No major events are on the calendar today in the Federal City, but on the other side of the Potomac River there’s plenty to chew over.

Virginia Democrats on Tuesday night picked State Sen. Creigh Deeds, an unpolished moderate from the rural Shenandoah Valley, over better-funded rivals in the state’s gubernatorial primary.

This normally wouldn’t be big news, but the Virginia governor’s race is sure to get lots of national scrutiny as one of only two major electoral contests this year (along with the New Jersey governor’s race).

Virginia, long a bastion of conservative politics, has turned blue this decade. The state has elected two Democratic governors in a row, backed Obama in last year’s presidential race, and is now represented by two Democrats in the Senate.

Much of this shift has been driven by rapid population growth in the affluent Washington suburbs, where voters have more in common with liberal New Yorkers than conservative Southerners. Thus it’s interesting to note that Deeds, who hails from a sparsely populated, conservative area, defeated two better-funded, more liberal candidates who call Northern Virginia home — former Democratic party (and Clinton ally) Terry McAuliffe and state Delegate Brian Moran.

Deeds will face Republican Robert McDonnell in the November election. The two have faced off before: McDonnell beat Deeds by a mere 323 votes in the attorney general’s race four years ago.

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REUTERS/Chris Wattie      Terry McAuliffe waves at 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver

The year after a presidential election, there’s typically few electoral contests on the calendar as politicians focus on getting some work done so they’ll have something to brag about to voters during the next election.

The few races that do occur tend to be heavily scrutinized as pundits look for something to chew over in the slow period before next year’s congressional midterms.

Today, Democrats in Virginia go to the polls to pick a candidate for the governor’s mansion, as incumbent Tim Kaine is constitutionally limited to one term. On the Republican side, Robert McDonnell faces no opposition for his party’s nomination.

Virginia, formerly solid red, is now a swing state that has elected successive Democratic governors and backed Democrat Barack Obama in last year’s presidential race.

All eyes are on Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who headed Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid last year.

McAuliffe has deep pockets and a high national profile and has emphasized economic issues. But he has not played a role in state politics before, and his ties to Clinton could actually be a detriment — Obama beat her in the state’s bruising February 2009 presidential primary.

The other two candidates are less known nationally but have deeper roots in the state.

State Sen. Creigh Deeds, from the Shenandoah Valley, hopes to appeal to rural voters with a moderate record and a pro-gun stance.

Former state delegate Brian Moran, who hails from Alexandria, has run as a liberal who backs gay rights and opposes a new coal power plant.

Polls are inconclusive and turnout is expected to be light, so those pundits should probably not read too much into the result.

Voting ends at 7 p.m.

photo: REUTERS/Chris Wattie (McAuliffe at the 2008 Democratic convenion in Denver)

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Washington is always full of conspiracy theories –  one of the latest surrounds the decision to close hundreds of Chrysler dealerships following the automaker’s slide into bankruptcy.

Conservatives want to know whether dealerships with Republican ties were targeted by the Obama administration.

Some are seizing on a Reuters article. In it, a lawyer who represents some of the terminated dealers said after a deposition with Chrysler President Jim Press that the automaker did not make the decision.

“It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers,” said lawyer Leonard Bellavia. “It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the president’s automotive task force.”

But there’s more.
Conservative blogger Doug Ross said he discovered that most of the dealerships to be shuttered had given campaign funds almost exclusively to Republicans and very little to Democrats.

However, as with all conspiracy theories, there is the denial, both from Chrysler and the Obama administration.

Chrysler said in the Reuters article that it made the decisions based on location, customer satisfaction and sales potential. The company also noted that almost half of the targeted dealerships sell other brands of cars and most rely on used vehicle sales for their business.

The White House denied suggestions that the Autos Task Force was involved in deciding which dealerships would be closed and expanded that denial to include production plants.

“The president’s task force on autos did not pick individual dealerships,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said during Thursday’s daily briefing in Washington. “It isn’t involved in picking what plants may or may not be closed.”

