NEWS SUMMARY

While you were sleeping (or getting in one last Gotham City party . . . ) the Googling monkeys received, opened, printed, and color coded e-mails from 481 of the members of the Gang of 500, and handed them over to us.

Here is what Gang members are wondering:

1. If you could do a controlled experiment, and have the exact same Republican convention but with no overshadowing hurricane or Russian school massacre, would the Bush bump/bounce/boost be any different?

2. If you could do a controlled experiment and have the exact same employment number -- 144,000 new workers and prior months adjusted upward -- but with no overshadowing hurricane or Russian school massacre, would the effect on the election be any different?

3. Who will get the glam slots to be part of the President's "bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the federal tax code" if he wins a second term?

4. How quickly will Joe Lockhart tire of the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't press questioning about why isn't Senator Kerry defending himself more on Vietnam and (in the next reportorial breath&) why Senator Kerry is allowing himself to be driven off message by talking about Vietnam?

5. Was there any reason to think the words "deficit" or "Osama" would have made the speech?

6. Will John Kerry keep mentioning Dick Cheney's military deferments in his speeches, or only if he keeps being attacked on his Vietnam-era record?

7. What is Jim Baker's debate-about-debates strategy?

8. Why were so many of the lines in the President's acceptance speech ripped straight out of his standard stump remarks?

9. Was there a balloon drop malfunction -- or was it planned to happen in stages?

10. Does Karen Hughes really get sent to China?

11. Can John Kerry be as aggressive as Joe Lockhart and sound as good as Joe Lockhart when he's aggressive?

12. What did the conservative base think of Bush's speech?

13. Does Al Hunt / Democratic "panic" abate, or does it grow?

14. What's the next 527 bombshell to drop on either side?

15. How much money are the parties spending on early voting?

16. What do Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton, Jano Cabrera, and Steve Schmidt think of Howard Wolfson joining the Democratic National Committee next week as a senior communications strategist for the last two months of the campaign?

17. Are these job numbers good or not?

Let's face it -- the evening newscasts are going to follow the morning shows in covering weather and Russia over politics and the jobs figures. We wonder if even local news coverage in the markets the President is hitting will be impacted.

And/but there is still no reliable data on how the convention is playing anyway.

" . . . (White House communications director Dan) Bartlett acknowledged (to John Harris of the Washington Post) that it was too soon to tell the political impact. 'Look, we're all assuming . . . we're experts and we know how the public's going to react to this,' he said. 'We don't know.'"

And -- have we mentioned? -- we also don't really know what to make substantively or politically of the new job numbers. Both campaigns seem to like what they see.

There's a downbeat lede from the AP: "America's payrolls picked up in August, with the economy adding 144,000 jobs, slightly less than economists were forecasting and highlighting the slow and uneven recovery in the labor market that jobseekers have braved."

But Reuters' lede is upbeat:

"The U.S. job market brightened in August as employers added 144,000 workers to their payrolls and hiring totals for the two prior months were revised up, the Labor Department reported on Friday. With the economy growing in importance as an issue in November presidential elections, the department said the August unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in July. It was the lowest rate since a matching 5.4 percent in October 2001 and was certain to be cited by President George W. Bush as a sign that his tax cuts have helped stimulate economic activity."

"The August new-job gain came in slightly below Wall Street analysts' forecasts for a 150,000-job gain but the department also revised up its totals for June and July job creation by 59,000."

With that burr in his saddle, President Bush hits the campaign trail today  rallies in three different battleground states and a RON in a fourth. He begins his morning with a 9:20 am ET rally in Scranton, PA, followed by a 1:00 pm ET rally in Milwaukee, and finally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a 6:45 pm ET rally.

Vice President Cheney also campaigns today on the western part of the country holding rallies in Pendleton, OR at 1:45 pm ET and in Las Vegas, NV at 5:35 pm ET.

Today, Sens. Kerry and Edwards hit the road to continue the job Kerry started last night, slamming what they call the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Their talking points, which will be hammered home again and again: the Administration's record is one of failure; voters face a choice between the wrong direction and a new direction; Bush stubbornly refuses to admit error or change course.

The Kerrys and the Edwardses head off on separate bus tours of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan today, and between them hit seven states over Labor Day weekend.

