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American Morning
Candidates in Recall Election Having to Rewrite Campaign Playbooks
Aired September 16, 2003 - 07:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In California, candidates in the recall election are having to rewrite their campaign playbooks now that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed the vote. So, who benefits and who's hurt the most?
This morning we're joined by CNN's senior analyst Jeff Greenfield -- good morning.
Nice to see you.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's start with those very questions. Who benefits and who's hurt the most, do you think?
GREENFIELD: I think in this case the conventional wisdom is probably right, that the Davis people benefit greatly from the decision, if it is upheld, and that's important. The Davis people all along have been trying to push this recall, once it was inevitable, into March of 2004, when it would be on the same date as the Democratic presidential primary. The reason for that's obvious, Democrats will turn out, there's no race in the Republican Party. It will also give a chance for Davis to rehabilitate himself. It also, the conventional wisdom is it makes it tougher for Schwarzenegger, who was looking toward a seven week campaign to capitalize on his fame and his charisma as opposed to a six month slog where you really have to start spelling out your issues on everything from road maintenance to, you know, who pays for prison guard pensions.
That's the conventional wisdom. The one hmmm about this is that Davis seemed to be picking up some strength in the last week, if you believe the highly unreliable and much to be scorned polls. And I don't have a lot of faith in them. And there is a question of well, you know, periodically Davis has managed to step on his own foot and injure himself with voters, and this will give him six more months to do it. But that's where we are now, if this court decision stands.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit -- and you mentioned making things difficult for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Boy, he can make things difficult for himself. Yesterday he was on "Oprah" with his wife Maria Shriver and all I can say is this clip is going to be offensive to lots of people, but I think we have to play it in its entirety. So let's listen.
GREENFIELD: Let's go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: So, you know, so this is the time, remember, when we promoted bodybuilding, promoted pumping iron and said the most outrageous things that you can say in order to make headlines and to be out there and to build the sport up. I mean, you know, these were the times where I was saying things like, you know, a pump is better than coming and all those kind of things, you know? I know, but I mean you wouldn't like, you know, today...
MARIA SHRIVER: Why do you do that? My mother is watching this show. My mother is watching this show.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I understand. I understand.
SHRIVER: Oh, my god.
SCHWARZENEGGER: OK. Wherever Eunice is, don't pay any attention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: My mother is watching this show, too, and sorry mom. But actually, to some degree, that is what many people have pointed to about his big problem is that he doesn't always edit himself very well, in addition to some other problems.
What do you think the impact of a statement like that and other racy comments is going to be?
GREENFIELD: Well, if you are looking to unify the California Republican Party, whose base is conservative, when you have a conservative state senator in the race, Tom McClintock, who's already saying Schwarzenegger is too much of a liberal, when you have traditional values coalition people saying Schwarzenegger's statements in past interviews, in that infamous "We" magazine 1977 interview, make him unfit, I think you can charitably say this didn't help.
Now, the other side about this is, you know, this is "Oprah." A very important female audience, and she didn't treat it as though he had said something horrible. So in one sense Schwarzenegger got a break in that the secondary play of this clip will be overshadowed by the fact that the election was delayed. But you would have to say, if you put Schwarzenegger on, this didn't help.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, we should mention that you're going to be here all morning helping us out this morning.
Hi, you're going to be here all morning helping us out this morning to answer any political questions...
GREENFIELD: Any political questions.
O'BRIEN: ... that come to us.
So e-mail us at am@cnn.com with your political questions this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Playbooks>
Aired September 16, 2003 - 07:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In California, candidates in the recall election are having to rewrite their campaign playbooks now that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed the vote. So, who benefits and who's hurt the most?
This morning we're joined by CNN's senior analyst Jeff Greenfield -- good morning.
Nice to see you.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's start with those very questions. Who benefits and who's hurt the most, do you think?
GREENFIELD: I think in this case the conventional wisdom is probably right, that the Davis people benefit greatly from the decision, if it is upheld, and that's important. The Davis people all along have been trying to push this recall, once it was inevitable, into March of 2004, when it would be on the same date as the Democratic presidential primary. The reason for that's obvious, Democrats will turn out, there's no race in the Republican Party. It will also give a chance for Davis to rehabilitate himself. It also, the conventional wisdom is it makes it tougher for Schwarzenegger, who was looking toward a seven week campaign to capitalize on his fame and his charisma as opposed to a six month slog where you really have to start spelling out your issues on everything from road maintenance to, you know, who pays for prison guard pensions.
That's the conventional wisdom. The one hmmm about this is that Davis seemed to be picking up some strength in the last week, if you believe the highly unreliable and much to be scorned polls. And I don't have a lot of faith in them. And there is a question of well, you know, periodically Davis has managed to step on his own foot and injure himself with voters, and this will give him six more months to do it. But that's where we are now, if this court decision stands.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit -- and you mentioned making things difficult for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Boy, he can make things difficult for himself. Yesterday he was on "Oprah" with his wife Maria Shriver and all I can say is this clip is going to be offensive to lots of people, but I think we have to play it in its entirety. So let's listen.
GREENFIELD: Let's go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: So, you know, so this is the time, remember, when we promoted bodybuilding, promoted pumping iron and said the most outrageous things that you can say in order to make headlines and to be out there and to build the sport up. I mean, you know, these were the times where I was saying things like, you know, a pump is better than coming and all those kind of things, you know? I know, but I mean you wouldn't like, you know, today...
MARIA SHRIVER: Why do you do that? My mother is watching this show. My mother is watching this show.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I understand. I understand.
SHRIVER: Oh, my god.
SCHWARZENEGGER: OK. Wherever Eunice is, don't pay any attention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: My mother is watching this show, too, and sorry mom. But actually, to some degree, that is what many people have pointed to about his big problem is that he doesn't always edit himself very well, in addition to some other problems.
What do you think the impact of a statement like that and other racy comments is going to be?
GREENFIELD: Well, if you are looking to unify the California Republican Party, whose base is conservative, when you have a conservative state senator in the race, Tom McClintock, who's already saying Schwarzenegger is too much of a liberal, when you have traditional values coalition people saying Schwarzenegger's statements in past interviews, in that infamous "We" magazine 1977 interview, make him unfit, I think you can charitably say this didn't help.
Now, the other side about this is, you know, this is "Oprah." A very important female audience, and she didn't treat it as though he had said something horrible. So in one sense Schwarzenegger got a break in that the secondary play of this clip will be overshadowed by the fact that the election was delayed. But you would have to say, if you put Schwarzenegger on, this didn't help.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, we should mention that you're going to be here all morning helping us out this morning.
Hi, you're going to be here all morning helping us out this morning to answer any political questions...
GREENFIELD: Any political questions.
O'BRIEN: ... that come to us.
So e-mail us at am@cnn.com with your political questions this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Playbooks>
