Obama campaign rejects rapper Ludacris' rhymes

Barack Obama's presidential campaign said Wednesday that a new rhyme by supporter and rapper Ludacris is "outrageously offensive" to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Republican Sen. John McCain and President Bush.

The song brags about an Obama presidency being destiny. It uses an expletive to describe Clinton, calls Bush "mentally handicapped" and says McCain doesn't belong in "any chair unless he's paralyzed."

The lyrics also don't spare the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recently apologized for making crude comments about Obama. "If you said it then you meant it," intones the rapper.

Obama's campaign blasted "Politics As Usual," which is on the "Gangsta Grillz: The Preview" mixtape with Atlanta spinner DJ Drama.

"As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail statement. "This song is not only outrageously offensive to Sen. Clinton, Rev. Jackson, Sen. McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics."

Ludacris' publicist and manager did not immediately return calls Wednesday for comment.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Obama included Ludacris when he talked about hip-hop moguls and rappers he thought were "great talents and great businessmen." Obama met privately with Ludacris, talking with him in Chicago about young people in 2006 before he announced his run for president.

In the two-minute track, the song makes a pitch for Obama to pick Ludacris as his vice president, rhyming "Hillary hated on you, so that (expletive) is irrelevant."

In the song, Ludacris also encourages black people to vote on Election Day.

"The world is ready for change 'cause Obama is here," he says repeatedly.
On the Net:

South Africa's Mbeki to Meet Zimbabwe's Mugabe

South African President Thabo Mbeki will travel to Zimbabwe today for talks with President Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, leader of the smaller of two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The meetings are part of an effort by Mbeki to mediate an end to a political crisis in Zimbabwe that followed contested elections, the presidency said in an e-mailed statement today. Mbeki met main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Pretoria yesterday, it added.

Mugabe extended his 28-year rule of Zimbabwe in a June 27 presidential runoff ballot in which he was the sole candidate. Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote after alleging his supporters were being targeted in a state-sponsored campaign of violence.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai met face to face on July 21 for the first time in 10 years and agreed to hold talks, to be concluded within two weeks, to end the dispute. Yesterday, the MDC said the talks were deadlocked, without specifying why.

Mbeki, who was appointed as a mediator by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, said yesterday the talks ``are doing very well'' and negotiators were determined to stick to the two-week timeline.

Just shows they go to any means

GOP proves they understand the People today by creating fake Facebook page for Obama

http://www.barackbook.com

Known fact

"In fact, the Democrats have not officially 'recessed' for more than a year because they do not want to give President Bush the chance to make appointments to vacant jobs that require Senate confirmation."

No cliffhanger, more like an Obama landslide

Luckily for the Republican nominee John McCain Europeans can't vote in the November US presidential election - just 100 days away. If they could it would be a landslide for the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

Nevertheless Senator McCain has reason to be worried - very worried. Last week three leading political scientists declared the US media's presentation of the election as a toss-up as a "myth".

Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University, Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, and Larry Sabato, professor of politics at University of Virginia, accused the media of flogging a dead horse in trying to portray the presidential race as a cliffhanger.

It was a particularly bold call for Professor Sabato, who has previously cautioned about Senator Obama's claims that he can redraw the political map in America. "While no election outcome is guaranteed and McCain's prospects could improve over the next 3½ months, virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed - historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months - point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic Party victory in November," the three men wrote in Sabato's Crystal Ball newsletter.

"Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry. Again, maybe conditions will change in McCain's favour, and if they do, they should also be accurately described by the media. But current data do not justify calling this election a toss-up."

The trio reviewed the national tracking polls and found that Senator Obama has led Senator McCain in every national poll in the past two months, except for twice early on when they tied.

Senator Obama's margin has been in the 4-6 point range, in contrast to the polls in the election run-ups in 2000 and 2004 which showed much more variation over time, they said.

The state-by-state polls have also consistently given Senator Obama an advantage.

"Obama is leading in every state carried by John Kerry in 2004 along with six states carried by George Bush: Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, Indiana, Nevada and Colorado. A seventh Bush state, Virginia, is tied," they wrote.

But there are other worrying signs for Senator McCain.

A Fox News Poll found that 51 per cent of Americans think Senator Obama will win. Only 27 per cent pick Senator McCain (from 32 per cent last month).
There's no doubt Senator Obama has run a campaign with few stumbles, apart from his serious mishandling of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright issue. That's been achieved by keeping a safe distance from media questioning, keeping the images tightly controlled and focusing on reassuring voters about his weaknesses, for instance, his national security credentials.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama is making headway with the demographics that commentators warned would be difficult - and which conversely offered an opportunity for Senator McCain.

A Pew Hispanic Centre poll released last Thursday shows overwhelming support from Latinos for Senator Obama - 66 per cent versus 23 per cent favouring Senator McCain.

On Super Tuesday, Senator Obama received only 38 per cent of the Latino vote, while former rival Hillary Clinton received 58 per cent, CNN exit polling showed.

Senator McCain is facing a particularly hostile political environment. The war remains deeply unpopular in the US, although support for the surge has risen somewhat as its impact becomes clearer. The economic news just gets worse, and Senator McCain is struggling to distinguish his economic remedies from those of George Bush. He is also struggling to convince Republicans he is their man.

Polling data continues to show that Democrats are more satisfied with their party's nominee than Republican voters and more highly motivated to vote. While Republicans normally benefit from higher turnout among their supporters, that may not be the case this year.

There was a ray of hope for Senator McCain last week with a Quinnipiac/Washington Post poll showing him ahead in Colorado by 1 per cent, reversing Senator Obama's lead in the last two polls. More implausibly, a Rasmussen poll had Senator McCain ahead again, by 10 points. in Ohio, where Senator Obama has enjoyed a solid lead in the last two polls.

The issue still remains for Senator Obama whether he can overcome what some fear is a deep-seated racist reserve about him in middle America.

Bush to leave a record budget deficit of $482 billion

President Bush will leave his successor with a record-high budget deficit of $482 billion, according to an administration estimate released Monday.

White House officials blamed the slowing economy and a $150-billion bipartisan stimulus package for the worsening picture for the 2009 fiscal year, but Democrats cited the president's tax cuts and fiscal management over his eight years in office.

"The important point to remember is that near-term deficits are both temporary and manageable if, and only if, we keep spending in check, the tax burden low and the economy growing," said Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, which released the budget report -- the last of Bush's presidency.

Nussle argued that although it would be the highest deficit in history, it was manageable as a percentage of the country's economic output -- roughly 3.3% of the gross domestic product. And he said the deficit for fiscal 2008, at $389 billion, would be somewhat less than anticipated.

"The best way to compare a deficit is by your ability in the economy to manage that deficit," Nussle told reporters in a White House briefing. "We have a plan to address that deficit and bring it down, which I think is a responsible one."

