Barack Obama discusses his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday in Amman, Jordan.
** VIRGINIA POLL: VERY SLIGHT OBAMA EDGE. The new Public Policy Polling survey of new battleground state Virginia shows Barack Obama with a tiny edge over John McCain, 46% to 44%. Virginia, until now, has been a consistent Republican state in presidential elections. But Virginia was one of Obama’s biggest victories in the Democratic nomination fight with Hillary Clinton. And former Governor Mark Warner is easily leading his U.S. Senate race, 57-32.
** MCCAIN CANCELS OIL RIG COUNTER-PROGRAMMING OF OBAMA BERLIN SPEECH. Due to bad weather. Caused by Hurricane Dolly. See the item below reporting this morning about the plan to counter-program Barack Obama’s big Thursday speech in Berlin. John McCain was going to chopper out to an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. To dramatize his plan to lower gasoline prices — not very soon, as it happens, as I may have mentioned — by expanding offshore oil drilling. But Hurricane Dolly made that problematic. Which may contain a hint about this energy strategy. And the McCain campaign cancelled the event. Now more talk about an early veep pick has re-emerged. It won’t happen.
** SCHWARZENEGGER MAKES A BIG BUDGET MOVE. Prior to appearing at the rally discussed in the item below, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. The chronically deficit-ridden and now very late state budget was a major topic. This afternoon it emerged that Schwarzenegger is preparing an executive order which will reduce some 200,000 state employees to minimum wage — federal minimum wage, that is, which is less than state minimum wage, which does not apply to state employees — as the state looks toward an impending cash crunch. Some layoffs may also be on tap. This will start putting real presssure on legislators to get off the dime, with some moves to follow.
** SCHWARZENEGGER PUSHES WATER PLAN AT LATINO RALLY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez, Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, and several Democratic legislators at a spirited Capitol rally of some 1000 Latinos, mostly farmworkers, on behalf of Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein’s $9.3 billion water bond.
“Look,” declared Schwarzenegger to the spirited crowd, many waving signs in Spanish saying “Water Is Life,” “what has happened just because we have a lack of infrastructure. For the second year in a row now we have a drought. And, at the same time, we see that the federal judge is reducing our water consumption and pumping Delta water by 30 percent. Our reservoirs are now low, 50 percent to 75 percent lower than they should be right now. And our farmers, already all of you are cutting back and letting fields sit empty because they can’t guarantee adequate water, which means a loss of billions and billions of dollars in revenues. Developments can’t move forward, prices are going up on water and we are now water rationing in various different areas all over the state of California.
When will they finally get it upstairs that we should do water infrastructure and build and continue on with what we started in 2006, which was a comprehensive reform, comprehensive infrastructure, the Strategic Growth Plan?”
** COLORADO: OBAMA LEADS. The new Rasmussen poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain in this Western battleground state, 49% to 42%. In the past 40 years, Colorado has voted for only one Democratic presidential nominee, Bill Clinton. But it’s the site of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and a key part of the Democrats’ new Western strategy, outlined in NWN in January 2007.
** MAC’S COUNTER-PROGRAMMING FOR THE BIG OBAMA SPEECH IN BERLIN: AN APPEARANCE ON A GULF OIL RIG. John McCain’s intends to counter-program Barack Obama’s big speech Thursday in Berlin with an appearance on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana to further promote his theme that offshore drilling can bring down high gasoline prices. One potential hitch, however. Hurricane Dolly.
The Morning Column: OBAMA’S TRICKIEST DAY
Wednesday is the trickiest day of Barack Obama’s week-long foreign tour. Because this is the day he’s in Israel. As it’s the Middle East, and I’m in California, the day is mostly over.
It’s gone well for Obama.
He had a buddy-buddy style meeting with General Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defense minister who previously served as prime minister and as head of the Israeli armed forces. Significant joking about their similar names.
Obama was hailed by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who declared that he is looking forward to having “a great American president again.” Peres, also a former prime minister, is of course a long-time Labourite.
