The Filter: April 3, 2008

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.

KARL ROVE LIKES WHAT HE SEES
(Lisa DePaulo, GQ)
ROVE: There are Democrats, particularly blue-collar Democrats, who defect to McCain because they see McCain as a patriotic figure and they see Obama as an elitist who's looking down his nose at 'em. Which he is. That comment where he said, you know, "After 9/11, I didn't wear a flag lapel pin because true patriotism consists of speaking out on the issues, not wearing a flag lapel pin"? Well, to a lot of ordinary people, putting that flag lapel pin on is true patriotism. It's a statement of their patriotic love of the country. And for him to sit there and dismiss it as he did— You're not wearing a flag pin, Karl. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But I respect those who consciously get up in the morning and put a flag lapel pin on. Do you see the elitist thing in other ways? Obama is coolly detached and very arrogant. I think he's very smart and knows he's smart, but as a result doesn't do his homework.

MORE: The Patriotism Problem (Joe Klein, Time)
Patriotism is, sadly, a crucial challenge for Obama now. His aides believe that the Wright controversy was more about anti-Americanism than it was about race. Michelle Obama's unfortunate comment that the success of the campaign had made her proud of America "for the first time" in her adult life and the Senator's own decision to stow his American-flag lapel pin — plus his Islamic-sounding name — have fed a scurrilous undercurrent of doubt about whether he is "American" enough. "In this campaign, we will not stand for the politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon," he said on the night that he lost Ohio and Texas. But then he added, "I owe what I am to this country, this country that I love, and I will never forget it." That has been the implicit patriotism of the Obama candidacy: only in America could a product of Kenya and Kansas seek the presidency... But now, to convince those who doubt him, Obama has to make the implicit explicit. He will have to show that he can be as corny as he is cool.

WHY THE DEMOCRATIC RACE COULD END IN NORTH CAROLINA
(Susan Page, USA Today)
The end could be near. Or the endgame, at least, of a surprisingly drawn-out Democratic presidential contest. Four months and 42 states after the opening Iowa caucuses, the primary in North Carolina on May 6 now looms as a pivotal final showdown between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama starts with a double-digit lead in polls here, a state where 2,400 free tickets to his rally at the War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro last week were gone within three hours of the announcement he would appear. But Clinton has appeal in the Tar Heel State, too, and is competing hard...  The key audience for the North Carolina returns are the superdelegates crucial to boosting either rival's convention count to 2,024, the number needed for nomination. "Hillary Clinton needs a win in North Carolina to be able to convince superdelegates to join her cause, and Barack Obama needs to win in North Carolina to put to rest any speculation that he could lose the nomination," says state party Chairman Jerry Meek, a Fayetteville lawyer neutral in the contest. "So I think that we're going to play a pivotal role," he says.

MORE: Rivals Rev Up N.C. Forces (Rob Christensen, Raleigh News-Observer)
The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are treating North Carolina as though the presidency depends on it. In recent days, the campaigns began assembling ground operations that instantaneously dwarfed the efforts of candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate and dozens of other North Carolina offices.

OR: Indiana Marks the Next Test for Clinton (Amy Chozick, Wall Street Journal)
Sen. Hillary Clinton needs to show strong support among white, working-class voters in coming primaries to mollify those in the party who say she should pull out of the race. While the most prominent test comes April 22 in Pennsylvania, her bigger challenge may be two weeks later, in Indiana.

HILLARY CLINTON CANNOT LET GO OF HER DREAM
(Sally Bedell Smith, Financial Times)
To win in 2008, the Clintons have had to reverse their roles of Bill the candidate and Hillary his chief adviser and advocate. The demands of an unexpectedly tight campaign have brought out the worst in both of them, dragging their popularity ratings to new lows. The virtuoso politician who feeds on the adulation of the rope-line suddenly finds himself playing an off-key second fiddle. The methodical, behind-the-scenes chief of staff finds herself centre stage, her flatlander voice betraying a harsh edge as she experiments with slogans and personalities. Mrs Clinton’s political mettle had never been tested. Her opponent in her 2000 Senate race was a lightweight and she had token opposition in 2006. Her candidacy for president was based on the assumption that she would face a weak field and again coast to victory. Perhaps what propels Mrs Clinton more than anything is a determination to prove she can be as good at politics as her husband, who she once said “makes it look so easy”. But months on the hustings have shown she lacks his legendary political talents.

