Last night's evening news broadcasts included warnings that the collapse of IndyMac bank is likely only the first of a series of such failures. NBC Nightly News reported, "Luckily, most Americans don't know much more about bank failures than we all learned from watching the Christmastime classic 'It's A Wonderful Life' with Jimmy Stewart. ... So when a big bank failed in California just a few days ago and, given some uneasy rumors about others, there are worries in this era of mortgage meltdowns that there could perhaps be more on the way." CNBC's Erin Burnett added, "IndyMac is the bank which has failed. It's the second largest banking failure in American history. ... I just came from the stock exchange where the question isn't whether another bank will fail but which one and when." NBC added, "On Wall Street today, the bank that everyone was talking about was Washington Mutual. ... The stock fell 35% just today." Also on NBC Nightly News, CNBC's senior economics reporter Steve Liesman said, "Look, this is a banking crisis. This is a mortgage meltdown. There are going to be bank failures." And ABC World News reported, "Not all banks obviously are in trouble. Most are on very solid ground, but IndyMac's failure Friday has got rumors flying about what other banks could fail."
Mortgage Giants Continue To Lose Ground Yesterday's continued sell-off of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is being cast as evidence of investors' skepticism regarding the Treasury Department's emergency plan to stabilize the GSEs. Moreover, conservative misgivings regarding the plan are noted in several articles today a troublesome sign for the Administration. The Financial Times, in an article titled, "US Bail-Out Fails To Calm Nerves," reports that "confidence in some of the largest regional US banks buckled on Monday as the government's rescue plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to allay equity markets' fears over the stability of the broader financial sector." But contrary to most of the other coverage, the Washington Post claims "the federal government's assistance plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac steadied the financial markets yesterday. ... The plan...arrested the steep declines that the companies' stock had been experiencing over the past week." The Post adds, "For now, the government's actions appear to reduce the danger that any short-term problems at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would disrupt the mortgage market. ... Some large shareholders said they took solace in the fact that the companies are still investor-owned."
The New York Times says that "there were also signs that the proposal could encounter resistance. Senate Republicans, including some who have been unhappy about the outsized role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have assumed in the mortgage market, were largely silent on the proposal. An aide said that Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, was reviewing the plan. And Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, began circulating a letter among fellow conservatives urging House leaders to call committee hearings, hold a full debate and allow lawmakers to offer amendments -- a potentially lengthy process." The Washington Post also reports the story.
Plan Added To Housing Package The Washington Post reports that the Treasury plan "will be added to a massive housing package working its way through Congress, to be to the president's desk within days, key lawmakers said today. In an interview, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said he will incorporate the Treasury initiative...into the housing package. The measure will be put to a vote in the House on Thursday and then go to the Senate for final approval, and on to the White House early next week, Frank said." The Hill says both Rep. Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd "predicted swift passage of the legislation. ... Dodd also sought to reassure investors and homeowners about the solvency of the two private companies." The Wall Street Journal runs a similar report.
Lobbyists Said To Have Won Weak Oversight By OFHEO The Wall Street Journal reports this morning, "For years, Washington officialdom enabled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...to grow until they dominated the U.S. market. ... If there's one decision that is being second-guessed, it's the 1992 legislation that created the companies' regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or Ofheo. In the 1992 debate, Ofheo came away with fairly weak powers, and capital requirements for the companies were set very low." According to the Journal, "Lobbyists from the companies are said to have strongly influenced the 1992 legislation, particularly in the House Banking Committee, whose chairman then was Rep. Henry Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat. Critics of the companies say that Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), the current chairman of the committee, also helped put forth the companies' arguments."
ABC World News reported last night that "American commanders have been calling for months for more forces in Afghanistan. Right now there are one hundred fifty thousand troops in Iraq. That's more than four times the number assigned to Afghanistan." ABC added that recent stories about the acceleration of a US withdrawal are to be taken "very seriously." Commanders "are meeting this week to discuss the possibility of withdrawing more troops in Iraq. And people I've talked to, sources I've talked to, say it was possible they'll draw down about two or three more brigades before the end of the year, but that would still leave a lot of troops in Iraq, more than 130,000." Fox News' Special Report, meanwhile, reported that Gen. David Petraeus "said security conditions on the ground will determine whether he recommends further troop withdrawals from Iraq." Petraeus "responded to questions following a New York Times article that reported the administration was already considering additional troop cuts starting in September. The Times wrote that the withdrawal plan was sparked by a need for more troops in Afghanistan."
