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Aug. 25 DEM Convention
Sept. 1 GOP Convention
Thursday, July 24,
2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES
with excerpts
Obama's itinerary in Israel
notably similar to McCain's
Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack
Obama paid a call Wednesday to the home of Pinhas Amar and his wife,
Aliza. Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, visited them in March.
...
Obama took pains at every stop in Israel to emphasize his commitment
to the Jewish state. "America must always stand up for Israel's right
to defend itself," Obama said in a news conference here.
He did not rule out support for a pre-emptive strike against Iran's
nuclear facilities, though he said he'd prefer to try diplomacy first
to head off the possibility of Iran becoming a nuclear power...
Obama's tough talk was part of an effort
to counter McCain's aggressive efforts to woo Jewish voters. Israelis
acknowledged a certain unease with the young, relatively unknown
politician whose middle name is Hussein. "People think he'll go more
toward the Arabs," Amnon Behar, an accountant from Jerusalem, said of
Obama.
see also:
Obama: "I could fall asleep standing up"
Obama heckled at Western Wall in Jerusalem
Obama meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders
 McCain
says Obama would rather
lose the war
than the campaign
McCain: "I would much rather lose a
campaign than lose a war. Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure
to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a
war than lose a campaign."
Nader, Barr fight for New
Hampshire ballot
Third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Bob
Barr are working to beat a deadline to qualify for New Hampshire's
presidential ballot as alternatives to Republican John McCain and
Democrat Barack Obama.
Iowa's Sen. Grassley has no GOP
convention vote
 Senator
Charles E. Grassley of Iowa is among senators who had one of those
celebrated blow-ups with Senator John McCain. But that is not the
reason Mr. Grassley, the senior Republican from the state, will not be
voting to nominate his colleague for the presidency at the upcoming
Republican National Convention.
It will be because Mr. Grassley does not
have a vote.
As disclosed over the weekend by columnist
Bob Novak, Mr. Grassley was passed over to be a member of the state’s
delegation to the convention by leaders of the state party, which is
experiencing a rise in the influence of social conservatives.
[NOTE: IPW-PAC's chairman, Roger Hughes,
was elected as an at-large delegate from Iowa to the Republican
National Convention.]
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines
with excerpts
McCain: Lifting of drilling ban
caused drop in oil prices
 John
McCain on Wednesday credited the recent $10-a-barrel
drop in the price of oil to President Bush's lifting of
a presidential ban on offshore drilling, an action he
has been advocating in his presidential campaign. The
cost of oil and gasoline is "on everybody's mind in this
room," McCain told a town-hall meeting.
He criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for opposing
drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Ad hits McCain on troop pullout
A veterans group critical of the war in Iraq accuses John McCain of
wanting to occupy Iraq indefinitely, against the wishes of the
country's leaders, in an ad that will air later this week.
The group, VoteVets.org, calls attention to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki's desire for a troop withdrawal timetable. The group will
spend $100,000 to run the ad on the MSNBC and CNN cable channels from
Friday through the middle of next week.
McCain, Lance Armstrong to appear
together in Ohio
 John
McCain plans a visit to Ohio Thursday for a town hall
meeting on cancer hosted by cycling great Lance
Armstrong.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
will talk about his plan to address cancer and take
questions from audience members.
The event is part of a four-day summit on cancer held by
the Lance Armstrong Foundation at Ohio State
University's James Cancer Hospital.
McCain event is thwarted by
hurricane
He was to take a helicopter to an oil rig in the Gulf of
Mexico and meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who
is being mentioned as a possible Republican
vice-presidential pick. But Hurricane Dolly thwarted Mr.
McCain’s plans...
Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts
Obama pictured with notables:
Former Soviet dissident Sharanksy: 'Big concern'
about Obama
 Sharansky’s
comments carry great weight here [in Israel] and for policy-makers in
the West. Though he resigned from the Knesset as a stalwart Likud
backer in 2006, he has remained active in the political debate.
... “[Obama] is definitely a big concern
for me,” he says.
Sharansky thinks Obama has “a little
record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is
McCain, and we know for sure his principles.”
Sharansky continues the train of thought:
“It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he
spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some
of his advisers think.
“I was at AIPAC. He made a very strong
speech, speaking about a Jewish state, defensible borders, a united
Jerusalem, then the next day he started correcting himself.”
Maureen Dowd: Is 'The One'
cocky or Commander in Chiefy?
 Dowd:
The king of Jordan personally drove the prince of Chicago from the
palace to the airport on Tuesday night to catch his flight to Israel,
leading a motorcade in his slate Mercedes 600 across the tarmac and
right up to O-Force One, as The Chicago Sun Times mockingly calls the
candidate’s freshly branded 757, with the captain’s chair embroidered
with “Obama-’08/President.” As the senator got out of the passenger
seat, King Abdullah jumped out to chat some more, as though the two,
who had only met in passing on the Hill, were old pals.
Obama finally found a Muslim with whom
he’s willing to be photographed.
Obama Remembers a YouTube Debate Answer He
Didn't Give
Barack Obama continues backpeddling from
his infamous Meet With President Ahmadinejad Without Preconditions
declaration. Now he's misstating his own YouTube answer...
Writes the National Review Online: "I know
Obama's pledge in the YouTube debate has become a pain in the neck to
him, but he really shouldn't be allowed to rewrite history so
blatantly."
Obama bets $5 million on Olympic viewers
Barack Obama’s campaign will spend $5
million on advertisements during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympic
Games next month, an NBC spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday.
... National broadcast advertising buys
are highly unusual for presidential candidates. Campaigns usually
order TV ad time in local markets (most often in contested states) and
sometimes supplement it with cable television buys.
“Both the scale and the scope makes
Obama’s buy unprecedented,” said Evan Tracey, the chief operating
officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group...
Gore to give fundraiser
for Obama
 Gore's
spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, told The Associated Press on Wednesday no
date or location has been nailed down, but that Gore "has confirmed
that he is going to give a fundraiser for Sen. Obama."
Gore announced his decision to support
Obama in a fundraising e-mail last month. He wrote at the time: "From
now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure
he is elected president of the United States."
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