The gwen ifill wikipedia debate questions debates

[September 16, 2008] New study finds that as customer expectations
rise, online businesses neglect user experience at their own peril.
[September 12, 2008] High energy costs and the Presidential election
are hammering corporate IT purchases in the United States, though
interest in the iPhone is picking up. [September 9, 2008] But it
still has a long way to go. [September 9, 2008] But guess which player
was flat on growth and who’s feeling the pressure in Gartner’s latest
stats?

Liberal and conservative activist groups find common ground,
requesting debate footage be made available online and letting people
ask questions of the candidates.

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What could possibly make liberal public policy advocacy group
MoveOn.org and the conservative activist group American Solutions for
Winning the Future, headed by former Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich, come together for a common cause?

The answer: A desire to break the media’s hegemony over the
presidential debate process and democratize the questioning of the
candidates.

The efforts of the two groups and a number of supporters resulted in
the creation of the Open Debate Coalition. The coalition is headed by
Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, an outspoken advocate of
progressive tech policy issues. The group also is supported by
MoveOn.org, American Solutions, Instapundit.com, Craig Newmark of
Craigslist fame, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, strategists from
Republican and Democratic candidates and the founders of political
blogs like RedState.com and OpenLeft.com.

Lessig’s open letter to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama
(D-Ill.) calls for the open availability of all of the footage from
their three debates — the first of which is this evening — and for
allowing citizens to ask questions of the candidates instead of just
the moderators.

There are three debates scheduled between McCain and Obama. Tonight’s
debate is scheduled to take place in Oxford, Miss., and will be
moderated by Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of “The
NewsHour” on PBS. A second debate is slated to be held Tuesday, Oct.
7, in Nashville, Tenn., and will be moderated by Tom Brokaw, former
evening news anchor for NBC News. The third debate will take place
Wed., Oct. 15, in Hempstead, New York, and is scheduled to be
moderated by Bob Schieffer, CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent
and host of “Face the Nation.”

Additionally, there will be a debate between their vice presidential
running mates, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Md.) and Gov. Sarah Palin
(R-Alaska) on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008, in St. Louis, Mo., moderated by
Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent on “The NewsHour” on PBS.

The job of choosing questions is typically left to the media host.
During the primary debates, there were loud complaints from the
Republican side that the hosts were asking tougher questions of
Republicans than Democrats, and even setting them up for
embarrassment.

In other debates, like the CNN/YouTube debate for the Democratic
candidates, some questions were submitted online, but they were panned
as gimmicky and not particularly informed.

Above all, many find the debates boring, so rigid in their rules as to
eliminate any chance for real sparks unless a candidate steps in it,
like the infamous Lloyd Bentsen/Dan Quayle “You’re no Jack Kennedy”
exchange in 1988.

“These are not debates. They are candidates getting up and reciting
sound bites that their consultants told them to say,” said Dave
Kralik, director of Internet strategy for American Solutions. The
2004 Presidential debates had 34 pages of rulings down to the most
ridiculous of minutiae. “There should be no rules, no moderator. Go
back to a real debate and see who can really hold their own.”

“When you have 30 seconds answers on issues like the future of the
Iraq War, you can’t answer that in a substantive way. It demeans the
office of the President when you reduce a debate on the issues to the
level of ‘Survivor’, ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and ‘Are you
Smarter than a Fifth Grader’?” said Kralik.

Adam Green, director of strategic campaigns for MoveOn.org, said his
group also advocates the beginning of a change in the debate process.
The two advocate a “bubble-up” Internet technology, in which citizens
can submit questions and vote up or down on other people’s
submissions.

Then the debate moderator can take the top 25, cull the overlapping
questions, and draw from that. It would have the effect of being more
substantive than the silly at the CNN/YouTube debate.

“This is aimed at preventing overly gimmicky questions from being
asked,” said Green. “The public takes these issues seriously.”

Kralik concurred. “What we’re advocating is that people will ask
questions no moderator will ask. Individuals rank and vote on the
questions and you allow the wisdom of the crowds to rank and choose.”

It’s not like any major work needs to be done, either, Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG) has a product, Google Moderator, which has a section for the
2008 debates. There is a separate effort, called also dedicated to
filtering out the best questions for Presidential candidates.

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Mccain convention palin in gwen ifill denver

McCain set to speak Sept. 3, 2008 St. Paul, Minn. — Just a few hours
until Senator John McCain delivers the speech of his life to delegates
at the Xcel Energy Center. Sarah Palin’s performance last night
has to take some of the pressure off him tonight.

You may have missed: Mark Salter, McCain’s co-author and
longtime speech writer and alter ego, was in the stands just off stage
right as Palin began speaking. Wearing dark aviator glasses, he was
stroking his goatee and smacking his lips somewhat anxiously. He has
spent a few months working on McCain’s speech tonight..As the
crowd stood for the four-minute ovation that greeted he, Palin walked
around the stage waving and then made a very McCainian wink to the
crowd…If you weren’t watching the TelePrompter or reading
a hard copy of the speech, you wouldn’t have noticed that
Palin’s line about the difference between hockey moms and pit
bulls (hockey moms wear lipstick) was an ad-lib.

Not you Megyn”: Bashing the “liberal” media was a
popular theme for GOP speakers here. The delegates took their cue from
Gov. Sarah Palin last night. “If you’re not a member in good
standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a
candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” she said.
Delegates near press row then stood and pointed accusatory fingers at
the area — where CBS’s Bob Scheiffer, NBC’s Gwen Ifill
and several others were sitting. Until one of them noticed Megyn
Kelly, a blonde anchor with Fox News. “Not you Megyn! Not
you!” some delegates shouted.

Do any states begin with Z? : While the roll call vote was unfolding
last night, the group around Secretary of State Jan Brewer was playing
geography, trying to figure out how many states were left to say
“pass” before Brewer could put McCain over the top with
Arizona’s votes. Deb Gullett, Shiree Verdone and Katherine
Pullen were in the clutch around Brewer, backed up by he son, Michael
Brewer. Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn, who is working at the convention as
a volunteer, was giving us a head’s up on which state would be
the first to pass.

Seen: Country singer Trace Adkins standing near the new, pageant-style
stage before McCain did his walk-through. Adkins will be singing the
National Anthem tonight.

Following his flock: The McCain’s pastor, Dan Yeary of North
Phoenix Baptist Church, is scheduled to give the benediction at the
close of tonight’s program. For the running tally of the
McCains’ Arizona friends and allies who were on stage at this
convention: Father Edward Reese, president of Brophy Prep; Tommy
Espinoza, head of La Raza Development; Wes Gullett and his daughter
Nicole Gullett Petersen; and Lisa Graham Keegan, John McCain’s
education adviser; and Sen. Jon Kyl.

