John McCain's ability to attract media attention has compared unfavorably to that of Democratic rival Barack Obama, but the Russia-Georgia crisis has swiftly reversed the candidates' standing in the media hierarchy. Indeed, some Russian pundits have opined that the current Administration engineered the conflict to improve McCain's chances.
The New York Times reports Obama "has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation" in Hawaii as McCain "has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia." McCain "and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, 'We are all Georgians.'" It is "as if the candidates' images have been reversed within a matter of a few weeks."
The Washington Post, in a story titled "McCain's Focus on Georgia Raises Question of Propriety," reports the "extent of McCain's involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin."
The Financial Times reports President Bush "has been overshadowed by" French President Nicolas "Sarkozy, who negotiated Tuesday's fragile peace deal, and John McCain, Republican presidential candidate, whose pro-Georgian rhetoric has grown stronger by the day." The Los Angeles Times reports that "calling Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili 'Mischa,' McCain said that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is 'bent on reasserting Russian influence in the region and perhaps the world.'"
The Christian Science Monitor reports, "The crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia seems made to order for...McCain." In a piece on the Russian government's ham-handed return to Soviet propaganda techniques, the London Times' Charles Bremner says Russians "were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barak Obama being elected president of the United States."
NBC Nightly News reported Hillary Clinton's name "will be placed in the nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver at the end of this month. The joint announcement came from the Obama and Clinton camps. It said this move will ensure the voices of all 35 million people who took part in the US primary process are heard. It won't change the outcome, however. To underscore that," Clinton "said today she will cast her own delegate vote for Barack Obama."
The CBS Evening News said while the deal "sounds fine now...there have been persistent concerns. A roll call of the states with delegations methodically announcing tallies has the potential of turning divisive, emotions attached to each candidate still raw." The New York Times reports, "The decision was brokered after long negotiations by advisers to both senators, with Mr. Obama ultimately signing off on the plan on Wednesday." ABC World News reported that "for some Clinton backers, a symbolic nomination isn't enough."
USA Today, meanwhile, reports Obama spokesman Bill Burton "said 'we haven't worked out the mechanics' of when the roll-call vote of the states will be held." He "suggested some Clinton delegates could switch to Obama in the roll call." The AP reports, "All that high-profile Clinton action, spread over at least half of the convention's four prime-time speaking nights, ensures an enormous presence for the couple who have been national fixtures in the Democratic Party since 1992 -- and whose latest White House bid, hers, split the party into for-them or against-them camps."
McClatchy says "many of Clinton's backers remain wary of the presumptive nominee. When the two appeared in Unity, NH, in late June to show that they were together, the crowd cheered Clinton but was lukewarm toward Obama." The Wall Street Journal reports, "According to a Pew Research Center poll released on Wednesday former supporters of Sen. Clinton continue to elude Sen. Obama. Of her backers, 72% now support the Illinois senator. By comparison, 88% of supporters of Sen. McCain's former rivals now support him."
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The Politico reports that Sen. John McCain's "comments Wednesday to the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge's pro-abortion rights views wouldn't necessarily rule him out quickly found their way into the in-boxes of Christian conservatives." To "some in the GOP who supported other candidates in the primary and are having trouble mustering much enthusiasm for McCain, the mere mention of a pro-choice running mate is disheartening."
Asked on Fox News Live about the prospect of Tom Ridge becoming McCain's running mate, Mike Huckabee said, "I think he's one of the most outstanding, brilliant, and broadly experienced people. I wish he were pro-life. I wish everybody was. ... It's Sen. McCain's choice to make. ... I hope that whoever he picks would be pro-life."
Huckabee Angles To Block Romney In a blog posting on the website of The Politico, Jonathan Martin wrote, "For the second consecutive day, Mike Huckabee made public statements suggesting John McCain ought not pick Mitt Romney as his running mate. 'I think there are better choices for Sen. McCain that have the approval of value voters,' Huckabee said...on Fox News." On Wednesday, "he told CBS that many Republicans are 'not necessarily comfortable' with Romney because of his changed positions."
