Thompson’s test
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said fellow Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson will have a tough time meeting expectations if he decides to make his own campaign official, reports Eric Pfeiffer of The Washington Times.
“Let’s just hope Fred decides it’s just too hot this summer to even do this. Maybe he won’t get in,” Mr. Huckabee joked during an appearance yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”
The former Tennessee senator has repeatedly made reference to what he calls the “warm” temperatures during the “testing-the-waters” stage of an expected forthcoming official campaign announcement.
“I think he’s going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the room when he first comes in,” Mr. Huckabee said. “But I’m not sure I’d want to be in his position where the expectations are simply just sky high for him to be able to perform.”
Mr. Huckabee says his campaign has received more attention and support since his surprising second-place finish in the recent non-binding Iowa straw poll.
“People are expecting him to basically come in and be the fifth head on Mount Rushmore,” he said of Mr. Thompson. “Whether he can live up to that — I think there’s a real challenge for anybody to live up to that, including if Ronald Reagan were to come back. I’m not sure he could live up to Ronald Reagan’s persona and image at this stage.”
Persistent theme
Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, said yesterday the country cannot fail New Orleans again and that as president, he would keep the city in mind every day.
“The words ‘never again’ cannot be another empty phrase,” he said in front of one of the few rebuilt houses he saw on a brief tour of the city’s Gentilly Woods section. “It cannot become another broken promise.”
Mr. Obama is the first of several presidential candidates from both parties who are set to visit New Orleans in connection with the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday. President Bush also is expected to mark the occasion with a trip to the Gulf Coast, the Associated Press reports.
Mr. Obama said that long before Katrina, the nation failed to lift up New Orleans, a city with persistent struggles such as poverty and poor public schools. He said that can’t happen again, and that Americans have a “collective responsibility” to each other.
Obama’s list
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama often says he will be a candidate that will bring both parties together, and Saturday he named a few of the Republicans he would reach out to if elected.
“There are some very capable Republicans who I have a great deal of respect for,” Mr. Obama said in an interview in Florida with the Associated Press. “The opportunities are there to create a more effective relationship between parties.”
Among the Republicans he would seek help from are Sens. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, John W. Warner of Virginia and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mr. Obama said.
“On foreign policy, I’ve worked very closely with Dick Lugar,” Mr. Obama said. “I consider him one of my best friends in the Senate. He’s someone I would actively seek counsel and advice from when it came to foreign policy.”
“Senator Warner is another example of somebody with great wisdom, although I don’t always agree with him on every issue,” Mr. Obama said. “I would also seek out people like Tom Coburn, who is probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate. He has become a friend of mine.”
By the book
“When a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll found, as reported by the Associated Press, that ‘liberals read more books than conservatives,’ the president of the Association of American Publishers promptly shoved her foot in her mouth,” San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders writes.
“Pat Schroeder, the former Democratic congresswoman from Colorado, proclaimed, ‘The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: “No, don’t raise my taxes, no new taxes.” It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, “No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes,” on every page.’
“She also told AP that liberals ‘can’t say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion.’
“Maybe you shouldn’t pay any attention to me. According to Schroeder, as a conservative, I’ve got a bumper sticker for brains. Silly me, I looked into the poll — which liberals have hailed as proof of their intellectual superiority — and there’s not a lot there in ‘the whole picture.’ The poll found that among people polled who read at least one book in the last year, liberals read nine books and conservatives read eight,” the columnist said.
“When I called Michael Gross, associate vice president of Ipsos public affairs, to find out more about the Ipsos poll, he told me the one-book difference ‘is within the margin of error, it’s not a statistically significant difference.’
“The poll also found that moderates who said they read at least one book a year, on average, read five books a year. By Schroeder’s lights, moderates must be really simple-minded sloganeers.”
Staying home
First Lady Laura Bush canceled plans to accompany the president on next month’s trip to Australia, citing a pinched nerve, her office announced yesterday.
President Bush is due to arrive in Sydney on Sept. 4, three days before he participates in the Sept. 7-9 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation annual leaders summit being held there, according to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Mr. Bush is to have bilateral talks with Mr. Howard and take part in a state visit to Australia before the start of the summit.
Mrs. Bush injured a nerve in her neck and shoulder earlier this year while hiking and has been treated with physical therapy since.
Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes .com.
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