The AP reports Sen. John McCain "mocked" Sen. Barack Obama's "view of al-Qaida in Iraq, and the Democratic contender responded that GOP policies brought the terrorist group there." The "rapid-fire, long-distance exchange" yesterday "underscored that the two consider each other likely general election rivals, even though the Democratic contest remains unresolved."
ABC World News led with the story, and showed Obama's remarks during the Democratic debate Tuesday night, where he said, "If Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad." The CBS Evening News showed McCain saying, "I have news for Senator Obama. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. And that's why we're fighting in Iraq, and that's why we're succeeding in Iraq." Obama was show saying, "I have some news for John McCain, and that is there was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq." NBC Nightly News, in its lead story, called the exchange "a preview of what might be the fall match up."
The Washington Post, in a front-page story titled "Clash On Iraq Could Be McCain-Obama Preview," reports, "Despite McCain's war-hero status and years of foreign policy experience, Obama made it clear that he will not back down from such a fight, issuing a quick rebuke of McCain that linked him to...Bush and the war in Iraq." The Los Angeles Times says that Obama also noted that McCain "likes to tell audiences that he would follow Osama bin Laden to the 'gates of hell' to catch him," but, "all he [McCain] has done is to follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq."
Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign suffered another blow yesterday when Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a prominent civil rights activist who had backed her campaign, switched his allegiance to Sen. Barack Obama. The AP reports Lewis "is the most prominent black leader to defect from Clinton's campaign in the face of near-unanimous black support for Obama in recent voting. He also is a superdelegate who gets a vote at this summer's national convention in Denver."
CBS and NBC led their broadcasts with the story last night. The CBS Evening News called Lewis' switch "another blow today to the Clinton campaign. She has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses to Barack Obama, and now, six days before their next big showdown, Clinton has lost a very important supporter." CBS added, "This is a senior Democrat, a party icon. ... It's a serious blow for...Clinton." Joe Trippi, CBS News political analyst, was shown saying, "That has to be a message that signals to her that it's time to leave this race. There's no other way to look at it." NBC Nightly News said Clinton needed Tuesday night's "debate to be a game changer. Instead today she is losing superdelegates." Lewis was shown saying, "I love Bill Clinton. I love Hillary Clinton. But something is happening in America, something is unbelievable; it is unreal."
The New York Times reports, "Asked Wednesday about Mr. Lewis's decision to switch his support to Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton told a Houston television station, 'I understand he's been under tremendous pressure.' 'He's been my friend. He will always be my friend,' Mrs. Clinton said. 'At the end of the day, it's not about who is supporting us.'"
The Politico says Lewis "may not be the last high-profile African American officeholder to change sides. The pressure on Clinton's black supporters to defect has been gradually mounting, rising to the point where some elected officials are being forced to consider whether their backing for Clinton will have adverse consequences for their own political fortunes."
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The North American Free Trade Agreement, and the degree to which Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support it, has become a major issue in the Ohio primary. The Christian Science Monitor reports "the bickering" in Ohio over NAFTA "isn't so much over the candidates' current positions" on the trade deal "both are eager to tell Ohioans just how much they dislike the pact and how quickly they would renegotiate a better deal but how consistent they've been in that stance in the past." The New York Times reports that while both Clinton and Obama having "excoriated" NAFTA "while lobbing accusations against their opponent," both have "staked out nuanced positions in the past" and have favored other free trade agreements. Moreover, "both appear to have been part of the conflicted middle ground within the Democratic Party that is groping for a proper balance between being friendly to free trade agreements, believing they are beneficial to the economy, but also seeking to level the playing field for the United States when it comes to labor and environmental standards and addressing job losses that come with globalization."
Meanwhile, officials from the two NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico, are expressing concern about the candidates' stances on NAFTA. The Financial Times reports Mexico and Canada "on Wednesday voiced concern about calls by" Obama and Clinton to renegotiate NAFTA. Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the US, "told the Financial Times that the US, Canada and Mexico had all benefited from Nafta and warned against reopening negotiations." The New York Sun adds that Canadian trade minister David Emerson "also lamented the threats of withdrawal. 'The rhetoric of protectionism has been creeping up and getting more strident,' Mr. Emerson said in Ottawa, according to Bloomberg News."