USA Today reports Barack Obama and John McCain will "make back-to-back appearances Saturday at an evangelical conference aimed at getting the presidential hopefuls' views on issues dealing with leadership and compassion." The goal "of the forum at the 22,000-member Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., is a 'conversation, not a confrontation,' said Larry Ross, a spokesman for Rick Warren, the megachurch's pastor."
Obama Targets Young Evangelical Voters The Washington Post reports in a front-page story that a "growing group of young born-again Christians" are "standing on one of the many generational breaks surfacing in this election cycle." The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life "found that while a majority of young white evangelicals describe themselves as conservative on social issues, slightly more identified this year as either independents or Democrats than as Republicans." These are the "kind of young evangelical voter whom Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has targeted and Republican Sen. John McCain cannot afford to lose."
The Washington Times reports young evangelicals "say Republicans have failed to deliver on the abortion issue, and they are weighing their electoral options this year. Sen. John McCain could be dealt a major blow if the liberal evangelical movement expands and persuades voters to embrace Mr. Obama or sit out the election." Obama, "who is pro-choice, is trying to give such voters a home."
The Washington Post reports, "A top strategist for Sen. John McCain's campaign said Thursday that the presidential contest in Virginia will 'undoubtedly be close' this fall and acknowledged that the state should no longer be considered a Republican stronghold." The Post adds "the comments by Mike DuHaime, McCain's political director, represent a significant shift in the GOP's thinking and are the latest signal that Virginia is emerging as a state that could make or break McCain's chances to defeat Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee."
McCain Campaign Increasingly Disciplined The AP reports, "For months, John McCain's presidential campaign was a near-constant swirl of free-ranging chats with voters, garrulous sessions with reporters and quips from the candidate that often had little to do with the day's planned message. No more." In recent days, "McCain's campaign has notably limited his exposure to national reporters and even voters, devoting more time to private fundraisers, interviews with local journalists and events designed for TV cameras."
The Politico reports, "John McCain on Thursday got some welcome ammunition in his defense against Democratic charges that he violated campaign finance law. But he's not out of the woods yet." The FEC "released a draft opinion asserting that McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, did not violate the provisions of the primary election public funding system" when he used the possibility of getting federal matching funds to secure a loan.
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The AP reports Barack Obama's campaign "hit back Thursday with a 40-page rebuttal to the best-selling book 'The Obama Nation,' arguing the author is a fringe bigot peddling rehashed lies." Jerome Corsi's "anti-Obama book, 'The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,' claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president." The Obama campaign "picked apart the book's claims in a rebuttal titled 'Unfit For Publication,' to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com." Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago."
Corsi's book continues to get poor reviews from major media. The Washington Post says in an editorial, "Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, given his earlier hit job on the last Democratic nominee, Mr. Corsi's latest is rife with inaccuracies and innuendo." In his Washington Post column, Eugene Robinson says Corsi's book "seeks to smear Obama as a 'leftist' and add fuel to the false and discredited rumor that he is secretly a radical Muslim, or at least has 'extensive connections to Islam.'" But "the point isn't to tell the truth. The point is to repeat the lie and thus give it new life."
ABC World News's investigative reporter Brian Ross on Thursday night noted that FAA records and control tower recordings show the incident that grounded Barack Obama's plane a month ago in St. Louis was much more serious than initially reported. At the time, "the plane's owner, Midwest Airlines, said there was never an issue of safety. And an FAA official said the pilot never declared an emergency. These tapes, obtained by ABC News, prove otherwise. Just after takeoff from Chicago, the pilot of the Midwest charter flight told the St. Louis tower he had lost full control of the MD-81 jet's up and down movement." Unbeknownst to "the pilot, an emergency evacuation slide had inflated in the plane's tail, impinging the control cables. Just 41 seconds later, the pilot, using the call sign Midex 8663, formally declared an emergency, asking the St. Louis tower to roll CFR, fire and crash rescue equipment."
