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This Week in Politics

The Week's Political Events in Review

Aired May 03, 2008 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TOM FOREMAN, HOST: Welcome to THIS WEEK IN POLITICS. I'm Tom Foreman. And the big question right now is one that Barack Obama doesn't even want to hear. In this cross-country road rally that passes for a presidential election, has Hillary Clinton finally figured out a way to beat him?
The explosive rush toward what once again could be the finish line on Tuesday is testing the tenacity and temper of the Democratic candidates. Obama is not quite Steve Martin in planes, trains and automobiles but he is clearly seething at his fellow traveler, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going the wrong way!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: The retired pastor roared the political wrong way with a barnstorming tour of controversial statements on AIDS, America, and terrorism, saying if opponents think they can criticize him or the black church...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMIAH WRIGHT, REV., OBAMA'S FORMER PASTOR: If you think I'm going to let you talk about my mama and her religious tradition and my daddy and his religious tradition and my grandma, you got another thing coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: So Obama had to waste precious time disavowing an old friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: For team Clinton, it is all a gift.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I sometimes feel like the Goldilocks of this campaign, you know, not too much, not too little, just right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Sure, she called Wright's words offensive and outrageous, but mainly she kept on talking health care, tax reform and lowering gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Use the windfall profits of the oil companies to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer. Barack Obama says no, again. People are hurting. It's time for a president who's ready to take action now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Clinton and Republican John McCain, remember him? Both want a summer vacation from federal gas taxes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's give low income Americans just a little break this summer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: But Obama says that does nothing to solve long-term energy issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "USA Today" calls her three-month gas tax holiday political pandering. It's an election year gimmick, saving Hoosiers just pennies a day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Many experts agree that the net effect of a temporary tax cut will be minimal. But in blue collar Indiana and North Carolina, the idea still appeals to desperate drivers.

So both candidates are turning on the afterburners from kitchen tables in Beech Grove to gas pumps in Indianapolis. The clock is ticking down to yet another primary election that is simply too close to call. And everyone is still asking, are we there yet? So where are we at the end of this riotous week? CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley has found her way to Munster, Indiana and politico executive editor Jim Vanderhei sensibly hasn't left his office in Virginia.

Candy, are the Obama people, after all of this, genuinely afraid? Or are they confident that their numbers will hold up through the convention? CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, they are obviously concerned. Let's put it that way. They do believe that at some point, the right story gets behind them. They are hoping that he turned that page in a pretty tense news conference that he had earlier this week. So the fact of the matter is, I don't think we are going to know the impact or where this race is going until we see what happens in Indiana and in North Carolina Tuesday.

The fact of the matter is this is the first race, primary race that I can remember where both of them had almost equal amounts at stake. He loses both of them, that trajectory looks all bad for him. She loses both of them, you will hear those cries for her to get out of the race. So there is a lot going on here that we're not going to be able to see, I don't think, until Wednesday.

FOREMAN: Jim Vandehei, the numbers still favor him and somewhat substantially. And yet he's looked for about ten days like he's the guy trying to catch up.

JIM VANDEHEI, POLITICO: You've got to work from the fundamental assumption it's going to be virtually - it's still virtually impossible to beat him on the pledged delegates and on the popular vote. So he -- it's going to be really hard to take this nomination away from him. But there's no doubt the Obama camp is rattled like never before. For the first time, you can at least start to sketch out a scenario where Hillary Clinton can make that comeback.

Candy just did it brilliantly. It is if she can win both North Carolina and Indiana, just think about what we'll be saying next week. We'll be talking about the potential for a real comeback. And you're going to have super delegates really thinking about electability and thinking about what once seemed unthinkable, and that is denying an African-American candidate who has more pledged delegates the nomination. Still a long shot, but less of a long shot today than it was two weeks ago.

FOREMAN: And Candy, Jim is right. That's who she's speaking to, isn't it, the super delegates. Frankly, she doesn't care what we say as long as the super delegates believe she's exposed this weakness in Obama.

CROWLEY: Right, but we shouldn't underestimate what Jim just touched on. And that is, we really believe that at the end of the day, he is going to come up when the primary and caucus season is over with more pledged delegates, probably more states won, in fact, almost certainly more states won.

