Sarah Palin Interview - Squad of G.O.P. Aides Prepares Palin for Interviews

Two weeks ago, People magazine was granted an exclusive interview with Senator John McCain’s new running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who spoke about motherhood and career, life in Alaska and the historic nature of her candidacy.

She has not given an interview since, eschewing the traditional television news circuit traveled by a vice-presidential nominee.

Sarah Palin will break that news media blackout on Thursday, when she will begin two days of interviews by the ABC News anchor Charles Gibson.

The sessions could be the first test of Sarah Palin’s ability to parry substantive questions on foreign and domestic policy, and as she flew back to Alaska on Wednesday, she brought with her a squad of john McCain’s top policy advisers to help her prepare. In a broader sense, the interviews will also provide fresh material for what is now an intense war between the campaigns to define Sarah Palin in the public mind, a battle that both campaigns consider potentially critical to the election outcome.

“The fight is over how she is going to be defined in the eyes of the American public,” said Terry Nelson, John McCain’s former campaign manager. “She’s been introduced, but all the information about her has not been introduced, and once that information comes to light people are going to draw conclusions about her, and the campaigns are fighting to shape the conclusions.”

With new reports coming out daily about Sarah Palin’s record in Alaska, and a more aggressive offensive from Senator Barack Obama’s campaign, John McCain’s team has issued a partywide, all-hands-on-deck.

It has hired several veterans from President Bush’s campaigns, making them part of a team dedicated to defending Sarah Palin from unsubstantiated Internet rumors, Democratic attacks and potentially damaging news reports about her record produced by the investigative journalists now in Alaska.

“She’s a dynamic agent for change, the Democrats recognize this, and there is this race now to paint a picture of her which is not true,” said Brian Jones, who resigned as John McCain’s communications director in 2007 but returned this week to help in the effort to bolster Sarah Palin.

John McCain’s campaign released an advertisement on Wednesday accusing Barack Obama of trying “to destroy” Sarah Palin, and featuring images of scavenging wolves and an assertion that Democratic operatives are researching Sarah Palin in Alaska. (The advertisement cited a report by FactCheck.org that was critical of “completely false” attacks on Sarah Palin, but failed to note that the report was referring to Internet rumors not linked to Barack Obama’s campaign.)

The McCain campaign is regularly battling reports from news organizations that have the potential to undermine the image that it has presented of Sarah Palin as a reformer.

On Wednesday, a new report on Politico.com detailed Sarah Palin’s requests for federal appropriations as governor, including money for studies on the mating habits of crabs and the DNA of harbor seals, the very sorts of pet spending projects John McCain has lampooned.

John McCain’s campaign has dispatched another team to Alaska to respond more rapidly to such reports. It is headed by Taylor Griffin, who had worked for President Bush’s 2004 campaign. Another former Bush campaign aide, Tracey Schmitt, is now Sarah Palin’s traveling press secretary.

Tucker Eskew, a veteran of Mr. Bush’s primary season campaign against John McCain, has been advising Sarah Palin this week, as she has hopped between S.U.V.s and planes, all the while reading briefing materials or receiving tutorials from policy advisers who have dipped on and off the campaign trail to visit with her.

On Wednesday night, three of them were on the plane to Alaska with Sarah Palin: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John McCain’s economic adviser; Steve Biegun, a former staff member of Mr. Bush’s National Security Council who has taken leave from his Ford Motors job to advise Sarah Palin; and Randy Scheunemann, John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.

Also accompanying Sarah Palin to Alaska as she prepared for her interview was Nicolle Wallace, a communications director for Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign and, later, his White House. Ms. Wallace’s husband, Mark Wallace, Mr. Bush’s deputy campaign manager in 2004, is helping prepare Sarah Palin for the debates.

For now, the preparation for the debate and the sessions with Mr. Gibson are one and the same. Aides have developed a set of presumed questions and answers that they are walking Ms. Palin through.

