Sunday Snapshot

John McCain was on "Fox News Sunday":

On his campaign strategy: "California can no longer be written off, in my view. And that means going to all parts of that state and reaching out to Hispanic voters, independents, others. I know that you know ... that one of the recent trends which may not have been as understood as well as some other things is that there's this dramatic rise in the independent voter registration, whether it be in my state or all across America. The independent voter will make an even larger difference, I think, in the 2008 election. So I have to energize our base, get the independents and the old and new, quote, 'Reagan Democrats.'"

Asked about voting against civil rights legislation: "Let me say in 1983 I was wrong, and I believe that my advocacy for the recognition of Dr. King's birthday in Arizona was something that I'm proud of. The issue in the early '90s was a little more complicated. I've never believed in quotas, and I don't. There's no doubt about my view on that issue. And that was the implication, at least, of that other vote. But I was wrong in '83, and all of us make mistakes, and I think nobody recognized that more than Dr. King."

Asked if Obama is qualified to be POTUS: "If the voters decide that of America, absolutely. I believe that my talent and my background and my experience, which has led to my judgment -- I think qualifies me more, obviously, or I wouldn't be seeking the presidency."

On what he's looking for in a VP: "The first and really major and overwhelming priority is a person who shares my principles, my values, my priorities -- as you know, priorities are very important in presidents -- and could immediately take my place. That's, I think, the overriding criteria."

On why he doesn't have Secret Service protection: "Because it inhibits, obviously, my ability to have close contact with people, but we'll be meeting early next week with the Secret Service and working out the modalities for Secret Service protection."

Asked when he'll have protection: "Not as early as next week taking it, but I'll meet with the Secret Service and we'll set it up, and shortly thereafter we will have Secret Service protection" (4/6).

DEAN'S DIVISION

DNC Chair Howard Dean appeared on "Face the Nation" and "This Week":

Asked how he'll get the remaining superdelegates to declare before 7/1: "I think they'll do it because this is a race that's more important than either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. This is a race about the change in our country."

More Dean: "Most people who say that I should put pressure on people, what they mean is I should put pressure on them to do what they want to do."

Dean: "If you go into the convention divided, you're probably going to come out of the convention divided."

Asked if he believes Obama can't win: "Certainly not. I think either one of them can win. And I think it would be terrific. But the ongoing dispute, while it's healthy in the short run, needs to have an end at some time. And if it has an end at the convention, that only gives us eight or nine weeks to recover from that. So, again, I think this has all been for the good, most of this. Some of the things that have been said have been debated. I'd rather have that debate now, in March, than I would in October."

More: "I'm not deeply offended that somebody argues that the other side can't win. I've been through one of these races. If that's the worst thing that gets said in this campaign, then I think we're in very good shape. Because somebody is going to win. And I think our candidate is most likely going to win the presidency of the United States, because people are fed up and they do not want a third term for George W. Bush, which is essentially what the policies of John McCain are offering us."

On FL/MI: "We want them to be seated in some way. They obviously can't be seated, as is, which is what one campaign is saying. And they're certainly not going to be excluded, which is what the other campaign is saying. But there is a reasonable, thoughtful way to do this" ("Face the Nation," CBS, 4/6).

Asked about Cuomo's proposal for a joint ticket: "There are an awful lot of Democrats who would love to see a dream ticket, but that's really going to be up to the nominee. The nominee chooses their own vice presidential candidate ... and I'm not going to give the nominee any advice about that unless they ask for it."