And then for these super delegates to turn around and take that away from him may implode the party in a way that they don't want to have happen in a year where the territory totally favors them. So I can tell you that probably the people looking more anxiously at Tuesday than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are those super delegates who haven't yet publicly decided.

FOREMAN: You know, Candy, I keep hearing rumbles. The fact is you hit on it by saying publicly decided, that almost all of the superdelegates really have decided already. They just haven't come out. And rumbles that more of them have decided in his favor at this point.

CROWLEY: Well, of course, if you've decided and haven't said so, you can always undecide. I mean, we have seen people already come out publicly. We saw one this week. And you know, come out publicly for Hillary and then switch to Obama. So never underestimate the ability of these super delegates, regardless of what they've decided in private to change their minds, which is why I think Tuesday is shaping up to be a very, very interesting day.

FOREMAN: Jim, the problem for both of these Democratic candidates remains that on policy issues, they're still very much alike. So when things come up like the gas - the idea of a gas tax holiday, boy, Hillary Clinton pounds on that because that's one of the few differences with Obama.

VANDEHEI: She does. But this race is all about electability. And if we've learned one lesson now, I'd say you have to expect the unexpected. I mean, who would have thought that Reverend Wright would go on a media tour for three days and literally offer what could be a game-changing event? I'm not saying it is a game changing event, but it has a possibility. Look at the polling in every state...

FOREMAN: Yes.

VANDEHEI: ...and every national poll. His numbers are down. Unfavorable ratings are up.

FOREMAN: And look at -- who would have thought John McCain would be playing so hard in Democratic areas, Candy, and going after their votes? I mean, the truth is, we've said it before but I think a lot of people are becoming believers. John McCain is looking like the real winner here because he's walking around being presidential. And the Democrats are looking like they can't quite make a jello salad right now.

CROWLEY: Well, absolutely. And he's allowed to define himself by himself. And that's not something, a luxury that these two Democratic candidates have had. They are defining each other. And every time they do that, it is more material for John McCain.

So clearly, he is the winner from all of this, but we have to sort of caution it's May. November's a long way away, pitting two against one. The one looks pretty good. But you know, come this summer, I think things change. We have to be sort of cautious because the territory no matter how you look at it, no how bitter this fight has been or gets, this is not a great year to be a Republican candidate. And I haven't seen anything that changes that as of yet.

FOREMAN: Jim, last word goes to you. And it's a tough one. Tuesday, have you come up with somebody's who's winning on the Democratic side? Or is it split once again?

VANDEHEI: I think, again, there's a demographic pattern that you can look at in each and every state. Barack Obama should win North Carolina, huge African-American population there. It looks good for him. Indiana, Hillary Clinton should win. And she should win it in single digits, because of the demographics. A lot of working class whites. It's a state that favors her.

Anything different, I mean, if we get that result, it's a holding pattern, this thing's going well into June. Anything different, then we do have a game-changing event just like Candy talked about at the opening.

FOREMAN: We have to move on with our game. Thanks, Jim and Candy, as well.

Candy and all of the best political team on television will be here to bring you the results from North Carolina and Indiana like no one else on television can. That's Tuesday night beginning at 7:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Get your popcorn ready.

And here are just some of the questions we'll be considering on THIS WEEK IN POLITICS coming up. Has the media turned against Barack Obama? A letter from afar. What did Queen Victoria say to America's first family at a terrible time?

But straight ahead, how to bring down your skyrocketing gas prices. Yes, there really are some plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard about the president trying to do something about the taxes on the gas to make it more affordable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like the idea. For my pocket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not enough to make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unless it's going to do something long-term, it's not going to do a whole lot of good for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife, for instance, is a nurse. She quit her job because it's cheaper to stay at home with the kids than to pay for daycare and gas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was driving downtown five days a week, filling up my car every five days. I just couldn't deal with it anymore and I switched jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: Five years ago this week, President Bush stood under a mission accomplished banner and proclaimed the end of major combat operations in Iraq. This week, protesters were displaying the banner. And new poll numbers have made George W. Bush arguably the most unpopular president in modern U.S. history. But how will this effect the presumptive GOP nominee John McCain? With me in Washington to discuss this and all the week's political pot holes are Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and the former communications director for the John Edwards campaign, Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis.

Let's start first with this question of the war. The Democratic National Committee came out swinging with an ad this week and hitting very hard on this issue of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.

JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe 100. That would be fine with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Chris, this ad is very hard-hitting.

CHRIS KOFINIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Right.

FOREMAN: And an awful lot of people would say very unfair. McCain has explained over and over again what he meant. You know what he meant. I know what he meant, he meant a military presence for 100 years. Should your party be doing this? Does it make him look bad or you look bad?

KOFINIS: Oh, I think, listen -- John McCain has chosen to bear hug George Bush on the war. I mean you just saw, just this week that he was for withdrawal. Now he's against withdrawal. So I mean, his problem I think is he is supporting a war that the American people clearly believe, one, should not have been fought and two, is incredibly unpopular and is costing this country every day, enormous amount of lives and cost.

FOREMAN: Well, your party has a lot of traction on that issue, though. This makes it look like you're trying to extend it to something that's untrue instead of saying let's just argue what we really have a lot of traction on. Let's raise something that he's already explained.

KOFINIS: Yes, but in fairness, what he said to the 100 year argument was, the notion of presence. He made the analogy to Korea and also Germany. Well, and Japan, as well. Well, here's the problem. In the post-war period, after the so-called mission accomplished in those specific states, there were no casualties. There was no insurgency. We've lost 3900 lives.

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: Leslie, jump in here and say what you want to.

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Very quickly. I think the Democrats are trying to appease their anti-war movement to keep them engaged. It's an unfair characterization of what John McCain said. Third party entities have come out and said that.

And it -- the really interesting part is the only piece of ammunition, not to use that word, that the Democrats seem to do. They're trying to tie John McCain to George Bush even though we know he's Independent, even though he talked separately about the surge. It's really not a realistic argument but it's an emotional one.

FOREMAN: Let's jump onto the next pot hole here. And it's a tough one. On Wednesday, we had hundreds of demonstrators in Florida chanting count our votes outside the Democratic National Committee. Here's Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMANN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: Do you think that we can win the general election in November starting with without counting Florida?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Chris, there's nobody who wants to solve this more than you do I'm sure on the Democratic side. Can this be solved at all?

KOFINIS: The likelihood I think it's going to be resolved in a way that pleases everyone before June 3rd, I think is slim and none. I mean, the reality here was that all the campaigns, and I know because I was there on the Edwards campaign, all the campaigns decided to focus on the first four primaries, the infamous Dodd letter that allowed all the campaigns to basically say we're going to make this a grassroots effort, not a money effort. And any state that chooses to jump ahead in front of New Hampshire and Iowa, we're going to punish.

Well, guess what happened? Michigan and Florida decided to do that. They were punished I think correctly so by then the DNC and Governor Dean. Clearly, I think, these demonstrations, not surprisingly I think supporters of Senator Clinton want these to count. I don't see how that happens, especially when in Michigan, Obama's not even on the ballot.

FOREMAN: Very difficult.

KOFINIS: And in Florida, it ends up being a popularity contest.

FOREMAN: Leslie, Republicans must be thrilled, though?

SANCHEZ: Well, I would say that the Democrats have a serious problem. There's no doubt about it. I do believe it's going to be resolved and probably very differently between Michigan and Florida.

The bigger issue is if you talk to a lot of Democrats, they're very frustrated that they think party elders may come in and try to make a decision some time in mid June after Puerto Rico and really ignore the voice of the people. I think with the Hillary Clinton campaign, you're seeing they're trying to gain that momentum if she does well on Tuesday to run all the way to Denver. The Democrats have a serious party, a big chasm that doesn't look like it's going to be closed even if you do settle Florida and Michigan.

FOREMAN: And Reverend Wright continued to dominate the news way too much this week it seemed like. And probably one of the worst things that came out was this insinuation that he made that Barack Obama really doesn't mean a lot of the things he's saying. He's just saying it to get elected. Take a listen to this one bite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Several of my white friends and several of my white Jewish friends have written me and said to me, they said you're a Christian. You understand forgiveness. We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Leslie, is this a fair thing to stay in the news the way it has? We've all been sort of obsessing on it. But is your sense that voters, Republican or Democrat, are obsessing on this?

SANCHEZ: I think voters in general. If you look at the Pugh study that just came out, it says 51% of the people feel that there's too much coverage on probably silly things, you know, overall with the presidential election or on gaffes. Why do we know more about the gaffes that are made than the -- truly the policies and solutions?

