Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has launched a new website that aims to debunk Internet rumors about himself and his family. ABC World News reported, "Obama's website, called Fight the Smears, it's a new one, is aimed at debunking myths being fueled by Internet bloggers, including false stories about his religion and his background." The Washington Post reports, "The site addresses Obama's religion (he's Christian, not Muslim) and the elementary school he attended in Indonesia (secular, as opposed to a 'radical madrassa'). It provides video of Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance on the Senate floor and a photo of Vice President Cheney swearing in Obama with the new senator's left hand on his family Bible (and not the Koran)." The AP reports Obama's campaign yesterday said "that Michelle Obama never used the word 'whitey' in a speech from the church pulpit as it launched a Web site to debunk rumors about him and his wife." On the website, http://www.fightthesmears.com, the campaign said, "No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word."
The Chicago Tribune says that until now, Obama's strategy "had been to ignore the rumors and hope most people would think they're false. But with the launch of the new site this week, the Obama team acknowledges the old approach was doing nothing to stem the tide of questionable - and in several cases demonstrably incorrect - snippets about Obama's life. 'It's not enough to just know the truth,' Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said, 'we have to be proactive and fight back.'"
Sen. John McCain is signaling that he intends to make a play for a number of states that went for John Kerry in 2004. Primary among them: New Hampshire, where he has campaigned extensively (and successfully) in this two presidential runs. To that end, McCain held a town hall forum in Nashua, New Hampshire yesterday, where the Nashua Telegraph reports, "Political observers from friendly and enemy camps peppered" McCain "with 13 questions ranging from health care and Iraq to gas prices and violent video games." The Boston Globe says that state is among those that McCain and Sen. Barack Obama "have both identified as targets in November's general election, and McCain aides feel that Obama's poor primary performance - he lost the state to Hillary Clinton - makes the turf particularly friendly to their candidate, who also won the state's 2000 GOP primary."
McCain is also making a play for Michigan and New Jersey, two states that have consistently voted Democratic in recent presidential elections. The Detroit Free Press reports this morning that McCain "has been airing two commercials statewide" in Michigan "since May 28 -- an ad buy that costs an estimated $500,000 a week, said Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a group that tracks campaign spending in the state. ... 'The fact that he is spending money now with relatively scarce resources is certainly a good indication of how important Michigan is to him,' Robinson said."
The AP reports, "For the first time in 16 years, a Republican presidential campaign is opening New Jersey headquarters and paying for full-time staffers in the state, a sign that John McCain thinks he can win here. In another sign, McCain is also scheduled to hold a town hall meeting in Pemberton on Friday in his third trip to the state this year."
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Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, campaigned in Wisconsin, another state expected to be a battleground this cycle. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports this morning that Obama "brought a fierce populist message to" Wisconsin "on Thursday, hoping his push for middle-class tax cuts proves popular here and in other battlegrounds." Obama repeatedly "underlined his credentials as a middle-class champion, saying Republicans are out to misrepresent his views." The Los Angeles Times adds, "Promising a tax cut to the 95% of American families that make less than $250,000 a year, Obama said that by contrast McCain wants to extend and increase the Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans."
The Washington Times reports Republicans, "smelling the success of knocking out the head of" Sen. Barack Obama's VP search committee, former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson, this week, have now turned their fire on another member of the committee, Eric H. Holder. As deputy attorney general "under President Clinton, Mr. Holder reviewed the last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich." Rich, who was "charged with 51 counts of fraud, tax evasion and illegally trading with Iran," had "fled to Switzerland in 1983 but won a pardon from Mr. Clinton in 2001." CNN reports that McCain, speaking in Boston yesterday, weighed in, saying, "I think people in the media and observers will make a decision as to whether these people, individuals, should be part of Sen. Obama's campaign. ... I think it is a matter of record that Mr. Holder recommended the pardoning of Mr. Rich." The AP adds Republican activists "see the aggressive efforts as a way to help McCain's presidential campaign -- which some regard as less nimble and opportunistic than it should be -- compete with Obama's superior fundraising and well-regarded national organization."
The Los Angeles Times reports, "Fresh from its fist bump flap," Fox News "is taking new flak for a screen caption that referred to Michelle Obama as her husband's 'baby mama.'" Even "conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who was on camera Wednesday afternoon when the line 'OUTRAGED LIBERALS: STOP PICKING ON OBAMA'S BABY MAMA' flashed underneath her, has distanced herself from the phrase." The Wall Street Journal adds that in a campaign "that includes the first viable African-American presidential candidate, the lines of appropriate speech have become fuzzy. News organizations are under pressure from a broad network of self-appointed watchdogs, including organized groups like Media Matters and individuals." These "watchdogs are likely to remain vigilant about gaffes, misstatements and potentially biased language through the November vote."
The Politico reports that "in a major shakeup" at the Democratic National Committee "and a departure from tradition -- large parts of the committee's operations are relocating to Chicago to be fully integrated with the Obama campaign." The DNC's political section "will be dramatically rebuilt, with staffers offered a choice of moving to Chicago, joining state operations, or staying in Washington, DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. But the power will clearly be shifting to a centralized Chicago hub." The Washington Post adds that the move "is not unprecedented. Some DNC operations were moved to Nashville in 2000, and a migration similar in scope to this year's took place in 1992, when Bill Clinton moved much of the party to Little Rock."
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In a decision widely cast as a rebuff to the Bush Administration, a divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Guantanamo detainees should have the right to appeal in US civilian courts. McClatchy says that in the long term, the ruling "could free foreign prisoners while it inflames Capitol Hill." But "some consequences are immediate, for a case that's big legally, politically and militarily. Within hours of the court's decision in the combined cases known as Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States, attorneys were preparing to demand hearings for detainees long held without charges."
