"Bitter" Pill to Swallow

(Newser) - Rep. John Murtha apologized for saying yesterday that “racist” western Pennsylvanians wouldn’t vote for Barack Obama, CNN reports. “While we cannot deny that race is a factor in this election, I believe we've been able to look beyond race these past few months,” the Democrat said today in a statement. “I believe he will win both Pennsylvania and the White House.” More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama goes into this week's convention in Denver with only the slimmest of leads—or, as some polls suggest, trailing John McCain. In a year when it's widely assumed that any Democratic candidate should be a shoo-in, many in the press have suggested that Obama's race is costing him support. Not so, writes Matt Bai in the New York Times , who says that the candidate "faces genuine obstacles that are more salient than skin color." More »

(Newser) - The NRA has budgeted $40 million for the fall elections, with more than one-third of it set aside to spotlight Barack Obama's gun policies. The ad blitz will deny Obama the opportunity to neutralize the issue, Politico reports. A rep says the NRA will target 15 battleground states. “We look forward to showing him ‘bitter,’” he said. More »

(Newser) - Two of the biggest recent campaign scoops—Barack Obama's "bitter" bomb and Bill Clinton's "scumbag" tirade—originated not with the mainstream media but with a 61-year-old Oakland resident who blogs for the Huffington Post. The New Yorker visits with Mayhill Fowler, who ruminates about her exclusives and expresses a few regrets. More »

(Newser) - Given Barack Obama’s much-ballyhooed problems with white, working-class voters, it's instructive to remember that he clobbered Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by 17 points in February, notes Mike Madden in Salon. If he can reconnect with those voters in Indiana—another state close to his Illinois home—he could wrap up the nomination. That is, of course, much easier said than done. More »

(Newser) - Michelle Obama is hammering home a message that she and her husband are just “regular folks" of humble backgrounds. She has become a key weapon as the candidate continues to be buffeted by criticisms that he's "elitist" in the wake of his characterization of rural America as Bible-thumping, gun-toting and "bitter." Michelle Obama is focusing on her upbringing on Chicago’s South Side and Barack’s as the son of a poor single mom.  More »