Matthew Bigg

When Governor Mark Sanford walks out of the woods tomorrow, he's sure for a big surprise.

The governor of South Carolina went hiking on the Appalachian Trail last Thursday to clear his head after a tough legislative session, according to his aides. Nothing odd in that - politicians need time off as much as anyone. Trouble is, when Sanford left he didn't tell his aides where he was going. He didn't tell the state's lieutenant governor either. Or his wife.

His disappearance sparked speculation about his whereabouts, although Fox News reported he did call to check in two days into the trip. Tomorrow he is due to emerge from the trail and return to work and he will doubtless face many questions. For a possible presidential candidate in 2012, the distraction could prove awkward.

And it won't help that the father of four sons was away from home on Father's Day.

PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford arrives for a dinner held for the National Governors Association at the White House in Feb. 22, 2009.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Is it possible that a candidate could get a little help from friends during a presidential or vice presidential debate?
 
The idea that a contender could get advice or facts from staff through an earpiece while at the podium might strain the bounds of moral possibility, but technologically it could happen.  The CIA created an earpiece known as the SRR-100 in the 1970s to enable its officers in Moscow to monitor KGB frequencies and see if they were under surveillance, according to a recent book by Robert Wallace, the agency's former director of Technical Services.
 
The CIA's problem was disguising the earpiece but using 19th century technology known as an induction loop it became possible and today variations of the gadget are available for less than $100.
 
"The technology exists for someone using a two-way radio to give instructions to someone on stage via an easily concealable earpiece over nearly four thousand channels," said director of sales at customearpiece.com Steve Perodi.
 
"The earpiece is especially easy to conceal if the wearer has a lot of hair," Perodi said.
 
But it wouldn't be easy.
 
The Commission on Presidential Debates employs a frequency coordinator armed with a spectrum analyzer capable of detecting any radio use during the debate. "It's improbable but not impossible. My job is to find them, which isn't hard with a spectrum analyzer," said veteran frequency coordinator Steve Mendelsohn.
 
"But as we used to say in the Navy: 'We can see every submarine in the world. The question is, can we prosecute them?' Who's going to go up to a presidential candidate and pat them down?," he said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

John McCain adviser Carly Fiorina is offering a new defense of the Republican candidate's ownership of multiple homes , suggesting that it is due to his hard work rather than his wife's money.

McCain's wife Cindy is a wealthy heiress and the couple own between eight and 11 properties depending on how they are counted, according to the Talking Points Memo political blog. McCain responded to a question on the subject last week by saying he wasn't sure how many properties he owned.

Cue criticism from his Democratic rival Barack Obama, who said it showed McCain was out of touch with millions of Americans struggling to pay mortgage costs.
Fiorina told CNN on Monday: "He is a man who has these blessings and these assets because he's worked hard all his life. That's part of the American dream."

She also pointed out that McCain had a plan to address the home mortgage crisis, noted that Cindy McCain's investment portfolio was managed by others and argued that Obama, who owns a house in Chicago, was in no position to judge when it came to house purchases.

"Obama got the opportunity to buy a house that he couldn't afford through his associations with a gentleman named Tony Rezko who's now in jail," she said. "If we want to talk about houses and who's out of touch with the American people we ought to be balanced in that."

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate John McCain conducted a whistle-stop tour through the Iowa State Fair on Friday but Freight Train was unimpressed.
 
The Arizona senator did what all politicians do at the fair. He pressed the flesh. He mounted a soapbox, actually a microphone placed behind bales of straw, and munched on some pork chops on a stick.
 
He may have won some votes when he praised the fair and its 1 million-plus visitors as true to the heartland of America. But he didn't win over Freight Train.
 
The prize boar -- all 1,259 pounds of him -- stayed resolutely asleep throughout his visit, resting his enormous bulk on a bed of sand.
 
"I saw the new champion and world record-breaker boar, Freight Train. He's in good health. I can tell you that," McCain later said at a fund-raiser.
 
