Originally carrying a hefty price tag at $6.1 billion, the fleet of 28 helicopters being built to fly the next president is now projected to cost $11.2 billion.

At $400 million apiece, the helicopters far exceed a prime example McCain uses on the campaign trail to rail against congressional pork-barrel spending, a $230 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska. The British have bought the same base model helicopter for $57 million each.

In separate interviews with The Associated Press, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates pledged to look at the program but stopped short of saying whether it should be canceled. Any review after the next president takes office in January would butt up against the first deliveries of the helicopters, slated for 2010.

McCain labeled the contract growth a “scandal” before asking to revise his assessment “in a more polite way.” He said the program is part of “an out-of-control procurement system that has to be fixed.”

Obama said, “I haven’t taken a close look at it, but, in principle, it is a lot of money, even in Washington.”

Asked whether the president needed such a large and expensive fleet of helicopters for his most common trip, a 10-minute flight to and from Andrews Air Force Base, Obama said: “Here’s what I know: that we should be spending a lot more money trying to figure out how to get our energy policy right than we should be on helicopters for the president. I have not examined in detail this proposal, and since you brought it up, I’ll take a close look at it.”

Congress and the Pentagon are already reviewing the program to determine how to cope with the contract growth. In an audit, the Government Accountability Office has also raised concerns about the helicopter’s weight and its new rotor system.

The program has its roots in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After the attacks, President Bush flew on Air Force One, a customized Boeing 747, from Florida to military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to Washington. The chaos of that day underscored the need for secure communications and the commander in chief’s ability to remain in contact at all times.

Some of the existing fleet of 19 presidential helicopters, any of which is known as “Marine One” when the president is aboard, are more than 30 years old. Several have broken down on presidential trips, a concern that prompted then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to begin the replacement process in 2002.

In 2005, the Pentagon awarded the contract, itself a subject of controversy. Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft, which had always supplied helicopters for the president, was beaten in the bidding process by Lockheed Martin. The Maryland-based firm proposed a variation of a European helicopter built by Agusta-Westland.

Since then, the contractor has complained the Navy has added 1,900 requirements that have driven up the cost. A swift development schedule has production starting while design is still underway. Pentagon officials insist the contract has not been changed since it was signed.

The current plan calls for fielding five helicopters, which will then be replaced by a fleet of 23 more once equipment and design issues are resolved.

White House and Pentagon officials say the president needs so many because he can make several stops in a day requiring helicopter travel. Pilots in the elite HMX-1 Marine division also train constantly in the aircraft and fly other dignitaries, including the vice president, defense secretary and foreign heads of state.

And as can be witnessed by tourists on the National Mall near the White House, several of the identically marked helicopters often accompany Marine One in flight as decoys.

McCain, a former Navy pilot, has promised to review all military programs with the aim of reforming defense procurement. He argues he saved taxpayers $6.2 billion program by scuttling an Air Force plan to lease aerial refueling planes from Boeing. Two company executives, one of them a former Air Force procurement official who helped negotiate the tanker lease before being hired by Boeing, went to jail over the deal. Boeing’s chief executive officer subsequently stepped down.

“I’m talking about a broken system in Washington, and the helicopter is a visible manifestation of a very serious problem we have of overspending,” McCain said. “So, all I can say is it’s also going to be the responsibility of the president to get defense procurement fixed and give the taxpayers a reasonable return on their defense dollar.”

Should the contract be halted?

“The helicopter? Should it be stopped?” the Arizona senator said to the AP as his “Straight Talk Express” campaign bus rolled through Ohio. “I haven’t gotten an update on it recently enough to know it. But it’s certainly an unacceptable situation with costs overruns.”

Obama said the cost growth is an example “of some of the systemic problems that we have in Pentagon procurement.”

Aides to the Illinois senator said Obama has no intention of making policy overseas or stepping into the role of president and that he only intends to discuss ways to enhance “cooperation” between the United States and its allies.

“The broad goals of the trip are to deepen, even further, important relationships and to exchange views with the leaders in several countries whose partnership with the United States is really critical to our national security,” foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said on a conference call with reporters.

“It is important to note that it is not our intent to make policy or to negotiate. We won’t do so. There is one president of the United States at any given time and we will certainly honor and respect that.”

While aides to John McCain on Thursday accused Obama of making a purely political voyage, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “The trip is not at all a campaign trip — a rally of any sort.”

He called it a series of “substantive meetings” with U.S. allies.

The campaign did not get into specific dates or locations, other than to restate it would include stops in France, Great Britain, Germany and Jordan. Aides would not confirm reports that he would visit the West Bank.

They said, however, he would meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

Obama also plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli President Shimon Peres, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Jordanian King Abdullah and several other foreign officials.

The campaign stressed that Obama would ask these countries to help the United States should he become president and redirect military resources to Afghanistan.

Foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said Obama also would not speak at the historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, an appearance that was floated and apparently caused concern among German officials.

“We are looking at a variety of locations in Germany and will pick one that we believe meets our needs and also the needs of our German hosts,” he said. “The one thing that Barack made clear to us very early is that he didn’t think it made sense at all for him to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, which he thought would be perhaps too presumptuous.”

FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

Trailing Democrat Barack Obama in polling on economic issues, the likely Republican presidential nominee sought to bolster his economic appeal to voters by speaking to auto workers who’ve seen fellow workers lose jobs and homes in Michigan. Earlier this week, GM announced $15 billion in cuts, borrowing, and asset sales as it tries to weather a huge dropoff in sales of trucks and large cars on top of more long-term costs.

At the General Motors Corp. Design Center here, GM CEO Rick Wagoner and other company officials told McCain about their plan to build a long-range electric car called the Volt. Then the Arizona senator held a town hall event with workers at the site.