The budget office's report also predicted that the country's gross domestic product would grow by 1.6% in 2008, down from February's projection of 2.7%. The lower figure was attributed to higher-than-expected prices for oil and other commodities, problems in the credit markets and the continuing difficulties in the housing market.

Democrats on Capitol Hill blamed the revised deficit figures on Bush's large tax cuts and freewheeling spending.

"If we gave Olympic medals for fiscal irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, the silver and the bronze, because he's got the three highest record deficits ever," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "He sets records in every single category: 2009 would be the gold; 2004 the silver; 2008 the bronze."

Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) noted that Bush inherited a budget surplus from his Democratic predecessor, so the blame for the poor fiscal performance rests with him.

"Mr. Bush came to office with the biggest surpluses in history and he will leave office with the biggest deficit in history. That's the bottom line," said Spratt, chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Nussle defended the president, noting that he faced unexpected challenges after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"He had an underfunded military, in fact was running a deficit when it came to our ability to respond to homeland security and international intelligence and making sure that our country was protected," Nussle said. "So while mathematically there may have been a surplus, there were many underlying deficits that the president had to deal with that became manifest on Sept. 11 and beyond."

Conrad complained that Bush has long refused to acknowledge the role that his tax cuts have played in the deficit projections. He also accused Bush of using deceptive budget practices, including funding much of the Iraq war off the regular budget.

"This president has burgeoned the debt and the deficit by doing two things: running up spending dramatically and dramatically reducing the revenue in a way that was completely imprudent, that has saddled this country with record deficit and debt," Conrad said.

But Republicans, who lost their majority in Congress two years ago in part because of voters' dismay over the country's burgeoning fiscal problems, warned that a second stimulus package sought by Democrats would only make the problem worse.

"Today's announcement is a cautionary tale for the next president and Congress that we cannot spend our way out of the economic downturn," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the top Republican on the Senate budget panel.

"Skyrocketing energy bills have hit families and businesses hard, and while tax rebate checks have been issued to help address the lag in economic growth, the extra $2,200 families must pay in higher gas and oil bills this year alone have long since absorbed any impact the stimulus payments were meant to have to spur economic growth."

Barack Obama widens lead over John McCain in polls following world tour

Barack Obama's world tour scored big points back home.

The presumptive Democratic nominee jumped to a significant 9-point lead over GOP rival John McCain - his largest lead since the Gallup Poll began tracking the general election horse race in March.

Obama tops McCain, 49% to 40%, among registered voters nationwide, Gallup's daily tracking poll conducted from Thursday to Saturday revealed.

The latest survey results represent a "continuation of Obama's front-runner position," Gallup pollster Frank Newport noted Sunday.

Newport said it will become evident in the next several days whether the uptick is a short-term bounce related to the extensive media coverage surrounding the world tour or a crucial sign of deepening electoral strength.
Before Obama clinched the Democratic nomination last month, he and McCain were running roughly even, with each averaging 45% of the vote. Since then, Obama had gained a slight upper hand, averaging a 3-point national advantage.

Aiming to lower expectations, the senator and his campaign have spent the past few days downplaying the notion that Obama's trip would result in a poll jolt.

"A week of me focusing on international issues doesn't necessarily translate into higher poll numbers here in the United States because people are understandably concerned about the immediate effects of the economy," Obama demurred at a journalists forum in Chicago Sunday.

"That's what we will be talking about for the duration," he insisted.

An Obama aide declined Sunday to comment on the latest Gallup Poll.

Monday, Obama returns his focus to the No. 1 domestic issue: the nation's troubled economy.

The Illinois senator is scheduled to meet with top economic advisers, including former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

"I expect some further fine-tuning of our short-term policies based on what's happened over the last several months, and I want to get their read as well as to where they think the economy is going in the short term and medium term," Obama told Bloomberg News.

This week, Obama resumes campaigning in battleground states, with visits planned to Missouri and Iowa.

Obama wins hearts, not minds, in Berlin

Barack Obama touched hearts during an impassioned speech to a 200,000-strong crowd in Berlin, German newspapers agreed, but suspicions remain about the White House contender's motives for courting a European audience.
Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel wondered whether so many young people had ever gathered for a political event in Germany and said that Obama's address -- which echoed speeches by former U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan when the divided city was in the Cold War frontline -- could only have been made in the German capital.

"Barack Obama's address might not have been statesmanlike and it definitely wasn't worldly-wise. But with its symbolism and the message of this 46-year-old, it certainly was the signal of a new era for a new generation on both sides of the Atlantic," the newspaper said.

"What better thing could have happened to us than the potential next president of the U.S. sending this message to the world from here?"

Obama moved on from Germany to France on Friday where he was due to hold talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy. He is also slated to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron in London later Friday.

German tabloid Bild said Obama had articulated his version of the American dream -- the idea that politics can change the world: "Unlike George W. Bush, he wants to do this in cooperation with others, especially Europe. That's his message from Berlin: Let's try this together!"

But Bild warned that an Obama presidency would place fresh demands on traditional allies such as Germany, which fell out with Washington over the war in Iraq and has refused to contribute combat troops to NATO operations in Afghanistan.

"He didn't say what he expects, but it's not hard to figure it out. He'll call for more German participation during international crises; he'll call for more German soldiers," said Bild. But it concluded: "No matter how you might feel about this: A President Obama would be Germany's friend -- and a fan of Berlin!"

Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung sounded a more cautious note, warning that an Obama presidency would be "expensive for Germany."

"He explicitly called for German soldiers for Afghanistan -- he did not say 'more soldiers' but that was what he meant," said commentator Reymer Kluever. "And Obama also indicated this: he will want support as president to wind up the Iraq adventure."
The paper noted too that the speech had been intended less for the crowds gathered in Berlin's Tiergarten park than for "hesitant white voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia" and said that Obama had proved himself to be a clever tactician, capable of shifting positions to suit his audience.

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Hip-hop artist Nas protests Fox coverage of Obama

Hip-hop artist Nas is protesting Fox News's coverage of Barack Obama.

The rapper joined members of the activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorofChange.org to deliver more than 600,000 petitions Wednesday to the network's New York City headquarters.

Nas, whose new album Untitled was released last week, said in a statement that "Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news."

The network responded by saying, "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech including Nas who has an album to promote." Fox also noted that its anchor Bill Hemmer was scheduled to interview Obama this weekend.

Last month, Fox News referred in a graphic to Michelle Obama, the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, as "Obama's baby mama." Later, the network said a producer "exercised poor judgment" during the segment.
Earlier, two other Fox personalities apologized for referring to an affectionate onstage fist bump shared by the couple as a "terrorist fist jab" and, in another case, for joking about an Obama assassination.

