The Central Virginia Progressive-The DAVISReport sent us this message:

I’ve got to give her props, Sarah Palin has redefined chutzpah.

There is something very unseemly about this self described pit bull mom. As the mother of three daughters and the aunt of a special needs child this woman is really making me angry. Will this woman stop at nothing and yet point the finger at her opponents for playing the gender card and and drawing her children into the dialogue? You can’t play the gender/mom card and then cry fowl when your opponent brings it up.

In her convention speech she referred to herself as a mother at least five times. She then opened with “As a mother of a special needs child you’ll have an advocate in the White House.” Well my sister who has fought for 30 years to get her son the services and education he needed to become a functional adult, was not impressed, and in fact, thought her shout out was just the beginning of the evening’s overall exploitation of her children to “excite the base” and found it disingenuous.

Next came her foreign policy position pitch which began and ended with, “I’m a Mom with a son in the national guard who leaves next week for Iraq . . . (cue to camera closeup on the kid). Again the Mommy card played face up, her son used as a deflection, why? Because a month ago when asked to discuss foreign policy, she stated, “I really haven’t focused much on the war in Iraq”-ouch!

It should be noted here that Biden and McCain also have sons who have, are currently, or soon will be deployed to Iraq, and they have had the class to leave their son’s out of the fray. In fact, taking his cue from Va. Sen. D. Jim Webb, John McCain, when pressed on the subject in an interview recently, stated: “Id rather not discuss my sons military service if you don’t mind”. (Perhaps McCain and Palin need a sidebar)

But the coup de grace of the evening was yet to come. Talk about Brass Ovaries! All while demanding her daughter be left out of the campaign rhetoric, she flew the baby daddy of her 17-year-old pregnant daughter in from Alaska, to the convention, and then pranced the gum-chewing man child around on stage with the moose in the headlight daughter!

As a mother of three daughters ( I’ve got a mommy card of my own to play) I found this disturbing on so many levels it hurt my heart and head.

The Inmates have taken over the Asylum!

Ms Palin, As I try to process what I saw and heard I have questions:

1. In light of recent events, do you revisit your decision to cut funding earlier this year to Passages, a teenage crisis center? According to Passage House’s web site, its purpose is to provide “teen mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives” and help teen moms “become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families.”

2. You oppose all funding to prevent teen pregnancies, “sex-ed programs will not find my support,” you wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates but you cut funding for the teenage mothers who do not have the family or socioeconomic support your own daughter will have the privilege of-please explain how this connects you to the needs of everyday people?

3. Will the time missed out of high school classes qualify baby daddy an excused absence? cool!

4. Social Conservatives decried the movie Juno, complaining it glorified teenage pregnancy ( teen gives baby up for adoption), and indeed a spike in teenage pregnancy was dubbed the Juno effect. So I ask, with all this prancing about, can we expect a Bristol effect and what are you going to do about it if you’re the VP?

5. You decreased teen pregnancy services, but increased funds for aerial wolf shooting, please explain?

One more thing, being pro choice is not pro abortion, what part of that is hard to understand?

The DAVISReport

Posted by www.EileenDavis.blogspot.com The Davis Report - The Voice of Central Virginia and the Capital City.

If I had to pick one word to summarize my impression of Gov. Palin’s speech tonight, it would be “shrill.” It was a fiercely partisan speech, a mocking speech, a culture-war speech. It was ably written and ably delivered, but it came with a sneer. While it may be the kind of speech that plays well in the convention hall, I have my doubts about its ability to persuade the shrinking number of undecideds remaining to vote for a McCain-Palin ticket. We’ll see.

What may be most significant about the speech, however, could be what it portends for the fall campaign. Palin’s goal, it seems to me, was pretty simple: make common folk dislike the Democrats again. It was a speech very loosely grounded in fact but deeply rooted in division. She threw around the old canards (and some new ones, too) with aplomb. I think this is a sign that we may be in for a bitterly negative campaign.

On that level, I’d have to pronounce the speech a success. Palin proved herself to be at least a decent attack dog. One needn’t have any foreign policy experience to fill that role and fill it well. She came out swinging and never let up.

Democrats who’ve scoffed at her will have to think again. Obama’s weakness since the beginning has been his inability or unwillingness to throw an effective counterpunch. Unless his campaign quickly figures out a way to do that against a self-professed Hockey Mom, I think we just might have been looking tonight at the next Vice President of the United States.

