Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing, Cody Kucharczyk, Dan Furman and Nathaniel Franks of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Wednesday's Headlines

* Rollout, Day Two

* Voters Approve of Kerry's Choice

* Bush Celebrates Edwards Pick by Hitting The Trail in North Carolina

* Soft Money and Good Times at the 2004 Conventions

The John-John Rollout, Day Two: Producing the photo-op everyone was waiting for, the entire new Kerry-Edwards team appeared at Teresa Heinz Kerry's farm outside Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning. Calling it a "family," John Kerry was joined by his wife, his two daughters, two of his three step-sons and by the whole Edwards clan: Sen. John, wife Elizabeth and children Cate, Emma Claire and Jack. Jack, who is four, was the clear star of the show, having his hair repeatedly ruffled by both Sens. John and being treated to an airborne ride from the senator from Massachusetts.

After the photo-op, the Kerry-Edwards team will travel to Ohio and then on to Florida. In Ohio, the two will hold "New Team for New America" rallies at a park in Cleveland and in Dayton. In Florida, there will be yet another rally in St. Petersburg. On Thursday, the team is in Florida before heading to New York for a gala fundraising concert at Radio City Music Hall. The two fly to New Mexico and West Virginia on Friday before heading to a homecoming rally in Edwards' state of North Carolina on Saturday.

Beyond the family photo-op this morning, the Kerry team is launching a series of new ads, for a total of seven new ads on the air. "Team for America" is the first to feature both Kerry and Edwards. That ad will run in North Carolina specifically as well as in other states. The other six new ads focus more specifically on Kerry: his biography, his plans to help middle class voters, and his positions on taxes and outsourcing. The ads are called "Middle Class Help," "Freedom & Independence," "War on Terror," "Husband and Father," "Born in Colorado," and "Ohio Workers." The total ad buy is reportedly $17 million, according to the Associated Press.

Good Choice, But Can He Govern? Two new polls taken on Tuesday show that although voters are happy with John Kerry's decision to name John Edwards as his running mate, the North Carolina senator is still relatively unknown among a significant portion of the electorate and many voters aren't sure whether he has the experience to make a good president.

According to a new CBS News poll a majority of all voters, and seven-in-ten Democrats, say they are glad that Edwards was chosen. Only one in ten think Kerry should have named someone else. But while Edwards' favorable ratings exceed his unfavorable ones by four to one, he is still unknown to a majority of registered voters.

The poll also shows that voters clearly differentiate between the experience needed to be a good vice president and the experience needed to be president. Edwards has the former, but voters are not sure he has the latter. By more than two-to-one, voters say Edwards has the right experience to be a good vice president. But there is more doubt about whether Edwards has enough experience to be a good president — 37 percent say he does, while 41 percent say he does not. There is, of course, the expected partisan gap on this question: By more than two to one, Republicans say Edwards does not have the experience to be president, while by nearly two-to-one, Democrats say he does. Independent voters, who will decide this election, are evenly divided.

Kerry's selection has also affected the overall horserace numbers. A week ago, the race was effectively tied, with Kerry receiving 45 percent of registered voter support, and Mr. Bush 44 percent. Now, with the full tickets, these same respondents give Kerry and Edwards a five-point edge over the Republican ticket, 49 percent to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll also taken on Tuesday backs up CBS' findings, showing that a majority of voters surveyed viewed the choice of Edwards as excellent or pretty good, but despite his popularity, he is still somewhat unknown. When asked their opinion of him, 54 percent viewed him favorably and just 16 percent unfavorably — but 30 percent said they were unsure. Vice President Dick Cheney has a 44 percent to 43 percent favorable to unfavorable rating.

When asked about his limited experience in office, this poll bodes better for Edwards, with 57 percent of the respondents saying he was qualified to serve as president if called upon to fill the office, compared with 29 percent who thought he was not. This is the same number who said Cheney had the right experience four years ago.

