The Washington Post reports in a front page story that "more than a week after" John McCain "launched a string of increasingly personal attacks" on Barack Obama, "Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000," are concerned "that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character." The Post adds that interviews with "nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity."
McCain Tees Off On Obama With Another Ad Meanwhile, McCain is out with another new ad attacking Obama, the Los Angeles Times reports this morning, with a new spot entitled "Family," that "includes the taunt: 'Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?'" The ad "does not feature celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears," but it "makes the same political point, that Obama, shown before a joyous crowd, is not a leader, but a publicity phenomenon." The AP said the ad also "opens another line of attack - that the country would lose jobs if the Democrat's economic policies were enacted." On the CBS Evening News, analyst Jeff Greenfield said, "Celebrities not only are richer, they lead more privileged lives. They think they're better than we are. Many celebrities are prominent liberals, and I think that's exactly the intention -- to say Barack Obama thinks he's better than you, or I think that's very much the undertone of what they're doing."
With the national conventions rapidly approaching, the media is growing hungry for any signs about who the candidates' picks for vice president will ultimately be. That theme dominated the coverage of Barack Obama's campaign swing through Indiana yesterday, where he campaigned with potential running mate Sen. Evan Bayh. The New York Times, for example, said "there was more scrutiny of the interaction between the two men than would be usual at such an event." However, Obama won't talk about possible running mates, "which is exactly why there was so much attention paid to body language and nuance when Mr. Bayh was in his company on Wednesday." The Indianapolis Star reports that Obama "is making a big push to become the first Democrat to win Indiana since Lyndon Johnson did so in 1964. Some Democrats think he can lock the state up by picking" Bayh "as his running mate, and many had hoped that announcement could come" yesterday. The South Bend Tribune notes, "There was none of the traditional 'Senator Obama' and 'Senator Bayh' Washington-speak formality between the two men. Bayh repeated[ly] referred to Obama as Barack. And Obama referred to Bayh as 'one of the finest United States senators that we have.'" The Washington Post says Bayh was pressed on the issue throughout the day, and had to face questions "about his discussions with Obama, the timetable for a vice presidential pick and a variety of other subjects he did not want to address."
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On the GOP side, the media is also honing its attention in on a candidate they see as a potential GOP vp pick. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty "rolled out his 'Sam's Club Republican' brand to a national audience Wednesday, making two well-covered speeches calling for a more hopeful message to check recent Democratic electoral gains." Pawlenty "said Republicans must broaden their appeal to a new generation of 'Reagan Democrats' -- the same young and working-class voters being targeted by...Obama. ... 'We want to be the party of Sam's Club, not just the country club.' he said." In his "Washington Sketch" column for the Washington Post, Dana Milbank describes Pawlenty as campaigning "actively, if unofficially, to be McCain's mate." Milbank examines Pawlenty's speeches yesterday and concludes, "All in all, a strong audition."
The Wall Street Journal reports that as a vice presidential candidate, Pawlenty "could provide several advantages for Sen. McCain's presidential bid. Many conservatives view the governor favorably, or a least with interest. His state, Minnesota, could be in play this year. ... Unlike Sen. McCain, Gov. Pawlenty also is widely admired in the evangelical community nationally."
Obama Up 6 In CBS/NYT Poll. A new CBS News /New York Times poll of 906 registered voters taken July 31-August 5 shows Obama leading McCain 45%-39%, about the same spread as a month ago. The CBS Evening News reported, "With...McCain increasingly on offense and...Obama more and more on defense, the two candidates appear to be fighting each other to a standstill in their attempts to brand the other guy as the wrong choice." The Boston Globe adds that the CBS poll "reported that 30 percent of voters said the vice presidential pick will have 'a great deal of influence' on their vote -- double the percentage who said so in the 2000 election. Nearly half of the 13 percent of voters calling themselves undecided said that the choice of running mate will make a difference."
Obama Up 5 In Time Poll. A Time poll taken July 31-August 4 shows Obama leading McCain 46%-41% "when undecided voters with a slight preference are included (the margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points). That gap is the same as the presumptive Democratic nominee held in June."
Tracking Polls Remain Tight. Despite the mid-single digit gaps in the two national polls out today, the Gallup daily presidential tracking poll shows Obama leading McCain 46%-44%, down from a 47%-43% in the previous installment. Gallup surveyed 2,691 registered voters from August 3-5. The Rasmussen Reports automated daily presidential tracking poll for August 6 shows Obama leading McCain 45%-43%, and 47%-46% when leaners are included.
Poll Results Suggest Public Suffering From Obama Fatigue The AP reports that in a new poll out from the Pew Research Center, "nearly half say they're already tired of hearing about" Obama, while "just 26 percent" said the same about McCain. In a story headlined "VOTERS OD ON MEDIA 'O'-VERKILL," the New York Post notes, "More than half of independents say they're drowning in Obama info, while more than four in 10 want more McCain news."
