The Baumgarten Report

Sarah Palin is back in Alaska, telling anyone with a microphone who will listen that the John McCain campaign staffers who are leaking information about how she was a rock around the neck of the campaign “jerks.”

And she implored the very news media she attacked as being unfriendly toward her during the campaign to do its job and out those who are making the statements.

Two conflicting observations about all this.

First, she has a point. Anonymous sources are difficult to respond to, and should only be used sparingly and when all else fails. It’s not particularly fair to confront Palin with the accusations without giving her opportunity to confront the source. Perhaps there are mitigating circumstances surrounding the character of the source or his or her relationship with Palin that might color her response.

On the other hand, it’s disconcerting to me that these stories of Palin not knowing that the United States, Canada and Mexico make up NAFTA and that she didn’t know that Africa was a continent and incorrectly thought South Africa was a part of the “country” of Africa (like South Carolina or the south of France?) were not reported until after the election.

The Fox News Channel, which has been on the forefront of breaking this story, acknowledged in its reporting that they knew of these allegations before the election, but that the still unnamed sources swore them to secrecy until it was over.

Reporters on this one should have been more aggressive in verifying the allegations and getting them out to their readers, listeners and viewers before the election was held. The failure to do so makes them appear to be tools of the McCain campaign.

In this era of fractured partisan politics it was heartening to hear a Republican and a Democratic strategist agree over why the John McCain presidential campaign failed.

Democrat Hank Sheinkopf and Republican Steve Goldberg both believe McCain lacked a simple, direct message to present to the American people. While Barack Obama was clear, concise and consistent.

Both agree that McCain allowed the party to dictate how he conducted himself and that hurt him in the long run. The race, Goldberg suggests, might have been closer had McCain been permitted to be himself.

The two were my guests today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

Goldberg says McCain failed to define himself. Sheinkopf said Obama told the truth to the American people, while McCain, he believes, “didn’t want to tell the truth.”

Veracity, they agreed, is what a voting public, dissatisfied with the current administration and even more discontented over the performance of Congress, sought.

Both believe Obama faces immense obstacles. But both believe that and failing he has in delivering promises can be attributed for a long time to the state of the nation when President Bush left office.

All he has to do, says Sheinkopf, is be successful in several key areas to be considered an effective president.

Once again, the Catholic vote proved to be representative of how the rest of the nation voted in the presidential election.

Fifty-four percent of voting Catholics cast their ballots for Barack Obama.

Elizabeth Bagley, who was responsible for getting out the Catholic vote for Obama, says, around the world, people are celebrating his election. Because they feel he represents a return to diplomacy by the United States.

Bagley, who served in the diplomatic corps in both the Clinton and Carter administrations, believes the Bush administration repeatedly squandered opportunities to diplomatically solve some of the most serious problems of the world. A former U.S. ambassador to Portugal, Bailey, during an appearance on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com, said Clinton left office having brought the Israelis and the Palestinians close to resolution. Yet the Bush administration refused to build on those efforts, against the wishes of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

She believes one of Obama’s first orders of business will be to attempt to help broker a lasting peace in the Middle East. She also believes Obama will try to initiate diplomatic efforts with Iran.

Bagley

An official of the Barack Obama campaign will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com Wednesday November 5 at 5 PM New York time.

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley will discuss how the campaign was so successful in resonating with voters and what President-elect Obama now faces as he looks forward to at least four years in the White House.

Bagley was senior advisor to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from 1997-2001. Prior to this appointment, she served as the U.S. ambassador to Portugal from 1994-1997.

An attorney specializing in trade and international law, Bagley was adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington until January 1993. She served as diplomatic liaison for the Clinton-Gore Presidential campaign. She was the State Department’s congressional liaison officer during the Carter administration and served as special assistant to Ambassador Sol Linowitz for the Camp David Accords.

To talk to Bagley on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com at 5 PM New York time Wednesday November 5 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

Sheinkopf

Two political strategists, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, will be my guests on News Talk Online on Thursday November 6 to analyze the presidential election and take a look at what the two parties must do now moving forward.

Democrat Hank Sheinkopf makes a return engagement to the show. Sheinkopf has been a political, public affairs and governmental relations consultant for nearly 30 years. He has worked on political campaigns and issue campaigns in four continents, 10 foreign nations, in addition to more than 600 domestic political and issue campaigns in 46 American states.

Sheinkopf was a member of President Clinton’s re-election media team producing ads for the only Democratic president re-elected since FDR.