Nas' new song, Sly Fox, takes direct aim at Fox. "Watch what you watchin', Fox keeps feeding us toxins ... I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth, not the biased truth, not the liar's truth," the song says.

MoveOn.org, a liberal public advocacy group, and ColorofChange.org, an online group of black activists, said the petition signatures were gathered online in the past month.

Andre Banks, a spokesman for ColorofChange.org, said that after Fox refused to take the petitions Wednesday afternoon, Nas took them to Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Fox couldn't immediately say whether security guards at their midtown building accepted the petitions.

Rep. Rangel Files Ethics Charges Against Himself

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., filed an ethics complaint against himself Wednesday with the House ethics committee.

The move is believed to be unprecedented.

Rangel took the unusual action in response to recent news coverage by The Washington Post and The New York Times, which recently ran stories raising questions about his involvement in raising money for an academic center named in his honor at City College of New York, and his Harlem rent-controlled apartments.

"No one's ever filed anything against me saying that I've done anything wrong. What I want to do is have a preliminary investigation of the facts to see if I did go over the line because there's no question I was bringing people together," Rangel said in an interview with FOX News, speaking about the fundraising.

"I'm just so proud of what I've done that if there is some blurry line there, let's clear up the line and let everyone know what it's all about," he added.

Rangel doesn't deny using congressional letterhead to ask non-profit organizations to contribute to the academic center. As far as the name goes, he said the college already had decided to name the center after Rangel.
But ethicists cited by the Post criticized Rangel's activities, saying Rangel's position on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, which has broad authority, could make someone feel like he or she had to donate money to get favorable treatment by the congressman. They also said there's a chance a congressman would steer funds toward a center with his name on it over projects that could be more worthy.

At a press conference last week, Rangel said none of the people who received fundraising requests had business before his committee like the Post claimed. He also called on the Post — or anyone else — to file ethics charges against him, although it technically is not an option afforded to those who are not members of the House.

Rangel initially was not going to bring up the apartment issue, but he told FOX on Wednesday that he wanted the House ethics committee — officially known as the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — to also clear up that matter.

"I'm not thinking about moving. I know I'm right legally. But when I met with you reporters, I thought that if I was going to do the stationary (matter), and if it's a question of ethics, let the ethics committee exonerate me. There is no market rent. And I'm paying the maximum," Rangel said.

"I haven't the slightest doubt in my mind that there's no ill intent and no violation of the Ethics Committee," he said.

Rangel has decided to give up one of the four apartments he rents at cut-rate prices because he was not living in it, an apparent violation of city and state rules.

But Rangel last week dismissed the question over whether the difference between the price he pays for his living space and the market rate for the apartments is a gift. He said there's no way to determine the market rate for a similar place, and even if there were, there isn't anyone to whom he could repay the difference.

Obama Overseas! In Presidential Mode! Back Home, It’s McCain in a Golf Cart.

It wasn’t a television blackout of John McCain; it was worse: split-screen contrasts that at times made it seem as if Barack Obama was on a state visit while back home his opponent chafed at the perks and privileges of an incumbent commander in chief.
On Tuesday, Mr. McCain held a town hall-style meeting in Rochester, N.H. In the shadow of the ancient Temple of Hercules in Amman, Jordan, Mr. Obama solemnly described his vision for peace in the region while standing at a lectern, the Middle East sprawling out behind him. Reporters were cordoned in front of him like the White House press corps — except that an audio snag kept their questions inaudible.

All three cable news networks carried Mr. Obama’s news conference live and in full. They showed only parts of Mr. McCain’s forum and focused mostly on his reaction to Mr. Obama’s statements. Even Fox News broke away from Mr. McCain midevent to cover the rescue of a bear cub wounded in a California fire and nicknamed Lil’ Smokey.

Mr. McCain’s surrogates complained bitterly about the Obama news blitz; on Tuesday the McCain campaign put out a Web video mocking reporters’ doting coverage with a montage of anchors’ gauzy looks and glowing praise set to the tune of the Frankie Valli hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”

But it’s not pro-Obama bias in the news media that’s driving the effusion of coverage, it’s the news: Mr. Obama’s weeklong tour of war zones and foreign capitals is noteworthy because it is so unusual to see a presidential candidate act so presidential overseas. Mr. Obama looks supremely confident and at home talking to generals and heads of state, so much so that some viewers may find the pose presumptuous — as if Mr. Obama believes that not only is his official nomination at the Democratic convention in August a mere formality, so is the November election.

All three network anchors traveled overseas for one-on-one interviews with Mr. Obama, and that, too, irked the McCain campaign. The CBS anchor, Katie Couric, who had the first encounter on Tuesday, appeared to take the Republican criticism to heart. She interviewed both candidates on her newscast. First, she spoke with Mr. Obama in Amman, and pressed him repeatedly to explain why he still opposes the troop surge now that it is deemed a success, a line of questioning that drove him to the brink of polite exasperation: “Katie,” he replied, “you’ve asked me three different times, and I have said repeatedly that there is no doubt that our troops helped to reduce violence.” She tacked on an interview with Mr. McCain, via satellite. “He would rather lose a war than lose a campaign,” Mr. McCain said of his rival.

Mr. Obama’s stops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan provided arresting video of the candidate being mobbed by American troops, surveying terrain by helicopter alongside Gen. David H. Petraeus and holding talks with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and King Abdullah of Jordan. When posing for an official photograph with a foreign leader, Mr. Obama often places his hand paternally on the other man’s arm, subliminally signaling that though a visitor, he is the real host of the meeting.

Touring ruins of the Citadel in Amman, Mr. Obama strode confidently with his jacket crooked over his shoulder in classic Kennedy style. He also practiced statesmanly restraint, telling reporters in Amman that he wouldn’t criticize his opponent while abroad.

Some images are so potent that Fox News, which hammers at Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience, uses its headline crawls as disclaimers: Shots of his arrival in Iraq were captioned, “Obama in Iraq: Second-Ever Trip There.”

McCain aides haven’t been nearly as creative on his behalf: their stagecraft has been notably unflattering to the candidate. While Mr. Obama was shown striding across military tarmacs and inspecting troops standing at attention, Mr. McCain on Monday was seen being driven around in a golf cart by former President George Bush in the resort town of Kennebunkport, Me. Later, the two men spoke to reporters side by side at a waterfront, and they looked more like fellow members of a Past Presidents’ Club than a party elder passing the torch to his political heir.

CNN even contrasted how the two candidates pronounce Pakistan. (Mr. Obama favors the more international Pahk-ee-stahn; Mr. McCain keeps the a’s flat.)