Obama Up Six In Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/7, Gilbert, 240K) reports this morning that Obama leads McCain 44%-38% among likely voters in a new poll by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The poll of 600 likely voters was taken Aug 3-4.
Obama Up 21 In New York. A Quinnipiac University Poll of 1,353 likely New York State voters taken July 31-August 4 shows Obama leading McCain 57%-36%.
The AP reports Barack Obama's novel plan to "bring the debate over gas prices straight to the pumps hit a roadblock Wednesday. What sounded like a great way to reach a captive audience as they pumped $4-a-gallon gas into their car crashed and burned quickly when the company that sells spots on small, gas pump televisions rejected the idea." The Miami Herald reports the ad was "nixed at the last minute because the advertising company's chief said it reflected poorly on the oil industry, according to the presidential candidate's campaign." The Tampa Tribune reports, "The Obama campaign blamed the oil industry, saying the company went back on an agreement to run the ads. 'The oil companies shut us down,' campaign spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh charged. She later retracted that remark, but Mark Bubriski, communications director for the campaign in Florida, issued a statement saying almost the same thing."
The AP reports Sen. John McCain yesterday called on Congress to return from its summer recess immediately "to address immediately the U.S. energy crisis, though he missed numerous energy-related votes in the Senate last year." Campaigning in Ohio, McCain "said that as president he would tell members of Congress 'not to leave town, not to take their vacation or pay raise' until they passed legislation to ease the burden of high energy prices on consumers."
The Twin Cities may be hosting the GOP convention next month, but last night a number of wealthy locals came out for Barack Obama. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, "More than 350 generous campaign contributors -- some of them donating $28,500 to dine with a presidential candidate -- cheered Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday at an exclusive fundraiser for him at the Hilton Minneapolis Hotel. ... It cost $1,000 to attend the general reception at which Obama spoke. His campaign didn't disclose how many people donated $5,000 to have their picture taken with him. But 50 people paid $28,500 each to dine privately with him."
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Yesterday's release of the evidence against Bruce Ivins for the 2001 anthrax attacks garnered widespread media coverage, with most news stories emphasizing the circumstantial nature of the evidence and Ivins' lawyer's adamant denial that it proves the scientist was the culprit. The Washington Post, for example, reports on its front page that "scientists and legal experts noted that the evidence is far from foolproof." In its lead story. ABC World News said "the evidence is compelling. But it also raises many questions." The CBS Evening News refers to "a strong circumstantial case," but adds "the evidence does not directly connect Ivins to the anthrax letters and does not directly tie him to a New Jersey post box where they were sent out." NBC Nightly News similarly says "this is a circumstantial case with no absolute proof that he did it."
McClatchy reports "the timing of the announcement, a week after Ivins' suicide and a month after the government paid another former Fort Detrick scientist almost $6 million for wrongly implicating him for years, drew skepticism about whether authorities now actually had the right man." Similar assessments of the FBI's case appear in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor,Newark Star-Ledger ), Roll Call, The Hill and USA Today. Echoing those views, an editorial in the Washington Post calls the evidence "overwhelming" but urges an independent review. And USA Today editorializes that the FBI's case was "powerful" but "less than airtight."
In comments that appear to run counter to much Democratic criticism of the Administration, the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill reports, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday "said the military situation in Afghanistan has greatly improved," even if "US troops need more resources." Reid was "on a week-long trip to central Asia and Europe with Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)." Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Reid said, "We've been so focused on Iraq, and we all know Afghanistan has not received the attention and resources it needs. ... We are where we are, but not where we should be. After 9/11, we spent a little time here and left. It would have been better if we'd spent more resources here. We didn't, and that can't be undone. But we are in a better position now. ... I feel we're in pretty good shape." Roll Call, meanwhile, reports Reid "said Wednesday that his trip to Afghanistan and Central Asia has only made him more convinced that the United States needs to beef up its anti-terrorism forces in the region."
On its front page, meanwhile, the New York Times reports "June was the second deadliest month for the military in Afghanistan since the war began, with 23 American deaths from hostilities, compared with 22 in Iraq. July was less deadly, with 20 deaths, compared with six in Iraq. On July 22, nearly seven years after the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States lost its 500th soldier in the Afghanistan war." Further complicating the US mission there, says the Christian Science Monitor, is Pakistan's continuing struggle to remove Taliban elements from intelligence agencies.
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ABC World News reported last night that "the first US war crimes trial since World War II ended today with a split verdict against Osama bin Laden's former driver. A jury of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, convicted Salim Hamdan of supporting terrorism, but cleared him of the more serious charge of conspiracy. Still, he could face life in prison." In a statement, the AP reports White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said, "We're pleased that Salim Hamdan received a fair trial," adding that the "Military Commission system is a fair and appropriate legal process for prosecuting detainees alleged to have committed crimes against the United States or our interests." At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said Hamdan was "zealously represented by his defense team. The jury made their decision based on the law and the facts presented in court. We respect that decision."
