OPINION
'Nation of whiners' quote simply the latest in a long string of bad moves
Huffington Post Jul 15, 08 8:15 PM CDT
(Newser)
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"Nation of whiners” adviser Phil Gramm was simply an "accident waiting to happen" for the McCain campaign, writes Max Blumenthal in Huffington Post. Blumenthal runs down the “reactionary, venal and destructive” senator’s foibles—which run from enabling Enron to investing in porn. Gramm “left a massive heap of wreckage…in his wake,” Blumenthal asserts, helping former campaign co-chair Ken Lay build the shadow banking system that aided the mortgage meltdown.
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Business acumen is the peg
Reuters Jul 15, 08 7:47 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Mitt Romney’s business acumen, national profile, and fundraising chops have put him among the elite of VP hopefuls, Reuters reports. And while he and John McCain exchanged nasty barbs during the primaries, the mutual resentment seems to have subsided, at least on the surface. "Mitt and Ann Romney and Cindy and I have become good friends," said McCain. Besides, a little animosity "never stops anyone from joining into an alliance if they can win," said one analyst.
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ANALYSIS
Stance on US vs. NATO troops appears to soften
Huffington Post Jul 15, 08 5:12 PM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain suddenly switched both schedule and policy today, transforming a speech about jobs into one on Afghanistan, and echoing Barack Obama's argument for sending in new brigades. Obama has long said more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but McCain has repeatedly contended that NATO should pick up the slack, the Huffington Post reports.
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Age more of a problem than race
Boston Globe Jul 15, 08 3:32 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Barack Obama leads John McCain nationally in a new Quinnipiac poll, 50% to 41%, with huge advantages among female and young voters. The two split independents with 44% apiece, and McCain led 47%-44% among men and 49%-42% among white voters, the Boston Globe reports. Far more respondents said they were uncomfortable with a president aged 72 than with a black president.
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Poll score: Obama 50%, McCain 49%
Washington Post Jul 15, 08 10:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Barack Obama and John McCain have battled each other to a draw when it comes to Iraq, according to a new Washington Post -ABC News poll. Americans are split more or less down the middle on Iraq policy, with 50% supporting Obama’s withdrawal timetable and 49% backing McCain’s open-ended approach. In general, 47% trust McCain to handle Iraq, while 45% trust Obama.
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Candidate makes position crystal clear
Politico Jul 15, 08 8:39 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Barack Obama will promise a swift end to the Iraq war in a major speech today, arguing that the ongoing conflict “distracts us from every threat that we face,” according to excerpts obtained by Politico. As president, Obama would take the fight to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The central front in the war on terror is not Iraq,” he says, “and it never was.”
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Economic adviser ripped for 'whiners' comment won't appear with candidate
Washington Post Jul 14, 08 7:13 PM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain’s camp has considered Phil Gramm persona non grata since he called Americans "whiners" in a "mental recession" last week, the Washington Post reports. One adviser says he hasn’t spoken to the former senator, a confidante of the Republican on economic matters, “since the comments took place, and I’m not expecting to.”
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ANALYSIS
Stumbles haven't hurt Republican, who's in similar polling spot to both Bushes
Washington Post Jul 14, 08 5:33 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A new poll shows Barack Obama up just 3% on John McCain (from 15% a few weeks ago), and another has them tied—numbers that look fantastic for the presumptive Republican nominee at first blush, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Pos t. "Given the tilt of this electorate, it's fairly surprising that Obama hasn't been able to 'close the deal' with voters," one GOP pollster says.
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analysis
Ruling party has only increased share of popular vote once since 1928
Boston Globe Jul 14, 08 4:10 PM CDT
(Newser)
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In all six elections since 1928 in which one party had 8 consecutive years in the White House, the incumbent party lost popular vote ground; in four, Americans voted for change. That's bad news for John McCain, Robert David Sullivan writes in the Boston Globe , because George Bush only won 50.7% of the national popular vote in 2004.
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Republicans say Dem is serving own purposes
Talking Points Memo Jul 14, 08 1:57 PM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain’s inner circle tried a new line of attack against Barack Obama today, charging that the presumptive Democratic nominee and his entire party want to lose the Iraq war to serve their own political purposes. Said McCain’s top foreign policy hand, “Senator Obama seems to think losing a war will help him to win an election.”
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ANALYSIS
GOP candidate talks up privatization; Dems promise stiff opposition
Los Angeles Times Jul 14, 08 11:26 AM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain has opened a political can of worms by embracing the polarizing issue of privatizing social security, the Los Angeles Times reports. McCain says making young workers pay into a plan unlikely to benefit them is a "disgrace." Counters a rep for one group planning to fight the GOP candidate: "This could well be McCain's Achilles' heel with … the baby boomer generation."
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Stumping for McCain moves onetime veep nominee further from former party
New York Times Jul 14, 08 5:59 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Joe Lieberman, long at odds with his party over his outspoken support for the war in Iraq, has become so estranged from his Democratic colleagues since he began campaigning for John McCain that the New York Times wonders if the strained relationship is heading for a divorce. While, for example, he still attends Democratic weekly lunches, he left the room at a recent one when the presidential election came up. “It was the right thing to do,” said a colleague.
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