(CNN) – President Bush is praising John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin as an “inspired pick.”
"I find her to be a very dynamic, capable, smart women who, you know, it really says that John McCain made an inspired pick, to me," Bush said of the Alaska governor in an interview set to air Tuesday on Fox, according to excerpts released by the network.
Watch: Will Palin help the GOP?
"She's had executive experience, and that's what it takes to be a capable person here in Washington, D.C. in the executive branch," he said.
Bush served as Texas governor before his first presidential run.
LEE’S SUMMIT, Missouri (CNN) –John McCain is launching a new line of attack against Barack Obama, criticizing his rival for saying Sunday that he would buck his own party by calling for an increase in the size of the U.S. military.
“Of course, now he wants to increase it,” McCain told an audience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri Monday. “But during the primary he told a liberal advocacy group that he’d cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars. He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of future combat systems.’”
Watch: McCain says he will 'veto every earmark'
McCain was referring to a YouTube clip from last October that features Obama promising the non-profit group “Caucus for Priorities” that he would reduce wasteful military spending.
“I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending,” Obama said in the video. “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems.”
In the video, Obama also said: “As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people.”
Obama, now the Democratic nominee, was asked on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to cite examples of where he would be willing to break with his own party.
“I’ve said that we need to increase the size of our military,” Obama answered, noting that such legislation might anger some on the left.
McCain, who claimed in his remarks that the world is simply too dangerous to reduce military spending, said Obama is guilty of general election pandering.
“Sen. Obama told the extreme left what they wanted to hear during the primary, now he’s trying to tell you what he thinks you want to hear,” McCain responded in Missouri. “My friends, you may not always agree with me but you will always know where I stand.”
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (CNN) – Joe Biden said Monday that vice presidential opponent Sarah Palin seems to have "some very extreme views."
Speaking to a union crowd in Wisconsin, Biden also said he hasn't heard enough specifics from the Alaska governor, and that he's hoping to learn more about her positions before the two debate October 2.
"Hopefully by the time the debate takes place, we’ll have a better sense of her other than some of what she says and what appear to be some very extreme views," Biden said.
Watch: Palin hits the campaign trail
"I’m assuming that she shares John McCain’s views on most of the issues. And she even says, if the press is correct - and I’m not ready, prepared to make a judgment [on this] - her views on everything from global warming to other things, if they are as presented, they’re pretty far out there."
(CNN) - A liberal veterans group called Monday for an official investigation into media discussion of Track Palin’s deployment to Iraq — prompting a Defense Department response that there had been no irregularities involved, and would be no investigation.
“Numerous outlets have reported the date and location of Palin's deployment, which compromises operational security,” said Vote Vets in a statement. “The source of the leaks would be acting in violation of the law, and putting troops at unnecessary risk, and could be prosecuted.”
But the kind of information the group is referring to is typically publicly released by the Defense Department well in advance of a unit’s deployment. And the date of Palin’s upcoming deployment has been referred to numerous times by his mother, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, on the campaign trail.
"There is no violation of operational security,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “DoD tells the public when we rotate a brigade into Iraq or Afghanistan."
There was no word from the Pentagon on whether there had been any requests for special consideration in Track Palin’s case. Earlier this year, John McCain asked the media not to report the precise date and time his son Jack would be returning from Iraq until he was back in the United States, a request that was honored by all major news organizations.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A new national poll taken entirely after the end of the Republican convention suggests the race for the White House between John McCain and Barack Obama is dead even.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll out Monday afternoon has McCain and Obama tied at 48 percent each among registered voters questioned. Three percent of voters are undecided in the survey, which was conducted Friday through Sunday.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll is one of three new surveys taken mostly over the weekend. The other two are a Gallup Tracking Poll and a Diageo/Hotline survey. When all three are averaged together for a new CNN Poll of Polls, the results have McCain up one point, 47 percent to 46 percent. That’s the first time in the CNN Poll of Polls that McCain has an advantage over Obama.
Watch: McCain, Obama deadlocked
The battle for the presidency also includes some minor party candidates, including Independent Ralph Nader, Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr, and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney — but the poll suggests they don’t have any impact on the shape of the race.