Joining Sheinkopf will be Steve Goldberg, who pioneered some of the most successful consumer outreach and voter contact strategies employed today by candidates across the country.

Goldberg was recruited by Lee Atwater to work on President Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. Following his involvement in Reagan’s landslide victory in 1984, Goldberg was asked to join then Vice President George H. W. Bush’s campaign for the presidency in 1988. He helped devise and implement Bush’s comeback victory in the New Hampshire primary, the contest that is credited with securing his party’s nomination.

During 1988’s general election contest, Steve became the architect of a controversial direct-marketing telecommunications program which proved to be the largest voter contact program ever performed in the history of U.S. politics.

To talk to Goldberg and Sheinkopf at 5 PM New York time Thursday November 5 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

It was with a degree of trepidation and excitement that I went to vote about 30 minutes after the polls opened in New Jersey this morning.

The nerves were over the state’s use, this year, of touch screen ballots. I’ve heard and even reported about problems with these type of machines in early voting in other states. There were even allegations of “vote flipping” where the voter touches for one candidate and the X appears by the name of another.

Listening to New Jersey 101.5, the state-wide talk station, on the short drive to the polls didn’t do much to ease my mind, as several callers reported problems where they voted.

It’s a short ballot this year in New Jersey, so voting shouldn’t take terribly long. But the folks in line ahead of me were in the booth an awfully long time. Probably because they were a bit confused by the new procedure. The short delay gave me time to reflect.

In this day of bitterness and analysis over claims and counterclaims and negative campaigning and campaign fatigue, I thought my feelings would be of relief that it’s finally over. But they weren’t. I thought, instead, about what a great country the United States is. And how fortunate I am, by simple virtue of nation of birth, that I, unlike so many of my fellow human beings around the world, have the right to cast a vote for president of my nation.

Then I thought for a moment of all my fellow Americans who died in pursuit of this freedom we hold so dear.

The apparently confused voters ahead of me finally cleared the booths and I was ushered into one. Perhaps because I was unintimidated by the touch screen process I was in and out of the booth in record time. I found no problems. It was easy and straight forward.

Driving home I flipped the radio back on. Caller after caller reported unusually long lines at the polls. Not because of problems. But because so many people are turning out to vote.

Today, I feel particularly proud to be an American.

The founder and executive director of the University of Denver’s Center for African American Policy says this race for president of the United States his historic in that skin color and gender are no longer an issue in politics.

Peter Groff, who is also the Democratic president of the Colorado State Senate and the first black person to hold that post, says, while there are some people who will vote for Obama because of race, and while there are some who will not vote for him for the same reason, most Americans are looking at what the candidates stand for, not skin color. Likewise, he says, those who support or oppose Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy are not taking that position based on gender.

Groff, speaking on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com, said American voters have moved “past race.”

Greenberg

The U.S. presidential election campaign is nearly over and News Talk Online is planning extensive coverage of voting day tomorrow, Tuesday November 3.

Joining us at 5 PM New York time to discuss the campaign will be Rutgers associate professor of history and of journalism and media studies David Greenberg.

Greenberg is an expert in American political and cultural history including the presidency and presidential campaigns with an emphasis on questions of public relations, propaganda, “spin,” image-making and presidential debates.

He is also author of the award-winning Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image, Presidential Doodles, Calvin Coolidge, and the History Lesson column for Slate, for which he covered the Democratic National Convention. He writes frequently for both popular and scholarly publications.

Following the show, the Obama-McCain Debate Room will be open for the final time from 6-8 PM New York time to let you sound off on the candidates and the election. Then, at 8 PM New York time, special Election Night coverage will resume on News Talk Online.

To talk to Greenberg at 5 PM New York time November 4 and to participate in the other conversations CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

The following is an e-mail sent by a friend of mine to family and friends that addresses health care costs and how a diagnosis of cancer in her teen aged son while they were vacationing in Italy impacted them far beyond what they’d ever imagined.

Char cites her family’s experience as reason to vote for Barack Obama. She is graciously permitting me to post it. Please take the time to read it and, if so motivated, comment.

Dear friends and family,

Our 15-year-old son went through a grueling regimen of chemotherapy just one year ago this week for a rare type of lymphoma. He’s now thriving and healthy. But our economy and our personal finances are not.

We need health care cost reform.

Jake was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, less than an hour from our house (in good traffic). We thought we had a good health insurance plan, but unfortunately we were “out-of-network.”

