Top Items:
Zogby:
Reuters/Zogby Poll: McCain Makes a Move, Takes 5-Point Lead Over Obama — Obama loses ground among Dems, women, Catholics & even younger voters — UTICA, New York - As Russian tanks rolled into the Republic of Georgia and the presidential candidates met over the weekend in the first joint issues forum …
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, JammieWearingFool, Top of the Ticket, The Strata-Sphere and The Other McCain
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John Whitesides / Reuters:
Poll shows McCain in 5-point lead over Obama — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, www.redstate.com, TigerHawk, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Vox Popoli, Don Surber and Real Clear Politics
Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Obama's Ads in Key States Go on Attack — WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama has started a sustained and hard-hitting advertising campaign against Senator John McCain in states that will be vital this fall, painting Mr. McCain in a series of commercials as disconnected from the economic struggles of the middle class.
Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:
Obama and McCain in a statistical tie
Obama and McCain in a statistical tie
Discussion:
Deadline USA, Outside The Beltway, Commentary, Electoral-vote.com, American Spectator, Christian Science Monitor, Gallup, Real Clear Politics, NewsBusters.org, Daily Kos, BAGnewsNotes, JammieWearingFool, CNN, Hot Air, Weekly Standard Blog, www.redstate.com, Truthdig, Oliver Willis, The Other McCain, Boston Globe, The Swamp, The Strata-Sphere, Wake up America, Top of the Ticket, TalkLeft, TPM Election Central and American Power
Michael Moore:
“Caroline: Pull a Cheney!” An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy (head of the Obama VP search team) from Michael Moore — We've never met, so I hope you don't find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public's business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet.
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John F. Harris / The Politico:
Nader predicts Obama to pick Clinton
Nader predicts Obama to pick Clinton
Discussion:
Commentary, The Corner, Buck Naked Politics, Hot Air, CBS News, The Moderate Voice, The Reaction and Tribble Ad Agency
Sergey Lavrov / Wall Street Journal:
America Must Choose Between Georgia and Russia — In some Western nations an utterly one-sided picture has been painted of the recent crisis in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict. The statements of American officials would lead one to conclude that the crisis began when Russia sent in its troops to support its peacekeepers there.
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Mikhail Gorbachev / New York Times:
Russia Never Wanted a War — THE acute phase of the crisis provoked by the Georgian forces' assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is now behind us. But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks …
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
What Did We Expect? — If the conflict in Georgia were an Olympic event, the gold medal for brutish stupidity would go to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin. The silver medal for bone-headed recklessness would go to Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and the bronze medal …
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Two Against The One — In the dead of night in a small hideaway office in the deserted Capitol, a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal. — They grin at each other as they lift their celebratory shots of brutally cold Stolichnaya.
Marc Ambinder:
Your VP, Senator. What Will “He” Be Like? — Sen. Barack Obama usually describes his vice presidential nominee with two pronouns joined by a conjunction... “he or she.” Tonight, in North Carolina, according to CBS News's Maria Gavrilovic, Obama was gender specific.
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Bill Carter / TV Decoder:
Rachel Maddow to Replace Dan Abrams on MSNBC — Rachel Maddow, shown filling in for Keith Olbermann on “Countdown” last month. Ms. Maddow will host the 9 p.m. hour beginning Sept. 8. (Ress Greenberg/ New York Times) — Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election …
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Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Just call me, ‘Political Animal’ — Now that my friend Kevin Drum has made the announcement, I can pass along the big news. — Starting this Friday, Aug. 22, Kevin will be leaving the Washington Monthly, heading over to a new blog at Mother Jones. He'll be replaced at Political Animal by ... me.
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Borys Krawczeniuk / The Times-Tribune:
Local Clinton backers, McCain adviser meet — A brother of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and local Democrats who backed her unsuccessful presidential campaign socialized privately Monday with a top surrogate of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
David Freddoso / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Played by Chicago Rules — Democrats don't like it when you say that Barack Obama won his first election in 1996 by throwing all of his opponents off the ballot on technicalities. — By clearing out the incumbent and the others in his first Democratic primary for state Senate …
Tim Montgomerie / America in the World's …:
A World Without The American Soldier — The first World Without America video. — A background briefing on the contribution of the US military to the world today. — Please sign our global declaration against anti-Americanism.
CBN.com:
Obama Campaign to Brody File: Infanticide Suggestion “Offensive and Insulting” — As you know, we here at The Brody File pride ourselves on laying out both sides of an argument and letting you, the readers come to your own conclusions. Hence, let's delve into the aftermath …
Discussion:
Associated Press, jillstanek.com, Hot Air, www.redstate.com, National Review and The Corner
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
PowerPAC: ‘What Matters’ — The first general election spot from PowerPAC — basically the only independent Democratic player doing media at this point — casts Obama as a success story immigrants can identify with — “A new kind of leader, just like you.” — The ad is running in New Mexico, and starts airing tomorrow.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Juanita Cousins / Associated Press:
Researcher says bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit — ATLANTA (AP) - Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice - handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it …
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Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Bye Bye Barry (Guest Voice) — This is another Guest Voice by Joel S. Hirschhorn, who is highly critical of both major political parties and who advocates a constitutional convention. Should we save this post for use on election day? Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV or its writers.
Discussion:
TBogg
James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Talk About Audacity! — Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars this morning, Barack Obama delivered an amazing show of chutzpah. John McCain had addressed the VFW yesterday, and as the Associated Press reports, he was predictably critical of Obama: … Here is Obama's reply:
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