John McCain Hits the Campaign Trail for Fellow Republicans

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

It is a busy week on the campaign trail for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Except this time around, he is hitting the trail in support of others in his party.

On Monday, he endorsed former WWE CEO Linda McMahon in Danbury, Conn., for her Senate bid to replace McCain’s friend, retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman (I), according to the Hartford Courant. McMahon faces Rep. Christopher Murphy in a race that Roll Call rates as Leans Democratic.

Today and Wednesday, McCain will campaign across Florida on behalf of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. That tour will include mostly veterans events in Pensacola, Niceville, Panama City and Tallahassee.

Hawaii: Senate Candidates Appropriating Daniel Inouye, Barack Obama

(Tom Williams/Roll Call File Photo)

Unlike many Democratic Senate candidates this cycle, Rep. Mazie Hirono seems eager to run on the coattails of her fellow Democrats — namely President Barack Obama and Hawaii’s senior Senator, Daniel Inouye.

Obama is expected to easily prevail in his native state, and Hirono, the Democratic Senate nominee, is embracing her support of Obama in a new ad hitting her opponent, former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, for supporting GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

A release from the Hirono campaign characterized the ad as a statewide buy. If the past is any indication, then Hawaiians will see it on their TVs with some frequency.

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Amid Surge, Obama Camp Guards Against Overconfidence

(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

Polls continued to shift strongly in President Barack Obama’s favor today, with the president opening up a 6-point lead in the Gallup tracking poll. He has even bigger leads in some polls in key swing states, including in Ohio, where both he and GOP challenger Mitt Romney campaigned today.

Obama jumped to a lead of 50 percent to 44 percent in the seven-day Gallup tracking poll, up from 48 percent to 45 percent Tuesday and a 47-percent tie just a few days ago. The results came as the Obama campaign tried to guard against overconfidence, and the Romney campaign has argued in recent days that most public polls are flawed.

The Romney campaign in the past week had taken solace in the relative closeness of the Gallup poll. Full story

Lindsey Graham: Mitt Romney Should Stop Fundraising and Get Out There

(CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweaked Mitt Romney’s campaign today for spending too much time fundraising and not enough on the campaign trail.

“I think what Romney needs to do is get into Virginia and run for sheriff,” Graham told reporters after a noontime vote on Capitol Hill. “This is not rocket science. ”

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For Obama, Ohio Is Ground Zero on China Trade Debate

(Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama delivered a counter punch to GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s attacks on his China policy today, heading to manufacturing-heavy Ohio to tout a new trade action against Chinese auto parts subsidies and to blast Romney’s record on outsourcing.

“Now, I understand my opponent has been running around Ohio claiming he’s going to roll up his sleeves and take the fight to China,” Obama said. “But here’s the thing: His experience has been owning companies that were called ‘pioneers’ in the business of outsourcing jobs to countries like China.”

Obama said his administration has brought and won twice as many trade cases against China as the Bush administration did in two terms, including a case against Chinese tires that Romney criticized at the time.

“I like to walk the walk, not just talk the talk,” he said, accusing Romney of “taking advantage of unfair trade practices” while in business but talking tough with an election around the corner.

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Nancy Pelosi Maintains House in Play

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an interview that aired this morning pushed back  against the growing consensus that Democrats have a difficult path ahead to win back control of the House of Representatives.

“So we have the message, we have the messengers, we have the money, we have the mobilization,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have a very excellent chance to take back the House.”

Democrats need 25 seats to gain control of the House.

Anchor Candy Crowley asked Pelosi if she agreed with a recent Roll Call story that stated that Democratic House chances are “theoretically possible but unlikely.”

“No. I think that, first of all, I don’t know what the source of that is,” Pelosi said. “But I do know what the source of our confidence is, and that’s the quality of our candidates. They’re just great, the fact that they are strong in terms of their grassroots mobilization and their resource raising and the rest.”

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Barack Obama, DNC Outraise Mitt Romney, RNC in August

(Douglas Graham CQ/Roll Call)

President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee outraised GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee in the month of August.

The combined efforts of Obama For America and the DNC raised $114 million during the month of August. Romney For President, Romney Victory  and the RNC raised about $112 million to close the period with about $169 million in cash on hand. The Obama camp did not provide its cash on hand total in its early numbers release.

Romney and Republicans outraised Obama and the Democrats in July.

John Lewis Attacks Republicans on Voting Rights

(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) delivered a blistering critique of new GOP-backed voter identification laws, weaving in his personal civil rights story to emphasize to a packed convention crowd, “we have come too far together to ever turn back.”

On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Lewis called it “unbelievable that there are Republican officials still trying to stop some people from voting.”

“They are changing the rules, cutting polling hours and imposing requirements intended to suppress the votes,” Lewis said. “I’ve seen this before. I’ve lived this before. Too many people struggled, suffered and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.” Full story

Gabrielle Giffords’ Pledge Provides Touching Moment Amid Partisan Jabs

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) recited the Pledge of Allegiance tonight at the Democratic National Convention, igniting a crowd chanting, “Gabby! Gabby!”