Aides traveling with Sarah Palin have reported back to associates that she is a fast study — asking few questions of her policy briefers but quickly repeating back their main points — who already has considerable ease and experience before cameras.

A former aide in Alaska who had helped prepare Ms. Palin for her campaign debates there said she had a talent for distilling information into digestible sound bites. The aide said she generally prefers light preparatory materials to heavy briefing books, and prefers walking through potential questions and answers with aides to holding mock sessions.

Lipstick on a pig - Obama

John McCain, Sarah Palin are like lipstick on pig

Lipstick on a pig

BARACK Obama has dismissed the US presidential campaign of rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin as putting "lipstick on a pig" in his most direct attack on the Republican odd couple aiming to keep him out of the White House.

However the line is being interpreted by some - especially those in the McCain camp - as a personal sledge against Mrs Palin, Senator McCain's surprise running mate who described herself as a "pit bull with lipstick" when she accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination at the party's national convention last week.

"We've been talking about change when we were up in the polls and when we were down in the polls," Senator Obama told a rally in Virginia as surveys suggested Senator McCain and Mrs Palin have overhauled his lead for the election to be held on November 5 (Australian time).

"The other side, suddenly, they're saying 'we're for change too'. Now think about it, these are the same folks that have been in charge for the last eight years.

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough," he said to instant applause.

Last Thursday, Alaska Governor Mrs Palin joked that the only difference between a hockey mum like herself and a pit bull was "lipstick".

The McCain-Palin campaign called the comments "offensive and disgraceful" and demanded an apology. The Obama camp said the remark was not a dig at Mrs Palin and accused the Republicans of a "pathetic attempt to play the gender card".

Asked how anyone could be sure the comment was directed personally at Mrs Palin, a McCain campaign spokeswoman said: "She's the only one of the four - the presidential and vice presidential candidates - who wears lipstick".

Other reports quote Senator McCain as using the same phrase about Hillary Clinton's health plan last year.

Embracing the running mate's tradition attack dog role, Mrs Palin has been savaging Senator Obama daily on the campaign trail as Senator McCain talks up his maverick, reformer credentials.

He told a rally in Ohio that he had shown himself to be able to work with his opponents, something he said Senator Obama often claimed but could not prove. In her speech, Mrs Palin repeated her widely queried claim that she had said "thanks, but no thanks" to a notorious "bridge to nowhere" project in Alaska.

The Obama campaign immediately sent out an email to supporters highlighting the bridge "whopper". It also unveiled a new anti-Palin website called The Next Cheney.

The campaign took another nasty turn in a row sparked by education policy, after Senator Obama had accused Senator McCain of doing nothing in 26 years in Congress to rescue failing schools.

That prompted a television ad from the Republicans that said Senator Obama supported "legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners".

An Obama spokesman said the candidate had supported a Bill that provided for sex education which encompassed teaching younger children how to avoid falling prey to pedophiles.

"Last week, John McCain ... couldn't define what honour was. Now we know why," the spokesman said.

Since his shock decision to select the little-known Mrs Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, Senator McCain has come from behind to tie with Senator Obama or pull ahead in some polls. Mrs Palin herself polled well ahead of Senator Obama's running mate Joe Biden in a hypothetical match-up between the vice-presidential nominees - 53 per cent to 44.

A survey of news media showed the McCain-Palin pairing had generated more coverage than the Obama-Joe Biden campaign for the first time in three months.

Mccain Speech - John McCain giving conventional finale speech

McCain Speech

John McCain embarks on his final drive for the White House Thursday night, accepting the Republican presidential nomination and addressing the party's national convention from a stage that workers hastily rebuilt to fit his "town hall" approach.

McCain checked out the setup in midafternoon, chatting on stage with his wife, Cindy, and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Graham speaks Thursday night; Lieberman spoke on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, on the final day of the convention, a lot of the talk was still about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee who gave her big introductory speech Wednesday night, less than a week after being chosen for the ticket.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama shrugged off the speech as a rehashing of McCain's policies and suggested Democrats would not slacken their criticism.