In addition, they're following President Bush's post-convention tour via the airwaves with state- and market-specific ads in Scranton, PA, Milwaukee, WI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Cleveland, OH, Erie, PA and Parkersburg, WV to hit him on campaign promises from 2000 and his record since.

Looking towards the weekend, President Bush campaigns in Ohio on Saturday, while Vice President Cheney attends a rally in New Mexico. Sen. Kerry also will spend Saturday in Ohio, with Sen. Edwards holding events in Wisconsin.

Sunday, President Bush attends a rally in West Virginia and Dick Cheney returns to Washington, DC. Both Sen. Kerry and Edwards are down on Sunday in Pittsburgh, PA and Sheboygan, WI, respectively.

Republican National Convention: Bush ledes:

Nagourney and Stevenson in the New York Times: "President George W. Bush accepted the Republican presidential nomination last night, outlining proposals that he said would address education, health care and jobs, while battering Senator John Kerry for what Mr. Bush said was a weak and wavering record on national security and the economy." LINK

"President Bush picked apart John Kerry's record on the Iraq war and tax cuts Thursday night and summoned the nation toward victory over terrorism and economic security at home. 'Nothing will hold us back,' he said in a Republican National Convention acceptance speech that launched his fall re-election campaign." The President's photo occupies the plurality of the above-the-fold in the Nation's Newspaper with the headline: "'We're not turning back'" (. . . but we can't find a link to Judy Keen's story on the Web! . . . here's William Welch's: LINK)

USA Today's Susan Page writes that even with the "intimate, theater-in-the-round feel" of the stage, the President "used a lectern and a teleprompter, speaking more to the TV cameras in front of him than the supporters who surrounded him." LINK

The Chicago Tribune's Zeleny and Pearson (and Silva!) write that the President "vigorously defended his leadership" in the GWOT "and his stewardship of the economy." LINK

Knight Ridder's Ron Hutcheson writes that the President delivered a "message of fear and hope." LINK

The New York Daily News picks up on the safer world language, Noting Bush said he'll do "whatever it takes" to stop terrorism. LINK

The Boston Globe's Anne Kornblut and Rick Klein write that "despite earlier suggestions that he would use the address to map out a comprehensive agenda for a second term, Bush did not drop any bombshells." LINK

The Washington Post's Tom Shales: "George Bush, No Fastball From the Mound" LINK

Republican National Convention: Bush analysis:

Modern-day legends weigh in:

DAN BALZ

"The biggest unanswered question about President Bush's reelection campaign has been whether he has a second-term economic and domestic agenda to match his commitment to fighting terrorists. He began to provide the answers here Thursday night with an acceptance speech long on ambitions but far shorter on the ways or the means to accomplish them." LINK

"Bush is a politician who prefers the bold stroke over the workaday plan, and his speech wrapping up the Republican National Convention was a model of inspiring rhetoric and big themes, from planting the seeds of democracy in one of the most troubled regions of the world to remaking some of the largest areas of domestic government to meet the realities of family life in 21st century America."

"If Bush ran for the presidency in 2000 with a tightly focused agenda, what he offered Thursday domestically was a laundry list of ideas, big and small, that would have made former president Bill Clinton envious for its length. Many of the proposals, however, have been offered before, from Social Security reform to a plan for energy independence. The president provided little assurance that he will be more focused or dedicated in seeing his agenda enacted into law, or more successful dealing with a narrowly divided Congress, than he has been his first four years."

TODD S. PURDUM

"For a nation divided over his stewardship, distressed about the economy and dubious about the war with Iraq, President Bsuh had one overriding message last night: He's still the one." LINK

"Still the caring 'compassionate conservative' voters met and liked four years ago, still the strong steward who has led them through tumultuous times of terrorism and war, still the man they can trust to face the problems of a second term -- abroad, and at home."

"But he offered few critical details sense of the second-term domestic agenda he outlined. His big policy ideas -- restraining government spending, simplifying the tax code, offering tax credits for health savings accounts, allowing personal savings accounts for Social Security -- were vague. And the specific proposals he cited -- increasing funds for community colleges, opening rural health centers -- were mostly small-bore."