When they are added to the equation, the race between McCain and Obama remains tied, at 45 percent each, with Nader and Barr at 3 percent each and McKinney at 1 percent.
(CNN) – The manager of a state probe into the firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner won't be removed for suggesting the investigation could yield an "October surprise" for Gov. Sarah Palin, a key lawmaker announced Monday.
State Sen. Kim Elton, the chairman of the bipartisan Legislative Council that commissioned the probe, said the decisions made by Sen. Hollis French "have been appropriate, bipartisan ... and unchallenged" and that French has called the comments he made last week "regrettable."
"Comments about the investigation can be as incendiary as napalm," Elton, a Democrat, wrote to a Republican lawmaker who sought French's removal last week. But he added, "I'm sure that all of us can work in a non-partisan way to accomplish the charge given to the investigator by the Legislative Council."
Alaska's Legislature is looking into allegations that Palin - now the Republican nominee for vice president - fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan when he refused to sack her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a custody battle with the governor's sister. Palin has denied any wrongdoing, and her allies have said the investigation has become a "political circus."
Watch: Sarah Palin's ties to the Pentecostal denomination come under scrutiny. CNN's Jessica Yellin reports.
(CNN)— A video of Sarah Palin’s pastor calling Alaska a “refuge” state for “hundreds of thousands of people” in the world’s final days has been making waves on the Internet. Now the church is asking observers in, inviting CNN’s Jessica Yellin to attend and offering a firsthand glimpse of their worship services.
Watch as CNN’s Jessica Yellin gives you an inside look.
(CNN) - John McCain and Sarah Palin are holding a campaign event in Lee's Summit, Missouri.
Catch it all on CNN.com/live!
UPDATE: This event has ended, but stay with CNN.com/live for all the day's events on the campaign trail.
(CNN) - Will she or won't she?
That's the question political observers are asking when it comes to whether Hillary Clinton will go after Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin - the first woman named to a Republican presidential ticket and potentially the first female vice president.
Clinton, who hits the campaign trail for Barack Obama Monday for the first time since her rousing speech at the Democratic presidential convention, has remained hesitant to attack on the Alaska governor since she joined the Republican presidential ticket 10 days ago. She initially offered congratulations to McCain and Palin on her "historic nomination," and the New York senator repeatedly dodged chances to criticize the Alaska governor during public appearances in New York City and Staten Island on Saturday.
"This election is about issues, and that's what's going to matter to people at the end of the day," Clinton told reporters after being repeatedly asked about Palin. In fact, she only directly named Palin once the whole day in an update of her convention speech line: "No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin."
But as polls show McCain receiving a bump since naming Palin as his running mate, and as the GOP vice presidential candidate continues to reference Clinton's historic presidential bid in her own stump speech, the New York senator may face increased pressure to level more direct shots at the Alaska governor.
Watch: The Palin sensation
Obama aides are remaining mum on exactly what Clinton will say during her campaign stops in Tampa and in Kissimmee, Florida later Monday - events scheduled before Palin was even named to the GOP ticket.
"Sen. Clinton will address the choice we have in this election – between a new direction for our economy or four more years of the Bush failed economic policies that McCain-Palin is offering," Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said. "She will talk about the Obama-Biden plan for immediate and lasting relief for America's working families."
Watch: Condoleezza Rice weighs in on McCain's pick of Sarah Palin.
(CNN) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave CNN praise for prospective Republican vice president Sarah Palin’s qualifications this weekend.
“She’s governor of a state here in the United States,” Rice told CNN’s Zain Verjee. Asked whether Palin’s experience had adequately prepared her for the foreign policy challenges she’d face as president, she added that “there are different kinds of experiences in life that help one to deal with matters of foreign policy.”
Last month, Rice offered unqualified praise of opponent Joe Biden’s diplomatic credentials. “Biden is obviously a very fine statesman.”
The contrast fuels questions that have hung over Rice’s political loyalties this cycle, as she maintained silence over her presidential pick.
Two months ago, she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she had made a decision on which candidate would get her vote this fall – but that she wasn’t prepared to share who that might be.
From CNN Politics
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