"I think she's got a compelling story, but I assume she wants to be treated the same way that guys want to be treated," he told reporters during a campaign stop in York, Pa. "I've been through this 19 months, she's been through it — what — four days so far?"

He said he would focus his attention on John McCain and "who's got a better agenda to move this country forward."

Cindy McCain suggested in one interview that she doesn't agree with Palin's support for a nearly total ban on abortions.

And Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden declared that some news coverage of his Republican counterpart had been sexist.

Parts of the platform at the Xcel Energy Center were removed by construction workers on Thursday to bring delegates closer to where McCain will give his acceptance speech, giving the stage a T-shape. Organizers said the change reflected the town hall-type forums in which McCain has campaigned.

"The extended podium will serve as a fitting complement to John McCain's preference for direct interaction with his fellow citizens," said Maria Cino, a convention official.

Meanwhile, party leaders added two speakers to the night's lineup. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will speak prior to Cindy McCain. Both are close to McCain. Ridge was considered a finalist for the No. 2 spot before McCain picked the Alaska governor. And Graham has appeared frequently with McCain on the campaign trail.

Delegates will also vote Thursday night to make the convention's nomination of Palin official. And McCain himself will close out the activities with his prime-time acceptance speech.

Democrats struck back on Thursday, dismissing rave GOP reviews of Palin's speech and asserting that the Alaska governor had misrepresented Obama's record. "There wasn't one thing that she said about Obama or what he's proposing that is true," top Obama strategist David Axelrod told reporters in Pennsylvania.

Axelrod also questioned her claim to be an outsider, given her sharp attacks on the Democratic nominee. "For someone who makes that point that she's not from Washington, she looked very much like she would fit in very well there."

Biden, campaigning in Virginia, said he would challenge Palin on issues "as strongly as I can" — but would refrain from personal attacks.

"I'm not good at one-line zingers. That's not my deal," he said at a forum in Virginia Beach. He said he believed Palin was "going to be an incredibly competent debater." The two face off on Oct. 2 in St. Louis.

Obama's lead over McCain was virtually unchanged since the GOP convention began, according to a Gallup Poll. The Democrat led 49 percent to 42 percent, based on interviews conducted Monday through Wednesday. All but a few of the interviews were conducted before Palin gave her Wednesday night speech.

In a Gallup survey covering last Friday through Sunday — before the Republican gathering began — Obama led by a similar 6 percentage points.

McCain's speech was expected to provide the climax to the four-day convention. His wife, Cindy, admitted that she was nervous about addressing delegates herself.

Cindy McCain told ABC's "Good Morning America" she doesn't agree with Palin's opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest. And they also part ways on sex education. "I don't agree with that aspect, but I do respect her for her views," she said.

Palin opposes abortion and rejects the view that pregnancies caused by rape and incest should be exceptions. The Alaska governor's only exception would be when a doctor determines that continuing a pregnancy would lead to the death of the mother. Palin has also opposed government financing of sex-education programs in Alaska. Cindy McCain told ABC that she advocated abstinence as a part of sex education at her children's school, but "I believe that it's twofold and I think all of it should be taught."

Palin and her husband, Todd, announced this week that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant and would be marrying her boyfriend, saying they were making a private matter public because of Internet rumors.

Biden said the Democratic campaign was not criticizing Palin over her family.

"It is off limits to talk about her family," the Delaware senator said in an interview with "Fox and Friends" on Fox News Channel. "Every family has difficulty as they're raising their children. I think the way she's handled it has been absolutely exemplary."

Asked if some of the criticism aimed at Palin has been sexist, Biden said: "Yes, by you guys in the media."

The McCain camp expressed satisfaction with the generally positive reception that Palin's speech had received from the public.

"I have no doubt that Gov. Sarah Palin today is a household name," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters in a conference call.