MCCAIN SHIES AWAY FROM RELIGION TALK
(Jonathan Martin, Politico)
Traversing the country this week on a tour of places that have shaped his life and informed his values, John McCain spoke in strikingly personal language to introduce himself to the American public. But missing so far is any significant mention of religious faith... Raised Episcopalian, McCain now attends a Baptist megachurch in Phoenix. But he has not been baptized and rarely talks of his faith in anything but the broadest terms or as it relates to how it enabled him to survive 5 ½ years in captivity as a POW.  In this way, McCain, 71, is a throwback to an earlier generation when such personal matters were kept personal. To talk of Jesus Christ in the comfortable, matter of fact fashion of the past two baby-boom era presidents would be unthinkable... Yet in a time when privacy for any politician, let alone a presidential candidate, is virtually non-existent and open expressions—or at least explanations—of religiosity are expected and sometimes demanded by others, McCain may ultimately have to offer more than just testimony about his belief in America’s civic religion. 

IN SPEECHES, CLINTON OFTEN VEERS TO DARK SIDE
(Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post)
In a campaign year in which lofty phrases have taken center stage, she has rejected sweeping oratory -- "just words," as her campaign likes to accuse Democratic rival Barack Obama of offering -- in favor of a dramatic speaking style all her own. In hushed tones, sometimes with palpable sadness in her voice, Clinton tells dark, difficult anecdotes picked up on the campaign trail. They often relate to health matters, culled from her conversations with voters, and are designed to illustrate a policy point. Presidential candidates across the decades, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, have honed the art of picking out stories to bolster a policy position in particularly human terms. Former senator John Edwards (N.C.), who left the Democratic race this year, often cited the stories of people he defended as a trial lawyer... For Clinton, the approach seems to bring together her best skills, especially her ability to listen to voters she meets. In speeches that sometimes wear on and sometimes derail into deadening policy, sharing bleak stories can focus the audience's attention.

FOR MCCAIN, SON'S DUTY IN IRAQ IS NOT A TALKING POINT
(Roxana Tiron, The Hill)
Jimmy McCain, 19, who returned from Iraq in mid-February, is stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. Jack McCain, 21, is poised to graduate from the Naval Academy and could join the Marines as a second lieutenant. At a time when Democrats are calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, McCain has refused to use his children’s experience to strengthen his arguments for keeping the U.S. military in the Middle Eastern country. Democrats have claimed that a McCain White House would be tantamount to a third term of President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the dynamic of criticizing McCain on Iraq will be different than for the president, who did not serve in a war and does not have children serving abroad. GOP strategists say that McCain stands to gain more by keeping his sons’ military credentials off-limits than by drawing on them for political gain.

DNC CONVENTION STANCE SURPRISES CAMPAIGNS
(David Paul Kuhn, Politico)
The Democratic National Committee said Tuesday that Florida and Michigan members will be seated on the three standing committees — including the critical Credentials Committee—at the party’s 2008 national convention, a position that could affect the selection of the Democratic nominee... The Credentials Committee, which can meet prior to convention, resolves disputes over whether to seat delegates at the convention. Under the DNC's interpretation of the rules, Florida members of the credentials committee would not be allowed to vote on the question of whether to seat Florida's delegates to the presidential nominating process. But the mere presence of Florida and Michigan on the credentials committee raises the prospect of vote-trading or last-minute maneuvering, creating potential confusion for a convention already shadowed by procedural controversies.

MORE: Democrats Fear Florida Backlash (June Kronholz, Wall Street Journal)
Florida's congressional Democrats and the national Democratic Party are concerned about their November election prospects if the Florida delegation isn't seated at this summer's national convention in Denver, party chairman Howard Dean said in an interview.

MCCAIN CAMP WORKING OUT HEALTH CARE DETAILS
(Michael Kranish, Boston Globe)
He says the country must provide access to healthcare for all our citizens, and that "we need to help people who need it." But McCain also wants to shrink government's role in healthcare and doesn't want to impose regulations on insurance companies. As a result, McCain's aides have been scrambling to come up with ways to satisfy those who want more coverage without violating what they call McCain's conservative principles on the issue.