There's no doubt about it. One thing -- in true fairness, this is an issue that is going to haunt Barack Obama's campaign if he goes all the way to November. It's not going to end because of that issue of judgment and his relationship. But in fairness, I think people want to get on with it and talk about solutions.

FOREMAN: Chris, what should Barack Obama be talking about on the issues right now to shut this talk down and get back on message?

KOFINIS: Well, and when it comes to Reverend Wright, I mean, who would have thought someone named Wright could be so wrong for a campaign? But putting that aside, I mean, the reality is I think he has to focus on the bread and butter issues. These are the things that I think people care about. We have a serious economic situation in this country with foreclosures.

FOREMAN: Is he doing a good enough job on that right now?

KOFINIS: I think that is a challenge that every campaign has. Part of the problem is when you have these type of distractions, it throws you off. I think they've done a good job, especially with his remarks on Tuesday coming back and trying to refocus.

But at the end of the day, I'll tell you this. You know, contrary to what I think the Republicans are going to hope for, in November, it's not going to be about Reverend Wright or any of these personal issues. It's going to be about who's right on the issues.

FOREMAN: Bigger issues and the whole thing.

KOFINIS: Absolutely.

FOREMAN: Leslie and Chris, we're out of time. I wish we could say more.

Later, we'll show you all about Hillary Clinton's brewing troubles over coffee. And President Bush's burger bash. For now, amid all that food talk, grab some peanuts. It's time for our weekly political sideshow.

When the French opposed the invasion of Iraq, freedom fries were born. Now the eatery that invented the patriotic side dish is opposing the congressman who made them famous. North Carolina Representative Walter Jones, once a supporter of the war, is now one of a handful of Republicans who have voted for a timetable for withdrawal. The owner of Cubbies says when the heat got turned up, Jones hopped off the bandwagon.

And speaking of France, the arch conservative leader of the National Front Party has found a bulletproof way to raise money. Jean Marie Lippan is putting his armored car up for sale on eBay, if he's lucky, the profits could help pay off a stiff fine he owes for saying the Nazi occupation was not inhumane. Can't see why a nice guy like that would need a puncture proof Peugeot.

The fearless public servants in the Florida legislature have moved to guard their citizens from overly masculine truckers. If a new law passes, it will ban trucks adorned with stainless steel replicas of well, what makes a bull a bull. On the other hand, such things are just part of our political life these days. Why just this week, a Clinton supporter said that's what we need in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I truly believe that that's going to take an individual that has testicular fortitude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Yes, that's nutty. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: Yes, as Jackson Browne says we are indeed running on empty, but are we running blind as well? Well, politicians have proposed several quick fixes to high gas prices, among them a gas tax vacation for the summer to stop filling the strategic oil reserve, to drill in the Alaska wilderness.

So we turn now to our guru of gushers, senior business correspondent Ali Velshi for the bottom line. And it starts with the basic question, Ali, will these plans work?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The first two absolutely not. And the last one drilling in Alaska, the first drop of gasoline you'd get from doing that is probably seven to ten years away. So nothing's going to solve the problem we've got. None of those solutions are -- this gas tax, as we've discussed, 18 cents a gallon, that's ridiculous. And this business about the strategic petroleum reserve, again, nonissue. This is not the stuff that Americans need right now.

FOREMAN: Let's take a look at some possible solutions then. If you look at this idea to create incentives to conserve fuel, it's been around for a while, offer tax credits for fuel efficient cars and homes, research and development of alternative fuel sources, Ali, it's a long-term plan, but could that really work?

VELSHI: Yes, well, and it's actually perhaps shorter term than you might think. We just got the auto sales numbers, for instance, for this April compared to last April. Guess what? Truck sales have fallen off a cliff. The sale of fuel efficient cars and hybrids way up. I think the Toyota Prius is up 64 percent compared to last year.

So first of all, one incentive is high gas prices. People actually change. But you really give people a real tax break for buying fuel efficient cars, you really give people a tax break to put, you know, solar energy or better energy or greener energy into their home, and you encourage businesses that are going to find and promote that kind of energy, absolutely. You can turn that kind of stuff around inside of a year. You can start to see the real effect of that.

