POLITICAL POINTS
An Adviser for Everyone
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY - NEW YORK TIMES
GOT economic policy questions? Who you gonna call? Easy, at least for the Democrats running for president. At one time or another, half of them have called Gene Sperling, a senior economic advisor in the Clinton administration.
He was known in the Clinton White House for his 24-7 work habits. Maybe that helps explain why Mr. Sperling is always available for the presidential contenders. Between his time with real candidates, Mr. Sperling even counsels fictional politicians in his role as a consultant on the television program "The West Wing."
Early on in the campaign, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, sought out Mr. Sperling for advice and guidance. His current client list includes Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Wesley K. Clark, the retired four-star general.
Serving more than one candidate at once can be tricky, Mr. Sperling conceded, like when a debate is approaching. But a few basic rules, he said, help minimize any anxieties. Foremost is making sure that every candidate who calls for help knows that other candidates have been calling as well. He also assures them their secrets will never be shared.
So who's the smartest on economics? Who does he want to win? Or is he just out to hedge his bets? Forget it, Mr. Sperling said. Trade secrets.
Sing Along
With the Grahams
A STRUGGLING campaign needs a gimmick. For Senator Bob Graham, it is the Singing Grahams — his wife, Adele, and their daughter, Suzanne Graham Gibson.
At an event for young professionals in New York last week, Mr. Graham said he always stressed the importance of getting involved in elections to his family.
"Now the inspiration for that involvement, of course, is our campaign song," he said. As the Grahams hummed their starting note, the crowd laughed. Then they sang, badly, the first verse of a song that was written by a family friend, Frank Loconto, for Mr. Graham's first gubernatorial campaign, in 1978, and later adapted for the national campaign:
"You've got a friend in Bob Graham/ That's what everybody's saying/ All across the good ol' U.S.A./ From the Atlantic to the Pacific/ We all say he's terrific/ Bob Graham is what America needs today."
Catchy or not, Bob Graham is struggling for any way to get his campaign to catch on nationally.
I Endorse You.
So What?
EVERY presidential candidate craves endorsements as if each one confers a certain je ne sais quoi to the campaign. At least in the eyes of the endorsed.
Senator Kerry, for example, rounded up reporters last week for a conference call to announce his latest Big Name catch, Gary Hart, the former Colorado senator whose 1988 presidential aspirations ended after monkey business on the Monkey Business.
Mr. Hart joined Mr. Kerry on the call, and the pair answered routine questions. After a while, Mr. Kerry begged off, but Mr. Hart agreed to chat a bit more. With Mr. Kerry gone, the first question was "How important are endorsements?"
"Not very," Mr. Hart said.
At which point a Kerry staff member jumped in to announce that the teleconference was over — and that any additional questions should be forwarded to the Kerry campaign. But Mr. Hart balked and elaborated further, saying, "I don't think endorsements, per se, ever got anyone a nomination."
The Voice of Steel
Makes Itself Heard
THE 30-second commercial opens with a shot of President Bush at a lectern, looking quite presidential. Soft music plays. Mr. Bush speaks: "One way to make sure that the manufacturing sector does well is to send a message overseas. Say, look, we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade."
An announcer follows: "President Bush's steel program is working to help a vital industry recover from unfair, illegal trade." Then it's Mr. Bush again: "See, we in America believe we can compete with anybody just so long as the rules are fair, and we intend to keep the rules fair."
Is this the opening advertising salvo for the Bush re-election campaign?
Actually, no.
Although the commercial trumpets steel tariffs imposed by the administration that have helped slow the loss of steel industry jobs, it was produced by the Glover Park Group, a consulting firm run by former Clinton administration advisers. It uses Mr. Bush's own words from a speech on Labor Day to remind him that tariffs should remain in effect beyond their scheduled expiration in 2005.
The commercial is being shown this month in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio — electoral battlegrounds and states where jobs are threatened by cheap foreign imports.
Out of the Race,
Not the Spotlight
SHE was the woman scorned in the campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis of California. In the weeks leading to Tuesday's vote, Arianna Huffington took no small amount of guff from Arnold Schwarzenegger, the would-be Republican governor who gleefully made fun of her drive to defeat him.
Never climbing out of single digits in the polls, Ms. Huffington abandoned her campaign last week, but not her antipathy toward Mr. Schwarzenegger. Now, as the anti-Arnold, anti-recall ex-candidate, Ms. Huffington has found more of a voice than she did as an actual candidate. By reversing course and arguing against the recall, she is drawing even more publicity for her books and her commentary business.
"By voting for the recall hoping to make things better, we will, in fact, make things much, much worse," she said last week, insisting that Mr. Schwarzenegger would be an utter failure as the state's chief executive.
A spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger batted away her remarks like a pesky fly. "There's the talk and there's the walk," said the spokesman, Sean Walsh. "She's all talk, and it's a sad commentary from someone who enjoys media attention but clearly has no public policy goals or objectives."
The Week Ahead
All eyes this week are on California where Gov. Schwarz . . . uh, where voters will decide on Tuesday whether Gray Davis should finish his second term, and if not, who should replace him. Two days later in Phoenix, the would-be Democratic presidents gather for their next debate.
nytimes.com |