Taliban Growing Stronger NBC Nightly News reported on new details about the "ambush in Afghanistan over the weekend that killed nine US soldiers -- the deadliest incident for Americans in Afghanistan in over three years." Though "more than forty insurgents were killed," it "is the latest worrisome sign that the militants in Afghanistan have indeed been able to regroup." The New York Times says "the Taliban insurgents...numbered nearly 200 fighters, almost three times the size of the allied force, and some breached the NATO compound in a coordinated assault that took the defenders by surprise, Western officials said Monday." While they "were driven back in a pitched four-hour battle, and they appeared to suffer scores of dead and wounded of their own...the toll they inflicted was sobering. ... With nine Americans dead and at least 15 injured, that means that one in five of the American defenders was killed and nearly half the remainder were wounded. Four Afghan soldiers were also wounded." The Wall Street Journal, AFP, Christian Science Monitor and AP run similar stories.
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USA Today reports President Bush on Monday "lifted the executive ban on offshore oil and gas drilling Monday and blamed the Democratic-led Congress for 'standing between the American people and these vast oil resources.'" Bush's move "cannot lead to an expansion of offshore drilling" unless Congress "similarly agrees to lift a congressional ban that has been in place since 1981." President George H.W. Bush "imposed an executive moratorium in 1990 as a safeguard in case the congressional ban lapsed."
Media reports are casting the story as part of the election-year debate between the parties. The AP, for example, says the President aimed "to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage," while "Democratic lawmakers rejected Bush's plan as a symbolic stunt." The Financial Times, meanwhile, reports "the Republican party has made the push to expand domestic oil production a flagship policy ahead of November's election, amid mounting public concern at soaring energy prices," and Fox News' Special Report said "the President thinks he may have popular support on his side." Bush was shown saying, "The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the US Congress. Now the ball is squarely in Congress's court." McClatchy notes "a June 26-29 CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 73 percent of people surveyed favored more drilling," while the San Francisco Chronicle refers to "a Pew Research Center Poll released earlier this month found that 47 percent of Americans viewed increased drilling and construction of new power plants as the nation's highest energy priority, up from 35 percent just a few months ago." Meanwhile, "the number who saw more energy conservation and regulation as the top priority fell from 55 percent to 45 percent."
The Washington Post says "Bush's move carries symbolic and political significance on an emotional issue in an election year." On Capitol Hill, "Republicans tried to foment unrest among rank-and-file Democrats. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) ridiculed Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, who has proposed targeting oil speculators as a way to restrain prices rather than proceeding with a vote on the Republican plan." The Hill notes Reid had "said Monday that he would not allow a vote on an amendment giving states new authority to seek oil off their coasts when he brings a Democratic energy bill to the floor later this month." And "in a sign of escalating tensions," Domenici "called Reid a 'chicken' for deciding not to allow amendments on energy production, prompting a Reid spokesman to say that 'name calling won't lower the price of oil and gasoline.'"
The New York Times reports Reid "is facing an increasing uneasiness among his own senators who have talked more receptively about increased drilling in recent weeks as a result of public anger over rising gas prices." The Wall Street Journal notes McCain "has sided with Mr. Bush, despite previous opposition to offshore drilling, while" Barack Obama "is a critic of opening more offshore territory to drilling."
The New York Times editorializes that the decision "is designed to ratchet up the pressure on Congress to do likewise. Congress should resist," and "not give into the pressures of a restless public and a campaign by sacrificing long-term environmental protections for short-term political gain." The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, says that "with Mr. Bush's belated decision yesterday, Congress's moratorium on offshore drilling is now the last major political barrier to increasing domestic oil-and-gas production. Yet Democratic leaders have refused to schedule even a single hearing on the topic." Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, writing in the Washington Post, says "Bush and his fellow oil shale boosters claim that if only Western communities would stand aside, energy companies could begin extracting more than 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil from domestic shale deposits. ... If only." But "to the boosters who think they have found the answer to our energy crisis, I say: We welcome you to our quest to develop oil shale on a commercial scale. But first let's put the horse back in front of the cart and all start pulling in the same direction. A reckless approach that heightens the risk of an oil shale bust would only set us back."