"He saved his passion for national security issues, and sounded a tone of defiant defensiveness, telling the delegates that faced with foreign threats, "I will defend America every time.''

RON FOURNIER

"An unpopular war and 1.1 million lost jobs is enough to kill a presidency, so President Bush tried Thursday night to make the election about something else: himself and his leadership style. 'Even when we don't agree,' he told an anxious and divided nation, 'you know what I believe and where I stand.'"

RON BROWNSTEIN

" . . . though restrained in his pacing and delivery, he projected the forceful confidence and commitment to his course that had become hallmarks of his presidency, leavened by some effective self-deprecating humor." LINK

'The whole speech underscored his two great strengths: resolve and likability' said Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Democratic think tank."

Brownstein also caught some of John Kerry's Ohio remarks and predicts a "bruising" two months ahead.

Walter Shapiro thought the speech was a little 40 and a little 42. LINK

The Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman analyzes the President's economic proposals last night. LINK

"Bush expanded on his push for more accountability in the nation's education system, proposing annual assessments and testing of high school students that go beyond those in his signature No Child Left Behind education law. Those tests would be sweetened with increased funding for the federal Pell grant program to help more high school students pay for college. And he offered an idea that had been proposed by Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards: targeted tax breaks for geographical areas hit hard by difficult economic times."

"But some of Bush's proposals, including revisions to the Social Security system and new types of 'lifetime savings accounts,' have been gathering dust for years. Some daunting barriers stand between the president and what he has dubbed his "ownership society," including a record budget deficit and rancorous partisanship in Washington."

The San Francisco Chronicle's Marc Sandalow writes that Bush's speech included "entire sections that could have been written by a Democrat." Sandalow Notes that "Bush did not put a price tag on his own proposals or say how they would be paid for. Ironically, he accused Kerry of offering $2 trillion in new federal spending, which is exactly the same price tag which economists have given to the costs of Bush's Social Security reform proposal." LINK

Bob Novak asks where, in the middle of all the national security talk, was a debate about the issue at the heart of the Republican Party: the size of government. "Almost nothing was said from the convention rostrum about the size of government or the level of spending. Even outspoken Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who makes his GOP colleagues uncomfortable by pointing out their addiction to government pork, did not mention spending that is out control. Like the crazy aunt in the attic, the question is never talked about but is not forgotten." LINK

Deborah Orin of the New York Post calls it a "rousing" speech and then proceeds to inform her readers that the President's tie was blue last night. Orin Notes he usually wears blue ties for big speeches. LINK

Republican National Convention: Bush overshadowed:

Today's major news coming out of Russia and Florida overshadowed coverage of President Bush's acceptance speech.

ABC led with Frances and then the Russia school hostage story.

"For an hour, it sounded like a state of the union  a programmatic outline for a second term," said ABC's Gibson. George Stephanopoulos provided analysis.

NBC's Today led with Russian hostage story. It then went to hurricane coverage. It didn't get to campaign coverage until 7:12 am ET. Campbell Brown wrapped. Tim Russert offered analysis and said it was "two speeches." He called it a metaphor for the Bush presidency, the pre-9/11 presidency and the post-9/11 presidency.

CBS' Early Show led with hurricane Frances coverage and the Russia school hostage story. President Bush's speech was the third story in lead headlines.

CBS was the first to go to politics in their morning programming with a Bill Plante package at 7:10am, wrapping the President's speech.

Republican National Convention: headlines in the battlegrounds:

Seattle Times: "Bush vows strong global role, bright future at home" LINK

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Bush stresses power of liberty" LINK

Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Bush: 'I will never relent'" LINK

Las Vegas Review Journal: "Nevadans call speech effective" LINK

Columbus Dispatch: "'Stand with me'" LINK

Des Moines Register: "Bush stresses domestic plans" LINK

Different AP stories are in a few places with different headlines: the Raleigh News and Observer, "Bush pledges safer world" LINK, the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Bush: 'Pursue your dreams'" LINK, and the Manchester Union Leader, "President touts steady, compassionate leadership" LINK

Florida:

The folks in that most important battleground state of Florida are not focused on the presidential election the day after the President of the United States gave his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Hurricane Frances definitely lead all the Florida media today  and most of South Florida missed the entire speech due to wall-to-wall hurricane coverage. After all, 2.5 million Floridians were asked to evacuate.

