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, Sister Toldjah, Oliver Willis, Ed Driscoll.com and Stop The ACLU
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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 …
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, Blue Girl, Red State, The Anonymous Liberal and Wonkette
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.
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.
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 …
Marc Ambinder:
Bluffing 'Bout Bias?
Bluffing 'Bout Bias?
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, D-Day, Grasping Reality …, MyDD, Newsweek Blogs, www.redstate.com, Hullabaloo, American Spectator and Swampland
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Spin Cycle, Don Surber, FiveThirtyEight.com, The Reaction, The Swamp, Confederate Yankee, American Power, Ed Driscoll.com, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Seminal, First Draft, Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Wake up America, The Mahablog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, MyDD, American Street, Media Blog and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog
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 …
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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.
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 — One thin percent is all that's left of the lead, putting him back where he was on July 17 before Peace Tour '08 kicked off. Remember, Gallup put out conflicting polls a few days ago, one showing Barry O ahead comfortably among …
Discussion:
www.redstate.com
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 …
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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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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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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Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
JOHN McCAIN'S “PALPABLE PAIN“....From Todd Purdum's profile of John McCain in Vanity Fair today: … That's it? McCain disagreed with some crotchety old coot who wants to throw out our child labor laws so that more white kids can work in the fields? And then followed up by — stop the presses! …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
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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 …
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
LA Times Environment Blog:
Offshore oil drilling more palatable to Californians — The idea of opening California's coast to more offshore oil drilling has long been considered the Third Rail of state politics: Touch it at your peril. — Or is it? — A new poll suggests that a slim majority of Californians …
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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.