Palin Watch Sept. 3, 2008 Palin Watch: Just a few hours before Sarah
Palin takes the stage for the biggest speech of her political life,
there’s a new twist: She will be accepting a vice presidential
nomination she hasn’t formally received. Delegates won’t hold the roll
call vote on her nomination until Thursday.

Post-Palin: After Palin speaks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl will formally put
Sen. John McCain’s name into nomination with a speech praising his
longtime colleague. Secretary of State Jan Brewer, the leader of the
Arizona delegation, should cast the delegate votes that put McCain
over the top and give him the nomination. That should start about 8
p.m. Arizona time. We’ve been speculating how long the roll call will
go. I like this scenario: Alabama awards its delegates to McCain, then
Alaska (Palin’s home state), the Arizona, with Brewer moving for a
vote by acclimation. I have no idea if the rules allow that.

Pre-Palin buzz: “I hope they don’t give her a typical Washington
speech,” said congressman Jeff Flake. “‘The American people and this
and that.’ I hope she just tells her story.”

I pledge allegiance to the cheese: Sunita Krishna has made a lot of
new friends since she sang the pledge of allegiance at the convention.
Krishna is a 27-year-old University of Arizona law graduate and
alternate delegate from Tucson who led the pledge on the convention’s
opening night.

She says her facebook page has neen filled with new friends requests
— many from people she doesn’t know. But the strangest part of her
convention experience — what she was thinking about while she sang
the pledge and saw the Wisconsin delegation.

“I did look out and see the cheesehats. I remember that sticking out
in mind,” she said. “That will stay with me for a while.”

Fresh with her new law degree, Sunita will be starting work soon at a
Phoenix law firm.

GOP tones down ‘party’ Sept. 1, 2008 Brooklyn Center, Minn. — It’s
the only event in town right now.

Cindy McCain and her children are expected to speak here in just a few
minutes to the Louisiana delegation at their hotel here.

With Hurricane Gustav forcing Republicans to strip down and tone down
their big party, this gathering is a magnet for the media.

Later today, she and First Lady Laura Bush will speak to the assembled
delegates at the Xcel Center, on the first abbreviated day of the
Republican National Convention. Bush and McCain, their husbands far
away, are expected to talk about ways to help victims of Hurriicane
Gustav.

Chris Ingram, a spolesman for the Louisiana delegation, said many of
the delegates knew about the looming hurricane before they left. “I
evacuated my family on Friday,” he said.

Several other delegates boarded a plane chartered by the McCain
campaign to fly back to Louisiana and then return here with their
children.

Rest of today: War protesters converge on Xcel Center about 11 am.
Abbreviated floor session from about 3 to 5:30 pm.

President Bush was supposed to be here. Vice President Cheney was also
supposed to speak. Those plans have been scrubbed. Cindy McCain and
the McCain children were to have arrived in town a few hours ago. The
campaign just announced she will not attend a luncheon Monday with
First Lady Laura Bush. It’s now unclear when — or if –
Cindy McCain will arrive.

Mrs. Bush, however, is in St. Paul. She was spotted doing a mike check
Sunday evening at the Xcel Energy Center, home to the Republican
National Convention. No plans have been announced yet for Mrs. Bush.
But she conceivably could be the kind of compassionate voice
Republicans need to open their suddenly abbreviated convention Monday
afternoon.

Sen. John McCain has decreed that the convention turn its focus from
politics to the people of the Gulf Coast, caught in the sights of
Hurricane Gustav. He spent much of the day in Mississippi as he
monitors storm developments there. Meantime, his convention is in
limbo.

Monday’s two-hour session, shortened from about seven hours,
will take care of official convention business – the
parliamentary and legal details that conventions must attend to. There
will be no speeches, no Obama-bashing. If the convention does resume
Tuesday with close to a full schedule, the rhetoric will likely be
drained from the speeches.

Instead, the McCain campaign says the focus will be on the people of
the Gulf, with possible fund-raisers or donations to help a stricken
region. The Arizona delegation’s subdued kick-off gathering
Sunday afternoon ended with a plea from Secretary of State Jan Brewer,
the head of the delegation, to drop donations in a basket on the way
out.

Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay and one of several high-profile
speakers at the event, said afterward that she had toned down her
remarks to the crowd in deference to McCain’s wishes. “As
much as this event is all about John, John is also about other
people,” she said.

No matter what happens, this convention must formally nominate a
president and vice president, under federal law. More important,
McCain needs that much to happen to receive federal matching funds for
the fall campaign. He could accept the nomination in person or via
satellite, from, say, the Gulf Coast.

The gwen ifill meet the press mccain obama john

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., shakes
hands as he arrives at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Sunday,
Sept. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

McCain says economic crisis worst since World War II … Obama pledges
deep cuts in spending to fix economy … Obama and McCain attack each
other in new television ads … Biden calls for stronger voice for
National Guard within the Defense Department … McCain suggests NY
Democrat Cuomo could be SEC chief … AP-Yahoo Poll: Blacks, whites
still see society through different lenses

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Republican John McCain on Monday called for
greater oversight of the Bush administration’s proposed bailout of
U.S. financial markets, saying the massive $700 billion plan being
crafted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson needed broader
supervision.

“Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money
been concentrated in the hands of one person. This arrangement makes
me deeply uncomfortable,” the presidential candidate said at a rally
here. “We will not solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a
plan that has no oversight.”

McCain praised Paulson and said he had spoken to him several times
over the weekend. But the GOP presidential hopeful nonetheless called
for a bipartisan oversight board to supervise the proposed bailout, to
be led by Warren Buffett or another widely respected business leader.

McCain suggested his one-time rival for the GOP nomination, former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
be part of the effort as well. Both men made multimillion-dollar
fortunes in business before entering politics.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama
moved to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in a roiling
economy, vowing on Monday to slash federal spending on contractors by
10 percent and saving $40 billion.

Urging members of his own party to be just as fiscally tough as the
most conservative Republicans, Obama said the $700 billion economic
bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration and congressional
leaders is forcing a renewed look at federal spending.

As president, Obama said he would create a White House team headed by
a chief performance officer to monitor the efficiency of government
spending.

“I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every
government program just because it’s there,” Obama said at a rally in
Green Bay. “We will fire government managers who aren’t getting
results, we will cut funding for programs that are wasting your money
and we will use technology and lessons from the private sector to
improve efficiency across every level of government.”

Obama focused tightly on the economy in recent days, and he has urged
Democrats and Republicans to join forces to approve a bailout of the
troubled financial industry that not only saves the industry but
protects taxpayers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John
McCain are criticizing each other in television ads announced Monday.

McCain portrays his Democratic opponent as a product of corrupt
Chicago machine politics. Obama says McCain’s proposal to deregulate
health care could have disastrous effects like the deregulation of
Wall Street.

The commercials come as the two candidates are locked in a tight race
with six weeks until Election Day. Both campaigns say they are airing
as part of national buys, meaning they aren’t targeted to battleground
states and are probably meant to drive negative news coverage of each
other as much as reach key voters directly on television.