Since Jake had a very rare form of lymphoma, Burkitt’s, and only a handful of cases are seen each year even at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, home to probably THE best pediatric cancer treatment center in the world, we weren’t about to take him to a local hospital that was in-network.

After the insurance payments, we owed more than $110,000 to the hospital and physician’s group. Some payments seemed arbitrary; the insurance company got to set the amount they would pay which they considered “usual and customary” costs for each procedure and chemo drug. We owed the remainder. We filed many many appeals and even won a few. Ultimately we played let’s make a deal with the hospital and they cut our bill in about half so we owe about $57,000.

Being healthy is, of course, priceless. But is it fair that we happen to be out-of-network because we have a certain type of insurance and not another?

Bill’s last job had Blue Cross Blue Shield. That company was in-network and our bill would have been zero. Is it fair that the health insurance company itself sets the rate at which it will pay?

Certain reimbursements have dropped dramatically in the last three years such as for CAT and PET scans. Jake has had many. Only once was a treatment held up because the insurance company wouldn’t pay, but many patients face that reality every day.

We believe that Obama’s plan would cover many more families and children than McCain’s. McCain’s plan of giving $5000 to every family to offset health care plan costs would be a drop in the bucket to what we needed. We pay more than $300 a month for the policy and pay $1000 deductible for each of us. McCain’s plan ultimately encourages companies to drop their employees’ insurance plans which will make health care for some employees and for those who have been ill, like Jake, pay far more.

Obama is committed to insuring that no one will ever be denied health care insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions (something Jake will face all his life now) and that the health plan is as good as the one that covers the families of people in Congress.

If for no other reason (and there are many other good reasons) we encourage you to vote for Barack Obama and vote for health care reform!

No one ever thinks a catastrophic illness will happen to them, we didn’t either.

Jake received excellent care in Italy under its national health care program for 24 nights. The cost of the care was less than one night at Memorial Sloan Kettering. And he received fabulous health care at MSKCC, but the cost and stress on families is way too high.

Please go to vote and please consider our story and vote for Barack Obama. Please feel free to forward this to friends.

And, again, thanks to all of you for your prayers, food, support, love and blood, in the last year! We love you all and, even if you vote for the other side, we hope you will think about the changes that are needed to insure that all children, and adults have access to adequate health care in this country.

Best,

Char

Bad news for those challenging Barack Obama’s qualification to run for president of the United States. It seems he was born in Hawaii after all.

Three judges have tossed out lawsuits challenging Obama’s citizenship. Now the state of Hawaii has chimed in, in an attempt to further dispel the concern raised by some that the Democratic presidential candidate may have been born in Kenya, disqualifying him from running for president.

It seems that the state of Hawaii holds Obama’s original birth certificate. You know, the one that his detractors say doesn’t exist.

The state won’t release the document, however, citing a law that prohibits releasing it to anyone other than the person or someone else with a legal “tangible interest.” But the state’s health director says the original is on file.

Of course, there are those who will say, if the certificate exists why doesn’t Obama release the original? What is he hiding? But the fact is, anyone who continues to pursue this avenue of debate wasn’t about to consider voting for him anyway. So why would the campaign bother accommodating them?

Those individuals need not worry. They still have two days to argue that Obama, who for two decades attended and was married in a Christian church that they feel was anti-American, is really a Muslim.

All this noise about citizenship and religion (and sadly, in some cases, race) has served to distract some voters from the issues. So let me raise one about campaign “promises.”

They are pretty much meaningless because you can’t really promise something you know you may not be able to deliver.

In our system of government, the president is not an autocrat. He can’t just, for example, impose a new health care system on his own. He actually needs to convince the Congress to do that.

So many people I know are excited, as well they should be, about voting for president because they feel strongly for or against one candidate or the other. But many of them haven’t a clue about the policies or voting records of those running for Congress. And remember, as low as President Bush’s approval ratings are, Congress suffers even more so.

Then there are those running for local positions in our various municipalities. You know, the people making the decisions that really affect each of us directly. Like how often the garbage will be picked up. Whether there are enough cops on patrol to protect us. And whether the fire department has the proper equipment to put out a blaze in our homes.

Many of my friends and colleagues who are so engaged in the presidential campaign acknowledge they haven’t a clue who is running for Congress or for their city or town councils.

I encourage all of us to take the time today and tomorrow to at least brush up on those candidates as well. So we know who else we’re voting for on Tuesday. And why.