ABC World News opened its Sunday evening newscast with a long report on Sen. Barack Obama's Father's Day speech before a "largely black church in Chicago," where he delivered "a rather blunt message to African-American men. He said too many black fathers are absent from their children's lives. 'We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception,' he said. Obama's words seemed aimed at not only at African-Americans, but also at white voters who might be uneasy about his candidacy." The CBS Evening News ran a much briefer report on the speech later in its broadcast, while NBC News was preempted by golf.
The AP reports Obama, "reminding the congregation of his firsthand experience growing up without a father," said he "was lucky to have loving grandparents who helped his mother. He got support, second chances and scholarships that helped him get an education." Obama said, "A lot of children don't get those chances. There is no margin for error in their lives." The Chicago Tribune called the speech "heavy with personal and political meaning." The New York Times notes Obama "did not take his Father's Day message to Trinity United Church of Christ, the church from which he resigned in May." He instead "chose the 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God, a vast brick structure on the South Side near Lake Michigan. The church's pastor, Byron Brazier, is an Obama supporter."
The Wall Street Journal says the "wide-ranging speech on fatherhood isn't the first time" Obama "has stepped in with a self-help edge for parents. Earlier in the campaign he delivered a speech in South Carolina where he discussed the epidemic of absentee fathers and its impact on the economy. His standard stump speech includes a line that 'parents have to parent' and 'put down the video games,' one of his biggest applause lines."
RNC's Duncan Says He Will Not Raise Wright Issue. The Politico reports Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan "said he would not insert Barack Obama's former pastor into the campaign, but declined to rule out ever using the incendiary videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright." In an interview with C-SPAN, Duncan "underscored the tension between the desire of many GOP activists to use perhaps the most potent weapon the party has against Obama and John McCain's stated desire to not raise the issue as well as Republican concerns over being perceived as inserting race into the campaign."
ABC World News reported Sen. John McCain met Sunday with "Iraq's foreign minister outside of Washington, D.C. McCain used the opportunity to blast Barack Obama for saying that the troop surge in Iraq would fail." The CBS Evening News also briefly mentioned the meeting. The AP says McCain and Hoshyar Zebari "discussed security improvements in Iraq, and spoke about negotiations between the two countries on an agreement to pave the way for the future presence of U.S. military forces in Iraq." The Wall Street Journal adds Zebari said he would also be meeting with Obama "but he emphasized he wished to stay neutral from the political campaign."
The Washington Post reports that Zebari said, "It's in our interest, in fact, to brief both candidates on the reality of the situation, the way we see it from our perspective, from people who've been at the thick of this conflict."
Iraq Could Be A Problem For Both Candidates U.S. News and World Report reports, "Most Americans aren't happy with the Iraq war and blame President Bush for it. Republican candidate John McCain is being billed by Democratic opponent Barack Obama as marching in lock step with Bush in his commitment to the seemingly endless conflict. ... Yet McCain does have some built-in advantages. If he emphasizes his courage as a POW in Vietnam and his long record of military service, he could contrast himself favorably to Obama's inexperience."
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The Hill reports ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that 37-year-old Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal "would be far and away the best candidate' to appear on the Republican presidential ticket with Sen. John McCain." On CBS' Face The Nation, Gingrich also said of Jindal, "I think he is a future presidential candidate." For his part, Jindal said on CBS' Face The Nation that "the speculation is flattering" but "the reality is, I've got the job that I want. ... I told the people of Louisiana, this is an historic time for my state, and I want to be a part of turning Louisiana around. I'm certainly supporting Sen. McCain, will do whatever I can to help him get elected, but I'm focused on being governor of Louisiana." More of this interview can be seen here.
Rove Prefers Romney FOX News, however, reports former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," suggested that Mitt Romney "is best suited to run as John McCain's vice president in the general election," saying, "Romney is already vetted by the media, strong executive experience both in business and in government, has an interesting story to tell with saving the U.S. Olympics, and also helps McCain deal with the economy, because he can speak with the economy with a fluency that McCain doesn't have."
Sen. Barack Obama is making a campaign swing through Michigan today, with stops in Detroit and Flint., the Detroit News reports this morning, taking "his traveling economic policy show to...the nation's most economically battered state, laying out a series of policies that aides believe will convince voters here he can help reverse the state's decades-long slide." Obama economic policy director Jason Furman is quoted saying, "What he's going to be focused on a lot (today) is what we can do to actually help America compete and succeed in the global economy over the long run." However, that plan is not receiving a warm welcome from one of the state's top newspapers. In an editorial this morning, the Detroit News comes down hard on Obama's economic plan, saying "there's much in it to concern a state desperate for investment and job growth." The News does approve of the selection of Furman as an economic adviser, complimenting him for being "an unapologetic proponent of free trade."
