Newstradamus

Marine Corps Band plays before McCain arrived to speak at AP's annual meeting.

• McCain audio, video and transcript
• Obama audio, video and transcript

WASHINGTON — Being able to attend speeches by two presidential candidates is rare enough, but hearing them back to back — as I did on Monday when John McCain and Barack Obama visited the national convention of editors and publishers here — was a great opportunity to observe the differences between the two campaigns. And Hillary Clinton will make it a trifecta with a speech Tuesday.

And there certainly were contrasts. Both spoke at Associated Press functions, McCain at the AP annual meeting at 10:30, and Obama at the AP annual luncheon at 1:30. McCain spoke immediately after the opening general meeting of the convention, which featured a (frankly) boring panel of newspaper/web journalists on the theme of "Making Journalism Matter."

Since I was able to snag a front-row seat for that session, I had dibs on the same seat for McCain. There was no security check, either for me or the people who arrived following the panel session to hear McCain. The room was packed, for sure, but by Washington Convention Center standards it wasn't that huge of a room.

By contrast, the AP luncheon where Obama spoke was held in the cavernous main ballroom, and even with "by invitation only" tickets costing $75 each (for rubbery chicken), the event was told out — for the first time in AP's 162-year history, according to the current president of AP, who happens to be Dean Singleton. (Singleton owns MediaNews Group, which owns the Times-Standard.)

I am no good at crowd estimates, but my guess is that at least twice as many people attended the lunch featuring Obama. Not only that, but everyone at the lunch had to go through airport-type security, including random wanding. I can only surmise that it's because Obama has had Secret Service protection for a while (no doubt because of threats), while McCain so far has refused it, although he reluctantly has said that he would have discussions this week about accepting protection.

I will note, by the way, that those at the Obama luncheon were not all editors and publishers. I saw many tables set aside for AP employees, and because the newspaper trade show — NEXPO — is being held at the same time, there were many vendors and their spouses there.

My table (which was toward the back because I bought a late ticket when I learned Obama would be speaking) was filled with people who had NEXPO booths, such as one guy from Montreal who is involved in the installation of new presses in Fremont for the San Francisco Chronicle, and another who works for a clipping service. (He contracts with businesses to send them clips of every mention of his clients in the media; the media get a copyright cut.) To my left was the VP of operations for the Chicago Tribune.

There were a ton of working journalists at both speeches, because of the latest tempest over comments Obama made about some voters being "bitter." Hillary Clinton has taken the opportunity to try to drive a wedge between Obama and superdelegates by charging Obama is "elitist."

McCain weighed into the fray himself here Monday. Being interviewed onstage by AP reporters Liz Sidoti and Ron Fournier (who accompany him on the campaign trail), McCain wouldn't bite on several questions asking him if he thought Obama was an elitist. But he said he thought the Democrat's comments were elitist.

In his prepared remarks, McCain also said if the vote for a federal reporters' shield law (to protect them from being jailed if they did not give up confidential sources, such as whistleblowers) were held today, he'd be narrowly in favor of voting yes. That drew applause from the audience.

When he sat down with Sidoti and Fournier, he loosened up and showed some of the bonhomie he's said to employ with reporters on the campaign trail. He lit up like a kid at Christmas when Sidoti preceded the questioning by offering him "your favorite" — donuts. "With sprinkles!," McCain said when he opened the box.

Obama, after zinging Clinton yesterday, didn't mention her at the AP lunch. In his prepared remarks, he talked up front about the elitism charge, admitting that he hadn't expressed himself clearly. But he said he was looking forward to a debate with McCain about who was more in touch with the American people.

Dean Singleton followed up with questions from the audience that had been submitted earlier. One asked whether Obama thinks Clinton — who trails in votes, delegates and states won — should drop out of the race. He credited his rival with toughening him up by hitting him with all the strategies he'd be likely to face in a campaign against McCain.

In another question asking about the candidate's strategies in going after al-Qaida, Singleton referred to "Obama bin Laden." Obama did a double-take, then grinned at the red-faced Singleton and said, "This is part of the exercise I've been going through over the last 15 months — which is why it's pretty impressive I'm still standing here."

We'll see what Hillary brings us Tuesday. She's also speaking at a $75 lunch with full security checks. Last time she spoke to us, a few years back, there was no security check, but she wasn't running for president then.