A Weblog by L.A. Daily News Reporter/Columnist Tony Castro
Why Obama Will Win the Nomination...
February 11, 2008... or Hillary will wind up killing the party as we know it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10rich.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Posted by Tony Castro at 04:09 PM | Permalink
Top advisers a window into hopeful's thinking
February 04, 2008Ruth Prince Hladky of Studio City has been a
Republican for years, but she has re-registered as a Democrat for
Tuesday's California presidential primary just to be able to vote
against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "I'm worried about what changes he might bring," said Hladky,
70, an executive assistant to the head of a major restaurant chain.
"Does anybody really know him? Does anybody know who his advisers are -
his kitchen cabinet?" President Reagan's White House popularized the term
"kitchen cabinet," the tight coterie of kingmakers and advisers around
him, but the term dates back to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, whose
political opponents gave the name to the collection of unofficial
advisers he consulted about the counsel of his official cabinet. In presidential campaigns, kitchen cabinets and inner
circles have historically provided a window to the influences that
define and shape politicians seeking the country's highest office. "Inner circles, so-called kitchen cabinets, play very
important roles in campaigns," said Jaime Regalado, executive director
of the Pat Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles.
"Hopefully, the best campaigns tap into the human resources
that give a candidate a better understanding of issues and
policy-making." Yet rarely do kitchen cabinets and inner circles surface as issues on the presidential campaign landscape.
"But Barack Obama is the unknown in this campaign," Los Angeles political consultant Bill
Orozco said. "He's African-American, but I don't think it's race alone
that may bother some people.
"It's also that he's been in the Senate only a short time. It's fair to ask: `Who is he? Who influences his thinking?"'
Most of the other presidential front-runners in both parties, after all, have been in the public eye much longer and have gone through the political vetting process. And their kitchen cabinets include policy advisers, high-level staff members, big money fundraisers and aides to former presidents.
Perhaps no one has been through more than New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and she might have the ultimate adviser in her husband, President Clinton, whose interview in a new book "The Second Civil War," by political writer Ronald Brownstein, may offer insight into the counsel he has given his wife.
The former president said he would have opted for a more bipartisan influence in his White House, bringing both Democrats and Republicans into talks to try to ease the polarization in Washington.
"If I had to do it over again, I would block out significantly greater time ... to just bring these guys in and let them say whatever the hell they want to say to me," Clinton said.
It is that kind of familiarity to who is advising Hillary Clinton that could give her an added advantage over Obama.
"What makes Obama so attractive to many people - his newness to Washington and his portrayal of an outsider seeking change - is a double-edge sword," Orozco said. "He hasn't been through fire like Hillary Clinton or John McCain."
Yet a survey of political experts on the potential inner circles of both Democratic and Republican front-runners suggests that Obama's kitchen cabinet is not much different from those of other leading cabinets.
Obama's inner circle of advisers is made up of Harvard law professors who were his mentors in college, an influential Chicago pastor whom he calls his moral compass and a small bipartisan group of U.S. senators and an Illinois legislator who have guided his political career in Springfield, Ill., and Washington.
Obama has also borrowed Bill Clinton's advice on bipartisan influences. His inner circle includes the counsel of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who has been a mentor in Washington, as well as of Joseph Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-Independent who has endorsed McCain in the GOP but also has been a mentor in the Senate.
In Los Angeles last month for an intimate economic discussion with four San Fernando Valley residents, Obama said he enjoys talking with small groups to compare with professional advice he receives.
"We've been holding these small group sessions on various issues," he said. "It's good to get input from people around the country and not just what you're getting in Washington."
Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, for whom Obama served as a research assistant while at the Harvard Law School, said the Illinois senator is uniquely qualified among the students he has known.
"On the whole, Barack is sufficiently well-versed on policy matters and issues that I don't think any adviser could do a better job of advising him or write much better than he does himself," Tribe said.
"No speech-writer, no ghostwriter could write as well as he does."
Still, Tribe said Obama has called upon him at times for advice on such issues as habeas corpus, the Guantanamo mistreatment of prisoners and the Justice Department scandal.
"I am privileged to advise him," Tribe said. "But he's his own man."
Posted by Tony Castro at 02:42 PM | Permalink
Will Latinos Decide the California Primary?
February 02, 2008In wooing Latino voters, Hillary Clinton may have elevated the taco to political symbolism, which made a Mexican restaurant in Hollywood an ideal site for some old fashion arm-twisting and deal-cutting in the presidential campaign.
At a dimly table filled with margaritas and tortilla chips, a group of disappointed volunteers from the defunct Bill Richardson campaign debated whether they should shift allegiance to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama when one of them heard their cell phone ringing.