Pointing to a sign for the Volt, which is expected to hit the market in 2010, McCain said: “I will do everything in my power that this new experiment, this breakthrough… has every chance of success and that we will make sure that American citizens understand what’s happening here.”

McCain has proposed giving a $5,000 tax credit for those who buy a no-emissions car.

“We all know in this room a job is more than a job,” McCain said.

Most questions from the crowd centered on economic issues like the effect environmental laws could have on the U.S. auto industry, health care, and free trade.

McCain also pushed a plan for the government to help homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments to get a new, fixed-rate mortgage.

“There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of citizens in this state who can’t afford the payments to stay in their homes,” he said.

“We’ve got to hit bottom someplace and then it’s going to start up again,” he said, but until that happens, the government should work to keep people in their homes by giving them access to fixed-rate lending.

While McCain trails Obama on economic issues; Obama trails McCain in polls on foreign affairs issues. Each candidate is trying to shore up their credentials in those perceived weaknesses: McCain by hammering domestic economic plans, and Obama with a trip to the Middle East and Europe.

One woman questioned McCain pointedly on Iraq and how he would approach Iran.

“We lost Vietnam. You said you knew how to win wars. … I don’t know if winning wars is necessarily something that a president wants to do or should do,” the woman said.

McCain said the United States needed to keep a steady, firm hand in dealings with both Iraq and Iran.

“I believe that we can modify Iranian behavior. We need to exhaust every possible option before we can ever consider a military option. Americans have made great sacrifices and it has grieved us all,” he said. “If we failed, if we were defeated we would face much greater sacrifice of American blood and treasure.”

Later, the former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war added: “I hate war. No one hates war more than the veteran.”

While overall interest in the presidential campaign has swelled since last fall, backers of Barack Obama are more fired up and express more loyalty to their candidate than McCain’s do, a poll by The Associated Press and Yahoo News showed Friday. In addition, individual groups backing Obama — African-Americans, Democrats and liberals — are more enthusiastic than whites, Republicans and conservatives, who are more aligned with McCain, the GOP senator from Arizona.

Obama faces hurdles of his own. The poll shows lagging fervor for the Democratic senator from Illinois by supporters of his vanquished rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. And there are lots of dispirited and undecided independents, who are expected to be pivotal on Election Day, now less then four months off.

The passion and interest shown by blocs of voters are important because they affect who will be motivated to vote. For now, the numbers favor Obama: 38 percent of his supporters say the election is exciting compared with 9 percent of McCain’s. Sixty-five percent of Obama’s backers say they are hopeful about the campaign, double McCain’s, and the Democrat’s supporters are three times likelier to express pride.

“Being African-American, you know, I do have some biases,” said John Douglas, 67, of Villa Rica, Ga., an Obama supporter. He said the pride and thrill he feels about the possibility of the first black president “has been building up for my lifetime, it’s been building up since the inception of our country.”

Half of McCain’s supporters say the race makes them frustrated, more than double Obama’s backers who say so. By 2-to-1 or more, McCain backers are likelier than Obama’s to say the campaign makes them bored, angry and helpless. And while 16 percent of those preferring Obama say they may change their candidate, 24 percent of McCain’s say they might do the same.

“I don’t feel I have a choice I can really get behind,” said Carol Hall, 63, a Republican from Yorktown, Va., who prefers McCain but said he isn’t conservative enough. But she doesn’t trust Obama. “I think they’re pitiful choices.”

The AP-Yahoo News poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, has measured the political sentiments of the same 2,000 adults since November. While 45 percent expressed a great deal or quite a bit of interest in the campaign back then, 60 percent say so now, but it’s Obama supporters whose energy has grown more:

–More than twice as many Democrats as Republicans have gotten more excited about the campaign since the fall, 22 percent to 9 percent. Forty-seven percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Democrats express frustration.

–Blacks are three times likelier than whites to be more excited about the election than they were last fall, 33 percent to 11 percent. They are also six times likelier to be more proud, 43 percent to 7 percent, and twice as likely to be more interested and hopeful. Right now, 44 percent of whites and just 11 percent of blacks say the election frustrates them, and whites are far likelier to say they feel angry and helpless.

–Liberals are three times likelier than conservatives to be more excited than they were and twice as likely to be more proud. Nineteen percent of conservatives feel more helpless, compared to 9 percent of liberals.

–Overall, 44 percent of Obama voters have grown more interested in the campaign since the fall, compared to 35 percent of McCain’s. Currently, seven in 10 Obama backers say the campaign interests them, as do six in 10 of McCain’s.

“It’s exciting because it looks like we’ve got a winner,” said Susan Gates, 55, a Democrat from Chelmsford, Mass.

All Democrats don’t feel that way. Overall, 31 percent of those supporting Obama are Democrats who preferred Clinton during the party’s prolonged primary battle this spring, and they are less enthused than those who have backed Obama longer.

Just 12 percent of former Clinton supporters say they are excited about the campaign, one-third the excitement level among Obama’s longer-term backers. A fifth of them say the election makes them feel frustrated and helpless, and about as many say they may still change their minds, double the number of longtime Obama loyalists who say that.

“I was really hoping Hillary would pull it off,” said Doreen Malinoski, 42, of Montclair, Calif., a Democrat who said she is uneasy with Obama’s calls for change. “I mean, this is the best we can come up with?”

Independents, whom both McCain and Obama are avidly pursuing, remain underwhelmed. Only 21 percent find the election interesting — down from 31 percent in November — and just 7 percent say it’s exciting. Substantial numbers say they feel frustrated, helpless and even bored.

Independents are about evenly divided between the two candidates, with about a quarter behind each. Four in 10 remain undecided, and half say they could still change their minds.