Karl Rove's conversation with the Florida press yesterday got some play. LINK and LINK

Rove told the reports that the President can win Florida, and this is some insight as to how: "Duval County and the western Panhandle ... Those counties are adding huge numbers of people every day, and we've been out there vigorously working the registration ballots and making certain we register every possible person that we can,' Bush strategist Karl Rove told six Florida reporters invited to the campaign's convention offices in New York. 'And we've identified a relatively small group of undecideds, which makes them paradoxically more important.'"

The delegates' minds were at home: LINK

And while President Bush is assuring the Americans he's the best one for the presidency, his brother Gov. Jeb Bush was assuring people in Florida they are prepared. LINK

Mel Martinez stories seemed to all lead with his praise for the President and the senatorial candidate's bio, which is exactly what Bush strategists hoped for.

The Palm Beach Post: LINK

The Miami Herald on Martinez' living the American dream, LINK

The St. Pete Times focused on the same thing. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Bush v. Kerry:

USA Today's Susan Page reports that both sides are getting their lawyers ready for the event of an electoral college tie. LINK

The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg writes that it's jobs, jobs, jobs, economy, economy, economy in both President Bush's and Sen. Kerry's new ads. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Kerry-Edwards '04:

Kerry, says Howie Kurtz of the Washington Post, took off the glove. LINK

Globies Patrick Healy and Glen Johnson call them his "sharpest language of the presidential race thus far." LINK

The Boston Globe duo also report that the Kerry campaign plans to announce today that it will broadcast "six, city-specific attack ads that will run in television markets Bush is visiting through the weekend": Scranton, Pa.; Milwaukee; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Cleveland; Erie, Pa.; and Parkersburg, W.Va.

"(Campaign manager Mary Beth) Cahill said similar ads will run in other battleground states, including one in Nevada" on Yucca Mountain.

The New York Times' David Halbfinger wraps the speech, during which he called President Bush and Vice President Cheney "unfit to lead this country." LINK

Halbfinger Notes Sen. Kerry's shout into the wind over President Bush's handling of violence in the Sudan, calling on Bush to declare the killing of civilians a genocide, pushing for U.N. sanctions, raising money, and supporting an international force to intervene. LINK

In Pennsylvania Thursday, Sen. John Edwards decided he'd had enough, and he wasn't going to take any more Republican criticism, so he talked to voters and did TV interviews to rebut them, the New York Times' Michael Janofsky writes. LINK

The Ohio rally started early enough for Ian Bishop to file a stand-alone New York Post story on it. LINK

Republican National Convention: politics:

Fact-checking the RNC, Glenn Kessler and Dan Morgan of Washington Post find that "a number of their specific claims -- such as his votes on military programs -- are at best selective and in many cases stripped of their context, according to a review of the documentation provided by the Bush campaign." LINK

The Washington Post's John Harris takes a look at the still to be determined fallout of Zell Miller's speech Wednesday night. LINK

"By Thursday, it was clear that his broadside -- combined with bizarre post-speech TV appearances in which he told one interviewer he wished he could challenge him to a duel -- had overshadowed Vice President Cheney's more sober speech critiquing Kerry on the same themes. It was equally clear that Miller's thrusts had drawn blood. But it was not clear whether the blood was Kerry's or Miller's own." LINK

"Privately, some senior Republicans agreed that red meat that tasted delicious in the convention hall did not look appetizing to independent voters watching on television."

John McCain didn't appear all that enthused about Miller's speech, reports the Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook. LINK

Invigorated by their convention, Republicans feel they have framed the agenda for the next 60 days, write Robin Toner and Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times. Bush: strong wartime President (good). Kerry: indecisive and liberal (bad). LINK

The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick and Michael Slackman look at the wooing of religious voters. LINK

In anticipation of today's jobs numbers, the Wall Street Journal ed board says it's Big Government's fault that companies are sending jobs oveseas, and that the politicians who moan about manufacturing jobs leaving should lighten the government burden on businesses so they don't have to move or outsource.

In Washington Wire, the Wall Street Journal's Jackie Calmes looks at the 2008 tryouts that went on this week.