It’s a very short trip by diplomatic standards, but it’s a long one for television, and every new stop is fraught with opportunities to misspeak or overstep. Many conservatives are gleefully expecting Mr. Obama to make a gaffe in Israel and look effete in France or Britain. On Tuesday, however, it was Mr. McCain who came closest to Europhilia.

Talking about new energy sources in New Hampshire, Mr. McCain said that it took France five years to build a nuclear power plant and complained that in the United States it took 15 years or more. He also acknowledged that Americans did not readily accept France as a role model, saying self-mockingly, “As you know we always want to imitate the French.”

Clinton supporters lend Obama a big fundraising hand

Apparently heeding Hillary Rodham Clinton's plea to heal the rift in the Democratic Party, her donors gave as much as $1.6 million to Barack Obama's presidential campaign last month, campaign finance reports show.

Obama's donors, however, were not quite as quick to send money Clinton's way.

Despite a request from the presumed Democratic nominee that his top contributors help Clinton retire half of her $25-million campaign debt, she received a modest $105,000 in June from only a handful of Obama partisans, a Times analysis of Federal Election Commission records shows.

On Monday, an Obama campaign aide said that at least 400 of Obama's donors had given to Clinton. But most gave after the June 30 filing deadline, meaning the donors won't become public until August.

Altogether, Obama raised $51.89 million in June. Clinton raised $2.7 million, and the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, $22 million.

After Clinton suspended her campaign in June, she and Obama made a show of reconciliation. Clinton called 100 of her top donors to the Mayflower Hotel in Washington to urge that they help her former rival win the White House.

And Obama sent an e-mail to his largest fundraisers, asking that they help Clinton pay the debt she owes to vendors -- about $12 million, according to her campaign finance report filed Sunday.

Obama gave her a personal check, but it did not show up in the latest report. Nor did a check from Chicago executive Penny Pritzker, Obama's campaign finance chairwoman. Clinton did receive the maximum amount, $2,300, from Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, in June.

Far more Clinton partisans gave to Obama. The former candidate gave Obama $2,300, as did her husband, President Clinton. James Carville and Paul Begala also chipped in with $2,300 checks.

The Times analysis shows Obama received $1.6 million in June from donors who had given to Clinton since January 2007.

At least 300 Clinton donors gave Obama the maximum $2,300 that an individual can contribute to a candidate for the primary. Several gave an additional $2,300 for the general election. Altogether, high-end Clinton donors accounted for $802,000 to Obama.

Clinton collected maximum $2,300 donations from 11 Obama donors, totaling $25,300.

Many Clinton donors said they were sending money to Obama simply because they wanted to see a Democrat win the White House.

"When Hillary was running, we supported her. But once it was clear that he was the candidate, we switched," said George Vos of Stamford, Conn., who donated $2,300 to Obama last month. "It was more of a process than an epiphany."

Eunice Harvey, 84, a retired school administrator in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., had given $1,450 to Clinton. So far, she has donated $200 to Obama.

"I supported her because I knew more about her work," Harvey said. "But I'm learning more about [Obama] now, and I don't have any problem supporting him now that he's going to be the nominee."

But it is clear that some Clinton supporters remain angry.

Carolyn Greer of Ocala, Fla., gave Clinton $45.60 last month. In the box where she was supposed to write in her occupation, Greer wrote "none -- do not give Obama m," an apparent reference to "money."

Clinton's debt includes $13 million she lent to her campaign. Her biggest creditor is the consulting firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, founded by her former chief strategist, Mark Penn. Clinton owes Penn's firm $5.27 million.

N.Y. Times rejects McCain opinion piece

John McCain has felt the sting of rejection for what he no doubt considered a finely wrought piece of prose (we know the feeling). But it appears that for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee (and perhaps one of his ghost writers), all's well that ends well.

As first reported on the Drudge Report, the New York Times rejected an opinion piece submitted by McCain that sought to counter an essay on Iraq by Barack Obama that appeared -- prominently -- on the paper's Op-Ed page July 14.

"I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written," a Times editor, David Shipley, informed the McCain campaign, according to Drudge.

Shipley, in requesting a rewrite from the McCain camp, elaborated that Obama's offering "worked for me because it offered new information; . . . while Sen. Obama discussed Sen. McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans." For a parallel piece to pass his muster, Shipley added, it "would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Sen. McCain defines victory in Iraq."

In a written statement Monday, the New York Times also said that it "is standard procedure on our Op-Ed page, and that of other newspapers, to go back and forth with an author on his or her submission."

"We look forward to publishing Sen. McCain's views in our paper just as we have in the past," the statement added, noting that the newspaper has published "at least seven Op-Ed pieces by Sen. McCain since 1996."

Shipley may have been on slippery ground in touting the "new information" that Obama had provided; little leaps out in a rereading. Indeed, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee introduced several of his specifics with the phrases "As I've said many times" and "As I have often said."

The Drudge post asserts that the rebuff "has ignited explosive charges of media bias in top Republican circles."

It's possible that top Republicans are delighted to have a fresh reason to flog a newspaper that is a tried-and-true target for conservatives. And the flap probably has called far more attention to the McCain article -- run in its entirety by Drudge -- than would have been the case had it cropped up, without fanfare, inside the Times.

Obama Arrives in Baghdad to Discuss Iraq Strategy

BAGHDAD, July 21 --- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq Monday morning to discuss U.S.-Iraq strategy and American troop levels, issues that have become a cornerstone of debate in the U.S. presidential campaign.
But after meeting for nearly an hour with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top U.S. and Iraqi officials, Obama declined to say what they had talked about.

"We had a very constructive discussion," the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic nominee said before ducking back into a heavily guarded Chevrolet Suburban to head to his next meeting, with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "I'll be providing details later during my visit."

Obama is traveling as part of a congressional delegation that includes Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), both critics of the war. But in many ways -- from the red carpet rolled out for the group at Maliki's residence to his seat of honor next to Maliki during a brief photo opportunity -- he is being treated like a visiting head of state.

The delegation began its trip with two days in Afghanistan, then flew to Kuwait, where the three senators met with Kuwait's emir, Sabah Ahmed al-Sabah, and other senior officials, according to the official Kuwait News Agency. In Iraq, they will meet with top U.S. and Iraqi officials and military commanders, including Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.
Obama, a first-term senator who is struggling to convince voters that he has enough foreign policy experience to succeed in the Oval Office, will also travel to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain between now and the end of the week.
Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show Monday morning, Obama's Republican rival John McCain said he "was glad" Obama was meeting with Petraeus and hearing firsthand about the buildup of U.S. troops over the last year.

"I hope he will have a chance to admit that he badly misjudged the situation, and that he was wrong when he said the surge wouldn't work, and admit that the surge has succeeded and that we are winning the war," McCain said.