“I really don’t like some of McCain’s policies, yet I don’t know that much about Obama,” said Philip Doenges, 46, an independent from Indianapolis. “I’d kind of like someone who hasn’t been in Washington.”

The AP-Yahoo News poll of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 844 Democrats and 637 Republicans, for whom the margins of sampling error are plus or minus 3.4 points and 3.9 points, respectively.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

McCain also moved a step closer to declaring victory in the war, telling reporters for the second day in a row that the U.S. military has “succeeded.”

The presumptive Republican nominee, in effect, cast the difference in the candidates’ military strategies as the difference between success and failure. He blasted his opponent for opposing the so-called troop surge, and said his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan would be a lot different if the military had followed his advice.

“So he would be going to a very different Iraq if we had done what he wanted to do,” McCain told reporters after a campaign stop in Warren, Mich. “There would be chaos. There would be an increase in sectarian violence. There would be widening Iranian influence, and we would be facing disaster — certainly if not disaster, a lost war.

“And we have succeeded. … I hope he gets the message this time that we have succeeded and we need to continue the strategy.”

By using the word “succeeded,” McCain was making somewhat of a rhetorical shift. The presumptive GOP nominee usually couches his language and argues the troop surge is “succeeding.”

On Thursday he emphasized that strategic success already has been achieved.

“I am happy to stand in front of you to tell you that this strategy has succeeded. It has succeeded. It has succeeded,” McCain said first at a Kansas City, Mo., town hall meeting.

He then reiterated the line for reporters aboard his campaign bus.

“I repeat my statement that we have succeeded in Iraq — not we are succeeding — we have succeeded in Iraq,” he said. “The strategy has worked and we now have the Iraqi government and military in charge in the major cities in Iraq. Al Qaeda is on their heels and on the run.”

Obama has in recent days argued that the Iraq war is a distraction, and that more U.S. resources must be devoted to fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and securing loose nuclear material. Democrats accuse McCain of wanting to prolong a war with virtually no end.

McCain on Thursday described progress on the ground as tenuous.

“This is a fragile victory. This is a fragile success. … If we will continue this, we will win this war,” he said.

Asked whether any recent event led him to the declaration, McCain didn’t cite any specific developments, instead noting that he has witnessed “dramatic” military, economic and political improvement on the ground during recent weeks and months.

Asked if he thinks the war is won, McCain responded: “I can say that the war will be won when we will have a majority of Americans … returned.”

FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.

German officials were reportedly uneasy about the possibility of an Obama speech in front of the landmark, close to where the wall dividing Berlin once stood.

But Obama aides say Obama is looking elsewhere to make a “substantive speech” in Berlin on American and European relations.

“We are looking at a variety of locations in Germany and will pick one that we believe meets our needs and also the needs of our German hosts,” foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said. “The one thing that Barack made clear to us very early is that he didn’t think it made sense at all for him to to speak at the Brandenburg Gate which he thought would be perhaps too presumptuous.”

Germany’s Deutsche Welle reported earlier that, according to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Berlin’s Senate will announce Friday that Obama will speak by the Victory Column, another landmark in the city.

Deutsche Welle reported that Obama’s speech in Berlin is expected to draw thousands.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman says the German leader will welcome Obama to her office in Berlin next Thursday.

Spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm says the meeting at the chancellery is expected to take place on Thursday morning.

Click here to read about Obama’s overseas speech in Germany’s Deutsche Welle.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By law, the effort would be prohibited from coordinating with either Obama’s presidential campaign or with the DNC. The ads would be financed with party money, however.

The Democrats asked for anonymity because the decision had not yet been formally announced.

Prince was deputy campaign manager for John Edward’s presidential campaigns this year and in 2004, and has experience running independent advertising efforts for Democrats. In 2004, he headed Citizens for a Strong Senate, which spent $10 million airing ads that supported Democratic Senate candidates. The group’s ad maker was David Axelrod, now a senior adviser to Obama.

The decision by the DNC puts to rest doubts about whether the party had any intention of helping Obama through independent expenditures.

One Democratic operative familiar with the DNC’s decision said the party planned to match or exceed the $118 million spent in an independent expenditure effort in the 2004 presidential contest.

The challenge for the party this time is that in 2004 Sen. John Kerry had locked up the Democratic nomination in March and had been raising money for the DNC by April.

Obama clinched the nomination last month. The DNC raised $22.5 million in June with Obama’s help, nearly five times the $4.7 million it raised in May.

The Republican National Committee already has an independent expenditure campaign under way that is airing ads in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that are critical of Obama’s stance on energy issues.

Federal election laws allow the party committees to coordinate up to $19 million each in spending with their presidential candidates. The independent expenditure operations can operate outside those limits.

Meanwhile, Obama and the DNC also announced that they will have joint fundraising agreements with 18 state Democratic parties, expanding the reach of donors to battlegrounds and to states Obama is trying to make competitive. The agreements will allow the parties to finance field operations that could help Obama and Democratic candidates in other races.

The state parties are in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Washington State Republican Party released the video just as Barack Obama’s wife joined Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, on Thursday for a fundraiser.

The video was nearly identical to one put out by the Tennessee GOP in May. Like that video, the Washington one intersperses clips of Michelle Obama’s remarks with clips of Washingtonians explaining why they are proud of their country.

“These shameless attacks by the state Republican Party have no place in our politics. If John McCain is serious about running a ‘respectful’ campaign on the issues, he and Republican leaders … will denounce this tasteless attack ad and tell the state Republican Party to pull the plug on it immediately,” Gregoire said in a statement.

McCain’s campaign quickly distanced itself from the ad.

“Senator McCain has spoken out very clearly that neither spouse should be a target during this campaign,” McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace said.