Although the New York Times, like virtually all of the mainstream press, did not report on allegations that John Edwards had an affair with a campaign aide, Rielle Hunter, during his candidacy, the Times today devotes a front page story to a report that his former campaign finance chairman has links to two attorneys who played a role in the denial of the relationship. As "tabloid reports of a sex scandal threatened" Edwards's "presidential campaign last December on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, two lawyers surfaced with written statements that appeared to exonerate the candidate." Robert J. Gordon of New York "said that his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Mr. Edwards's child. Shortly thereafter, the other lawyer, Pamela J. Marple of Washington, sent word that her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby's father." The statements, "seemingly issued independently of Mr. Edwards," appeared "to deflate the anonymously sourced reports of an Edwards tryst." But the lawyers "are linked through Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas lawyer and former finance chairman for the Edwards campaign who was a key player in the campaign's response to the scandal."
McClatchy reports Baron, the "former campaign finance chairman for John Edwards," said Wednesday "that he thought tabloid reports that Edwards had an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter were untrue when he paid to relocate her and another campaign worker and his family to California last year." In an email to the Raleigh News & Observer, Baron said, "I will restate what I have previously stated on one point: I learned of the affair only a few weeks ago and had previously presumed that the 'tabloid' stuff was all bogus."
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A deal inked yesterday between the US and Poland to base ten missile interceptors in that country's eastern region appears likely to make US-Russia relations even tenser. Talks on the installation of the missile defense system had stalled for over 18 months, but media reports suggest Russia's intervention in Georgia caused Poland to rethink its position â and to do it quickly. The Washington Times reports this morning that with Poland's decision, "the widening gap between the United States and Russia expanded further," and the Wall Street Journal also says the move "will further stoke US-Russian tensions." The deal, "described Thursday by US and Polish officials, includes Washington's commitment to deploy Patriot missile batteries in Poland. It also goes beyond the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 'mutual-commitment' provisions to protect Warsaw from outside aggression." The Journal adds "Polish officials stressed the need for such security guarantees, according to US officials." One "US official" tells the Journal "Russia's invasion of Georgia 'pushed the Poles, to be very frank.'" The official added the deal "sends a signal to Moscow that people are not going to be intimidated.'" On its front page, the New York Times calls the agreement "the strongest reaction so far to Russia's military operation in Georgia." Russia, adds the Times, "reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the United States that have already been strained severely in the week since Russian troops entered separatist enclaves in Georgia, a close American ally."
In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal says "Russia's invasion of Georgia seems to have concentrated the minds of at least some politicians in Europe." While "ten missile interceptors are no deterrent to the Russian nuclear stockpile, and the missile shield is really intended to blunt an attack from Iran or a rogue regime," the Poles "understand that greater military integration with NATO and especially the US is Poland's only real insurance against a bear attack. Taking out that policy now, when Georgia is still getting mauled, is no coincidence."
Despite the increasingly stern rhetoric from US officials, Russia yesterday refused to withdraw its troops from Georgia. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, warned that the crisis effects' on US-Russia relations could be long-lasting. The CBS Evening News reported that "with no sign the Russians are ready to back down on Georgia," Gates "sounded a severe warning for future US-Russian relations." NBC Nightly News noted Gates said, "If Russia does not step back from its aggressive posture and actions in Georgia, the US-Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come."
The AP reports, "President Bush and his foreign policy lieutenants" hoped recent public requests and international pressure would "jawbone Russia into compliance." The President yesterday "repeated his call for the cease-fire to be honored and demanded that Russia respect the 'territorial integrity' of Georgia" after "being briefed at CIA headquarters about the war on terror and the grim situation in Georgia." AFP reports Bush also "assured Ukraine and Lithuania on Thursday of his ironclad commitment to stand with their fellow former Soviet republic Georgia in its military showdown with Russia." The President "stressed US 'solidarity' with Georgia in conversations with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who have denounced Moscow's actions," said Perino.