"I lament and had thought with some nostalgia about last year's winner Big Red who is no longer with us. But perhaps I had part of him in a pepperoni pizza -- who knows," he said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Ilya Naymushin (A wild boar stands in an open cage at a zoo in the Siberian city of Krasnoyark in 2006)

HUNTINGTON, W. Va - Republican John McCain appeared to back down on Tuesday in his dispute with his opponent Barack Obama over tire pressure.
    
Last week in St. Louis, Obama told an audience that steps such as inflating tires to the correct levels could make a difference when it comes to conserving fuel.
    
Cue gleeful mockery from McCain. Obama was naive, inexperienced and not talking straight to the American people about energy, he said.
    
His campaign went further, distributing to reporters tire gauges engraved with the words "Obama's energy plan."
    
Predictably, Obama hit back calling McCain's mockery "ignorant," arguing his plans were being misrepresented and saying that experts backed his call over tire pressure. Equally predictably, McCain's camp hit back.
    
The surprise came during a telephone town hall meeting McCain held on Tuesday with voters in Pennsylvania.
    
"Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don't disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it," McCain said.
    
But he kept up his broad criticism of Obama on energy: "I ... don't think that that (inflating tires) is a way to become energy independent."
    
The United States' energy challenges will be a central factor in the months leading up to the election. But when it comes to how far to inflate your tires, the air seems to have gone out of the dispute.

Photo credit Reuters/Mike Blake (Gas station near San Diego)

STURGIS, S.D. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain attempted to harness a powerful engine of heartland conservatism on Monday -- addressing a giant rally of motorcycle enthusiasts.

Hundreds of thousands of people converge on the remote town of Sturgis, South Dakota, each year for a week-long festival of rock music, wild, good times and American biker culture.

"I recognize that sound," McCain said as dozens of bikers revved their engines as he walked on stage in a sustained growl of approval. "It's the sound of freedom."

The U.S. economy, energy and foreign policy are key issues in the contest between McCain and rival Barack Obama but the race could turn on competing visions of U.S. values.

With their love of the open road, many bikers see themselves as standard-bearers of American freedom.

An endless procession of bikers, many not wearing helmets, cruised the rural roads around Sturgis on Monday in a blur of chrome and leather.

The bikers form a natural audience for McCain. Many are war veterans who say they see McCain as an embodiment of patriotism and service because he spent years in a North Vietnamese prison during the Vietnam war.

Seven bikers carrying big U.S. flags escorted McCain's Straight Talk Express bus into the Buffalo Chip fields where the festival was held.

But Kip Benbow, who rode his Harley three days from Indiana for the convention, said he supported McCain because he would defend another aspect of his way of life.

"I want the right to protect my house and my property. That's my freedom and my right to arms. ... I don't want nobody messing with my guns," said Benbow, who said he had as many as 40 guns at home.

McCain made his pitch to the bikers not on gun rights but on the issue he said was at the core of freedom: honoring the military.

"You are the heartland of America," he told a crowd of thousands after a searing rendition of the U.S. national anthem played on electric guitar. "You are the heart and soul of America and I am honored to be in your company.

The bikers revved their engines in a deafening roar of approval.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Synder (McCain July 21 in South Portland Maine)

LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. -  Is Republican candidate John McCain trying to turn that old-fashioned teaching tool, the visual aid, into a political art form? Or is he just having fun?

On Monday, a dispute between McCain and Democratic candidate Obama erupted over energy policy. Obama released a television ad claiming McCain was in the pocket of oil companies. McCain responded by saying Obama lacked experience and opposed nuclear power and oil drilling off the U.S. coast.

Then his team went a step farther.

"After take-off, we'll be distributing copies of Obama's energy policy," McCain aide Mark Salter told reporters before the campaign plane taxied down a runway in Washington.

Once airborne, Salter returned carrying small metallic tire gauges inscribed with the words: "Obama's energy plan."

It was a dig at a statement Obama made in Missouri. He said inflating a car's tires to the correct pressure could help maximize fuel efficiency.