UPDATE:  A conventional wisdom seems to be emerging that this was a speech designed to energize the GOP base.  I disagree. By and large, I think the base is energized by Sarah Palin already.  To me, this was a speech designed to drive up Obama’s negatives with swing voters.  The only question is whether she succeeded and will succeed despite the ugly sneer that accompanied her negative broadsides.

Cross-posted from Facebook

What some conservatives are saying about the Palin selection

TalkingPointsMemo had a the transcript …

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we’ll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We’ll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she’s the right woman for the job Up next, one man who’s already convinced and he’ll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.

(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys — this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it’s not gonna work. And –

PN: It’s over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she’s never looked comfortable about this –

MM: They’re all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me– political bullshit about narratives –

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

You good readers have to know that I have been reluctant to say much about this Sarah Palin mess. Needless to say, the selection by John McCain of this untested, unprepared governor is reckless, irresponsible and downright cynical.

At 72 years old, McCain is one of the oldest candidates to run for the presidency. Sen. McCain’s father died of a heart attack at 70 and his grandfather died of a heart attack at 60. McCain himself has survived four skin cancers (melanomas), including one in 2000 that was classified as Stage IIa.

As someone pointed out the other day, McCain has never had an Alzeheimer test, a grave oversight when you consider 13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimer’s.

My point is this: Because of all these factors, McCain, who has been sloganeering that he is running for the presidency to put “country first,” owed the nation an unquestionably and superbly qualified vice presidential nominee.

Forget the scandals that have dogged Palin since she stepped into the arena. The fact is that she is a horrible choice because she is not qualified to be president of the United States. When we vote for McCain, because of his advanced age and health history, we’re also voting, this time more than at any time in the nation’s history, for his vice presidential pick as President of the United States.

Palin is so far out of the mainstream it does the term injustice to call her a conservative. She is a fringe right wing lunatic. Her postion on reproductive freedom is extreme, including cutting off funds to unwed teen mothers in her state. She says yes to creationism and denies global warming. She hounded out of a job a state police superintendent because he would not help her pursue a vendetta against an ex-brother-in-law by firing him.

I mean, Sarah Palin and her husband at one time or another belonged to a group that wanted Alaska to secede from the United States.

I am sorry to say this but, if the McCain-Palin ticket wins office, there’ll be no hope left for this country. No hope not because they won but that people voted for them.

In an interview with The New Yorker magazine two weeks before Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was sounding very much like an Obamacan:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin—the governor of Alaska and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States—thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama’s campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. “The theme of our campaign was ‘new energy,’ ” she said recently. “It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama—literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that.” She also noted, “Something’s kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama’s doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they’re saying, ‘This hasn’t happened for decades that in polls the D’ ”—the Democratic candidate—“ ‘is doing just fine.’ To me, that’s indicative, too. It’s the no-more-status-quo, it’s change.”

Continue . . .

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins had interesting thoughts on Sen. John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate:

It is conceivable that some people will think John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate because she is a woman. I know you find this shocking, but I swear I have heard it mentioned.

McCain does not believe in pandering to identity politics. He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!

The obvious choice was Palin, the governor of Alaska, whose guard stands as our last best defense against possible attack by the resurgent Russian menace across the Bering Strait.

Continue . . .

The Central Virginia Progressive- The DAVISReport sent us this message:

Say hello to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, John MCCain’s VP select ,the governor of a state where its citizens by birthright get checks sent to them up to a couple thousand a year, that represent oil profits gained on state owned land.

Yes Virginia, Alaska, the sparsely populated other world of Alaska, the Kuwait of the United States, fat with oil money, sparsely populated, and except for remote pockets of indigenous eskimoe communities,largely caucasion, is where John McCain has found “the best person” to serve as our VP?

As I ponder McCain’s choice, knowing that he believes that this decision will help deliver purple Virginia, I dig deeper and get more astounded that he thinks he has made the sale.

Virginia, with both urban and rural poor,immigration issues,(Henrico County Schools alone have 90 plus languages registered in ESL classes), with our population density and DC proximity terrrorism issues, military and port concerns, highway infrastructure issues and commuter issue(good old 95)- with all of this Virginia is ranked number one best run state and is also ranked best place to raise a child with the outcome of it being solidly educated. My question is why do these honors go to Virginia and not Alaska with more money and less challenges to successful outcomes?