Michelle Obama’s comments were made at Wisconsin campaign stops in mid-February.

There she said: “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

She later clarified that she meant she was proud of the way Americans are engaging in the political process, and she said she’s always been proud of her country.

Click here to see the video on Michelle Obama.

FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.

“I think we ought to seriously look at whether we need to have it be longer or not depending on what the economy (does),” McCain said, standing beside the Grand River.

“I think we have to consider all options but the fact is we need a gas tax holiday. We need it, we need it, we need it very badly. The Americans that are hurt the most are low income Americans that are driving the oldest automobiles,” he said.

McCain suggested the longer gas tax holiday the day before his visit Friday to a General Motors plant in Michigan, and a town hall meeting with auto workers. The auto industry was already reeling from its own problems when it was rocked again by gas costing $4 a gallon and more, and the state of Michigan’s fortunes are tied to the auto industry.

The economy is the main worry of voters, and McCain has been telling crowds he can put the country on a firmer financial footing through low taxes and an emphasis on developing new energy technologies.

As the price of gas soared in the spring, McCain proposed a three-month holiday from the federal gas tax, 18.4 cents a gallon. Obama has derided the idea as a political gimmick that would provide consumers little real relief, ignore the country’s energy problems by perpetuating U.S. dependence on foreign oil and take money from road and bridge repairs.

Campaign aides, though seemingly at odds with McCain’s personal view of the journey, described his trip to the Middle East and Europe as an unprecedented global rally that will have zero bearing on Obama’s policies as a U.S. official.

“This is nothing more than a campaign stop and a photo op for Barack Obama to highlight his candidacy for president,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told FOXNews.com, arguing that Obama established his trip as political by declaring his foreign policy views before even leaving the country. Another aide called the trip a “rally overseas.”

“Everything about this trip indicates … it is about promoting his candidacy, and it has nothing to do with the security of the American people,” Bounds said.

The Illinois senator scheduled the trip following criticisms from McCain and his campaign that he had yet to travel to the war zones as a presidential candidate.

Obama’s trip is expected to be divided into two parts. He will travel to Iraq for the first time since January 2006 and to Afghanistan for the first time ever as part of an official delegation, paid for by taxpayers. He also will travel to other stops in Europe and the Middle East as a presidential candidate, paid for by campaign dollars.

Obama says he plans to meet with troops and commanders on the ground as part of a fact-finding mission that could influence his policies with regard to the War on Terror.

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said Thursday that the McCain campaign should “stop worrying” about Obama’s travel plans and start correcting the damage from the “Bush-McCain” foreign policy.

“It’s clear that the McCain campaign is getting nervous about being on the wrong side of the Iraq debate. First John McCain wanted Barack Obama to travel with him to Iraq and the campaign used the occasion to raise campaign cash. Now, his campaign is calling Senator Obama’s trip a ‘campaign rally overseas,’” he said in a written statement.

The McCain campaign used some of its strongest language to date Thursday to criticize Obama’s visit.

“Let’s drop the pretense that this is a fact-finding trip and call it what it is — the first-of-its-kind campaign rally overseas,” McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker told FOX News earlier.

McCain declined to label the trip an outright campaign stop when asked about his aide’s comment Thursday, instead saying he’d “let other people judge.”

“The fact is I am glad he is going to Iraq. I am glad he is going to Afghanistan. It’s long, long overdue if you want to lead this nation and secure our national security,” McCain told reporters.

He later said Iraq and Afghanistan “will not be a place for political rallies or politicization,” but that his European stops could lead to such a scene.

But the presence of election-year American politics may be inescapable. It was that presence that apparently set off concern among German officials, who are reportedly uneasy about a possible Obama speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, close to where the wall dividing Berlin once stood.

Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, said Obama will need to avoid engaging in political bickering overseas — but that he cannot and should not hide the obvious fact that he is more than a U.S. senator traveling abroad.

“It’s impossible to separate those roles. I’m not even sure that it’s wise to do so. Everything he does now is as a presidential candidate. Everything he does will be interpreted in terms of what kind of president he will be,” Lichter said.

McCain attempted to leave presidential politics behind on recent trips out of the country, to Canada and then to Latin America. But while in Canada, he still took thinly veiled shots at Obama for his positions on free trade, and in Latin America criticized Obama as a flip-flopper — both on the plane to Colombia and in an interview with FOX News in Mexico.

Lichter said that regardless of the potential pitfalls, Obama has an opportunity to comport himself as a statesman — and a potential president.

“He will benefit from (his) popularity abroad, because the media images will show adoring crowds and other world figures saying nice things about him, and it will put him on the level of being a president,” he said. “Part of becoming a viable presidential candidate is convincing people to imagine you as president.”

That image will inevitably be fed by the entourage of media stars who are expected to be in tow once he reaches the Middle East. All three network anchors are reportedly accompanying Obama. The exact timetable of the trip hasn’t been disclosed publicly.

But Republicans are continuing to cast him as just another politician.

The McCain campaign unveiled an eight-minute video Thursday called “The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand.”

The video contrasts past and present statements Obama has made about troop withdrawal, the troop surge and other Iraq debates.

“You’re never wrong if you pretend you gave the right answer all along,” the video says.

The McCain campaign also argues that by laying out his foreign policy platform before he travels to Iraq, Obama is proving that he will ignore the advice of military commanders and that his Iraq strategy is “politically motivated.”

Obama has in recent days downplayed the role of Iraq in the War on Terror, stressing the need to track down terrorists in Afghanistan and prevent nuclear material from falling into the hands of nations like Iran.

He is standing by his plan to remove U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, despite saying recently that he may “refine” his policies after going to Iraq.

“This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize,” Obama said Tuesday.

