memeorandum: Press Conference by the President (White House)

4:40 PM ET, July 15, 2008

Top Items:

James Gordon Meek / NY Daily News:

Obama purges Web critique of surge — WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq, the Daily News has learned. — The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page …

The Campaign Spot:

Obama: 'I Had No Doubt... We Would See a Reduction in Violence' With Surge — The two most glaring contradictions in Obama's statements on the surge are bolded. — Rush noted Obama's position in January 2007: … Dan Riehl notes Obama's position in July 2007: … A Democratic debate in September 13, 2007:

Discussion: Commentary

Gateway Pundit:
HAH!!... OBAMA SCRUBS “CIVIL WAR” FROM IRAQ WEBPAGE!!

Discussion: michellemalkin.com

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama purges site of surge criticism

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Atlas Shrugs and TownHall Blog

Amanda Scott / Barack Obama:

“A New Strategy for a New World” — Barack delivered a speech on the war in Iraq and national security in Washington, DC this morning. He laid out his strategy for making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban …

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, The Huffington Post, TPM Election Central, Hot Air and The Carpetbagger Report

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Obama's national security speech — In Obama's speech (in full after the jump) today, he reiterates his strategy for withdrawal — “success” — in Iraq, and dwells on Afghanistan and Pakistan. — McCain, meanwhile, is delivering remarks in New Mexico attacking Obama for opposing the surge.

Discussion: Fox News and Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Eli Lake / New York Sun:

McCain Will Call for a Surge of Troops to Afghanistan — WASHINGTON — Senator McCain will announce plans today for an Iraq-style “surge” of troops in Afghanistan. — An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M. …

Discussion: nsnetwork.org, The Moderate Voice, Registan.net, The Carpetbagger Report, The Huffington Post, FP Passport, The Daily Dish, abu muqawama, democracyarsenal.org, The Foundry, Hot Air, The Glittering Eye, Macsmind and VetVoice

New York Times:

Obama's Remarks on Iraq and Afghanistan — Following is the text of Barack Obama's speech on Iraq and Afghanistan, as prepared for delivery and provided by his campaign. — Sixty-one years ago, George Marshall announced the plan that would come to bear his name. Much of Europe lay in ruins.

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Washington Monthly

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
McCain: “Today We Know Senator Obama Was Wrong”

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Obsidian Wings

LinuxIsBest / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

OFPS — Listen Pete, I developed internal business productivity software for Microsoft for seven years and was a committed Microsoft fan since the early 80s. — Working at the company strained my enthusiasm and then Vista combined with Office 2007 destroyed it.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Jawa Report, Balloon Juice, Media Blog, The Sundries Shack, QandO, Political Machine and Unfogged

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Mutatis Mutandis — How would the Republican base react to this:

Discussion: Spin Cycle and Eunomia

wftv.com:

Political Billboard Showing 9/11 Tragedy Creates Controversy — ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, “Please Don't Vote for a Democrat.” The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Wake up America, Comedy Central, Sadly, No!, All Spin Zone, Gateway Pundit, Pam's House Blend and No More Mister Nice Blog

Ben / Think Progress: Billboard displaying burning twin towers reads 'please don't vote for a Democrat.'

Quinnipiac University:

Women, Blacks Give Obama 9 - Point Lead Over McCain, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Men Are Split And Whites Tip To Republican — With commanding leads among women and young voters and near unanimous support from black voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a 50 …

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Moderate Voice, Taegan Goddard's …, Hotline On Call, MyDD, Pajamas Media, Spin Cycle, Washington Post, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog and TPM Election Central

White House:

Press Conference by the President — James S. Brady Press Briefing Room — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. It's been a difficult time for many American families who are coping with declining housing values and high gasoline prices. This week my administration took steps to help address both these challenges.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Carpetbagger Report, L.A. Land, Flopping Aces, BlueOregon and NewsBusters.org

Gary Kamiya / Salon:

Rush Limbaugh was right — The blogosphere's reaction to the New Yorker cover proves that the Bush era has killed a lot of liberals' sense of humor. And that's not funny. — It's official: The Bush era has made liberals so terrified of right-wing smears it has caused them to completely lose their sense of humor.

Discussion: Hot Air and The Mahablog

John Tierney / New York Times:

A New Frontier for Title IX: Science — Until recently, the impact of Title IX, the law forbidding sexual discrimination in education, has been limited mostly to sports. But now, under pressure from Congress, some federal agencies have quietly picked a new target: science.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Feministe, Blue Girl, Red State and Unqualified Offerings

Satyam / Think Progress:

O'Hanlon ‘livid’ over Obama's plan for withdrawal from Iraq. — Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) published an op-ed in the New York Times outlining his strategy to get out of Iraq. The Washington Post reports that Iraq war supporter Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution was “livid” after reading Obama's op-ed:

Discussion: Behind the Numbers, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Confederate Yankee, The Strata-Sphere and Blue Girl, Red State

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

Hill Democrats miffed at Obama — After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obama's presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Los Angeles Times, The Caucus, Neptunus Lex, Hot Air, Corrente, www.redstate.com and Ben Smith's Blogs

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Brit Hume to Step Down as Fox News Anchor — Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year's end. But he won't disappear entirely. — Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65 …

Discussion: Think Progress

Matthew Yglesias:

War for War's Sake — Reviewing Eric Patterson's Just War Thinking over the weekend, Robert Farley said: … But just because modern democratic societies don't, usually, attach a positive value to war-fighting as such doesn't mean that nobody does. As I observed of John McCain and his hero Teddy Roosevelt:

Discussion: Newshoggers.com