It's not the first time McCain's campaign has employed visual aides to mock his opponent. During Obama's high-profile trip to Europe and the Middle East, it issued phony press IDs to reporters labeled: "Left behind to cover America."

If there's a point to all this, perhaps McCain's team is trying to say Obama takes himself too seriously and needs a little air taken out of his tires.

Is McCain's campaign staff indulging in some good-natured ribbing and will voters appreciate the joke?

PHILADELPHIA - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who regularly uses language to reinforce his modern-guy credentials, seems to have set  that aside when he explained how he won't be cowed by Republican attacks.
 
"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said at a fund-raiser in Philadelphia on Friday, employing a phrase that could have been lifted from a gangster movie.
 
"Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans," he said, referring to the city's  football team.
 
The Republican Party quickly responded that the comment undermined Obama's claim to represent change.
 
"Why is Barack Obama so negative? In the last 24 hours, he's completely abandoned his campaign's call for 'new politics', equating the election to a 'brawl' and promising to 'bring a gun'," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant.
 
"It's clear Obama is going on the attack to distract from the fact that since winning the nomination, his friend and fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, was convicted, and his vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson, was forced to resign," Conant said.
 
The punch and counterpunch suggest another tough-guy phrase that has slipped into the political dialogue: "Bring 'em on."

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters /Luke MacGregor (Knives are on display at New Scotland Yard in London on May 29, 2008)

ATLANTA - Commentator and activist Tavis Smiley has quit the syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show" after 12 years because of the "hate" he got from the show's mainly black audience over his criticism of Sen. Barack Obama, Joyner said.

Joyner shocked listeners when he announced Smiley's departure from the influential radio show on Friday and said he believed Smiley "can't take the hate" he'd received from listeners who support the Democratic presidential candidate.

"We (the show and its listeners) are so emotional about this Barack Obama candidacy. If you don't say anything for Barack Obama, you're considered to be a hater."

"He (Smiley) loves black America and black America has been very critical of him," Joyner said on his show, which has millions of listeners. He said he wanted Smiley to reconsider his decision.

Smiley criticized Obama, who would be the first black president, for declining to attend his annual "State of the Black Union" conference in February, a conference attended by Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.

Joyner's comments raise an issue for blacks who have voted overwhelmingly for Obama in a string of primaries and caucuses: does support for Obama among them run so strong that those who express a different view get a hard time?

Commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson published an online column on Friday backing Smiley's right to express a dissenting view on Obama and hitting back at his critics.
"Hang tough (Smiley) and don't let the black Obama thought police run you out," Hutchinson said in his weekly column.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/John Sommers II (Obama speaks at a campaign stop in Columbus, Indiana, on April 11, 2008) 

ALTOONA, Pa - Fans of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama might swoon at his speeches. They might stand in awe of his judgment and echo his call for change. But they probably are not impressed by his bowling skills.

The Illinois senator, who is on a six-day bus tour of Pennsylvania to "introduce himself" to the state's voters, dropped in on a bowling alley in Altoona late on Saturday and, after chatting with some people, put on a pair of bowling shoes to try his hand in a competition with Sen. Robert Casey, who has recently endorsed him.

The candidate's first attempt was a gutterball.

"I've got to get at least something," he said as he turned around to face a growing crowd.

His next attempt, another gutterball, showed little improvement.

"No worries," he said. "I'm not done."

In his defense, Obama pointed out that he hadn't bowled for 30 years.

Fellow bowlers -- even Republicans -- lined up for pictures and autographs, surprised that a presidential candidate was hanging out at their local alley. Obama probably is hoping that Pennsylvania voters are like the pins: once you get to know them, they fall more easily.

Obama eventually got a spare but it came after Casey had scored a strike and long after Roxanne Hart, a regular who joined the senators on the lane, had put them both to shame.

"I was terrible," Obama said, smiling as he emerged from the Pleasant Valley Recreation Center bowling alley.

Hart put it a little more charitably: "He has a lot of potential."

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.