The CBS poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 462 registered voters interviewed on Tuesday. These respondents had originally been interviewed by CBS News and The New York Times June 23-27, 2004. The sampling error could be plus or minus five percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 553 registered voters was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

North Carolina, the Newest Battleground: John Kerry and John Edwards embark on a four-day barnstorming trip around the country on Wednesday, as President Bush hits the road himself. In a convenient twist of political fate, Mr. Bush hits Edwards' hometown of Raleigh, N.C. on Wednesday for an event — previously planned, says White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan — with some of his judicial picks whose nominations have been stalled in the U.S. Senate.

The AP reports that Mr. Bush will highlight a certain junior senator's role in blocking the confirmation vote of one judge, Robert Conrad, a former U.S. attorney in North Carolina.

CBS News' Mark Knoller reports that when asked in North Carolina how his vice president stacks up against Edwards, Mr. Bush — apparently shedding the cordiality he tried to exhibit on Tuesday — said, "Dick Cheney can be president."

On Tuesday — with the ink barely dry on a flurry of press releases from the Bush campaign and the RNC calling Edwards, among other things, a "disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal" — Mr. Bush had tried to play good cop in an Oval Office photo op.

"I look forward to a good, spirited contest," he said, telling reporters that his running mate, Vice President Dick Cheney, had called Edwards on Tuesday morning to welcome him to the race and offer congratulations. (Hopefully, Cheney avoided his recent four-letter turn of phrase for Democrats when speaking to Edwards.)

But on Wednesday, Republicans continued their all-out assault to brand Edwards in a negative light.

Atop a press release highlighting various Senate votes by Kerry and Edwards on issues ranging from tax cuts to prescription drug benefits, Bush-Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt said of the new ticket: "John Kerry's choice of John Edwards as his running mate cements their position as the most out of the mainstream ticket in the history of the Democrat Party."

Confirming that "mainstream" is the GOP word-of-the-week, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, appearing on Fox News Channel, conceded that while Edwards "is a good man, a good father," Kerry "chose someone who is very far outside the mainstream, like himself."

On Wednesday, Mr. Bush will also squeeze in a fund-raiser in newly minted battleground North Carolina for the GOP before heading to Michigan, where he'll do another judicial nominee event and party fund-raiser.

Next week, Knoller reports, Mr. Bush will hit the campaign trail with a bus tour on Tuesday and Wednesday in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Good Times: Whose Paying For Your Convention?: A new report today, released by the Campaign Finance Institute, says that over 50 percent of the cost of this year's conventions will be financed by "soft money." While this is the first election cycle in which soft money contributions to national political parties are banned, convention city host committees have no restraints on donations, said Michael Malbin, executive director of the CFI. Host committees are supposedly akin to "charities devoted to local economic betterment" and accordingly are give tax-exempt status in line with IRS rules treating them as charities. They are supposed to take care of "traditional civic hosting" like welcoming receptions and distribution of shopping information.

However, the study finds that the overwhelming majority of host committee funds will pay for convention facilities and production rather than civic betterment activities.

To date, $103.5 million dollars has been raised from private donors, up significantly from the $8.4 million in private financing in 1992, before the FEC loosened restrictions on donations to host committees. Fund-raisers for these committees allow large party contributors another way to funnel in money to a party.

This year there were fourteen givers of at least $1 million dollars and at least one contributor who has sent a $5 million check in to host committee coffers. Fund-raisers are offering donors access to federally elected officials at the convention for their generosity. Top fundraisers for the democratic Boston convention include presumptive nominee John Kerry, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Alan Leventhal, the chairman of Boston-based Beacon Capital partners. Kennedy also made a personal donation of $500,000.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads in stuffing money into host committee accounts in New York. Bloomberg and David Rockefeller have both given $5 million. Seventeen companies that gave a donation of at least $100,000 to the Boston committee also gave to the New York committee. The study points to this "double giving" as showing that companies are interested in gaining political access to federal officials.

Quote of the Day: "Senator Kerry picked Daddy!" – Prospective Second Daughter Emma Clair Edwards, sharing the news of her father's selection to be vice president with her mother, Elizabeth. (AFP).