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On the campaign trail in Iowa, former President Bill Clinton found his words parsed oh-so-carefully by NBC's Mike Taibbi and ABC's Kate Snow (subscription required). At stake was the claim that he "opposed Iraq from the beginning." Snow produced a quote from Time magazine in 2004: "That is why I supported the Iraq thing." Taibbi also relied on Time without offering a date: "I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left in Iraq." Taibbi saw "raised eyebrows" and Snow heard a statement that "sounds to most trained ears like rewriting history." ABC's Snow quoted Jay Carson, a spinmeister from the Rodham Clinton campaign, as arguing that "a former President of the United States cannot be as vocal in their criticism of their successor because it is not in keeping with the office." Carson did not explain why the former President now felt liberated to voice his previously unspoken opposition. So Snow speculated on Carson's behalf: "Is he saying this now because he believes it will win votes here in Iowa?" NBC's Taibbi noted that by day's end Clinton "had made a subtle correction." It is now "oppose--present tense."
CBS' campaign coverage picked up on reporting by politico.com into how Rudolph Giuliani handled his extra-marital affair in 2000 with his now-wife Judith while he was Mayor of New York City. His trips for trysts to the Hamptons on Long Island involved a police security escort. "The question is not about the security detail," explained Byron Pitts, "it is about how the expenses were billed." The Giuliani campaign responded that it was a "non-issue" that the police costs were buried in unrelated budgets such as the City Loft Board. Such surreptitious booking makes the mayor's private life seem messy and Pitts mused that "messy is always unwelcome for a campaign that would rather stay on message."
By the way, NBC's report by Taibbi also contained a soundbite from George Bush's former political operative Karl Rove talking to PBS' Charlie Rose. Rove claimed that the United States was rushed into war with Iraq because of pressure from Congress: "It seemed to make things move too fast. There were things that needed to be done to bring along allies and potential allies abroad."
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