Barack Obama on Tuesday visited Zanesville, a small city in the heart of Ohio's eastern Appalachian region won handily by Hillary Clinton in that state's Democratic primary, to tout his plans for expanding the direction of public social service funding to religious groups. Media reports portrayed the move as another effort by Obama to position himself for the general election.
The AP reports, "Taking a page from President Bush," Obama said "he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican." The Washington Post reports Obama "proposed strengthening the White House program assisting faith-based social service organization Tuesday, while insisting that those groups not discriminate against aid recipients or aid workers." Obama's "proposal for a $500 million-a-year Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships would also create 1 million slots for summer jobs and education programs."
Among the networks, ABC picked up the story in a full segment, while CBS and NBC ran briefs. ABC World News reported Obama's speech was "designed to appeal to religious and evangelical voters. He not only embraced President Bush's program of faith-based initiatives, he promised to expand faith-based initiatives if elected." The CBS Evening News reported, "Obama visited children at an Ohio ministry today and pledged to expand one of President Bush's programs, the faith-based initiative which steers federal dollars to social service programs run by religious organizations."
NBC Nightly News reported, "Obama said he's made the connection between public service and religion in his own life. He said it makes sense for faith based organizations to help, because, as the argument goes, they know the people who are hurting and where to find them."
The Los Angeles Times reports, "Mollifying some critics in his party, Obama distanced himself from some controversial aspects of the Bush program." He "signaled he would not fund church groups that make hiring decisions based on an applicant's religion and would make sure federal money was not used to proselytize. He also echoed critiques from two ex-officials of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives who had charged that it was exploited for partisan purposes -- to build GOP support in battleground states -- and served as a convenient 'photo-op.'"
The Financial Times reports Obama "continued his steady march towards the political centre by announcing on Tuesday that he would expand George W. Bush's controversial programme to contract out welfare assistance to religious charities and treat it as the 'moral centre' of an Obama administration."
The Washington Post reports that in 2005 Sen. Barack Obama "bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois." Obama "received a discount" that "could have saved him more than $300 per month." Although "modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common," amid "a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans." The Obama's house was purchased in a deal that involved now-convicted felon Tony Rezko.
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The New York Times reports Sen. Barack Obama's "decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters." More than "7,000 Obama supporters have organized on a social networking site on Mr. Obama's own campaign Web site. They are calling on Mr. Obama to reverse his decision to endorse legislation supported by President Bush to expand the government's domestic spying powers while also providing legal protection to the telecommunication companies that worked with the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program after the Sept. 11 attacks."
Fox News' Special Report reported that John McCain "tried to link" Barack Obama "with a controversial Supreme Court ruling from last week." Speaking to "nearly 2,000 at the National Sheriff's Association conference in Indianapolis, John McCain warned that as president, Barack Obama would nominate the kind of liberal Supreme Court justices that last week comprised a majority decision which overturned the death penalty for a convicted child rapist." Sen. McCain: "My opponent may not care for this particular decision, but it was exactly the kind of opinion we could expect from an Obama court."
The AP notes Sen. McCain "voted to confirm four of the five who voted in the majority." The CBS Evening News reported Sen. McCain "blasted the Supreme Court decision banning executions for child rapists and suggested a President Obama would nominate more liberal justices."
The AP reports retired Gen. Wesley Clark "rejected suggestions he apologize Tuesday for saying John McCain's medal-winning military service does not qualify him for the White House." Clark said "a president must have judgment, not merely courage and character." Yesterday, Sen. Obama "said Clark's comments had been inartful. McCain said Obama should go further than that. 'I think the time has come for Sen. Obama to not just repudiate Gen. Clark, but to cut him loose,' McCain said en route to Colombia."
The Washington Times notes that on Monday night Sen. Jim Webb, "who is often mentioned as a possible running mate for Mr. Obama, said Mr. McCain should 'calm down' about his military record. 'Don't be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them, because they don't,' he said on MSNBC. ... The next day, top Obama foreign policy adviser Rand Beers said Arizona's Mr. McCain...does not have the same understanding of the Vietnam War as many soldiers because 'he was in isolation essentially for many of those years.'"
Editorials Pan Clark's Comment The Washington Post, in an editorial, writes, "What Gen. Clark had to say...was stupid, substantively and politically. ... You don't have to be David Axelrod to know that Gen. Clark's remark was not helpful." The New York Times' Maureen Dowd writes that Clark "joined the growing ranks of troublesome Obama associates."
McClatchy reports that "notably mild-mannered" Sen. Thad Cochran "shocked many earlier this year with comments about John McCain's volatile temper, but has since mended fences with the GOP presidential nominee." However, Cochran told the Biloxi Sun Herald this week that he'd observed McCain engaging in a physical tussle with a Sandinista while on a diplomatic mission...in the fall of 1987." Cochran said, "I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."