FOREMAN: Let's look at another possibility in all of this. We've got the idea that if we were to enforce refinery capacity levels, make oil refineries operate at 95% capacity and answer to the government when they don't, boy, a lot of people aren't going to like in the political world the regulation factor of this. The notion that's more regulation. How would that work?

VELSHI: You make a lot of money being a refiner. And I think if you - in exchange for that right, we didn't have in 2007, Tom, there weren't two months in a row where America's refineries were operating at more than 90% capacity. This isn't -- there wasn't a Hurricane Katrina last year. There was no particular reason for it.

Guess what? Right now, we're changing over from summer to -- from winter to summer fuel. And that's why some of them are down to make that change over. This is not extra-virgin olive oil. We know how to do this. They should have to explain why those refineries are not down. We should know that. We're not running at even 85, maybe 86% right now.

FOREMAN: Isn't the cornerstone of all this, Ali, though that somehow we have to break our dependence on OPEC though?

VELSHI: Well, we do. But the bottom line is it's not just America. Right? China and India, everybody's using more oil. So it's not just American demand. But we do need to pull it back. And we need to have a bigger portfolio of things that we can use to run our cars, our homes, our trucks, our farm equipment, our plants so that we're not depending on one thing.

OPEC is maybe a bit of a red herring. The issue is we need to just not be all about crude oil. That would really help us, because then you just even out the demand across the board.

FOREMAN: And Ali, absent all of that, yes or no, will we ever see gasoline below $3 a gallon again?

VELSHI: Yes, the price goes down because demand eases up. As we pay these prices, we'll switch away from depending on it. And it'll just be in smaller demand than it is now. But I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon, not in the next few years.

FOREMAN: I won't bet my checkbook on it. Thanks so much, Ali Velshi.

Straight ahead, how a simple game of basketball can turn into a coach's worst nightmare. But first, the sweet sounds of the Internet. This week's viral videos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: John McCain was born back in the big band days. But he still ought to love this rocking video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone who's proud of what the country's about McCain. He's all right he's all right and we like McCain

FOREMAN: Unfortunately, McCain may not love the fact that it rocks to the tune of Eric Clapton's classic song "Cocaine."

A handmade commercial for Barack Obama uses the Titanic as a metaphor for the value of judgment over experience. Watch the title now.

And finally, some of the best videos just seem to happen. Youtube was burning up this week with this classic sequence of Hillary Clinton trying to get a cup of hot coffee. We've got much more brewing, stay put. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: All right. Well, he missed a lot of the shots, but of all the presidential candidates, Barack Obama is clearly the hoops champ. So it was a great photo op when he played a quick pick-up game at the University of North Carolina. Unfortunately, no kidding, it also appeared to be an NCAA rules violation for the coach to watch his players in the offseason, even if they are just punking a presidential contender. The NCAA is reportedly ignoring the whole thing.

So her to discuss all the traffic jams along the political fast lane, in New York playing left guard, Rachel Sclar media editor at "The Huffington Post." And from Memphis, right guard and radio talk show host Ben Ferguson.

Look, there's been a lot of talk in the past week about how the whole team of the media has turned against Barack Obama. He was the darling and now everybody's picking up the line of, well, Hillary has ascended. Do you buy it, Ben?

BEN FERGUSON: Yes, I do. I think it's hysterical. I mean, you're always as good as the last place you won. And all of a sudden, she won in Pennsylvania. And you had some really, really bad press because of Jeremiah Wright. And the reality is they finally had to cover it.

What's so funny to me about this is everything Jeremiah Wright said the other day was the exact same things that we had audio of him saying over the last decade. So there was no new statement. It was him echoing what he already said. But this was the first time it was on national TV and had you to cover it. So all of a sudden, this darling, which all of this was already there, they didn't cover it before. And now they had to cover it. And now they're back on the Hillary train.

FOREMAN: Well, Rachel, listen to some of the things that have been said on TV in the past few days about Obama's campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The momentum is so with Hillary Clinton right now, it doesn't really matter that Obama is ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But has Obama's campaign suffered irreparable harm?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He always seems to be a touch late when he's doing his damage control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's unquestionably worrying super delegates about Obama's electability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Rachel, it does seem a little bit like it's flavor of the week. The truth is, she won Pennsylvania. And that was very good, but that certainly doesn't offset everything that's happened in the election so far, does it?