Obama also met with former Prime Minister Benjahmin Netanyahu, a man of the more moderate right, in Israeli terms, and with Foreign Minister Tzivi Lipni. I don’t think he met with any of the far right figures who have had increasing sway in Israeli politics. Dinner tonight with embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, caught up in a lengthy corruption scandal, and unpopular from the unsuccessful 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Obama also visited the Sderot settlement, a frequent target of Hamas rocket attacks, and declared his solidarity with the inhabitants, saying he could imagine his anger at living in a place in which his two daughters came under rocket fire. And he went to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
There’s a world of landmines in all of this, of course, but Obama appears not have stepped on any.
Team McCain has tried to make hay out of Obama’s obvious “no genocide” statement by distributing something he said last year about how if genocide were the standard for US intervention we would be all over Africa.
McCain himself today said that offshore oil drilling is key to bringing down gasoline prices, and that President Bush’s move last month to drop the federal prohibition caused the price of oil to drop by $10 per barrel. I have no reason to believe that’s true. McCain cancelled his usual press avail afterwards.
Of the countries Obama is visiting where polling occurs, Israel is the only one in which the population favors McCain over Obama. McCain has been a longstanding friend of Israel. And Israel has a very hawkish constituency, with a populace deeply unsettled by the very unfortunate failure of the 2006 war with Hezbollah (which was covered in detail on NWN), which signaled that the IDF is not as formidable a force as it once was, and by a threatening Iran.
Among American Jewish voters, however, and despite many dire warnings to the contrary, Obama has a 2 to 1 lead over McCain. McCain only runs about 5 or 6 points better than did George W. Bush against John Kerry.
Tomorrow is Obama’s big speech in Berlin. He tends to rise to these occasions, though this may be the biggest crowd he has ever addressed, even bigger than the 75,000 who turned out for him in Portland during the Oregon primary which notched his victory in the earned delegates race with Hillary Clinton. Unless Obama comes off like he is already the president — which, as it happens, he is not — Berlin looks to be a triumph for him.
Barack Obama visiting Afghanistan over the weekend.
** MCCAIN TRIES TO COUNTER-PROGRAM A WAVE. You know, Obama’s new flood of foreign policy cred. Resulting in a somewhat confusing, rather sulky, kitchen sink approach. With full analysis of the two new anti-Obama attack ads, first of the general election. One is arguable. The other is preposterous. From my other blog.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST ON WATER AT NOONTIME. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a rally outside the State Capitol with the California Latino Water Coalition today supporting his and Senator Dianne Feinstein’s proposed $9.3 billion water bond.
The event will be webcast live at 12:30 AM on www.gov.ca.gov.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Israel.
John McCain is in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for a town hall meeting in which he calls for offshore oil drilling to bring down gasoline prices.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading now in the $126 to $128 per barrel range. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed down on Friday at $128.88 per barrel. The drop of over $20 per barrel came amidst multiple signs that the weak US economy will cut future demand and fresh signs of a rapprochement between the US and Iran.
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I had been thinking about the attack from Republicans that Obama had failed to hold a hearing on Afghanistan. His only authority is through the Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has oversight over NATO.
I had thought that the war in Afghanistan was being directed by the United States, with NATO assisting. Are Republicans now saying that this is a NATO operation?
Does that mean that NATO is party to the conflict? Wouldn’t that hold NATO to the guidelines of the Geneva conventions pertaining to POWs?
Does that mean that if NATO (as a block) decides to leave Afghanistan (or oppose a new surge, or any other military tactic), would the United States abide that decision?
For those Republicans who are attacking Obama for him not holding a NATO hearing, I’d like reporters to ask:
“Is NATO or the US Government ultimately in charge of Afghanistan operations?”
“Will the US Government abide by the wishes of NATO countries on all future deployments and tactics?”
“Does the roll of NATO guarantee Geneva protections to prisoners captured in the Afghanistan theater of operations?”
I heard they are expecting up to a million people for Obama’s speech in Germany.
Obama’s statement yesterday is excellent.
“McCain himself today said that offshore oil drilling is key to bringing down gasoline prices, and that President Bush’s move last month to drop the federal prohibition caused the price of oil to drop by $10 per barrel.”
The oil industry and international financial markets are shrewd enough to know that: 1) the move was symbolic, because Congress wouldn’t allow it and 2) such a move wouldn’t have an impact on prices for years.
McCain is either naive or dishonest and naivety regarding financial markets is not something we need in a President.
McCain is still talking this craptastic offshore drilling fiction? Unbelievable. No wonder he wouldn’t do a press conference.