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ABC World News reported John McCain "arrives in South America, tonight, beginning a trip to Colombia, then, on to Mexico, to talk about free trade. Before leaving, McCain made a swing through Indiana and Pennsylvania. Both states hard-hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs some to, Latin America. But McCain called free trade a win-win proposition for the US and for its trading partners."
Fox News' Special Report reported McCain "began a two-nation trip to emphasize what he says is his edge in international experience. ... In advance of his trip to Latin America, McCain released a web video focused on free trade." Sen. McCain: "We can't go back on our word on free trade promises with Mexico, Canada, Central America or anyone else."
The New York Times notes Sen. McCain "promised before the trip that he would not publicly criticize Mr. Obama...on foreign soil, saying political partisanship ended at the water's edge. But his pledge did not include a session with reporters on his campaign plane en route to Colombia, he called Mr. Obama 'a protectionist' and cast him as ignorant about economic forces in the United States."
McClatchy says by "visiting Colombia and Mexico, McCain wants to emphasize to all voters that he has stronger foreign policy credentials than Barack Obama, his Democratic rival. McCain also wants to appeal specifically to Hispanics in the United States by expressing his concern for problems in Latin America."
McCain Praises Uribe's Accomplishments The AP notes Sen. McCain met Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Cartagena "before a meeting between the two men and several Colombian cabinet ministers." McCain "was accompanied by two of his top supporters," Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman.
The Wall Street Journal adds that John McCain said he is "concerned about human-rights abuses in Colombia but...he praised progress made so far and pushed for ratification of a pending free-trade agreement back home." McCain "repeatedly praised efforts by...Uribe to gain control over left-wing guerillas and right-wing paramilitary groups."
USA Today notes that the U.S.-Colombian trade deal "has gained prominence as an issue in the presidential race, generating opposition from labor unions and others who worry that lower tariffs on Colombian goods could lead to a loss of American manufacturing jobs."
McCain's Focus On Trade Questioned The Washington Post says McCain's trip is "designed to highlight his positions on trade and, to a lesser degree, immigration," and that "its value has been questioned by campaign strategists in both parties, since neither issue seems a winner for his campaign. His insistence on the virtues of free trade remain suspect in Rust Belt swing states, and his position on immigration continues to make many conservatives wary." The Los Angeles Times says Sen. McCain "voiced pro-free-trade views at a time when such policies are increasingly unpopular in Congress and with the U.S. public."
But the Wall Street Journal says McCain's strategy is "risky...during a period of economic malaise and job insecurity, but is one that typically pays off in presidential elections. 'Historically candidates who really run against trade haven't won the presidency,' said Ed Gresser, trade policy director for the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council."
The Politico says "the insiders are getting restless" with the course of John McCain's campaign. Top "GOP officials, frustrated by what they view as inconsistent messaging, sluggish fundraising and an organization that is too slow to take shape, are growing increasingly uneasy about the direction of the McCain presidential campaign. While the practice of second-guessing presidential campaign decisions is a quadrennial routine, interviews with 16 Republican strategists and state party chairmen -- few of whom would agree to talk on the record -- reveal a striking level of discord and mounting criticism about the McCain operation."
Bush's Unpopularity Handicaps McCain The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled, "How Bush Ratings Complicate McCain's Presidential Fight," says President Bush's "record unpopularity" is "playing an unprecedented role in the 2008 campaign, complicating John McCain's task among key constituencies." According to the Journal, "Bush's second-term slide in the polls has been especially sharp among independents, a group that Sen. McCain depends on."
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In a story that is receiving generally skeptical media coverage, a new Administration report asserts Iraq has met 15 of 18 benchmarks of political and military progress. The Washington Post, for example, says "the embassy's evaluation, compiled in May, contrasts sharply with other recent assessments that Iraq has failed to achieve many of the goals that the Baghdad government and President Bush said would be reached by the end of 2007. A report by the Government Accountability Office, released last week, cited little improvement in the political and economic spheres and noted continuing military problems despite a significant decline in overall violence." The AP prefaces the positive findings put forth by the Administration by stating that while "the Iraqi government has made measurable progress in recent months, the pace at which it's done so has been achingly slow." The White House, however, "sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are 'satisfactory.'"
The AP also reports that Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre, who originally requested the assessments, "scoffed at the May report, which he says uses the false standard of determining whether progress on a goal is 'satisfactory' versus whether the benchmark has been met. He estimates that only a few of the 18 benchmarks have been fully achieved."
More positive was the assessment of Fox News' Special Report, which, in its lead story, noted the new evaluation "has almost twice the number of satisfactory marks than the assessment one year ago...when General David Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were grilled by Congress over the '07 report card that showed eight unsatisfactory marks, eight satisfactory marks and two benchmarks that could not be determined."