The U.S. delegation's first stop in Iraq was the southern city of Basra, where the Iraqi army--with support from British and U.S. troops--has recently wrested control from extremist militias. (The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad initially said the group had flown directly to the Iraqi capital from Kuwait, but later corrected that information.) The senators did not venture into the city proper, where about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers patrol the streets to keep insurgents at bay. Instead, the delegation remained at the Basra base for about three hours, receiving what Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, called a "situational update," then flew to Baghdad.

In the capital, a red carpet with yellow trim was unfurled at 1:50 p.m. outside Maliki's residence, located in a part of Saddam Hussein's former residential compound dubbed "Little Venice" because of its lush gardens and abundant canals, complete with paddling ducks.

Ten minutes later, the convoy of nine black Suburbans pulled up, and the senators and their entourages emerged, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and David M. Satterfield, the State Department's coordinator for Iraq. One of the crowd of assembled journalists asked Obama, dressed in a dark blue suit, how the trip was going.

"Great so far," he The group was greeted by senior Iraqi officials and ushered inside, where Obama sat next to Maliki, with Hagel and Reed further to the side.
Officials have provided very few details of Obama's schedule, citing security concerns.

In Afghanistan, Obama, Hagel and Reed met with President Hamid Karzai, and with U.S. troops at a military base. Obama reiterated his call for sending additional American troops to bolster U.S. efforts to defeat insurgents in the country.

Obama's Iraq visit comes as the debate over U.S. involvement in the Iraq war intensifies, both in the United States and in Iraq. Obama has indicated that he would withdraw U.S. combat troops should he get elected, ending combat operations within 16 months of taking office.

McCain, a longtime senator from Arizona, strongly supports the military efforts in Iraq and has sharply criticized Obama's plans.

Over the weekend, Maliki appeared to support Obama's timeframe in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel. Since then, the Iraqi government's spokesman has said that Maliki's comments were misinterpreted, although the magazine said it stands by its interview. Maliki's aides insisted that he was not injecting himself into the U.S. elections.

The White House said Friday that Maliki and President Bush had reached an agreement to set a "time horizon" for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops. The agreement, made during a videoconference on Thursday, was billed as part of a long-term security accord the United States and Iraq are trying to negotiate by the end of the month.
The decision marks the culmination of a gradual but significant shift for Bush, who has fought proposals by congressional Democrats and others to impose what he described as artificial timetables for withdrawal.

But in recent weeks, as Maliki and other Iraqi leaders vocally opposed an open-ended U.S. troop presence in their country, the Bush administration softened its position and said it would be open to the concept of setting goals for removing troops. A reduction in Iraq-based troops is a prerequisite for bolstering the U.S. force in Afghanistan, which some top military officials have been pressing the White House to do.

Obama last visited Iraq in January 2006, when the country was caught in a growing Sunni insurgency and was moving toward a flood of Sunni-Shiite violence. Militant attacks and targeted killings by sectarian death squads are sharply down -- by many measures back to levels before the rise of the Sunni insurgency in 2004. But areas of concern remain.

Bombings and other insurgent attacks are still a significant problem in Mosul and in Diyala province, and U.S. military officials are deeply concerned about the use of new devices they call Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions--propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by 107mm rockets. The devices are often fired by remote control from the backs of trucks, sometimes in close succession, and have killed at least 21 people, including at least three U.S. soldiers, this year, officials say.

Iraqi leaders also continue to stumble on some political measures -- such as scheduling provincial elections -- that are supported by Washington and considered key to enabling the various factions within Iraq to govern the country together.

Mandela celebrates 90th birthday

When Nelson Mandela became president of post-apartheid South Africa in 1994, he promised he would build a nation where people of different races could live together in peace and harmony.

The racial bloodbath feared by many had been averted.

"The time for the healing of the wounds has come," Mr Mandela, who turns 90 this week, said at the time.

"We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white - will be able to walk tall. A Rainbow Nation at peace with itself and the world."

His words ushered in a collective reverie as white South Africans discovered their common identity as Africans.
Those who were not white looked forward to the opportunity of earning a decent living and educating their children.

Although there was recognition that it would be hard to reverse apartheid's legacy, there was a general feeling that - with Nelson Mandela at the helm - the country would pull through.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to lay bare the horror of the past and put it to rest.

But not everyone noticed that this rosy view relied on the goodwill of the very poorest South Africans who were expected to forgive and forget - even though there were reminders everywhere that this new South Africa did not necessarily include them.

Any talk of the differences between black and white lifestyles, attitudes or expectations was shouted down - no-one wanted to wake from the dream.

'Black diamonds'

Yet white South Africans, basking in their new-found acceptability, maintained their wealth and advantages.
Only a few middle-class black and mixed-race South Africans, the so called "black diamonds", were able to gain an education, get government contracts and tenders - their share of some of the spoils of a powerful economy.

Motsoko Pheko, a member of parliament for the Pan Africanist Congress - a rival to the ruling African National Congress during the long anti-apartheid struggle - said government policies were "pure appeasement".

In truth, the only area where rich and poor, black and white have any shared experience is crime.
Some black South Africans in rural areas speak of unbridled brutality against them as armed white farmers "mistake" them for baboons and shoot to kill.

Timothy, a black activist in a small agricultural town west of Johannesburg, says people get paid too little for back-breaking work.

There have been some widely reported incidents when black people have been attacked by vicious dogs - and even lions - as they go about their business on farms that their ancestors once owned and they now work on.

Mapule Luttering's child Nkarabile was shot and injured in an incident in which four of her neighbours were killed as armed, white farmers fired shots at the flimsy shanty dwelling she lived in, as a squatter.

Xenophobia

Fourteen years after Mr Mandela's new nation was born, the country's newspapers are still filled with stories of snubs and rejections as white establishments blatantly refuse to allow black people in.
Yet white South Africans vote with their feet as they complain that their opportunities are dwindling, as the government promotes its policy of Black Economic Empowerment.

The re-cutting of the economic cake, it seems, is leaving most people dissatisfied.

More and more black people are also leaving the country as the dream starts to fade.

South Africa's streets may not be paved with gold, but as local people leave, millions more come from other parts of the continent to try and make a living.

This has added to the country's racial and economic burdens because more poor black people add to the competition for scarce resources like houses and jobs.

Earlier this year, these tensions spilled over into a shocking outbreak of xenophobic violence, which left more than 60 people dead and thousands homeless - attacks which Mr Mandela condemned.
"Remember the horror from which we come," he warned.

Professor Neville Alexander of the University of Cape Town says South Africa's racial mix presents a unique opportunity but also a danger.

"We've been given the historic opportunity, because we have a black majority that suffered and has struggled in an anti-racist movement to bring about a non-racial order.

"We have the historic duty, I believe, to demonstrate to the world that it is possible to live in a raceless society.

