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PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
Obama speech in Berlin draws massive crowd
video transcript
... crowd estimated at more than 200,000
"People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time," he declared.
"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city.
"The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand," he said.
see also:
Obama promises to 'remake the world'
McCain camp: speech a 'premature victory lap'
"Well,
I'd love to give a speech in Germany ... a political
speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be
interested in," he said. "But I would much prefer to do
it as president of the United States rather than as a
candidate for the office of the presidency."
Later Thursday, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded to Obama's Berlin speech.
"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election," he wrote. "Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."
Obama's itinerary in Israel notably similar to McCain's
Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama paid a call Wednesday to the home of Pinhas Amar and his wife, Aliza. Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, visited them in March.
...
see also:
Obama: "I could fall asleep standing up"
Obama heckled at Western Wall in Jerusalem
Obama meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders
McCain
says Obama would rather
lose the war
than the campaign
McCain: "I would much rather lose a
campaign than lose a war. Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure
to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a
war than lose a campaign."
Nader, Barr fight for New Hampshire ballot
Third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are working to beat a deadline to qualify for New Hampshire's presidential ballot as alternatives to Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
Iowa's Sen. Grassley has no GOP convention vote
Senator
Charles E. Grassley of Iowa is among senators who had one of those
celebrated blow-ups with Senator John McCain. But that is not the
reason Mr. Grassley, the senior Republican from the state, will not be
voting to nominate his colleague for the presidency at the upcoming
Republican National Convention.
It will be because Mr. Grassley does not have a vote.
As disclosed over the weekend by columnist Bob Novak, Mr. Grassley was passed over to be a member of the state’s delegation to the convention by leaders of the state party, which is experiencing a rise in the influence of social conservatives.
[NOTE: IPW-PAC's chairman, Roger Hughes, was elected as an at-large delegate from Iowa to the Republican National Convention.]
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts
McCain: Lifting of drilling ban caused drop in oil prices
He criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for opposing drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Ad hits McCain on troop pullout
A veterans group critical of the war in Iraq accuses John McCain of wanting to occupy Iraq indefinitely, against the wishes of the country's leaders, in an ad that will air later this week.
The group, VoteVets.org, calls attention to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's desire for a troop withdrawal timetable. The group will spend $100,000 to run the ad on the MSNBC and CNN cable channels from Friday through the middle of next week.
McCain, Lance Armstrong to appear together in Ohio
John
McCain plans a visit to Ohio Thursday for a town hall
meeting on cancer hosted by cycling great Lance
Armstrong.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will talk about his plan to address cancer and take questions from audience members.
The event is part of a four-day summit on cancer held by the Lance Armstrong Foundation at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital.
McCain event is thwarted by hurricane
He was to take a helicopter to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who is being mentioned as a possible Republican vice-presidential pick. But Hurricane Dolly thwarted Mr. McCain’s plans...
Obama pictured with notables:
Former Soviet dissident Sharanksy: 'Big concern' about Obama
Sharansky’s
comments carry great weight here [in Israel] and for policy-makers in
the West. Though he resigned from the Knesset as a stalwart Likud
backer in 2006, he has remained active in the political debate.
... “[Obama] is definitely a big concern for me,” he says.
Sharansky thinks Obama has “a little record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is McCain, and we know for sure his principles.”
Sharansky continues the train of thought: “It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some of his advisers think.
“I was at AIPAC. He made a very strong speech, speaking about a Jewish state, defensible borders, a united Jerusalem, then the next day he started correcting himself.”
Maureen Dowd: Is 'The One' cocky or Commander in Chiefy?
Dowd:
The king of Jordan personally drove the prince of Chicago from the
palace to the airport on Tuesday night to catch his flight to Israel,
leading a motorcade in his slate Mercedes 600 across the tarmac and
right up to O-Force One, as The Chicago Sun Times mockingly calls the
candidate’s freshly branded 757, with the captain’s chair embroidered
with “Obama-’08/President.” As the senator got out of the passenger
seat, King Abdullah jumped out to chat some more, as though the two,
who had only met in passing on the Hill, were old pals.
Obama finally found a Muslim with whom he’s willing to be photographed.
Obama Remembers a YouTube Debate Answer He Didn't Give
Barack Obama continues backpeddling from his infamous Meet With President Ahmadinejad Without Preconditions declaration. Now he's misstating his own YouTube answer...
Writes the National Review Online: "I know Obama's pledge in the YouTube debate has become a pain in the neck to him, but he really shouldn't be allowed to rewrite history so blatantly."
Obama bets $5 million on Olympic viewers
Barack Obama’s campaign will spend $5 million on advertisements during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympic Games next month, an NBC spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday.
... National broadcast advertising buys are highly unusual for presidential candidates. Campaigns usually order TV ad time in local markets (most often in contested states) and sometimes supplement it with cable television buys.
“Both the scale and the scope makes Obama’s buy unprecedented,” said Evan Tracey, the chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group...
Gore to give fundraiser for Obama
Gore's
spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, told The Associated Press on Wednesday no
date or location has been nailed down, but that Gore "has confirmed
that he is going to give a fundraiser for Sen. Obama."
Gore announced his decision to support Obama in a fundraising e-mail last month. He wrote at the time: "From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected president of the United States."
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