Obama And McCain's Fundraising Nearly Equal For May
The new fundraising numbers for May show that Barack Obama only took in $21.9 million for the month, just barely ahead of John McCain's $20.9 million. Obama continues to lead in cash on hand by a $43 million to $31.6 million margin, but it's not exactly overwhelming. The real numbers to watch will be June's, after Obama sewed up the Democratic nomination and then opted out of public financing for the general election.

Poll: Obama Leads, But Not Getting A Big Bounce
A new USA Today/Gallup poll gives Barack Obama a 48%-42% lead, not significantly changed from a 47%-43% lead from a month ago. This is contrary to yesterday's Newsweek poll, which showed Obama surging to a 15-point lead over McCain.

Obama And McCain Campaigns Trade Flip-Flop Accusations
The Obama campaign used their conference call with reporters yesterday to go after McCain on oil exploration, taxes and immigration. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign says Obama has changed his position on NAFTA, first to please a protectionist Dem base in the primaries and now to run to the center.

Obama: They're Going To Try To Make You Afraid Of Me
At a Florida fundraiser yesterday, Barack Obama spoke bluntly about the campaign ahead. "They're going to try to make you afraid of me," he told attendees. "He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?"

Hillary Returning To The Senate
Hillary Clinton is set to return to the Senate floor this coming week, the Washington Post reports. The once-inevitable frontrunner will have to deal with two challenges: Becoming just another Senator after being seemingly on track to win the White House -- and carrying around a $22.5 million debt from her campaign.

Veterans To Swift Boat Financier: We Can Prove You Wrong
A group of Vietnam veterans who served with John Kerry have sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the main financier of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, taking him up on his promise to give $1 million to anyone who can prove false a single charge that the Swift Boaters made against John Kerry in 2004. Something tells me the check won't be arriving any time soon.

Last time we checked in on Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt, the Ohio Republican facing a tough challenge from Dem Victoria Wulsin, she was busy demonizing her opponent as someone who conducts grisly scientific experiments on innocent human victims.

Now she's outdoing herself again, spreading a tall tale that even other Republicans know is bogus: The notion that China is supposedly drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

She's pushing this fiction in order to whip up fear about high gas prices and Democrats wanting to sell the country out to the Communists -- a clear effort to boost her base turnout against Wulsin, who nearly beat Schmidt two years ago and very well could unseat her this time around.

Read more »

Barack Obama might just be getting his post-primary national bounce. A new poll from Newsweek gives him a 51%-36% lead over John McCain, up from a 46%-46% tie a month ago.

Obama is helped by some key statistics. Five-five percent of respondents now call themselves Democrats or Dem-leaners, compared to only thirty-six percent Republicans and GOP-leaners. With the Democrat-on-Democrat mudslinging out the way, Obama is now able to fully enjoy that wide base of support.

Obama is doing better at this point in the game than John Kerry or Al Gore did before him, an encouraging sign for a Democratic victory. A caveat, though: Obama's lead right now is comparable to Michael Dukakis' lead back when he clinched the nomination, and he went on to lose the election.

Here's what's so dispiriting about it. One of the riveting things about Barack Obama's candidacy is that since the outset of the campaign he's seemed absolutely dead serious about changing the way foreign policy is discussed and argued about in this country.

Time and again, in his debates with Hillary, and now with John McCain, his whole debate posture on national security issues was centered on the idea that he could challenge and change what it means to talk "tough." His candidacy has long seemed to embody a conviction that Democrats can win arguments with Republicans about national security -- that if Dems stick to a set of core principles, and forcefully argue for them without blinking, they can and will persuade people that, simply put, they are right and Republicans are wrong.

Obama has done this already in this general election -- repeatedly. And no doubt he will do it again and again and again in the months ahead. Not this time.

To be clear, I'm not even talking about whether opposing this would or wouldn't have carried political peril. It really doesn't matter. Because if there were ever anything that would have tested his operating premise throughout this campaign -- that you can win arguments with Republicans about national security -- it was this legislation. If ever there were anything that deserved to test this premise, it was this legislation.

And this time, he abandoned that premise.

Late Update: Glenn Greenwald, a leading critic of Obama on this, sends me his skeptical take on why he thinks Obama's promise to work on the bill in the Senate doesn't change anything:

"I think we do a grave disservice if we try to convince people that Obama is really going to work to get amnesty out of the bill. Reid is already saying it's just theater -- they know it's going to fail -- it's just a way, Reid said, to let people "express themselves." It's all designed to let Obama say, once he votes for this bill: "Well, I tried to get amnesty out." He's going to vote for amnesty -- and his statement today seals the fate of this bill. Why sugar coat that?"

Obama's statement on the FISA "compromise" is in, and suffice it to say that it won't make opponents of the Dem cave-in very happy. He's supporting it.

Here's the key part:

"Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance -- making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.

"It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives -- and the liberty -- of the American people."

Full statement after the jump.

Late Update: My take on his decision is here.

Read more »

Hmmm. This one isn't great timing, now is it.

On the very same day that the House Dems passed the new FISA cave, Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted out a fundraising email this afternoon with this...

As Speaker, I can tell you that we need a Democrat in the White House and a strong Democratic majority in Congress to drive change forward. Our June 30th FEC deadline is vital to our success in November. All eyes will be on Democrats' fundraising totals as a measure of our party's unity and strength.I ask that you please help to show our commitment to across-the-board victories this November by making a contribution of $35, $50 or more...

It's just not a good day for House Dems to be asking rank-and-file Dems for money, let alone promising strength. As TPM Reader SM, who forwarded us the email, said of this promise of a "strong" Dem majority:

"All I want is one with a spine."

A new Rasmussen poll of New Hampshire gives Barack Obama a big lead in this swing state, which went narrowly to George W. Bush in 2000 and then switched to John Kerry in 2004.

The numbers: Obama 50%, McCain 39%. A month ago, Obama had only a 48%-43% edge.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen gives McCain a small lead in Nevada, which voted for Bush twice: McCain 45%, Obama 42%, within the ± 4.5% margin of error.

Barack Obama is keeping his position on the new FISA bill close to the vest -- so close, in fact, that even his aides don't know what it is!

During a conference call this afternoon with reporters, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs was first asked whether the Obama campaign would schedule time for the candidate to vote in the Senate next week, and how Obama would actually vote on the policy. Gibbs initially said he didn't know about the scheduling, without addressing the main subject.

