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PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
Andrea Mitchell blasts Obama for 'fake interviews'
Andrea
Mitchell might be a doyenne of the liberal media, but
she has her reporter's pride and principles, both of
which have been trampled by the way the Obama campaign
has managed the media during the candidate's current
trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. Mitchell let loose on
this evening's Hardball, speaking of "fake interviews"
and indicating we don't know the truth of the trip
because we don't know what was edited out of the video
that's been released.
Poll: News media biased for Obama
a
new Rasmussen Reports survey showed nearly 60 percent of voters say
Mr. Obama gets better treatment from journalists. Nearly half of
voters - 49 percent - said reporters would help Mr. Obama, compared
with 14 percent who said Mr. McCain benefited from friendly coverage.
The Rasmussen survey suggested the perceived trend is intensifying, with those seeing a pro-Obama slant jumping 5 percentage points from last month while views regarding Mr. McCain stayed the same.
DSCC pushes the envelope with issues ads featuring candidates
National
Democrats are trying their luck with a series of candidate ads that
inhabit a gray area of the law, and observers say the approach could
be a game-changer in the continuing battle over campaign finance
reform.
In recent weeks the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has begun its 2008 ad campaign by funding issue ads that feature their candidates in Mississippi and Oregon and are coordinated with their campaigns.
Top donors slice $$$ to political groups since '04
Top
donors to independent groups that sought to influence the last
presidential campaign are giving less than one-fifth of what they
shelled out in 2004, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
The six biggest contributors from each side in the past three federal elections gave more than $100 million to outside political groups in 2004, according to the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute. Less than four months before the end of this year's campaign, they have given $17.2 million, an analysis of campaign-finance and tax records show.
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts
Novak: McCain VP pick to come this week
Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain's running mate has not been disclosed...
McCain to meet with Jindal
John
McCain will huddle with vice presidential aspirant
Bobby Jindal during a trip
to New Orleans later this week, sources close to the campaign confirm
to The Fix.
McCain's trip to Louisiana on Wednesday was the cause of much head scratching in the political world as it was not in keeping with a week of planned stops in battleground states.
McCain links Obama and high gas prices
SCRIPT “Gas prices. $4, $5, no end in sight. Because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump? (chant) Obama, Obama. One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets. Don’t hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain.”
McCain gets Bush '41' blessing, blasts Obama
John
McCain brought his campaign to Maine today, picking up the blessing of
former President George H.W. Bush, blasting Democratic rival Barack
Obama on the war in Iraq, and pressing his case on energy policy.
At the family compound in Kennebunkport this morning, the first president Bush said of McCain, "My respect for him knows no bounds."
McCain, meanwhile, who strongly backed a surge of US troops in Iraq, said Obama opposed the surge but is now trying to take advantage of what McCain called the surge's success. Speaking as Obama toured Iraq McCain chastised Obama for refusing to acknowledging that the surge has worked. ..
Just 1 reporter, 1 photographer waiting for McCain in NH
The senator's low-key arrival in Manchester stood in stark contrast to his Democratic rival's ongoing visit to the Middle East. Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, was swarmed by media as he arrived in Baghdad yesterday for a meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders...
Iraqi schedule for withdrawal close to Obama's
After Barack Obama met with Iraqi leaders here on Monday, the Iraqi government outlined a possible schedule for a U.S. troop withdrawal that is similar to the plan the Democratic presidential candidate has pledged to follow if he is elected.
see also:
Maliki's embrace of withdrawal timeline confounds McCain
Obama on Israel: both sides should "look in the mirror"
In
Amman today, though, he suggested again that the fault in the region
is not the Palestinians' alone, something you'll rarely hear from
Republicans.
"It’s difficult for either side to make the bold move that would bring about peace," he said, noting (generously) that the weak, scandal-tarred, deeply unpopular Israeli government is "unsettled," while the Palestinians are "divided."
"There’s a tendency for each side to focus on the faults of the other rather than look in the mirror," he said.
Obama filming Berlin speech for possible ad
Democrat Barack Obama’s entire traveling campaign apparatus is in place. He will speak Thursday at an historic site in Berlin that could draw tens of thousands of spectators. And chief campaign strategist David Axelrod might even assemble film crews to gather footage of it, possibly for a TV commercial.
But senior aides engaged in a bit of rhetorical gymnastics Tuesday as they faced reporters who questioned their resistance to acknowledging the political aspects of Obama’s week-long, high-profile tour against the backdrop of an intense American presidential campaign.
Mideast sees more of the same if Obama elected
For what feels like forever, Israelis and their Arab neighbors have been hopelessly deadlocked on how to resolve the Palestinian crisis. But there is one point they may now agree on: If elected president, Senator Barack Obama will not fundamentally recalibrate America’s relationship with Israel, or the Arab world...
Conservative group takes on Obama
An independent conservative group went on the air with a new advertisement on Monday to be followed by a full-length documentary film that tries to portray Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as an overhyped media darling.
The group, Citizens United, which also produced a film this year critical of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is spending $250,000 to run the commercial on Fox News through the end of the week.
The 30-second spot features a mix of conservative voices, including J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary of state; the Rev. Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist; and the commentators Tucker Carlson and Dick Morris. They accuse the news media of harboring a pro-Obama bias, or as Mr. Carlson puts it: “The press loves Obama. I mean not just love, but sort of like an early teenage crush.”
The commercial is a prelude to the film, “Hype: The Obama Effect,” which Citizens United plans to release in early September.
S.C. senator links Obama, Osama bin Laden on blog
A
Republican state senator from South Carolina is being criticized for a
post on his blog that shows photos of Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden
wearing similar clothing, along with a line that states the difference
between the two is "a little B.S."
The image was posted on Sen. Kevin Bryant's blog on Friday without an explanation from the politician. It appears to be a photo of a T-shirt, with images of bin Laden and Obama wearing turbans and the words "OBAMA" AND "OSAMA," with the "B" and "S" each highlighted in red.
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