RACHEL SKLAR, HUFFINGTONPOST.COM: No, it certainly doesn't. Those are, you know, those are a couple clips, but I really haven't seen the trend being rah-rah Hillary at all. There are still discussions about the delegate math. There are still discussions about, you know, how the super delegates are -- they're still, you know, moving over to Obama. There were two big defections in the last few days.

So I think -- I'm sorry, one defection and one super delegate joining Obama. So I don't think necessarily that this means that Clinton is ascending, per se. Although she's certainly, you know, she won Pennsylvania. And that was great for her, but all it means is that people are talking about the Wright scandal. And I don't think that anybody ignored it the last time around. Far from it.

FERGUSON: Sure they did. Look at the national media attention. They did not cover it. Everything he said the other day from...

SKLAR: I don't know what you were watching, sir, but ...

FERGUSON: I'm watching normal TV. And I think everyone can admit that this has ben like the best week ever for Hillary Clinton, because she finally got media attention in a positive light on her, not being behind, not having the delegates, not having the popular vote. All these things have been echoed by the media. And they finally covered a close relationship and a terrible PR decision by Barack Obama personally and his campaign.

SKLAR: I just don't think it as a finally...

FERGUSON: To now - how is this not a great week? I mean, what is great week for Hilary if she...

FOREMAN: All right, you two.

SKLAR: I didn't say it wasn't a great week, but I just...

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: Talk a little bit more here.

SKLAR: We've all heard of Jeremiah Wright. And we heard about him for a while.

FOREMAN: Look, let's listen to what the Republicans have had to say about this. On Wednesday, Greg Davis, a Republican candidate for the first congressional district seat in North Mississippi broadcast an advertisement trying to link his Democratic rival Travis Childers to Senator Obama. And this isn't the only ad like this. I want you to take a look at this and then listen to what our media consultant here at CNN, Evan Tracy, had to say as he's watched many of these ads popping up around the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Travis Childers endorsed by liberal Barack Obama. Obama says Childers will put progress before politics, but when Obama's pastor cursed America, blaming us for 9/11, Childers said nothing.

TRAVIS CHILDERS: I'm Travis Childers. This campaign has been one for the books. My family has heard the lies and attacks linking me to politicians I don't know and have never even met.

EVAN TRACEY, TNS MEDIA INTELLIGENCE/CMAG: Just in the past few weeks, we've seen Barack Obama used in probably eight to ten different races right now that have nothing do with the presidential race. The question is will it work. And if it does, expect to see a lot more this fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Rachel, what do you think? Is it going to work? And frankly, is this fair by the Republicans to be doing this?

SKLAR: Well, when was fair ever a consideration in politics? I think that it's really interesting seeing someone trying to distance themselves from Obama. I think that this is very time specific and now specific.

I do think that, you know, there's going to be fallout from the Wright thing, but also there's going to be sort of a settling, a sense that OK, where are we now? Who is this guy? And what does he have do with Barack Obama? Barack Obama rejected his statements and they're no lo longer involved. So in that respect, they are two different people. And this is just another person on the campaign trail, you know, making noise. And so all of that noise has to be taken into consideration. He's definitely taken a hit, but he has not taken the kind of hit that you know, people were anticipating and certainly that Clinton would probably have hoped.

FERGUSON: Look at this campaign in Mississippi. Childers actually is now trying to distance himself from Barack Obama and claim he didn't have an endorsement from Barack Obama after there was already mailers going out from his campaign saying that Barack Obama liked him and endorsed him. He as a Democratic candidate is trying to distance and lied to the media. That's what got this ad out there.

FOREMAN: Ben, let me jump in on you real quickly here.

FERGUSON: Yes.

FOREMAN: Because the one thing I want to get in before we get away, very quickly, you mentioned the idea that it's never fair necessarily, Rachel. It seems to me, though, that that's what has been turning voters off, Democrat and Republican so much that people on both sides have said it doesn't matter if it's fair, just if you win.

SKLAR: Oh, I didn't say if it didn't matter. I said that it often, you know, as a consideration. I mean, you said is this Republican ad fair? I mean, we can talk about a lot of negative GOP ads that have come down the pipes and a lot of negative campaigns that have happened over recent elections. I mean, this isn't what we're talking about now so.