Later on, another reporter asked specifically about Obama's position. "I better check on that, too," Gibbs said. "I honestly -- that's what I need to work on, as well."

It certainly is striking that Obama is now the leader of the Democratic Party, but he has yet to say anything on such a crucial public issue. Obama has in the past opposed lawsuit immunity for the telecom companies that participated in warrantless wiretapping, but neither he nor his campaign have commented on his position for the latest bill.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

Late Update: Just to clarify, we're not faulting the staffer here for failing to answer the question. The staffer, after all, simply can't make up an answer out of thin air. The larger point at play here is that Obama has yet to provide an answer on a major issue over the last two days.

Late Update: Obama has now taken a position -- in favor of the bill.

The Obama camp has installed yet another staffer in a high place at the Democratic National Committee.

WaPo has the scoop on the latest: It's operative Brad Woodhouse, who will now join the DNC's communications staff and help coordinate the DNC's message with that of Obama.

The message control that the Obama camp is trying to achieve at the DNC largely eluded John Kerry, whose advisers feuded with the DNC and even tried to muzzle then-DNC chief Terry McAuliffe when he wanted to aggressively attack Bush's war record, or lack thereof.

Woodhouse is close to two top figures in Obamaland, having worked at different times with Obama top advisers Steve Hildebrand and Robert Gibbs.

And Obama's remaking of the Democratic Party in his own image continues apace.

MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election, I've learned from the group's spokesperson.

MoveOn's decision, which will dramatically impact the way it raises money on Obama's behalf, is yet another sign of how rapidly Obama is taking control of the apparatus that's gearing up on his behalf.

By shuttering its 527, MoveOn is effectively killing its ability to raise money in huge chunks from labor unions, foundations, and big donors who would give over $5,000. The decision doesn't mean MoveOn will stop spending on Obama's behalf. Instead it will raise money exclusively with its political action committee, whose average donation is below $50 and will even be raising money with things like bake sales starting this weekend.

To put this in perspective, MoveOn's 527 raised $20 million for the general election in 2004 -- and at least half of that came from donations over $5,000.

"This is an affirmation that we, like Senator Obama, believe that this election can be won by ordinary Americans giving small donations," MoveOn spokesperson Ilyse Hogue told me.

Read more »

This is really funny. Did GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, who's in a really tough fight to hold on to his key Minnesota Senate seat, digitally fake an appearance of domesticity between himself and his wife for an ad?

That's what is being said about this new spot -- and the campaign is strongly denying the allegation:

Something does seem to be off here, in terms of the camera perspective on Laurie Coleman, who is known to spend most of her time in California and not Minnesota or D.C. It sure seems like she and Norm were taped from different camera angles. And she's much more brightly lit, with no lighting spillover onto the countertop.

Coleman is in a tough race with Al Franken in this blue state, so it would make sense to pitch him as a regular guy -- and potentially even more damaging if it turned out to be faked.

Coleman's campaign didn't respond to our inquiries, but they did give a statement to the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, promising that Norm and Laurie were in the same kitchen.

"These left-wing, liberal, Al Franken bloggers are as goofy a bunch as I've ever seen," the campaign's spokesperson said. "They've spent the entire morning concocting a conspiracy theory, wasting valuable bandwidth on the Internet."

Still looks kind of fishy to us.

Late Update: Hmm, this might actually be legit. The Coleman campaign has given a right-wing site a short piece of outtake footage from the shoot, which is in much higher quality and lacking the distorted look of the final product.

Does the Obama campaign really believe Indiana is in play?

Team Obama has assigned one of its most valued campaign staffers to the state, reports the Indianapolis Star. The staffer, Emily Parcell, was political director for Obama in Iowa, where the Illinois Senator secured a huge win that essentially put him on the path to the nomination.

The Obama campaign says it shows they're taking the state seriously. However, as Taegan Goddard notes, political experts think that the Obama team doesn't really believe this and is merely messing with the minds of the McCain team.

The last two times Indiana went Democratic were during LBJ's 1964 landslide win and FDR's 1936 lopsided win. However, the Obama team is running a general election ad in the state -- the first Dem to do so in memory.

Ultimately this is really about the huge disparity in resources here. The Obama team can do more than merely say they believe they have a real shot at states like Indiana. They can afford to act like they believe it, too.

Late Update: A commenter below puts it well: "Is it really in play? We won't know without playing there. That's the whole point: only one way to find out." And they have the resources to find out -- that's the real key.

The Politico has a terrific story today reporting that there really isn't any frightening apparatus of right-wing independent groups gearing up to Swift Boat Obama -- even though the specter of such efforts is central to Obama's justification for opting out of the public financing system.

Indeed, the story reports that the super-rich oil baron who was the lead funder of such efforts against John Kerry is not going to shell out a dime this time around:

T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who gave $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and who numerous GOP sources said was being looked to as a funding source this year, is sitting the race out.

"He is not giving anything to 527s involved in the presidential race this cycle, and has communicated that...to Republican strategists and operatives," said Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser.

The dynamic on the right is interesting. I'm told by people involved in trying to launch such efforts that the big GOP money-people are genuinely confused by the anti-527 noises John McCain has been making. They don't know whether to bankroll such efforts, because they can't tell whether McCain would tacitly approve, or whether doing so would actually gain them nothing from McCain.

Meanwhile, others are trying to decide whether they even care what McCain thinks, and are weighing putting money into them simply to stop Obama, regardless of what McCain has said.

The Obama campaign has just announced that the presumptive nominee will be campaigning next Friday, June 27, with a very special guest: Hillary Clinton, who has been urging her supporters to unite behind Obama.

No further details -- where, what time, etc. -- have been announced yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Strategist: Obama Could Raise Up To Half A Billion!
Barack Obama's decision to forego public financing might just net him a whole lot more than the $80 million the government would have given him, with Dem strategist Tad DeVine saying that his small-donor base could bring in as much as $500 million. Even half that amount would allow him to fight in states previously considered off-limits for Democrats, and to really overpower John McCain if the Republican is unable to match it.

Is Obama's Decision The End Of Public Finance?
The New York Times writes this morning that Barack Obama's decision to opt out of public finance may just be the end of the system as we know it. "Mr. Obama has made the argument that he has achieved online what the public finance system has been unable to do," the paper says. "And he has been freed from the necessity of spending countless hours fund-raising."