Seems to me Alaska should easily have these rankings. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel for them , compared to the challenges we face here in Virginia, but yet we prevail. But that’s my point, a first term Governor of Alaska whose last job was a town smaller than Ashland can’t really be expected to step into the VP gig ground ready, and cross training is not an option. Bluntly stated, she doesnt know what she doesn’t know.

Choosing your VP is the first big decision the candidate is judged on and John McCain has shown himself to be a reckless flyboy who must think woman are really stupid. Too stupid to notice she is in way over her head, too stupid to realize that a Hillary supporter,to vote for Palin just because she’s female would have to abandon every social and political position most Hillary supporters share. Why?; because Palin is an ultraconservative,a gun toting NRA member, Anti Choice even in cases of rape and incest.

The idea that one woman is as good as another is arrogant pandering, and will result in blowback that McCain will regret. The arrogance is also compounded by the fact that this 72 yr old with 4 bouts of cancer thinks no one will consider the heartbeat away question, does he really think that we are so giggly to pick a chick we won’t think this possibility through?

“Ms Palin, I know Hillary Clinton, and you are no Hillary Clinton”

The Central Virginia Progressive-The DAVISReport

Posted by www.EileenDavis.blogspot.com The Davis Report - The Voice of Central Virginia and the Capital City

Longtime readers will remember that Sarah Palin was on my early short list for McCain. I said back in June that she might be a good pick if McCain found himself behind in the polls and needed a Hail Mary pass. Now that he’s made the pick, how does it look?

First, Palin is undoubtedly qualified to be president and vice president. The Constitution sets those qualifications in Article II, Section 1. One need only be (1) a natural-born citizens; (2) at least 35 years old; and (3) a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years. There’s no question that she meets those qualifications.

There’s also no question that she has plenty of experience. As many people have pointed out since Friday, Palin has been in elected or appointed office since 1992 — a year after Obama graduated from law school. That’s nearly as much experience as John McCain himself. If you count her experience on the PTA, as McCain says we should, her experience is almost Biden-esque.

The real question is the quality of that experience. Does Palin’s experience — a city councilor and then mayor of small town, energy commissioner, and 18 months as governor — make her ready to be president? The answer to that question is largely in the eye of the beholder, but I think it’ll be a tough sell to the American public. It might have been easier to sell over time with a longer roll-out, but the surprise pick makes it particularly difficult.

There’s also Troopergate. Although the facts remain somewhat in dispute, it seems pretty clear that Palin has, on at least one occasion, abused the official power of her office to get someone fired and then lied to cover it up. The first instance happened when she was mayor of small town. The most recent incident happened this summer, when she fired the chief of the state police for refusing to fire the estranged husband of her sister-in-law who was then a state trooper. She’ll probably be deposed and possibly censured in Troopergate during the fall campaign.

And then there’s Palin’s positions on the issues. To the extent that she has positions on national issues, they’re to the right of McCain. Her positions on abortion and contraception, in particular, are closer to Mike Huckabee’s than McCain’s. (Indeed, Huckabee has released a statement praising the Palin pick.) That’s why James Dobson and the religious right are so delighted in her selection.

In the end, I think the pick is more important for what it says about John McCain than for anything it says about Sarah Palin. It showed us all that he’s ready to shoot from the hip on day one. According to recent articles in the NYT and Washington Post, he made the pick after meeting her only once last February and without vetting her at all. That’s not the kind of approach to serious issues that most Americans are going to want.

The pick also showed us, I think, that McCain put politics ahead of governing. This was a choice from identity politics, pure and simple — a big gamble that Palin’s gender and religious conservatism will attract enough votes in a few key swing states to win the election. For all the things that one can say about Sarah Palin, one thing you can’t say is that she knows how to get legislation through the U.S. congress.

And, finally, the Palin pick showed us that McCain will say anything to get elected. For the last six months, McCain has argued that Obama is dangerously unprepared. By picking someone with even less foreign policy experience than Obama, that argument now looks disingenuous in the extreme. As far as I can tell, Palin’s foreign policy experience consists entirely of a family vacation to Ireland and Alaska’s geographic proximity to Russia and Canada.

I said on Friday that I was delighted by McCain’s choice. I’m even happier now that more facts are coming out.

