Sunday talk shows debate Pa., Hillary

Hillary Clinton’s voice is being used against Barack Obama in robocalls now going out, CNN’s “Late Edition” reported today.

In the call a voice says, "I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC. Listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about John McCain and Barack Obama."

A recording of Clinton then comes in, saying: "In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, and Sen. Obama will bring a speech he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference."

Chris Wallace began "Fox News Sunday" with a rare television appearance from Obama’s David Plouffe and John McCain’s Rick Davis. Davis was greeted by the unpleasant sight of a national electoral map, concocted by the friendly Karl Rove, showing Obama with 311 solid electoral votes — 41 more than he needs to win the White House.

Davis said that Pennsylvania still remains the key to McCain’s strategy. Winning without it remains virtually impossible and he cited a Mason-Dixon poll showing McCain at the bottom of the margin of error. Wallace and, later, Plouffe countered that most polls show Obama ahead by a much larger margin.

The Washington Post's David S. Broder, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” argued that the choice of Sarah Palin as vice president will haunt the McCain campaign in the Philadelphia suburbs, where she hasn’t gone over well. “They’re going to pay a price for that,” he said. NBC's Chuck Todd added that the Obama campaign is comfortably ahead, but nervous because Pennsylvania doesn’t allow early voting, which has been going well for Democrats elsewhere.

Davis and Obama campaign chief David Axelrod met on ABC’s “This Week” and ran the same traps. Davis repeated a line he’d used on Fox, namely that most polls undercount McCain’s support because they under-sample Republicans. Host George Stephanopoulos said that he’s asked his pollster to crunch the numbers the way Davis thinks they should be and that his lead still holds up. Axelrod said he’s done the same and found the same result.

Stephanopoulos asked whether Axelrod would take a position in an Obama administration. Without answering a firm yes or no, he said, "I love him and I love this country, and I’ll do whatever I can to help."

Plouffe had been asked the same question by Wallace and gave a much more ambiguous answer than Axelrod, saying he wanted to get through Tuesday.

Stephanopoulos also asked a question of deep concern to Democratic lobbyists around the city. Does Obama’s anti-lobbyist hiring policy mean that anyone who has ever lobbied is ineligible to work in a prospective White House?

"No, it doesn’t mean that," said Axelrod, explaining that anyone who'd worked as a lobbyist in the last two years would be ineligible. So, Stephanopoulos asked, if someone had lobbied on energy issues in the last two years, they'd be ineligible to work in the Department of Energy? Yes, Axelrod said. At other moments in the conversation, Axelrod left some wiggle room around the two-year time period.

Axelrod made his way across the dial to CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he faced Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a McCain surrogate.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, faced his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. “So many races are within the margin of error,” said Ensign, an assertion that would have been pessimistic a year ago but which passes for optimistic today. Ensign repeated a claim about Democratic Senate candidates that Graham had earlier applied to Obama, that they are the “most liberal, left-wing, radical group of candidates the Democrats have ever put up.”

“Absolutely not,” Schumer said. “The Senate candidates are thoughtful, moderate, non-ideological … not too far right, not too far left.”

Ensign responded that, “Al Franken, up in Minnesota, to say he’s a moderate, thoughtful candidate is laughable.” He went on to tie the Republican candidates' problems to “an unpopular president” and said the “financial crisis was a body blow to Republicans” because Democrats were able to cast it as “somehow the result of deregulation.”

Schumer rejected Ensign’s attempt to blame GOP problems on the president, saying Republican senators supported Bush policies. “When Bush said ‘Jump,’ they said, ‘How high?”

Ensign also reiterated that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) ought to have stepped aside following his recent conviction on seven corruption charges. “I think it would’ve been better for this to happen last year. The people in the Justice Department had that information,” he said, noting that the “only way [Stevens’ opponent] can win — possibly win — is if Sen. Stevens is convicted.”

Schumer was asked about the fate of Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent Democrat whose position in the caucus may depend on how close Democrats get to a filibuster-resistant 60-seat majority. “We’re not going to debate that, discuss that until after Tuesday,” he said.

Ensign was ready to talk about it today. “If Joe wants to leave the Democrat Party and join us, we’ll welcome him with open arms,” he said.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), speaking on “Meet the Press,” declined to predict whether Democrats would get to 60, but said that on major issues, Senate Democrats would look to sway significant numbers of Republicans. “We need to build 85-vote majorities,” he said.