“I just got a call from Hilda Solis,” said longtime activist Ruben Treviso, who heads the politically connected Latino veterans group, the American G. I. Forum. “She read me the riot act. I’ve got to go with Clinton.”
But the influence of Solis, the powerful, four-term San Gabriel Valley congresswoman supporting Clinton, only went so far.
By the time the meeting ended, the group of Los Angeles activists who had campaigned for Richardson in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire decided to split up evenly between Clinton and Obama and campaign among Latinos for both leading up to the Feb. 5 California primary where they account for about a quarter of likely Democratic voters.
“We decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to put all our eggs in one basket,” said Treviso. “It’s one thing to be a lawmaker in Washington. It’s another living out here.”
The incident dramatically underscores that the Latino vote is not as simplistic and monolithic as too often portrayed in the national news media: Latinos don’t necessarily accept the endorsements of elected officials as political gospel, and they aren’t automatically rejecting Obama because of historic racial-ethnic tensions.
For despite the endorsement of most of the country’s leading Latino leaders, Clinton has been getting only two in three Latino votes – only slightly better than what the Democratic nominees have received in recent presidential elections.
In last month's Nevada caucuses, Obama received 26 percent of the Latino votes to Clinton’s 64 percent. A California Field Poll released last week showed Clinton holding a 3-to-1 lead over Latino voters.
The endorsement of Obama by Democratic icon and Latino darling Ted Kennedy, who has been campaigning on his behalf in California and the Southwest, could well change the balance of power.
Obama himself continues to be confident that the numbers will increase in California.
“My history is excellent with Latino supporters back in Illinois, because they knew my record,” he said in his recent campaign stop in Van Nuys. “It’s important to get my record known in the Latino community, and our supporters in California like Maria Elena Durazo will help accomplish that.”
Durazo is the popular and influential head of the heavily Latino Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, who last week took a leave from her position to endorse Obama and join his campaign organization in California.
The challenge facing Obama in wooing Latino voters, both the Obama campaign and Latino insiders say, is not the racial tensions between the two groups but a more sophisticated and subtle issue: The fears that a black president could jeopardize the political and economic gains Latinos have made in the last generation as they have outnumbered African Americans in the population.
“They say things like, ‘If Obama is elected, Latinos will start losing all the gains they’ve made in recent years,” says Lucy Casado, owner of the Hollywood restaurant where the former Richardson activists met and a founder of the Mexican American Political Association in California.
In fact, a growing number of Latinos and African Americans believe that the historic racial divide separating the two groups is no longer what it once was, though it continues to be the focus of many outsiders.
“The media in general have been too anxious to portray that side as if it is always a case of troublesome conflict,” says Jaime Regalado, executive director or the Pat Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles. “The truth is that they are building a history of cooperation, living and working side by side.”
Underscoring that point is a new study by three University of California at Irvine criminologists concluding that Los Angeles is not on the brink of a major interracial crime wave that they blame on the news media’s increasing fixation on the specter of black-versus-brown violence.
According to scholars John R. Hipp, George E. Tita and Lindsay N. Boggess, street violence (in Los Angeles) has been overwhelmingly intra-racial rather than interracial.
"Blacks are about 500 percent more likely to assault a fellow black than a Latino and about 650 percent more likely to murder a fellow black,” the student contends. For their part, Latino offenders are also much more likely to assault or murder another Latino than an African American.
Activists of both sides say the media obsession with ethnic-racial conflict has overshadowed significant but far less glamorous progress made in race relations in America’s most diverse city.
Those strides, in evidence at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. parade in South Los Angeles, includes such bridge building as the Latino and African-American Leadership Alliance, a new coalition chaired by South L.A. activist Najee Ali and Christine Chavez, the granddaughter of farm worker legend and Mexican American icon Cesar Chavez.
Symbolic of that bridge-building was the selection of this year’s parade grand marshal – Mildred Garcia, president of California State University, Dominguez Hills.
“Like Dr. King, she is breaking down barriers for women and minorities while continuously striving towards the best in education,” says parade founder Larry Grant.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa built his historic election in 2005 on a multi-racial coalition, but other politicians have found duplicating his success rough-going.
“Latinos have had more difficulty in general supporting Obama than African Americans have had,” says Regalado. “It’s an uphill struggle in the Golden State here for Obama because the (Latino) base is supporting Hillary, and he will need the independent vote to offset that.”
For the record, few Latino voters will publicly admit they will not vote for Obama because he is black.
“Hillary gives them an out,” says Latino political activist Alex Jacinto. “Of course, there’s an undercurrent (of racism), but no one is going to go there.”
