Presidential Picture - September 13, 2007
It was a big week for the Department of Defense and the presidential candidates as General Petraeus went before Congress to give his much anticipated progress report on the war in Iraq.
Petraeus says, "Coalition and Iraq security forces have made progress towards achieving security."
And if Petraeus was selling, the Democratic candidates weren't buying.
It didn't matter whether the Democratic Senators were campaigning in state capitols or legislating in the National Capital, the message remained the same for all of the them.
The last name Petraeus comes from the Greek word for rock, and these Democrats wanted to see that rock crack.
Presidential candidate, Joe Biden even says, "If in fact the circumstances on the ground are exactly what they are today in March of next year, would you recommend the continuation of somewhere between 130-160 thousand American troops being shot at - killed and maimed every day there?"
"This is not a criticism of either of you gentlemen - this is a criticism of this president and the administration which has set a mission for the military and for our diplomatic forces that is extraordinarily difficult now to achieve,"says Barack Obama.
But, Senator Obama was not on Capitol Hill all week.
He instead spent Saturday with the Queen of Daytime T.V., Oprah.
Her guest list included Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and Hallie Berry.
And at twenty-three hundred dollars per ticket, it may have been possible to hear the cash register cha-ching over Stevie Wonder's performance.
This event brought in approximately three million dollars for Obama's campaign.
And while money was coming in for Obama, the greenbacks headed the opposite direction for Hillary Clinton this week.
The New York senator is returning all the money that was given to her from a man who prosecutors say raised eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars through illegal campaign contributors.
Candidate Bill Richardson is one of only two Democratic candidates who speak Spanish fluently.
Richardson says, "I was disappointed Univision, the biggest Hispanic network, practiced English-only, instead of letting the one Hispanic candidate say a few words in Spanish. I was going to talk the whole time in Spanish."
The debate used interpreters to turn holas and adioses into hellos and goodbyes.
The hispanic population in Miami, the site of the debate, is largely Cuban and actually heavily Republican.
The candidates tried to turn foes into amigos by focusing on topics like immigration, border security and the Cuban embargo.
Arlington, Virginia is very close to Reagan National Airport, so seeing a low-flying plane is nothing out of the ordinary.
But, on September 11th, six years ago this week, it was.
That morning a plane smashed into the Pentagon, here, outside of Washington, DC.
Two planes also hit the World Trade Center in New York City.
It was that event that took one man from being the leader of just one city to his party's top candidate to leader of the free world.
As the commander in chieft of this city, Rudy Giuliani should have had foresight and been prepared.
He tires to portray himself as a hero of nine-eleven, but all the heroes are either dead or sick.
Six years later he returned to speak at ground zero, but along with gloomy weather a chilly reception awaited him.
Security remains the centerpiece of his campaign and despite criticism, Gilaini maintains his leadership helped to save New York City.
Fred Thompson officially has one week of campaigning under his belt.
The lawyer turned actor, turned politician spent the most recent part of the week in South Carolina.
The Southern and consistantly more Conservative states fit well in with Thompson's beliefs.
He is counting on a stron showing in the southern primaries to vault him into the nomination.
And John McCain used the Petraeus testimony as opportunity to start his new aptly names campaign charge, the No Surrender tour.
The Arizona senator says the tour is aimed more at helping American's overcome war frustrations than boosting his Presidential Campaign.
He used some of his first stops to attack a move on dot org ad that referred to General Petraeus as General Betray-us.
He says, "This is a brave and honorable man and honorable officer serving our country, who's been in many wars and has been wounded and he's a great leader.
And to make comments like that are disgraceful and this organization ought to be put out of business.
Mitt Romney's campaign isnt going out of business, but his Boston headquarters is looking a bit sparse.
Police say eight laptops and a t-v were stolen, but thieves took no sensitive information.
There's no reason to think this a watergate-like break-in, so you wont be hearing terms like bay-gate or harbor-gate.