Asked if there was any concern about the possibility of politics tainting the decisions, Gibbs issued a broad denial.

“Let me reiterate that we don’t make those decisions,” he said. “Chrysler makes those decisions. So I’m sure you can send Chrysler the address of the blog that you refer to.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (A Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership in suburban Washington, D.C.)

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama told an audience at the U.S. mission to the United Nations that she was “thrilled” to be back in New York for the first time since her husband Barack Obama became the 44th U.S. president in January. But she said some things are even more exciting than addressing an audience of 150 U.S. diplomats, military advisers and other government officials.

“I’m thrilled to be here but I was just at ‘Sesame Street’, I’m sorry,” she said, referring to the long-running U.S. children’s television program. “I never thought I’d be on ‘Sesame Street’ with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I’m still thrilled. I’m on a high. I think it’s probably the best thing I’ve done so far in the White House.”

One of the biggest rounds of applause during the first lady’s 20-minute appearance at the U.S. mission in midtown Manhattan came when she read a letter the son of one of the mission staffers, Scott Turner, recently sent to the president.  According to Michelle Obama, Turner’s son Jack, a first grader,  wrote to the president:

“Dear Mr. Obama - Can you move to New York? Because people like you in New York. I will help you come to New York and people are doing bad stuff in New York. I will help you get the bad people and when I catch the bad people I will put them in jail. That’s why I want you to move to  New York. From Jack.”

The first lady said she had already found a job for Jack: “Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have identified the new future New York Police Commissioner. Jack is on the case.”

Michelle Obama also thanked a group of 40 employees of the U.S. mission in the audience who have been working for the U.S. government for more than 20 years. One of them, Ivan Ferber, has been with the U.S. mission for 47 years, which she said is “longer than I’ve been alive.”

In sharp contrast to the administration of former President George W. Bush, whose officials were often dismissive and critical of the United Nations and other multilateral organizations, Michelle Obama emphasized that the new administration felt it was vitally important to work with allies.

“As the president has said, the United States is pursuing a new era of engagement when it comes to advancing America’s interests around the world,” she said. “This new policy recognizes that the fact that America’s future is intricately linked to the rest of the world, that the threats facing the global community know no borders and no single country can tackle them alone. We’ve learned this again with the recent
outbreak of the H1N1 virus.”

The first lady also spoke about the important tasks facing U.S. diplomats working with the United Nations to bring aid to the developing world. “Your work links the world to America and American ideals that are beacons of hope for millions of people,” she said.

“The young boy who’s forced to carry a rifle and become a child soldier — he’s counting on you,” she said. “The girl locked out of the schoolhouse or attacked because she had the audacity to want to learn to read or write — she’s counting on you. The mother walking hours each day to find clean water for her children — she’s counting on you. And the father who leaves his family for months or years on end in search of work — he’s counting on you as well.”

The first lady suggested that she, too, might want to get involved in working with poorer countries around the world, but she did not provide any specifics.

Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, 79, of Pennsylvania appears to face a tough run next year for reelection to a sixth term.
 
And he can blame his problems largely on his decision last month to break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for President Barack Obama’s $787 economic stimulus package.
    
Those are the findings of a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.
 
The Connecticut-based university found that Specter, viewed as a moderate, trails former conservative congressman Pat Toomey, his likely Republican primary challenger, by a margin of 41 percent to 27 percent. Specter narrowly defeated Toomey in a 2004 primary battle.

Another and somewhat smaller poll by Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania was a mixed bag for Specter.
 
While the survey showed Specter leading Toomey 33 percent to 18 percent, it found that 49 percent of respondents were undecided or favored others. 

That survey of 662 people also found that less than half — 40 percent — believe Specter deserves another term, with 46 percent saying it is “time for a change.”
    