Delegates continued to cheer Giffords as her friend Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) guided her onto the blue stage. Giffords recited the pledge perfectly, calling out at the end, “Liberty and justice, for all!”

As Giffords walked off the stage, she blew the audience a kiss. Her appearance — and the audience’s excitement — marked one of the most sincere moments of the back-to-back party conventions.

Giffords’ touching words came halfway through a star-studded lineup on the final night of the convention, culminating with President Barack Obama accepting his party’s nomination for re-election. Roll Call first broke the news Giffords would deliver the pledge. Full story

Barack Obama Will Ask for More Time, Outline Agenda in Speech

North Carolina delegates get fired up ahead of President Barack Obama's speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

President Barack Obama will ask voters for patience in dealing with the economy and argue that this election will be the “clearest choice of any time in a generation” as he makes his case for a second term in his acceptance speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention.

Obama will point to the difficulty of the task of fixing the economy, according to excerpts released ahead of his prime-time speech.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.” Full story

CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing: Dais Today, Data Tomorrow

Massachusetts delegates who arrived at Time Warner Cable Arena early rest before the final night of the Democratic National Convention. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

The CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing is being published from the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week. For more information on signing up to receive this free email, click here.

THE PODIUM: A two-week run of great American political theater comes to an end tonight. The final act starts at 10:10, when Barack Obama takes the stage for his soliloquy. It’s the most-watched and unfiltered opportunity he’ll have in the precisely two months before Election Day to explain why he deserves to become only the third Democratic president in eight decades to win a second term.

Biden gets his half an hour in the spotlight at 9:30 — the decidedly secondary role assigned to make room for Bill Clinton’s captivating if undisciplined “third way” master class. (Biden was the Wednesday night main event four years ago, as were John Edwards, Joe Lieberman and Al Gore before him.) NBC, which is making up for skipping last night’s coverage in favor of the Cowboys-Giants game, will be the only broadcast network carrying the speech.

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Democratic Convention Has Rough Logistical Second Day

After a near perfect first day of the Democratic National Convention, the DNC hit some major snags on its second night, which has been rife with platform fights, logistical problems and accusations of dishonesty.

First, spurred by threats of rain, the DNC decided this morning to move Thursday’s festivities, including President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, from Bank of America Stadium indoors to the much smaller Time Warner Cable Arena.

If the bottleneck at the door tonight is any indication, the scene Thursday is sure to be a madhouse.

The fire marshal closed entry to and exit from the arena tonight, citing capacity issues. Though the entryway was later reopened, reporters spotted countless high-profile officials among the ranks of those locked out of the building. Full story

CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing: Inside Game

Workers clean up to prepare for tonight's program in the Time Warner Cable Arena. The threat of severe weather has moved Thursday night's program into the arena as well. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

The CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing is being published from the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week. For more information on signing up to receive this free email, click here.

THE PODIUM: The story of the day is that the podium will stay inside for tomorrow night’s Obama and Biden speeches. Convention organizers say they’ve decided the odds of intense thunderstorms in prime time are too strong to risk having the convention finale at Charlotte’s open-air football field; Republicans say the move is more because the Democrats were embarrassingly far away from filling the 74,000 seats in Bank of America Stadium.

The convention’s middle session convenes at 5 inside the 21,000-seat Time Warner Cable Arena for six straight hours of speeches reflecting all the constituencies and agendas of the party — climaxing with the party’s surrogate-speechmaker-in-chief. Bill Clinton will take the stage at 10:30 and is supposed to finish formally nominating his best frenemy before the end of prime time. After that, a ceremonial roll call of the states will last well past midnight before Obama as officially acclaimed the party’s 2012 standard-bearer. (Amazingly, the scheduled benediction afterward is to be offered by Monica Lewinsky’s childhood rabbi, David Wolpe of Temple Sinai in L.A.)

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For Barack Obama, it’s Never Been About ‘Better Off’

(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Obama campaign and its chief surrogates have spent the week here cleaning up a mess from the Sunday talk shows, when they collectively declined to answer “yes” to the question: Are Americans better off than they were four years ago?

Answering this question in the affirmative is standard practice for a president running for re-election — regardless of the circumstances he finds himself in. Vice President Joseph Biden tried to reset the campaign’s answer on Monday by telling a crowd at a rally in Detroit: “If you want to know whether we’re better off, I got a bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!”

By the end of the Labor Day holiday, everyone on team Obama was with the program, and in the two days since, the president’s supporters have told anyone who asks — or who will listen — that Americans are better off today than they were four years ago. But that has never been President Barack Obama’s re-election message, nor his argument for why he deserves a second term. And it still isn’t.

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Democrats Hammer Mitt Romney for Quote He Never Said

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was among those who hammered Mitt Romney for words he didn't say or write. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — From dawn to dusk on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Democratic leaders seemingly used Mitt Romney’s own words against him in front of delegations and national television audiences.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, echoing others, described Romney tonight in his speech as “a person who said in four words, ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt.’”

Except Romney never said or wrote it.

The source of the quote is a November 2009 op-ed Romney wrote in the New York Times. The editorial Romney wrote is not nearly as definitive as that headline, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

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