IOWA
PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
Another
Obama
flip flop:
now he backs off Iraq withdrawal timeline
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Thursday backed off his firm promise to withdraw combat forces from Iraq immediately and instead said he could “refine” his plan after his trip to Baghdad later this month.
... The original Obama plan, still on his website, promises: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”
Tracking the Obama flip flops?
There's a nice, detailed collection here
It covers the following areas:
Special interests Public financing The Cuba embargo
Illegal immigration Decriminalization of marijuana
Handguns FISA Rev. Jeremiah Wright His home church
Jerusalem Meeting with foreign leaders Coal
Legislation Labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard A Terrorist Organization:
Patriot Act North Korea Illegal immigrants and drivers' licenses
First Clark, now Webb...
McCain told to 'calm down' over service
Sen. Jim Webb on Tuesday became the third high-ranking Obama supporter to question Sen. John McCain's military service, but Sen. Barack Obama's campaign said it was not part of an orchestrated effort conceived or approved by the Democratic presidential candidate.
"Of course they aren't," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Mr.
Webb, a Virginia Democrat who is often mentioned as a possible running
mate for Mr. Obama, said Mr. McCain should "calm down" about his
military record. "Don't be standing up and uttering your political
views and implying that all the people in the military support them,
because they don't," he said on MSNBC.
A Marine who served in Vietnam - a fact he mentioned often as he campaigned for the Senate, occasionally while wearing his son's desert combat boots - Mr. Webb said "we need to make sure that we take politics out of service."
Obama denies McCain Swiftboat
“He
hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy
that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron,” Clark told CBS,
“I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a
qualification to be president,” he added.
At a press availability in Zanesville, Ohio Obama denied the connection of Clark’s statement to that of the attacks by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth to John Kerry’s war record in 2004.
“I don’t think that General Clark you know had the same intent as the swift boat ads that we saw four years ago, I reject that analogy,” Obama said curtly back to the allegation by a reporter...
see also:
The campaign comment that will not die
McCain and Obama differ on
same-sex marriage initiative
Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are at odds over a California ballot initiative that would amend the state’s Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
... Obama: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.”
... Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced his support for the initiative, the California Marriage Protection Act, last month. If it passes, it would undo a recent California Supreme Court decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry.
Hillary Clinton removes Barack Obama slams from
website
The
former presidential hopeful's campaign Web site has undergone a total
makeover, and visitors will now find a distinct lack of attacks
against former foe Barack Obama.
"She's no longer running for President," explained Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee.
The changes, first noted by The Washington Times, also include the shutdown of her "HillaryHub" Web site and the scrubbing of campaign videos from YouTube. Her site is now funded by Friends of Hillary, Clinton's Senate re-election committee.
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts
McCain
campaign gets a makeover
Jake Tapper: Almost exactly a year after retooling his campaign when it hit rock-bottom, there’s a new McCain makeover. Start with a new campaign honcho, sprinkle in some outside help, top it off with a lucky break that allows him to return home like an action hero, hostages released -- and all of a sudden you’ve got a new narrative for a campaign that desperately needs it....
see also:
Schmidt takes control of day-to-day
McCain puts new strategist atop campaign
John McCain advisor likes running a tight ship
McCain: Obama should cut Wesley Clark loose
"I think it's up to Sen. Obama now to not only repudiate him, but to cut him loose," McCain said to a small group of reporters somewhere between Indianapolis, IN, and Cartagena, Colombia.
For two days, the Obama campaign has been off message, forced to manage the fallout surrounding comments Clark made about McCain's war service in a broadcast interview Sunday. The highly regarded former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO said of McCain, whose plane was shot down and was later held captive in Vietnam, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."
McCain stressing trade on Latin America trip
McCain's latest trip -- to Colombia and Mexico -- is designed to highlight his positions on trade and, to a lesser degree, immigration. Its value has been questioned by campaign strategists in both parties, since neither issue seems a winner for his campaign. His insistence on the virtues of free trade remain suspect in Rust Belt swing states, and his position on immigration continues to make many conservatives wary.
... Asked whether his trade position will hurt his campaign, he took a swipe at his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.): "I take stands on principle, and I don't switch positions depending on what audience or what time it is in the electoral calendar."
Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts
Obama faces online backlash over centrist views
In recent days, Obama has criticized the Supreme Court for saying that child rapists cannot be executed and refused to oppose a decision knocking down a handgun ban. He announced a plan to support "faith-based" social work and said he would vote for a bill giving immunity to telephone companies that allowed warrantless wiretapping of their customers.
Those centrist positions may help woo swing voters, but they infuriated some of Obama's core supporters...
Black conservative group rips Obama in new radio ads
... spots entitled "Arrogant Obama" and "Bitter Obama" are coming to radio stations serving black America, where more than 90 percent of voters supported Obama in Democratic primaries. The NBRA ads will begin airing July 7 in battleground states, according to the group's chair.
... Here's a sample of what you might hear on your radio: "Bitter is what Obama called blacks and whites who love God. Racist is what Obama called his white grandmother who raised him and made sacrifices so Obama could get a good education and become a millionaire," says the narrator one of the spots.
"Obama's mentor for 20-years was Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who said innocent Americans deserved to die on September 11th," says the voiceover in another...
Obama picks up fundraising pace
In the wake of Senator Barack Obama’s decision last month to bypass public financing for the general election, his campaign is embarking on a spree of pricey fund-raising events across the country.
... Obama’s stepped-up schedule of big-money fund-raisers — the campaign has more than a dozen events planned over the next two weeks — showcases a formidable high-dollar donor network that is gaining more heft with an influx of former supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama received lower-interest loan for mansion
his mortgage rate secured in '05 may add to a debate on whether officials' deals from lenders are illegal gifts...
Obama faith mission caught in old politics
An Obama zag -- one that zings: “Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and -- in a move sure to cause controversy -- support their ability to hire and fire based on faith,” the AP’s Jennifer Loven reports.
see also:
Obama proposes expanding faith-based program
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