The Quinnipiac survey showed Democrats and independents backed Specter’s support of Obama’s stimulus package. But Republicans opposed it — 70 percent to 25 percent.

Both surveys were conducted in recent days and had a margin of error between plus or minus of three to four percentage points. 

“Pennsylvania Republicans are so unhappy with Sen. Specter’s vote for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and so-called pork barrel spending that they are voting for a former congressman they hardly know,” said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
 
Richards added, however, if Specter survives the primary, he would have a lot going for him in the general election since there currently seems to be no strong Democratic contender.
 
But Specter faces other problems.
 
He stepped into a political hornet’s nest on Tuesday when he opposed a bill to make it easier for workers to unionize, a top legislative goal of organized labor but anathema to many in the business community and his own party.
 
So if Specter wins the Republican primary, he can expect to be opposed by energized union supporters in the general election.

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Reuters photo by Jonathan Ernst. (Specter and other senators talk to reporters about President Obama’s stimulus bill in Washington in February)

WASHINGTON - How outraged can they be?

U.S. lawmakers are clearly outraged by the $165 million in bonuses being paid to executives at bailed-out insurer American International Group. For the last two days, they’ve been talking about it in press releases,  at news conference and in speeches on the floor of the Senate and House.

But no one says it more colorfully and more bluntly than Republican Senator Chuck Grassley — so far.

“From my standpoint, it’s irresponsible for corporations to give bonuses, at this time, when they are so sucking the tit of the taxpayer,” Grassley said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Grassley, an Iowa farmer, is most likely just channeling what many taxpayers are thinking.

The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve has put up to $180 billion at AIG’s disposal to keep them afloat and prevent the insurance giant from sinking the global financial system. The company said it had contract obligations to pay out some $165 million in retention bonuses to employees.

Grassley on Monday had some other colorful comments about AIG executives saying they should perhaps adopt what he called the Japanese approach to taking responsibility for their actions and “resign or go commit suicide.”

He pulled back from that “rhetoric” saying he obviously does not want people to kill themselves.

But Grassley says executives at AIG and other companies that ran to the government for money after “running their corporations into the ground” owe U.S. taxpayers an apology and ought to consider resigning.

Grassley’s Senate office phones have been ringing off the hook since the suicide remark with about half the callers saying his remarks were insensitive and half agreeing with him, an aide said.

Grassley also received numerous comments of praise on his Facebook page, including one who lauded that the senator “had the guts to stand up and say what the taxpayers are thinking.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Theiler (Senator Grassley speaks at Reuters regulation summit last year)

Larry Downing is a Reuters senior staff photographer assigned to the White House. He shares that duty with three other staff photographers. He has lived in Washington since 1977 and has been assigned to cover the White House , including flying aboard Air Force One, since 1978. President Barack Obama is the sixth president Larry has photographed.

Only two identical aircraft exist in the world which both share the same high-level function. They mirror one another precisely except for the numeric identifier on the tail. One reads 28000, the other 29000.
They’re as sleek as they are majestic. Anticipation runs high when either travels and both are red carpet worthy. They are concealed around-the-clock in a protective cocoon while being constantly pampered at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

“Use of Deadly Force is Authorized” inside the security perimeter ringing around the outermost tips of their wings, and absolutely no one is allowed to enter without permission.

However, the moment the President of the United States, or POTUS, steps aboard, the aircraft immediately transforms from a mild-mannered Boeing 747 passenger jet into an aviation ambassador for the might of the United States, carrying one of the most powerful men in the world to any destination he chooses; all the while in complete luxury.

Welcome aboard Air Force One.

It’s America’s magic carpet and it floats freely through the clouds under a veil of secrecy while transporting essential elements of the White House inside a secure “bubble” to any corner of the world. Surprisingly, there’s an operating room with a doctor in case of a medical emergency and a protective armada of U.S. warplanes shadows its every movement.