The Washington Post reports on its front page that the Bush Administration "appeared willing to let Russia take its time removing its forces from disputed areas inside the former Soviet republic." Gates yesterday "reported a sharp drop in Russian military activities and said troops seemed to be positioning themselves to depart Georgia proper," but "US officials acknowledged late in the day that they were uncertain whether any significant Russian movement was underway." The New York Times reports "Russia's military offensive into Georgia has jolted the Bush administration's relationship with Moscow, senior officials said Thursday, forcing a wholesale reassessment of American dealings with Russia and jeopardizing talks on everything from halting Iran's nuclear ambitions to reducing strategic arsenals to cooperation on missiles defenses."
Russia Responds: "Forget About" Breakaway Provinces In what is seen as a sign of Moscow's increasing defiance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Georgia should "forget about" regaining control of the two breakaway provinces at the center of the conflict, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Washington Post reports that at the Kremlin, "with the separatist leaders of the two regions beside him," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "advised reporters to 'forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity,'" saying it would be "impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state." The AP reports Lavrov's remarks were "a blunt message to Georgia and the world that appeared to challenge...Bush's demand a day earlier that Russia must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia."
After Lavrov's remarks, says the Financial Times, "as if on cue, the Russian-backed leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia walked out of a meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, and announced they would push for total independence from Tbilisi." Medvedev, meanwhile, "said Russia would act as guarantor for the two territories whatever they decided about their future status." The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and New York Times run similar reports.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today and Los Angeles Times run stories about the situation on the ground, on the day the distribution of US humanitarian aid in Georgia was called into question. ABC World News reported "two planes of US humanitarian aid have arrived, but as long as Russian forces stay in Georgia, delivering that aid is a challenge." Similarly, the Wall Street Journal says that only "one day after American officials raised the image of a dramatic intervention by air and sea, US plans for distributing humanitarian aid to Georgia appeared to slow." The State Department said US medical supplies that have arrived were "transferred to a warehouse in Tbilisi," but "there were no detailed plans for the delivery of aid using naval forces."
Bush Overplayed His Hand On Naval Support McClatchy, meanwhile, reports that President Bush on Wednesday "promised that US naval forces would deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn Georgia before his administration had received approval from Turkey, which controls naval access to the Black Sea, or the Pentagon had planned a seaborne operation," US officials said Thursday. Pentagon officials also told McClatchy "that they were increasingly dubious that any US Navy vessels would join the aid operation, in large part because the US-based hospital ships likely to go, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy, would take weeks to arrive." One senior Administration official told McClatchy, "The president was writing checks to the Georgians without knowing what he had in the bank."
The Wall Street Journal reports Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, "a close US ally, is likely to resign soon following secret talks aimed at easing his departure, people familiar with the situation say." Parliament "was expected to take up impeachment proceedings against him as soon as Monday." The New York Times says that according to Sheik Mansoor Ahmed, "a senior official of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the major party in the coalition," Musharraf will "probably leave in the 'next 72 hours.'" The Times adds "the details of how Mr. Musharraf would exit, and whether he would be able to stay in Pakistan or would seek residency abroad, are now under discussion between representatives of Mr. Musharraf and the governing coalition," according to Pakistani "politicians." These same sources say that "among the places that Mr. Musharraf is said to favor if he goes abroad are Dubai, Turkey, the United Kingdom or the United States, though his strong preference is to stay in Pakistan." Musharraf also "wants immunity from prosecution for any impeachable deeds."
The Washington Post reports "Bush administration officials said they believed Musharraf had maintained hopes until late last week that some senior commanders of Pakistan's powerful military would support his continuation in office. Rumors briefly spread through the administration that Musharraf, who rose to power through the military before seizing control in a 1999 coup, was trying to organize a return to non-democratic emergency rule." But "the senior Pakistani official said that 'the head count is over' and that army corps commanders had informed the government in Islamabad last Friday that they had no desire to be involved." The Financial Times, AP and Los Angeles Times also report the story.
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Craig Ferguson: "Sources say that Colin Powell is planning to endorse Barack Obama," which is "bad news for John McCain. But at his age, he should expect some colon problems."
Craig Ferguson: "Cindy McCain went to the hospital because she sprained her wrist. And her doctors are saying it's nothing serious, the sprain is probably just from cutting John's meat into little tiny pieces."
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