Sunday, August 17, 2008

PREFACE:

AXELROD TALKING POINT OF THE WEEKEND: We have no influence or leverage in foreign affairs because Bush and McCain have been focused solely on Iraq.

On FOX News Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated that our relationship with Russia, which had recently communicated in a forward-looking manner, was now “in tatters.” Then the surrogates, Ridge and McCaskill argued about whether John McCain had “undercut” President Bush on Georgia. McCaskill, the Obama surrogate, reminded that we have only one President. (That’s rich.) Ridge indicated that he would bow to McCain on abortion if he’s the veep pick (or that he wouldn’t accept the call).

On ABC’s This Week, SecDef Bob Gates indicated that Putin was calling the shots in Russia rather than Medvedev. Next up, Romney stood for McCain and Daschle for Obama. Daschle used a lot of MAYBE and POSSIBLY, which indicates that he was not entirely comfortable with Axelrod’s talking points.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, David Gregory was the moderator this time. He asked Secretary Rice about the disputed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and rice said that they had been internationally recognized as part of the territorial boundaries of Georgia but that this was open to international negotiation. He tried to make Axelrod’s point by asking what sort of leverage we had on Russia, and Rice told him basically that we held the keys to the international organizations that Russia wanted to join. Tim Kaine and Bobby Jindal were next. Kaine praised Obama’s initial response to the Russian invasion of Georgia and accused Secretary Rice of “talking tough,” which was not what we should be doing. (He violated McCaskill’s “one president” rule.) Governor Jindal left no room in ruling himself out of McCain’s Veepstakes.

On CBS’ Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer first spoke to Secretary Rice, who compared the Russian invasion of George to that of the former Soviet Union invading the former Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Tim Pawlenty and Evan Bayh played the surrogate game, with Bayh trumpeting Obama’s judgment for having had Maliki say that the 16-month timetable sounded like a good idea. Pawlenty characterized McCain’s answers to Rick Warren last night as concise and decisive and Obama’s as meandering and non-committal.

On CNN’s Late Edition, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated the Russians were engaged in “ethnic cleansing” in South Ossetia. He praised Ronald Reagan and spoke of the Shining City of which Georgia is a part. Next up, Bill Richardson said that we’ve lost all leverage with Russia because we’re focused on Iraq and that he’s forgiven Hillary. (But he did not use that verb.)

For the complete show-by-show review, check it out at RedState.com.