Two editorials today decried the Democrats' stance, with the Wall Street Journal accusing the them of "unilateralism" and the Los Angeles Times saying that major trade deals are "a magnet for pandering" and that, while their impact on job losses is difficult to gauge, a president's job "is to take the long view of what's best for the country as a whole."
The New York Times reports Sen. John McCain's "likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936," while his father was serving their with the US Navy, "are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a 'natural-born citizen' can hold the nation's highest office." To date, "no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states." Sarah H. Duggin, "an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively," said, "There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent. It is not a slam-dunk situation."
In a story headlined "'TYPE O' DONORS AT RECORD 1M," the New York Post reports that Sen. Barack Obama "reached a fund-raising milestone yesterday with the 1 millionth donor to his campaign -- an eye-popping number that has him on the road to a record in political moneymaking." Michael Malbin, of the Campaign Finance Institute, "said other candidates had reached the million-donor mark in past elections, but it was 'remarkable to have done it so early.'"
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long been rumored to be considering an independent presidential bid, which he could finance with his own money. However, in an op-ed in the New York Times this morning he writes, "While I have always said I am not running for president, the race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and so I have changed my mind in one area. If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach -- and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy -- I'll join others in helping that candidate win the White House. ... I believe that the candidate who recognizes that the party is over -- and begins enlisting all of us to clean up the mess -- will be the winner this November, and will lead our country to a great and boundless future."
The Wall Street Journal says that Bloomberg's "decision will likely come as a relief to backers of the major party candidates, who faced an unpredictable race had Mr. Bloomberg spent anywhere close to the $1 billion that was suggested by one of his aides last year." The Washington Post reports, "Aides had said that" Bloomberg's "only realistic hope was that the major parties would nominate candidates from their liberal or conservative bases. That would have left the center of the electorate open to a candidate with appeal to independents and with a message of pragmatism and getting things done in Washington." However, Sen. John McCain "is anything but that kind of candidate," and Sen. Barack Obama's "candidacy has generated broad grass-roots support, and its message is similar to that of Bloomberg's in its appeal to turn the page on the politics of partisanship."
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The Hill reports Senate Republican' "decision to engage Democrats in an Iraq debate this week represents a risk that could further tie the party's political prospects in November to the war." The "change in strategy from defense to offense was so quick that it caught Democrats by surprise Tuesday, after Republicans forced the Senate into a 30-hour debate over the war." But the "gamble" is that "the success of the surge will last at least through November." The Christian Science Monitor also notes the Senate GOP's "surprise move," which "stunned the Democratic leadership." This "sudden GOP willingness to have a public debate on the war points to a new confidence in Republican ranks that the war could yet be a plus for the party in November elections, especially in the presidential race." The Washington Post reports, "Rather than distancing themselves from Bush's Iraq policy, Republicans" are embracing "the improvements on the ground since the president sent an additional 30,000 US troops to Iraq last year," and they are criticizing "Democrats for wanting to change course."
Fallon Wants Pause In Iraq Drawdowns The New York Times reports, "The commander of American forces in the Middle East says he will endorse a brief pause in troop reductions from Iraq this summer, but then will seek a resumption of withdrawals to ease stress on the overall military and allow him to balance deployments across the volatile region." The "comments by Adm. William J. Fallon, leader of the military's Central Command, added to indications that American troop levels in Iraq would hold at about 140,000, at least temporarily."
Meanwhile, McClatchy reports, "Coming up on the fifth anniversary of the invasion, a Nobel laureate now estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing America more than $3 trillion. That estimate from Noble Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz also serves as the title of his new book, 'The Three Trillion Dollar War,' which hits store shelves Friday." Stiglitz is the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton.
Iraqi Council Delivers Setback To US The AP reports Iraq's presidential council "rejected a plan for new provincial elections and sent the bill back to parliament Wednesday for reworking, a major setback to US-backed efforts to promote national reconciliation." That "ruling came despite a reported last-minute telephone call by Vice President Dick Cheney to the main holdout on the three-member panel, which has to sign off on laws passed by the legislature."
