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PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
Poll: too much about Obama, not enough about McCain
Barack
Obama may be the fresh face in this year's presidential election, but
nearly half say they're already tired of hearing about him, a poll
says.
... Two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents said they've heard too much about Obama, as did a third of Democrats, a significant number.
At the same time, nearly four in 10 said they've been hearing too little about McCain — about four times the number who said so about Obama. About half of Republicans, four in 10 independents and even a quarter of Democrats said they've not heard enough about the GOP candidate
see also:
Obama stalls in public polling
with her own 'presidential' ad:
McCain camp response: Paris supports drilling
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails: “It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”
Presidential debate moderators chosen
The Commission on Presidential Debates on Tuesday named Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill of PBS, Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Bob Schieffer of CBS News as moderators of the three presidential debates and one vice presidential face-off
Lehrer, anchor of "The NewsHour," will moderate the first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi, on Sept. 26.
Brokaw, moderator of "Meet the Press," will handle the second presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 7.
Schieffer, host of "Face the Nation," who will handle the third and final presidential debate in Hempstead, New York, on Oct. 15.
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts
McCain one-ups Obama with ad buy
John McCain has taken out a $6 million ad buy for airtime during the Beijing Games that open Friday, $1 million more than Democratic rival Barack Obama had previously committed to his own media buy...
New McCain ad pushes his independence, reformer status
Narrator: "Washington's
broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years
ago.
"Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties. He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil, make America prosper again. He's the original maverick.
"One is ready to lead — McCain."
Dems nervous as McCain finds his voice
Democrats are increasingly worried Barack Obama is not hitting back hard enough against rival John McCain and missing opportunities to tie the Republican candidate to the Bush administration.
The Arizona senator garnered his best reviews in some time last week after weeks of being drowned out by the intense media spotlight surrounding Obama.
McCain seemed to find his voice with the launch of two campaign ads, which received mixed reviews but helped him break through the media clutter and target the Illinois senator on the issue of offshore drilling.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who first endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for the party’s nomination, said there are a lot of nervous Democrats around, and he is one of them.
McCain wants 45 new nuclear power generators by 2030
Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, portrayed his support of nuclear energy as part of an “all-of-the-above approach” to addressing the nation’s energy needs at a time of $4-a-gallon gasoline. He called it “safe, efficient, inexpensive and obviously a vital ingredient in the future of the economy of our nation and in our mission to eliminate over time our dependence on foreign oil.”
see also:
McCain goes nuclear on gas prices
Big donors are key to Obama's record haul
In
an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on
politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign
contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the
$340 million he has collected so far.
But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries.
Obama: "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant"
RE inflating tires to save gasoline use... Obama reacts to Republican slams:
"They're lying about what my energy plan is," he says. And "they're making fun of a step that every expert says would reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."
Obama running mate could be surprise
...almost nobody will know whom Mr Obama is going to select until he announces it. And that could be someone “from left field”, as one Obama staffer puts it.
Potential “left fielders” include Chuck Hagel, the dissident Republican senator, Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator for Georgia, and Chet Edwards, a centrist Democratic congressman from Texas. “I guess Hillary would be from left field,” said the staffer. “Don’t rule anything out.”
Obama's Muslim-outreach adviser resigns
Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, who was appointed volunteer national coordinator for Muslim American affairs by the Obama campaign on July 26, stepped down Monday after an Internet newsletter wrote about his brief stint on an Islamic investment fund, which also included a fundamentalist imam...
Obama heckled over omitting Pledge of Allegiance
A man who wore press credentials and took photographs from a platform interrupted Barack Obama's town-hall meeting Tuesday by shouting complaints that the Democratic presidential candidate had not called for the audience to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Obama invited the heckler to lead the audience in the pledge, and he did.
George Clooney to host dinner for Obama - in Switzerland
The
event, taking place on the evening of September 2 in
Geneva, Switzerland will be split into two parts: a
reception and a dinner. According to Obama’s National
Finance Committee, tickets for the reception where
Clooney will speak are going for $1,000, followed by a
dinner at the home of NFC member Charles Adams for
$10,000 a plate. Space for the dinner is limited to 75
guests.
... Although next months fundraiser is taking place overseas, the campaign specified only U.S. Citizens with a passport will be allowed to contribute to the campaign.
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