What are your thoughts?

Have you seen People magazine’s exclusive photo of the McCain and Palin families?

Four members of the McCain and Palin familes are absent from the photo. Palin’s eldest son, Track, and McCain’s youngest son, Jimmy, are in the military and on deployment. McCain’s older son, Jack, is at the Naval Academy.

Where’s Bridget McCain?

Bridget is the McCain’s adopted daughter. She’s originally from Bangladesh and is very brown-skinned. She’s 17 years old — older than three of Palin’s children who appear in the photo and the same age as the fourth.

Are the McCains ashamed of their brown child?

Cross-posted from Facebook.

The campaign of John McCain for president of the United States has been lurking in the gutter these past several weeks.

Karl Rove’s henchmen, when they took over the faltering McCain campaign, they quickly surmised that they could not win on the issues. The American voters would not trust Republicans to fix the mess the party has made of the economy and America’s moral leadership in the world.

To win, they figured, they have to get in the sewer and throw sludge at Sen. Barack Obama and throw sludge they have, heckling Obama at every turn, peddling trivia and inane arguments. No matter how stupid, the McCain people with wield it. No matter how insane, McCain will come in at the end to say he approved of this message.

It’s quite a Faustian bargain: Some see McCain as a honorable man, a man of integrity. I’ve never felt that. Here is a man who sold his office to Charles Keating and cost the American taxpayers billions of dollars by running interference for him with federal regulators.

McCain not only cheated on the wife who waited at home for him during his five years in captivity, he threw her over for a much younger woman with a hefty bank account. McCain effectively abandoned his first wife and the family she was helping him raise.

How could anyone consider him a man of integrity?

McCain’s Mansions

As that self-made man, McCain, has done himself, pull yourself up by your bootstrap (Ferragamo moccasins, in his case). If you can’t hack it in this economy, get a second job.

Help John McCain count his houses

Question: How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have?

McCain: I think, eh, . . . I’ll have my staff get back to you on that.

I am a regular reader of Newsweek magazine. Most of the time, I don’t like what I read in there. I find its journalism often sloppy, if not downright dishonest. The fact is, I read it through gritted teeth most of the time.

For instance, I think they’re highly tilted toward John McCain in this election. He was their preferred candidate during the Republican primaries. Although they’re intrigued by Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy, especially now that he’s the Democratic Party nominee, McCain remains their man.

They’ll do anything, including shred any credibility the magazine has left to get him elected.

But, I am writing today to praise Newsweek, not to bash it. At least praise Christopher Dickey, its longtime foreign correspondent, for a superb piece on the magazine’s cover this week.

Southern Discomfort is a special piece of journalism, well written. As a writer, one of the things I struggle with is the pronoun “I.” Dickey wielded it judiciously in this piece to great effect. He did not get in the way of telling this story, which is quite an achievement.

I could try to quote from it but there’s so much that’s good in the piece that you, dear readers, would be better off buying the magazine at the newsstand, or reading the piece here:

I cannot resist one quote from the article, which got me:

“I think if there were a better economy more people would take a risk on Obama,” said Patricia Murtaugh Wise, a lawyer from Nashville sightseeing with her kids at Atlanta’s landmark Varsity Drive-In restaurant. Her friends are blaming Bush more than his party, she said. “I’m not sure people are saying, ‘Because Bush got us into this, let’s vote for a Democrat.’ I think people are saying, ‘Let’s get a new person in there’.”

Her name notwithstanding, the quote and the reasoning behind it are patently stupid. If, as the woman said, times are good, her excuse not to vote for Obama would be that he’d ruin the good thing she had going.

Make McCain Disavow His Dishonest Obama Ad

“What’s worse than John McCain’s dishonest ad? Finding out he had another, equally dishonest ad ready to air if Obama DID visit the hospital. He just wasn’t going to be honest with American voters no matter what happened, and now everybody knows it, even the press he calls his “base.” He’ll never live it down.” —Kagro X, Daily Kos

The traditional press is up in arms over John McCain’s latest dishonest ad attacking Barack Obama. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell called the ad “completely wrong, factually wrong!” The New York Times said it was “a false account of what occurred.” The Washington Post said the ad offered “no evidence” to support McCain’s claims.