On FL/MI: "In the case of Michigan, in particular, they didn't really have an election. They had one candidate on the ballot. That is not, the last time I saw, considered to be an election in the United States of America. Now, so here's my problem. My problem is we want to honor the states and the people of Michigan and Florida who did come out and voted in Florida elections. But we also want to make clear that there has to be an orderly process, in the Democratic primary, that everybody has to respect, and Michigan and Florida voted for those things. So we want to seat a delegation from Florida. We want to seat a delegation from Michigan. But that delegation is not going to look like every other delegation, because it's a very, very complicated process. And in order to change the rules in the middle of the game, which is what we are doing, we need the consent of both candidates who will be affected by it. So it's a very complicated matter. But I am committed to making sure that there are folks from Florida and Michigan at Denver. Because Florida and Michigan are very important parts of this country. And whatever the political people, did the individual voters should be respected" ("This Week," ABC, 4/6).

THE KEY TO THE KEYSTONE STATE

Clinton supporter/PA Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Obama supporter/Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) were on "Meet the Press" this weekend:

Rendell: "I'm saying that we will win this state, but we'll win it somewhere between 5 and 9, 5 and 10 percentage points. But any victory over a man who outspends you 3-to-1 and is a good a campaigner as Barack Obama is, is an impressive victory."

Asked why he endorsed after saying he wouldn't, Casey: "I became a decided voter. And at that point, you have to make a decision when, when a competition is going on in your state. Do you sit on the sidelines as a public official when you have a strong feeling? And I'll tell you, I have never been more inspired by a candidate for president in my life."

Asked if endorsed Obama to broaden his own PA coalition, Casey: "I'll leave that to others to analyze ... but one thing I know for sure is this is a candidate, in Barack Obama, who has made not just a commitment to change, but has demonstrated it already."

Rendell, on Clinton: "She runs better and is more likely to carry those big states that ... a Democrat cannot win the presidential voter in the electoral college without them. And that's what the superdelegates have to consider: who's the best candidate to put together the electoral map in the fall."

Casey: "Senator Obama has the ability, as a general election candidate, to get votes that Democrats have never gotten before. He's already proven that. He can attract Republicans and independents. And he will need that to govern and to bring about change."

Rendell, on FL/MI: "You can't seat the delegates in Michigan because she had no one on the ballot against her. You certainly should seat the delegates from Florida, where she won by 300,000 votes, where the Florida Democrats did nothing wrong. It was the Republican governor and the Republican legislature that brought that primary into January. The Florida Democrats wanted to bring it to February 4th."

Rendell, on the Clintons' tax returns: "What's going to play well is that they paid a higher percentage of taxes, $33 million, than the average in their income bracket, they gave almost 10 percent of their income, $10 million, to charity when the average person in that bracket gives about 3 percent. I think Bill and Hillary Clinton, with the taxes they paid and with the money they gave to charity, demonstrated their commitment to the public good, no ifs, ands and buts about it."

Asked if people who make donations to the Clinton foundation could be seen as trying to curry favor with a Clinton admin, Rendell: "No, it goes to the foundation for works that, again, we all should be praiseworthy of, just like the Rockefeller Foundation or the Ford Foundation or the Pew Foundation" (NBC, 4/6).

DEAR JOHN

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was on "Fox News Sunday":

Kerry: "On the 100 years war issue, John McCain is being disingenuous, because what he said in that interview was as long as there is no violence -- which indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of Iraq itself.Our own national intelligence people tell us it is the American presence that is attracting jihadists and creating violence. So if he's talking about being there for 40 years, 100 years, he's talking about attracting more and more terrorists and not paying attention to the larger challenges."

More: "If you go back and look at what he said on the Charlie Rose show four months ago, he was asked by Charlie Rose -- he put it in the context of no casualties. And he said, 'Well, do you think you can you do that in Iraq?' And John McCain said, 'No, you can't do it in Iraq because of the culture and religion.' He got it right then. He's getting it wrong now. The point is that you have, you know, a John McCain who really has shown, I think, a misunderstanding of where the real center of the war on terror is. He has adopted the Bush policy with respect to the war a terror, which is a mistake with respect to how we're prosecuting it in Iraq. And he has ignored what we need to be doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as has the Bush administration."