The issue, say sociologists and racial experts, is also deep-rooted among Latinos: Though Obama and other African Americans often include Latinos when talking about “people of color,” few Latinos identify themselves as such. According to the 2004 Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 58.5 percent of Latinos identified themselves as “white,” 35.2 percent claimed “some other race,” 3.6 percent checked “two or more races” an only 1.6 percent self-identified as “black.”
Other Latinos like San Fernando Valley activist Joe Lozano of Mission Hills are quick to reject Obama, if not for his race for what they believe his faith to be.
“Our great country is not ready to be run by a Muslim as I am told he is,” says Lozano, who admits having believed the untrue blog and email rumors circulating about Obama on the Internet.
Still, Obama’s campaign boasts of several recent developments that they say dispel the notion that Latinos will not support the Illinois senator: The endorsement of Durazo, the who has deep roots in the Los Angeles labor and Latino movements; the backing of several elected Democratic officials, among them Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero of Los Angeles and State Senator Gil Cedillo of the Los Angeles Eastside; and the recent economic roundtable discussion in Van Nuys that included two Latino supporters among the four participants.
They also point to grassroots organizers like Leila Linford, 27, of Long Beach, the University California at Riverside graduate and daughter of a Cuban mother and American father – both Republicans – who has been working in Latino communities on behalf of Obama for months. Or 17-year-old Gustavo Delgado, a Cypress College student from Orange County, who has been averaging over 20 hours a week volunteering in the campaign.
“I think he is not afraid to deal with countries that don’t agree with or align with the American status quo,” says Delgado, who was first drawn to Obama when he appeared on the cover of Time magazine, “and that he will bring the country back to its previous status in the world, where we are respected in the world and where we learn to put our priorities in order and care for the people and issues at home.”
Adds Linford:
“I consider myself an idealist, and (Obama) speaks to me in that sense. I also know he can also get things done. He has an excellent track record. I have done my research and I believe he is working on the people’s behalf. I love that he doesn’t accept any lobbyist’s money -- it all comes from us. He wants to bring the power back to the people; he wants to change things and lead our world into a new direction. He was against the war from the beginning, when the war was popular.”
Obama supporters have also been buoyed by the CNN and Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday showing that a growing number of Americans can now accept an African American president.
Obama himself confidently refuses to accept the notions that Latinos reject him. As he as leaving his recent Van Nuys backyard appearance, Obama took one last question from a Spanish television network reporter: Did he believe there was a pattern of Latinos voting against black candidates?
“No, in Illinois – they all voted for me,” he said. “Yes, there have been historical patterns. But there are places like California where those patterns are going to be broken.”
Posted by Tony Castro at 11:16 AM | Permalink
In L.A. Debate, Obama, Clinton Enjoy Love-Fest
February 01, 2008In the heart of Hollywood before a star-studded audience, Democratic presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama sparred Thursday in their last debate before Super Tuesday in a high-stakes battle that took on a civility that had been missing over the past two weeks.
The debate - now down to just the two after John Edwards announced he was withdrawing earlier this week - largely took on a tone of a celebration that the nomination of either a woman or an African-American would be history-making.
While the candidates delineated their differences to some 2,500 at the Kodak Theatre and a national television audience, their exchanges sidestepped the bitter contentiousness that has previously marked their campaigns.
Clinton, who holds a double-digit lead in California polls, was firm on staking out how she differs from Obama on health care, the economy and immigration. In pressing her points, she maintained a statesmanlike demeanor and struck a conciliatory tone.
"But the differences between Barack and I pale in comparison to the differences that we have with Republicans," she said.
"And I want to say that first and foremost, because it's really ... a stark difference."
Obama, too, cloaked himself in a presidential air, quickly hammering home his endorsement by Democratic party icon Ted Kennedy and defending a position on immigration as more sympathetic to illegal immigrants than either Clinton or the Republican candidates.
"I believe we can be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants," Obama told an audience that included dozens of Hollywood celebrities.
Attendees included everyone from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner to recording legend Stevie Wonder, former Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. and actors Diane Keaton and Pierce Brosnan.
At times, the candidates' friendliness made them appear more like they were paired on a Democratic ticket, leading to one question about whether the two might form a "dream ticket" against the Republicans - a notion Obama quickly dismissed as premature.
Downplays animosity
Riding the crest of a win in South Carolina and Ted and Caroline Kennedy's crucial endorsements, Obama also downplayed any perceived animosity between him and the former first lady - which had been a focal point when it appeared he had snubbed Clinton at President Bush's State of the Union address Monday night.
"I also want to note that I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign," he said. "I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over."