The Obama spot shows photos of McCain with President Bush and quotes
an article written by McCain in Contingencies Magazine that argues for
more deregulation of the health care industry just “as we have done
over the last decade in banking.”

McCain’s ad begins, “Barack Obama: Born of the corrupt Chicago
political machine.” That’s an inaccurate statement — Obama wasn’t a
machine candidate in the state Senate or in the U.S. Senate primary.
However, he has been backed by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other
establishment Democrats since he got the Senate nomination in 2004 and
has worked with them.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The National Guard deserves a stronger voice within
the Defense Department, given its role in the war on terror,
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Monday.

Addressing the annual conference of the National Guard Association of
the United States, Biden noted that more than half of the veterans of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are guardsmen
and reservists.

With citizen soldiers carrying such a burden, Biden said Lt. Gen.
Craig McKinley, slated to become the first four-star general to head
the National Guard, deserves a seat at the table with the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.

“Tell me why there’s any rational reason why you shouldn’t have a seat
at that table,” Biden said, speaking one day after Republican
presidential candidate John McCain addressed the group.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Republican John McCain has said he could use New
York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the product of a family with deep
Democratic Party roots, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission
in his administration.

“We have a number of investigations on cases we are now doing on Wall
Street with the SEC, so I don’t think it would be appropriate for me
to comment at this time,” Cuomo said Monday at a news conference in
Syracuse. “I’m happy doing what I’m doing as attorney general. There’s
a lot to do. We are making progress.”

McCain is wooing Democrat and moderate voters in part by promising a
bipartisan administration if he’s elected president. “I’ve admired
Andrew Cuomo,” he said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS’ “60
Minutes.”

It shows that a substantial portion of white Americans still harbor
negative feelings toward blacks. It also shows that blacks and whites
disagree tremendously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose fault
it is and how much influence blacks have in politics.

One result is that Barack Obama’s path to the presidency is steeper
than it would be if he were white.

More whites apply positive attributes to blacks than negative ones,
and blacks are even more generous in their descriptions of whites.
Racial prejudice is lower among college-educated whites living outside
the South. And many whites who think most blacks are somewhat lazy,
violent or boastful are willing or even eager to vote for Obama over
Republican John McCain, who is white.

Democrat Barack Obama holds a slight edge over Republican John McCain
— Obama has 48 percent to McCain’s 44 percent — among registered
voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll
daily tracking update.

John McCain held a town-hall style meeting in Scranton, Pa, before
joining Sarah Palin at a rally in Media, Pa.

“We cannot give a blank check to Washington with no oversight and
accountability when no oversight and accountability is what got us
into this mess in the first place.” — Barack Obama, on the nation’s
economic crisis.

Undecided voters and those who say they might switch candidates
preferred Democrat Barack Obama to be their child’s schoolteacher over
Republican John McCain by 18 percentage points, according to an AP-
Yahoo News survey.

The gwen ifill meet the press debate debates presidential

More than three weeks before Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Gov. Sarah
Palin, R-Alaska, were set to meet in St. Louis for their Oct. 2 vice
presidential debate, Biden was already predicting a messy fight.

“She’s going to make it as personal as she can. She’s going to take a
lot of straight lefts and jabs at me, she’s going to try to get me to
respond in a personal way,” Biden told a Chicago audience. “That’s not
my style. I’m not going to do it.”

Throughout September, staffers and allies were prepping candidates for
the three presidential debates and the one VP debate that could
produce the decisive moments within a tight struggle. Biden, for
example, tapped Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to stand in for Palin
during debate rehearsals. Despite sharp ideological differences with
Palin, Granholm bears some similarities to the candidate: She is a 49
-year-old governor with three children. (Palin, 44, is a first-term
governor with five children.)

Considering Biden’s 30 years in the Senate, and previous presidential
runs, Palin faces a formidable match. Saint Louis University political
scientist Ken Warren compared the contest to another epic battle: “The
vice presidential debate will attract a lot of interest because of
David, so to speak, going up against Goliath.”

In the center ring, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., are facing the weightiest political bouts of their careers as
well: three televised debates on Sept. 26, Oct. 7, and Oct. 15. As the
debates unfold before an estimated 70 million viewers (more than any
other televised event outside the Super Bowl), how will the candidates
spar? What should viewers look for, and how will they know who wins?
And what does a candidate’s debate performance say about the kind of
leader he or she might be?

For those with ringside seats or living room views, here’s a guide to
the matches of the year.

Television viewers watched presidential candidates slug it out live
for the first time in September 1960, when Vice President Richard
Nixon and Sen. John F. Kennedy met for the first of four televised
contests dubbed the “Great Debates.”

The Kennedy/Nixon match-ups revealed at least one thing about
televised contests: image matters. Nixon, who appeared pale and
slightly unshaven, was also recovering from a knee injury that left
him fatigued and thin. Kennedy, who had spent the first two weeks of
September campaigning in California, appeared tan and fit.

Many who heard the first debate on the radio declared Nixon the
winner. But by the end of the fourth televised contest, Kennedy’s
visual style and political substance delivered a one-two punch that
Nixon couldn’t match. Kennedy and others later attributed his narrow
victory in November partly to his debate performance in September.

Americans wouldn’t see another televised debate until 1976, when
President Gerald Ford challenged Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter to
a contest that became famous for a Ford blunder: The president was
panned for quizzically declaring that the Soviet Union didn’t dominate
eastern Europe. Ford’s mistake revealed another axiom of televised
debates: one-liners matter. Subsequent debates would confirm that a
single comment could define a candidate—for better or worse.

In the 1984 presidential debates, President Ronald Reagan cleverly
squashed concerns over his age (compared with his younger Democratic
opponent Walter Mondale) by quipping: “I am not going to exploit, for
political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

When vice presidential candidate Sen. Dan Quayle loosely compared
himself to Sen. John Kennedy in the 1988 debates, his opponent,
Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, delivered a devastating comeback:
“Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Quayle and Vice President George
H.W. Bush easily won in November, but Quayle fought credibility
questions for the next four years.

Other debates proved that subtle cues matter: President George H.W.
Bush ignited a firestorm when he glanced at his watch during a debate
with Democratic candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. Bush battled the
perception that he was bored.

Vice President Al Gore’s public perception suffered after a debate
against George W. Bush in 2000 where Gore sighed loudly during Bush’s
remarks and aggressively stepped into his opponent’s space. Campaigns
took note: Manners matter too.

These days, campaigns spend months focusing on rehearsing a litany of
possible questions with candidates, all while poring over the lessons
of the past.

Debate organizers at the Commission on Presidential Debates have been
planning this year’s contests for nearly two years. The nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization has managed general election presidential
debates since 1987, determining the site and format for each contest.

