know why I did this. It’s just those signs, and this election, it has me so upset.” Smith reports that the man, Bernard Feuerman, was charged with second degree assault and has a January 23 court date.

CBS released a little 4+ minute preview of Senator John McCain's visit to Late Show with David Letterman (the full interview airs tonight at 11:35 p.m.). McCain cancelled a visit to the show late last month, telling Letterman he had to get back to Washington D.C. to deal with the economic crisis...but actually stuck around for interviews with other outlets, prompting Letterman's relentless skepticism.

The Daily News makes it clear that it thinks John McCain was a whiner during last night's debate. And it's no surprise that the right-leaning NY Post thinks he was on the attack--but how much of a third debate victory did he score if he has to share the cover with Madonna and Guy Ritchie? (OMG, A-Rod went to Yom Kippur services with Madonna and the kids--no Guy--last week!)