The debate came the same day Obama's campaign reported raising $32 million in January, while Clinton's campaign reported raising $26.8 million from October through December, the most recent period she reported.
While former presidential contender Edwards has yet to endorse a candidate, Obama attempted to claim a tie to Edwards on cracking down on the influence of lobbyists and special interests in Washington, implying that Clinton does not.
"I think that a lot of issues that both Senator Clinton and I care about will not move forward unless we have increased the kinds of ethics proposal that I passed just last year - some of the toughest since Watergate," he said.
"And that's something that John Edwards and I both talked about repeatedly in this campaign. That's why I don't take federal PAC and federal lobbyist money. That is a difference."
Both Clinton and Obama praised Edwards' contributions to the campaign, which could hang on how his supporters vote in next week's Super Tuesday primaries.
At the same time, both candidates stressed Democratic unity for the upcoming fall election as each took shots at Republican front-runner Arizona Sen. John McCain and chief rival former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as well as at the Bush presidency.
"It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush," Clinton said, "and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush."
At another point, Obama took a jab at McCain by referring to the name of his campaign bus: "Somewhere along the line," Obama said, "the Straight Talk Express lost some wheels."
Debate over the war in Iraq brought up potential fireworks. While both essentially agreed on a withdrawal that would still protect the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi civilians, Obama noted Clinton's vote for the war.
"I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place," he said.
"That's the kind of leadership I'm going to provide as president of the United States."
When moderator Wolf Blitzer said to Clinton, "That's a clear swipe at you," she deflected the lure with a smile but added sarcastically: "Really? We're having a wonderful time."
Despite the cordialness, both maintained that each would make a different president.
And in what appeared to be one of Clinton's best debate performances so far during the campaign, she defended her past positions - especially her early vote in support of the war - without appearing defensive.
And she made precise criticisms of Obama's own stances on issues without appearing to be harshly critical.
Clinton sets tone
And she appeared to set the tone of the debate from the start when she offered specifics of her health-care plan and claimed the issue as her own.
"This is the passionate cause of my public service," she said.
Clinton even managed to downplay Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Obama by appearing magnanimous yet positive.
"I have the greatest respect for Senator Kennedy and the Kennedy family," she said. "And I'm proud to have three of Senator Robert Kennedy's children, Bobby and Kathleen and Kerry, supporting me.
"What I think is exciting is that the way we are looking at the Democratic field, now down to the two of us is, is we're going to get big change. We're going to have change.
"I think having the first woman president would be a huge change for America and the world."
Clinton said her presidency would create a no-nonsense White House based on experience and wanting to correct problems created by the Bush administration.
For his part, Obama said the upcoming presidential election will be important for more than just obvious reasons.
"I don't think the choice is between black and white or it's about gender or religion," he said. "I don't think it's about young or old.
"I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards. I think it is the past versus the future."
Posted by Tony Castro at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Campaign: Reagan v. Kennedy Legacies
January 31, 2008 They are the political embodiment of the
legendary feuding Hatfields and McCoys, and their legacies are being
played out in this year's presidential campaigns. Since their first debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library in Simi Valley last year, Republican candidates have all sought
to invoke Reagan, referring reverently to the late president. Meanwhile, the talk of change being championed by
Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton harkens back to
John F. Kennedy's vows to change the era with the "Let's get America
moving again" slogan in 1960. "We're in a very odd period of American history, and I
think what it indicates is that we really don't know what direction
we're going here," said Raphael Sonenshein, professor of government at
California State University, Fullerton. "It's funny, but it suddenly seems to be this resurgence of
`I'm in the mold of.' I haven't seen this much of it ever in a
campaign." And the trend is certain to continue as California moves
toward its Tuesday primary, with Republicans debating Wednesday night
at the Reagan Library and Democrats holding their own debate tonight at
the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Last week, Obama went so far as to mention Reagan himself
and incurred the wrath of Clinton and her husband, former President
Bill Clinton, for invoking a name that is anathema in traditional
Democratic circles. The incident underscores the fervor with which each party is trying to identify with Reagan and the Kennedys and how they will bitterly renounce any acceptance of the other. "Is
there ever any rationale for this type of feuding in politics?" said
Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist whose latest book is on
international politics and terrorism. Past touches voters
Yet it's the
political fighting and rhetoric - politicians enveloping themselves in
the mantles of popular past presidents and leaders - that often
poignantly touches voters. "One of the reasons I love Obama so much is that he reminds
me of the optimism that President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy used to
arouse in me," said Peter Rothenberg of Northridge, one of the leaders
of the Obama campaign in the San Fernando Valley. "People really engaged and see him as a different kind of politician than what we've had."