Obama And McCain To Hold Dueling Press Conferences Today
Barack Obama will be holding a 4:30 p.m. ET press conference today in Jacksonville, Florida, where the subject of campaign finance is sure to come up with some very pointed questions -- and perhaps some very pointed answers. John McCain will hold his own 1:40 p.m. ET presser from Ottawa, Canada, where he's making a speech on the virtues of free trade.

Obama Calls Two Muslim Women, Apologizes For Snub At Rally
Barack Obama yesterday personally called two Muslim women who were refused the honor of sitting behind him at a Michigan rally, due to volunteers not wanting their headscarves in view of the cameras. We both immensely appreciate the senator's phone call and his commitment to remedy this issue," one of the women told the Detroit Free Press.

Jeb Bush Changes Position, Defends McCain On Offshore Drilling
John McCain's position on offshore drilling is causing very prominent Florida Republican Jeb Bush, to change his long-held opposition. "You can protect the natural resources and the coastline of the state and also be part of national effort to deal with a national security crisis that our country faces right now," Jeb told reporters.

Pennsylvania School District Might Sue Hillary Campaign For Unpaid Bills
The Erie, Pennsylvania, school district is still waiting on a $3,887 bill from the Clinton campaign, for a rally with Bill Clinton held way back on March 12. If it's not paid soon, an administrator told the Erie Times News, it will be referred to their lawyers.

Dem Incumbent Leads In Top-Tier House Race
A new SurveyUSA poll of Indiana's 9th House District gives incumbent Democrat Baron Hill a 51%-40% lead over Republican opponent Mike Sodrel, in a district that went for President Bush by nearly 20 points in 2004. This year's contest is their fourth consecutive match-up, with Hill winning in 2002, losing to Sodrel in 2004, then coming back in 2006.

In a further sign of just how wide the political playing field is set to be this fall, a new poll finds that Barack Obama may well be able to win Georgia, a state that voted twice for George W. Bush and by healthy margins.

The numbers from InsiderAdvantage: McCain 44%, Obama 43%, within the ±5% margin of error. Some key numbers: Bob Barr, the former right-wing Georgia Congressman turned Libertarian nominee, is getting six-percent support, which otherwise would have probably gone to McCain. Also, InsiderAdvantage estimates that blacks will make up 29% of the electorate, up from 25% in 2004 exit polling.

So, did the Obama campaign decide to opt out of public financing because their offers to negotiate with the McCain camp over restricting outside ad spending were rebuffed?

That's what the Obama campaign's top legal adviser claimed in a conference call a few moments ago, as the skirmishing over Obama's decision dragged into the evening.

Chief legal counsel Bob Bauer insisted that he'd communicated their concerns at his meeting with McCain counsel Trevor Potter. Instead, Bauer says, Potter never answered their concerns -- and added that McCain has actually tacitly encouraged such 527s to gear up and go after Obama.

"It seems to me that if we scheduled this discussion," Bauer said, "and we put forward our concerns, and we heard nothing back, nor anything in the meeting that could in any way suggest that fruitful exchanges were productive, it isn't clear to me that the McCain campaign is in the position to accuse us of failing to negotiate."

Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

On a private conference call moments ago, Hillary urged her top fundraisers in no uncertain terms to throw their weight behind Barack Obama, and directly asked them in surprisingly candid terms to give or raise money to help her pay off her campaign's debt.

At the same time, in a move that took some participants on the call by surprise, she also clarified that she was not asking their help in paying off her personal loans to the campaign.

Interestingly, Hillary also suggested that she would soon be making public statements about the media coverage of the campaign, as well as the ways "women were discussed," saying that she would "be doing more on that as we go forward."

"I am going to do everything I can to ensure victory for Senator Obama," Hillary told her fundraisers on the call. "I am asking each of you to do the same. I really believe we've got to see a Democrat sworn into the White House this January."

The call, which I was able to listen to in its entirety, left little doubt that Hillary was unequivocally signaling to her top financial supporters -- who are being actively courted by Obama -- that the time had come for them to do their part in getting him elected President.

Read more »

On a conference call just now with reporters, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds and campaign general counsel Trevor Potter sought to hold Obama to his promise of a year ago to "aggressively pursue" negotiations with the eventual Republican nominee to both opt into public finance.

"This decision by the Obama campaign was all about money," said Bounds. "And the arguments that they are making after the fact are only an attempt to legitimize a decision that was pre-determined and obviously made for other political reasons."

Instead of negotiations, according to Potter, there was a 45-minute meeting between himself and chief Obama counsel Bob Bauer, which was pre-scheduled to discuss other matters at the end of the primary season, during which the subject of public financing came up only briefly -- and it was clear that Bauer was looking at opting out.

"Bob stated that the Obama campaign hadn't decided what they were going to do yet, and were thinking about it," Potter said. "He made a number of points, all of which suggested that there were problems with the system, or it was broken, or it wasn't necessary."

"There was no aggressive pursuit of negotiations with the McCain campaign," Potter later added. "There was no pursuit, period, of negotiations with the McCain campaign."

Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

One of Obama's key selling points has been that he has a plausible shot at winning Western states like Colorado -- but a new poll of that state finds that his lead over McCain there has just about evaporated, and half the state's voters are afraid he's too inexperienced to be President.

The latest numbers from Rasmussen: Obama 43%, McCain 41%, with a ±4% margin of error. A month ago, Obama was ahead 48%-42%.

From the pollster's analysis: "Still, 50% of Colorado voters think Obama is too inexperienced to serve in the White House, but 42% disagree."

Here's yet another indication that national Republicans think they're seriously at risk of losing a key Senate seat in deep red Mississippi: President Bush is set to visit the state on July 1, for a fundraising event with appointed Sen. Roger Wicker, the Tupelo Daily Journal reports.

Recent polls have shown a close race between Wicker and Democratic candidate Ronnie Musgrove, a former one-term governor -- even though Bush won the state by a 60%-40% margin back in 2004.

This visit tells us two things. First, that Republicans are genuinely worried about this seat and are moving to build up their financial advantage -- and given the state's deep conservatism, a loss here would be devastating. Second, there is at least one state left where a Republican would actually want Bush to visit on his behalf.