Air Force One is the ultimate military jet transport with a simple, yet singular mission; to serve the needs of the President of the United States. Only the president, his family, invited guests, select White House staff, armed Secret Service agents and members of a small press pool are allowed as passengers during flight.

Even the president’s pets are treated as royalty. President George W. Bush used to ferry his dogs and cat back and forth on every trip to his central Texas ranch in Crawford. One of his dogs, Barney, gained a local following after the much publicized biting of a Reuters' reporter at the White House.

Bush also liked to use a special mountain bike when riding, so it was necessary for an aide to load it onto the back of the aircraft for his use on arrival, just in case. An "Air Force One Travel Pool" always accompanies the president when he’s on the jet.

It’s the tightest and most prestigious of all White House press pools, just 13members total with rotating representatives from each of the disciplines of journalism. These "poolers" are present in all presidential motorcades, on all helicopter movements (but never aboard Marine One), and are housed overnight in the president's 5-star hotel when his travels take him out of town or country. Reuters assigns a wire service correspondent and a news photographer to travel on board during all presidential travel.

Armed military police and trained dogs make sure no one goes near Air Force One without a complete security vetting process. All personnel assigned to the squadron have a top secret clearance and, in Air Force-speak, “a need to know” before working on the aircraft. All press and their equipment are thoroughly sniffed, scanned and searched before being issued an additional U.S. Secret Service credential which allows him or her to walk on the tarmac towards the jet. That pass is changed by a Secret Service agent on every travel segment of a trip.

Wearing different press credentials is a daily part of White House travel.

The "security sweep" at Andrews Air Force Base involves no less than ten different challenges to each member of the press pool at the beginning of travel. Starting with manifesting by the White House, security continues through elements of the U.S. Air Force, TSA, U.S. Secret Service (both Uniformed Division and Presidential Protective Division), explosive ordinance experts, bomb-sniffing dogs, and finally, Air Force One’s own armed bouncers, their exclusive security force.

Only then are you allowed to board the aircraft using the rear stairs. The front steps belong only the president. That tradition was lost somehow on Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich when he complained to the press of having to use the rear steps after flying as the president’s guest.

Air Force One offers much more than your father’s military transport ever could… Most veterans’ memories of military travel aren't fond ones. Circumstances made military travel reminiscent of the migratory adventures discovered inside a John Steinbeck novel; tired vagabonds hitching rides inside the wooden boxcars of the steel freight trains while chasing their tumbleweed dreams across the flats of west Texas. GI’s have always been exposed to conditions like those dust bowl hobos of the early 1900’s.

Even by today’s standards military travel is less than glamorous.

Last summer, while former first lady Laura Bush rode in comfort inside her luxury trailer strapped to the floor of a C-17 transport jet, White House staff, Secret Service and press members were left outside in the cold…literally. Frostbite awaits anyone who falls asleep on the steel floor of that particular aircraft without making sensible precautions. It’s a biting cold at 37,000 feet.

This picture was taken during that 2008 secret visit to Afghanistan after seven frigid hours of flight.

Guests on Air Force One are treated in comforting fashion. Service is reminiscent of the attention passengers received during the dawn of commercial airline travel. The seats are large and recline far enough back to sleep comfortably on long flights. No meals are pre-packaged or sealed in plastic bags and nothing is served from an airline cart; instead meals are cooked fresh by Air Force cooks in the jet’s large flight kitchen and then served on Air Force One’s own china. Full meals and desserts are cooked and created by hand in-flight. The press cabin also offers a large library of movies with comfortable headsets.

Before returning to Andrews Air Force Base the stewards pass out the most prized of all White House travel souvenirs…The Presidential M&M’s. They are exclusive to Air Force One and are limited edition. Each box has the Presidential Seal on its front and the autograph of the current president embossed below it. President Barack Obama’s M&M’s are eagerly anticipated and are due out in late March 2009.