Mark Leibovich of the Washington Post also takes a look at the "GOP's grim speaker." LINK

The Religious Right, Out of the Spotlight LINK

Conservatives From Around the Globe Take It All In LINK

The Wall Street Journal's Bob Davis and Robert Greenberger take a look at the issue that is "quietly galvanizing" social conservatives: the aging Supreme Court, and the ability of the next President to appoint new justices when they retire.

Republican National Convention: money:

For Brian Ross's full Money Trail series  Republicans and Democrats want to avoid his cameras — see here. LINK

The Wall Street Journal's Jeanne Cummings writes that some once-big-giving corporate donors aren't giving money to 527 groups, and are instead reviving PACs and encouraging their employees to lobby Congress on specific issues and donate on their own.

"This could have the unintended effect of drawing companies closer into the political fray, even as they pare back their financial commitments. Companies, having narrowly focused their political ambitions, might find themselves with more clout about specific policies than they ever did doling out cash to the national parties. That's particularly true of companies' efforts to boost turnout."

Republican National Convention: the atmosphere:

President Bush became buddies with a FDNY fire chief during yesterday's podium and sound check. LINK

Zell Miller wasn't the only pol to be scrubbed from the initial list of guests scheduled to sit in the presidential box. Mayor Bloomberg didn't make it there either. LINK

The New York Post has the two protestors drowned out by delegates chanting, "four more years." LINK

With a whopping 12 names on the by-line (nearly a third as many as The Note!), the New York Daily News reports "throngs" of protestors were held back from Madison Square Garden last night to voice opposition to George Bush. While a few managed to make it inside the Garden. LINK

Republican National Convention: potpourri and 2008:

Johnny Apple remembers 40 years of conventions. LINK

The New York Post's Fred Dicker writes that Governor Pataki was doing something more than just introducing the President. LINK

"Pataki, in a speech meant in part to boost his own potential presidential ambitions, declared he 'thanked God' that Bush" was in office on September 11, 2001."

Republican National Convention: op-eds:

The New York Times' ed board didn't dig on the President's speech -- and/but presumably that has nothing to do with the President attacking the ed board right in his speech!!!! LINK

Instead of a convention, Paul Krugman saw a hate fest. LINK

Mr. Bush's Case LINK

Ignatius: Bush's Honest Mistake LINK

Dionne: The GOP's Dirty Z-Bomb LINK

Rush Limbaugh writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that when it comes to Republicans, the press just doesn't get it. And he calls Sen. McCain "liberal."

The Wall Street Journal editorial board slams state and city governments for not correctly implementing the President's education plan.

TODAY'S SCHEDULE (all times ET):

—8:30 am: The Labor Department issues its jobs report for August
—9:00 am: Elizabeth Edwards holds a roundtable discussion on jobs, Lansing, MI
—9:20 am: President Bush speaks at a rally, Scranton, PA
—11:30 am: Sen. Kerry holds a front porch discussion, Newark, OH
—12:15 pm: Teresa Heinz Kerry speaks about health care, Cedar Rapids, IA
—12:35 pm: Sen. Kerry speaks at a rally for a stronger America in Courthouse Square, Newark, OH
—1:00 pm: President Bush speaks at a rally, Milwaukee, WI
—1:10 pm: Elizabeth Edwards holds discussion on health care, Traverse City, MI
—1:05 pm: Sen. John Edwards speaks at a rally for a stronger America at Bay Beach Park, Green Bay, WI
—1:30 pm: Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton visit the NY State Fair, New York, NY
—1:35 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at a BC'04 rally at the Pendleton Convention Center, Pendleton, OR
—4:45 pm: Teresa Heinz Kerry speaks about health care, Davenport, IA
—5:00 pm: Sen. Edwards participates in a discussion on jobs in Wassau, WI
—5:35 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at a Victory 2004 rally at the Cashman Center, Las Vegas, NV
—5:40 pm: Elizabeth Edwards holds a discussion on health care, Norway, MI
—6:45 pm: President Bush speaks at a rally, Cedar Rapids, IA
—8:00 pm: Sen. Edwards speaks at a rally for a stronger America at Pfiffner Pioneer Park, Stevens Point, WI