With Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama set to campaign together tomorrow in Unity, New Hampshire, there are a number of media reports today looking at how well they are succeeding in working towards a common purpose. ABC World News reports that Obama said yesterday, "I want her campaigning as much as she can. She was a terrific campaigner. She, I think, inspired millions of people," while Clinton was shown saying, "I am 100% committed to doing everything I possibly can to make sure that Sen. Obama is sworn in as the next President of the United States, next January, here in this capital." The Wall Street Journal reports Clinton "is expected to share two of the most valuable assets in politics with her former rival: voters and fund-raisers," and today will "make her first major public appearance since the end of the long Democratic primary when she addresses nearly 1,000 Hispanic leaders in Washington, at a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials luncheon," and will later "hold a meeting at a Washington hotel to introduce Sen. Obama to her top fund-raisers, many of whom have been reluctant to embrace her former opponent."
However, under the front-page headline "Delicate Talks For Democrats On A Path To A Unified Party," the New York Times reports, "Nearly three weeks after Mrs. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed Mr. Obama, some loyalists, especially on the Clinton side, are having trouble moving on. Some Clinton supporters are grousing that Mr. Obama has yet to make the symbolic gesture of writing a check for $2,300, the maximum allowable campaign donation, to help retire her debt of over $12 million." In addition, the Financial Times says while Clinton has "urged supporters to transfer their loyalties" to Obama, "a highly vocal minority of Mrs Clinton's supporters have chosen to ignore her plea altogether. Under the umbrella group, Just Say No Deal, diehard Clintonites have set up more than 100 anti-Obama websites in the last 20 days, most of them boiling with indignation."
One big issue riling the Clinton camp: the AP reports that while Obama has asked his largest donors to aide Clinton in retiring her campaign debt, he is not making an appeal to his legion of small donors on her behalf. ABC News adds that Obama said, "Small donors who are writing $5 or $10 or $15, $25 checks -- first of all, their budgets are tighter. I'm not going to be individually contacting $15 donors, because, frankly, it probably wouldn't be that effective in terms of making a big dent in Sen. Clinton's debt."
The CBS Evening News reported that while Barack Obama has gotten "quite a bounce" in the polls following his primary win, it is no guarantee of success in November. CBS, noting Obama leads of varying sizes in a number of recent surveys, looks at the historical record and says, "Back in July of 1988, Democrat Michael Dukakis was 17 points ahead of Vice President George H. W. Bush. Bush won comfortably. And in mid-June of 1992, Bill Clinton trailed both President Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot. Clinton recovered."
On another front, the Washington Post reports that a memo from GOP pollsters yesterday took issue with the LA Times/Bloomberg poll showing Obama topping John McCain 49%-37%, saying it over-surveyed Democrats (they were 39% of those polled, compared to 22% of Republicans.) The LAT defended their polling on their "Top of the Ticket " political blog yesterday.
McCain, Obama Now Tied In Gallup Tracking The newest Gallup daily presidential tracking poll shows the presidential race now tied, with both Obama and McCain polling 45%. The poll surveyed 2,600 registered voter from June 22-24. Obama had been holding a 2-4 point lead for the previous week.
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The Washington Times reports Obama campaign manager David Plouffe "says the team has crafted a strategy ensuring the Democrats won't wake up Nov. 4 worrying that the presidential election hinges on the outcome in one swing state," and that the campaign plans to compete in numerous GOP-leaning red states. Plouffe said, "Our strategic orientation is to play offense." The campaign "is advertising in 18 battleground states, including the Republican strongholds of Alaska, North Dakota and Montana." McClatchy quotes Plouffe saying, "John McCain is not able to play a lot of offense in our view in the Kerry states." But McCain campaign manager Rick Davis "countered that 'winning the Kerry states can be problematic for them. States like Pennsylvania, that's a toss-up right now.' Davis recalled Obama's struggle against primary rival Hillary Clinton to win blue-collar voters in Rust Belt states. ... However, Davis conceded: 'The downside for us as a party is we have fewer Republicans today than we did four years ago.'"
To that end, the Houston Chronicle reports Obama's campaign "will send money and staffers to Texas and other heavily Republican states to help elect Democrats in congressional and local races." The Dallas Morning News reports that even if the move does not bear fruit in the presidential contest, the move might "help win enough Texas legislative races to influence the next round of congressional redistricting."
Pennsylvania Poll Shows Obama Up 6 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that a Franklin & Marshall College telephone poll of 1,501 registered Pennsylvania voters conducted June 16-22 shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain 42% to 36%.
McCain Up 7 In Missouri A SurveyUSA automated poll of 547 likely Missouri voters released June 25 shows Sen. John McCain leading Sen. Barack Obama 50%-43%. The poll also tests a number of possible running mates for both candidates. The various combinations all produce a McCain lead of between 7 and 11 points, with one exception if Obama is paired with Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), he closes to within 4 points against some GOP tickets.