Negotiating teams from each candidate’s camp met to hammer out final
details ahead of the debates. In mid-September, representatives from
the Obama and McCain camps agreed to switch the topic of the first
debate to foreign policy and national security, sending hosts at the
University of Mississippi scrambling to adjust preparations. (Neither
side revealed the reasons for the change, but both sides likely gained
something they wanted in the deal.)

When the dust settled, so did the final schedule: The candidates would
debate foreign policy and national security on Sept. 26 at Ole Miss in
Oxford, Miss. The vice presidential candidates meet on Oct. 2 at
Washington University in St. Louis to debate foreign and domestic
topics. The second presidential debate comes in a town hall format on
Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, and the final round takes
place on Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., where Obama
and McCain will debate domestic issues.

Each debate will last 90 minutes (with no commercials) and feature a
single moderator, who will introduce a question and allow each
candidate to answer. The moderator will follow up over the next 10
minutes in a conversational style, allowing the candidates to interact
with each other.

There’s one formatting exception: the town hall debate. This event
will feature a group of some 120 undecided voters enlisted by the
Gallup Organization using telephone screening a few days before the
debate. The participants will bring at least two questions they’d like
to ask the candidates. The moderator will review the questions to
cover the widest possible range of topics, but will not change the
voters’ wording.

With dozens of undecided voters asking virtually anything they want,
this night promises to be one of the most revealing for viewers, and
most challenging for candidates.

The enormous task of presiding over a fair fight falls to four lone
moderators chosen by the commission.

Jim Lehrer, a 30-year veteran of television news and anchor of PBS’
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, will host the first debate. Lehrer has
been called “America’s moderator” for good reason: During the last
five presidential elections, the longtime journalist and author of 18
novels has moderated 10 of the nationally televised debates.

What makes Lehrer such a popular choice? “He gets out of the way,”
says Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University
in Boston. “You don’t want a moderator who thinks the debate is about
him.”

Schroeder, author of Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV,
told WORLD that well-informed, low-key moderators work best in general
election debates when viewers need to focus on the candidates and the
issues. He thinks the remaining three moderators are good picks: NBC’s
Tom Brokaw, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, and Washington Week
host Gwen Ifill, who will moderate the vice presidential debates.

Schroeder says television journalists are logical choices because of
their familiarity and ease with the medium: “For all these
moderators—as well as for the candidates—these are the
largest audiences they will ever face in their entire careers. You
can’t be nervous.”

When the cameras finally go live on debate night, it’s hard to imagine
the contenders won’t fight nerves. For both McCain and Obama, the
debates are the culmination of more than 18 months of relentless
campaigning. For McCain, it’s a pinnacle he’s tried to reach for eight
years.

Each candidate will have a different task: Obama will aim to convince
voters he’s experienced enough to handle the presidency and that
McCain represents an extension of the Bush administration. McCain will
aim to convince voters that his policy plans are different than Bush’s
and better than Obama’s.

In order to succeed, both candidates will need to bring the same
thing: mastery of the issues. With no low-brow campaign ads or
accusatory press releases for at least 90 minutes, the debates will
test the candidates’ grasp of the issues and the validity of their
proposals. “You can’t fake it,” says Schroeder.

Just days after the stock market took its deepest plunge since 9/11,
viewers will listen for concrete answers to growing economic problems,
and moderators will press candidates beyond their usual talking points
on the economy and a range of issues. Schroeder says voters should pay
attention to whether candidates are giving thoughtful answers: “I
think it’s a little disrespectful to the audience to just give the
same old sound bites they’ve been giving all along.”

Rosanna Perotti, chair of the political science department at Hofstra
University, site of the final debate, told WORLD that viewers should
also pay attention to how the candidates carry themselves for clues
about their leadership skills: Are they thinking critically? Are they
making good judgments? Do they handle pressure well? “Citizens are
looking for someone who exhibits the qualities necessary to be a good
president,” she said.

On Oct. 7, viewers will apply those same questions to the vice
presidential debates, a contest that may be watched by as many viewers
as the presidential events. Though vice presidential debates have
played a less significant role in the past, Palin’s dark horse entry
may draw more viewers than usual. (Her speech at the Republican
National Convention drew more television viewers than Obama’s address
at the Democratic convention.)

Schroeder says viewers will tune in with one major question in mind:
How will Palin perform? Given the governor’s brief time in the
national spotlight so far, predictions are difficult to make. “Maybe
it’s a smart strategy to save it all up for the debate,” says
Schroeder. “But it really puts a lot of pressure on her to come
through with the goods on debate night.”

Biden faces pressure, too, as he debates a woman who is highly popular
within her party and beyond. George H.W. Bush faced criticism in 1984
for appearing to patronize Geraldine Ferraro in the vice presidential
debates. “I don’t think Biden is going to fall into the same trap, but
he’s still in fairly uncharted territory,” says Schroeder.

As each of the four candidates faces a piece of uncharted territory in
the final rounds of the elections, Perotti says she hopes viewers will
rely on a well-worn path: “I hope people actually listen to what
they’re saying.”

First-ever televised debates. Vice President Richard Nixon, recovering
from a serious knee injury, looks pale and thin. Sen. John F. Kennedy
looks fit and tan. Radio listeners declare Nixon winner. Television
viewers favor Kennedy. Kennedy wins election by narrow margin.

President Gerald Ford debates Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter.
Electrical power fails during live debate. The candidates stand on the
Philadelphia stage in silence for 27 minutes.

Independent candidate Ross Perot debates George H.W. Bush and Bill
Clinton. Perot is the only third-party candidate ever allowed in
nationally televised, general election debate.

Sen. Barack Obama becomes first African American in a general election
debate. Gov. Sarah Palin becomes second woman to participate. —

Gwen ifill married’s convention that’s people

Amid a scaled-back opening day at the Republican convention, First
Lady Laura Bush spoke to Texas delegates in St. Paul and Cindy McCain
focused the party’s attention on Hurricane Gustav relief efforts.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, President Bush canceled his appearance at the
convention, but First Lady Laura Bush was in St. Paul today meeting
with delegates at their hotels. She spoke to reporters at the Texas
delegation’s hotel.

LAURA BUSH, First Lady of the United States: I actually think the
delegates really understand. They really do understand. And there’s —
you know, some of the states, all five of the Gulf Coast states that
are affected — that could be affected by the hurricane or by
Hurricane Hanna that’s coming next, are Republican states with
Republican governors.

And they’re very aware that those governors now are not going to be
able to attend the convention. And so I think people understand and
are keeping their eyes on the Gulf Coast to see if there are any ways
we can help, either as a party from up here or as just a way to get
the word out to the rest of the country because of the convention
being here of what we can do to help across the Gulf Coast.

I hope that what comes out of the convention is that people really get
to know John McCain. That’s the point, is for him to be able to give
his speech for the people of the United States, to see what his
policies are, and what his hopes are for our country, and, obviously,
to get to know Sarah Palin, because most people don’t know her.