The
similarities aren't lost on the Kennedys themselves. JFK's daughter,
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
the slain president's brother, endorsed Obama this week. Younger Obama supporters such as Sandra Cuneo of North
Hollywood - who weren't even born yet during the Kennedy years - are
hearing of the similarities. "My mom tells me he reminds her of John F. Kennedy," Cuneo said.
"It's
very strategic on the part of Obama to be running as Camelot, an
idealist, patterning his campaign after the way JFK ran his, calling
for change," said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G.
"Pat" Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles. "It appeals to both the young and the old. It's smart strategy."
Alluding to Kennedys
In the most recent debate, Obama quoted from Kennedy's inaugural
address - "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to
negotiate" - to justify why he would talk to such U.S. foreign critics
as the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and North Korea. Clinton's own speeches have often alluded to the Kennedys,
and she also is running with Kennedy backing, including that of Robert
F. Kennedy Jr. Political experts say that not only is the extent of the
candidates' posturing with historical heroes unprecedented but it
raises questions about the state of politics and the country today. "Maybe it's a function of both parties for the first time
in God knows how long having genuinely competitive open races that are
going to wind up defining the nature of (each) party," Sonenshein said.
"There's no obvious successor in either party. I can't
remember the last time that's been true. People seem to be grounding
themselves in these historical figures, and it's very treacherous
ground." And all the political channeling for past political icons has left experts wondering where it will end.
"If
you really want to push this farther, (President George W.) Bush has
been comparing himself again and again to historical figures trying to
find some grounding for his policies," Sonenshein said. "I don't think it's working too well, but he's Truman one day, he's misunderstood like Lincoln another day.
"My
guess is when that happens a lot, when everybody is talking about
somebody else from the past, that it means that we are really unsure
about where we are right now."
Posted by Tony Castro at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
McCain Takes Command of GOP Race
SIMI VALLEY -- Sen. John McCain solidified his
front-runner status for the Republican nomination Wednesday, sparring
with an aggressive Mitt Romney in a feisty debate at the Reagan Library
and securing key bicoastal endorsements from Rudy Giuliani and Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a debate dominated by attacks and counterattacks between
McCain and chief rival Romney, McCain appeared to take the upper hand. The Arizona senator launched an offensive against Romney's
economic record as governor of Massachusetts, while Romney said McCain
was out of the conservative mainstream. McCain used the last debate before next week's Super
Tuesday of primaries to reach out to the Republican Party's core
conservative base, claiming the Reagan political mantle. "I had the great honor of being inspired while I was in the
prison camps of North Vietnam by the news of a governor and his wife
who cared very much about those of us who were in captivity," he said,
referring to President Ronald Reagan, when he was governor of
California, and his wife, Nancy, who was in the audience Wednesday
night. "And when I came home, I was inspired by him, and I voted
for him, and I supported him, and I was proud to be a ... foot soldier
in the Reagan revolution." Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said McCain twice
voted against President Bush's tax cuts and pushed campaign-finance
reforms that restricted fundraising and spending. The Republican "Those views are outside the view of mainstream
Republican thought," Romney said in the opening moments of the debate
at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The forum came 24 hours
after McCain won the Florida presidential primary despite criticism
that he is too moderate on several issues dear to party loyalists. McCain's campaign got a double-barreled boost in California
with the high-profile endorsements just days before the Golden State
and 21 others cast primary ballots. "He is an American hero, and America could use some heroes
in the White House," Giuliani said of McCain, who was with him when the
former New York mayor withdrew from the race ahead of the debate
Wednesday afternoon. "He is a man of honor and integrity, and you can
underline both." Schwarzenegger's team said the governor would announce his
endorsement today at a news conference with McCain after the pair tour
a Los Angeles-based solar energy company. The debate played out against a backdrop of the sleek blue
and white fuselage of Reagan's Air Force One, which loomed as large as
the legacy of the late president who has become the leading Republican
icon of the past. Other candidates
With Giuliani dropping
out of the race, McCain and Romney seized on the new dynamic to try to
cast the race as a two-man contest, drawing a protest from former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has struggled since his upset victory
in Iowa. "I want to make sure everybody understands: This isn't a
two-man race," he said. "There's another guy, I would like to say, down
here on the far right of the stage." Rep. Ron Paul also struggled for attention during the 90-minute CNN debate.