The AP reports Sen. John McCain, "after fending off ocean drilling critics in California," on Wednesday "stiff-armed opponents of a Nevada nuclear waste repository as he outlined ways to resolve the nation's energy crisis while seeking votes in another swing state." Speaking at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, McCain "reiterated his call for building 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 -- and a total of 100 at some point beyond that," although he "didn't repeat his recent suggestion that the waste site at Yucca Mountain may be rendered unnecessary if the world can agree on a location for a foreign repository." The Los Angeles Times says for the "second day in a row, McCain -- who prides himself on his reputation as a political maverick -- went to an area to push a position that creates local anxieties."
The Las Vegas Sun adds McCain "acknowledged the challenges to reviving the nearly moribund nuclear industry and storing the waste safely but provided few specifics on how they would be accomplished. ... 'It's not a technological breakthrough that needs to be taken; it's a NIMBY problem,' he said, using the acronym for 'not in my back yard.' 'We've got to have the guts and courage to do what other countries are doing, and they are reducing the pollution to our environment rather dramatically without any huge pain to anybody.'"
The Dayton Daily News reports that Sen. John McCain "is returning to Ohio to mine for presidential support in two important lodes - undecided voters in Cincinnati and Hillary Clinton-friendly Trumbull County in the Mahoning Valley." McCain will campaign in the state today and tomorrow, starting with a town hall meeting today and a visit to "GM plant in Lordstown in Trumbull County, a Democratic stronghold but a county where Hillary Clinton clobbered Obama in the March 4 Democratic primary, getting 62 percent of the vote."
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that while "clout and corruption scandals that have plagued Chicago and Illinois politics in recent years," they "have not laid a glove on Barack Obama, he told reporters" in Chicago yesterday. Obama said, "You will recall that for my entire political career here, I was not the endorsed candidate of any political organization here. I didn't go around wielding a bunch of clout. My reputation in Springfield was as an independent. There is no doubt I had friends and continue to have friends who come out of the more traditional school of Chicago politics but that's not what launched my political career and that's not what I've ever depended on to get elected, and I would challenge any Chicago reporter to dispute that basic fact."
In a story headlined "McCain doesn't work weekends," The Politico reports this morning that since he secured the nomination on February 7, Sen. John McCain "has held just one public campaign event on a weekend. Instead, after workweeks full of fundraisers, town hall meetings and interviews, McCain has been, in campaign parlance, 'down' on nearly every Saturday or Sunday for 20 weeks, largely sequestered away from the news media." McCain aides "say that they made a conscious decision after it became clear that they had won the nomination to use weekends primarily to return their candidate to his preferred surroundings in Arizona and to have him rest, bone up on policy, and meet privately with aides, advisers, contributors and other prominent officials."
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Rules Out Death Penalty For Child Rape. In the case of Kennedy vs. Louisiana, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 majority that the application of the death penalty in child rape cases was disproportionate and violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. The AP reports the Supreme Court "declared Wednesday that executions are too severe a punishment for raping children, despite the 'years of long anguish' for victims, in a ruling that restricts the death penalty to murder and crimes against the state." The court's "5-4 decision struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12."
The story was covered prominently by the networks, which each ran their reports on the case early in their newscasts. ABC World News reported, "Today's ruling is really the latest from this court to narrow the scope of the death penalty. Over the past few years, the court has said states can't execute juveniles or people with mental retardation. And now, today, it says only murder merits death."
The CBS Evening News reported, "Justice Anthony Kennedy called the death penalty 'not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,' and that the death penalty 'has to be reserved for the worst of crimes against individuals that take the victim's life.'" NBC Nightly News reported, "In deciding whether a punishment is cruel and unusual, the Supreme Court looks to the trend among the states, what it calls 'evolving standards of decency.' And today, the death penalty for child rape failed that test."
USA Today reports the "four most conservative justices dissented, saying states should be able to subject child rapists to execution. 'The harm that is caused to the victims and to society at large by the worst child rapists is grave,' Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the dissenters."
The Washington Times reports Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said "he will seek to enact laws that would invalidate Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the death penalty for raping a child." The Christian Science Monitor reports the decision "won immediate praise from capital-punishment opponents."
Both John McCain and Barack Obama who worked to limit the scope of the death penalty in the Illinois legislature -- criticized the court's decision. The Washington Post story notes the decision "prompted...condemnation from both presidential candidates, even though no one has been executed for rape in the United States since 1964." John McCain said, "That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing." The Post adds Barack Obama "said he opposes the court's 'blanket prohibition.'" The AP reports Obama has "long supported the death penalty while criticizing the way it is sometimes applied."
High Court Slashes Exxon Valdez Punitive Damages. ABC World News reported, "Nineteen years after the Valdez oil spill that turned the waters off of Alaska into sludge," the Supreme Court "voted 5-3 to slash two billion dollars from the punitive damages levied against Exxon, cutting them to $500 million." The Washington Post reports in a front page article that the high court "ruled 5 to 3 to limit Exxon Mobil's punishment to the same amount of money a lower court awarded to compensate for actual economic losses: $507.5 million."
On its front page, the Wall Street Journal reports, "The decision left Exxon pleased and the Alaskans frustrated, but its impact may reach well beyond the icy shores of Prince William Sound. Due to the unique area of law the lawsuit invoked, the justices had their first opportunity to reveal their approach to punitive damages when drawing on a blank slate, rather than applying state laws as they have in prior cases."
