Palin is preparing for her speech Wednesday night.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) – Gov. Sarah Palin has been working around the clock on a speech that will focus on introducing herself to voters, proving she has what it takes to handle the economy and making the case for John McCain, two McCain aides told CNN Wednesday.

The Alaska governor has spent most of the past 48 hours working in a hotel room with speechwriter Matt Scully and adviser Nicolle Wallace. On Tuesday, they worked nonstop from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. She also did a read-through with the prompter at 10 p.m. – exactly 24 hours before the real speech, the aides said.

The Republican vice presidential candidate will continue practicing and tweaking all day, working up until the last minute before she leaves for the convention hall.

Palin has been educating Scully and Wallace on her experience and record as they have been helping her put the message into words. The governor has been “co-writing” with Scully, according to a source involved in the process.

According to a senior McCain adviser, the speech has three main goals:

First, Palin wants to leave no question about which ticket has a better hold on the economy.

Palin will emphasize her experience and understanding of the energy economy and talk about how Alaska is the “intersection of global energy markets and domestic production.” Here, she’ll try to combat questions regarding her experience.

Palin will also pit John McCain against Barack Obama, making the case for the Arizona senator on the basis of policy and character.

“After she delivers these lines, McCain’s decision to choose her will be much more obvious,” said the aide who has been working with her on the speech.

Finally, Palin will introduce herself to voters as a likable, funny and smart person.

“Every one in the staff has fallen in love with her,” insisted this aide.

Regarding expectations for the night, another senior adviser said, “The Democrats and the media have done a great job lowering expectations. We’re going to raise some expectations tonight. The elites will never give her her due, or middle America its due.”

“She is going to really going to connect with blue collar voters — illustrate that she has a common touch with an executive presence,” the aide said.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was not happy with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech before the Republican National Convention Tuesday night.

"Senator Reid was very disappointed in Senator Lieberman’s speech tonight,” Reid spokesman, Jim Manley, told CNN. “As the American people have made very clear, the last thing this country needs is another four years of the same old failed Bush-McCain policies of the past."

In particular, the Nevada Democrat took issue with Lieberman’s assertion that Obama has not crossed party lines.

Lieberman’s statement that “Senator Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young… but, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America” also drew Reid’s ire, Manley said.

McCain's camp defends vetting process, stating only one red flag came up.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) — John McCain insisted Tuesday his vice presidential vetting process was thorough, as his campaign tried to calm concern that more surprises about Sarah Palin were coming.

To that end, a source intimately involved in McCain's VP vetting process called CNN to give an account of her background check.

This official said a 25-person team, led by Washington attorney A.B. Culvahouse, started by compiling reports on 20 top VP contenders, using only public documents like disclosure forms, public records, newspaper articles, and interview transcripts.

That information was eventually presented to McCain, and to top campaign advisers Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt, Charlie Black and Rick Davis, the only four aides involved in the highly secretive process.

Once McCain and those aides narrowed the choices to a short list, Palin and other contenders were contacted and asked for documents a credit check, a call for tax returns, and additional financial disclosure forms.

Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) – A senior adviser to John McCain's campaign confirms that they have dispatched a team of 12 people to presumptive VP nominee Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska.

The adviser insists the group is a communications "jump" team that would have gone to any nominee's hometown, and denies reports that the team is now going to further vet Palin.

(CNN) – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hired a lawyer three weeks ago to act on her behalf as state legislators investigate whether she may have abused her power in firing the state police chief for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, CNN has confirmed.

A report of findings of a legislative inquiry that began several weeks ago is currently slated to be released just days before Election Day.

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, second from the right, is pregnant.

ST. PAUL (CNN) - Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aide confirmed to CNN Monday.

McCain was aware of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, the aide said.

“Senator McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president,” said the aide. “Families have difficulties sometimes and lucky for her she has a supportive family.”

Bristol Palin, a senior in high school, is about 5 months along, in her second trimester, according to the aide.

The aide said they decided to reveal this information now because of rampant Internet rumors that Sarah Palin’s four month old baby, who has Down Syndrome, was actually Bristol’s.

“In the course of correcting that, we needed to get the truth out,” said the McCain aide.

In a statement from Sarah and Todd Palin, they said they were “proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.”

They also asked the media to respect their daughter’s privacy.