Asked about considering McCain as VP in '04: "Let me be very clear about John McCain in 2004. John McCain in 2004 was a Senator John McCain who had opposed the Bush tax cuts, who had indicated at that point in time a very different attitude on any number of subjects from global climate change to how you treat the powerful in Washington. Nomination John McCain is a different person. He is now supporting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. He voted against the bankruptcy bill -- in other words -- I mean, for it. He took the position of the most powerful interests against the average American. He votes against the minimum wage, repeatedly again. I think you have a very different John McCain."

More Kerry: "I think John McCain has taken positions in the course of trying to win the Republican nomination, whether it's the reversal and flip-flop on the intolerance with respect to Jerry Falwell and others, or whether it is the Bush tax cuts flip-flop, or whether it is this flip-flop now on the issue of Iraq, or whether it is, you know, global climate change, where he has not yet signed on to Joe Lieberman and John Warner's bill. There is a clear indication of a Nomination John McCain versus the Senator John McCain."

FNC's Wallace: "Do you think John McCain was an opportunist when he refused to take early release from a North Vietnamese prison camp because he was the son of an admiral, because he said he was going to stay there for years, as long as all the other Americans did?"

Kerry: "Chris, please. I think you almost insult my intelligence and my values and those of every American. Nobody ever would insinuate that John McCain is anything but a hero for his activities in the prison camp" (4/6).

ODDS AND ENDS

Sen. James Webb (D-VA), on being a superdelegate: "If they didn't want the superdelegates to have independent judgment, they wouldn't have created them."

Asked who he's supporting: "I'm really happy at this point to support them both" ("This Week," ABC, 4/6).

Clinton supporter/Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), asked about his comment that Clinton has to win PA: "Well, she has to. That's all there is to it. And I think they recognize that. You can't expect superdelegates to support the candidate -- even though she's ahead in the electoral vote. ... You have to have the popular vote. I mean, we've had presidents that didn't have the popular vote. But I'm convinced, if Michigan and Florida are going to be in play. ... The states have to do this themselves, but we have to have the popular vote if we're going to win this election" ("Late Edition," CNN, 4/6).

ROUNDTABLE ROUNDUP

The "This Week" roundtable discussed WH '08:

GOP strategist Dan Senor: "What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren't that familiar with. The challenge they're realizing is that they'll have to have to spend 30 to 45 days, which they won't have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is. And if this is an obscure ... it allows Barack Obama to say 'Senator you've made experience such a big issue. It's funny you would chose someone that has less experience than me.' ... The other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they see that announcement, 'I get it, that person could be president tomorrow.' Condi Rice is an option. Tom Ridge an option although I think he would have problems at the convention. Mitt Romney is an option. Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this. There's this ritual in Washington: The Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders -- about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types. They all typically get briefings from political conservative leaders. Ten days ago, they had an interesting visit -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- the first time a secretary of state has visited the Wednesday meeting."

George Will, on the possibility of Rice as VP: "It is possible. ... The question is do you really want to make this about Iraq?"

The "Fox News Sunday" roundtable discussed the Clintons' tax returns:

Asked if the Clinton money issue is at rest, FNC's Barnes: "I don't think so at all. I mean, now, look. They're doing something to greater excess that has become quite common in Washington, and that's cashing in on your public service. You know, there's a word for it, 'buckraking,' and a lot of people do it."

Weekly Standard's Kristol: "Usually you do that at the end -- after your public life has ended. You don't cash in on public service and then run for office."

The "Late Edition" roundtable discussed the Clintons' tax returns:

CNN's Henry: "George W. Bush said as soon as he leaves office, he wants to, as he put it, replenish the old coffers. Has noted that his father and Bill Clinton have made a lot of money. George W. Bush has been asked already at a press conference, would he disclose the donors to his presidential library? And he says he's not sure yet."

The "Face the Nation" roundtable discussed the military situation in Iraq.

The "Meet the Press" roundtable discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.