The New York Times, in a front-page story, adds that "the court split 4-to-4 on a separate question, whether Exxon may be held accountable" for the recklessness of the tanker's captain. The Times adds, "The effect of the split was to leave intact the ruling of the lower court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which said Exxon might be held responsible." The Financial Times reports Exxon "had fought against paying any punitive damages after a jury in Alaska set a record $5bn figure in 1994." The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the AP, and the Christian Science Monitor also report on the decision.
Court Expands Right To Confront Witnesses USA Today reports a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday "broadly interpreted defendants' rights to confront witnesses against them -- in an unusual case of a man accused of killing the witness." The Washington Post reports the court "threw out the conviction of a man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend because the defendant could not challenge an incriminating account she gave the police weeks before her death." The Christian Science Monitor reports the decision "is important because it bolsters a 2004 landmark Supreme Court opinion written by Scalia enforcing the right to face one's accusers in court. It establishes a demanding test for when certain out-of-court statements may be introduced as evidence in a trial."
The AP reports the Senate "signaled an end Wednesday to months of rancorous debate over surveillance legislation that would protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government wiretap American lines." By an 80-15 vote, the Senate "turned back a last-ditch effort to kill the bill, setting up a vote to approve the measure on Thursday."
The Washington Post reports the legislation cleared "a key parliamentary hurdle" with yesterday's vote and the "large margin demonstrated that the bill's opponents -- the American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy rights organizations -- do not have enough support to derail the measure through a filibuster."
Meanwhile, The Politico reports a group of liberal online activists known as Netroots "feel jilted and betrayed" by Obama's support of the legislation and "have taken to questioning his progressive credentials." The FISA debate, it notes, marks Obama's "first serious break from the liberal Netroots in the general election."
The Wall Street Journal reports the battle over FISA "is creating an unexpected side effect: unity among liberal bloggers and Ron Paul supporters."
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International pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe continued to mount yesterday with President Bush and former South African president Nelson Mandela joining in the condemnation of the violence in the country and plans for tomorrow's election. ABC World News reported Bush "said...that elections planned for Friday in Zimbabwe are a sham." The CBS Evening News reported Bush "met with UN Security Council members, then denounced Mugabe's government and the violence leading up to the runoff vote."
The AP reports the President also "called upon the African Union to continue to highlight the 'illegitimacy' of the elections and keep reminding the world that the process is 'not free and it's not fair.'" NBC Nightly News also reported that if Mugabe still resists, African leaders are discussing tighter sanctions on his regime, but not military intervention, not as long as Mugabe controls the country's guns, the security forces."
Also yesterday, the CBS Evening News reported "opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, who quit the campaign after dozens of his followers were killed, came out of hiding today just long enough to call on other African leaders to help bring an end to the violence." ABC World News reported Tsvangirai called "for armed UN peacekeepers to come to Zimbabwe, saying that global outrage need to be backed by military force."
And in an emergency summit in Swaziland, the Financial Times reports leaders of Zimbabwe's "neighbouring countries -- including Angola, traditionally one of Mr Mugabe's staunchest allies -- called on him to postpone the presidential run-off poll that on Friday would see him triumph unopposed after a campaign marred by violence and intimidation." The Washington Post reports Tsvangirai's plea for the deployment of thousands of African Union peacekeeping troops "came as African leaders increasingly condemned Mugabe's ruthless campaign of retribution against the opposition."
The AP reports the Federal Reserve "held interest rates steady Wednesday, ending nearly a year of cuts to bolster the economy, and hinted that the next direction for rates could be up." Chairman Ben Bernanke "and all but one of his central bank colleagues agreed that the best course was to leave a key rate alone at 2 percent, as the country slogs through the crosscurrents of plodding economic growth and zooming energy and food prices that threaten to spread inflation." All three broadcast networks reported on the Fed's decision. ABC World News said the Fed "sent a signal that it's finally starting to worry about the skyrocketing prices of food, gas, and other bills, putting such a strain on millions of families. Ending a nine-month string of rate cuts, the Fed held the key interest rate steady at two percent."
A National Intelligence Assessment released yesterday warning of the threats to national security posed by climate change is receiving significant media coverage today. In its lead story last night, NBC Nightly News reported, "US intelligence agencies today said global warming is now an issue of our national security, because it could destabilize entire nations and lead to humanitarian disasters."
The AP reports the NIA concluded that global warming "probably will mean more illegal immigration and humanitarian disasters, undermining shaky governments and possibly expanding the terrorism threat against the US." The Washington Post reports, "Overall, the assessment found that while the United States 'is better equipped than most nations to deal with climate change,' the impact on other countries has the 'potential to seriously affect US national security interests.'"
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David Letterman: "Bill Clinton is campaigning for Obama. President Bush is campaigning for McCain. And I'm thinking, wow, this could really be the year for Ralph Nader."
Jimmy Kimmel: "The latest Bloomberg poll shows" Barack Obama "has a 15-point lead over John McCain." Obama "leads in men, in women, with young people" and "minorities. In fact," McCain is only "beating Obama...in calcium deposits."
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