The media is awash in the last 24 hours with coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's trip to Iraq, and the central theme of the coverage is that the Iraqi government is on board with Obama's plan for a withdrawal of US combat forces in 16 months. ABC World News, in its lead story, said "Obama came to Baghdad and he brought his star power with him." The New York Times reports Obama "arrived in Baghdad on Monday, meeting with" Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "and other senior Iraqi politicians," along with several US officials. The Financial Times says Obama "received a red carpet welcome from the Iraqi government, which called for the withdrawal of US combat forces by the end of 2010." Ali Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, "said the 2010 goal was an 'Iraqi vision'. His comments came after Maliki this weekend appeared to support Mr Obama's timeframe in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel." Dabbagh said yesterday, "We can't give any schedules or dates, but the Iraqi government sees the suitable date for withdrawal of the US forces is by the end of 2010." The AP notes that "roughly mirrored the Illinois senator's withdrawal schedule and offered a glimpse of Iraq's growing confidence as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles."
The move by Iraq's government is seen as providing a domestic political boost to Obama. For example, NBC Nightly News said Iraq's leaders have become "Obama's unlikely allies. ... Whatever political benefit that Obama gets from this trip, his calls for more rapid withdrawal have helped Iraq's government to pressure President Bush to seek an exit strategy." On ABC World News, political analyst George Stephanopoulos said, "Halfway through the trip, it's going about as well as it can possibly go" for Obama, who has "hit all his marks." Under the headline "For Obama, A First Step Is Not A Misstep," the New York Times reports in a front-page analysis that the Iraqi move is "providing Mr. Obama with a potentially powerful political boost on a day he spent in Iraq working to fortify his credibility as a wartime leader." The Washington Post says that "as political theater, the events of the past few days have played unfailingly in the Democrat's favor." On MSNBC's Hardball, Roger Simon of The Politico.com said, "Talk about message management. The Obama campaign seems to have managed the message of the Maliki government." CNN's The Situation Room reported Obama is "6,200 miles from the nearest U.S. campaign trail, but, as he steps into the international arena, the imagery sent back home is all American, commander in chief-like, a helicopter tour of Iraq with David Petraeus, the general in charge of multinational forces, a chow-down with the troops in Afghanistan, basketball with US forces in Kuwait."
Obama Already Impacting Situation? The Wall Street Journal this morning suggests that Obama's call for a timetable for withdrawal appears to already be impacting the negotiations between the US and Iraq. The WSJ says, "The continuing discussions appeared to reflect the influence of" Obama, who "advocates removal of all US combat forces by 16 months after the election, or mid-2010." Yesterday, "White House press secretary Dana Perino said a pending security framework agreement likely would include specific dates." Perino "didn't rule out a 2010 horizon." The AP adds Perino "acknowledged the Iraqis might be trying to use the election for leverage. 'I think that a lot of other people look through the lens of a 2008 presidential election,' Perino said. 'Might they be? Sure. I mean, it's possible.'"
Defends 2007 Opposition To "Surge" Obama granted an interview to ABC World News, and was asked, "If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you, would you support the surge?" Obama said he wouldn't, and when pressed on the issue, added, "These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush Administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with."
Sen. John McCain sharply criticized his Democratic rival on the Iraq issue yesterday, but most media reports emphasize the Republican senator's difficulty in gaining any attention in the midst of the massive coverage Sen. Barack Obama is receiving during his foreign tour. All three network newscasts led with Obama's trip last night, and devoted a total of 16 minutes and 45 seconds to the Illinois senator compared to just 6 minutes and 55 seconds to McCain's response. The CBS Evening News reported, "To dull the shine of Iraq's leaders' endorsing Obama's withdrawal timeline, McCain reminded voters that Obama was against the same surge that's now made all this drawdown talk possible." McCain: "When you win wars, troops come home. And we are winning. And the fact is, if we'd have done what Senator Obama wanted to do, we have would have lost." ABC World News added McCain's "message" yesterday "was somewhat drowned out by repeated questions about his differences with Obama on the war." The Portland Press Herald reports that McCain, who was in Maine yesterday, "reminded a crowd at the Maine Military Museum grounds that Obama opposed the troop surge last year and has yet to acknowledge that it has worked. He suggested that Obama's position reflects a lack of judgment and experience on national security."
McCain also met with former President Bush while in Maine. The Wall Street Journal reports that the former President "said he is 'strongly supporting him' adding, 'My respect for him has no bounds.'" The Portland Press Herald reports that the former president "praised the Arizona senator's integrity and courage while hosting a fundraising reception for McCain contributors at the Bush home on Walker's Point, drawing dozens of guests at $2,300 a pop."
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The CBS Evening News reported that Sen. John McCain's camp "is criticizing what it sees as fawning coverage from a pro-Obama media, and the New York Times op-ed page is the latest evidence. After Obama laid out his Iraq policy in a column, McCain submitted a response. 'I was an early advocate of the surge,' he wrote. 'Senator Obama was an equally vocal opponent.' The paper's op-ed editor, David Shipley, a former Bill Clinton speechwriter, declined to publish it, saying he would be pleased to look at another draft if it would lay out a clear plan for achieving victory." NBC Nightly News briefly reported the controversy, "Late today, the paper responded that it was standard procedure to suggest revisions and had published at least seven McCain editorials."
On CNN's The Situation Room, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post said, "The opinion page of 'The New York Times' is precious real estate, which is why Barack Obama used it last week to preview a speech on Iraq. But the price of admission is apparently a bit higher for John McCain." It's "fairly common for opinion editors to ask contributors for more details. But for The Times' liberal page to impose a stringent list of conditions on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, days after publishing a similar piece on the subject by the presumptive Democratic nominee, is rather unusual."
This morning, the New York Post runs the op-ed McCain penned for the NYTimes. In the piece, McCain says the "surge's success hasn't changed Sen. Obama's determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale." In 2007, "he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we'd taken his advice, the war would have been lost. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance." The op-ed also runs in today's Boston Herald.
The Los Angeles Times adds, "It's possible that top Republicans are delighted to have a fresh reason to flog a newspaper that is a tried-and-true target for conservatives. And the flap probably has called far more attention to the McCain article -- run in its entirety by Drudge -- than would have been the case had it cropped up, without fanfare, inside the Times."
Poll Finds 49% Believe Media Trying To Boost Obama The Politico reports, "Half of Americans think the press is trying to help Sen. Barack Obama win the presidential election, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports. In an automated survey of 1000 likely voters, Rasmussen found that 49 percent of respondents believed reporters would favor Obama in their coverage this fall, compared with just 14 percent who expected them to boost Sen. John McCain."
In the same vein, the New York Daily News reports, "A mildly exasperated NBC News team Monday dismissed complaints about overcovering Barack Obama's Middle East trip this week as a lot of 'hot air' -- and also declared that MSNBC viewers don't mind a bit if opinionated analysts like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann anchor straight news coverage. 'We get criticized for not covering enough hard news,' NBC News President Steve Capus told members of the Television Critics Association. 'Look how many stories are being covered on the Obama trip -- Israel, the Middle East, the war.'"
As Sen. Barack Obama continues his trip to the Middle East, media analyses this morning suggest an Obama presidency would not substantially alter the US approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Under the headline "Mideast Sees More Of The Same If Obama Is Elected," for example, the New York Times reports "there is one point" Palestinians and Israelis "may now agree on: If elected president...Obama will not fundamentally recalibrate America's relationship with Israel, or the Arab world." Similarly, the Christian Science Monitor reports from Saudi Arabia that "even those who like Obama's personality are not expecting him to initiate major turnabouts on US Middle East policies, particularly on the most contentious one of all, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." McClatchy reports that "many Palestinians worry that Obama will bend over backward in favoring Israel," while "many conservative Israelis worry that the 46-year-old first-term senator with roots in liberal Chicago circles is naive when he talks about peace negotiations."
The Washington Times reports, "Oil prices could hit $300 a barrel if the United States does not take drastic action to reduce its heavy dependence on foreign oil, but neither of the top presidential candidates is addressing the crisis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Monday." Pickens "said he has stopped giving to political campaigns and renounced his previous Republican affiliation in his drive to focus the nation's attention on the need for immediate, drastic action on energy" such as solar and wind. The Washington Post says that "perhaps the strangest role" Pickens "has fashioned for himself is his current one: the billionaire speculator as energy wise man, an oil-and-gas magnate as champion of wind power, and a lifetime Republican who has become a fellow traveler among environmentally minded Democrats -- even though he helped finance the 'Swift boat' ads that savaged" Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. In an editorial, the New York Times reports Pickens "has decided that drilling for more oil is not the answer to the nation's energy problems. President Bush should listen to his fellow Texan and longtime political ally."
Obama Up 6 In Gallup Tracking The Gallup daily presidential tracking poll shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain 47%-41%, up from a 45%-42% in the previous installment.
Obama Up Six In Ohio The Dayton Daily News reports that a Public Policy Polling (D) shows Sen. Barack Obama leads Sen. John McCain 48%-42% in Ohio. The survey of 1,058 likely Ohio voters was conducted July 17-20.
Obama Up Three In New Hampshire The AP reports a University of New Hampshire poll of 475 likely New Hampshire voters taken July 11-20 shows Obama leading McCain 46%-43%.
Obama Up 2 In Michigan The Detroit News reports a Michigan EPIC-MRA/Detroit News/WXYZ poll of 600 likely voters taken July 13-16 shows Obama leading McCain 43%-41% in Michigan.
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Republicans are eager to continue pushing an expansion of exploration for oil and natural gas in US coastal waters, a debate which they believe plays to their advantage. With Democrats opposed to most drilling plans, the stage is set for partisan clashes as the November election season approaches. Roll Call reports the "looming Sept. 30 expiration of the federal offshore drilling ban has Republicans eyeing a high-stakes showdown on their favorite issue." A measure to maintain the drilling ban is "likely to be included in a continuing resolution to keep the government running through the elections and into next year. The GOP will try to amend the CR to drop the ban, but if Democrats block them as expected, Republicans will again blame Democrats for stopping domestic energy production."
The Hill reports, "The bipartisan working group seeking compromise on energy legislation is crafting a bill that would allow oil and gas drilling off the coasts, said a source familiar with negotiations, with one-third of the royalties to go to alternative and renewable energy." The group is "considering language ordering a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and reining in speculation in oil markets. But members are not discussing opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration."
Enviros Quiet On Democrats' Drilling Plans The Hill reports environmental groups "have railed for years against President Bush and the Republican Congress, calling on them to resist drilling the nation's public lands. But now that Democrats are pushing a bill to speed up drilling in those areas, environmentalists have neither revved up the outrage nor endorsed the effort."
Pump Prices Ease. ABC World News reported, "Some oil companies have evacuated workers from rigs in the Gulf, and concerns about Dolly sent oil prices up more than two dollars today, closing above $131 a barrel. But after last week's steep drop in oil, drivers are enjoying the first significant drop at the pump in four months. Gas prices dropped a nickel last week. They now average across the country $4.06 a gallon."
Fears Grow Over Long-Term Oil Supplies On its front page, the Los Angeles Times reports, "With gasoline and oil costing once-unthinkable barrels of cash, the notion that things in our petroleum-addicted world soon will get worse -- maybe much, much worse -- is spreading fast." Behind "today's oil mania lies a deeper dread: that the world has found all the easy-to-reach oil, and the daily supply of the essential black goo will fall further and further behind escalating global demand."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice struck a hard line with Iran on Monday, saying the Tehran government faced harsh sanctions after failing, in her view, to take an earnest position in weekend talks with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. The AP reports Secretary Rice "accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior US diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions." Rice "said Iran had given the run-around to envoys from the US and five other world powers," who are "serious about a two-week deadline" under which Iran "now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties."
The New York Times, meanwhile, reports that "for officials of the six countries sitting on the other side of the table," a two-page response delivered Saturday by the Iranians "addressed none of their ideas for resolving the crisis over Iran's nuclear program." Instead, the "informal" document "ignored the main six-power demand on curbing Iran's enrichment of uranium and called for concessions from the other side."
In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal says that "in its waning days, the Bush Administration seems to be veering toward a policy of détente with Iran. ... What precisely did Iran do to deserve the warm shoulder?" Iran is "behaving like a rogue state even as it is increasingly accorded the respect due a normal one."
US To Hold Talks With Syrian Officials The AP reports the State Department on Monday said Assistant Secretary of State David Welch "will meet with Syrian officials traveling to Washington, if requested." Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos "told reporters Monday it was unclear who will be participating or when a meeting...would take place." AFP notes "Syria is on a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism," and adds that "Riad Daoudi, Syrian lead negotiator with Israeli officials in Turkey and legal adviser to the Syrian foreign ministry, and Ahmad Samir al-Taki, a consultant to the Syrian prime minister, are in Washington on a private trip. Part of a four-member group from Damascus, they will participate at a forum 'Engaging Syria: new negotiations, old challenges' at Washington-based Brookings Institution on Wednesday."
The New York Times, meanwhile, reports Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem "reiterated on Monday that Syria intends to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time since the two nations gained independence more than 60 years ago."
The first military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay got underway yesterday in the case of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver. The tribunal is receiving heavy media coverage and is widely seen as a trial run for upcoming prosecutions of the 9/11 plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. NBC Nightly News reported, "Salim Hamdan, a former Osama Bin Laden bodyguard, is accused of driving a carload of surface-to-air missiles, like these, to al Qaeda fighters on the front lines in Afghanistan in 2001." ABC World News noted Hamdan "pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism" in what "is really the first system-wide test of this thing the government created to try all these terror suspects down at Guantanamo." Hamdan's trial, added ABC, "is really the test case, the trial run." Calling Hamdan's trial an "opening act," the CBS Evening News reported, "While the government accuses Hamdan of conspiring with al Qaeda, his attorneys claim he was merely a driver for Osama Bin Laden."
The Washington Post reports on its front page that the military judge in the case, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, "ruled Monday evening that prosecutors...cannot use as evidence some of the statements" Hamdan "gave to interrogators because the information was obtained under 'highly coercive' conditions." Among the statements Allred threw out included one made by Hamdan "after he was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, including detailed descriptions of the al-Qaeda leader's whereabouts."
The AP reports that during his captivity at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Hamdan "was kept in isolation 24 hours a day with his hands and feet restrained, and armed soldiers prompted him to talk by kneeing him in the back." The Miami Herald, however, reports that "left unresolved Monday night was whether the judge would accept testimony on a key May 2003 interrogation session at Guantánamo with the FBI's al Qaeda expert, Ali Soufan."
The Washington Post reports, "Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons could be deployed to Cuba in response to US plans to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian newspaper reported Monday." It was "unclear if the source was suggesting that Russia would reopen a base in Cuba or merely use an airfield there for stopovers by the bombers."
The Washington Times reports "Russia is showing its irritation with US intervention in its back yard by selling more weapons to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez." Chavez "is to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday with a reported billion-dollar shopping list of armaments, including submarines and helicopters. It is the controversial Latin American leader's third visit to Moscow since 2006, when he purchased $3 billion in Russian weapons systems."
Russia Restores Oil Flow To Czechs The New York Times reports, "Russia's prime minister and former president, Vladimir V. Putin, instructed his government on Monday to restore the Czech Republic's flow of oil, reduced after the Czechs signed an agreement with the United States to base a missile defense radar on their territory." The Times adds, "As the Russians oppose that system, the slowdown in oil supplies had stirred speculation Russia was retaliating by curtailing energy exports to that country, something the Russian government denied."
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Jay Leno: "Well, in political news, there was a huge reception for Barack Obama in the Middle East this past weekend. People were screaming, chasing him, hanging on his every word -- and that was just the US press corps."
Jay Leno: "And John McCain's economic adviser Phil Gramm has quit the campaign. The official reason -- he was a whiner and all his problems were mental."
David Letterman: "Anybody go to Yankee Stadium yesterday?" Rudolph Giuliani "took his buddy John McCain to the" game. And "did you know this? It was Old White Guy Day."
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