Each passenger later receives a large flight certificate from the White House, signed by the presidential pilot, indicating that they flew as a "Guest of the President" aboard Air Force One. It resembles an undergraduate degree from an American university. Air Force One’s on-time record is perfect and no one has ever filed a claim for lost luggage. The aircraft commander prides himself on one simple fact… you can set your watch to his scheduled arrival time. He’s right!

Only once in recent history has Air Force One been delayed beyond the commander’s control. That incident occurred in the 1990’s when President Bill Clinton insisted on bringing a Beverly Hills stylist out to the readied aircraft before take-off while it sat on the airport’s tarmac in Los Angeles. He wanted to experience a $200 "Christophe" hair treatment. Commercial aircraft waited patiently to take off during the airport’s mandatory Air Force One ramp-freeze while Clinton received the cut.

The nickname "Hair Force One" grew out of that exclusive appointment.

News photographers are allowed to work "under the wing" for all arrivals and all departures of the president. (Photography from behind the main wing is discouraged. The trailing edge of the jet’s wing supports cutting-edge electronic gadgetry not found on commercial aircraft.)

Once aboard, the press pool is instructed to remain inside the designated press cabin at all times. No movement outside of the area is allowed without a White House staff escort and is monitored by the Secret Service agents sitting in the adjacent cabin. Photography is allowed only during "on camera" briefings inside that press cabin.

Air Force One is as much an official backdrop for news photography as is the White House. The exterior colors are visually hypnotic. Every angle is eye candy. First lady Jackie Kennedy chose it all when she resided at the White House.

One of my favorite pictures of President George W. Bush is his boarding the aircraft after a visit to New Orleans on a very hot, sweaty night following Hurricane Katrina. A simple picture…yet, it says a lot. It would be nothing without the majesty of the aircraft.

No news picture will ever top the one taken aboard by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton on the return flight from a bloody visit to Dallas in November 1963 shortly after President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. As LBJ was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States, the former first lady stood by his side with her dead husband’s blood still on her jacket. His body rode home quietly in the cabin of the plane. This picture is from the Johnson Presidential Library and is a huge part of White House history.

That aircraft was a Boeing 707 and its tail identifier was 26000. I flew on that exact Air Force One 15 years later. It would be more than a decade after that before the 707’s would be replaced with the new pair of 747’s. 26000 is now on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Ohio.

To fly aboard Air Force One is a continuing honor and even after 31 years of White House duty, the experience still gives me goose bumps. Every flight is monumental to me.

My first flight was with President Jimmy Carter when he flew to Denver to promote the use of solar energy in residential homes in 1978. Carter’s luck always seemed to sit under a dark cloud. He was handed an umbrella as soon as he stepped off Air Force One in Colorado to keep him dry. It poured rain during the event.

I remember flying with President George H.W. Bush to Somalia to lunch with U.S. military troops on a very quick visit. As we departed Mogadishu the temperature hovered right at 100 degrees. We took off, flew north to Moscow, and arrived before midnight. The temperature in Russia was 20 degrees below zero. 120 degrees difference in less than 12 hours.

I traveled with his son twice on secret missions to Iraq. On the second trip, after the Air Force issued armored vests to each member of the traveling press moments before touching down in Baghdad, we were instructed that President George W. Bush wanted us to leave them on the ground before we left Iraq. He wanted to be sure combat soldiers in harm’s way would have the newest body armor.

Another striking memory for me was President Bill Clinton’s visit to Vietnam after the U.S. elections in 2000. While Air Force One banked into its final turn towards Hanoi, I noticed dozens of brown bomb craters lining the green countryside on our approach. The closer we flew towards the runway, the more craters I counted. U.S. Air Force pilots are quite familiar with that flight pattern. American B-52 warplanes dropped thousands of bombs over the area during the Christmas Bombing of Hanoi in 1972; all during the peace negotiations to end the Vietnam War. The next morning Clinton stood in front of a large bust of Vietnam’s wartime hero, Ho Chi Minh.