FOREMAN: We'll have to see if the voters get through it, because they certainly seem to want some kind of talk about it.

SKLAR: Sure. And I think that that's one of the reasons that the Obama campaign really did have the surge that it had because it did talk about being above this sort of political, you know, nasty mudslinging sort of thing. And that's why every time the Obama campaign does seem to go a little negative, you know, it's perceived as him being dragged down into that pit that he's supposed to be soaring above on that president.

FOREMAN: Unfortunately, the clock is soaring away from us here. We have to move on. Rachel and Ben, thanks for being here.

A quick quiz, which president took to drinking after leaving the Oval Office? We'll let you think about that one for a while.

But next, a beginning and an end in a town on the far side of Texas. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: Imagine the mail the first family is dealing with right now. The invitations, RSVPs and thank you notes all swirling around their daughter's wedding. Jenna's big day is approaching quickly, but it will also be a big day for zip code 76638. And our Ed Henry is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a little wistful this evening.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At his final White House correspondent's dinner, President Bush joked about being a lame duck.

BUSH: Senator McCain's not here. He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit. You know, he's not alone. Jenna's moving out, too.

HENRY: Daughter Jenna's wedding next weekend will mark one of the last hurrahs for the tiny town of Crawford, Texas, which is also feeling the impact of lame duck status. Early in the Bush administration, it experienced a boomlet as the president's vacation spot.

BUSH: Order of cheeseburgers and onion rings.

HENRY: He'd grab lunch at the Coffee Station, which naturally started selling all kinds of Bush-related souvenirs, just like two stores down the road. They love "W" here and say so on bumper stickers, bobbleheads, shot glasses.

BRITTANY SNOW, COFFEE STATION: Anything that has Bush's name on it, they're like wow, you know.

HENRY: There are now even Christmas ornaments celebrating Jenna's wedding to Henry Hager.

Here in downtown Crawford, it's so quiet, that there's not even one traffic light. These gift shops are usually pretty empty unless the president's in town like this weekend. And you've got dozens of White House staffers, members of the press corps, we scoop up all kinds of souvenirs for fun like this big belt buckle. The shop owners are getting nervous because business is way down in the waning days of the administration.

SNOW: I mean, you're still going to get people here, tourists coming here and like yes, you know, the president used to live here. I mean, you still have people going to see where Elvis Presley grew up.

HENRY: Like the king? It's hard to imagine the Crawford ranch suddenly becoming Graceland. But then again, the president has been doing some singing.

BUSH: Yes, you're all gonna miss me, the way you used to diss me.

HENRY: And he's even been trying to dance like here in New Orleans, boogying like Elvis. Well, not quite like Elvis.

He clearly has some work to do to get his moves down in time to dance with Jenna at that wedding in sleepy old Crawford.

Ed Henry, CNN, Crawford, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Ed spent so much time in the White House, you might call him a bull rider. Even without a wedding, the White House receives 10,000 cards and letters every week, many addressed to the First Lady, letters that a bit less formal, a bit more revealing, letters too personal to be addressed to the president himself. Dwight Young has compiled dozens of these missives into a new book titled "Dear First Lady."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): The collection is a handwritten American history from a letter telling Martha Washington about America's first visiting elephant to a note from Queen Victoria to Mary Todd Lincoln shortly after our president was killed. The queen's husband had died only years before.

"I am utterly broken hearted by the loss of the man who was the light of my life. My stay, my all."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a letter from a head of state to another famous person. But at its heart, it's really just a letter from one grieving widow to another.

FOREMAN: There are social issues here. In the depths of the Depression, a woman writes to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking if she has an extra winter coat. A black soldier tells a story of everyday racism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clifton Surles was a private in the U.S. Army. And one day here in Washington, he walked into a People's drugstore and asked for a Coke. He was served the Coke in a paper cup. And he noticed that all the other customers around him were drinking their Coke out of regular glasses. And he was told by the counter clerk that serving black customers in paper cups was the policy of the store.

FOREMAN: With four brothers in the Army and World War II raging, the young private sent his story of injustice to the White House. The paper cup flattened stuffed into the envelope.

"Yes, I'm going to fight. But I will be fighting for my race for my people. And when I might see a white boy dying on a battlefield, I hope to God I won't remember People's Drugstore on January 11th."

