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Iraq was also the topic on the campaign trail, where NBC's Kelly O'Donnell covered John McCain's "glass half full" speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. McCain reassured his audience that "we are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat" in Iraq even though promises of troop withdrawals disregard "calamitous consequences." ABC had Martha Raddatz edit together vox pop comments on the candidates from soldiers in the war zone that she gathered while traveling with Vice President Dick Cheney. Even though they had just listened to the Veep's "rousing speech, he did not change their political preference." Most of the GIs supported either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton, while "there were some McCain backers." The military vote is enthusiastic, Raddatz reported, with a 73% turnout in 2004, and yet higher expected in 2008.
ABC also had Jake Tapper cover the hiccup in the Rodham Clinton campaign as Mark Penn was "demoted" as chief campaign strategist. Rodham Clinton has made a big deal in Pennsylvania of opposing a free trade deal with Colombia because of its repression of labor unions. Yet Penn, in his capacity as head of Burson Marsteller public relations, advised the government of Colombia on how to get the trade deal passed. Tapper saw "ammunition" for Obama to target the labor vote and also a black eye for Rodham Clinton among superdelegates. He called it "difficult" for her to argue "that she has been running the superior campaign."
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