McCain must disavow this ad and make sure it never airs again. We won’t let this race degenerate into ad distortions like the last election; we won’t be silent in the face of lies. That’s why we created this video entitled When McCain Attacks.

Help end McCain’s campaign of dishonesty. Sign our petition to compel McCain to disavow this ad and yank it from the air. Then send it to all your friends, family members, and colleagues. Tell them to spread it to everyone they know, and Digg it!

Hurry, because we’re already seeing McCain’s lies insidiously spread by other news outlets. Join us in declaring that we’ve had enough lies and dishonesty, we’re ready for a new kind of politics.

Unfortunately, all the good Bill Clinton did as president, the goodwill he won with African Americans and the great relationships he forged over the course of his political, he’s not intent on frittering away in bitterness. He’s affronted by Sen. Barack Obama’s political ascent and he’s not going to let it go, promising now to speak his mind next year.

Next year?

Give it a rest, Mr. Clinton. The nation has more pressing matter to attend to than the swamp in your mind.

Clinton Embraces Return to Ambassador Role: After the Bitter Primaries, He Calls Charity ‘My Life’ By Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, August 3, 2008; A01

KIGALI, Rwanda, Aug. 2 — There will be no Clinton restoration — not this year, at least. But the rehabilitation of Bill Clinton has begun.

The former president in many ways ended the Democratic primary campaign more isolated than his wife, with his own friends and allies unhappy with his flashes of anger and ill-chosen words and blaming him in part for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s defeat. With a negligible relationship with Sen. Barack Obama — he has spoken to him just once since the primaries — Clinton has been shut out of the Obama campaign almost entirely and does not know even basic things, such as the role he will play at the Democratic convention.

It is uncharted territory for the most successful Democratic politician of his generation, and part of the reason he was in Kigali on Saturday, the latest stop in a grueling journey across Africa to visit some of the places where his charitable foundation has been active — and in the process re-establish his role as a global elder statesman. At the same time, Clinton began, slowly, to discuss the bruising Democratic primary season that ended two months earlier.

In his first extended interview since his wife exited the campaign in defeat, Clinton said he was glad to be back doing international foundation work. “This is my life now, and I was eager to get back to it, and I couldn’t be happier,” Clinton said in a hotel suite, with three aides looking on.

In a session that lasted more than 45 minutes, Clinton described his role in the 2008 campaign as “a privilege, an honor,” and said, “I loved it,” but he declined to discuss any of his own possible mistakes, describing them as a distraction. “Next year, you and I and everybody else will be freer and have more space to say what we believe to be the truth” about the primaries, he said.

Clinton volunteered very little praise of Obama, beyond describing him as “smart” and “a good politician” when asked about him toward the end of the interview. He did, however, muse at length about the role that race could play in the general election — the issue that some of his former black allies angrily accused him of introducing in the Democratic primaries — as a factor, if not a decisive one.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s new information about the hunt for a running mate for Barack Obama.

A member of the Congressional Black Caucus who’s met with Obama’s vice-presidential screening team says she offered the names of former senators John Edwards and Sam Nunn — and was told they’re on the list. Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan says when she mentioned that Al Gore is her favorite, the two members of Obama’s team smiled.

Kilpatrick wouldn’t say which names Obama’s team brought up.

Lawmakers who’ve been briefed say there are about 20 names on the prospective vice-presidential list, which is said to include current elected officials, former elected officials, and retired military generals.

Compiled by Mary Grace Lucas

CNN Washington Bureau

AP: Williams to do `Meet the Press’ Sunday
Top NBC anchorman Brian Williams will host the next “Meet the Press” but the network hasn’t chosen who will permanently replace Tim Russert, an NBC News spokeswoman said Thursday.

Washington Post: McCain Raises Money the Hard Way
John McCain’s campaign treated the news of Barack Obama abandoning the public financing system with the expected disdain, calling it evidence that Obama is “just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.”

Chicago Tribune: Without public funding, sky’s the limit for Obama
‘Raising a half-billion dollars is a very realistic figure for him,’ strategist says.

NY Times: For Bush, a New Town, a New Disaster, but Always the Memory of New Orleans
Try as he might, President Bush cannot escape the haunting memory of Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Bush toured flood-stricken areas here on Thursday, the latest in a string of disaster-zone visits he has made in his role as comforter in chief.

CNN: House approves war funding plan
Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would be funded into early 2009 under a compromise plan approved Thursday by the U.S. House.