In his acceptance speech, McCain is expected to review his career in public service — first as a Naval Academy midshipman and wartime pilot and then as a 26-year veteran of Congress — while drawing stark policy differences with Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Democratic critics have questioned Palin's political experience as a small-town mayor and her brief tenure as Alaska's governor. Wednesday night she offered a searing, sometimes sarcastic attack on the opposing ticket.

Palin joined other Republican speakers Wednesday night in praising McCain as a man of character, a former Vietnam prisoner of war who had spent his early career in the military and had sought to change the ways of politics in Washington.

In downtown Minneapolis, police arrested 102 protesters early Thursday after a rock concert. Since Saturday, more than 400 people have been arrested for convention-related protests in both St. Paul and neighboring Minneapolis.

Technorati Tags:
mccain speech john mccain
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Paris Hilton Political Ad

Paris Hilton releases ad attacking John McCain

Not to be outdone by John McCain, Paris Hilton has released an attack ad of her own. But this one attacks John McCain.

Paris Hilton and her mother Kathy were upset about the unauthorized use of Paris's image in the McCain ad, even though the Hiltons donated $4600 to McCain's campaign. "It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs," Kathy Hilton told the media.

The new video spoof opens with images of the crowd at Barack Obama's speech last month in Berlin. It's the same image that John McCain used to mock Obama in his "Celeb" ad last week that depicted Hilton.

As the narrator then describes John McCain, the ad shows old people, including The Golden Girls, Larry King, and a character from Tales from the Crypt.

"He's the oldest celebrity in the world," says the narrator. "Like, super old. Old enough to remember when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket. But is he ready to lead?"

Paris Hilton is then shown lying on a pool chair in a bikini. "Hey, America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity, too," she says, looking to the camera. "Only, I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot."

Paris Hilton then describes McCain as "that wrinkly white-haired guy" who she says "used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president." She then takes the bait and launches into her own campaign. "So thanks for the endorsement, white haired dude."

As for her energy policy: "Just as soon as I finish reading this article on where I can fly to to get the best tan," she says to the camera, then looks up after a few seconds of reading Conde Nast Travel magazine.

After settling on Maui, she launches into her energy policy, which is very unlike Paris Hilton.

"Barack wants to focus on new technologies to cut foreign oil dependency. And McCain wants offshore drilling. Well, why don't we do a hybrid of both candidates' ideas? We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way, the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which will then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved! I'll see you at the debates, bitches."

After resolving the energy crisis, she then promises "to go pick out a vice president" and suggests pop star Rihanna as a possibility.

And of course, she ends with the obligatory campaign tagline: "I'm Paris Hilton and I approve this message because I think it's totally hot," she says.

Or as she says in another part of the ad, "I'm, like, totally ready to lead."

See the full ad below...

Southern California Earthquake

Southern California was hit by an earthquake this morning. Read about it below. Updates, photos and videos are being added as they become available.

Southern California Earthquake

At 11:42 am (PT) a 5.4 magnitude earthquake struck the town of Chino Hills, 33 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. The United States Geological Survey said it struck at a depth of 7.6 miles.

Residents are saying it felt like a much larger earthquake than 5.4 magnitude. It was felt from throughout Southern California and Nevada. There have been multiple after shooks.

Eye witness reports are that it was a violent shake. The San Diego City Counsel was in session and recessed until it was determined that San Diego was not the epicenter of the quake. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, between Los Angeles and San Diego, is reportedly in good condition and no damage was sustained to the grids there.

We are waiting for the mayor of Los Angeles to report and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be speaking shortly. Right Pundits will continue to provide updates as needed.

UPDATE 1:47 (PT): Los Angeles is experiencing power outages. Chino Hills is reporting minimal damage and no injuries. There have been problems with cell phone service.