The Democratic National Committee responded to the latest video on Obama and Iraq by releasing its own videos accusing McCain of echoing President Bush’s policies in the Middle East.

The McCain campaign is trying to “distract attention from John McCain’s real record on Iraq–a record of being inconsistent and being wrong, just like President Bush,” the DNC said in a statement.

FOX News’ Bonney Kapp and Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.

]]> http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/mccain-campaign-blasts-obama-trip-as-overseas-rally/feed/ http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/bill-clinton-ready-to-campaign-for-obama-whenever/ http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/bill-clinton-ready-to-campaign-for-obama-whenever/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:45:48 +0000 Associated Press http://elections.foxnews.com/?p=3845 NEW YORK — Former President Clinton said Thursday he is eager to campaign for Barack Obama whenever the Democrat needs him, but has not given any thought to whether he wants to speak at the party convention in Denver.

Relations between Clinton and Obama have only just began to thaw since Obama defeated the former president’s wife in the bruising Democratic primary that ended last month. Throughout that bare-knuckle race, Clinton had portrayed Obama as too inexperienced to be president.

Since Obama clinched the nomination, it has remained an open question as to what role Clinton would play in campaigning for him and how he could best be used at the convention.

Just weeks ago, Obama called the former president to ask for his help in winning the White House.

At a news conference on Thursday for work that his foundation is doing, Clinton said he had not thought about whether he would like to be a convention speaker.

Clinton said he had a “good talk” with Obama on the phone and is eager to get out on the road for the Illinois senator.

“I told him that whenever he wanted me to do it, I was ready, and so it’s basically on their time table,” Clinton said. “He’s got a lot of things to do between now and the convention, of which this is simply one, so I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do, whenever I can do it.”

Clinton was also asked whether he had spoken to the Rev. Jesse Jackson regarding the crude off-air remark Jackson made about Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a “Fox & Friends” news program. The longtime civil rights leader said he wanted to castrate Obama for speaking down to blacks.

Clinton said he had not spoken with Jackson, but added that Jackson was right to apologize to Obama for the comments. He also was a bit sympathetic.

“If all of us lived on live mics, then 100 percent of us in this room would be embarrassed from time to time,” Clinton said.

John Martin, a staunch Republican who once voted against former New York Gov. George Pataki because he was not conservative enough, has founded a grassroots organization supporting Barack Obama.

Both men are part of breakaway groups of Democrats and Republicans who have found appeal in the opposition candidate. But as McCain and Obama try to win voters from the other side, questions abound over whether their numbers will be great enough to matter.

A Gallup poll released July 8 shows that 22 percent of “conservative Democrats” questioned said they prefer McCain, while 11 percent of “liberal and moderate Republicans” indicated support for Obama.

“I think it’s a relatively small group and very hard to say at this point whether their number will count,” Stephen Wayne, former president of Presidency Research, said of the Democrats supporting McCain.

For McConaha, co-chair of “Citizens for McCain,” a New Hampshire-based grassroots organization headed by Joe Lieberman to recruit Democrats and independents for McCain, the Arizona senator’s appeal rests on two factors: patriotism, as evidenced by his military record, and experience as a lawmaker since 1982.

“He’s really been tested,” McConaha said, comparing McCain’s military service record with that of John Kerry.

Other Democratic voters like Valery Mitchell, also a member of the grassroots organization, cited McCain’s maverick approach to politics as reason to back him.

“His appeal is that he marches to his own drummer,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think he’s anything like George Bush. He’s sort of like a vice president who does his own thing.”

“We all are agreed on one thing that we’re not going to be supporting Obama,” said Will Bower, co-founder of PUMA, a network of Democratic bloggers who oppose Barack Obama’s nomination. “A lot of us will vote for John McCain.”

Political experts describe the “McCain Democrats” as conservatives and moderates within their party who are most influenced by issues of patriotism, national security, immigration and the environment.

These voters are not the Reagan Democrats of 1980 and 1984 who swung their support from Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale to Ronald Reagan. In fact, the McCain supporters interviewed by FOXNews.com said they voted against Reagan and believe McCain’s appeal is different.

“These voters are people who are older, rather than younger, people who have less education, rather than more education, and people who make issues of law and order and national security very important,” Wayne said.

While Reagan touted his economic policies to win over conservative Democrats, McCain has relied mainly on issues of national security, supporters note.

McConaha and Mitchell said they are working to find Democrats who feel comfortable coming forward publicly to rally support for McCain — and the campaign claims that such outreach efforts are working.

“There are strong indications that John McCain’s message of reform, prosperity, and peace is resonating not only with Republicans, but with Democrats and independents in key states,” McCain’s spokesman Tucker Bounds told FOXNews.com.

Bounds cited McCain’s newly introduced Lexington project — an energy plan aimed at ending U.S. dependency on foreign oil — and his staunch support of the Second Amendment as examples of the senator’s appeal to some Democrats.

Last week, the McCain campaign released a 60-second commercial meant to both underscore McCain’s life as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and evoke feelings of patriotism.

“John McCain, shot down, bayoneted, tortured. … His philosophy: Before party, polls and self, America. A maverick,” says the ad, which runs on television stations in Washington, D.C., and is expected to be broadcasted in a number of swing states.

But political observers say McCain faces a major risk in aggressively courting traditional Democratic voters - one that might not be worth taking if he is to secure the presidency.

“The more that John McCain goes after left-wing independents and Democrats on policy ground, the more he will alienate his Republican conservative base,” said Christopher C. Hull, adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University.

“He is caught in a sense that George Bush in 2000 and 2004 was not,” Hull said. “He doesn’t have the instinctive trust of the base that allows him to reach out without being repudiated.”

Hull added that if McCain is to peel away Democrats from Obama, he must raise serious questions over the Illinois senator’s loyalty and experience.