McCain is still talking this craptastic offshore drilling fiction? Unbelievable. No wonder he wouldn’t do a press conference.
The military is going to love Obama if he stops them from being broken in Iraq and wins in Afghanistan.
Great video. Now there’s a President.
Have you heard how McCain screwed up the history of the surge and Sunnis yesterday in a CBS interview, and CBS altered it to cleanse his mistake?
McCain claimed that the surge had caused the Sunni leaders in Anbar to join the Americans, but the fact is they joined us before the surge. What was striking is that CBS aired the interview by editing out McCain’s answer and substituting in a different answer. Talk about biased and unethical “journalism.
John McCain Wants to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Inane McCain is a great disappointment to me. While he never had a chance to get my vote, I somehow expected more from him as a person. Sadly, he’s proving me wrong as he’s turning out to be very disingenuous.
Barack is so on top of these issues now. He’s never been to Jordan before and he looks like he owns the place.
I’m sorry I double posted about McCain’s ridiculous offshore drilling crap. I was very exercised.
McCain’s incorrect statement about the surge, and CBS’s makeover of the interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYaXr03vtNE&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/
this second link is from Olberman last night. although i sometimes find him a bit dogmatic, this is a good side-by-side of the press day yesterday for McCain and Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEcQ1BYCsVY
lol
while i agree that the press has been enamored of Obama, but clearly there is some protecting of McCain.
this is pretty damned blatant.
Maybe CBS didn’t know any better.
McCain has cancelled his national press conference today due to “scheduling” problems.
Ann…
if you watch the youtube clips, you will see that they just edited out McCain’s actual response and replaced it with a different response.
of course they knew.
why they thought it would go without observation is a little scary.
Well, that sucks. lol
It doesn’t matter if McCain got the sequence off by a month or two.
The Surge helped the Anbar Awakening work.
I blame Dan Rather.
Incidentally, NWN passed 67,000 comments sometime in the past week.
marcus:
“It doesn’t matter if McCain got the sequence off by a month or two.
The Surge helped the Anbar Awakening work.”
it matters quite a lot actually!
(setting aside the “month or two” inaccuracy.)
the surge may have supported a reduction in violence. but the Awakening occurred due to a whole about-face with regard to how our military engaged within the community. Petraeus’ own counter-insurgency manual (finished before he was assigned to Iraq) stresses the importance of social and political tactics. getting out, interacting within the community, replacing or repairing damaged infrastructure, working with community Elders and leader, actually playing ball with the kids… those things are what began the reduction. those are what led the communities to work WITH us, rather than against us.
that distinction is important for a number of reasons… among them:
- promoting that a military response was solely responsible for the “fix” will continue to encourage that mind set. when in fact, so much more was necessary.
- in order for any success to occur, elders and residents put their lives on the line (many died) to bring about this shift. it was a cooperative effort. the local residents deserve their credit as well.
- the reason we are in the mess we are with Iraq in the first place (putting aside the justifications for the initial invasion) is because we did not initially give adequate importance to those other components.
it is irresponsible and (i believe) immoral to foster the inaccurate notion that a military response, alone, adequately addressed the problem, when in fact that mindset probably greatly exacerbated the circumstance from the beginning.
yes. it matters. and it matters a lot coming from the candidate who’s primary platform is his military prowess.
(thank you for giving me the opportunity to jump on to my soap box.)
Brasky:
I blame Dan Rather.
you think he’s in his living room, jumping around, saying “see, see… it wasn’t just me!”
maybe he’s just have a stiff drink.
It’s all part of the Petraeus Plan, four waters. Don’t carry that soap box around, you waste your strength.
The Anbar Awakening wouldn’t have worked out if the American military was still getting its ass kicked.
“The Anbar Awakening wouldn’t have worked out if the American military was still getting its ass kicked.”
i won’t argue that.
but more troops without the additional shift in strategy would not have resulted in the Awakening. just more troops.
i happen to think the distinction is worth the heft of a soap box.
had we handled this differently from the beginning, hundreds of thousands of people’s lives would be very different.
ditto, again, what i said above about responsibility and morality. given what so many people have given, on behalf of this invasion (from every country), my soapbox does not seem a burden at all.
Oh, man, you are kidding me.