And so I hope that both of those speeches will be able to go on and
that people will have the chance to hear both of them, because, after
all, that’s what really is important. That’s the most important part
of any convention, and that is for the candidates themselves to be
able to speak for themselves and let people around the country know
what their hopes and goals are for our country.

I think that’s what people are hoping for in this election, not
politics as usual. I think that’s what the other side’s promising, but
I actually think that’s what John McCain is actually delivering. And I
think that’s really important.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Republicans have canceled plans for an evening
session tonight, but they did have a short business session this
afternoon. Gwen Ifill is down on the convention floor, where that
session has just wrapped up.

GWEN IFILL: Hi, Judy. As you can tell, just looking out the skybox,
this is — looks like a convention. It smells like a convention. There
are balloons in the aerials up there supposed to fall. But already
today’s convention business has begun and it’s ended.
What they decided to do today was just to meet and pass the committee
platform, in which some policy was talked about, but not a lot, to
pass Credentials Committee, basically to do the business that would
allow them to get this whole convention started right.

And instead of hearing from the whole line-up of politicians they had
planned for tonight, with the grand opening ceremonies, they only
heard really from two very popular members of their party, Cindy
McCain, the future, potential future first lady, and Laura Bush, the
current first lady.

But their mission tonight wasn’t to talk about politics, not even to
talk about their husbands. It was to talk about hurricane relief.

CINDY MCCAIN, Wife of Sen. John McCain: I am so honored and so proud
to be standing next to Mrs. Bush. As we work together — yes.

As we work together to extend our support to relief efforts in the
gulf. As each of the Gulf Coast governors just expressed to us, their
challenges will continue in the days ahead.

I would ask that each one of us commit to join together to aid those
in need as quickly as possible. As John has been saying for the last
several days, this is a time when we take off our Republican hats and
put on our American hats.

In that spirit, we’d like to ask that you go to a Web site called
CauseGreater, or http://www.CauseGreater.com. That will allow all of us to
aid those who have been affected by Hurricane Gustav.

Although the task of helping the region recover from this disaster is
too large for any one individual or organization, together —
together, we can accomplish so much to help those who have been
affected. This fund will play an important role in contributing to
other relief efforts already under way.

LAURA BUSH: Americans are — Americans are known for come to the aid
of their fellow citizens when crises such as these arise. Today, and
in the coming days, let’s work together to provide those affected with
the means to restore and rebuild their communities.

CINDY MCCAIN: The charities listed on the screen behind us have been
identified by each of the Gulf Coast governors to accept donation of
funds, clothing, and other necessary and much needed supplies. As you
can and as you are willing, please support this important effort.
Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: Now, Judy, in addition to what we just heard from the two
first ladies, or would-be first ladies, we also — they started the
session today by asking all the delegates in the hall to text the Red
Cross so that they could begin to jumpstart some donations.

They passed out these cards, called — with “Country First” on the
front, which is John McCain’s slogan, but also with a lot of places to
contact in each state. They say they are consulting every day with all
of the governors, all of the Republicans, all five states, and they
started phone banks in local hotels here. Volunteers have packed
80,000 care packages to go to the gulf. They very much are focusing on
the hurricane situation.

Now, on the other hand, the party officials told us today they also
want to get back on schedule, if Gustav allows, tomorrow. They want to
hear from Democrat Joe Lieberman, who’s supposed to speak here. They
are hoping to hear from Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York,
and also from Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who also
ran for president.

These are people they’re hoping to get back on schedule. But for now,
it’s really up to Gustav. Officials are trying to decide what to do.
They’re not going to decide until late last night.

And more than anything else, their plan is to consult with their
candidate, John McCain. And he makes the ultimate determination about
what they consider to be appropriate.

Tell schieffer vote in gwen ifill married

“Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer considered retiring
last year, but CBS executives persuaded him to stick around, promising
an exciting presidential campaign.

“Man, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Schieffer
said by phone from Washington D.C., earlier this month.
“It’s exciting. We know it’s close and you know
it’s a cliche, but it’s historic, too.”

‘We used to think Joe Biden had a great, interesting story. Then
[Sarah Palin] came along! And who else has a husband who is the snow
machine racing champion of Alaska? John McCain wanted a game changer.
He got one. ‘

LECTURE/BOOK SIGNING Bob Schieffer will speak at 11 a.m. Monday at The
Commerce Club, 34 Broad St., 16th floor, Atlanta. Tickets are $28.

Schieffer will be able to convey that excitement live and in person
today at the Atlanta Press Club for a lunch and then at a talk at the
Carter Center in the evening.

He’ll also be promoting a compilation book of his “Face
the Nation” commentaries titled “Bob Schieffer’s
America.” It’s filled with his insights over 14 years,
some serious, some cynical, some sentimental and all decidedly
nonpartisan.

Schieffer is also prepping to moderate the third and final
presidential debate on Oct. 15 between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Q: I read you started the commentaries after Richard Nixon died and
you got such a great reaction from viewers, you just kept doing them.

A: I wasn’t even supposed to do commentaries. I just did them
until someone told me not to. They never did. I won this award for
best commentary on TV and the phones lit up. All the executives said,
“Great idea! Keep it up!”

A: Nobody is Andy Rooney. He marches to a different drummer than the
rest of us. He’s also a good friend. When I had a big book party
last Friday night, he was the first to arrive and last to leave.
Andy’s getting close to 90 years old and he’s still as
sharp as ever. He’s my role model!

A: Funny — we used to think Joe Biden had a great, interesting
story. Then she came along! And who else has a husband who is the snow
machine racing champion of Alaska? John McCain wanted a game changer.
He got one. The question is whether independent voters who are
probably going to decide this election will find her appealing. So
far, she’s off to a pretty good start.

A: It would be a lot of fun. [Journalist] Gwen Ifill is going to do
it. It’s the one a lot of people are going to focus on. This
election may turn on these debates. The last one will be very crucial.
We’ll have a better format. They will actually get to question
each other and ask follow-up questions. We’ll have a debate in a
classic sense. Too much in the recent debates feels like joint news
conferences.

A: I have to be prepared. I have to make sure I keep track of them and
don’t let them wander off into the weeds. We’ll have nine
nine-minute segments. I think of the topics, which will be domestic
policy. If it works well, you won’t hear much from me. These are
not about the moderators or network rivalries. These are supposed to
be about the candidates.

A: I don’t know. We’ll find out more than we ever knew
about both of them. Both are very smart. Both are obviously men of
good character. I think in that way we’re lucky. We have a good
choice to make this time.

Q: You wrote in a commentary that you love to vote. Is it the act of
voting itself?

A: It’s our duty. It’s one of the most fun things to do.
You can use your vote any way you want. You can vote against someone
if you don’t like the way they comb their hair. That’s
absolutely legal.

A: It’s not a good thing. But nobody can tell you how to use
your vote. You can also tell people how you vote or not tell anybody.

