“God only made one John McCain, and he is his own man,” declared Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, awarded a prime-time turn at the Republicans’ convention podium.
The convention hall resounded with boos when Lieberman said the Democratic presidential candidate voted to cut off funding “for our troops on the ground” in Iraq last year.
 Texas delegates react as President Bush speaks via satellite at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Advertisement |
“Democrats present a history-making nominee for president. History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee ever to run for president,” Thompson said as delegates roared their agreement.
Thompson and Lieberman both cast Palin as a political maverick in the McCain mold.
The Republican nominee-in-waiting campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio during the day, slowly making his way toward the convention city where the 72-year-old Arizona senator will deliver his formal acceptance speech on Thursday night.
Hundreds of miles to the west, in St. Paul, about two dozen men who were Vietnam prisoners with him a generation ago sparked chants of “USA, USA” when they were introduced to the delegates.
Bush, an unpopular president relegated to a minor role at the convention, reprised the national security themes that propelled him to a second term as he spoke — briefly, by satellite from the White House. “We need a president who understands the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001,” he said. “That to protect America, we must stay on offense, stop attacks before they happen and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain.”
Thompson delivered a strong defense of Palin. He said the Alaska governor, was “from a small town, with small town values, but that’s not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family.”
He said McCain’s decision to place her on the ticket “has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic.”
Other Republicans — delegates and luminaries alike — also defended Palin, who disclosed on Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant. In addition, a lawyer has been hired to represent the governor in an ethics-related controversy back home in Alaska.
Conservatives, slow to warm to McCain even after he clinched the nomination last spring, were particularly supportive.
“I haven’t seen anything that comes out about her that in any way troubles me or shakes my confidence in her,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the party’s presidential nomination this year.
“All it has done for me is say she is a human person with a real family.”
And Ron Nehring, chairman of the California state party, said video footage of Palin on a firing range was helping her cause.
“The reports I’m getting back is that every time they show that footage we get 1,000 precinct walkers from the NRA,” he told members of his state’s delegation, to laughter. “She cuts taxes and shoots moose. That’s Gov. Palin,” Nehring said.
Thompson jabbed at Obama on abortion, as well.
“We need a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade,” he said in prepared remarks.
, referring to a recent episode in which McCain’s White House rival said it was “above my pay grade” to decide the point at which an unborn child is entitled to rights.
There were indications that Republicans thought they could turn Palin-related controversy to McCain’s gain. Officials said Levi Johnston, the 18-year-old father of the baby Bristol Palin is expecting, was en route to the convention from his home in Wasilla, Alaska.
McCain’s wife, Cindy, took in the evening program from a VIP box. So, too, former President George H.W. Bush, accompanied by his wife Barbara.
Bush scrapped a planned Monday night speech because of the threat Hurricane Gustav posed to New Orleans. With polls making it clear the nation is ready for a change, the McCain campaign indicated there was no reason for him to make the trip to St. Paul.
The president referred to the years of torture McCain endured as a prisoner of war. Then Bush added, “If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.”
“As president he will stand up to the high tax crowd in Congress ... and lift the ban for drilling on America’s offshore oil,” Bush added.
As for Palin, despite Thompson’s remarks — and McCain’s declaration that he was satisfied with the scrutiny his aides had given the governor before her selection— there were fresh disclosures.
Among them: that both as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and as governor, she had sought earmarks for local projects. Her most recent round of requests totaled $300 for every Alaskan. McCain has frequently vowed to veto any earmark legislation, and has said she will be a force in his battle to wipe them out.
Additionally, the lawyer hired to defend Palin in an ethics investigation said he also is representing her personally and is permitted to bill the state up to $95,000 for work in the current case. The issue involves the dismissal of public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced the governor’s sister.
Republicans handed Lieberman the prime spot in the evening lineup, and he blended praise for McCain with criticism of Obama.
“When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, when Barack Obama was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion,” the Connecticut Democratic-turned-independent senator said in excerpts released in advance of his speech.
The decision to place Lieberman out front on the convention’s second night capped an unprecedented political migration. Only eight years ago, he stood before a cheering throng at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and accepted the nomination as Al Gore’s running mate.
In the years since, he lost badly in 2004 when he sought the Democratic presidential nomination, lost a Democratic nomination for a new term at home in Connecticut in 2006, then recovered quickly to win re-election as an independent.
Back in the Senate, his vote allows the Democrats to command a narrow majority, yet he has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the war in Iraq. He has traveled widely with McCain in recent months, and occasionally has angered Democrats with remarks critical of Obama.
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Campaign money hurts Palin’s outsider image
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the speech of her life looming Wednesday night, a burst of new revelations have raised more questions about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and how carefully she was scrutinized by the McCain campaign.
For one thing, it was reported that she accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens. The contributions, made during Palin’s failed 2002 bid to become Alaska’s lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept. But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed champion for clean government, has been part of an Alaska political system that is now under the cloud of an ongoing FBI investigation.
It’s the latest in a string of disclosures that raise questions about whether John McCain’s presidential campaign had sufficiently investigated the background of Palin, 44, a little-known governor new to the national stage. Palin stunned delegates at the GOP convention Monday when she announced through the McCain campaign that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.
With the convention still abuzz, the list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday:
—Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.
—Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting secession from the United States.
—A private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.
—She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.
And this: Bristol Palin’s boyfriend, Levi Johnston, plans to join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention, the boy’s mother said. He left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family in St. Paul, Minn.
Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said Tuesday “the vetting process was completely thorough.” Campaign advisers at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., said Palin filled out a survey with 70 questions including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?
McCain’s aides maintained that Palin was a finalist from the start
But a senior Republican familiar with the search, who requested anonymity when speaking without authorization, said Palin had all but fallen from the radar until late in the summer when McCain — apparently unsatisfied with his working list — asked for more alternatives. Suddenly, she was a finalist.
When she was introduced as McCain’s running mate last week, Palin portrayed herself as a political maverick in McCain’s mold: “I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the ’good old boy’ network,”’ she said.
But Alaska’s first female governor has at times benefited from Alaska’s entrenched political system.
As Palin campaigned unsuccessfully in 2002 to become lieutenant governor, she received contributions from executives at VECO Corp., a powerful Alaska oil field services company. Company founder Bill Allen has admitted the company steers its donations through a “special bonus program” in which executives received money and the company instructed them to donate it to favored politicians.
Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. He admitted the program violated federal tax laws and said it was used to keep his political allies flush with cash.
“If they’re working with the oil industry, I’d like to help with their campaigns,” Allen testified last year in the corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.
Since Palin’s nomination last week, these issues also are raising eyebrows:
—In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-2003. McCain has touted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.
—Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain’s top adversaries. That’s more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.
—Her husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states’ rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself never registered as a member of the party, according to state officials, though party members said she attended a 1994 convention with her husband.
—The head of the firm hired to defend Gov. Palin in a state ethics investigation was previously her family’s lawyer and is permitted to bill the state up to $95,000 for work in the current case. It involves the dismissal of public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced the governor’s sister.
—Palin opposed the U.S. government’s listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.
—Palin previously acknowledged she smoked marijuana but said in a 2006 interview she no longer used the drug. “I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled,” she said.
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