Under the front-page headline "Women Voters Lining Up Behind Obama," the Los Angeles Times says despite hints that some disappointed female supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton would now back Sen. John McCain for president, Clinton's backers "are siding heavily with Obama over McCain, polls show. And Obama has taken a wide lead among female voters, belying months of political chatter and polls of primary voters suggesting that disappointment over Clinton's defeat might block the Illinois senator from enjoying his party's historic edge among women." But McCain still "hopes to capitalize on the disillusionment of women who voted for Clinton." He "has appeared recently on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' and 'The View,' TV talk shows with many female viewers."
Obama Up By 2 In Gallup National Tracking Gallup's daily presidential tracking poll for June 15, compromising polling done June 12-14, shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain 44%-42%. Obama's lead had been as wide as 48%-41% last week, but eroded steadily as the week progressed.
McCain Up By 2 In Nevada A Mason-Dixon poll of 625 likely Nevada voters taken June 9-11 shows McCain leading Obama 44%-42%. The Las Vegas Review-Journal (5/15, Ball), who commissioned the poll, says the survey "confirms the conventional wisdom that Nevada is a swing state that might throw its electoral votes to either candidate in November." The AP (6/16) also runs a report on the poll.
McCain Up 9 In Arkansas A Rasmussen Reports automated poll of 500 likely Arkansas voters taken June 12 shows McCain leading Obama 48%-39%. A similar poll taken May 12 showed McCain leading Obama 57%-33%.
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In what the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page terms the "Countrywide Financial sweetheart loan scandal," two Democratic senators who are leading the effort to write mortgage relief legislation got special treatment from a major lender. Roll Call notes Sen. Kent Conrad "said Friday that he would welcome a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that both he and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) received special treatment from Countrywide Financial resulting in cut-rate mortgages." Both lawmakers "vigorously denied any wrongdoing after Portfolio.com reported late last week that Countrywide officials had conspired to provide special mortgages -- including waiving fees and shaving thousands of dollars from loans for multiple properties -- for a select group of 'VIPs' including both Senators. No other lawmakers were named in the article."
The Wall Street Journal reports Conrad announced that "he will donate $10,500 to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds homes for low-income people, to offset a discount he apparently received on a mortgage loan from Countrywide, an ailing lender that Bank of America Corp. plans to acquire." Conrad "said a review of the $1.2 million loan he received in 2002 to buy a vacation home in Bethany Beach, Del., indicates that he received a discount of one percentage point on fees. The senator said he didn't ask for a discount or know he received one at the time." Conrad said he also has "discovered that Countrywide made an exception to its normal practices in 2004 in making him a $96,000 mortgage loan backed by an eight-unit apartment building he owns in Bismarck, N.D."
The CBS Evening News reported "a former UN weapons inspector is said to reveal publicly that blueprints for nuclear devices were found on computers belonging to an international nuclear smuggling ring two years ago. The illicit group was once led by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan. So-called rogue nations like North Korea and Iran have aspired for years to join the nuclear weapons club. And it's possible they've now acquired electronic blueprints in advance from Khan's illicit network." The Financial Times notes US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters yesterday, "We are very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it." Those comments "followed reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post claiming that the Khan network possessed plans for a nuclear warhead compact enough to be fitted on to a ballistic missile." The reports "raised the possibility that these designs could have been shared with states such as Iran and North Korea. Such technology would make it easier to transform nuclear material into an effective nuclear weapon."
This morning, the New York Times reports "international inspectors and Western officials are confronting a new mystery left by" Khan, "this time over who may have received blueprints for a sophisticated and compact nuclear weapon found on his network's computers." The Times adds "investigators have tracked the digitized blueprints to Khan computers in Switzerland, Dubai, Malaysia and Thailand. The blueprints are electronic and rapidly reproducible for creating a weapon that is relatively small and easy to hide, making it potentially attractive to terrorists." The Times adds, "In interviews in Vienna, Islamabad and Washington, officials have said that the weapons design was far more sophisticated than the blueprints discovered in Libya in 2003, when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi gave up his country's nuclear weapons program. The design is electronic, they said, making it easy to copy - and they have no idea how many copies, if any, are circulating."
The Wall Street Journal reports US counterproliferation officials "said the intelligence highlighted why additional efforts needed to be made to interview Mr. Khan in Islamabad to get a greater understanding of his network's activities. Mr. Khan is under house arrest, but Pakistan's newly elected civilian government has suggested that the scientist could be released." Said one official, "We don't know for certain if Khan gave the designs to Iran or North Korea. But why would you give them to the Libyans and not the North Koreans?"