A: Never! I don’t even tell my wife. We decided early on
we’d never tell each other.

Q: And since you’re doing an appearance at the Carter Center,
tell me your thoughts on Jimmy Carter.

A: He’s been the best former president we’ve ever had. And
though he’s often criticized for his time in office, he had some
real accomplishments. He signed the Panama Canal treaty… and he
put together the Camp David Accords, which removed the No. 1 threat to
Israel: Egypt.

The coaching legend has a green thumb to go along with his allegiance
to red and black.

The gwen ifill washington week today think it’s

JIM LEHRER: This is, indeed, a crucial night for John McCain and his
running mate at the Republican National Convention. McCain will be
formally nominated by the delegates in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s the
culmination of a quest he began in the 2000 campaign.

Then, all eyes will turn to his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of
Alaska. She will end the evening with a major address.

Early this morning, Palin inspected the podium. It was her first
public appearance since a storm of questions erupted about her
experience, her record, and her teenage daughter’s pregnancy.

McCain arrived in the convention city this afternoon. He was greeted
by his family and Governor Palin’s. The senator took a long moment,
speaking to 17-year-old Bristol Palin and her boyfriend, Levi
Johnston. The family has said he is the father of the girl’s unborn
child and that they plan to marry.

In a written statement, senior adviser Steve Schmidt said, “This
nonsense is over.” He went on to say, “This vetting controversy is a
faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican
nominee for vice president.”

The Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, criticized the
Republicans today for not talking about the economy last night. He
said more jobs are being shipped overseas and more people are losing
pensions, but he said McCain and Palin “just don’t get it.”

Now, the convention convenes in about an hour. Gwen Ifill is on the
floor of the Xcel Energy Center now with a preview of what’s to come.

I am down here on the floor where I think it is fair to say that it is
red meat night. This is the night the Republicans have been waiting
for all week. There’s almost a sigh of relief that they finally get to
take on Barack Obama and the Democrats.

It’s going to start from two women, two businesswomen, Meg Whitman and
Carly Fiorina, who will be speaking tonight. Their job is to talk
about the economy, but campaign officials have also made clear that
they plan to take to a vigorous defense of Sarah Palin, who they feel
has been the victim of a gender double-standard during this week of
her rollout.

After that, we will hear from two former competitors, Mitt Romney, a
former governor of Massachusetts, and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor
of New York. And they’re going to take very hard after Barack Obama.

Mike Huckabee in his advanced prepared remarks wants to call him a
“madman,” someone who the country cannot be trusted with. And Rudy
Giuliani said he’s going to be a lot tougher.

So we’ll be watching for all of those words, in addition to Sarah
Palin’s address tonight, Jim.

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: Probably not as much in the hall,
Jim, as perhaps in the country. I think in the hall — not unlike
Barbara Jordan in 1976 at the Democratic convention, the crowd is
going to be very positively disposed to her.

She could read the white pages of the Twin Cities phone book and I
think be well-received. They love the fact that she’s got the NRA
endorsement, that she’s ardently pro-life, that she is anti-global
warming. I mean, it’s just a — she lights up a lot of conservative
bulbs in this crowd.

But in the country and talking to Republicans, they want to see how
she plays to independents and more moderate Republicans. And, of
course, the real test will be when she gets out and gets into a cross-
examination and a full-fledged press conference.

DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times: Well, for a campaign that
keeps on giving, this is one of the most unpredictable nights. Does
she show composure? Does she seem knowledgeable? Can she project
knowledgeability?

And, also, how upset is she? I mean, the woman has got to be furious
from her point of view about what’s happened, about the publicity that
her daughter has gotten. Does she let that out?

Today we had a full-fledged media war between the McCain campaign and
the media. Do they bash the media? Do they let that out?

And so it’s a question of whether they want to go for the base or do
they want to go for the independents? And we’ll get a big sign of that
from her speech tonight.

JIM LEHRER: Now, the attacking the media is good politics for the
Republicans, is it not, probably, tonight?

DAVID BROOKS: It makes everybody feel very good. Whether it’s good
politics, I’m not sure. I think this is an election where you can’t
just repeat the same, old tactics. And they’ve been attacking the
media, and it makes them all feel good. But if you want to reach the
swing voters who maybe used to be Republicans, I’m not sure it’s a
good tactic anymore.

All right, our convention coverage with Mark and David, among others,
will continue in a few moments, but that’s right after a summary of
the other major news of this Wednesday with Ray Suarez.

RAY SUAREZ: Jim, some of the 2 million people who fled Hurricane
Gustav began returning home today. Cars, trucks and SUVs jammed roads
to the Louisiana coast, passing police checkpoints, but many faced
days without power, as nearly 800,000 homes had no electricity.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said city residents would be allowed back
starting at midnight tonight, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said
officials are doing all they can to speed up the process.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), Louisiana: Our goal is to get people back into
their homes, back into their communities as quickly as possible. We
think that it’s good and important for those families, it’s good and
important for our communities.

It also ensures a smooth evacuation the next time we have to do that.
We don’t want anybody to spend one extra minute out of their home any
longer than they need to.

RAY SUAREZ: President Bush flew to Louisiana today. He got a briefing
in Baton Rouge, a city hit hard by the storm. The president surveyed
the hurricane damage firsthand, and he inspected recovery efforts
already underway.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: Phase one of the
response to Gustav went very well. A lot of it had to do with the
people in this room. We’re much better coordinated this time than we
were with Katrina. State government, the local government, and the
federal government were able to work effectively together. There is
still more work to be done.

RAY SUAREZ: Gustav was blamed for 16 deaths in the U.S., mostly in
traffic accidents. And damage estimates ranged from $2 billion to $10
billion. By contrast, Katrina did $40 billion worth of damage in 2005.

Tropical Storm Hanna soaked Haiti again today and added to the island
nation’s misery. Residents of low-lying port towns waded through
floodwaters in search of higher ground. And impassible roads barred
disaster teams from reaching the hardest-hit areas.

Hanna is expected to cross the Bahamas tomorrow. It could be a
hurricane again when it reaches the southern U.S. coast this weekend.

The Boeing company faced a possible strike today by nearly 27,000
workers, mostly in Seattle. Members of the machinists union voted on a
contract that included a signing bonus and average raises of 11
percent over three years. Union leaders urged rejection. They said the
offer actually cuts benefits and shifts more health care costs to
workers.

In Pakistan today, gunmen tried to assassinate Prime Minister Yousuf
Gilani. He was not in his motorcade when snipers fired several shots
from a nearby hill. The cars were en route to Islamabad’s airport to
pick him up.

Also today, Pakistan charged U.S. or NATO troops carried out a predawn
raid in South Waziristan along the Afghan border. The Pakistanis said
15 to 20 civilians were killed. NATO denied involvement. The U.S.
military said it had no information to give.