Click to continue reading…

ChattahBox
A First Lady of a different kind
CNN - 50 minutes ago
By Jonathan Mann (CNN) — Take a brilliant, strong-willed, American woman. Let her marry a rising politician, start a family, build a successful legal career, and then emerge as a polished public figure in her own right.
The War Over Michelle Obama TIME
Tenn. GOP Sen. Wants Obama Ad Pulled CBS News
New York Times - Reuters - Indianapolis Star - National Review Online
all 212 news articles »
POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Friday, May 23, 2008

Compiled by Mary Grace Lucas, CNN Washington Bureau

Washington Post: POW Aftereffects in McCain Unlikely
Sen. John McCain’s 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam undoubtedly changed the course of his life. But now that he is 71, that remote trauma seems unlikely to shorten his life span or to lead to mental or physical conditions that are not already apparent.

LA Times: Obama makes moves for fall election
The Democratic front-runner looks for a running mate, talks with party officials and campaigns where it counts — all while trying not to overstep while Clinton is still in the race.

The Hill: GOP says troop cuts likely to help McCain
GOP Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid could receive a boost if additional troops are withdrawn from Iraq this fall, according to his Republican colleagues. The Arizona senator’s allies said Gen. David Petraeus’s remarks Thursday that he expects to recommend more troop withdrawals this fall would validate McCain’s arguments that last year’s troop surge was needed to stabilize Iraq.

NY Times: As Race Wanes, Talk of Clinton as No. 2 Grows
While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, friends of the couple say that former President Bill Clinton, for one, has begun privately contemplating a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama’s running mate.

Read the rest of this entry »
Obama to tour key Western states


(CNN) — Barack Obama will travel to three crucial swing states next week, the latest sign the Illinois senator is moving into the general election phase of his campaign.

As first reported by the Web site Talking Points Memo and confirmed by an Obama campaign aide, the Illinois senator plans to make stops in New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado next week.

Specifically, Obama will make stops in Las Cruces, New Mexico Monday, the Las Vegas area on Tuesday, and the Denver area on Wednesday.

Click to continue reading…

Elections

New York Daily News

DC meeting could bring compromise on Michigan, Florida delegates New York Daily News - 1 hour ago Busloads of Hillary Clinton supporters will swarm a meeting next week at a DC Marriott, where Democratic Party elders hope to forge a compromise over Florida and Michigan’s now-voided convention delegates. Video: Victory is within reach: Obama RussiaTodayObama Says Nomination ‘Within Reach’ New York Times Los Angeles Times - USA Today - Detroit Free Press - Washington Times all 8,126 news articles »

PRESS TV

As host, McCain invites speculation Boston Globe - 4 hours ago WASHINGTON - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain plans to host three potential running mates this weekend at his ranch in Sedona , Ariz. McCain Looks to Fill Ticket, and 3 Hopefuls Step Up New York Times Joe Lieberman assails Barack Obama on foreign policy Los Angeles Times Philadelphia Inquirer - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Washington Post - BBC News all 1,130 news articles »

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)

Obama at Square One in Florida Wall Street Journal - 2 hours ago By CHRISTOPHER COOPER TAMPA, Fla. — One of the most tantalizing electoral prizes this fall for Sen. Barack Obama may be Florida, where he is campaigning and holding fund-raisers this week after a self-imposed exile of more than six months. Liberals work to change McCain’s image San Francisco Chronicle McCain to look over possible ticket mates Seattle Times Washington Post - CNN - San Jose Mercury News - Reuters all 313 news articles »

CBS News

Ron Paul surge collects more GOP convention delegates Los Angeles Times - 1 hour ago While the world of politics waits around for Sen. Barack Obama to finally get the message and give up his hopeless chase of the Democratic nomination for president because he lost yet another heartland state to Hillary Clinton, Texas Rep. Drug industry contributing more to Democrats The Associated Press McCain, Romney Tied in Florida NewsOXY Politico - Wall Street Journal - Seattle Times - Washington Post all 717 news articles »

Turkish Press

Jindal to visit McCain during holiday The Times-Picayune - NOLA.com - 4 hours ago By Bruce Alpert Gov. Bobby Jindal and his wife, Supriya, are among 10 couples invited to presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s Arizona home during the Memorial Day weekend, an invitation fueling speculation that Jindal is on a short … Weekend at McCain’s just the ticket? Washington Times Is McCain’s guest list also his VP short list? Arizona Republic The Associated Press - Boston Globe - ABC News - Baltimore Sun all 1,710 news articles »