“Where there are already questions in Democrats’ minds about Obama’s patriotism, John McCain can get them, and where there are questions about Obama’s experience, John McCain can get them,” Hull said. “But I am skeptical in the end that they’ll turn to McCain in this kind of year.”

Obama has already attempted to counter such efforts by defending his patriotism during a recent speech in Independence, Mo., and striving to win over Republicans once loyal to Bush.

“We’re changing the battleground field in this election,” Nick Shapiro, an Obama campaign spokesman, told FOXNews.com. “We’re aggressively campaigning in states that are traditionally Republican strongholds.”

And the emergence of grassroots organizations like “Republicans for Barack Obama” might be evidence that his message is resonating with some conservative voters.

“Obama is a pragmatic leader who works to bridge differences among people of different political viewpoints,” said John Martin, co-founder of the group.

“While both Democrats and Republicans have spent the last 15 years using wedge issues to mobilize the fringes of their parties, Barack has already worked across the aisle in making government better at serving the public good,” Martin said.

Wayne said Obama’s latest initiative to expand federal assistance to religious social service groups could appeal to some on the right.

“I do think Obama has a reasonable case to make for Evangelicals,” Wayne said. “But a greater question will be whether or not those Evangelicals even turn out to vote.”

Republican pollster Steve Lombardo added that Obama appeals to some conservatives, particularly those displeased with President Bush, because he built his platform on messages of change in policy.

“You’ve got a very dissatisfied electorate and a president with a 25 percent approval rating,” Lombardo said. “To some extent these Republicans are voting for Obama, but to a greater extent it’s because they’re voting against George Bush and it’s hurting John McCain. They want change.”

Lombardo added that, historically, more people call themselves conservative Democrats than liberal Republicans. But both candidates should continue to woo opposition and independent voters.

“The broader you’re constituency, the better. This is not a base election,” he said. “It really is about courting the middle and the other side. How independents go in this election will determine who the next president is.”

]]> http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/mccain-obama-seek-to-pick-off-marginal-voters-from-opposite-party/feed/ http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/obama-infuriated-by-criticism-of-wife-calls-her-quintessential-american/ http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/17/obama-infuriated-by-criticism-of-wife-calls-her-quintessential-american/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:04:33 +0000 Associated Press http://elections.foxnews.com/?p=3843 WASHINGTON — What gets under Barack Obama’s skin? Criticism of his wife, Michelle Obama.

In an interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said attacks on his wife are “infuriating.” The likely Democratic presidential nominee blamed the conservative press for going after his wife as if she were the candidate.

“If they have a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her,” Obama told the magazine.

Michelle Obama has been highly active in her husband’s campaign, appearing with him at events and by herself at other times in an effort to help tout his candidacy. She promotes his policy agenda at fundraisers and gives interviews to reporters in support of her husband’s views.

An Associated Press-Yahoo poll suggests Michelle Obama has higher favorable ratings than Cindy McCain, wife of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. However, Michelle Obama’s unfavorable ratings are also higher.

Michelle Obama came under fire in February when she said she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life. She later clarified her remark, saying she has always been proud of her country and was particularly proud to see so many people involved in the political process.

Obama said the attacks are ironic because his wife is “the most quintessentially American woman I know.”

Michelle Obama, 44, has worked as a lawyer and hospital executive. The couple has two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

The Internet has been a double-edged sword for the Obama campaign. While it’s allowed them to organize supporters and raise millions of dollars, Obama said it’s also provided a vehicle for rumors and myths to spread quickly.

“It’s very hard to catch up,” he said.

Glamour’s editor-in-chief also interviewed McCain. Full interviews with both candidates were scheduled to appear in the magazine’s October issue.

The senator from Arizona is about a month shy of his 72nd birthday and would be the oldest president elected.

Last week, McCain said the system for funding Social Security is “a disgrace” because it forces young workers to pay into a program that is unlikely to benefit them in its current form.

Social Security benefits are projected to exceed its tax revenues in about nine years. The program’s trustees have said the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041 unless the system is changed.

Romney’s press secretary Eric Fehrnstrom said that at some point his loans will be “reclassified” as contributions, and that he’s already turned his attention to fundraising for his party.

“Mitt Romney’s priority right now is raising money for other Republicans and not trying to recoup the money he put into his own race,” Fehrnstrom said.

The Boston Globe reported Thursday that Romney will soon formally declare he is not seeking donations to repay the $45 million, the most ever spent personally by a candidate in a primary race.

Romney’s name is often tossed around as a potential vice presidential pick for John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The former Massachusetts governor and businessman dropped out of the presidential race in early February.

Click here to read the full article in The Boston Globe.

FOX News’ Shushannah Walshe contributed to this report.

Speaking Thursday at the civil rights group’s national convention in Cincinnati, Paterson said the magazine cover was one of the most malignant and vicious he’s ever seen.

The NAACP also released a resolution condemning the cover as “tasteless, Islam-a-phobic, mean spirited and racially offensive.”

The resolution says the cover plays on racial stereotypes and is highly inflammatory.

The magazine hit newsstands Monday. New Yorker Editor David Remnick told the Huffington Post Web site the cover was chosen because it had something to say.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday at the New Yorker.

On Wednesday, FOX News’ host Bill O’Reilly revealed the details of Jackson’s appearance on tape, saying that he wanted to lay to rest reports based on news leaks.

Appearing on “Studio B With Shepard Smith,” Smith asked O’Reilly if Jackson’s remarks included the N-word, as some news reports had indicated.

“Yeah. And it’s trash talking,” O’Reilly said.

Jackson has been vocally critical of others’ use of the N-word, saying it is hurtful to the black community, whether it is used by blacks or whites.