Acting Mayor report:

• minor structural damage around the center.
• some people were stuck in an elevator
• no extraordinary calls for emergency services
• All phone services are now back up and running.
• Airport is functioning properly. It lost radar services for only one minute, but was immediately back up.
• Ports are functioning properly with no damage reported.
• One water main break. There was flooding at one department store.
• Five minor injuries reported.
• There is a 5% chance that this is a fore shock to a larger earthquake.

Update 2:25 p.m. (PT): The following photo of earthquake damage was sent into the LA Times by a reader.

Damage in Santa Monica
Southern California Earthquake - Photos

Update 2:30 p.m. (PT): Press conference with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• Monitoring situation closely
• Have evacuation plan for family and pets.
• No major infrastructure damage
• No major injuries
• After shocks are occurring and will continue to occur
• All state agencies are directed to provide support
• All emergency responders are doing their things
• Earthquake downgraded to 5.4 magnitude
• upgrading infrastructure and emergency response systems helped minimize damage and injuries

McCain Takes Swipe at Obama ???

McCain Takes Swipe at Obama, Germans Over Berlin Visit

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Republicans are zeroing in on Obama's reception in Berlin

A spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain blasted Barack Obama for cancelling plans to visit wounded US soldiers while in Berlin, adding that the Democrat prioritized "throngs of fawning Germans."

Hours before Obama arrived back in the US on Saturday, McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds questioned why the Democratic senator cancelled Friday's scheduled meeting with American troops at the Landstuhl military hospital in Germany.

"You know, it really speaks to the experience that Barack Obama lacks," Bounds told Fox News.

"He prioritizes throngs of fawning Germans over meeting with wounded combat troops in Germany," he added, referring to the crowd of over 200,000 people who gave Obama an effusive welcome at his outdoor address on Thursday evening in Berlin.

McCain's team also raised the cancelled hospital visit in a new television ad in which a narrator berates Obama for making time to go to the gym, but not finding the time for injured soldiers.

Obama team sought to protect soldiers

The Obama campaign explained at the time of the cancellation that the senator had made a decision to avoid drawing wounded troops into the back-and-forth of campaign politics. The campaign also noted that reservations about the visit had been expressed by the Pentagon.

Some analysts see the McCain team's attack as a case of sour grapes following the overwhelmingly positive public response to Obama in Europe. Republicans are instead trying to brand the trip -- which saw Obama stop in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Jordan, Germany, France and the UK -- a shallow political stunt.

Democrats are Driving Obama's Berlin Bounce

Mixed news on the day, as Barack Obama gets two relatively weak results in state polling while continuing to gain ground in the national trackers.

In California, Obama leads John McCain by 10 points according to Rasmussen. This is quite a step down from Rasmussen's result in June, when Obama had led McCain by 28 points. Their other California polling, however, had been closer, showing Obama in the lead by margins ranging from 7 points to 15. Regardless, California polling is mostly an academic endeavor in this year's election. The state is not competitive, and so far as I can tell, the Obama campaign does not even have a field office open there.

In South Carolina, it's McCain by 13 in a new Research 2000 poll for DailyKos.com. This is Research 2000's first poll in South Carolina, and so there are no trendlines for comparison. Nevertheless, this is the first South Carolina poll to show McCain with a lead in the double digits.

shows him ahead by 7 points, tying his best-ever margin in that poll, while Obama is just about at his high water marks in the national tracking polls, however. GallupRasmussen has him ahead by 6. What Obama's foreign policy trip may have done, and particularly his speech in Berlin, is to refresh enthusiasm among his core supporters. Fully 60 percent of Democrats now have a very favorable opinion of Obama, according to Rasmussen's latest numbers.

That number is improved from 53 percent a week ago. During that time frame, Obama has gained 6 points of support among Democrats, capturing 82 percent of their votes rather than 76. Half of that gain comes from undecided voters, while the other half comes from McCain.

Jesse Jackson obama - Jackson apologizes for crude comment about Obama

Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks during a news conference in Chicago, Wednesday, July 9, 2008. Jackson apologized Wednesday for comments he made about Barack Obama's speeches in black churches during what he thought was a private conversation with a reporter.

