memeorandum: Belief Growing That Reporters are Trying to Help Obama Win (Rasmussen Reports)

4:00 PM ET, July 21, 2008

Top Items:

NYT REJECTS MCCAIN'S EDITORIAL; SHOULD ‘MIRROR’ OBAMA — An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES — less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Rasmussen Reports:

Belief Growing That Reporters are Trying to Help Obama Win — The belief that reporters are trying to help Barack Obama win the fall campaign has grown by five percentage points over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that 49% of voters believe most reporters …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, www.redstate.com, QandO, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Confluence and Wake up America

Daniel Finkelstein / Comment Central:

Why the New York Times were right to reject John McCain's article — The New York Times has rejected a piece by Senator John McCain, having already run one by Barack Obama. And you know what? I think they may be right. — Here's how I would have dealt with the two articles …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com, The Mahablog, Hotline On Call and www.redstate.com

Andy McCarthy / The Corner:

Re: Maliki's “Inartful” Statement — If the New York Times account is to be credited, McCain should stick with the “Maliki was ‘inartful’” explanation. “Mistranslated and taken out of context” is not gonna fly. — The Times indicates that, after Maliki's interview comments in Der Spiegel became known, U.S. diplomats complained.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Politico, Top of the Ticket, Ben Smith's Blogs, Grasping Reality …, Democratic Strategist and Guardian

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

FIRST THOUGHTS: MCCAIN'S ROUGH WEEKEND — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro — *** McCain's rough weekend: You know you had a problematic weekend when: 1) one of your top economic advisers/surrogates finally steps down from the campaign after his “nation of whiners” …

Discussion: The Swamp, The New Republic, Liberal Values, New York Times and The Daily Dish

Associated Press:

Iraqi officials hopes for US troop pullout by 2010 — BAGHDAD - Iraq's government spokesman is hopeful that U.S. combat forces could be out of the country by 2010. — Ali al-Dabbagh made the comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki …

Discussion: Think Progress, Hullabaloo, TPM Election Central, democracyarsenal.org, Informed Comment, Hot Air, Outside The Beltway, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, pandagon.net, Booman Tribune, rubber hose, PoliBlog (TM), Achenblog, ATTACKERMAN, The Carpetbagger Report and Digg

Jason Zengerle / The New Republic:
McCain (and Petraeus) Know Best

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Carpetbagger Report, TPM Election Central, Taylor Marsh and Blue Girl, Red State

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: TRANSLATION ISSUE OR MORE WAPO HACKERY?

Matthew Yglesias:
McCain: I Know What Iraqis Want — Meredith Viera asks John McCain …

Discussion: American Prospect, Think Progress, TIME.com and ATTACKERMAN

Eric Kleefeld / TPM Election Central:
McCain Camp Now Officially Disputing Maliki Translation

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The New Republic, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and Real Clear Politics

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
John McCain: Obama's Iraq tour revealing

Discussion: The Politico, The Daily Dish, The Caucus and Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Taegan Goddard / Political Insider: Could Obama's Running Mate Be With Him Now?

Byron York / The Corner:
Maliki's “Inartful” Statement

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Marc Ambinder

McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Iraqi leader meets Obama, calls for U.S. troops out by end of 2010

Discussion: Sadly, No! and Washington Monthly

Terry Moran / ABCNEWS:
McCain Challenges Obama to See Success of Surge in Iraq

Discussion: Firedoglake, Yahoo! News, Commentary, TIME.com and Don Surber

Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:

Obama roars with $25M one-day haul — After locking up his party's presidential nomination, Barack Obama's fundraising operation came roaring back to life in June, generating more than a million dollars on five days, including a whopping $25 million that came in on the last day of the month.

Discussion: protein wisdom, MyDD, New York Times, Washington Monthly, TownHall Blog, Hot Air, The Reaction, Political Machine, Daily Kos, TPM Election Central, Spin Cycle and The Campaign Spot

The Huffington Post:

Obama's Revenge: New Yorker Banned From Press Plane For Overseas Trip — It led with the report that Lara Logan had scored the first overseas sit-down with Barack Obama, but here's the most interesting nugget from yesterday's Mike Allen piece about the trip: … Wow. So it's gonna be like that, is it?

Discussion: Guardian, The Politico and Gawker

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket: In satirical payback, Obama camp denies New Yorker writer plane seat

Tony Campbell / The Moderate Voice:

Obama: Go to Mecca, not Berlin — The travel itineraries of the candidates for President have been interesting to analyze. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Cindy McCain was going to travel to Rwanda as part of a group to discuss the effects of poverty and disease on the people in that country.

Discussion: Eunomia

William Kristol / New York Times:
No Substitute for Victory

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, Reuters, Wonkette, No More Mister Nice Blog and Commentary

Ali / Think Progress:

McCain Warns Of ‘Hard Struggle’ On The ‘Iraq-Pakistan Border’ — Today on Good Morning America, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) refused to call the situation in Afghanistan “precarious and urgent,” but admitted that “We have a lot of work to do.” He warned of a “very hard struggle …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Taylor Marsh and MSNBC

Ross Douthat:

The Road To Serfdom? — That's what President Bush has put us on, according to Peter Robinson, who cites, to prove his point, the following chart: — Note that the increase looks roughly twice as shocking as it actually is because the chart-makers, John Cogan and Glenn Hubbard …

Discussion: American Spectator and The Corner

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Times Columnist Uncovers His Darkest Story — David Carr's latest subject is a pathetic human being, a thug, a manipulative jerk who uses people and puts his own kids in danger. — The New York Times media columnist is writing about himself. — He is unsparing as he rips the protective bark off …

Wall Street Journal:

Their Fair Share — Washington is teeing up “the rich” for a big tax hike next year, as a way to make them “pay their fair share.” Well, the latest IRS data have arrived on who paid what share of income taxes in 2006, and it's going to be hard for the rich to pay any more than they already do.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Macsmind, QandO, Maggie's Farm, Commentary, www.redstate.com and Power Line

John Derbyshire / The Corner:

The “Inartful” Maliki — Andy: Nothing in any of Maliki's “inartful” statements is the least bit surprising to a “To Hell With Them” Hawk. This absurd and insane desire to be loved and admired by foreigners will be the death of this republic. — Now that our American blood and money …

Dion Nissenbaum / Jerusalem:

Kickin' it with Samir Kuntar — Samir Kuntar is sitting under a photo of himself standing next to Hassan Nasrallah and telling friends that he almost didn't come home. — As Israel was getting ready to free Kuntar last Wednesday, the Lebanese militant told guards that he didn't want to walk to freedom in a prison uniform.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

Soccer Dad: Horribly wrong part II

Clive Crook / Financial Times:

One simple way to predict a victor — One cannot help but be struck by the current disconnection in US presidential politics between, on one hand, the excitement and enthusiasm that attend Barack Obama's candidacy and, on the other, the tightness of the race according to recent polls.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Right Wing News, QandO and Outside The Beltway

National Review:

A Strategy For McCain — EDITOR'S NOTE: A longer version of this piece appears in the new issue of National Review. — The good news for Republicans is that Obama can be beaten. The bad news is that the McCain campaign has embarked on a course that — although it has some of the right elements — seems likely to fail.

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Swamp and Oliver Willis

Jeremy Olshan / New York Post:

TRAIN-ING DAY FOR JIHADISTS — MUSLIM SUBWAY ADS HAVE TERROR TIE-IN — Allah board! — An Islamic group plans to blitz 1,000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom federal officials have linked to a plot to blow up city landmarks.