In another apparently positive development, the Washington Post reports that Iraq's main Sunni political bloc "is on the verge of rejoining the Shiite-led government after a nearly year-long boycott, a step widely seen as vital to reconciliation after years of sectarian conflict." The Financial Times runs the same story this morning. Numan Al Faddagh, an Iraqi writer living in Cairo, writes in the Wall Street Journal, "My greatest fear and it seems to be the case for all my new friends here is the future of the American presence in Iraq. Our tongues and our minds have been freed, and yes we are heading home, but the Americans might run out of patience before we can make it."
US Offers Iraq Security Deal Concessions The AP reports that Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari told Iraqi lawmakers that the US "made major concessions in talks on a new security agreement, urging them to approve the deal to keep US troops here after the UN mandate expires at the end of the year." The AP adds many Iraqi lawmakers "have complained that the US demands would infringe on Iraqi sovereignty," and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "said last month that the talks had reached an impasse." The New York Times adds that "according to the three Iraqi politicians," Zebari "said the agreement by the United States to lift the immunity [for private security contractors] eliminated one of many sticking points in the negotiations." However, "some Iraqi politicians also want to end immunity for American soldiers, a demand the United States military has strongly opposed." AFP also reports on the potential breakthrough.
Remarks made Tuesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to American journalists during a rare visit to New York are generating significant coverage, with most media reports portraying them as a sign Tehran could be considering a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing crisis. Mottaki's comments come among mounting reports that Israel could be preparing to attack Iran, but in an interview with NBC Nightly News, the Foreign Minister was skeptical of that possibility, saying Israel "is still facing the post trauma of the attack against Lebanon in 2006, so we don't believe that Israel is in a position to be able to engage in another attack in the region." He also made clear that Iran would not "make a distinction between an attack by Israel and an attack by the United States."
The Washington Post says Mottaki's remarks "indicated a readiness to negotiate a US-backed proposal to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear program." Said Mottaki, "We believe that talks are a good foundation for continuing our conversation in this field. ... We view the position taken by the five-plus-one as a constructive one," referring to the offer made by the world's six major powers. After the package was presented by European foreign policy chief Javier Solana, he added, "we saw the potential for the beginning for a new round of talks," noting that he will write a formal response within the next "couple of weeks." ABC World News called Mottaki's remarks "the most diplomatic" made by "the Iranians in a long, long time, especially on the subject of the nuclear talks."
Similarly, the Wall Street Journal reports that Mottaki "steered away from Tehran's long-held negotiating position on its nuclear program by refusing to rule out the possibility that Iran might freeze its uranium-enrichment work while negotiations took place." US officials, meanwhile, "reacted cautiously," stressing that Tehran "has offered no sign it is prepared to suspend uranium-enrichment activities." In another sign of a potential thaw in US-Iran relations, the Christian Science Monitor notes that the State Department is pushing the envelope by suggesting it may be time to open a permanent American presence in of all places Tehran." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "has recently floated the idea of opening a US interests-section office in the capital of Iran."
The Washington Times reports that President Bush "called on Congress Tuesday to pass a housing bill when members return to work next week, as the White House blamed legislators for not acting sooner to help homeowners prevent foreclosure." According to the Times, President Bush "met with one homeowner who had nearly lost her home to foreclosure, and another who had been helped to understand the complicated home-buying process. Mr. Bush emphasized during his conversation with the homeowners and the credit counselors who helped them that the home-buying process needs to be simplified, and that help is available to the millions of Americans faced with the prospect of losing their home."
Fox News' Special Report showed Bush saying, "I think we can get us a bill, but its going to require less politics and more focus on keeping our minds on who we need to help, and that's the homeowner." The AP notes that the President "spoke at a credit-counseling agency in Arkansas that helps people saddled with debt. ... Bush made his quick stop at the nonprofit housing agency in between two fundraisers. By dropping in a bit of official business, the White House defrayed the cost of the trip for candidates and state parties and made the trip less overtly political."
Meanwhile, The Politico reports White House spokesman Tony Fratto "said Tuesday that Senate Democrats 'put off a lot of work' when they left town last week without passing several pending bills. 'They've been in session for a long time, and some very critical pieces of legislation got put off for yet another recess,' Fratto said." 'The Politico adds that Democrats "were livid at the charge."
The New York Times, in a front-page article, notes that when the Supreme Court "ruled last week that the death penalty for raping a child was unconstitutional, the majority noted that a child rapist could face the ultimate penalty in only six states - not in any of the 30 other states that have the death penalty, and not under the jurisdiction of the federal government either." According to the Times, "This inventory of jurisdictions was a central part of the court's analysis, the foundation for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's conclusion in his majority opinion that capital punishment for child rape was contrary to the 'evolving standards of decency' by which the court judges how the death penalty is applied. It turns out that Justice Kennedy's confident assertion about the absence of federal law was wrong. A military law blog pointed out over the weekend that Congress, in fact, revised the sex crimes section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 2006 to add child rape to the military death penalty."
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