Top Items:
The Board:
Say What? John McCain, Barack Obama, and the “Race Card” — We know that operatives in modern-day presidential campaigns are supposed to say things that everyone knows are ridiculous — and to do it with a straight face. — Still, there was something surreal, and offensive …
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Ross Douthat:
Barack Hitler Obama — It's remarkable what those fiendish GOP operatives can squeeze into thirty seconds: Not only does McCain's “celeb” ad have “Barack Obama will rape yo daughters overtones,” says Rick Perlstein (who's apparently under the impression that most Americans think of Paris Hilton …
Discussion:
The Corner, Sister Toldjah, The Daily Dish, Oliver Willis, Ed Driscoll.com and Stop The ACLU
Marty / Martin Eisenstadt's Blog:
Paris Hilton's family fuming at McCain campaign — I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that the new McCain ad criticizing Obama for being a celebrity has ruffled some unintended feathers. I, for one, quite liked the ad, but I hear whispers from the inner campaign staff …
Discussion:
Gun Toting Liberal Blog, michellemalkin.com, MSNBC, The Anonymous Liberal, Blue Girl, Red State and Wonkette
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Unbelievable: NYT recycles nutroots charge that McCain's Britney ad is racist — From Josh Marshall's lips to the editorial board's ear. New rule: If you're conservative, juxtaposing images of Barack Obama and white women regardless of context is racist per se.
Mark Murray / MSNBC:
GRAHAM AND LIEBERMAN DEFEND AD — From NBC's Ken Strickland and Andrea Mitchell — Responding to criticism of McCain's recent TV ad depicting Obama as celebrity without substance, two of McCain's key Senate allies fired back in an unrelated news conference.
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, The Daily Gut, Don Surber, The Swamp, Confederate Yankee, The Huffington Post, The Reaction, FiveThirtyEight.com, American Power, The Crypt's Blogs, Ed Driscoll.com, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Seminal, First Draft, Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, The Mahablog, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, American Street and MyDD
Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
This is Really Quite Amazing — In a 93-page opinion in the Miers/Bolten contempt case, Judge Bates not only rejects all of the various Administration arguments against justiciability, but goes so far as to reach the merits and hold that there is no basis for the DOJ argument …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Crooks and Liars, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, TPMMuckraker and Think Progress
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David Stout / New York Times:
White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed — WASHINGTON — President Bush's top advisers cannot ignore subpoenas issued by Congress, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in a case that involves the firings of several United States attorneys but has much wider constitutional implications for all three branches of government.
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
McCain says ‘race card’ charges are fair — (CNN) — John McCain told CNN Thursday it is fair for his campaign manager to claim Barack Obama is playing ‘the race card.’ — “I'm sorry to say that it is. It's legitimate,” McCain told CNN's John King. “And there's no place in this campaign for that.
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Deacon / Power Line:
OBAMA REMOVES HIS MASK — It's not even quite August yet and he's still ahead in the polls, but Barack Obama has played the race card, claiming that he expects Republicans to inject race into the campaign. In Missouri, he told a crowd: … The Obama campaign denied that the comment about …
Billmon / Daily Kos:
The Great White Hope — The media's moment of disillusionment with John McCain appears to be at hand. Even Joe Klein has finally noticed that McCain's profile is beginning to resemble the endomorphic shadow of his backstage advisor, Karl Rove, not one of the faces on Mt. Rushmore.
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Faiz / Think Progress:
EXCLUSIVE: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them — Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held …
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama 45%, McCain 44% — PRINCETON, NJ — The race for the presidency has moved back into a statistical tie in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update of national registered voters, with Barack Obama now ahead of John McCain by just one percentage point, 45% to 44%.
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Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Hope and change: Obama loses eight points in four days
Hope and change: Obama loses eight points in four days
Discussion:
www.redstate.com
Avi Zenilman / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama: “Is that the best you can come up with?” — At an economic town hall in Cedar Rapids, Obama continues to use high-mindedness as a bludgeon against the McCain ad:
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Megan McArdle:
GDP: A few pictures are worth a book — When you see the map, it becomes radically apparent just how firmly Britain was the root of the Industrial revolution. With the lone exception of Japan, the darkest places on the map are either next to Britain, or former British colonies.
Discussion:
EconLog
The New Republic:
Hope of the GOP: “George Bush is the Worst President” — Senator Ted Stevens's inevitable indictment yesterday made one Alaska Republican deliriously happy: lawyer and economic historian Vic Vickers, who's mounting a very-generously-self-funded primary campaign against Stevens. — Not so happy: national GOPers.
Discussion:
The Reaction
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Avi Issacharoff / Observer:
Hamas' Christian convert: I've left a society that sanctifies terror — A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace …
Nate / FiveThirtyEight.com:
My Least Favorite Argument — Obviously, I have a lot of nits to pick when it comes to campaign coverage, but my single least favorite brand of analysis is what I term “Match Game Arguments”: No candidate has ever [blank]. Given various intersections of geography, demography and history …
Discussion:
The Opinionator
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Peter Kirsanow / The Corner:
Presumed Racist — Obama's statement yesterday about Republican scare tactics is merely the latest in a string of statements in which he suggests that certain Americans are intrinsically racist, and those Americans aren't just confined to political opponents.
Jane Kay / San Francisco Chronicle:
51% of Californians back offshore drilling — (07-30) 22:28 PDT San Francisco — A majority of Californians favor more oil drilling off the coast, according to a statewide survey released Wednesday, for the first time since oil prices spiked nearly three decades ago.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Huffington Post, The Foundry, Don Surber, CNNMoney.com and michellemalkin.com
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