This isn't terribly surprising, but it's noteworthy: Judging by a new statement McCain just put out slamming Obama, the McCain campaign has clearly made an internal decision to ratchet up its efforts to portray him as not just weak, but as vacillating and indecisive.

This is the real goal of the McCain campaign's attacks on Obama for favoring habeas corpus for terror suspects -- to make the argument that McCain represents clarity of purpose while Obama represents indecision and legalistic obfuscation. Remember the Kerry wind-surfing ad?

Versions of the words "vacillate" and "indecisive" were much more in evidence on the McCain campaign conference call this morning than in past calls.

And McCain's new statement attacks Obama's comment yesterday that we shouldn't make Bin Laden a "martyr" by saying that it sent "a signal of confusion and indecision to our allies and adversaries." McCain added: "Let me be clear, under my administration Osama bin Laden will either be killed on the battlefield or executed."

In other words, just as it did in 2004, the GOP is going out of its way to say that the Democrat's position is unclear and legalistic, even if it is every bit as clear as McCain's, which it is. It's an obvious psych-out. McCain's full statement after the jump.

Late Update: Oh, Lord, this is a good one. Instaputz reminds us that this actually represents a softening of McCain's position: After all, McCain had previously vowed to follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell. Video here.

Read more »

We like this one. To amplify its message that opting out of public financing was necessary to combat the onslaught of outside 527 ad spending that's likely to hit Obama in the months ahead, the Obama campaign has turned to the perfect messenger: John Kerry.

On a conference call with reporters moments ago, Kerry insisted that the decision was necessary if Obama is to avoid succumbing under a barrage of such spending, as he did.

"You know, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth hadn't appeared in July of my year as a funded group," Kerry said. "And they were funded in August, which was the time I was tied to campaign finance reform and didn't have the money to respond. And it had an obvious, profound impact. So I think in order to control your campaign and your message, it is essential to be able to respond to those and be free to respond to them."

Kerry's fate at the hands of the Swift Boat Vets, of course, continues to haunt Dems. So he's just the person to make this case and to make John McCain's refusal to forcefully rein in the outside groups on his side look that much more ominous.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

Those who predicted that Hillary's harsher attacks on Obama would be recycled by the GOP during the general election were proven right again today.

The Republican National Committee just blasted out this toughly-worded Hillary quote from back in February, hitting Obama over his campaign finance pledge...

"Actions speak louder than words. No matter how beautiful the words are and how well presented, you've got to get beyond the words. And now we're seeing how the words don't even mean what we thought they meant," Clinton said. "So I think it raises some serious questions about what it is he stands for."

The Republicans are working hard to make Obama "own" his pledge, as Mark Halperin put it, by releasing a timeline of Obama's previous statements on public financing.

But as Ben Smith noted earlier today, if the Obama camp has its way, the focus of the spin war will be less over whether Obama broke his word, and more over whether Obama's smashing success with small donors represents a campaign finance revolution of sorts in its own right.

The Obama camp is also likely to keep hammering away at the idea that McCain recently said that he can't control the ad spending of outside groups, as a way of arguing that Obama's decision was made out of necessity and that McCain lacks the leadership and will to curb abuses on his side.

The statements are starting to trickle in from good-government types in reaction to Obama's big decision today to opt out of the public financing system, with one expert viewing the move as one of necessity and another seeing it as a betrayal of a major achievement in campaign-finance reform.

Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer pronounced himself "disappointed," saying in a statement that Obama's small-donor revolution doesn't justify the move because the inequities in the system remain.

"The Obama Internet fundraising success," Wertheimer said, "was the exception, not the rule, in the 2008 presidential primaries. Larger contributions of $1,000 or more provided the major source of funding for most of the other major presidential primary candidates."

But David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch told the Huffington Post that Obama's decision, while "regrettable," is defensible if it enables his victory and subsequent efforts at further reform.

"We find Sen. Obama's decision to forgo public financing for the general election regrettable but understandable in light of the tens of millions of dollars that will be raised and spent outside the system attacking him," Donnelly said. "The real test is whether a candidate has pledged to make passage of public financing a priority if elected, and we intend to hold Sen. Obama accountable to his pledge to do so."

One note about the spin war that's erupted over this: The case being made by the McCain campaign, which blasted Obama's decision, is considerably weakened by the fact that McCain said in an interview that there was little he could do to control outside groups that might swift boat Obama.

The Illinois Senator, by contrast, has instructed his donors not to give to such groups. Now he can argue that his decision to opt out was in response to McCain's weak-willed approach to abuses of the system on his side.

Barack Obama has cut a radio spot for conservative Dem Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, who favors staying in Iraq and favors immunity for the telecom companies, and he's taking a beating from liberal bloggers over it.

Barrow is loathed by the Netroots, and not without cause: During his 2006 reelection campaign he ran an ad saying that "we can't cut and run" from Iraq. And he was one of the House Dems who sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi demanding that they be permitted to vote for the recent Senate bill giving amnesty to the telecoms.

We obtained a copy of the ad from the Barrow campaign. Give it a listen:

Click To Play

The problem here is that the Netroots are backing a primary challenger to Barrow, State Senator Regina Thomas, and Obama's ad is a blow to their efforts. It's drawn scalding denunciations from Glenn Greenwald and Matt Stoller, who described Barrow as "one of the most reactionary members of Congress."

Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor responded: "Sen. Obama believes that Congressman Barrow has worked hard to bring change that families in his district deserve."

There are multiple reasons why Obama would do this. For example, he might be trying to send a message to certain House Dems that he can help them even in conservative districts, which could keep them from refusing to endorse him -- something that would give the GOP ammo in the Presidential race.

The Obama campaign has announced their first ad of the general election season, a 60-second spot in which Obama re-introduces himself to voters in targeted states with the message that he loves this country:

Obama's narrative is clearly an effort to pitch himself as an accessible, down-to-earth American, and not the out-of-touch foreign bogeyman that some have made him out to be: "I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses."

The ad will run in 18 states -- some of them longtime GOP strongholds that the Obama campaign is now apparently going to contest: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

The McCain campaign kept up its attacks on Barack Obama as weak on terror for the third day in a row today, falsely charging on a conference call that Obama opposes capital punishment for Osama Bin Laden.

On the call, McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann reached this conclusion by a curiously circuitous logical route. It went a little something like this: Yesterday, Scheunemann pointed out, Obama said that Bin Laden should be captured in such a way that doesn't "make him into a martyr."