"But unless we handle it carefully, it can turn into its opposite and I think that most political people haven't thought deeply enough about this - if we fail, it's got the ingredients, like any other racial order, of genocidal conflict."

Perhaps the best hope for Nelson Mandela's lofty ideal of a true melting pot comes in the words of Bronwyn Patterson's daughter, Jamie.

She was born in 1990, the year Mr Mandela was released from 27 years behind bars, and says her black rapists were definitely full of "hatred".

"But to be angry at black people would be stupid," she says, remembering how black church members from Soweto gave her an award after overcoming her ordeal.

"When they prayed for us, it brought tears to my eyes because it was with such sincerity.

"For me, racism has never been something that I've even contemplated."

JibJab's Political Satire Cracks Up Campaign

Though the presidential election may be months away, at JibJab studio in Los Angeles today, they're celebrating.
JibJab creators, brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis have put their latest satire online.

"Right now, it's everywhere. I hate to say it," Gregg said. "I don't want our servers to be slow, but we got some big equipment in that server farm, and it's struggling to keep up."

JibJab is best known for its video mocking President Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign to the tune of "This Land is Your Land."

The Spiridellis brothers have brought that same brand of satire to the 2008 political race, skewering John McCain and Barack Obama equally.
In their "Time for Some Campaignin'" video, sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a Changing," McCain rides on a tank, trying to run over Obama.

Barack Obama myths revisited

While the punditocracy continues to debate whether The New Yorker cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama and their "terrorist fist-bump" is inflammatory, it's worth digging down and looking at how myths about the Obamas continue to percolate throughout the inboxes of the nation.

To that end, the website snopes.com is valuable. It tracks and debunks urban legends of the email variety. It should be the first place you go when your relatives send you one of those email chains they swear is true.

According to the site, here are the top myths about Barack Obama

* Obama is a "radical Muslim" who will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

* Obama was sworn into office on the Quran.

* Obama's church has a "non-negotiable commitment to Africa" that is covertly Muslim and excludes non-blacks.

* Obama has been endorsed for president of the U.S. by the Ku Klux Klan.

* Obama's presidential campaign is being funded by Hugo Chávez.

* Obama urged his supporters to join him in changing "the greatest nation in the history of the world."

* Access to Michelle Obama's senior thesis has been restricted until after the 2008 presidential election.

* The Book of Revelation describes the anti-Christ as someone with characteristics matching those of Obama.

* Obama does not qualify as a natural-born citizen of the U.S. because his mother was too young.

* Native Americans dubbed Obama "Walking Eagle." (A personal favorite.)

* The bulk of donations to the Obama campaign come from a handful of wealthy foreign financiers.

Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the country split down the middle between those backing Sen. Barack Obama's 16-month timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and those agreeing with Sen. John McCain's position that events, not timetables, should dictate when forces come home.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, will deliver what his campaign is billing as a "major address" on Iraq today in Washington, part of an effort to convince voters that he could serve effectively as commander in chief. The public is also evenly divided on that question, with 48 percent saying he would be an effective leader of the military and 48 percent saying he would not.

On Iraq policy in general, Americans continue to side with Obama and McCain, his Republican rival, in roughly equal numbers, with 47 percent of those polled saying they trust McCain more to handle the war, and 45 percent having more faith in Obama.

The poll results suggest that months of Democratic attacks on McCain's Iraq position have not dented voters' basic trust in his ability to lead the country's armed forces: Seventy-two percent said McCain would make a good commander in chief.

"The most important number by Election Day is whether a majority of the electorate has achieved a comfort level with Obama as commander in chief," said Geoffrey Garin, a Democratic pollster who was a strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, and who considers Obama's 48 percent a strong starting position. "I think this is the one dimension on which he will be tested and where Republicans will try hard to raise big doubts about Obama."

David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, said of the candidate's standing: "This is not a particularly new or unusual finding. People believe the war was a mistake. They believe we should leave. And they want it done in a deliberate, thoughtful way."

The polling data underscore why the two campaigns are fighting the war over the war so fiercely. Ahead of today's speech and a planned trip to Iraq, Obama wrote an opinion article in yesterday's New York Times, saying that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's call last week for a withdrawal timetable is an opportunity the United States must embrace.
"Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis' taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country," Obama wrote, pledging that he would stick to his plan to begin the withdrawal of one to two combat brigades per month upon taking office.

The Times commentary drew a furious response from the McCain campaign, with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) calling it "an unbelievably brazen effort by a politician to rewrite history." He accused Obama of building "a political strategy around losing" the war.

Republicans were not alone in that response. Michael E. O'Hanlon, a Democratic defense analyst at the Brookings Institution who has been an outspoken supporter of the war in Iraq, said he could not believe that Obama would put such a definitive timeline into print before a trip to Iraq, where he is to consult with Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders.

"To say you're going to get out on a certain schedule -- regardless of what the Iraqis do, regardless of what our enemies do, regardless of what is happening on the ground -- is the height of absurdity," said O'Hanlon, who described himself as "livid." "I'm not going to go to the next level of invective and say he shouldn't be president. I'll leave that to someone else."

Susan E. Rice, a senior Obama foreign policy adviser, snapped back, calling McCain's position "fundamentally disconnected from reality."

The recent decline in attacks on U.S. forces and in overall violence in Iraq has done nothing to convince Americans that the war has been worth fighting. Sixty-three percent said it has not been worth its costs, a figure that has changed little over the past two years. But 46 percent now say the United States is making significant progress toward restoring civil order there, an uptick from 40 percent in April.

Even so, public views on Iraq stand in stark contrast to those about the conflict in Afghanistan. A narrow majority -- 51 percent -- said that the war there has been worth fighting. And 51 percent also said the United States must win in Afghanistan to succeed in the broader terrorism battle, a sharp contrast to the 34 percent who said the same thing about the war in Iraq. Nevertheless, some of the shine has come off U.S. efforts in Afghanistan as well.

Forty-four percent now say U.S. military action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan has been successful, down from 70 percent in October 2002, a year after allied forces went to war there.

Such sentiment ratifies Obama's pledge to begin withdrawing forces from Iraq immediately and to shift at least two combat brigades to Afghanistan, to "re-center our foreign policy," as Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) put it yesterday.

Biden said the Bush administration's war policies, most of which McCain has backed, "have made us weaker than in any time in modern history." Four recent events have underscored how urgently Obama's prescriptions are needed, he added. Commanders in the field and in the Pentagon have begun to say publicly that forces that are urgently needed in Afghanistan are tied down in Iraq. The Maliki government has refused to sign any long-term agreement on the future of U.S. forces in Iraq without a withdrawal timeline. U.S. military commanders there are growing more confident that Iraq's military will be ready to assume control of the country by next year. And al-Qaeda and the Taliban have regrouped and grown stronger in the largely ungoverned tribal regions of western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.

