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BAYH DEFENDS OBAMA ON CBS: Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh from Indiana and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota defended their candidates’ stances on Russia and the conflict in Georgia on Face The Nation on Sunday (CBS News). .jpg)
Pawlenty emphasized presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain’s experience and pointed to a statement McCain said during a forum with Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California that he would deploy military forces when the national security interests of the U.S. are challenged. "I think he’s acknowledged that military action in this particular situation is unlikely, but as commander in chief, he wants to make sure all options remain available to him, and that’s understandable," Pawlenty said. "And one of the questions this crisis raises is who do you want sitting across the table from Vladimir Putin and people like him, John McCain or Senator Obama? And I think the answer is Senator McCain, and that’s for obvious reasons, with his experience in national security, military affairs, his clarity, his strength, and his judgment in these matters. "As you saw with the surge and as you see even before this crisis broke out, he said last year we’ve got a problem, we should be thinking about having Russia be disinvited from the G-8," Pawlenty added. But Bayh countered by saying that McCain went too far in his statements about the crisis, and defended the judgment of his party’s candidate, presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama. "We aren’t all Georgians now," Bayh said, referring to a comment McCain made earlier in the week. "If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we’d be in a state of war. And clearly, that’s not what we want. And John, sometimes, he’s a good person, but he’s a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that’s what you want in a president. "I think Barack Obama has consistently demonstrated superior judgment to Senator McCain on a whole host of national security issues," Bayh added. "Whether to go into Iraq or not: Barack Obama was correct. How to get out of Iraq: The Iraqis embrace Barack Obama’s position - even George Bush is coming around. "He was right about Afghanistan; finally, John McCain is coming around on that. He was right about engaging Iran; George Bush has come around on that. And he was right about Georgia. Months ago, he was calling for this conflict to be diffused. Instead, the president and John McCain are so obsessed with Iraq, we dropped the ball. If we’d listened to Senator Obama and his judgment, perhaps we wouldn’t be here today."
CNN POLL OF POLLS HAS OBAMA UP 6%: CNN’s composite of five independent polls has Barack Obama leading John McCain 47-41 percent.
VEEP PARADE ON SUNDAY TV: The Sunday morning news shows were deluged with a cavalcade of would-be running mates, in what were either tryouts or head feints or maybe just plain old partisan surrogates talking up their candidates. But Senator Joseph Biden –- as the man who was not there, but rather acting the statesman in Georgia –- attracted a great deal of favorable commentary from the Sunday morning Greek chorus of pundits (Cooper, New York Times). On ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,’’ Mr. Stephanopoulos took note of the emerging consensus on his round table of panelists that Mr. Biden was a favored candidate, joking that it meant he was almost certain not to get the nod. Other contenders did show up in person on the Sunday shows. Gov. Tim Kaine called his prospects to become Senator Obama’s running mate “unlikely” on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’ And on CBS’s “Face the Nation,’’ Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana suggested that Senator John McCain’s rhetoric last week on the Georgian crisis – in which he said “We are all Georgians” – had gone too far. “We are not all Georgians now,’’ Mr. Bayh said. “If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we’d be in a state of war. And clearly, that’s not what we want. And John sometimes, he’s a good person, but he’s a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that’s what you want in a president.’’ The Republican prospects were out in force on the Sunday shows as well, praising Mr. McCain’s response to the Georgian crisis and his long-held hard line on Russia and fending off speculation about their futures. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota grew defensive on CBS when Senator Bayh said that he had opposed the so-called “surge” in Iraq, which Mr. McCain has made central to his campaign. “I did not oppose the surge,’’ Mr. Pawlenty said. “I said I was skeptical of it because I thought it was too late. Like Senator McCain, I wanted it to start earlier.” Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security secretary, was asked on Fox News Sunday about an interview Mr. McCain gave last week to The Weekly Standard in which he praised Mr. Ridge and suggested that he might be open to a running mate who, like Mr. Ridge, supports abortion rights. The trial balloon was met with dismay and anger by several cultural conservatives. “Well, we’ve had no discussions on this very important issue,’’ Mr. Ridge said of his talks with Mr. McCain. “As I said before, he understands the majority of the Republican Party disagrees with me on this issue. We’ve had no conversations. And the last time I checked, the vice president is not an independent voice. He echoes the position of the president of the United States.’’ On ABC, Mitt Romney praised Mr. McCain’s experience, and declined to respond to Mike Huckabee’s suggestion in recent days that Mr. McCain might alienate social conservatives if he were to tap Mr. Romney as a running mate.
LUGAR TALKS OF OBAMA, GEORGIA: U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, appearing on CNN’s Late Edition, talked of Barack Obama and the Russian invasion of Georgia on Sunday. Wolf Blitzer noted that Obama had used Lugar in his TV ads. Lugar responded, "I have shared with Barack Obama my experiences with Sam Nunn during the last 16 years in Russia. I hope they have been helpful to him and to others. I have shared the fact that during that period, since we saw Boris Yeltsin in a bad mood, Russia has moved beyond that to Vladimir Putin, who has in fact created a state that is rich. It has oil resources, it has ambitions, and in this particular crisis was looking for an opportunity to make a statement following what it feels were slights of NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, or Kosovo." So who is more responsible for this crisis right now? Georgia, the government of Georgia, or the government of Russia? Lugar said, "The government of Russia is more responsible, because they have taken ruthless, brutal action. The facts are, however, that our State Department advised in the personages of two or three people for Mr. Saakashvili not to attack, because the Russians were armed. They were ready. They were in the tunnel." So they were looking for a provocation, is that what you’re saying? "They were looking for an opportunity at far range, understanding that we are preoccupied and stretched elsewhere, that we do have problems with our allies. It was an opportune moment to make a statement, to make it boldly and brutally, and with the full idea that it would create difficulties not only for Georgia, but for us," Lugar said.
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