"The last I checked, a martyr is someone who dies for a cause or someone who is killed for a cause," Scheunemann said. "It seems that Senator Obama is ruling out capital punishment."

Actually, Obama has explicitly said that he doesn't oppose capital punishment for Bin Laden. In July of 2007, he said (via Nexis) that after a trial that observed "international standards of due process," Bin Laden would qualify for execution.

"At that point, do I think that somebody who killed 3,000 Americans qualifies as someone who has perpetrated heinous crimes, and would qualify for the death penalty? Then yes," Obama said.

Not that facts matter, of course.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

The battle has begun over Barack Obama's decision today to take a pass on public financing, with the McCain camp slamming Obama as a "typical politican" who broke an earlier pledge not to do this...

"Today, Barack Obama has revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.

"The true test of a candidate for President is whether he will stand on principle and keep his word to the American people. Barack Obama has failed that test today, and his reversal of his promise to participate in the public finance system undermines his call for a new type of politics.

"Barack Obama is now the first presidential candidate since Watergate to run a campaign entirely on private funds. This decision will have far-reaching and extraordinary consequences that will weaken and undermine the public financing system."

More on this in a bit.

Late Update: The Obama campaign is blaming the McCain campaign for its decision, saying that Obama advisers met privately with McCain advisers, who were not interested in reaching an agreement. Full statement from Obama spokesperson Bill Burton after the jump.

Read more »

This is both sad and funny. A Tennessee Democrat is now apologizing for saying last week that Barack Obama might be "terrorist-connected" -- and he's blaming Fox News for putting the idea in his head!

"My statement that Senator Obama 'may be terrorist-connected' was incorrect and I apologize for making it," said Fred Hobbs, a member of the state party's executive committee, in a letter obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

In perhaps the mother of all understatements, Hobbs added that his comments were caused by "what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly."

Keep an eye out for this one, because it's a none-too-subtle GOP smear we'll be hearing a lot of before long.

Here is GOP strategist Alex Castellanos -- the same worthy fellow who made that 1990 Jesse Helms ad showing white hands crumpling up a resume -- on CNN yesterday evening, discussing Michelle Obama's appearance on The View...

CASTELLANOS: For example, on "The View" today, she said, look, I didn't want my husband to be -- get involved in politics. It's too mean. And he's such a sweet and either -- and empathetic guy.

(CROSSTALK)

CASTELLANOS: She has often made him sound like the softer side of that relationship, and that she is the strength of it. It's important to know in that case. Hey, a lot of relationships are like that.

It's "important" to know that Barack is "softer" than Michelle if it's true, eh? Why is that?

This trick of feminizing Dems is hardly confined to the GOP, of course. Some pundits -- in particular, certain high-profile female columnists -- love to help the GOP do this on a regular basis, as we've already seen.

Here, though, it's a kind of double-smear, hitting both Michelle and Barack in one shot.

Late Update: Here's video...

Barack Obama made a big announcement this morning via YouTube: That his campaign is opting out of public financing for the general election, and foregoing $80 million in government money:

Obviously, Obama would not be doing this if he did not reasonably expect his small-donor base to get him even more cash, free of restrictions that come with public finance, and that he'd be able to outspend John McCain.

The Republicans are likely to hammer him as a hypocrite for this, as he'd indicated a year ago that he wanted to broker a deal with the GOP nominee to both opt into public finance -- which the lesser-funded McCain campaign has been trying to hold him to.

Obama has his answer to that: That McCain has declared he won't police 527 activity on his behalf, which would defeat the purpose of public finance. Declaring the finance system broken, Obama added, "We face opponents who have become masters of gaming this broken system."

The big questions now are whether any attacks over opting out would actually have political pull, and whether his donor base will be able to come through in the way the campaign is betting they will.

Late Update: The McCain campaign blasts Obama for the decision.

A new Rasmussen poll of Florida finds John McCain with a decent lead over Barack Obama in this big swing state. The numbers: McCain 47%, Obama 39%, with a ±4% margin of error.

This is contrary to a Quinnipiac poll from yesterday, which gave Obama a 47%-43 lead here, making the reality of the situation ambiguous. Obama's campaign has downplayed Florida as a must-win state, though they do plan to actively contest it. If they were able to win it, then a victory would become exceedingly difficult for John McCain.

The proposal by George W. Bush and John McCain to lift the bans on offshore oil drilling -- pitched as a solution to gas prices -- is getting a thumbs down from an unlikely source: The Wall St. Journal, which says it is simply not a short-term fix.

"If the bans were lifted tomorrow," the Journal says, "it would be at least seven years -- and likely as long as a decade -- before the first oil began to flow off the coasts of Florida, California and the eastern seaboard."

Barack Obama continues hitting back hard today at the false McCain/GOP assaults on him for allegedly seeing terrorism as only a law-enforcement problem...

"I refuse to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States. The other side likes to use 9/11 as a political bludgeon. Well, let's talk about 9/11.

"The people who were responsible for murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11 have not been brought to justice. They are Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and their sponsors -- the Taliban. They were in Afghanistan. And yet George Bush and John McCain decided in 2002 that we should take our eye off of Afghanistan so that we could invade and occupy a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The case for war in Iraq was so thin that George Bush and John McCain had to hype the threat of Saddam Hussein, and make false promises that we'd be greeted as liberators. They misled the American people, and took us into a misguided war.

"Here are the results of their policy. Osama bin Laden and his top leadership -- the people who murdered 3000 Americans -- have a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That's the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism."

The key line there is "let's talk about 9/11." Keep in mind that this latest GOP assault is not so much about the substance of the argument as it is about trying to project a sense that the McCain campaign is the one on offense. Obama isn't playing along.

Only two years ago, some Dems were still saying, "please, please, PLEASE, let's NOT talk about 9/11." Now Obama is inviting an argument about it -- and more important, he's saying it's an argument he will win. That's the key here.

If Michelle Obama is indeed edging into a more public role in the campaign, as The New York Times asserted today, she starts with an advantage over her Republican counterpart:

Forty-eight percent of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll see Obama favorably, vs. 39 percent for McCain, a 9-point Obama advantage. Slightly more, though, also view Obama unfavorably -- 29 percent vs. McCain's 25 percent.