Barack Obama's campaign tried yet again to contain a political storm kicked up by a vocal Chicago supporter as the Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized for crude comments picked up by a live microphone about the Democratic presidential candidate.

Jackson said the "hurtful and wrong" comments came in response to a question from a fellow guest during a break from taping "Fox & Friends" on Sunday. The guest asked about speeches on morality Obama has given at black churches.

Jackson said at a news conference Wednesday that he had said Obama's speeches can come off as speaking down to black people and that there were other important issues to be addressed in the community, such as unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison.

He said he was not aware the microphone was still on.

Jackson declined to repeat the comments, but said he decided to apologize publicly after hearing from Fox News that it would air them.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier Wednesday, Jackson said he didn't remember his exact words, but said he was "very sorry."

The Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor" aired Jackson's comment Wednesday night, including a slang reference to his wanting to cut off Obama's testicles. The report bleeped out the slang but made clear what Jackson said with subtitles.

"It was not a public speech or a declaration," Jackson said, adding the comments "will not be helpful."

"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize," he said in a written apology released earlier in the day. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal."

Jackson said he called Obama's campaign to apologize.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton noted that the Illinois senator grew up without his father and has spoken and written at length about the issues of parental responsibility and fathers participating in their children's lives, and of society's obligation to provide "jobs, justice and opportunity for all.

"He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Reverend Jackson's apology," Burton said.

Though Jackson supports Obama, the two are not close.

In September, The State newspaper in South Carolina reported that Jackson had said Obama was "acting like he's white" in his response to the arrest of six black juveniles in Jena, La. Jackson disputed the quote.

Jackson's comments sparked something of a family feud. His son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., said he was disappointed by his father's "reckless statements."

"His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee — and I believe the next president of the United States — contradict his inspiring and courageous career," the younger Jackson said.

The comments are not the first the elder Jackson has had to explain after believing he was off the record.

In 1984, he called New York City "Hymietown," referring to the city's large Jewish population. He later acknowledged it was wrong to use the term, but said he did so in private to a reporter.

Jackson is at least the third vocal Chicago supporter to create problems for Obama on the campaign trail.

Obama resigned from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ during the primaries after a videotape of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., hit the Internet. On the tape, Wright accused the U.S. government of creating AIDS and is seen shouting "God damn America" during a sermon.

In May, Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger mocked Obama's then Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton during a guest sermon at Trinity United. Pfleger, who is white, pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show." He later apologized.

John McCain and Barack Obama to Debate ???

Next, John McCain Will Ask Barack Obama to Debate via Carrier Pigeon

Now that Barack Obama has become the standard bearer of the Democratic party (at least the sections of it without the surname Clinton), GOP nominee John McCain has decided to go on the general election offensive.

His first tactic: challenge that liberal whippersnapper to reenact historical events that took place when Obama was just a toddler...

The McCain campaign has issued a letter in the senator's name asking that Barack Obama agree to a series of at least 10 joint appearances this summer, with the first one next week in New York's Federal Hall.

Citing the original plan by Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy to fly around the country together in 1964, McCain writes [what] "a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bites and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections."

Ahh, 1964. Weren't those the days? None of these pesky Web logs to generate empty sound bites for the proles. Fewer television sets to stand between Mr. Cleaver, the little lady and their elected officials. Back then it was just men, particularly white men, discussing the great issues mano a mano. The way it should be.

McCain is so commited to authenticity he even had his letter delivered the old-fashioned way...

Obama aide Bill Burton, a campaign source says, went downstairs in their Chicago offices just now to collect a hand-delivered copy of John McCain's invitation to Goldwater-Kennedy-style debates with Obama.

"You know, you could have just emailed this," a somewhat puzzled Burton told the middle-aged messenger.

No, Bill, I don't think they could have.

McCain hasn't figured out how to connect his typewriter to the internet.