For instance, after a November 2006 rant by “Seinfeld” star Michael Richards during a stand-up routine laden with the N-word, Jackson joined other black leaders to challenge the entertainment industry to stop using the slur. He also called for a boycott of the “Seinfeld” DVD series that was coming out because of Richards’ use of the slur.

“We want to give our ancestors a present,” Jackson said at a news conference at the time. “Dignity over degradation.”

Jackson’s comment came when he was discussing Barack Obama, saying the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is “talking down to black people,” and “telling niggers how to behave.”

FOX News aired a portion of the tape last week where Jackson was criticizing Obama because it was deemed newsworthy. O’Reilly said the N-word was not deemed so, because it “did not advance the story in one way, shape or form.”

In the portion that aired, Jackson said he would cut Obama’s “nuts off,” referring to his dispute with Obama over faith-based initiatives.

“I’m not in the business of hurting Jesse Jackson — because it does hurt Jesse Jackson — and I’m not in the business of creating some kind of controversy that’s not relevant to the general subject: one civil rights leader disparaging another over policy. So we held it back. Some weasel leaked it to the Internet,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly told Smith there was nothing more of value to the interview tape.

“That’s all I have. … You’ve got everything now.”

Bill Clinton, speaking Thursday in New York City, said the controversy is over.

“My reaction is that … [his] apology was a good thing to do and he was big enough to quickly apologize and if all of us lived on live mics then 100 percent of us in this room would be embarrassed from time to time,” Clinton said. “He’s a good man and he did what he could to make it right.”

Jackson — who is traveling in Spain — apologized in a statement Wednesday for “hurtful words” but didn’t offer specifics.

“I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public,” Jackson said. “There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people.”

A spokeswoman for Jackson’s civil rights organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said she could not confirm that Jackson used the slur.

Click here to see Bill O’Reilly speak with Shepard Smith about the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s remarks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are “way ahead” of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.

Rising fuel costs, climate change and the national security threats posed by U.S. dependence on foreign oil are conspiring to create “a new political environment” that Gore said will sustain bold and expensive steps to wean the nation off fossil fuels.

“I have never seen an opportunity for the country like the one that’s emerging now,” Gore told The Associated Press in an interview previewing a speech on global warming he planned to give Thursday in Washington.

Gore said he fully understands the magnitude of the challenge.

The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group he leads, estimates the cost of transforming the U.S. to clean electricity sources at $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion over 30 years in public and private money. But he says it would cost about as much to build greenhouse gas-polluting coal plants to satisfy current demand.

“This is an investment that will pay itself back many times over,” Gore said. “It’s an expensive investment but not compared to the rising cost of continuing to invest in fossil fuels.”

Called an alarmist by conservatives, Gore has made global warming his signature issue. He portrayed Thursday’s speech as the latest and most important phase in his effort to build public opinion in favor of alternative fuels.

Gore knows politicians fear action unless voters are willing to sacrifice — and demand new fuels.

“I hope to contribute to a new political environment in this country that will allow the next president to do what I think the next president is going to think is the right thing to do,” Gore said. “But the people have to play a part.” He compared his challenge to Kennedy’s pledge in May 1961 to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

Gore narrowly lost the presidential race in 2000 to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush after a campaign in which his prescient views on climate change took a back seat to other issues. In the 2008 presidential race, both the Republican and Democrat candidates support action to curb the gases blamed for global warming.

While dismissing a suggestion that he pulled his punches eight years ago, Gore said his goal now is to “enlarge the political space” within which politicians can “deal with the climate challenge.”

To meet his 10-year goal, Gore said nuclear energy output would continue at current levels while the U.S. dramatically increases its use of solar, wind, geothermal and clean coal energy. Huge investments must also be made in technologies that reduce energy waste and link existing power grids, he said.

Gore’s proposal would represent a significant shift in where the U.S. gets its power. In 2005, the United States produced nearly 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, with coal providing slightly more than half of that energy, according to government statistics. Nuclear power accounted for 21 percent, natural gas 15 percent and renewable sources, including wind and solar, about 8.6 percent.

Coal’s share of electricity generation is only expected to grow come 2030, according to Energy Department forecasts, while renewable energy would still only provide 11 percent of the nation’s power.

Without action, the cost of oil will continue to rise as fast-growing China and India increase demand, Gore said. Sustained addiction to oil also will place the U.S. at the mercy of oil-producing governments, he said, and the globe would suffer irreparable harm.

Government experts recently predicted that, at the current rate and without an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world energy demand will grow 50 percent over the next two decades. The Energy Information Administration also said in its long-range forecast to 2030 that the world is not close to abandoning fossil fuels despite their role in global warming.

While electricity production is only part of the nation’s energy and climate change problem, Gore said, “If we meet this challenge we will solve the rest of it.”

The fundraising haul marks Obama’s second-best month, and is more than twice the amount rival John McCain raised in the same period.

The presumptive Democratic nominee had a record month in February, when he raised $55 million, but since then his numbers have consistently dropped. He’s continued to outraise McCain, but after McCain reported raising more than $22 million in June, his personal best, some reports suggested Obama was struggling to stay ahead.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Obama raised just over $30 million in June, which the paper called “underwhelming.”

The Obama campaign called that estimate “way off the mark.”

With the campaign’s June numbers, the candidate could be back on track to raise gobs of private money for the fall election, which he’s striving to do after opting out of the public financing system. The program would have provided him with more than $84 million for the November election, but would limit him to that amount. McCain has agreed to take the public financing.

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee ended June with a combined total of $92.3 million in the bank. The figure represents a notable fundraising jump, especially for the DNC.

Obama reported $72 million cash on hand and the DNC $20.3 million. But the Democrats still lag McCain’s campaign and the Republican Party.