Substantially more, 36 percent, haven't yet formed an opinion of McCain, vs. 23 percent in Obama's case. For both, those are sizable numbers who've yet to make a judgment.

Via The Page. The poll's internals also have some interesting numbers, showing that more non-feminists and more white women view Michelle favorably.

Given that a fictitious video tape of Michelle supposedly saying bad things about white people got at least as much attention as Cindy's initial refusal to disclose her income, that's not a bad starting place.

Just when we thought we'd seen the last of Rep. John Doolittle, the TPMmuckraker All-Star whose associations with Jack Abramoff have forced him into retirement, it turns out he may be set to hit the campaign trail all over again -- and there's a Republican out there who will actually be seen with him!

As it turns out, he's in talks with GOP nominee Tom McClintock's camp to appear together -- a development that could increase the Dems' chances of picking up this red district thanks to Doolittle's high negatives.

McClintock spokesman Stan Devereux told Election Central that the ongoing investigations against Doolittle would not render him a political liability: "Doolittle is still the congressman for the area, has served the district well."

Of course, the source of the problem here is the extent to which Doolittle served Abramoff well.

Okay, this Rudy-as-counter-terror genius story just keeps on giving.

The latest: It turns out that John McCain himself even said that Rudy has no national security experience.

As we've noted here repeatedly, the McCain campaign -- for reasons known only to itself -- has made Rudy the front man for the campaign's national security message that Barack Obama isn't equipped to defend America from terrorism.

But here's what McCain had to say about Rudy's expertise, or lack thereof, on national security last September:

"I think the nation respects the mayor's leadership after 9/11, and I do, too, and I think he displayed leadership at a time that Americans needed some steady hand, and I think that his conduct was very laudatory following 9/11," Mr. McCain said, when asked why so many voters identify Mr. Giuliani with the issue of terrorism.

But he went on to say: "I don't think it translates, necessarily, into foreign policy or national security expertise. I know of nothing in his background that indicates that he has any experience in it, with him or Romney."

If even McCain himself knows full well that Rudy has no "national security expertise," then why is the McCain campaign making Rudy its voice of authority on the question of who can best defend America?

The talking points -- not to mention the gag lines -- write themselves on this one.

Late Update: There's more! Here's McCain on Fox News in November, questioning Rudy's decision to quit the Iraq Study Group and attacking his paucity of national security experience...

The McCain campaign has enlisted Rudy Giuliani as the leading communicator of the message that Barack Obama can't be trusted to defend us against terrorism.

But even one of McCain's own foreign policy advisers said that Rudy scandalously screwed up the task of preparing his own city for disasters and terror attacks.

Former Navy secretary John Lehman is a leading McCain adviser and surrogate, but here's what Lehman had to say to the 9/11 Commission about Rudy's performance in defending New York as Mayor:

It was Lehman who, during a Sept. 11 Commission hearing in NY City, took the Giuliani administration to task for the failure to have effective radio communications in place on Sept. 11, leading to chaos.

''I think the command and control and communications of this city's public service is a scandal,'' Lehman said at the time. In his most memorable quip, he said the city's disaster-response plans were ''not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city.''

If even the McCain campaign's national security expert says that Rudy failed to defend his constituents adequately, why is the McCain campaign enlisting Rudy as a voice of authority on the question of who is best qualified to defend America?

Last fall, Joe Biden famously dismissed Rudy Giuliani's campaign rhetoric as little more than "a noun, a verb, and 9/11."

So I thought it would be a good idea to check in with Biden again, now that Rudy's emerged as John McCain's lead attack dog against Obama's alleged weakness on terror.

Here's the best part of what Biden's office sent me, from Biden himself:

"It's no surprise that it takes a man with zero national security and foreign policy experience to defend the policies of John McCain and President Bush," Biden said.

"Sen. McCain insists that Americans must choose between our values and our security. That's exactly wrong. Our values reinforce our security. Our failure to live up to them has been Al Qaeda's biggest recruiting tool."

That first line is a good one that pithily gets at the heart of the matter here. To restate the obvious, the McCain campaign has made Rudy their lead communicator on matters relating to terrorism, but Rudy has no authority whatsoever on this topic.

Rudy has no foreign policy experience. His aura of national security experience comes solely from the fact that he hit the political jackpot by being mayor of New York on 9/11. The notion that he has any kind of counter-terrorism expertise is an illusion that flows from the countless pictures and video clips of him striding through the smoke and dust after the attacks.

Biden's full quote after the jump.

Late Update: Biden's statement was sent to others, too, it turns out. I wasn't the only person who came up with the idea of contacting Biden for comment, apparently.

Read more »

As we noted the other day, GOP Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon touched off a firestorm of outrage last week -- not to mention some serious puzzlement -- when he compared opposition to gay marriage to the persecution of his polygamous Mormon ancestors. We even tried to get in touch with Smith's office in order to find out exactly what he meant by that, but they kept silent.

Well, now Smith has apologized, saying he did not mean to compare gay relationships to polygamy.

"If you'd grown up a Mormon, and spent your life trying to get out from the shadow of that legacy -- it's an emotional scar that you carry," Smith told the Oregonian. "I meant no offense by sharing that part of my history."

Good thing he cleared that up.

The McCain campaign is charging that the Democratic National Committee "attacked" Cindy McCain this morning -- and argues that this is at odds with Barack Obama's recent insistence that family members be "off limits."

There's only one problem: The DNC isn't attacking Mrs. McCain at all.

In an email blasted out to the media this morning, the McCain camp noted that the DNC had sent to reporters this article about Mrs. McCain.

"When will Sen. Obama do as he promised and `speak out against' Howard Dean and the DNC for their attacks on Mrs. McCain -- or at least demand they stop?" McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers asked in the email.

I received the DNC's email this morning, too. And nowhere in the email does the DNC attack Mrs. McCain.

Read more »

Another poll is showing that Barack Obama could potentially win Virginia, a historically red state that has been trending Democratic and would represent a major breakthrough if the Dems could pick it up.

The numbers from Public Policy Polling (D): Obama 47%, McCain 45%, within the ±3.3% margin of error. This is on top of a Rasmussen poll from two days ago, which gave Obama a one-point lead.