An example of the ease of travel Air Force One enjoys was during the 2005 trip of President George W. Bush to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. After attending the somber Vatican funeral with two former U.S. President’s, Bush loaded his wife onto Air Force One and together they flew from Rome, Italy, to Waco, Texas. Imagine calling a travel agent and requesting that same non-stop service?

Air Force One earns its wings daily during the busy travel schedule of the last year of any president’s Administration. He schedules the entire year traveling to say goodbye to anyone who will join him for lunch.

I remember President Bill Clinton’s final journeys to India, Africa, Asia, Europe. Bush’s goodbye exodus was equally long. In 2008 White House travel took me to: Thailand, Korea, the Beijing Olympics, Israel (twice), the Palestinian Territory, Saudi Arabia (twice), Afghanistan (with the first lady), Slovenia, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

My only complaint is that we DON’T get Air Force One frequent flyer miles…

For a portfolio of Larry's work click here.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is firing back in a war of words with the the environmental group, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, over the group’s new national ad campaign which attacks her for promoting aerial hunting.

Actress, Ashley Judd, narrates the group’s You Tube video which takes direct aim at Palin and the controversial practice of  shooting wolves and other animals from low-flying planes or helicopters.

Palin, the failed Republican vice presidential nominee, blasts the ad campaign as attacks by an “extreme fringe group.” She accuses the group of misrepresenting Alaska’s wildlife management programs, which  aim to protect vulnerable wildlife from predators.

“It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool,” Palin says in a statement.

“Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.”

Defenders of Wildlife, a Washington-based conservation group, first took on Palin during the presidential race, running television ads in battleground states.

In a statement, the group’s president Rodger Schlickeisen said: “By calling us ‘extremists’ she is suggesting that our opposition to her policies and actions is out of step with the way the majority of Americans view her brutal, unethical wildlife slaughter. But it is she who is the extremist in this case.”

WASHINGTON - Former Republican White House candidate John McCain said on Monday he wished he were taking the presidential oath of office but pledged his support to former rival Barack Obama instead.

McCain, speaking at a dinner in his honor on the eve of Obama’s swearing-in, reflected on his own career of military and public service when mentioning Tuesday’s inauguration.

“I would have preferred to have sworn again tomorrow the oath I first took more than 50 years ago,” he said.

“But it would be an act of stunning ingratitude were I to resent the decision of the American people or dismiss the privilege I still possess: the privilege of serving in some capacity the country that has been so good to me.”

McCain wished the president-elect well even as he said the two may continue to joust in the future.

“We will disagree now and again, but not always and not for personal reasons, and not, I assure you, over the purpose we share: the progress of the nation we love,” he said.

The Arizona senator and Obama, a former senator from Illinois, clashed repeatedly on the 2008 campaign trail over policy in often bitter exchanges. McCain gave a gracious concession speech, however, after his loss on Nov. 4 and met with Obama in Chicago after the election.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama speaks beside U.S. Sen. John McCain during the Bipartisan dinner honoring McCain in Washington on Jan. 19, 2009.

PHILADELPHIA - Barack Obama, who pilloried his soon-to-be predecessor’s policies during two years on the campaign trail, said Friday that George W. Bush is a good guy.

“If you look at my statements throughout the campaign, I always thought he was a good guy,” the Democratic president-elect said on CNN about the Republican president whom he replaces Tuesday.

“I mean, I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country. And I think he made the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.”

Best decisions he could? Obama lambasted Bush on the campaign trail for his decisions on a wide range of issues, including the Iraq war, financial regulation, climate change and the treatment of prisoners.

Obama made reference to those, too.

“Over the last several years, we have made a series of bad choices and we are now going to be inheriting the consequences of a lot of those bad choices,” the president-elect said.

“That does not mean that I think he’s not a good person. And his White House staff has done an extraordinary job in working with us for a smooth transition.”

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama, Bush at Oval Office meeeting with former presidents)