WBT

Theme Persists: Obama Outraises Clinton New York Times - 6 hours ago By LESLIE WAYNE Though Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton raised an impressive $21 million in April, her campaign ended the month $20 million in debt and with Senator Barack Obama more than $30 million ahead of her in cash on hand for the primary season, … In Money Chase, McCain Can Rely on Party Boost Wall Street Journal Barack Obama Sets $55 Million Record NewsOXY Reuters - Los Angeles Times - CBS News - The Associated Press all 445 news articles »

CTV.ca

Women to the Barricades San Francisco Chronicle - 7 hours ago The following email leaked to us from a prominent supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton shows us firsthand the anger among the older women who are the mainstays of her campaign, and a necessary ingredient of a victory for rival Sen. The ‘Not Clinton’ Excuse Washington Post Hillary Clinton Thanks Saturday Night Live NewsOXY Sioux Falls Argus Leader - Eurweb.com - Huffington Post - Seattle Times all 428 news articles »

TopNews

Clinton, Obama vie for superdelegates Boston Globe - 19 hours ago Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton split Tuesday’s primaries, and so far today they have split the superdelegates who will likely determine who gets the nomination. Democratic superdelegate Rep. Joe Courtney backs Obama Boston Herald Superdelegate Courtney Announces For Obama Hartford Courant Connecticut Post - MSNBC - Akron Beacon Journal - TheDay all 36 news articles »

Canoe.ca

Not the ticket of dreams Boston Globe - 5 hours ago MANY DEMOCRATS, including former New York governor Mario Cuomo on this page, have called for a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket. What Does Hillary Want? TIME Barack Obama Slams Clinton Amid Mississippi Voting NewsOXY Washington Post - Huffington Post - Voice of America - ABC News all 77 news articles »

Hartford Courant

Does the Libertarian Party Matter? Wall Street Journal - 6 hours ago By BRUCE BARTLETT Ron Paul’s unexpected success raising money and gaining votes in the Republican primaries - running on an explicitly libertarian platform - has made the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination something worth vying for this year. Recent Converts Are Top Contenders for Libertarian Nod CQPolitics.com Comment by David Boaz Executive Vice President, Cato Institute Colorado Springs Gazette - Washington Post - Washington Times - Nolan Chart LLC all 43 news articles »

News Talk AM 580 WDBO

Obama rocks, rolls into state Daytona Beach News-Journal - 4 hours ago By JAMES MILLER KISSIMMEE — Illinois Sen. Barack Obama rolled into town Wednesday, sounding like the Democratic presidential nominee and being treated like a rock star. Obama Introduces Himself to Florida Voters CBS News Obama suggests halving Florida delegation Tampabay.com Huffington Post - Local6.com - MarketWatch - WESH.com all 21 news articles »

PRESS TV

Obama inspires McCain aide to step down Los Angeles Times - 3 hours ago Mark McKinnon, John McCain’s media strategist and a member of the close-knit circle of five top advisors to the Republican presidential candidate, says he plans to be the Arizona senator’s “No. Keeping Vow on Obama, McCain Adviser Resigns New York Times McCain media consultant departs The Associated Press FOXNews - Washington Post - CBS News all 101 news articles »

NewsOXY

7 Ore. superdelegates mum on presidential choices USA Today - 10 hours ago Now it’s time for the seven superdelegates still uncommitted to say whether they are backing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for president. Obama doubles Clinton in Wash. delegates Seattle Post Intelligencer Obama closes in on Democratic nomination The Associated Press NewsOXY - Washington Post - KTVZ - WWJ all 1,010 news articles »

CNN Political Ticker

Lieberman Op-Ed Raises Eyebrows Washington Post - 13 hours ago By Shailagh Murray The Connecticut senator describes himself as an “independent Democrat,” but today on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, Lieberman called out Sen. Barack Obama by name as one of the “old voices of partisanship and peace at any price” … Top Nebraska Dem Downplays Obama-Hagel Ticket Talk Action 3 News Hagel Assails McCain; Lieberman Assails Obama ABC News The Carpetbagger Report - CNN Political Ticker - AOL News Newsbloggers - TheDay all 17 news articles »

