Top Items:
Mikki Halpin / Glamocracy:
Barack Obama tells Glamour: “Debate me, not Michelle” — On Wednesday Senator Barack Obama talked to Glamour's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive and answered questions from our readers about his policies and about women's issues. (Thanks to the many of you who submitted those queries!)
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Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
3 Anchors to Follow Obama's Trek Abroad — The three network anchors will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week for Barack Obama's trip, adding their high-wattage spotlight to what is already shaping up as a major media extravaganza. — Lured by an offer of interviews …
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, The Swamp, Don Surber, NO QUARTER, USA Today, Top of the Ticket, Hot Air, Tales from the Trail, Salon, The Jed Report, Weekly Standard Blog, Political Machine, www.redstate.com, NewsBusters.org, The Carpetbagger Report, Time, Swampland, TVNewser, michellemalkin.com, The Campaign Spot and The Other McCain
John Santucci / Political Radar:
Obama Hits the Gym, With Multiple Repetitions — ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: While Obama spent 91 minutes at a campaign event yesterday, the Illinois Senator spent a total of 188 minutes in the gym yesterday - making three separate stops to Chicago gyms over the course of one day.
Discussion:
The Reaction, Newsweek Blogs, American Spectator, The Raw Story, TIME.com, Macsmind and Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
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Associated Press:
Political Play of the Day: Obama becomes a gym rat — CHICAGO (AP) - Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe. — The Democratic presidential contender exercises regularly, but over a 24-hour span this week, he took it to a new extreme.
David Stout / New York Times:
Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power …
Discussion:
The Swamp, CNN, The Politico, Media Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME.com, Donklephant, Prairie Weather, Blogs of War and AMERICAblog News
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Jaime Sneider / Weekly Standard Blog:
The Obama Campaign's Out of Control Spending — The $52 million figure may not be a disaster for the Obama campaign, but it is hardly a success. Not just because it's far below what the Obama campaign projected in June. It's a disappointment because it includes general election contributions from those who had previously maxed out.
Julia Hoppock / Political Radar:
Biden hits back - More on Obama's Committee — ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: The case of the European Affairs Subcommittee hearings continues. Biden writes a passive aggressive letter to answer DeMint's passive aggressive letter. — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, the ranking member on that committee …
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Murphy / puma pac:
GOD WILL GUIDE THE HAND OF JUDGMENT THAT WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN! — A note to maniacs who make death threats: They don't work. They harden the opposition to your cause because they expose your true nature as a homicidal bully. They also rally the support of the vast majority of decent people who are outraged by the tactic.
CNN:
Ashcroft defends waterboarding — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding has served a “valuable” purpose and does not constitute torture, former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a House committee Thursday. — Testifying on the Bush administration's …
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Sean Tevis for Kansas State Representative:
Running for Office: It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner — My name is Sean Tevis [photo]. I'm an Information Architect in Kansas running for State Representative. I've decided to “retire” my current State Representative. I'm going to win.
Discussion:
The Other McCain
Ross Douthat:
Goodbye To Matt — Congratulations are in order whenever someone accepts a new position, of course, but I hope Matt won't mind if I add that I was very sorry to hear that he'd decided to leave the Atlantic to take a job at the Center for American Progress. Partially, this reflects pure selfishness …
Discussion:
The Opinionator
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Radley Balko / Reason Magazine:
“I've never seen a comic book with the phrase ‘anal sodomy’ in it before.” — Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing a tough reelection campaign. He's been accused of abusing his office for personal gain, and will go on trial in the fall on felony campaign finance charges.
Jerusalem Post:
Arab media mocks Hizbullah ‘victory’ — While Hizbullah on Wednesday went to great lengths in its attempts to paint the prisoner swap with Israel as a victory, emphasizing the fact that the group's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah had kept to his word and managed to release murderer Samir Kuntar …
Ramesh Ponnuru / The Corner:
Kmiec vs. Scalia — Douglas Kmiec thinks that the gun-rights decision was an act of judicial activism from the Right. Fine; that's what Matt Franck thinks too, and I respect Franck's opinion. But it would be nice if the good professor would actually offer an argument for his position.
Discussion:
The News Buckit
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Bob Barr Conference Call — Normally, I participate in John McCain campaign conference calls, but today I had the opportunity to join Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr's first blogger conference call. The invitation explained that “Bob Barr loves bloggers, [and] values your role in informing the public …
Chicago Sun Times:
Obama's goodie bag — As a state senator, here's who he doled out state cash to — Back when Barack Obama was a state senator, the Illinois Legislature offered this perk: You get elected, you get to give out some money. — Like his counterparts, Obama routed this state grant money to parks …
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Old Flame — Why I still kinda like John McCain. — The presidential election has an oddly placid feel to it. Four years ago, the notion that George W. Bush would get another four years in office, actually ratified by a plurality of the voters, was more than any liberal could bear …