McClatchy says "the rejected bill...was only the second of 18 U.S.-set political benchmarks that the war-tore nation needs to reach." Calling the veto "an unexpected setback," the Washington Post reports Iraqi lawmakers "will now have to reconsider the measure, which they agreed to only as part of a three-law package reached after weeks of political wrangling."
The AP reports that more than "six years after the US invaded to establish a stable central regime in Afghanistan, the Kabul government under President Hamid Karzai controls just 30% of the country, the top US intelligence official said Wednesday." National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell "told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the resurgent Taliban controls 10% to 11% of the country and Mr. Karzai's government controls 30% to 31%. The majority of Afghanistan's population and territory remains under local tribal control, he said." The Financial Times notes that "asked whether the insurgency had been contained," McConnell said, "I wouldn't say it's contained. It's been sustained in the south; it's grown a bit in the east; and what we've seen are elements of it spreading to the west and the north."
The AP reports President Bush "lobbied the House again on Wednesday to pass an intelligence law making it easier for the government to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists. Failure to pass the new law is 'inexcusable' and 'indefensible,' he said." Meanwhile, the Washington Post says Republicans "are convinced that highlighting their counterterrorism policies will be a political winner in this presidential election year, and they have focused this week on Democratic opposition to their version of a new surveillance bill as a way to paint Democrats as soft on national security, according to GOP lawmakers and their aides."
Roll Call reports, "With the House Democrats' refusal to grant retroactive immunity to phone companies...GOP leadership aides are grumbling that their party isn't getting more political money from the telecommunications industry."
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The Washington Post reports on its front page today that House leaders "from both parties and the White House yesterday reached agreement on a bill that would more than triple funding for the Bush administration's global AIDS program, already the largest foreign aid initiative aimed at fighting a single disease in US history." The bill "authorizes $50 billion over five years to prevent infection, treat people already ill from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and care for children orphaned by the epidemic. The program, known as the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), provided $15 billion over its first five years."
The AP reports the House "approved $18 billion in new taxes on the largest oil companies Wednesday as Democrats cited record oil prices and rising gasoline costs in a time of economic troubles." The legislation was "approved 236-182," and "would cost the five largest oil companies an average of $1.8 billion a year over that period, according an analysis by the House Ways and Means Committee. Those companies earned $123 billion last year."
The Washington Post notes that the "current bill raises $13 billion by eliminating that manufacturers' tax break for the five biggest oil companies: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch Shell." The Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday, "The administration must strongly oppose" the measure because it "would use the tax code to target tax increases on a specific industry in a way that will lead to higher energy costs to US consumers and businesses."
The Wall Street Journal notes "the House last year repeatedly passed similar legislation, but it has faced more obstacles in the Senate." Democrats are "contemplating adding parts of the energy-tax package to a budget-reconciliation measure moving through Congress, according to one Democratic aide. Such measures need a simple majority to pass."
The Politico, meanwhile, says "Democrats have seized on the profits oil companies produced in 2007 -- ExxonMobil alone cleared a record $40.6 billion in profits last year to argue that big oil does not need handouts from the government. They also say that their bill will increase energy independence by promoting the use of alternative energy." USA Today briefly reports the story.
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Jay Leno: "Obama and Hillary argued last night over which candidate the Republicans are most afraid of. Interesting. I don't want to take sides here, but I think it's pretty obvious which candidate Republicans are most afraid of -- John McCain."
David Letterman: "Hillary Clinton now is trailing Barack Obama, and she's very desperate. ... She's starting to get desperate. Today, she accused Barack Obama of attending a party at Jose Canseco's house."
David Letterman: "How about that Ralph Nader, ladies and gentlemen. He looks like the night manager of a creepy motel, doesn't he?"
David Letterman: McCain "looks like a guy who parks his RV overnight at Wal-Mart."
Conan O'Brien: "Last night was the final Democratic debate," and one "of the big stories was that Barack Obama" mispronounced "the word 'Massachusetts' twice and then mispronounced the word 'filibuster.' Yeah. Yeah, which explains why this morning, Obama was endorsed by President Bush."
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