As if the situation were not tense enough along the Afghan-Pakistani border, ABC World News reported the President of Afghanistan has "issued a warning" to neighboring Pakistan: He "threatened to send Afghan troops into Pakistan to fight Taliban militant there's. Taliban fighters have grown increasingly bold, crossing into Afghanistan from their sanctuaries in Pakistan." The New York Times notes President Hamid Karzai's comments, "made at a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, are likely to worsen tensions between the countries, just days after American forces in Afghanistan killed 11 Pakistani soldiers on the border while pursuing militants." Said the Afghan leader, "If these people in Pakistan give themselves the right to come and fight in Afghanistan, as was continuing for the last 30 years, so Afghanistan has the right to cross the border and destroy terrorist nests, spying, extremism and killing, in order to defend itself, its schools, its peoples and its life."
The Los Angeles Times reports that "in response to warning, Pakistan said it would consider any such strike by foreign forces inside its territory a violation of its sovereignty." Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said in a statement, "We hope that it is not the reinitiation of the blame game by Afghanistan." At any rate, "analysts expressed doubt that Karzai would make good on his threat to send Afghan troops on cross-border raids, but said the remarks reflected rising frustration on the Afghan leader's part." AFP, Christian Science Monitor, McClatchy and USA Today also reports the story.
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The Wall Street Journal reports this morning "Justice Department lawyers have filed a grand-jury referral stemming from the 2006 US attorneys scandal, according to people familiar with the probe, a move indicating that the yearlong investigation may be entering a new phase." This grand-jury referral, "the first time the probe has moved beyond the investigative phase, relates to allegations of political meddling in the Justice Department's civil-rights division, these people say. Specifically, it focuses on possible perjury by Bradley Schlozman, who served a year as interim US attorney in Kansas City, Mo."
Also this morning, in an editorial, the New York Times is urging Congress to compel Karl Rove to testify in its probe of the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the former Alabama governor, who "is asking a federal appeals court to throw out his conviction on dubious corruption charges. His appeal has some surprising backers: a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general has submitted a brief on his behalf. Congress is also investigating charges that Mr. Siegelman was politically targeted." Congress "should compel" Rove "to testify. And it should keep investigating this prosecution and what role crass politics may have played. While it does, the 11th Circuit should cast a skeptical eye on this case, based on the law and the facts."
The untimely death of NBC News Washington bureau chief and "Meet The Press" moderator Tim Russert Friday afternoon pushed most other news off of both broadcast and cable newscasts, and received very heavy coverage in the print media. On Friday, NBC Nightly News devoted its entire newscast to reminiscences about Russert, while ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC also focused on Russert for most of the evening. Yesterday's "Meet the Press," the showed he had hosted since 1991, was also devoted to Russert's passing, as noted by the AP and USA Today this morning.
On Saturday, the Washington Post said on its front page that Russert "revolutionized Sunday morning television and infused journalism with an unrelenting passion for politics." The news "swept the capital like a shock wave, with colleagues, rivals, President Bush and those vying to succeed him remembering Russert as a superb practitioner of political analysis and an irrepressible son of blue-collar Buffalo who, quite simply, loved the game." Russert's hometown Buffalo News said President Bush, "informed of Russert's death while at dinner in Paris, swiftly issued a statement of condolence."
The Los Angeles Times, under the headline "An Irish Gusto For Politics Leavened With Civility," said Russert "brought a new intensity to a drab Sunday morning show." A New York Times headline called Russert "NBC's Face Of Politics." The Chicago Tribune called Russert "one of the best-schooled political minds on network television news." The Wall Street Journal referred to Russert as the "dean of Beltway political journalists and the hard-charging anchor of NBC's Sunday morning interview show." The Financial Times said Russert's death "leaves a gaping hole in NBC's news division in the midst of a historic presidential campaign season."
In the Washington Post Style section, Tom Shales wrote, "But he couldn't have died. It seems impossible. Tim Russert can't be gone because he was having too good a time. He was an expert at journalism, politics and the ways of the world, yes, but he also seemed to have mastered happiness." The Washington Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday and The Politico were among the other outlets reporting on Russert's death.
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Jay Leno: "And there was a big power outage in Washington, DC this morning, the whole city. The good news is Homeland Security says it was not terrorism. Whew! Luckily, it was just our lousy energy policy. So that's a relief."
Jay Leno: "President Bush visited the Vatican this week and met with the Pope. ... Again, you see, I don't think President Bush really studies up on these places before he goes to them. Like, as soon as he saw where the Pope lived, he said, 'Hey, I like what the little lady has done with the place.'"
David Letterman: "Do you know what today is? Friday the 13th. ... And down in Washington DC, a confused President Bush lit a menorah."
Craig Ferguson: "Hey, you know what happened today? Barack Obama put his birth certificate online to fight rumors he wasn't born in the US. ... John McCain will put his birth certificate online too, as soon as he figures out how to upload a stone tablet."
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