There was word today that North Korea has begun rebuilding a major
nuclear site. The South Korean government said it confirmed work is
underway at the Yongbyon facility. North Korea warned last week it had
stopped the process of disabling the reactor there.

The North Koreans have charged the U.S. broke a promise to remove them
from a list of countries that sponsor terror. In Washington today, a
State Department spokesman played down the South Korean account.

SEAN MCCORMACK, State Department Spokesman: Based on what we know from
the reports on the ground, you don’t have an effort to reconstruct,
reintegrate this equipment back into the Yongbyon facility. It has
been taken out of where it was being stored, I guess, is the best way
to put it at this point.

RAY SUAREZ: North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test in
October of 2006. Later, the communist state agreed to abandon its
nuclear program and begin putting the Yongbyon site out of commission.

The governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, opened a hearing today on
whether the Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, should be removed from
office. He’s accused of concealing information from the city council
and settling a multimillion-dollar lawsuit to hide a romantic affair.
Kilpatrick also faces 10 felony counts in two criminal cases.

And on Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained
nearly 16 points to close just under 11,533. The Nasdaq fell 15 points
to close at 2,333.

I’m here with Alice Rekeweg, a Texas delegate who has been here all
week and is looking forward to a big night tonight.

ALICE REKEWEG: It was a shock. I know I was shocked when I heard. I’m
like, “Who is she, the governor of Alaska?” But the more I read about
her, the more I really do like her. She sounds like a woman that can
get a job done.

ALICE REKEWEG: Just her being a mom. And no matter what tragedy or
what happens, she seems like the kind of person that will stand —
always stand by her family. And I happen to be the same thing.

And she rides a motorcycle. And I ride with the Patriot Guard Riders,
so we’ve got something in common.

GWEN IFILL: Are there any policy issues in particular you’ve heard her
talk about or heard written about that makes you think, “I agree with
her on policy and her ability to be president”?

ALICE REKEWEG: You know, we have rules in the Republican Party. We’re
very open. We’re very family-oriented. And we believe in the right to
life.

And she has shown that, that she is with us on that. She’s a Christian
woman, and she loves her family, and she shows it. And to me, that is
the most important thing that a woman can do.

When she’s a vice president, I don’t think there’s going to be any
problem with her. She’s going to have the initiative to do the job
that the president gives her. And she’s just — to me, I think she’s a
wonderful person that can handle the job.

Gwen ifill washington week’s mccain john think

Sen. John McCain’s colleague from Arizona, Sen. Jon Kyl, and former
campaign manager Terry Nelson provide insight on the candidate and the
campaign.

GWEN IFILL: I’m joined by McCain’s fellow Arizona senator, Jon Kyl,
and Terry Nelson. He served as McCain’s campaign manager until July of
last year.

Senator Kyl, after all the time that Senator McCain, your seatmate,
has spent in the public eye all these years, what new is there that
this convention can tell people about him?

SEN. JON KYL (R), Arizona: Well, first of all, not everybody pays as
much attention to politics as we do. And I’m sure there are a lot of
folks out there, a lot of new voters, for example, who are going to be
focusing for the first time really intently on who the candidates are.

So there is some acquainting to be done there and some re-acquainting.
I’m told by political advisers that it takes six times for someone to
see a political ad for it to really sink it. So repetition is not a
bad thing, even for those who do know a lot about John McCain’s
tremendously interesting life and his service to his country.

GWEN IFILL: Terry Nelson, what you would say that this convention
needs to accomplish and introducing, reintroducing John McCain?

TERRY NELSON, Former McCain Campaign Manager: Well, it is a great
story. And, you know, the truth is that this is a point when the
American people begin to, you know, look at the campaigns and really
pay attention.

We saw that last week with Barack Obama; 38 million people tuned in to
listen to his speech. You know, a similar number will probably tune in
to see Senator McCain and his speech, will tune in tonight at this
convention to listen to it.

And as Senator Kyl says, there’s a lot of people who for the first
time will really begin to look and try to begin to decide, you know,
who they’re going to support in this campaign.

GWEN IFILL: So you have a chance now to tell those people your version
of the answer to some of these questions. And there’s a lot of
conventional wisdom out there about Senator McCain, and I just want to
tick off some of it. One is that he is a maverick. Has he been a
maverick in his years in the Senate, really?

SEN. JON KYL: Well, in a sense it does. For example, we’ve changed the
way we do business with appropriation bills. John McCain used to just
bring the entire Senate to a halt on the night that they bring the big
appropriation bill through everybody who was expecting it just to go
through. Nobody had read it, and John McCain — and under Senate
rules, you can do this — said, “Stop. Until I have a chance to read
it, and see what’s in it, and object to any pork projects, we’re not
going forward.”

Well, now they know that he will do that, so they simply make sure
they’re done about 48 hours in advance. They give it to John McCain’s
staff so that they can go through it.

The point is a maverick can make a difference as a senator, but he can
make a lot more difference as president. And when he says, “I can’t
wait to veto some of these pork-barrel bills,” I know he means it. He
really wants to reform. And I know, too, that he sees in Governor
Palin a soul mate, as he put it, in trying to achieve this reform.

GWEN IFILL: Terry Nelson, another piece of conventional wisdom about
John McCain is that he is temperamental. Now, as someone who used to
work for him, perhaps you could fill us in on that?

TERRY NELSON: I never found John McCain to be all that temperamental.
You know, before I went to work for John McCain, I heard the rumors
that he was temperamental, as well, and talked to his staff.

You know, John McCain has some of the longest-serving staff people in
the Congress that are with him. And he’s great with his staff people.
And, you know, like anybody, he likes to debate the issues. He wants
to have a thorough discussion, and he expects the people around him to
know the answers.

You know, ultimately, he’s held accountable for what he does. So I
always found him to be somebody who is lively and wanted to debate the
issues, but not temperamental, not ever with staff.

GWEN IFILL: Another piece of conventional wisdom is that he is a
darling of the press, which doesn’t seem so lately. Has that been
true?

SEN. JON KYL: Well, I think it was in his first campaign, when he was
running the Straight-Talk Express and was the maverick, and he used to
kid about his main constituency, the media. Not so much this campaign,
as you’ve noted.

SEN. JON KYL: Or his base, maybe, right. But I think one reason that
the media, love him or hate him, appreciates John McCain and finds him
an interesting individual to cover is because he is different from the
usual politician. He is a maverick.

You don’t know exactly what he’s going to say next. He’s not that
programmed. And he tells you what’s on his mind, and frequently that’s
very interesting.

GWEN IFILL: You know, one of the things we’ve all been talking about
on this program and everywhere, of course, is the Sarah Palin pick.
How in the end do you think this will play out? Will it help him or
hurt him, and in which ways?

TERRY NELSON: Well, I think Sarah Palin does need to come in and give
a good speech tomorrow night, and I think she will. I mean, she’s —
she’s a very dynamic speaker. She’s very articulate.