** MAC’S COUNTER-PROGRAMMING FOR THE BIG OBAMA SPEECH IN BERLIN: AN APPEARANCE ON A GULF OIL RIG. John McCain’s intends to counter-program Barack Obama’s big speech Thursday in Berlin with an appearance on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana to further promote his theme that offshore drilling can bring down high gasoline prices. One potential hitch, however. Hurricane Dolly.
Florida Poll: For those interested, Rasmussen has released a Florida poll today showing Obama leading 46-45 w/o leaners, and 49-47 with leaners.
Past Rasmussen results (w/o leaners):
June McCain by 7
May McCain by 8
April McCain by 10
March McCain by 15.
Steady trend toward Obama in this big and key state.
John McCain Voted to Filibuster Minimum Wage Hike
“MAC’S COUNTER-PROGRAMMING FOR THE BIG OBAMA SPEECH IN BERLIN: AN APPEARANCE ON A GULF OIL RIG”
Is he running for President of the United States or President of U.S. Oil?
“COLORADO: OBAMA LEADS”
This is really hilarious given McCain’s fixation on oil drilling. The oil industry estimates that there are 1 trillion barrels of oil trapped in the shale located within the Piceance Basin. I’ll give you a cookie if you can guess what state that is in…
I’ll even give you a hint: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.pdf
An amazing statement from Peres. Talk about sticking a finger in Bush’s eye.
This CBS deal is truly scary. Why on earth did they do it?
maybe they do it more often than we know and this time they just got busted??? dunno.
the majority of the Basin is on Fed land.
“the majority of the Basin is on Fed land.”
Thanks!
My point was that McCain’s pro-drilling agenda doesn’t seem to be helping him in Colorado, a very Red State with strong ties to the oil industry.
Wow, between Maliki, Abdullah and Peres, Obama is really getting some love over there. Toss in the Berlin rally tomorrow, and it’s almost a Pope-like reception for the tour. I can’t recall anything quite like it.
I went on to opensecrets.org and pulled McCain’s donor history – maybe it explains his focus on oil drilling.
He’s taken over $1 million in oil and gas donations for his presidential campaign and another $1 million in the last 5 years as Senator.
That’s $2 million from the petroleum industry.
Oh, and since McCain is going to rely on soft money (due to his acceptance of public financing), it should also be mentioned that Open Secrets reports $4 million in oil and gas contributions to the Republican Party for the 2008 election cycle…so far.
i’m sure there are personal contributions, as well, that don’t appear as overtly.
(and Fed land comment was not intended to be conflict with your point.)
“(and Fed land comment was not intended to be conflict with your point.)”
No worries — I didn’t take it as such.
My friends,
The following has just been posted to the Sac Bee site. Here’s the headline and link to story:
Schwarzenegger plans to cut state worker pay to cope with late budget
http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1104742.html
Now, back to my reading….
…that’ll make things lively…
You think???
McCain is canceling his trip to Louisiana to tout offshore oil drilling because of a huge oil spill in the Mississippi River. Talk about a bad photo-op…
“Amid a spill of some 419,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Mississippi River, John McCain canceled a planned trip to Louisiana Thursday—a trip during which McCain was slated to visit offshore drilling platforms and tout his misguided offshore drilling plan.
Following a collision of a tanker and a barge, the massive spill caused a slick approximately 12 miles long and closed a 29 mile stretch of the Mississippi River.”
Paul,
Did he blame the oil spill on Obama?
Actually, I think his comment was something like “Aw, dammit, I sold my soul to the oil companies and I still can’t catch a freakin’ break!”
Very good….
McCain seems to be sharing the luck of that other great Arizonan, Wile E Coyote.
I had an image of McCain raising a minuscule umbrella after the catastrophic failure of his Rube Goldberg campaign.
Damn you ACME Political Consulting!
Solon:
He didn’t blame it on Obama — it was the media’s fault.
A seen from McCain’s campaign today: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Gogogo.jpg
sorry, “a scene”
McCain did announce a plan to catch Obama in the polls: http://www.alexross.com/80932-big.jpg
Prospero:
Solon:
He didn’t blame it on Obama — it was the media’s fault.
—–
That’s good too! You folks be quick on the uptake this Thursday. Time for me to return to the words of Bernard Bailyn…