Together, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee began July with about $95 million in the bank.

The reason for the discrepancy — greater fundraising by Obama and the DNC but less money in the bank than McCain and the GOP — is because until now the DNC had spent much of its money, leaving little cash on hand.

Of Obama’s June total, about $50 million was money that can be spent in the remaining summer primary season and about $2 million can only be spent in the fall.

Obama has been able to continue to tap new donors and donors who have yet to contribute the $2,300 maximum to the primary portion of his campaign. Altogether, Obama has raised nearly $340 million during his presidential run, $12 million of which is for the general election.

Obama can roll over unused primary election money into the fall general election contest. By being able to continue to raise primary election dollars, Obama now has a vast network of donors that he can still tap for the general election. Donors are allowed to give up to $2,300 for a primary election and another $2,300 for the general.

The DNC said it raised $22.4 million in June, a dramatic increase from the $4.7 million it raised in May. The spike in fundraising came after Obama and the DNC formed a joint fundraising effort. Donors can give a maximum contribution to the party of $28,500.

The DNC still fell short of its Republican counterpart, which raised $26 million in June.

With the substantial help of their respective parties, each campaign is looking to raise more than $400 million during the five months preceding the November election.

McCain, aided by a large cash on hand surplus at the RNC, is off to a head start and has been outspending Obama in advertising. McCain has concentrated his advertising in about 11 battleground states. Obama has been spending less but has broadened the field to about 18 states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The latest round of ads takes the candidates to task for their positions on issues ranging from the Iraq war to birth control.

The organizations’ representatives say they are still in the early stages of testing the impact of the ad buys — but they are prepared to spend millions and are carefully targeting battleground states, hoping to make a dent in public opinion that lasts through Election Day.

Planned Parenthood, which has endorsed Barack Obama, launched its first TV ad of the general election Wednesday in six potential swing states.

The ad mocked John McCain for the trouble he had last week answering a question about whether he thinks it’s unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control.

The ad shows McCain saying, after a long pause, that he doesn’t know enough to give an “informed” response.

“Ever use birth control? Then you’ll want to hear this,” the narrator in the ad says.

Tait Sye, spokesman for Planned Parenthood, said the ad is targeting women as part of the group’s $10 million effort to bring 100 million women to the polls in November — for a pro-choice candidate, Obama.

The ad falls under the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s “kNOw McCain” campaign, which according to the group is intended to educate voters about McCain’s “anti-choice and anti-women’s health care record.”

It is airing on Bravo’s “Project Runway” and Lifetime’s “Army Wives” in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., as well as on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in select markets.

Sye would not release the price tag, calling it “cost effective” — but said based on the response the group will determine whether to boost the ad effort.

MoveOn.org, which just launched a new ad blasting McCain for opposing a troop withdrawal timetable in Iraq, has already started to gauge the impact its ads are having.

A spokesman for the anti-war group said it did market testing for an ad that aired last month also criticizing McCain for his war stance. It featured an actress who, holding an infant named Alex, addressed McCain and said, “when you say you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

The ad aired nationally on select cable networks and locally in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, at a cost of $500,000.

“What (our polling firm) saw is that the ad was extremely effective in consolidating women voters against McCain and for Obama,” the spokesman said.

MoveOn.org is preparing to spend up to $40 million in the general election, most of which would be spent on ads.

The latest ad, which the group calls a “rapid response” piece,” is just airing for a few days at a cost of about $100,000, on national cable.

The AFL-CIO also launched an ad last week that features a Vietnam veteran criticizing McCain’s stance on the war in Iraq and veterans issues. The ad was set to air for three weeks in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Union officials did not disclose the amount spent, but said it was a “significant targeted buy.”

On the other side, groups are beginning to shell out millions to criticize Obama.

Vets for Freedom, a 25,000-member group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, released its second TV ad in what is expected to be a four-month campaign to rally support for the current strategy in Iraq.

The group has not endorsed either presidential candidate, but considers McCain an ally and criticizes Obama directly in its latest ad. The ad targets Obama, Sen. Chuck Hagel and Sen. Harry Reid for speaking out against the troop surge.

“While they argued, we continued to fight … the surge worked,” veterans say in the ad.

“The intent of all of these ads is to … sway the American people about the success of the war,” Chairman Pete Hegseth told FOXNews.com, adding that he also wants to sway lawmakers. “We can either stand by and allow MoveOn and other groups to say the war’s been a failure” or respond.

Though the group claims it is not trying to influence the presidential election, the ad buy targets key battlegrounds: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Virginia.

The latest round is part of a $1.5 million ad buy. The first ad was released last week — both ads are running for about a week each.

Hegseth said the group is currently doing internal polling to test the impact of the ads, and that Vets for Freedom is prepared to spend “exponentially more” in the coming months.

The group is moving beyond the use of Web ads, but Hegseth said members were very pleased with the response to a pair of Web videos the group released in May prodding Obama for not having visited Iraq since January 2006.

Obama has since planned a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hegseth said his group can claim partial responsibility for that.

“We were very pleased that we were able to drive the presidential debate for a week in May based on two ads that were produced for $8,000,” Hegseth said.

Meanwhile, the first TV ad from an independent arm of the Republican National Committee just finished its run Tuesday after two weeks on the air.

The $3 million buy went up in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and accused Obama of following Democrats in refusing to allow more gas production at home.

McCain is “pushing his own party to face climate change,” says the announcer. “Barack Obama: Just the party line.”

The group is allowed to spend limitless funds during the campaign season, so long as the ads are not made in conjunction with the McCain campaign.

Brad Todd, a partner with On Message Inc., which is taking care of advertising for the independent arm of the RNC, would not disclose the budget for future buys.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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