You know, for the attention on some of the personal things, I don’t
think that really matters to voters, and I don’t think there should be
all that much attention to it.

Sarah Palin has done a great job as governor. She reaches back, you
know, to the reformist image, the maverick image that John McCain has,
and helps him, you know, bring that message back into the campaign.

And I don’t think that there’s been enough focus on that side of this
election. The American people think Washington does need to be shaken
up, and John McCain has put himself in a position to do that.

Gwen ifill washington week’s today people milk

GWEN IFILL: Wall Street and Washington entered uncharted territory
today: the Federal Reserve’s takeover of insurance giant AIG. It was
the Fed’s deepest move ever into the private sector in exchange for
$85 billion in borrowed tax money.

The Bush administration initially opposed a bailout, but today White
House press secretary Dana Perino defended it.

DANA PERINO, White House Spokeswoman: Some of these companies were so
big that to allow them to fail would have caused even greater harm and
damage to the economy. So the goal has been to take action where
necessary to promote stability and strength in the marketplace so that
we can prevent or limit more damage to the broader economy.

GWEN IFILL: Perino said decisions on other bailout requests, including
for the auto industry, would be made on a case-by-case basis.

Another sharp sell-off hit Wall Street today, despite the AIG
announcement. Stocks plunged again on fears that still more large
firms may be in trouble.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 449 points to close at 10,609.
The Nasdaq fell 109 points to close below 2,099. We’ll have more on
the AIG take-over right after this news summary.

There was more grim news from the housing sector today. The Commerce
Department reported construction of new homes and apartments fell more
than 6 percent in August. It’s now at the lowest point since 1991.

The bailout of AIG was topic A for the presidential candidates today.
Republican John McCain said he had opposed a government takeover, but
that the Fed was forced to act to protect millions of people.

Democrat Barack Obama said the plan must safeguard working Americans,
not AIG shareholders and management. We’ll have more on the campaign
later in the program tonight.

The death toll from Hurricane Ike climbed to 51 today, as the search
for victims wound down. Rescue teams pulled out of Galveston, Texas,
after combing the hard-hit island. Last night, the city had to
backtrack on letting residents come back to survey the damage.

Still, traffic backed up again today on the only road onto the island.
City manager Steve LeBlanc said officials are trying to come up with a
new way for people to return.

STEVE LEBLANC, Galveston City Manager: We just had an overwhelming
influx of people. And we decided we just simply cannot handle the
volumes of people that are coming in. We are working on a new plan
that we hope to announce soon so that we can get our citizens in and
out in a day and they can start taking care of their house.

GWEN IFILL: Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city, was still
largely without power today. It’s not expected back on for at least a
week.

And across the Midwest, close to 500,000 people remained in the dark.
Swollen rivers also threatened more flooding. We’ll have more on the
hurricane’s aftermath later in the program tonight.

The hurricane’s passage cut into oil supplies this week, and that
helped send prices back up today. In New York trading, crude rose more
than $6 to close above $97 a barrel. But gasoline prices stabilized
for the first time in a week as gulf refineries began to re-open.

The U.S. embassy in Yemen came under attack today. At least 16 people
were killed. No Americans were hurt in the assault in San’a. The dead
included six attackers, six guards, and four civilians.

The attackers tried to breach the compound’s walls with automatic
weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and a suicide car-bomber. It was
the fourth such attempt in recent years.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: This attack is a
reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent
people to achieve their ideological objectives.

GWEN IFILL: There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a
State Department spokesman said the assault bore, quote, “all the
hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack.”

An apparent U.S. missile strike killed at least six people in Pakistan
today. Pakistani intelligence officials said the target was a militant
base in South Waziristan along the Afghan border.

Hours earlier, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike
Mullen, promised to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty. He met with
leaders in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gates was in Afghanistan today. He voiced
personal regret for recent air strikes there that killed civilians.

A national health emergency in China intensified today over tainted
baby formula. Officials announced the numbers of affected children has
risen sharply to nearly 6,200. At least three have died.

LINDSEY HILSUM: All over China, hospitals are full of anxious parents.
Today, the government revealed that not one, but 22 companies had been
selling milk powder laced with melamine, an industrial chemical which
in tests makes the milk look high in protein, but also causes
potentially fatal renal failure.

CHINESE CITIZEN (through translator): I learned about the chemical in
the milk powder on TV, and we were worried, so I decided to bring the
baby for a checkup.

CHINESE CITIZEN (through translator): My baby has been having this
milk powder since he was tiny. Now we’re worried that he’s going to
get sick.

CHEN ZHU, Chinese Minister for Health (through translator): With the
announcement of the result of the nationwide melamine test on the baby
formula milk powder, more and more parents will take their children to
hospitals for checkups, and we expect a sharp increase in the number
of hospital admittances.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Parents are queuing to return milk powder to Sanlu,
the first company implicated. Consumers complained about the products
as early as March, but the company didn’t tell the local authorities
until August.

They, in turn, kept quiet until a New Zealand company with a part
share told their government, which forced the issue into the open last
week.

Nationwide testing this week, however, suggests that this was not an
isolated case. Dairy farmers supplying several of China’s biggest
dairy product manufacturers are alleged to have added melamine. Some
have been arrested, while company and government officials have been
sacked.

GWEN IFILL: The Chinese government said today it’s sending out 5,000
inspectors to monitor the makers of baby formula. Last year, the same
chemical, melamine, was blamed for the deaths of some 1,500 dogs and
cats in the United States after it turned up in pet food made in
China.

The U.S. House voted today to ease gun restrictions in the District of
Columbia. It approved a bill to repeal the city’s ban on semi-
automatic handguns. The measure also overturns a law requiring that
firearms in the home be kept locked up and inoperable.

Supporters said they’re heeding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that
struck down the gun ban. Opponents said the House trampled on home
rule. The Senate is not likely to consider the issue this year.

The gwen ifill washington week debates presidential mccain

A series of U.S. presidential debates will begin this week when John
McCain, the Republican contender, and Barack Obama, the Democratic
candidate, confront each other Friday.

Three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate will take
place in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election. The first debate will
take place Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time – 1 a.m. GMT on
Saturday – and last 90 minutes. The debate Friday – on foreign policy
and national security – will be moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.

All four debates will be broadcast by CNN International and BBC World.
They can also be viewed live at http://www.mydebates.org, a collaboration
between MySpace.com and the Commission on Presidential Debates; they
will remain available for viewing after the debates.

The EU began deploying monitors to Georgia despite earlier threats by
the Russian military to bar them from buffer zones around Abkhazia and
South Ossetia.

With just a month to go, how will the campaign deploy John McCain and
Sarah Palin accross the states it is tar…

Columnist Joe Nocera explains why the future of AIG may be more
telling than today’s Fed rate decision.

Sarah Palin has many tests between now and Election Day, and the
McCain campaign is deliberately confronting t…