The McCain aide insisted a key point to keep in mind is that Bristol decided to keep the baby, a decision “supported by her parents.”

(CNN) — John McCain’s presidential campaign has decided not to reveal the name of his running mate until Friday, a senior McCain source tells CNN.

McCain will appear in Ohio tomorrow with his vice presidential pick.

“This is Barack Obama’s night,” said the source.

DAYTON, Ohio (CNN) – It is unclear if John McCain has notified his running mate yet, but planned Denver media appearances by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, thought to be a top contender, were abruptly canceled Thursday so he could back to head back to Minnesota, an aide said.

Pawlenty’s appearances were canceled by the Republican National Committee, which had invited him to Denver to act as a McCain surrogate during the Democratic convention.

Another VP contender, former primary season rival Mitt Romney, is traveling in California and attending private events, including fundraisers. There was no indication he has received word either way yet from McCain, according to sources close to the former Massachusetts governor.

Read the rest of this entry »

DENVER (CNN) – A senior adviser with John McCain's campaign called CNN Thursday to confirm that the VP selection process is finished and the presumptive Republican nominee has made up his mind.

CNN first reported the news Wednesday, after a knowledgeable Republican source said the matter was settled at a major meeting of McCain's advisers.

The presumptive Republican nominee will appear with his prospective running mate at a massive rally on Friday, the day after Barack Obama formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.

DENVER (CNN) – A source close to Mark Warner who helped the Senate candidate craft his convention keynote speech said criticism by senior Democrats that his planned remarks were not partisan enough were off-base – because the Virginia Senate candidate's bi-partisan reputation is precisely why he was asked to speak in the first place.

“That is at odds with the notion that he should be the person ripping the bark off McCain,” this source said.

In a Huffington Post op-ed titled "Please, Democrats, Attack" Begala said he recognized that Warner was running this year in a traditionally Republican state, but that "Democrats should not have put Warner in this bind."

In his speech, Warner will include one of the Obama camp’s main themes – that the Illinois senator represents change versus four more years of the same — but the crux of his speech will be talking about working together with Republicans and the lessons and success he had doing that in Virginia.

McCain, who made a stop at a Pennsylvania supermarket Wednesday, will host political allies at his Arizona ranch this weekend.

(CNN) — Aides to John McCain tell CNN that the presumptive Republican nominee will host a group of political allies and fundraisers from around the country this weekend at his cabin outside Sedona, Arizona.

As many as 75 people are expected to attend a barbeque at McCain's home Saturday.

The attendees will also get meetings and briefings from staff, including campaign manager Rick Davis, Saturday morning at a nearby Sedona resort where most will stay.

Watch: McCain goes grocery shopping with a Pennsylvania family

McCain often uses his creek-side cabin to hold intimate political events in a relaxed setting. He told reporters he hosted there this spring that making ribs on his large grill is one of his only means of relaxation.

A few months ago he hosted a group that included several would-be running mates and their wives. It was at that event that McCain says he and his wife Cindy really got to know, and like, his former rival Mitt Romney and his wife Ann.

Is McCain inching toward Pawlenty?

ROCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) – It's VP tea leaf reading season, and a Republican source who attended a small private meeting with John McCain Tuesday in New Hampshire tells CNN that the GOP candidate dropped a serious hint about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

The Republican source said "out of the blue" McCain told the gathering that he thinks they are "really going to like" Pawlenty.

CNN's Political Market: Pawlenty's stock on the rise

This GOP source noted that McCain also said nice things about Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, but those appeared to be standard lines he says about former rivals.

This source said McCain may have been talking about Pawlenty because the meeting was with New Hampshire GOP delegates, and the Republican convention is in Pawlenty's state.

But this source said McCain's praise was effusive, and noteworthy because it appeared to come "totally out of left field."

Pawlenty is a long-time supporter of McCain's. He's from a swing state with considerable support across the Republican Party, including evangelicals, and has always been thought by Republican strategists to be on McCain's short list.

The Minnesota governor, who is visiting Washington, was at McCain headquarters in Virginia today for meetings, according to a McCain aide.

McCain is expected to continue criticism of Obama while he is overseas.

(CNN)—Senator John McCain tends to follow the old adage “politics ends at the water's edge,” but his aides tell CNN they have every intention of continuing their attacks on Obama while the presumptive Democratic nominee is on his overseas trip.