Hackensack Chronicle

Foe launches age-old attack on Lautenberg Philadelphia Inquirer - 3 hours ago By Cynthia Burton With less than two weeks left in the edgy Democratic US Senate primary, US Rep. Rob Andrews has unveiled a television ad that spotlights the age issue in his race against US Sen. Frank Lautenberg. GOP Senate debate tonight at Stockton Press of Atlantic City Pennacchio eyes crossover voters in US Senate bid The Star-Ledger - NJ.com Asbury Park Press - The Jersey Journal - NJ.com - Hackensack Chronicle - New Jersey Jewish News all 74 news articles »

OPB News

Merkley hopes to ride anti-GOP tide in Ore. Senate race KTVZ - 7 hours ago AP - May 21, 2008 10:45 PM ET SALEM, Ore. (AP) - A day after winning the Democratic US Senate nomination, Jeff Merkley moved quickly into general election mode, linking Republican Sen. Gordon Smith to the Bush administration. Schumer’s guys win in Kentucky, Oregon Politico Senate Democrats gaining power News 10 Now The Oregonian - OregonLive.com - The Register-Guard - KATU - Crosscut all 111 news articles »

The Southern Ledger

Senator challenges Lunsford on issues Kentucky.com - 3 hours ago By Ryan Alessi Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell charged into general election mode by moving to define his opponent and by offering an issues test to his newly minted Democratic challenger, Bruce Lunsford. Ky., Ore. voters choose US Senate candidates The Associated Press Schumer-backed Senate Candidate Prevails In Kentucky CBS News Huntington Herald Dispatch - MSNBC - Louisville Courier-Journal - RealClearPolitics all 238 news articles »

Monsters and Critics.com

In photos: ‘USA Elections - Obama and Clinton May 21st’ Monsters and Critics.com - 11 hours ago By M&C News May 21, 2008, 22:44 GMT Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at the St. Iorio endorses Obama at rally in Tampa WMNF Obama: ‘It’s good to be back’ Sarasota Herald-Tribune Tampa Tribune - MyFox Tampa Bay - Bradenton Herald - Tampa Bay’s 10 all 19 news articles »

NewsOXY

Hillary Clinton Charges Barack Obama NewsOXY - 2 hours ago Hillary Clinton has accused Barack Obama of trying to keep people from voting for her as some backers have called for her to drop out of the presidential race. President Bill Clinton Returning To SD Sunday KSFY Presidential Campaign: SD’s Money Trail KELOLAND TV Sioux Falls Argus Leader - Rapid City Journal - KELOLAND TV - KELOLAND TV all 12 news articles »

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  Candidates seek centrist answers in Iraq AP - 2 hours, 1 minute agoWASHINGTON - Hard-core advocates for and against the Iraq war are losing leverage as John McCain and Barack Obama, having virtually secured their nominations, appeal to centrist voters who will decide the fall presidential election.
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  Drug industry contributing more to Democrats AP - 2 hours, 20 minutes agoWASHINGTON - In a sharp reversal, drug and medical device companies are giving more money to Democrats than Republicans this election season, one more sign of the campaign difficulties the GOP could face this November.
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  Democrats adopt boisterous Puerto Rican style AP - 2 hours, 2 minutes agoSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Forget placards, stoic bodyguards and formal rallies. To win Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, both the Clinton and Obama camps are campaigning in the boisterous, face-to-face “boricua style” favored on this Caribbean island.
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  Obama’s outreach to US foes is questionable AP - 2 hours, 5 minutes agoWASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s willingness to meet Iranian, Cuban and other hostile leaders who would not get face time from John McCain stands as a distinctive element of his foreign policy.
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  Viral e-mails attack Obama’s life story Politico - Wed May 21, 8:12 PM ETThe main obstacle standing between Barack Obama and the White House was distilled into five words by a local television correspondent in South Charleston, W.Va., earlier this month.

White House News

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  Bush signs anti-discrimination bill AP - Wed May 21, 5:54 PM ETWASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday signed legislation to protect people from losing their jobs or health insurance when genetic testing reveals they are susceptible to costly diseases.
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  US to let Americans send cell phones to Cuba AP - Wed May 21, 5:43 PM ETWASHINGTON - President Bush announced Wednesday that people living in the United States soon will be allo