In a report typical of much of the coverage, USA Today says it was "another rebuff to the Bush administration," marking "the fourth time the high court has ruled against the administration's post Sept. 11 policies related to prisoners picked up in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere." Justice Kennedy, who provided the deciding vote in the 5-4 ruling, wrote, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law." USA Today adds that "strongly disagreeing with the high court's ruling, President Bush suggested that new legislation may now be needed to keep the American people safe."
The Financial Times reports the Justice department said yesterday that "the administration would proceed with military commissions. 'To the extent that [the Supreme Court decision] addresses matters that could affect the commission trials, those matters will initially be litigated before the military commissions themselves,' the Justice department said."
All three networks covered the ruling. ABC World News said the court "handed the Bush Administration a stinging defeat," and called the ruling "a real mess for the Bush Administration. They expected, they say, a reversal -- but certainly not the scope of this." The CBS Evening News reported the justices "slammed the Bush Administration," and NBC Nightly News showed Michael Ratner, a lawyer for detainees, saying, "Incredible ruling. Can't be overridden by Congress. Can't be overridden by the President. So we're really excited that our clients can finally get a day in court."
AFP calls the decision a "stiff rebuke to the Bush administration," and the Washington Post reports "the Supreme Court's decision...struck at the very core of the administration's approach" to the war on terror, throwing "into disarray the administration's detention strategy" and "almost certainly leaving to Bush's successor and the next Congress the dilemma of what to do with the Guantanamo Bay detainees." Adds the Post, "Even administration officials are uncertain about their next steps, and their surrogates were bitterly blaming the Supreme Court for seizing policy that they say the White House and Congress should set." The Los Angeles Times and New York Times run similar analyses. The Wall Street Journal calls the ruling "the culmination of a series of decisions that rebuff the Bush administration's broad claims of executive power." Additional reports on the ruling appear in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor and USA Today.
The story is also generating editorial commentary in today's major newspapers. Under the headline "President Kennedy," the Wall Street Journal says Kennedy's opinion "no doubt it will be widely praised as a triumph for civil liberties. But we hope it is not a tragedy for civil liberties in the long run. If there is another attack on US soil perhaps one enabled by a terrorist released under the Kennedy rules the public demand for security will trample" such "Constitutional delicacies." The New York Times praises the ruling in an editorial titled "Justice 5, Brutality 4," while the Washington Post, USA Today and Los Angeles Times also weigh in favor of the decision.
Graham Says Ruling Gives Al Qaeda More Rights Than Nazis Had After WWII The Hill reports this morning GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Sen. John McCain, "said Thursday that terrorist suspects will receive better treatment than the Nazis now that the Supreme Court has ruled detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have the right to habeas corpus." Said Graham, "The court gave al Qaeda members the same status as an American citizen. They said an al Qaeda member has a constitutional right to go to a federal court of their choosing and say, 'Judge, let me go.' ... The Nazis never had that right."
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning the House of Representatives "overwhelmingly passed an emergency extension of unemployment-insurance benefits Thursday, clinching -- for at least a day -- the support needed to override a presidential veto." The bill "passed 274 to 137, with a total of 49 Republican votes in support. When House Democrats tried on Wednesday to get a veto-proof two-thirds majority on the measure, the effort fell a few votes short." Republican "aides said they were confident they would be able to sustain a veto, noting the absence of 10 lawmakers who they said would oppose the benefits extension." The New York Times also reports Republicans "said the result was misleading because a number of lawmakers were absent. They expressed confidence they could sustain a rejection of the bill by Mr. Bush if it were to get to the White House." The Politico and The Hill also run stories on the unemployment extension issue.
The tax rebates passed by Congress as part of the economic stimulus package seem to be having some effect. As the AP puts it this morning, "The stimulus checks are working." The Financial Times reports US retail sales "rose at twice the forecast rate in May as consumers began spending tax rebate cheques, soothing concerns that indebted shoppers would shun the stores and further slow the US economy." Total retail sales "climbed 1 per cent last month, the biggest monthly increase since November. Meanwhile, the previous month's sales figures were revised from a 0.2 per cent decline to a 0.4 per cent increase." The "robust sales figures helped alleviate fears that rebate recipients would instead choose to pay down debt or save the money, which would lessen the impact of the fiscal stimulus."
The Wall Street Journal says this morning the "unexpectedly sharp 1%" increase in retail sales suggests "consumers spent a chunk of their government economic-stimulus checks. But rising prices and a weakening labor market could mean the boost to the economy will be short-lived." The sales data "aren't adjusted for inflation, but the rise didn't just reflect higher prices for gasoline and some other goods. Retail sales rose 0.8% in May excluding sales at gas stations."
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Jay Leno: "Well, another defeat for President Bush today. It seems the Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo Bay can file legal challenges to their detention. And President Bush very bitter about this. He said...he may have lost, but it was a deeply divided court that voted 5-4. ... You know, the same vote that made him President -- 5-4."
Jay Leno: "Barack Obama surprised a bunch of students in Chicago yesterday when he showed up unannounced at an eighth grade graduation. Gave a speech at the eighth grade graduation" which was "pretty cool. Now, don't confuse that with President Bush's appearance last year at an eighth grade graduation. He was just there getting a diploma."
Jay Leno: "President Bush is now in Europe. Again, you know, we like President Bush. I just don't think he has a real grasp of history. Did you see him in Berlin yesterday? He said, 'Am I crazy, or did there used to be a wall here?'"
David Letterman: "President Bush is in Italy. He is looking for tomato sauce of mass destruction."
Conan O'Brien: "Barack Obama said today that he is going to fight for votes in all 50 states. ... Meanwhile, John McCain said he's is going to fight for votes in all 13 colonies."
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