Top Items:
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 Daily Dish, The Corner, Blog entry, Sister Toldjah, Ed Driscoll.com and Stop The ACLU
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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:
michellemalkin.com, Gun Toting Liberal Blog, MSNBC, Blue Girl, Red State, Wonkette and The Anonymous Liberal
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%.
Discussion:
The New Republic, Hot Air, Top of the Ticket, NewsBusters.org, Open Left, The Carpetbagger Report and www.redstate.com
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction — Barack Obama's critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the “Audacity Watch” back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as “coolly arrogant.”
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.
Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
The McCain Ad in South Florida — Contemplating Eve's (and Rick Perlstein's) analogy between the McCain “Celeb” ad and Leni Riefenstahl's greatest hits, it occurs to me that the similarities won't be lost on many elderly Jews in South Florida. My late grandfather, a member of this species …
Discussion:
American Power
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 …
Todd Purdum / Vanity Fair:
The McCain Behind the Curtain — The saddest sight on “Straight Talk Air,” the sleek flying successor to John McCain's one-time rolling caravan of candor, is the couch. It's a soft, tan leather shelf, custom-fitted for high altitude truth-telling when McCain, a former Navy pilot, took his act from the road to the skies this summer.
Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:JOHN McCAIN'S “PALPABLE PAIN”....From Todd Purdum's profile …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
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.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Buck Naked Politics, The RBC, The New Republic, The BRAD BLOG, Scholars and Rogues and The Swamp
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Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
This is Really Pretty 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 …
Associated Press:
US judge: White House aides can be subpoenaed — WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has sided with Congress in its fight with the Bush administration over whether top White House aides can be subpoenaed by Congress. — The House Judiciary Committee wants to question the president's chief of staff …
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:Federal judge rules Bush's aides can be subpoenaed
Discussion:
Emptywheel, The Gavel, JONATHAN TURLEY, Hot Air, DownWithTyranny!, The Carpetbagger Report and The Moderate Voice
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.
Discussion:
International Herald Tribune, The Trail, Wake up America, MSNBC, TIME.com, TPM Election Central and Balloon Juice
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Marc Ambinder:
Bluffing 'Bout Bias? — CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — Really, the press corps should pay attention to Barack Obama's sustained defense of his energy policies, which includes new language on John McCain's ties to the oil industry. But we're not: we're writing about the flashpoint of the day …
Discussion:
Grasping Reality …, Commentary, D-Day, The Carpetbagger Report, Hullabaloo, MyDD, Swampland, American Spectator and Gateway Pundit
Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:Suggesting the race card and then denying it
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah
Glenn Reynolds / Pajamas Media:GAFFE-O-MATIC: … Isn't there just one President on the dollar bill?
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs, www.redstate.com, JustOneMinute, Political Radar, Hot Air, Dean's World and TownHall Blog
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
NEWTON, RACE AND KARL ROVE — As I wrote below, it seems we're now in for another round of that biennial bit of sad-sackery, Republican ad makers who are just trying to create a good old fashioned smear ad but just can't help stumbling into racialized imagery and code-words.
RELATED:
Dean Barnett / Weekly Standard Blog: About that Ad — As you know, I haven't exactly established myself …
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 …
Julia Werdigier / New York Times:
Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell — Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company. — Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Wonk Room, Blog entry, Blue Girl, Red State, The New Editor and Buck Naked Politics
RELATED:
Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
PFC LaVena Johnson Was Raped, Beaten, Set On Fire And Worse - Army Calls It Suicide — Nicole and I have both written posts about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of PFC LaVena Johnson, and Democracy Now! had a heartbreaking interview with her family last week.
Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:
Clinton Supporter Angered By ‘Other Women’ Obama VP Talk — ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports: A longtime friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton said it's “incomprehensible” that Sen. Barack Obama would choose another woman to be his vice-presidential candidate over Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Discussion:
PSoTD
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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