When he was in Canada in June, McCain refused to talk about Obama — and CNN was told from top advisers that McCain got angry at campaign aides back at headquarters for sending emails hitting the Illinois senator while he was abroad.

But the McCain campaign considers Obama’s trip to Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan fair game. McCain aides says the Obama campaign and the DNC both set precedent for it, by attacking McCain while he was in Europe and the Middle East in March, and during his recent trips to Canada, Colombia and Mexico.

In an e-mail response to CNN, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers attached a list of quotes from Obama and DNC press releases during the presumptive Republican nominee’s trips, and said “we don’t feel there’s any restriction on drawing contrasts while he’s abroad.”

The trip has already drawn significant media coverage — so there’s no doubt the McCain campaign will be watching Obama very closely.

The campaign has already sharpened its argument in the past week, branding the presumptive Democratic nominee’s trip to Europe as a photo opportunity, and his visits to Afghanistan and Iraq campaign stops, not a fact finding missions, since Obama announced his policies before visiting.

“I was very interested that he articulated and announced his policies and approached Iraq before he went, not after. Remarkable,” Senator McCain told Missouri voters Thursday.

“I've been on a lot of trips around the world, usually at your expense, but I usually issue my policy statements when I get back.”

McCain is continuing to paint Obama as naive on foreign policy.

(CNN) — John McCain’s aides may not like it, but they know it's inevitable: Barack Obama's trip overseas is guaranteed to generate a lot of coverage.

And they say while Obama is abroad, McCain will spend the week sticking to issues that voters care most about, namely the ailing economy.

But now, McCain is using every opportunity he can get to come down on Barack Obama's Iraq policy.

While at a Kansas City town hall Thursday, unprompted, the presumptive Republican nominee tweaked Obama for his upcoming trip abroad.

"I know that Senator Obama is going to Iraq," he said. "I was very interested that he articulated and announced his policies and [approach to] Iraq before he went."

Ironically, it was McCain himself who encouraged the Illinois senator to go.

"It's now coming up on 900 days since he last visited Iraq, since before the surge," McCain said last month in Pennsylvania. "I hope that he goes as quickly as possible, with or without me."

The Republican National Committee has a running clock on its Web site showing how many days, hours, and seconds it has been since Obama last visited Iraq.

Since the June 28 news that Obama was planning to make a trip to Iraq, the McCain campaign has been working up their response plan.

Read the rest of this entry »

McCain talks with reporters aboard his campaign bus.

(CNN) — After talking with aides before his speech targeting Barack Obama's changing positions and rhetoric on Iraq, John McCain decided to ad lib a line slamming the Illinois senator as a flip-flopper.

The only problem is the evidence he gave wasn't exactly right.

First McCain quoted Obama in January 2007, saying that there can't be a military solution to a civil war, and that he knows no military expert who thinks the surge can make a difference.

Then McCain said, "incredibly today, he goes on to say today, quote 'I had no doubt we would see a reduction in violence with the surge' — my friends, flip-floppers all over the world are enraged"

The problem is that Obama did not in fact say today, "I had no doubt we would see a reduction in violence with the surge."

Read the rest of this entry »

Gramm told CNN he did not mean to suggest Americans are 'whiners.'

(CNN) — Top McCain adviser Phil Gramm tells CNN that his most controversial comment about the economy in a recent interview has been misinterpreted.

The former Texas senator, who advises presumptive Republican nominee John McCain on economic matters, also said he had not been speaking for the campaign when he spoke to a Washington Times reporter. “I didn’t claim to be representing anyone except myself,” he said. Gramm called CNN from his cell phone before boarding a flight Thursday, to clarify his remarks.

Gramm said he that he was trying to say the nation’s leaders, not its people, were “whiners.”

“The whiners are the leaders, hell, the American people are victims, but it didn’t quite come out that way in the story,” Gramm said. These national and congressional leaders “blame speculators and oil companies for our problems, instead of presenting concrete programs for using energy more efficiently, or leaders who don’t think we can compete with Mexico.

“What we need is more leadership and less whining,” he added.

But he stood by his assessment that the country was in a “mental recession.”

“I said we are in a mental recession. We keep getting the steady drum beat of bad news…it’s become a mental recession,” said Gramm. “We don’t have measured negative growth. That’s a fact, that’s not a commentary.”