In
touching on issues sensitive to conservatives, who have been critical
of his positions on immigration, the environment and campaign-finance
regulation, McCain said he would no longer vote for his original
immigration bill, which would have provided a clear path to citizenship
for illegal immigrants. "We will secure the borders first when I am president of
the United States," McCain said. "I know how to do that. I come from a
border state, where we know about building walls, and vehicle barriers,
and sensors, and all of the things necessary." When Romney sought to portray McCain as being out of step
with Republican conservative philosophy and a liberal because The New
York Times endorsed him, McCain shot back: "Let me note that I was endorsed by your two hometown
newspapers who know you best, including the very conservative Boston
Herald. And I guarantee you the Arizona Republic will be endorsing me,
my friend." Looking confident throughout the debate, McCain even showed
his sense of humor when asked whether he sides with Schwarzenegger on
tougher environmental standards or with the Bush administration. "Well, there's some physical danger," he said, smiling and
looking at Schwarzenegger, which drew laughter from the audience. "I
have to agree with the governor. "And I believe the states should decide to enormous degrees
what happens within those states, including off their coasts. The
people of California have decided they don't want oil drilling off
their coasts ... "I applaud the governor's efforts and that of other states
in this region and other states across America to try to eliminate the
greenhouse-gas emissions that are causing climate change." Negative ads
McCain criticized Romney for
his negative campaign ads against Huckabee and the extensive use of his
personal fortune to support his candidacy. About the only thing the two men could agree on was not blaming Bush for the country's economic conditions.
Skirting
that issue, Romney instead chose to focus on what he did for the
economy while governor of Massachusetts, leading debate co-host
Anderson Cooper of CNN to ask: "Are you running for governor or are you running for president?"
For
McCain, the 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war, his emergence
as clear front-runner marks an extraordinary resurrection of his
political fortunes from left-for-dead last May when the Republican
campaign kicked off with the first debate at this very same location. Veteran political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior
scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the
University of Southern California, said Giuliani's political collapse
and McCain's quantum leap have dramatically changed the dynamics of the
Republican race. "Is this a hoot! About a month ago I thought there could be
a brokered convention and, if there were a brokered convention, it
would be on the Republican side," she said. "But now it is possible
that if there were a brokered convention, it would be on the Democratic
side."
Posted by Tony Castro at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Simi Valley, Hollywood: A Tale of Two Debates
January 30, 2008SIMI VALLEY –- With a life-size replica of the Oval Office, the
seal of power gleaming off Air Force One and reams of White House
documents, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley may be
the ideal setting for today's Republican presidential debate. Just as Hollywood's Kodak Theatre - the site of the Oscars,
next to the handprints of movie greats at Grauman's Chinese Theatre,
with characters from Spider-Man to Darth Vader panhandling outside -
may be the perfect venue for Thursday's Democratic debate. From historic to Hollywood, the contrast between the venues
highlights not only Los Angeles' own idiosyncracies but a culture of
celebrity reflected in both campaigns. "They really have become - on the Democratic side -
celebrities in the truest form," said Elizabeth Currid, a University of
Southern California professor who specializes in the sociology of fame
and pop culture. "When you talk about their charisma, when you talk about
(Barack) Obama and you talk about his youth, his beautiful family, his
ability to mesmerize a crowd - these are the same attributes that we
bestow upon Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt or any other celebrity. "Ironically, I think that in the Republican Party, the
celebrity appeal is actually being used against Mitt Romney. He's the
only one there that has that classic good looks and all-American, and
with his hair that looks too perfect." And it all makes the two settings perfect for the debates. "Reagan is the iconic figure of the Republican
Party, plus (the presidential library is) outside of town - it's away
from the midpart of the city so they can all sort of worship at the
shrine of Ronald Reagan," said Raphael Sonsenshein, government
professor at California State University, Fullerton. "That's kind of Republican L.A., on the outskirts of town,
North and Northwest Valley. And the Kodak Theatre is right in the
middle of Hollywood, which now is the most liberal voting area of Los
Angeles, and it's in the celebrity crowd that tends to be drawn more to
the Democrats and in the shadow of the writers strike. "I couldn't imagine them, obviously, reversing the two locations. It wouldn't make any sense."
For all their celebrity - or noncelebrity - the debates will be the
last before next week's Super Tuesday primaries across the country when
half of the delegates to this summer's national conventions will be
chosen. Democratic voters in 22 states will go to the polls
Tuesday, and California stands to be the biggest prize of this primary
season with a bitter showdown between the two most charismatic
candidates in either race: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the leader in
polls in California, and Obama, the fast-rising senator from Illinois. "The Clintons - for all the good and bad publicity they are
given - they are still a glamorous, charismatic couple," said Currid,
author of "The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New
York City." "They are a fixture in American life, and that is a part of who they are."
The debates hit California after the most dramatic two weeks of the campaigns so far.
With
wins in South Carolina and Florida, Arizona Sen. John McCain has
emerged as the front-runner in the GOP race, and he and Romney have
become combative. And after losing in South Carolina to Obama, Clinton has
seen her front-runner status threatened while Obama has picked up
endorsements including that of longtime party icon Ted Kennedy. The drama is expected to continue at the Democratic debate
in Los Angeles, where the ANSWER Coalition and other peace groups have
planned an anti-war protest and picket outside the Kodak Theatre. Families who have lost their homes or are facing
foreclosure also have vowed to set up a "Save the Dream Tent City" a
block from the Kodak Theatre, hoping to draw attention to their plight.
Among those involved is Tommy Beard, a cook at St. Francis
Hospital, and his wife, Deborah, a teacher's assistant, who are
threatened with the loss of their home. Their adjustable-rate mortgage loan takes a big jump next
year, and the Beards are already behind on their payments after medical
problems forced Deborah to miss work for several months. Their call for government action on interest rates and bankruptcy laws already falls on sympathetic Democratic ears.
Obama,
Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards all favor legislation that would
ease the problems of homeowners suffering from mortgage and
lending-rate exploitation. But on Hollywood Boulevard, the tent city could just as
easily be mistaken by tourists as simply another attraction amid the
stars of Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Vivien Leigh and Tyrone Power
immortalized on that particular strip of the Walk of Fame. Still, the celebrity shine is not confined to the
Democratic contenders. Among Republicans, McCain boasts the endorsement
of Sylvester Stallone, and Mike Huckabee has the backing of Chuck
Norris. It is a phenomenon that extends even beyond Hollywood, says Currid.
"We're
not even talking about necessarily traits that we associate with good
political leadership," she said. "This is certainly not to say that
these politicians aren't good, because they are extremely competent. "But to say that the things the media is focusing on is
less about political traits and more about the ephemeral, charismatic
traits that we also associate with celebrity." Of course, tourists on Hollywood Boulevard won't see any
real stars, unless they buy a $12.50 ticket for one of the flicks at
Grauman's. Or unless they hang out outside the Reagan Presidential
Library - where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who followed the route of
Reagan from Hollywood star to governor, will attend today's debate and
escort Nancy Reagan to her front-row seat, as he did at the first
debate last May. This time, however, there will be half as many candidates
on the GOP stage as there were in the first debate and the scene will
be different as well. While the May debate took place in what appeared to be an
airport hangar with the retired Air Force One dwarfing the scene, a new
floor has been built to the level of the plane's fuselage and the
debate will take place on a newly constructed tier. The Reagan Library also will display to the public - for
one day only - rare presidential and historical documents from George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. At the Kodak Theatre, the closest thing to a historical
document on display could well be the handprints of Mary Pickford and
Douglas Fairbanks in cement nearby. In a town without an NFL team and with the finals of
"American Idol" still weeks away, the debate at the Kodak could wind up
being a hot ticket. One buyer on Craigslist.org may have put it best:
"I
need a ticket to the Democratic debate next week at the Kodak Theatre.
I work in entertainment, so I can trade tickets to other events or I
can pay cash."
Posted by Tony Castro at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Giuliani Bows Out of GOP Race
SIMI VALLEY – His presidential campaign called him “America’s Mayor” after 9/11, but in the end that was a close as Rudy Giuliani would get to the Oval Office in the White House.
On Wednesday, just feet from where Giuliani distinguished himself in the first debate of the campaign last May, he graciously ended his run for the presidency and endorsed his friend, Arizona Senator John McCain, whose own remarkable political resurrection has paralleled the former New York mayor’s own collapse.
“John McCain is the most qualified candidate to be the next commander in chief of the United States,” Giuliani said at an afternoon press conference in the Spin Room for the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“He is an American hero, and America could use some heroes in the White House. He is man of honor and integrity, and you can underline both.”
In endorsing McCain, Giuliani gave yet more momentum to McCain’s surge that began with winning the New Hampshire primary and continued with triumphs in South Carolina and Florida, where Giuliani, finishing a disappointing, far distant third, decided to bow out of the race.
Gracious to the end, Giuliani was humorous and self-deprecating in making his announcement with McCain and his wife Cindy at his side.
“When you run for president, you spend a lot of time thinking about what qualities you would want in a chief executive of the United States,” Giuliani said.. “Someone who can be trusted in times of crisis. Someone with a clear vision about the challenges facing our nation. Someone with the will and perseverance to get great goals accomplished.
“Obviously, I thought I was that person. The voters made a different choice.”
At another point, Giuliani said he had even indicated during the campaign that he would support McCain, should he himself fail in seeking the nomination. Then he joked that now he had no choice.
“If I endorse anyone else,” he told a room full of reporters and cameramen, “you would say I was flip-flopping.”
