Top Items:
Jennifer Parker / Political Punch:
From the Fact Check Desk: Obama's Army Anecdote — At last night's debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, told an anecdote about an Army captain that is causing a lot of chatter in the political world. — Obama was making a point about what he called “the single …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Free Republic, Weekly Standard, The Jawa Report, TalkLeft, The Political Inquirer, The Strata-Sphere, Cop The Truth, Eunomia, Danger Room, The New Republic, AMERICAblog, Macsmind, The Corner, Donklephant, Riehl World View, democracyarsenal.org, The Carpetbagger Report, Talking Points Memo and Argghhh!
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Stuart Koehl / Weekly Standard:
Obama Heard Wrong — There is a lot about Obama's story that makes no sense. Let us start with the opening line: … Well, captains command companies, not rifle platoons. A rifle platoon is normally commanded by a 2nd lieutenant, sometimes (if short handed) by a senior sergeant.
Ann Sanner / Associated Press:
Fact check: Obama's Iraq platoon story — WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama says the war in Iraq, which he opposes, has pulled troops away from Afghanistan and left soldiers there without proper equipment. — He underscored his point in the Democratic debate Thursday by telling a story …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
Matthew Yglesias:
Platoon — Conservatives have been all over Barack Obama (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here) for telling the following anecdote during last night's debate: … Basically, as you can see if you check the conservative blogs above …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, intel-dump.com, Balloon Juice, Gateway Pundit, The Jawa Report and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Curt / Flopping Aces:
Obama on Afghanistan. — It appears that ABC News' Political Punch Blog has tried to confirm this story, and is claiming that Sen Obama's story is true (though not told directly to him, but through a staffer). Readers are encouraged to not only read the ABC News comments, but the comments to the contrary posted here at Flopping Aces.
Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
A Hole in McCain's Defense? — An apparent contradiction in his response to lobbyist story. — A sworn deposition that Sen. John McCain gave in a lawsuit more than five years ago appears to contradict one part of a sweeping denial that his campaign issued this week to rebut a New York Times story …
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
OOPS ... I was wondering when we'd hear from Isikoff on this McCain business. (Remember, he was one of the other reporters in the hunt, one or more of whom seems to have prompted the Times to pull the trigger.) It seems that one of McCain's sweeping denials from that presser yesterday morning …
Discussion:
RobertEmmet
New York Times:
The McCain Article — A recent New York Times article examined a number of decisions by Senator John McCain that raised questions about his judgment over potential conflicts of interest. The article included reporting on Mr. McCain's relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients often …
The Big Blog:
Why we didn't run the McCain story — I chose not to run the New York Times story on John McCain in Thursday's P-I, even though it was available to us on the New York Times News Service. I thought I'd take a shot at explaining why. — To me, the story had serious flaws.
Discussion:
The Fix, Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, The Moderate Voice, Right Wing Nut House, Los Angeles Times, The Jawa Report, Captain's Quarters, The Washington Independent, Atlas Shrugs, amyproctor.squarespace.com, TIME: Swampland, Crooks and Liars, Personal Democracy Forum, Hold Fast, The American Mind, michellemalkin.com and Wake up America
Matthew Philips / Newsweek:
McCain's ‘Free Ride’ — A critic on the senator's cozy ties to the press corps. — This week the New York Times made news with a front-page story on John McCain's relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist. The story hinted at a possible romantic entanglement and raised questions …
Discussion:
Pressing Issues
Matthew Hay Brown / The Swamp:
GOP leader presses indicted congressman to resign — Rep. Rick Renzi, the Arizona Republican indicted today for extortion, money laundering, wire fraud and other charges relating to a land deal in his home, now faces pressure from the GOP House leadership to step down.
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Lara Jakes Jordan / Associated Press:
Congressman Charged in Land Deal
Congressman Charged in Land Deal
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Muckraker, Emptywheel, RealClearPolitics, The Carpetbagger Report and Buck Naked Politics
Gerard Baker / Times of London:
Obama: is America ready for this dangerous leftwinger? — Listen to the rhetoric of Barack Obama ... For most ordinary Americans, those not encumbered with an expensive education or infected by prolonged exposure to cosmopolitan heterodoxy, patriotism is a consequence of birth.
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Matt / Think Progress:
Coburn: ‘I Think It Was Probably A Mistake Going To Iraq’ — During a town hall meeting in Muskogee, Oklahoma this past weekend, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) admitted that it was “a mistake” for the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. “I will tell you personally that I think it was probably …
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CNN:
Clinton faces claims of borrowed language — (CNN) - Hillary Clinton - whose campaign has spent the past several days pointing to instances of borrowed language in the speeches of rival Barack Obama - is being accused of lifting words from one very familiar politician: her own husband, former President Bill Clinton.
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Jim Forsyth / WOAI-TV:
Huckabee: A Deadlocked Convention is My Goal — Insurgent Republican giving up dream of winning in primaries — In an interview with 1200 WOAI news during his swing through Texas, longshot Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee outlined a strategy which has him not winning …
Discussion:
Political Radar, Salon, FOX Embeds, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, All Spin Zone and Outside The Beltway
Evan Smith / Poll Dancing:
Hillary: Seat Michigan, Florida Delegates — I just finished a thirty-minute interview with Hillary Clinton — it will air statewide next week, just before the Texas primary, on “Texas Monthly Talks” — and among the topics we discussed was the controversy over whether the Michigan …
Los Angeles Times:
Gang mayhem cripples big area — Thousands stranded, schools locked down as notorious group battles the LAPD after a drive-by killing. — A drive-by attack followed by a wild shootout between gang members and police shut down dozens of blocks of Northeast Los Angeles for nearly six hours …
Discussion:
Wake up America