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(CNN) - Bill Clinton said Monday the Democratic ticket should steer clear of launching personal attacks on Sarah Palin over her relatively thin resume, and instead acknowledge she was a "good choice" for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.
"Why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don't we like them and celebrate them and be happy for her elevation to the ticket? And just say that she was a good choice for him and we disagree with them?" said Clinton, who faced repeated charges during the primary season he was overly negative toward Obama on the campaign trail.
Clinton's comments appear to echo advice Karl Rove gave to Barack Obama in his regular Wall Street Journal column last week, when the former Bush strategist noted attacking the VP candidate has rarely proven to be an effective strategy.
In one of the former president's few extended comments to date on Palin's surprise VP candidacy, Clinton also told reporters in New York Monday he knows why the Alaska governor is attracting massive crowds on the campaign trail.
"I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there," Clinton told reporters in New York, according to the Associated Press. "Why she's doing well."
"People look at her, and they say, 'All those kids. Something that happens in everybody's family I'm glad she loves her daughter and she's not ashamed of her. Glad that girl's going around with her boyfriend. Glad they're going to get married,'" he said.
Referencing Palin's 5-month old child who has Down Syndrome, Clinton also said voters will think, "I like that little Down syndrome kid - one of them lives down the street, they're wonderful children.”
Earlier Monday, Clinton suggested his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, would have been a better political choice for the Democratic VP spot than Joe Biden.
“She would have been the best politically, at least in the short run, because of her enormous support of the country,“ he said on the daytime talk show The View.
(CNN)—Congress debates President Bush’s proposed financial bail out package which could cost as much as $1 trillion. In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, Kathleen Koch reports on the recent financial bailout developments on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile: Dana Bash has the latest on John McCain’s call for greater government oversight of Wall Street, and Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley follows Barack Obama and lays out his proposal for preventing future crises.
Finally: Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider follows battleground polls that show Obama making inroads with two constituencies previously leaning McCain: men and seniors.
Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.
(CNN)— Governor Sarah Palin accused “Obama-Biden Democrats,” of launching a series of unfair attacks against her and her family in a fundraising email sent to supporters Monday.
“Friends, in the course of a few weeks, the Obama-Biden Democrats have launched attack after attack on me, my family and John McCain,” Palin writes in the email. “They’re desperate to win and they’ll no doubt launch these attacks against other reformers on our ticket.”
Watch: Obama says discussion of Sarah Palin's family is 'off-limits'
Earlier this month, the McCain campaign said its $47 million fundraising record for the month of August was due in large part to the addition of the Alaska governor to the ticket. Her presence on the campaign trail has also translated into larger crowds at campaign events throughout the country.
Palin said Obama and Biden have a “large financial advantage,” urging supporters that a contribution of any size will help stop the spread of “lies” and “misinformation” coming from Democrats.
“We must stop them,” Palin writes, “...before they turn these shameful tactics on others we support.”
Earlier this month when Obama was asked about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, the Illinois senator repeated previous calls that “people’s families are off-limits.”
“This shouldn’t be part of our politics,” Obama said “It has no relevance to show Governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.”
(CNN) - John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning in Media Pennsylvania this hour.
Watch the event on CNN.com/live
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll suggests that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks — one factor that may have contributed to an apparent increase in Barack Obama’s edge over John McCain in the race for the White House.
In the new survey, released Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying Democrats are more responsible. One in five of those polled blame both parties equally, and 8 percent say neither party is to blame.
Watch: No 'blank check' for Wall Street Obama says
The poll also indicates that more Americans think Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Forty-nine percent of those questioned say Obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than the number who said the same about McCain. And Obama has a 10 point lead over McCain on the question of who would better handle the economy overall.
Watch: McCain calls for oversight board
These numbers appear to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters are backing Obama, who now holds a 5 point edge over McCain, at 46 percent. McCain and Obama were tied at 48 percent apiece in the previous CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. Obama's advantage, while growing, is still within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Where did Obama make his gains?
"In two core McCain constituencies: Men, who now narrowly favor Obama. And seniors, who have also flipped from McCain to Obama," says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.
When including only those people most likely to vote, the results are pretty much the same: Among likely voters, Obama has a 4 point lead, 51 percent to 47 percent.
FULL POST
BALTIMORE, Maryland, (CNN) - One day after John McCain questioned Barack Obama’s judgment to be commander-in-chief in front of the conference of the National Guard Association, Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden came to his defense in front of the same gathering Monday, hitting McCain on foreign policy and national security.
Biden also countered John McCain’s accusation that behind Barack Obama’s views “lies the ambition to be president.”
“No one party has a monopoly on virtue or good ideas,” said Biden. “We can question each other’s judgment, that’s what elections are all about but we have to stop questioning each other’s motives and each other’s patriotism.”