For Giuliani, the political decline came after employing a risky political strategy in which he passed on the early caucuses and primaries to focus on Florida and after revelations in the new media of his questionable activity and behavior while mayor of New York.
Giuliani had also suffered politically from the improvement of the U.S. position in the war in Iraq where the limited success of President Bush’s “surge” strategy of he past year also improved the political fortunes of McCain, a staunch backer of the war.
Giuliani and the McCains arrived at the Reagan Library early in the afternoon to anticipation that he would be making his withdrawal announcement and endorsement of McCain just hours before Wednesday night’s debate.
“It’s appropriate to make this announcement here at the Reagan Library,” Giuliani said in beginning his remarks. “President Reagan’s leadership remains an inspiration for both John McCain and myself.”
Veteran political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California, said Giuliani’s political collapse had changed
the dynamics of the Republican race almost overnight.
“Is this a hoot! About a month ago I thought there could be a brokered convention and, if there were a brokered convention, it would be on the Republican side,” she said. “But now it is possible that if there were a brokered convention, it would be on the Democratic side.”
McCain called Giuliani “my strong right arm and my partner and my friend.”
“There will be a clear choice this November,” McCain said, “and I believe my life has prepared me, a life of service and a life of dedication, to lead this nation.”
Posted by Tony Castro at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Soccer Fans: Beckham, Si! Antonio, No!
July 13, 2007Thank God for David Beckham and his timing. Arriving as he did and being introduced to fans in Carson Friday, the soccer superstar may have helped provide Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with some perspective.
Antonio thought the worst of the fallout over his extramartial affair with disgraced Telemundo reporter Mirthala Salinas was over, especially after Thursday's uneventful day on his rounds of Los Angeles when reporters for the first time failed to ask him about the romance that killed his 20-year marriage.
There was a big sigh in the Villaraigosa camp at City Hall, and speculation grew among political watchers that perhaps the mayor had weathered the worst.
But then the news media has always been easy on Antonio.
Not the public, especially the 3,000 soccer fans who crowded into the Home Depot Center in Carson. When Antonio was introduced Friday, he was roundly booed. "It really came through on TV, and I'm told the mayor looked taken aback by the reception," wrote blogger Kevin Roderick, whose profiles of Villaraigosa and elsewhere have always been adoring.
A good barometer of Antonio may be Roderick's next Los Angeles magazine offering on the mayor, not to mention a barometer on Roderick's own credibility on how he covers Antonio.
Posted by Tony Castro at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Man/The Myth: What Made Him Do It
July 11, 2007Power and the feeling of invulnerability made Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa do it. That and his love affair with his image in the media and finding in Telemundo’s Mirthala Salinas the narcissistic reflection of himself.
“He had gotten to a point where he felt invulnerable and that he’d charmed his way into people’s lives and could do no wrong,” says Dr. Carole Lieberman, the Beverly Hills psychiatrist who has been paying special attention to Villaraigosa since last fall.
Lieberman, a nationally recognized expert in father-son and other family estrangement issues, also believes the Villaraigosa-Salinas relationship over which he has risked his political career is facing a crisis.
“What attracted her to him in first place was his political power and his power in general which is now shaken,” says Lieberman. “For him, her being a television personality, a TV anchor, a political reporter and star in the media is what he found attractive. She was a metaphor for the love affair he’s had with the media.
“But now that she’s on suspension and not on the air, it takes away some of her luster for him. Both of them are now stuck in relationship where their relationship has caused them to lose what it was that attracted them to each other. Now the question is question is: Are they still going to be in love or lust with each other?
“I guess we’ll see. If they are in love, will they be able to weather this storm? For Antonio, though, his first love is himself. If she is what will cause him to lose his political career, she will find that no woman will be worth it for him.”
Lieberman has never seen Villaraigosa professionally but has been studying his relationship with his estranged father and says it is the root of the mayor's motivation, both personally and politically.
“His betrayal of relationships and his lack of commitment goes back to his father,” says Liberman. “His father abandoned him and his family, and in his betrayal of his wife and his family, he is following in his father’s footsteps.”
Lieberman said she has also closely studied video of Villaraigosa’s recent announcements – on June 11 of the breakup of his 20-year marriage to wife Corina and on July 3 of his confirmation of his love affair with Salinas and found two troubling similarities.
“It’s bad enough that he seemed to announce he was getting a divorce without very much remorse, and he said it in this cavalier way in which you almost knew he was having an affair,” says Lieberman.
“And when he announced having an affair, again his voice sounded so happy, so much like the cat that ate the canary but expected people to be happy for him.”
Posted by Tony Castro at 11:09 AM | Permalink
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