Top Items:
Steven Thomma / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
New poll shows Obama losing support among young, women — Barack Obama has lost ground among some of his strongest bases of support, including young people, women, Democrats and independents, according to a new ATV/Zogby poll. — The Illinois Democrat has also lost some support among African-Americans …
Discussion:
TownHall Blog, Political Machine, Taylor Marsh, American Power, Hot Air, Prairie Weather and The Other McCain
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David Brooks / New York Times:
Where's the Landslide? — Why isn't Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?
Alex Castellanos / The Huffington Post:
The Molten Core of Barack: Why Obama Can't Win — In which science-fiction movie do aliens visit the people of earth and insist, “Take me to your leader”? If they landed today, America's news media would direct them to Barack Obama, the first American to run a global campaign for President.
Discussion:
Commentary, The Glittering Eye, Seeing the Forest, Right Wing Nut House, Hot Air, The Swamp and TIME.com
Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States — Well before Senators Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level. For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
OBAMA SINKING IN POLLS — A new ATV/Zogby poll offers more evidence that voters are becoming disenchanted with Barack Obama: … Some of the groups among whom Obama has lost ground: … The question, obviously, is whether that erosion will continue as voters continue to learn more about Obama …
Discussion:
Macsmind
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Book says White House ordered forgery — A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. — Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday …
Discussion:
Think Progress, NPR, democracyarsenal.org, The Raw Story, MSNBC, The Daily Dish, Booman Tribune, D-Day, The Strata-Sphere, Political Machine, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Seminal, Corrente, At-Largely, No More Mister Nice Blog, All Spin Zone, The Carpetbagger Report, The Gun Toting Liberal?, Emptywheel, Reason Magazine, Amygdala, The Sideshow, Majikthise, American Street, Firedoglake, Truthdig, Washington Monthly, State of the Day and LewRockwell.com Blog
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A.L. / The Anonymous Liberal:
The Other Half of the Letter — Everyone is buzzing this morning about Ron Suskind's claim—in his new book—that a letter purportedly written to Saddam Hussien by one of his intelligence officers in 2001 was in fact a forgery authorized by the White House.
The Politico:
Pelosi: At-risk Dems back drilling — California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.
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Frank James / The Swamp:
Is McCain's tire-gauge ridicule wrong? — Now that many of us have had a good laugh following Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign's use of tire-inflation gauges as weapons of mass distraction against Sen. Barack Obama, can we acknowledge that properly inflated tires could indeed save a tremendous amount of energy?
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Michael Grunwald / Time:
The Tire-Gauge Solution: No Joke — How out of touch is Barack Obama? He's so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, D-Day, The Carpetbagger Report, NewsBusters.org, BizzyBlog and Dean's World
Peter Hamby / CNN:
McCain makes the rounds at biker rally — STURGIS, South Dakota (CNN) - Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans …
Discussion:
Political Machine
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New York Times:
Not Quite Ready to Go Home — ALMOST everyone now agrees there has been great progress in Iraq. The question is what to do about it. — Democrats led by Barack Obama want to take a peace dividend and withdraw all combat brigades by May 2010. Republicans like John McCain want to keep troops …
RELATED:
Foreign Affairs:
Standing Down as Iraq Stands Up
Standing Down as Iraq Stands Up
Discussion:
American Prospect, Washington Monthly, American Power, The New Republic and The Washington Independent
Gina Chon / Wall Street Journal:
Radical Iraq Cleric in Retreat
Radical Iraq Cleric in Retreat
Discussion:
Times of London, Think Progress, The Washington Independent, Outside The Beltway and Hot Air
Johanna Neuman / The LA Times President Bush Blog:
Presidential hug for controversial senator — Republican Ted Stevens is the king of pork-barrel earmark spending. The senior senator from Alaska is also the architect of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, a project to connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina …
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Katie Fretland / The Swamp:
Bush thanks troops, Ted Stevens
Bush thanks troops, Ted Stevens
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Ira Teinowitz / AdAge:
Going for Gold? McCain Makes $6 Million Olympic Buy — Tops Obama Buy by $1 Million — WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is buying into NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. — The McCain campaign made a last-minute $6 million ad buy …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs, Open Left, TIME.com, FiveThirtyEight.com, TPM Election Central and Boston Globe
Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:
McCain takes populist turn, offers new theme in ad — A week after airing a mocking ad about Barack Obama, John McCain's campaign is going up with a wholly different commercial aimed at reinforcing the GOP nominee's “maverick” reputation. — Obama's name is not mentioned once …
Discussion:
The Swamp
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Gordon Lubold / Christian Science Monitor:
U.S. Army hopes to keep native Arabic speakers — Washington - The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks.
Discussion:
Think Progress
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Ben Smith / The Politico:
Obama: ‘National Priority’ — Here's a second contrast ad on the subject of energy from the Obama campaign, which seeks to paint McCain as the candidate of the past, of Washington, and of Bush, while Obama is the candidate of “new energy.” — The script: … I don't have details on where the ad is airing.
Austin American-Statesman:
Former GOP state representative asks Libertarians to drop out of races — Head of LIbertarian Party asking candidates to ‘stand firm’ after they were urged not to take votes from Republicans in close contests. — A former Republican state representative called three Libertarian Party candidates …