McClatchy reports "a congressional investigation has failed to determine whether the Bush administration attempted to build support for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by deliberately misrepresenting the details of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Patrick Tillman and the capture of Jessica Lynch in the first days of the Iraq invasion." In a report released yesterday, "the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said its efforts to determine whether Bush administration officials tried to hide the details of both cases was thwarted by what it called 'a near universal lack of recall.'" The AP notes the report also refers to a "striking lack of recollection" by White House and military officials. Rep. Henry Waxman, "chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in April 2007 that his goal was to discern the genesis of the misinformation," but the committee "acknowledged Monday it had fallen short of this goal. The committee received a flurry of White House e-mails sent as the Bush administration responded to Tillman's death, but no documents about friendly fire. The committee interviewed several top White House officials about the case, but 'not a single one could recall when he learned about the fratricide or what he did in response,' it said in its 48-page report."
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The Washington Post reports a new Washington Post-ABC News poll "finds the country split down the middle between those backing Sen. Barack Obama's 16-month timeline for withdrawal from Iraq and those agreeing with Sen. John McCain's position that events, not timetables, should dictate when troops are withdrawn." On Iraq policy "generally, Americans continue to side with Obama and McCain in roughly equal numbers, with 47 percent of those polled saying they trust McCain more to handle the war, and 45 percent having more faith in Obama." ABC World News reported that the poll shows 72% of Americans believe McCain "would be a good commander in chief, while less than half have the same feeling about Barack Obama."
Campaigns Clash Over Obama's Withdrawal Plan The Hill reports the McCain and Obama campaigns "exchanged harsh words over Iraq Monday following" Obama's "call for a 16-month phased redeployment out of Iraq to free up troops to fight resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan." Randy Scheunemann, "a senior foreign policy adviser" for McCain, "blasted Obama's plan during a morning conference call with reporters, saying the likely Democratic nominee 'seems to think losing a war will help him win an election.'" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) "echoed Scheunemann's charge, saying Democrats have 'built a political strategy around us losing the war in Iraq.'" The Hill adds Sen. Joseph Biden (D) "defended Obama's plan on a subsequent conference call, saying the plan was 'profoundly right' and 'more in line with what our military needs are and what our military thinks.'" The Los Angeles Times reports the McCain campaign, "which accuses Obama of flip-flopping on Iraq, considers any discussion of national security issues helpful to the Arizona senator's candidacy."
Obama To Deliver "Major Speech" On Iraq Today The AP reports that Obama "is setting the stage for his upcoming visit to Iraq with a high-profile explanation of his opposition to the war there and his pledge to complete a U.S. troop pullout within 16 months of becoming president." In what his campaign describes as a "major speech" scheduled for today, Obama "will explain how missteps in Iraq have hurt efforts to strengthen U.S. security, aides said. He will also discuss his proposal to add two new brigades in nearby Afghanistan, as well as call for Pakistan to step up its own efforts dealing with terrorists."
Obama Site Reportedly Scrubbed Of Surge Criticism The New York Daily News reports that Obama's campaign "scrubbed" his web site "over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop 'surge' in Iraq, the Daily News has learned." Obama "replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a 'problem' that had barely reduced violence. 'The surge is not working,' Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province."
The New Yorker, which the Financial Times describes as "the bible of the white, liberal US intelligentsia," is now the center of a major blow-up because of its latest edition, which features a cartoon image of Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle dressed a Muslim and as a black nationalist, respectively, on its cover. The magazine intended the cover to be a satirical poke at the way some on the right are allegedly portraying the Obamas, but as USA Today says, it "set off a Web-and-cable frenzy," as "reactions to the cartoon by artist Barry Blitt ranged from sadness to rage to scorn. The consensus from analysts was 'what were they thinking?'" A widely-distributed AP story reports the cover "drew outrage from the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign as it appeared on newsstands Monday." A spokesman for Obama described the cover as "tasteless and offensive."
The controversy garnered attention on all three nightly news broadcasts last night, with ABC World News saying the cover provoked "a political firestorm." The CBS Evening News reported, "Today's back-and-forth on foreign policy was overshadowed by a satirical cartoon on a magazine cover which may or may not have made its intended target. ... The 'New Yorker' magazine said the cover 'combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are.' Still, some were not impressed." NBC Nightly New s adds, "For months, the Obama campaign has been trying to fight off all the Internet rumors summed up in one cartoon, slamming his past and his patriotism."
The issue drew considerable attention in the print media, including pieces in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and three New York tabloids -- the New York Daily News, Long Island Newsday, and the New York Post.
Comics Find Obama A Difficult Target The New York Times reports in a front page story that "Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and others have delivered a nightly stream of jokes about the Republican running for president - each one a variant on the same theme: John McCain is old. But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race." So far, "no true punch lines have landed." The "reason cited by most of those involved in the shows is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Mr. Obama: There is no comedic 'take' on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton's womanizing, or President Bush's goofy bumbling or Al Gore's robotic persona."
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The San Jose Mercury News reports this morning that in his speech yesterday to the National Council of La Raza, Sen. John McCain "asked Latinos to trust him on the thorny issue of how to treat the nation's illegal immigrants, a day after Barack Obama accused the Arizona senator of backing away from his a key position for fear of alienating GOP conservatives." A "feisty" McCain said "he intends to make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority if elected." The Los Angeles Times adds McCain "proudly spoke of his 2006 collaboration with" Sen. Ted Kennedy "on a bill to overhaul immigration policy that included a guest worker program and a path to citizenship. The bill failed." Fox News' Special Report showed McCain saying, "I do ask for your trust that when I say I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it. I mean it. ... And with all due modesty, I think I've earned that trust." The Orange County Register adds McCain said he "would support a single legislative bill that would address both border security and the legalization of those now in the country illegally." However, he "reiterated securing the border would have to be achieved before beginning the legalization process, even if both issues were in the same bill."
The Washington Post reports McCain "said he would 'prefer' not to attack Barack Obama but felt obligated to respond to allegations that he backed away from comprehensive immigration reform for political reasons." The Washington Times reports McCain said, "I cast a lot of hard votes, as did the other Republicans and Democrats who joined our bipartisan effort. Senator Obama declined to cast some of those tough votes. He voted for and even sponsored amendments that were intended to kill the legislation."
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Sen. Barack Obama's address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "might have been the most historic speech in the 99-year history" of the group, but "in what was a moment of celebration for his personal achievement and the sacrifices of generations of African-Americans who came before him," he "had a strong message for the people of his race Monday night - particularly those who are raising children." Obama said, "Yes, we have to demand more responsibility from Washington and yes we have to demand more responsibility from Wall Street but we also have to demand more from ourselves." The Washington Post reports Obama "drew loud applause Monday night as he told one of the nation's most influential African American groups that he will press his call for blacks to take more responsibility for their lives." Similarly, the AP reports Obama "called on corporate America to exercise greater social responsibility. But he also received his most lusty applause as he urged blacks to demand more of themselves."
The Los Angeles Times says that Obama, "in diagnosing conditions in the black community, made it clear that he was prepared to break with the generation of black leadership represented by" Rev. Jesse Jackson.
However, for all the warm reception, USA Today adds that there was "some concern expressed in the hall before the speech began about whether Obama's attempts to appeal to white voters had diluted his commitment to issues of particular importance to black people."
The AP reports Sen. Barack Obama "will visit the West Bank next week as part of a swing through the Middle East, a Palestinian official said Monday, giving an important diplomatic boost to the Palestinians at a sensitive time in peace talks." Sen. John McCain "passed on meeting with the Palestinians during a brief visit to Israel." Obama is "scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his July 23 stop in Ramallah, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was in Paris for a Mediterranean summit." The New York Times adds Obama "may have some fence-mending to do with Mr. Abbas, who reacted angrily to comments on the status of Jerusalem that Mr. Obama made last month at a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby. Mr. Obama endorsed a two-state settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but said Jerusalem should remain, undivided, the capital of the Jewish nation."
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Jay Leno: "The New Yorker magazine coming under fire for this week's cover, showing Barack Obama in a turban, Michelle Obama with a machine gun, and a burning American flag in the fireplace. Show the cover. Look at this. It's supposed to be satire. And yeah, people are really upset. Even Jesse Jackson went, 'What the hell are you thinking?'"
Jay Leno: "Today, President Bush lifted the presidential ban on offshore drilling that was imposed by his father, the first President Bush, 18 years ago. But hey, remember Bush's dad also said invading Iraq would be a huge disaster, and cutting taxes would ruin the economy. So what the hell did he know?"
Jay Leno: "California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said today he would be interested in serving as Barack Obama's energy czar. At least, I think that's what he said. He might have said 'Yeah, I would like to have an energy bar.'"
Conan O'Brien: "Earlier today, President Bush announced he is lifting the executive ban on offshore drilling. Yeah. Going to lift the ban on offshore drilling. Yep. Yeah, that's true. Yep. Yeah, the President made the announcement during a speech entitled 'Ah, What The Hell?'"
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