ANALYSIS
Years of practice as politician's wife, with some rough spots, leave her well polished
Washington Post Jul 22, 08 11:46 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Cindy McCain has been a candidate’s wife for more than half her life, and she’s gotten pretty good at it, the Washington Post reports in a profile. The demur, good-looking, stay-at-home mom knows how to humanize her husband and avoid policy talk. “I don't see any chink in her armor,” says her mother-in-law, “and I'm not biased.” But Mrs. John McCain has an intensely guarded, even sometimes secretive, private side.
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ANALYSIS
Maliki's endorsement
of withdrawal timetable a stroke of luck
New York Times Jul 22, 08 8:30 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Presidential candidate Barack Obama's weeklong tour of seven countries has so far been fruitful, politically agile, and especially lucky, reports the New York Times . The Illinois senator's withdrawal plan received a timely endorsement from Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, coinciding with President Bush's embrace of a "time horizon" for pulling troops out of the war-torn country.
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Or this rumor could be
a 'head fake' to distract from the Obama blitz
CNN Jul 22, 08 7:18 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Speculation is heating up that John McCain may pick his running mate this week, in a move to divert attention from the media frenzy surrounding Barack Obama's tour through the Mideast and Europe, CNN reports. Then again, there's speculation that the VP rumors themselves are just a “head fake” to distract from the saturation Obama coverage.
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UPDATED
Editor wants piece to 'mirror' Obama's, contain new info; GOP sees politics
Drudge Report Jul 21, 08 9:36 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The New York Times has turned down John McCain's rebuttal to a recent Barack Obama op-ed on Iraq, telling the Republican’s campaign it isn’t “able to accept this piece as currently written.” A campaign insider tells Drudge that the Grey Lady simply doesn’t agree with his candidate’s policies; the op-ed editor maintains Mac didn’t “offer new information” in his piece.
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Warren lures both candidates to Orange County
Los Angeles Times Jul 21, 08 5:49 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren has scored the first joint appearance by Barack Obama and John McCain. The presidential candidates will spend just a few minutes on stage together at Warren's Saddleback Church next month between back-to-back interviews with the pastor. It will be the country’s first look at both candidates in one place, the LA Times reports.
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OPINION
Repub must become a fighter
National Review Jul 21, 08 4:30 PM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain desperately needs a dose of the strategy that kept Hillary Clinton competitive with Barack Obama during primary season, Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru write in the National Review . McCain should adopt a “conservative version of her occasional theme of a ‘fighter for you’”—the “you” being middle-class Americans and the enemy being “lobbyists, institutions, and liberals.”
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OPINION
Dem superficially rebuts a superficial claim, drowns out Republican on trail, to boot
New Republic Jul 21, 08 3:53 PM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain’s campaign made a grave miscalculation by spotlighting Barack Obama’s lack of foreign travel, Noam Scheiber writes in the New Republic , “an incredibly superficial critique” that “can be rebutted incredibly superficially”—see Obama’s current photo-op overseas tour. Hard to believe the Republicans didn’t realize the trip “might become the media event of the season,” Scheiber says.
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OPINION
Political scientist's odd metric suggests history is on Democrat's side
Financial Times (UK) Jul 21, 08 3:08 PM CDT
(Newser)
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It’s hard to reconcile Barack Obama’s narrow lead in the polls with the massive enthusiasm that seems to surround his campaign, so Clive Cook of the Financial Times has some advice: Ignore the polls. Midsummer polls are notoriously worthless, he says. Instead, he touts political scientist Alan Abramowitz’s “election barometer,” which has correctly called 14 of the last 15 elections. It’s predicting an Obama landslide.
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Given Obama 'threat,' Republican appears to be lesser of two evils
Associated Press Jul 21, 08 2:29 PM CDT
(Newser)
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James Dobson still won’t formally endorse John McCain, but the evangelical leader voiced support for the Republican candidate in a radio broadcast today, the AP reports. “Barack Obama contradicts and threatens everything I believe about the institution of the family and what is best for the nation,” Dobson said, forcing him “to reevaluate the candidacy of our only other choice.”
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ANALYSIS
Move by Bush, Maliki toward timetable is 'devastating blow'
Politico Jul 21, 08 1:40 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Republican presidential candidate John McCain is stuck in an awkward position after both President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved closer to a withdrawal timetable favored by Barack Obama, Politico notes. McCain has opposed such a measure, but in 2004 asserted that if a sovereign Iraqi government asked US troops to leave, the American government should comply.
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GLOSSIES
Carter's ideas and initiatives, slammed by old guard, resonate with youth
New York Jul 21, 08 12:28 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Jimmy Carter does things his own way, pursuing peace initiatives in the Middle East and South America whether Washington likes it or not, and generally redefining what it means to be an ex-president. So it’s no wonder “his mind-set and his policies seem to jibe so well with the attitudes of young people, students, and the blogosphere,” Amy Wilentz writes for New York . “In many ways, Carter seems more relevant than George W. Bush.”
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Candidates' financial strategies illustrate different approaches
Politico Jul 21, 08 11:47 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Barack Obama brought in more donations on the last day of June than John McCain did in the entire month, Politico reports. The unprecedented $25 million day accounted for nearly half of Obama’s $54 million total. It was one of five days on which the campaign brought in more than $1 million; John McCain had no million-dollar days en route to raising $22 million in June.
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