“We all put ‘country first,’” he added, borrowing the McCain camp’s slogan. “When John and I send our sons to war, they don’t wear a Republican flag or a Democratic flag. They wear the American flag.”
McCain’s son Jimmy, a Marine lance corporal, has served in Iraq. Biden’s son Beau, Delaware’s attorney general and a member of the state’s National Guard, will be deploying there this fall.
Like McCain’s Sunday remarks, Biden’s lines on patriotism and the American flag got a rousing reception from the crowd. The crowd was silent during his attacks on the Republican nominee.
Leaders from all over the world are gathering in New York this week for the fall session of the United Nation's General Assembly.
And with all the possible conversations between heads of state and other political leaders that will go on there...One meeting is creating so much hype, the flies are fighting for spots on the wall to listen in.
Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The meeting comes as the McCain-Palin camp works to assure voters she has a good enough grasp of foreign policy to be one heartbeat way from the presidency.
Until now, Palin's foreign policy experience involves a trip to Kuwait and Germany to visit Alaskan National guard members...And something about being able to see Russia from her house.
To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here
(CNN) – Sitting on a couch shmoozing the ladies of The View on Monday, Bill Clinton said Hillary didn’t want to be Barack Obama’s running mate, but that she would have taken the job if she was asked.
“She would have been the best politically, at least in the short run, because of her enormous support [in] the country,“ Clinton said. “She said 'If he asks, I’ll do it because it’s my duty.'”
Clinton praised Biden and said he was a “good choice.” He said he had “no real opinion” on whether or not she should have been his running mate, but that the decision is personal and that he chose to stay out of it completely.
Clinton praised John McCain for his time spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and said the Arizona senator had been the only Republican candidate this year who could win the election, but predicted that Obama will win in November because of the state of the economy.
“I've made everyone in the world mad in this election,” Clinton said. “But I genuinely like both of them. I genuinely admire both of them. I think we make a terrible mistake believing we have to find something wrong with the people we can't vote for.”
When asked about Obama’s experience, Clinton said he was the same age as the Democratic nominee when he stepped into the Oval Office. He said he thinks both candidates are experienced enough to be president.
“Having been there, you could argue that no one is ever fully qualified to be president until you take it, because it’s such a unique job, you have to learn things as you go,” Clinton said. “But I think he is ready to be president, and I think McCain is ready to be president, I think you gotta decide which president you want.”
(CNN) - Barack Obama holds leads in critical battleground states of Iowa and Pennsylvania with only six weeks remaining until Election Day, according to just released CNN poll of polls.
New surveys also released Monday suggest Obama and John McCain are locked in statistical ties in two other crucial swing states.
According to CNN's Iowa poll of polls, Obama holds a 7-point lead (50-43 percent) in the state that narrowly voted for President Bush in 2004 and gave a major boost to Obama's presidential fortunes earlier this year at the start of the primary season.
A poll of polls out of Pennsylvania shows the race there considerably tighter, with the Illinois senator - who lost handily to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary there - holding a slim 3 point lead over McCain (47-44 percent).
Both the Iowa and Pennsylvania poll of polls consist of three recent surveys out of both states, and neither carries a margin of error.
(CNN)—The National Rifle Association is taking aim at Sen. Barack Obama’s ‘bitter’ comment in a new ad, claiming the Illinois senator wants to ban shotguns and rifle’s commonly used for hunting.
“I learned that Barack Obama supports new tax on my guns and ammo,” Karl Rusch of Virginia says. “But it’s not just new taxes that Barack Obama wants. You can believe it. He also supports a ban on the shotguns and rifles most of us use for hunting.”
Obama has called for permanently reinstating the assault weapons ban, and voted for a 2005 amendment placing restrictions on rifle ammunition that is “designed or marketed” to be armor-piercing, but has not called for confiscation of rifles.
Watch: Obama speaks about his view on gun control
Joe Biden told supporters at a campaign event in Virginia Saturday they need not worry about their guns being confiscated under an Obama-Biden administration.
“I guarantee you, Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns. So don't buy that malarkey,” Biden said Saturday. “They're going to start peddling that to you. I got two and if he tries to fool with my Berretta, he's got a problem.”
In the NRA’s ad, “Hunter,” Rusch concludes, “No politician is going to take away my guns and ammo. You don’t have to be bitter to know Barack Obama isn’t the kind of change we need.”
Despite the NRA’s strong criticism of Obama, the group has not endorsed John McCain for president.
McCain addressed NRA members at their convention in May, telling them he hasn’t agreed with them on “every issue,” but “those disagreements do not detract from my long record of support for the Second Amendment.”