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports on its front page that the split verdict in the case "only intensified the debate over whether...Hamdan's conviction was preordained in an unfair system -- or whether military trials are appropriate for people accused of committing heinous acts against the United States." Though it calls the acquittal on the conspiracy charges "a setback for the military prosecutors," the New York Times says the split verdict "gave both sides in the long debate over the procedures here grounds for their competing claims. Supporters said the system's fairness was illustrated by the careful verdict, while critics said the trial, which featured secret evidence and closed proceedings, demonstrated the injustice of the Bush administration's military commission system." Michael J. Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for Guantánamo, "said the defense was encouraged by the verdict," describing "the conspiracy charge that was rejected by the panel as the government's main charge."
Berrigan, adds USA Today, also said Hamdan "did not fully understand the impact of the ruling as it was read in court. But his attorneys immediately viewed it as a partial victory since he was acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy." And for military prosecutors, the Wall Street Journal reports, "the single-count conviction offered a measured victory in the administration's fraught effort to resurrect an abbreviated form of justice for the nation's enemies." Human rights groups, Fox Special Report reported, "called it a show trial, because even if he were acquitted, the government could keep holding Hamdan at Gitmo as an enemy combatant." The Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Times, McClatchy and AFP are among the other media outlets that reported the verdict.
In an editorial, the New York Times criticizes the tribunal system, "calling it a stain on the United States." The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, says Hamdan's conviction "vindicates the use of military commissions to try terrorists." The Los Angeles Times, in its editorial page, says the split verdict "redeems somewhat the military commission system," but Hamdan's trial "fell short of the highest traditions of American justice, and even if he files a successful appeal, he would not be set free."
In a speech to be delivered today in Bangkok whose text the White House released to reporters yesterday President Bush is expected to rebuke China on its human rights record. The Washington Times reports the White House "released the text of the speech...in an apparent attempt to buffer its impact before Mr. Bush travels to Beijing on Thursday for the Olympics." The President, adds the Times, "Bush faced a desire not to embarrass China in its moment of glory, a call for strong words by those dismayed by China's repression, and a determination to remind the world that he has been quietly urging China to allow greater freedom during his presidency." Likewise, the AP says the White House "released Bush's prepared remarks about 18 hours in advance, which had the buffer effect of putting a news cycle between his speech and his arrival in Beijing on Thursday. But his message will surely be noted in China, which has already knocked Bush for intruding in its affairs by hosting Chinese dissidents at the White House ahead of the games."
The Washington Post reports the President's address will include "some of his bluntest language to date on human rights in China, saying that 'America stands in firm opposition' to China's detention of political dissidents and religious activists." But White House press secretary Dana Perino "said the president chose to make the comments as part of a larger assessment of US relations with Asia." Said Perino, "This speech puts together what the president has been saying for 7 1/2 years but does it in a very focused way." The New York Times calls Bush's planned remarks "a rebuke to China's leaders, though a measured one," and goes on to reports that "with Mr. Bush's attendance at the games prompting debate and criticism, the White House has sought to strike a balance between expressing support for advocates of greater political and personal freedom in China and cultivating cooperation with China's government on a host of trade and security issues." USA Today, AFP and The Hill run similar reports. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, notes that in addition to expressing "his concern about the fate of political dissidents in China," the President will also speak about "his determination to bring an end to the 'tyranny' of the military regime" in Burma as part of his "major policy speech designed to assure the US's Asian allies of its continuing commitment to the region." The Financial Times also focuses on the Burma sections of the President's speech.
Bush's criticism comes a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the President to "show leadership in promoting democracy, freedom and human rights during his visit to China," The Hill reports. The Washington Post reports, "Yang Jianli, a prominent exiled Chinese activist, was barred from entering Hong Kong after he arrived from Japan yesterday, according to his wife and American contacts he reached later by cellphone. Yang, a US permanent resident, had planned to take part in a two-day walk in Hong Kong in support of human rights in China." Another Washington Post piece notes that China's "intense efforts to block any protest that would mar the Olympic Games were challenged Wednesday by foreign activists equally bent on diverting attention to issues as varied as Tibetan independence, the crisis in Darfur and religious freedom." On its front page, meanwhile, the New York Times remarks on the Chinese Communist Party's "tenacious" and successful effort to remain in control even as the country under goes rapid social and economic change.
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Jay Leno: "Actually, analysts say a weak economy is causing less energy use, resulting in falling oil prices. Yeah. Basically, the worse the economy, the lower the oil prices, which means if Bush could serve one more term, oil would be free."
Jay Leno: "Well, Barack Obama and John McCain have both switched their positions on offshore oil drilling. They both used to be against it, but now they say they are for it under the right circumstances -- like if it helps them get elected."
Jay Leno: "President Bush is on his way to China. His first order of business, meeting the 'Kung Fu Panda.'"
Conan O'Brien: "Of course, Barack Obama" is "still continuing to dominate media coverage. 'The New York Times' just did a big piece" in which they "say that Barack Obama has been successful in politics because he's a black man who doesn't make white people feel threatened," which "explains Obama's Secret Service code name: 'Al Roker.'"
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