Asked whether he understood beforehand the kind of political impact his statements might have, he said this outraged reactions his remarks had drawn were just part of the “game” — anytime anyone says something, said Gramm, it can be “taken out of context.”

McCain will talk the economy next week.

(CNN) — Kicking off the post-Fourth of July campaign stretch, John McCain will spend a week focusing on the economy with a series of events in key fall battleground states in his first tour organized by his new campaign team.

The presumptive Republican nominee will set the stage Monday with the unveiling of his jobs-first economic plan in Colorado.

On Tuesday, McCain returns to Washington to address the 79th Annual LULAC Convention – his latest attempt to reach out to the Hispanic community in the wake of new surveys that suggest his Democratic rival may hold the edge among that key voting bloc. Barack Obama will also address the gathering that day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Schwarzenegger is expected highlight his stance on off-shore drilling Tuesday.

(CNN) – Even though California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing John McCain for president, the box office superstar-turned politician will highlight his differences with the presumptive Republican nominee Tuesday on the issue of off-shore drilling, a Schwarzenegger advisor tells CNN.

The governor will join McCain on the campaign trail in Santa Barbara, California, where he is expected to make a brief reference to their different positions, but then turn to areas where they do agree.

WATCH McCain wants to lift federal moratorium on off-shore drilling

Unlike Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who recently joined McCain in dropping opposition to off-shore drilling, Schwarzenegger publicly disagreed with the presumptive Republican nominee on the issue. In doing so, the governor called the California coastline “An international treasure.”

“Governor Schwarzenegger does not support lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling,” said aide Matt David.

While McCain faced tough odds in winning California in the general election, his reversal on off-shore drilling all but ended hope of him picking up the state’s 55 electoral votes, Republicans tell CNN. The Arizona senator was even questioned about his stance by one of his donors at a California fundraiser Monday night.

As for McCain, the campaign says he will be “contrasting with Obama on his inability to work in a bipartisan fashion” on energy.

Update: Schwarzenegger did not speak about off-shore drilling at the event. The governor and his staff expected the topic would be a part of the panel discussion and that Schwarzenegger would bring up his differences with McCain then. But the issue wasn’t an active part of the discussion, according to one of the governor’s advisors.

McCain visited the flood-stricken town of Columbus Junction, Iowa Thursday.

(CNN) — John McCain's campaign is striking back after a top staffer for Iowa Governor Chet Culver said Thursday that the Democratic governor had unsuccessfully asked the Arizona senator to avoid making a scheduled campaign trip to the flood-ravaged state.

Patrick Dillon, Culver’s chief of staff, said in a statement there had been worries McCain's arrival would put a strain on already-overtaxed area law enforcement. The presumptive Republican nominee visited several hard-hit towns in the state Thursday.

President Bush also visited Iowa Thursday.

A McCain aide said the campaign took steps to avoid burdening any flood recovery efforts. “We worked with the local authorities to make certain we weren’t getting in the way. We’d be happy to put you in touch with the local mayor and sheriff who were part of our tour,” a McCain aide told CNN and pointed to an AP-reported comment from the mayor of the town of Columbus Junction, Iowa that McCain’s Thursday visit had not posed any difficulties.

“The governor never called the campaign to express this concern,” the McCain aide added.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sens. Obama and McCain talked during a Capitol Hill press conference in this 2006 file photo.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – John McCain’s campaign is denying an account by staffers on Barack Obama’s team that the rival campaigns had been involved in discussions over whether or not they would accept public funds.

Obama counsel Bob Bauer said Thursday he had met with Trevor Potter, his counterpart on the McCain team, on June 6 to discuss a possible joint townhall appearance later in the month, and that the two discussed the public funding issue for 45 minutes.

“I asked him to address a [series] of issues of concern to the Obama campaign–the McCain campaign's active raising and spending of private money since February for a general election campaign, including for media, while we were still in the middle of a primary contest,” said Bauer in a statement. “He gave me his perspectives–the best arguments he could offer for an agreement on both sides to accept public financing–and it was clear to me that these offered no basis for any further exchange.”

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker flatly said Thursday that Bauer “never negotiated with Potter about public financing.”

Others in the McCain camp said that Obama’s staffers are “libeling” their attorney, and lying about the discussion – that the two counsels were meeting on a separate topic entirely, and that there were no negotiations on public finance.

(UPDATED with response from the McCain campaign, after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »