Sen. Barack Obama on Friday suggested he could support an energy package that would allow some offshore drilling, a shift from his previous opposition to lifting the congressional ban on such activity. In its lead story, the CBS Evening News reported last night that "critics" say the move is opening Obama "to charges of flip-flopping," and his "new stance could give" Sen. John McCain "fresh ammunition" to continue to hammer at him. ABC World News, in its lead story, reported that McCain "switched positions first. Reluctantly, Obama followed suit this weekend, bucking Democratic leaders in Congress. Tonight, for the first time since he sewed up the nomination, Obama is on the defensive with leaders of his own party." NBC Nightly News did not cover the issue.
The race is now on to spin the change of position as either a flip-flop or as a smart adjustment to political realities. The Wall Street Journal says critics "are branding" Obama's move "a flip-flop, but Sen. Obama is citing it as an example of a central tenet of his candidacy: a willingness to bridge divisions to address long-festering problems." The AP says McCain "surrogates contended...that the Arizona Republican's turn toward drilling, which he had once opposed, showed how McCain would respond decisively to a crisis," while Obama's supporters "argued that his willingness to consider a bipartisan proposal including more drilling showed how the Illinois Democrat would pursue compromise to achieve results."
Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, on Fox News Sunday meanwhile, claimed Sen. Obama "has always been in favor of offshore drilling." Daschle explained that Obama previously favored additional drilling once the land already in use was fully exploited.
Obama Ad To Take Aim At McCain On Energy The AP reports that Obama's campaign is going on the air with a new TV spot that accuses McCain of too-close ties to the oil industry. Obama's ad says, "After one president in the pocket of big oil we can't afford another." The AP adds Obama's ad "trumpets his proposal to revive a windfall profits tax on energy companies and asserts that McCain favors tax breaks for the oil industry. 'A windfall profits tax on big oil to give families a thousand-dollar rebate,' an announcer in the ad says."
Both Candidates Highlighting Energy Issues In Michigan Both candidates are signaling that this week, at least in its early part, will be all about energy and all about wooing voters in the key state of Michigan. The AP reports that McCain will visit a nuclear power plant in Michigan tomorrow, while the East Lansing State News reports, "Democratic party officials say" Obama "will unveil his national energy plan during his visit to Lansing at 11 a.m. today."
The fate of the disputed delegates from Michigan and Florida was a hot topic during the Democratic primary, as Hillary Clinton had secured a majority of them. The AP reports that with the nomination firmly in hand, Barack Obama said in a letter that he now "wants convention delegates from Florida and Michigan to have full voting rights at the party's national convention." Obama said he made the move to foster "party unity." This "virtually guarantees the delegates will have full voting rights." McClatchy reports that Obama is "seeking closure of the bitter dispute that rocked Florida's Democratic primary," and "Democratic leaders welcomed the gesture." The Politico provides the text of the letter Obama sent to the DNC's rules and bylaws committee.
However, the New York Times reports that the move "is likely to cause consternation among party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar. Restoring full voting rights will essentially be giving a green light to other states to ignore the primary calendar next election."
The Palm Beach Post reports that Obama's move "may take away a line of attack from Republicans, who attempted to score points by ridiculing Democratic presidential candidates for ignoring a bellwether state like Florida." But Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer "said Florida Democrats 'won't forget how they've been treated.' 'Sen. Obama and the Democratic Party are trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,' Greer said. 'And just as in the fairy tale, you can't put something together after it's broken in so many pieces.'"
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The AP, in an article tiled, "Obama Backs Away From McCain's Debate Challenge," reported over the weekend that Sen. Barack Obama "backed away" from Sen. John McCain's "challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall." The AP notes that in May, "when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, 'I think that's a great idea.'" According to the AP, "Obama's reversal on town hall debates is part of a play-it-safe strategy he's adopted since claiming the nomination and grabbing a lead in national polls." The Politico reports discussions on more appearances had ceased "as the campaign has increasingly turned negative." The Hill adds that the Obama campaign announced that Rep. Rahm Emanuel will "take the lead on negotiating the specifics of the debates on behalf of the Obama campaign."
As the time for candidates to announce their running mates approaches, several new names are cropping as potential running mates. On ABC's This Week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, who represents President Bush's district, as a potential running mate for Barack Obama, saying, "For years, our colleagues have said to him, why don't you run for president? He is an extraordinarily talented person. He is a champion for veterans in the Congress. ... He's a master of needs of our military and their families. He understands the issues of nonproliferation. ... He represents President Bush in the Congress." On the GOP side, the AP reports that Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor is apparently being vetted by the McCain campaign.
Roll Call reports, "As he attempts to pursue a final burst of policymaking," President Bush "is stepping hard on the toes of" Sen. John McCain, "adopting issues and positions that are unhelpful or even harmful to the candidate." The "politically questionable moves" come at a time when Bush's "dismal" poll ratings are already helping the Democrats. As examples, Roll Call suggests Bush's sending of a high-ranking diplomat to talks with Iran, Bush's apparent acceptance of a "time horizon" for withdrawal from Iraq, and Bush's decision to sign a housing bill "that included some $4 billion that will assist Democratic-leaning housing advocates who want to register millions of anti-McCain voters."
The Gallup daily presidential tracking poll shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 45%-44%. The previous two days had show Obama and McCain tied at 44%. The poll surveyed 2,684 registered voters from July 31-August 2. The Rasmussen Reports automated daily presidential tracking poll for August 3 shows Obama leading McCain 44%-43%, and 47%-46% with leaners included.
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USA Today reports "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday ruled out a vote on new offshore oil drilling even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he might be open to a compromise that included it." The Speaker "called proposals to allow more offshore drilling a deceptive 'decoy' rather than a solution and indicated she would bar a vote on any bill that included it. 'I'm not giving the gavel away to a tactic...that supports the oil (companies), big oil at the cost and the expense of the consumer,' she said on ABC's This Week." Asked on ABC's This Week to explain why she "won't...permit a straight up-or-down vote," Pelosi answered, "What our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be 2 cents at the time. If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something. But to single shoot on something that won't work and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump, I'm just not going to be a party of it."
This morning, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, House Minority Leader John Boehner advocates "unlocking America's vast energy resources" by removing government limits on where "energy development" can take place, such as "far off our coasts, on the remote North Slope of Alaska, and in the Inter-Mountain West." He adds that if Pelosi "would allow a vote on our comprehensive energy plan... we could create more American jobs, reduce America's energy dependence on nations with ties to global terrorism, cut emissions to promote a healthy environment, and raise our quality of life."
Meanwhile, says the Washington Times, "some Republicans say they are prepared to vote against a resolution to fund the federal government for the 2009 fiscal year unless Democrats agree to lift an offshore drilling moratorium. ... 'We don't want the government shutdown to be an issue, but the fact is the Democrats are so overconfident that they're willing to talk about a ban and they're willing to talk about raising taxes on gasoline, so this is just pretty incredible,' said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who is circulating a letter encouraging colleagues to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, strike the drilling moratorium from the budget resolution."
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, on CNN's Late Edition, alleged that the Republican Party, "as usual, is taking their marching orders from big oil. They've refused to extend tax credits for wind and solar this week. They've refused to take action against excess speculation. They've refused to do anything except what big oil wants. ... Long term, the only way to get us out from underneath foreign oil is to turn to alternatives, which the Republicans are not interested in unless we're dealing with big oil." In an editorial, the New York Times seems to agree, writing, "It's hard not to be exasperated and even a little frightened by the Senate's selfishly partisan approach to the nation's energy challenge in the days leading up to its August recess."
"Energy Freedom Commission" Never Established The Washington Times reports this morning, "Neither President Bush nor Congress has acted to appoint members to a commission intended to boost US energy independence in the three years since Congress enacted a law establishing the panel." The Times adds, "White House officials defended the failure to establish the United States Commission on North American Energy Freedom, saying this is a time for action, not commissions." In a July 29 letter, Texas Rep. Joe L. Barton, the ranking Republican of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, urged "the president to take steps toward creating the commission." The Energy Policy Act of 2005 "authorized the president to appoint 16 members to the bipartisan commission. But the commission was never created."
The New York Times reports this morning that "the evidence amassed by F.B.I. investigators against Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, the Army scientist who killed himself last week after learning that he was likely to be charged in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, was largely circumstantial, and a grand jury in Washington was planning to hear several more weeks of testimony before issuing an indictment, a person who has been briefed on the investigation said on Sunday." The Times adds FBI agents "have no evidence proving that Dr. Ivins visited New Jersey on the dates in September and October 2001 when investigators believe the letters were sent from a Princeton mailbox, the source said. The source acknowledged that there might be some elements of the evidence of which he was unaware." The Times noted, "One law enforcement official said on Sunday that evidence against Dr. Ivins might be made public as early as Wednesday, if the bureau could persuade a federal judge to unseal the evidence and if agents could brief survivors of the anthrax attacks and family members of those who died."
The Wall Street Journal reports, "The total physical evidence in the anthrax case was this: four hand-addressed envelopes; four letters, two of which bore identical text; and a small amount of anthrax itself. ... There was far more evidence in the case of the infamous Unabomber, who constructed his own bombs and packed them in wooden boxes he fashioned himself, leaving a cornucopia of elements to trace."
However, the Los Angeles Times (8/4, Willman, 833K) reports, "Federal investigators cinched their case against...Ivins after sophisticated genetic tests by a California firm helped them trace a signature mixture of anthrax spores, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Well before the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, Ivins, through his work as a government scientist, had combined anthrax spores obtained from at least one outside laboratory, people familiar with the evidence said. With the help of leading outside geneticists and a fresh look at the evidence by a new team of street-savvy investigators, the FBI concluded in recent months that only Ivins could reasonably have perpetrated the crimes." The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among other news outlets, also reports on the genetic tests.
Did Bush Pressure FBI To Blame Al Qaeda? The New York Daily News reported yesterday that "in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned. After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was 'beaten up' during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide." The News noted public statements made by President Bush and Vice President Cheney in October 2001 suggesting that bin Laden was behind the attack, however, the Daily News added, "'Very quickly [Fort Detrick, Md., experts] told us this was not something some guy in a cave could come up with,' the ex-FBI official said. 'They couldn't go from box cutters one week to weapons-grade anthrax the next.'"
Ivins Kept Security Clearance The Washington Post reports, "As an FBI investigation increasingly focused on him...Ivins enjoyed a security clearance that allowed him to work in the facility's most dangerous laboratories, to handle deadly biological agents, and to take part in broad discussions about the Pentagon's defenses against germ warfare. On July 10, the day he was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation, for example, Ivins spent part of the afternoon at a sensitive briefing on a new bubonic plague vaccine under development at the Army's elite biological weapons testing center, according to a former colleague who talked with him there." The Post notes, "Colleagues question how Ivins could have maintained his security credentials if the FBI suspected him in the anthrax case."
The Los Angeles Times reports, "The struggle for the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk sabotaged another effort by Iraq's parliament to approve a law Sunday allowing crucial local elections this year, a stalemate that also raised questions about whether major Shiite and Sunni parties were deliberately stalling on sending people to the polls." The Times adds that "despite a meeting of senior Iraqi leaders and US and UN officials seeking a compromise on Kirkuk, members of parliament failed even to muster a quorum for Sunday's emergency session. Iraqi officials vowed to try again today, days after lawmakers were supposed to adjourn for a monthlong summer recess." The current "stalemate emphasized the fissures and entrenched positions among Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds in northern Iraq, which often threaten to spill over into violence." McClatchy says US Amb. Iraq Ryan Crocker "has been heavily involved in negotiations to end the impasse. Crocker attended meetings on Saturday, and late Sunday he met with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki; Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region; and other political heavyweights." And President Bush "called Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi Sunday and urged all sides to reach an agreement, according to a statement from Abdul Mahdi's office." The New York Times reports "the pressure from the Americans irked some participants. 'It's interfering in an inappropriate way with the Iraqis,' said Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish lawmaker. 'I don't know why they are so much in a hurry for this law. Anything done under pressure will not be workable.'"
The Washington Post notes "Kurds want Kirkuk to become part of the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, but Arabs and Turkmens want the city to remain under central government control." The elections, adds the Post, "would give more power to regions as well as to Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the last provincial elections in 2005. The Bush administration views the vote as vital to bridging Iraq's political divide and cementing security gains."
NYTimes: Put UN In Charge Of Kirkuk Under the headline "A Major Political Test For Iraq," the New York Times editorializes, "Compromises on Kirkuk are theoretically possible, but only the UN seems to be seriously trying to find one. That's baffling, since no one, other than the Iraqis, has more vested in keeping the lid on violence and on tension with Turkey and Iran than the United States. ... If Iraqi leaders cannot settle the matter, they might consider putting Kirkuk and its environs under United Nations administration as was done with Brcko after the Balkan wars. The imperative is to ensure that Kirkuk's future is not drawn in blood."
In an interview with ABC World News during a trip to Africa, President Clinton was asked about the "the genocide happened" in Rwanda while he was "was in the White House. Do you still feel guilt about what happened in Rwanda?" Clinton replied, "No, not guilt. I've atoned for that. I came here in '98 and told them I was sorry. But I feel a lifetime responsibility." The former president also spoke about his wife's presidential campaign. Asked "Do you personally have any regrets about what you did campaigning for your wife?" Clinton said, "Yes, but not the ones you think. And it would be counterproductive for me to talk about it. There are things that I wish I'd urged her to do. Things I wished I had said. Things I wished I hadn't said. But I am not a racist. I never made a racist comment. And I didn't attack him personally."
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Jay Leno: "Welcome to 'The Tonight Show.' ... What a crowd! You sound like Dick Cheney looking at Exxon's profits."
Jay Leno: "Barack Obama told Tom Brokaw the other day on 'Meet the Press' that what he's looking for in a vice president is a person who will tell him when they thought he was wrong, to which president Bush said, 'Trust me. That gets old really fast.'"
David Letterman: Top Ten New Words. "10. McCaincient."
David Letterman: Top Ten New Words. "7. Osama Mia!"
David Letterman: Top Ten New Words. "1. Presidork."
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