"Senator Obama's got it profoundly right," said Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Randy Scheunemann, the McCain campaign's top foreign policy aide, noted that Biden championed the idea of dividing Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions: Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish. "If we had followed Senator Biden's ill-informed advice to split Iraq into three pieces, we would have seen wide-scale civil war," he said.

Americans are divided on which candidate has a plan for success in the region. Exactly half of those polled said they backed Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. But 49 percent sided with McCain's position of opposing a specific timetable and letting events dictate when troops should be withdrawn. Among independents, who will be the key voting bloc in November, 53 percent oppose Obama's timeline.

"The American people are very conflicted on how to go forward, whether or not they thought we should've gone in there," said Jeremy Rosner, a Democratic pollster. "And for good reasons. They understand there are difficult consequences in terms of our interests in the region and our interests abroad."

This is the first time the Post-ABC poll has squared the two candidates' withdrawal plans against each other. In previous polls, a majority of Americans (55 percent in June) put a priority on withdrawal even without civil order in Iraq.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone July 10 to 13 among a random national sample of 1,119 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

When will it ever end

Health-Care Tax Credit Proposed for Small Business

Sen. Barack Obama unveiled a $6 billion-a-year plan to provide tax credits for small businesses offering health insurance to employees, an idea proposed by onetime rival Sen. Hillary Clinton that is targeted at one of the most persistent challenges in achieving universal coverage.

The tax credit offers an incentive for small businesses. Coverage for small businesses helped sink former President Bill Clinton's 1993 plan, which would have required all businesses to contribute toward health costs.

Sen. Obama's proposed tax credit is an effort to bring this powerful constituency to the Democratic camp by offering carrots, not sticks, for providing health coverage. Sen. Clinton proposed a similar credit in the plan she unveiled last year.

Republican candidate Sen. John McCain said last week that Sen. Obama was trying to force small businesses to provide coverage. The Obama plan requires businesses to provide coverage or pay a fine, but it exempts small businesses from the mandate.

The plan comes as U.S. health-care costs are soaring and threatening small businesses. The share of the nation's smallest firms offering health benefits fell to 45% last year from 57% in 2000, according to the Obama campaign, which also said smaller companies pay 18% more for health premiums on average than larger ones do.

On average, small businesses create more than two-thirds of net new jobs each year. Offsetting the health-care costs for these smaller businesses should enable them to invest more money in growth and job creation, the campaign said.

Under the plan, small businesses would get a refundable credit of as much as 50% on the premiums they pay on behalf of employees. To qualify, the businesses will have to offer a "quality health plan" for all workers and cover a "meaningful" share of the costs, said Jason Furman, Obama economic policy director.

Sen. Obama expects to fund his plan with savings he says he will generate in other areas. He plans to make it easier for generic versions of the most expensive drugs to enter the market, stimulating competition and driving down prices. Also, he will use part of the expected savings from reducing payments provided to hospitals by the federal government for covering the uninsured. If all small businesses provided health care, less money would be needed for those payments.

The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes

This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail.

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace." This is not a quote taken out of context. John McCain called one of the most successful and popular government programs, which uses the tax revenues of current workers to support retirement benefits for the elderly "an absolute disgrace." This is shocking - and if uttered from Obama's mouth would dominate the news coverage and the Sunday shows, as pundits would speculate about the massive damage the statement would cause him among retirees in Florida.

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy. Words cannot fully explain how devastating this statement should be from Phil Gramm. You would think it would be enough to sink McCain's campaign. Of course McCain only thinks that the economic problems are psychological.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. So what does McCain say - First, he refuses to accept Maliki's statement as being true. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go. No matter what. But that was apparently a younger and less experienced John McCain.

But let's just look at his comment that Maliki's statement is "just politics." If that is true, then it must also be true that the American military presence in Iraq is so unpopular with Iraqis that the government is forced to push for a timetable in order to survive at the ballot box. That's a reason to stay for 100 years.

4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable. There are so many things here. McCain pledges he would eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term (the campaign latter flip flop flipped about whether it was four years or eight years), but does not provide any details about how he would do it. Economists on both sides of the political aisle said that this was simply not believable, especially given McCain's other proposals to a) cut individual and corporate taxes even further, b) extend the Bush tax cuts and c) massively increase defense spending on manpower (200,000 more troops) and d) maintain a long-term sizable military presence in Iraq.

5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop. Speaking of the long-term military presence - a story that has gotten absolutely no attention is that McCain now believes the war will be over soon. The economic forecasts made by his crack team of economists predict that there will be significant savings during McCain's first term because we will have achieved "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The savings from victory (ie the savings from not having our troops there) will then be used to pay down the deficit. The only way this could have any impact on the deficit in McCain's first time is if troop withdrawals start very soon. So McCain believes victory is in our grasps and we can begin withdraw troops from Iraq pretty much right away -- doesn't sound that different from Obama's plan does it. Someone should at least ask McCain HOW HE DEFINES VICTORY - and why he thinks we will achieve it in the next couple of years.

6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. In the major press release the McCain campaign issued to tout its Jobs for America economic plan that would balance the budget in 4 years, it included the signatures of more than 300 economists who the campaign claimed to support the plan. Only problem is that the economists were actually asked to sign up to SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Um, hello?

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain. I am sure that is exactly how it is being reported in Tehran. This guy is running for President not to become a talk radio pundit. Yet according to the AP this was just a humanizing moment between candidate and spouse - I am not sure when joking about the deaths of civilians became humanizing.

8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics.

9). McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.

10.) McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain said "I think if there is some good news, I think that there is a glimmer of improving relationship between Karzai and the Pakistanis." Pat Barry notes how crazy this comment is..."Just what "glimmer" is McCain talking about?? Maybe he's referring to President Karzai's remarks last month, which threatened military action in Pakistan if cross-border attacks persisted? Or maybe McCain is talking about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan's ISI was involved in a recent assassination attempt on Karzai? Maybe in McCain's world you could call that a silver-lining, but in reality-land I'd call it something else."

Any one of these incidents and comments would dominate the news cycle if they came from the Obama campaign. Yet McCain barely gets a mention. The press like to see themselves as political referees - neutral observers that call them like they see em'. But they want this to be a horse race and so all the calls right now are going one way. How else can you explain the furor last week over the Obama "refine" comment - which represented zero change in Obama's position on Iraq - and the "swift boat" mania over Wesley Clark's uncontroversial comments (psss... by the way McCain exploits his POW experience in just about every ad - yet he says he doesn't like to talk about it).

This Sunday expect the ten incidents above to get short shrift from pundit after pundit, because after all Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off.

Jackson apologizes for 'crude' Obama remarks

The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for "crude and hurtful" remarks he made against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama after finishing an interview with a Fox News correspondent.
Jackson told CNN's "Situation Room" that a "hot" microphone caught a part of conversation he was having with a fellow guest at the studio.

He said he made a comment about Obama "speaking down black people" followed by a crude remark.

"It was very private" he said, adding later, if "any hurt or harm has been caused to his campaign, I apologize." Video Watch more of Jackson's apology on CNN »

The Obama campaign had no immediate comment.

Jackson's apology came a few hours before Fox News planned to air the remarks.

"I feel very distressed because I'm supportive of this campaign and with the senator," Jackson told CNN. "I was in a conversation with a fellow guest on Sunday. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said he comes down as speaking down to black people."

He said Obama's message to black voters must be broader and serve as more than a "moral challenge."

The black community is faced with high levels of unemployment, home foreclosures and violence, "so we have some real serious issues -- not just moral issues," he said.

However, Jackson said after finding out about the open microphone, he immediately contacted the Obama campaign to apologize.

Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is based in Chicago, Illinois, has publicly endorsed Obama, most recently in a piece published Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, and says he enjoys a close relationship with the Obama family.

His son, Jesse Jackson Jr., is co-chair of Obama's presidential campaign.

The incident is the latest of several in which the issue of Obama's relationship with the African-American community has become a part of the campaign, raised either by opponents or by Obama's allies.

Nearly two weeks ago, Ralph Nader -- who's running his own presidential campaign as an independent -- accused Obama of attempting to "talk white" and appealing to "white guilt" in his quest for the White House.

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader told Colorado's Rocky Mountain News in a June 26 story.

Obama is still bouncing back from the weeks-long controversy over his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ drew unwanted attention for the campaign. In the sermons, Wright suggested the U.S. government may be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and equated some American wartime activities to terrorism.

Wright's sermons and his eccentric behavior at later public appearances became a major political headache for the Obama campaign, especially since Wright officiated the senator's wedding, baptized both of his children and was a spiritual adviser to his presidential campaign until he was asked to step down in March.

This week's remarks by Jackson were not the first time he criticized Obama. Last fall, he was critical of Obama's reaction to the severe charges filed against six black students in the beating of a white student in Jena, Louisiana, a racially charged case that sparked a national outcry.

Jackson accused Obama of "acting like he's white," according to a South Carolina newspaper that cited a speech by Jackson at the historically black Benedict College in Columbia.
If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena," Jackson said, according to the The State newspaper. "Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma [Alabama] was a defining moment."

The newspaper reported Jackson later said he did not recall saying Obama is "acting like he's white," but he continued to criticize Obama and other presidential candidates for not bringing more attention to this issue.

Talks to Latinos contrast candidates' styles

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has called on his Democratic rival Barack Obama to meet him face to face in informal town hall-style debates across the country. It was easy to see why Tuesday after the two gave competing, formal speeches to a crowd of prominent Latinos.

McCain, a four-term Arizona senator well known and respected by Hispanics, gave a stock economic speech repeated word for word from the day before. He won only polite applause.

Illinois Sen. Obama, largely an unknown among Latino voters only months ago, drew a standing ovation after delivering a rousing populist speech aimed directly at their core concerns - immigration, education and health care.

Lidia Pope, a Cuban American who lives in Virginia and works for the federal government, said she was leaning toward McCain before hearing Obama address the League of United Latin American Citizens at the Washington Hilton. She said she would be listening to Obama very carefully, looking for specific plans and ideas. "This is not any old election," she said. "People are worried."

After hearing Obama, Pope was more than impressed. "He was so energetic," she said. "I think he understands the issues."
Caught in a squeeze

McCain finds himself pinched between his sponsorship of a major immigration overhaul that failed last year in the Senate and his need to disown his own immigration bill that was loathed in his party.

The legislation would have offered a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. When the bill came up for a vote, McCain largely left the fight to others as he devoted his time to running for president. He finally said in a Republican debate this year that he would not vote for his own bill now but would work on border security first.

That left him Tuesday with a three-paragraph addendum to his speech, seemingly tacked on for his audience, where he addressed his admiration for the "patriotism, industry and decency" of the nation's Latino citizens and read over a line where he promised "to honor their contributions as long as I live."

Obama, who struggled to win Latinos during the primaries and played a minor role in the immigration debates, said he had "reached across the aisle in the Senate to fight for comprehensive immigration reform." In fact, while Obama sponsored some amendments, he was not a key negotiator and mainly stuck to the party line. If anything, his amendments and others he supported undermined the fragile bipartisan coalition backing the bill.

His claim that he was deeply involved sends Republicans who were there into apoplexy. "Obama was consistently, absolutely AWOL" during negotiations over the bill, said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, on a McCain campaign conference call.

A recent Gallup survey showed Obama making huge inroads into the Latino electorate, which gave an estimated 40 percent of its vote to President Bush in 2004. Republicans have long argued that their party has a natural appeal to Hispanics, the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group, who are mostly Catholic and culturally conservative with a strong entrepreneurial streak. McCain's outspoken support of citizenship for illegal workers and intimate familiarity with border issues in Arizona gave him a strong base to build on. Yet as of July 2, Obama was leading McCain 59 to 29 percent among Latino registered voters.
Obama touts positions

Obama promised to enact immigration reform by the end of his first term, and reminded the crowd Tuesday that he had backed controversial positions on immigration during the Democratic debates, referring to his support for giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants "when it was uncomfortable" to do so. Calling Latinos an "aspirational community," he said there is no conflict between "excellence and diversity," touting his youthful work among poor minority groups in Chicago.

The election, he said, is "about making sure our government knows that when there's a Hispanic girl stuck in a crumbling school who graduates without learning to read or doesn't graduate at all, that isn't just a Hispanic American problem. That's an American problem."

Cries of "Si se puede" ("Yes, we can") rang out from the crowd.

McCain aimed his appeal to the group on broad economic grounds, arguing that Obama's plans to raise taxes on the higher-income brackets will hit small businesses hardest.

"Keeping individual rates low isn't intended as a favor to wealthy Americans," he said. "Twenty-three million small-business owners pay those rates," including the 2 million small businesses estimated to be owned by Latinos.
McCain offers tax changes

He promised to double the child tax deduction to $7,000 and lower the estate tax to 15 percent, while offering a $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health insurance. He said a health care mandate would prove crushing to small businesses. The lines all won applause, but it was mild.

Delia Navarez, a retired schoolteacher from San Gabriel (Los Angeles County), said she was impressed with McCain and "the way he explained about the taxes," saying she feels McCain is compassionate toward immigrants.

But she said she is supporting Obama. "I just think Obama is a candidate of the people," Navarez s