FOREMAN: So the stories go. At the height of Bill Clinton's presidential trials, Hillary Clinton received a note signed Effie. The author better known as advice columnist Ann Landers wrote a few simple words of encouragement.

"I have no idea what the future holds for you, but I also have no doubt you can accomplish anything you set out to do."

FOREMAN: Many children have written asking First Ladies to visit their schools or pictures of White House pets. When Barbara Bush criticized the TV cartoon show "The Simpsons," she received a letter from Marge herself saying families of all types need support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family may not be the perfect family, but we're just an ordinary family trying to get by. And what's more, and this is what I really love about the letter, Marge Simpson told Barbara Bush, you and I have a lot in common. We're both living our lives in service to a remarkable man. You've got to love a letter like that.

I think the collection of letters is really only superficially about the First Ladies. It's a portrait of us as a people. And the First Lady in a sense is just the target. She's not so much the subject.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Fascinating book, a good portrait on America's past.

But next, a look into the mystical future or at least into next week. Fast track is straight ahead. Stick with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: It's time for fast track. Everything you need to survive the next week in politics. And who better to help us than CNN's senior political correspondent, Bill Schneider? The Democrats still talking about Michigan and Florida. Will this ever stop? And can they solve it?

BILL SCHNEIDER: Well, what they have to do is seat both Michigan and Florida delegations. Obama and Clinton say that has to be done. But Michigan and Florida cannot be allowed to determine who wins. If they make Clinton the winner, the Obama people will say unfair and they could take to the streets.

FOREMAN: So they can count but won't count. Up on Capitol Hill, they're counting dollars right now and talking about funding for Iraq. What's the rumpus?

SCHNEIDER: They're talking about cutting funding for Iraq, reconstruction projects. They say that they don't want the Defense Department to spend more than $2 million on any reconstruction project because Iraq is exporting 2 million barrels of oil every day. So they're saying if they're making all this money on oil, why are we picking up the tab?

FOREMAN: And the Clinton campaign is opening a campaign headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky. I dread to ask you what this means.

SCHNEIDER: This means that Clinton intends to go on beyond Indiana and North Carolina. Look, here's what's going to happen next week. If Obama wins both Indiana and North Carolina, the super delegates are going to start to move towards him and try to get him the nomination and shut it down. If, by some miracle, she wins North Carolina and Indiana, you've got a crisis because then the super delegates are going to say maybe she should get the nomination, but he still has the pledged delegates. If she wins Indiana and he wins North Carolina, we're right where we've been.

FOREMAN: To the purgatory of presidential campaigns.

SCHNEIDER: Right where we've been.

FOREMAN: Thanks, Bill. Look, even if you don't become president, there still may be a job for you in Washington. We'll have more on that in just a moment. But first, let's take a look at our late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, COMEDIAN: Last week, Pennsylvania, next week, my home state of Indiana. Then North Carolina primaries. Then Canada. Right? And then on to Europe. There's -- the European primaries are coming up.

JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: They say gas prices are now flirting with $4 a gallon. Flirting? Huh? Aren't we a little beyond flirting? Aren't we getting screwed at this point? I don't think anybody's flirting.

VELSHI: This is going to be the seventh fed rate cut in a row. You've got to pay attention to this. This is major.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is that hairless prophet of doom?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: We've spent the last hour talking about the battle for the top job in the White House, which comes with a nice $400,000 yearly paycheck. But then what? Well, here are our top five facts about life after the Oval Office. George Washington did not get a penny in retirement. And he even got called back to military service for a war with France. Talk about a stop loss.

Ulysses S. Grant lost all of his money to a fraudulent business scheme. And then he raced terminal cancer to provide for his family, finishing his memoires only days before he passed away. Of course, other presidents had fewer expenses. Franklin Pierce put it very bluntly. He said after the White House, what is there to do but drink? It wasn't until the news got out that Harry Truman couldn't afford to hire a staff that presidents began getting any pensions at all. But these days, former presidents like Bill Clinton get the same pension as a Cabinet Secretary, about $191,000 annually.

Oddly though, presidential widows get only about $20,000. So when George W. Bush waves good-bye next year, don't worry about him making ends meet down there in Crawford, Texas, even with the cost of a couple of weddings coming down the pike.

That's it for THIS WEEK IN POLITICS. I'm Tom Foreman. Thanks so much for watching.