IOWA
PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Monday, Sept. 8, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
10-point lead
over Obama/Biden:
USA/Today poll
In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote.
... McCain has narrowed Obama's wide advantage on handling the economy, by far the electorate's top issue. Before the GOP convention, Obama was favored by 19 points; now he's favored by 3.
Palin jabs Obama over Iraq surge backpedaling
"Just
last night, Sen. Obama finally broke, and brought
himself to admit what all the rest of us have known for
quite some time, and that’s, thanks to the skill and
valor of our troops, the surge in Iraq has succeeded,"
Palin said.
"I guess when you turn out to be profoundly wrong on a vital national security issue, maybe it's comforting to pretend that everyone was wrong, too.
"But I remember it a little differently.
"It seems to me there was one leader in Washington who did predict success, who refused to call retreat, and risked his own career for the sake of the surge and victory in Iraq, and ladies and gentlemen, that man is standing right next to me -- Sen. John McCain."
MSNBC drops Keith Olbermann,
Chris Matthews from anchor spots
After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.
The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.
“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.
Fans on Oprah’s Web site are annoyed and disappointed.
“Oprah
needs to learn about ‘fair and balanced reporting,’ “writes one. “She
does not have to support the Republican ticket, but if she wants to
call her self a good reporter/talk show host, she needs to have both
sides on her show. Not to mention a women. Shame on you Oprah, your
[sic] getting a lot of your women viewers mad.”
“Oprah, you can not deny that Sarah Palin is a strong candidate & an inspiration to many!!” wrote another. “You have been an inspiration to me! If you truly want to move away from the association of your show as a political platform….balance out the equation!”
“Woohoo!” wrote yet another. “I agree! Oprah is no longer welcome in my home either. She is not the woman that she had us believe for so many years. I am thoroughly disappointed.”
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain & Sarah Palin... today's headlines with excerpts
Once spurned, McCain finds corporate support
Corporate executives, who once discounted John McCain's campaign, have been key to the Republican presidential nominee's rebound on the fund-raising circuit, a new analysis of campaign donations shows...
McCain: aides may work for $1 a year
John McCain says he’d impose a little fiscal discipline on his Cabinet — by asking the best-off to work for one dollar per year.
The vow, made in an interview taped with Bob Schieffer for CBS’s “Face the Nation,” fits with McCain’s new push to run as a reformer who would shake up Washington, where he has worked for the past 26 years.
Schieffer asked McCain whether he would put Democrats in his Cabinet.
“Sure,” McCain replied. “I don't know how many. But I can tell you, with all due respect to previous administrations, it is not going to be a single, ‘Well, we have a Democrat now.’”
NYTimes: Fusing politics and motherhood in a new way
“To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time,” she said, “I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”
In
just a few months, she has gone from hiding her
pregnancy from those closest to her to toting her infant
on stage at the Republican National Convention.
No one has ever tried to combine presidential politics and motherhood in quite the way Ms. Palin is doing, and it is no simple task. In the last week, the criticism she feared in Alaska has exploded into a national debate. On blogs and at PTA meetings, voters alternately cheer and fault her balancing act, and although many are thrilled to see a child with special needs in the spotlight, some accuse her of exploiting Trig for political gain.
But her son has given Ms. Palin, 44, a powerful message. Other candidates kiss strangers’ babies; Ms. Palin has one of her own. He is tangible proof of Ms. Palin’s anti-abortion convictions, which have rallied social conservatives, and her belief that women can balance family life with ambitious careers. And on Wednesday in St. Paul, she proclaimed herself a guardian of the nation’s disabled children.
“Children with special needs inspire a special love,” Ms. Palin said...
Sarah Palin to sit down with ABC's Charlie Gibson
Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down with ABC News' Charlie Gibson for her first interview since winning the Republican vice presidential nomination, the network's news division confirmed on Sunday...
Are Palin's eyeglasses the new 'pantsuit'?
The glasses, created by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki, are becoming a bipartisan must-have fashion accessory.
The company that manufacturers Palin's eyeglasses says its phones have been ringing off the hook.
"We began hearing from our authorized dealers and they wanted to stock multiple pairs of the exact same frame and style and color that she had," said Amy Hahn, the vice president of Italee Optics, Inc.
Todd Palin, husband of Sarah Palin: a 'true Alaskan'
The quiet man standing next to Sarah Palin is nothing like the other three campaign spouses caught in the whirlwind of the presidential race, and not just because he's a man.
Todd Palin is a conservative, a moose hunter, an oil worker, a union man, a snowmobile racer, a hockey fan and a onetime backer of Alaskan independence. And in the frontier society of Alaska, his bona fides are not that unusual.
He's a "true Alaskan," said Ben Harrell, owner of the Mocha Moose cafe here.
Part Yupik Eskimo, Todd Palin is best known locally for winning the grueling 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race four times.
In last year's race, 400 miles from the finish line he
hit a snow-covered barrel that sent him flying from his
machine. He broke his arm -- and still finished the race
in fourth place.
Barack Obama & Joe Biden... today's headlines with excerpts'
Obama, Bill Clinton to do summit together
Senator
Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton plan to
meet for lunch on Thursday at Mr. Clinton’s offices in
Harlem, their first extended face-to-face encounter
after more than a year of tense relations, aides said...
... Thursday is the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Mr. Obama will be in New York for a memorial ceremony at Ground Zero that morning with his Republican presidential rival, Senator John McCain, an event that both candidates say is intended to be non-political...
Obama's verbal slip fuels his critics: 'my Muslim faith'
Sen. Barack Obama's foes seized Sunday upon a brief slip of the tongue, when the Democratic presidential nominee was outlining his Christianity but accidentally said, "my Muslim faith."
The three words -- immediately corrected -- were during an exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," when he was trying to criticize the quiet smear campaign suggesting he is a Muslim...
"Let's not play games," he said. "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come."
Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted with, "Christian faith."
"My Christian faith," Mr. Obama said quickly...
Obama considered joining military, regrets abortion answer
After highlighting a few of the United Nations' most glaring shortcomings, Mr. Obama wrote in the August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs that "none of these problems will be solved unless America rededicates itself to the organization and its mission."
That kind of commitment is music to Turtle Bay's ears, especially compared to Mr. McCain's proposal to create a "League of Democracies." U.N. denizens see the plan as a direct threat to the authority of their organization; few have read, or cared to believe, the Arizona senator's explanation: His proposed league is intended to "complement" their all-encompassing institution, rather than bury it...
Biden on Meet The Press:
I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.
But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society. ..
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