Although this state hasn't voted Dem since 1964, the Obama campaign is aggressively targeting it thanks to the Democratic growth in northern Virginia. Local geographic shifts like this -- combined with the Obama campaign's big treasury, which allows Obama to compete aggressively in more states than past Dems have -- suggest that the map of competitive states really may be much broader than usual this year.

For two days running now, Rudy Giuliani has been bashing Barack Obama because the Illinois Senator suggested in an interview that the convictions and imprisonment of the 1993 World Trade Center attackers showed that we can fight terrorism within the constraints of the Constitution.

Rudy has been pointing to Obama's quotes as proof that he's weak on terrorism, etc., etc., etc.

But when the convictions happened, back in 1994, here's what Rudy himself had to say:

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani declared that the verdict "demonstrates that New Yorkers won't meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon -- the law."

Seemed worth putting out there right about now.

Late Update: Here's Rudy this morning on CNN, lambasting the way in which the 1993 attack was dealt with:

Rudy is now officially John McCain's lead crooner when it comes to singing the GOP's Dems-are-weak-on-terror golden oldie.

On a conference call with reporters just now, Rudy bashed Obama and Dems as weak and "defensive" and unleashed a whole bunch of boilerplate that we've been hearing for many years and will hear for many, many more.

"The reality is there seems to be more concern about the rights of terrorists, or alleged terrorists, than the rights that the American people have to safety and security," Rudy said. "I do not understand why, at a time we're facing this terrorist threat, we want to create new rights that didn't exist before for people alleged to be involved in terrorist activities or alleged to be enemy combatants."

"It is fair to say that Osama Bin Laden would be given new rights that nobody ever had before," Rudy continued.

You don't need to know the rest, because it's just Rudy singing from the same sheet music the Republicans have been using since 2002.

But Rudy's emergence begs a serious question: How much authority will the national press accord Rudy as a voice on terrorism during the general election? Rudy has no foreign policy experience whatsoever. His aura of national security experience comes solely from having been photographed walking through the smoke and dust on 9/11.

When Rudy ran for president it took the press corps many months to realize that Rudy has absolutely no authority to speak on this topic. Now that he's popped up again as McCain's front man it may take the press many more months to awaken to this reality again -- unless perhaps Team Obama makes sure to stress this obvious point as often as possible.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

Joe Lieberman's support of John McCain is starting to generate some readily apparent conflicts with his participation in the Democratic caucus. When Barack Obama's top strategist David Axelrod briefed the Senate Dems' weekly policy lunch yesterday, Lieberman skipped the meeting.

"It was my decision," Lieberman said. "I thought it would be awkward for everybody."

This begs the question: Will he start attending the Republicans' policy meetings?

The Obama campaign is seeking to beef up its profile on foreign policy, with an announcement of a new "Senior Working Group on National Security," a Who's Who of senior Democrats who will be advising the candidate on foreign policy -- and presumably acting as campaign surrogates -- between now and the election.

The group includes such names as former Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, former Sen. David Boren, former Sen. Sam Nunn, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, former Sec. of the Navy Richard Danzig, former Sec. of State Warren Christopher, former Sec of Defense William Perry and others. Overall, it's a good cross-section of Dems who supported Obama as well as Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and many of them served in Bill Clinton's White House.

New polling from Quinnipiac has some very bad news for John McCain, with him trailing in all three of the largest swing states -- even Florida:

Florida
Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 43%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Ohio
Obama (D) 48%, McCain (R) 42%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Pennsylvania
Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 40%
Margin of error: ±2.5%

According to our Election Central Poll Tracker, this is the first poll ever in which Obama has led McCain in Florida. Obama previously had a lot of trouble here thanks to the primary controversies that kept him out of the state, but this poll shows he's overcoming that difficulty rather quickly. Even if part of it is a post-primary boost, it would still seem to say that any ill will from the primaries is over with.

The ultimate in Democratic unity events will be happening next Thursday, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appear together at a Washington fundraiser before a crowd of Hillary donors.

Hillary has been urging her donors to coalesce around Obama, and to put the ugliness of the primary season in the past. For their part, Clinton donors have had their own demands -- that Obama help in fundraising to retire Hillary's campaign debt, for example, or that he even put her on the ticket.

It's not clear from initial press reports whether this meeting will be open to the press.

If there were any doubts that the Obama campaign would respond aggressively to the sort of soft-on-terror attacks that felled John Kerry four years ago, Obama put them to rest today.

Here's Obama on the campaign plane, placing the blame squarely on the GOP for letting Bin Laden escape...

"Let's think about this: these are the same guys who helped engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9-11," Obama told reporters on his campaign plane...

"What they're trying to do us what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid," Obama said.

There's also this...

Reminded that the Republican playbook worked in the 2004 presidential race, Obama countered: "Well, it's 2008."

"I'm looking forward to having a robust argument about this issue," he said. "I don't shy away from it."

This is key. Remember that this particular debate functions on two levels: First, on the substantive level, where Obama is of course rebutting the attacks by arguing that the GOP has made us less safe. But there's also another level here: The Republicans are also pushing the terror stuff to accomplish the larger goal of being perceived as the campaign on offense, at a time when the McCain camp is clearly not gathering speed as quickly as the Obama campaign is.

It's hard to believe right now, but it was only two years ago -- in the spring of 2006, during the midterm elections -- that many national Dems were still struggling to persuade themselves that they could win an argument against the GOP on national security. Obama, clearly, suffers from no such confidence deficit. Perhaps more important, he's saying so. Loud and clear.

Things are off to a very interesting start.

In what is shaping up as a plum pickup opportunity for Senate Dems in a very unlikely place, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell could be in for a very serious race this fall, according to a new SurveyUSA poll of Kentucky.

The numbers: McConnell 50%, Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford 46%, within the ±4% margin of error. A Rasmussen poll from a few weeks ago gave Lunsford the lead, coming right off of his primary victory.

McConnell has had the unenviable task of defending President Bush's Iraq positions on a daily basis. If the political environment turns out to be such that the Democrats can win this one, then the GOP will start finding it very difficult to prevent the Dems from getting a 60-seat majority.

After spending nearly $60 million to discover that his 9/11 magic carpet just didn't quite have the power to carry him into the White House, Rudy has suddenly resurfaced again in the presidential race for the sole purpose -- fittingly -- of flogging September 11th on behalf of John McCain.

Rudy has jumped into the dust-up today over the McCain camp's claims that Obama has a "September 10th mindset." From a new Rudy statement sent out by the McCain campaign...

"Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger. Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security."

Of course, Barack Obama doesn't really believe that terrorism is solely a law-enforcement problem -- he's unveiled a detailed anti-terror plan and has come out in favor of pursuing Al Qaeda suspects in foreign countries based on actionable intelligence.

On the other hand, as you may recall, as a candidate Rudy seemed to suggest that there were similarities between the waterboarding that's practiced on terrorists and the intensive questioning he practiced on criminals as U.S. Attorney. So, clearly, Rudy was already a bit confused about some of the distinctions and categories at play here, poor fellow.

We just got off the phone with a Texas Republican Party official, who tells us that the party had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about this tasteful button that was for sale at this past weekend's state GOP convention:

The button, which was flagged by AmericaBlog, was sold at a booth run by RepublicanMarket.com, a business that sells a lot of red-meat buttons, bumper stickers and other paraphernalia for GOP voters.

So did party officials know about this button being sold all weekend at their convention? In an interview with Election Central, Texas GOP political director Hans Klingler answered with an emphatic No. "We had hundreds of vendors at the convention," Klingler said. "I don't know what the merchandise is, we don't check the merchandise."

Klingler added that the party would have done something if it had been brought to their attention at the time. "We wouldn't have let him sell it."

Hmmm. This button seems like the sort of thing that would have been hard to miss, doesn't it?

This is a fun one. A few days ago, the McCain campaign proudly released a list of "prominent Democrats and Independents" supporting his candidacy. The idea was to appeal to disgruntled Hillary supporters and others by sending a message that it's okay to be a Dem and not support Barack Obama.

But there's only one problem: The list is a bit of a sham. A look at some of these "Democrats and independents" shows that it's a stretch to tout their support for the Republican as anything at all unusual.

Some of the "Democrats" and "Independents" on the list already have often supported Republicans in the past, suggesting that there's little if any meaning to their support for McCain over Obama. And others have a history of hostility towards the Democratic Party that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to take them seriously as genuine cross-over supporters.

Take a look at our rundown after the jump.

Read more »

Richard Clarke made an appearance as an Obama surrogate on a conference call with reporters moments ago, hitting back very hard against the McCain camp's claim today that Obama has a "September 10th mindset."

"I'm frankly disgusted at my friends on the McCain campaign," Clarke said, perhaps being a bit optimistic in describing those folks as still being "friends" of his. Clark referred to the McCain camp's claim that Dems only favor a law enforcement approach to terrorism, and accused McCain advisers of "completely and utterly distorting the record of that party."

"They said that about Bill Clinton," Clarke continued. "They said that about John Kerry. And now they're saying it about Barack Obama. I'd like them to show where in the record Barack Obama has favored only a law enforcement approach."

The Obama camp hastily assembled the call after the news spread this morning about the McCain camp's attacks.

Clarke emphasized that Obama has unveiled a comprehensive anti-terror plan and has said that he would be willing to act on actionable intelligence to pursue Al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan. "This is the Karl Rove strategy of taking what the truth is, and stating the opposite," Clarke said of the McCain team's charges.

This attack today by the McCain team signals a new phase in the race and is a major test for the Obama campaign, which will need to respond far more effectively to this sort of stuff than John Kerry did. And it was a good move to roll out Clarke as a way of signaling that the Obama team will indeed respond aggressively and fast.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

Today's Times comes through with a very user-friendly chart detailing all the ways that McCain is the McSame as Bush.

Job one for McCain is achieving separation from the man he would succeed in the White House. He's doing this in two ways. First, he's constantly emphasizing his POW past as a way of claiming that unlike Bush, he'll continue the same war policies but with an understanding of its costs -- something that's supposed to seduce us into seeing him as more trustworthy on such matters. And two, McCain is stressing his differences with Bush on environmental issues, as McCain did in a new ad released today.

As I've noted here before, the Obama campaign has developed a shrewd way to deal with this. Well aware that the national media has been telling voters that McCain is a "maverick" for at least 15 years now, the Obama camp is not pretending that voters don't see McCain as independent in some ways.

Rather, Obama is conceding a bit of ground on this question. As he put it recently, McCain can "legitimately tout moments of independence from his party." The goal is to lead voters through these already-formed perceptions of McCain to a real understanding of the ways in which a McCain presidency would represent a continuation of Bush on the key issues important to them.

So there it is: McCain will emphasize biography to achieve separation. Obama will emphasize the issues to prove McCain is indeed McSame. This is the terrain on which much of the general election will be fought, and the Times chart is a useful guide to it. Take a look.

Barack Obama seems to have a very good start in Ohio as the general election season beings, a new survey from Public Policy Polling (D) suggests. The numbers: Obama 50%, McCain 39%, beyond the ±3.6% margin of error.

Back in early March, when Obama was on the verge of a bruising defeat in the state's primary, McCain led 49%-41% in PPP's reporting. If Obama can successfully unite Dem voters and not lose too many Hillary voters -- and this poll indicates he can -- then life could become very difficult for McCain.

Also worth noting: PPP's final pre-primary survey of Ohio got Hillary's primary margin almost exactly right.

Aggressively moving to shift the debate away from domestic issues to national security, the McCain campaign hit Obama with some of the most incendiary language of the campaign, accusing Obama on a conference call with reporters moments ago of having a "September 10th mindset."

The latest attack, which has strong echoes of the tactics Bush used against John Kerry four years ago and that Republicans used against Dems in 2006, comes in response to comments Obama made yesterday to ABC News about the attackers of the World Trade Center in 1993.

In the interview, Obama suggested that the failure to try Guantanamo detainees was harming American credibility in the Muslim world, adding that the 1993 attackers had been dealt with in accordance with the Constitution and that "they are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated."

The McCain camp is seizing on the comments as evidence that Obama doesn't understand that such an approach is inadequate to the current war on terror -- even though Obama has repeatedly outlined an aggressive approach to hunting down terrorists.

"Once again, we have seen that Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset," McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said.

And this is pretty interesting, too: The McCain camp also sought to revive memories of Hillary's attacks on Obama's commander in chief cred, revealing that Hillary's national security criticism is giving McCain ammunition in the general election, as many Hillary critics predicted.

"If Senator Obama did receive that 3 A.M. call, his response would be to call the lawyers in the Justice Department," Scheunemann said.

The "September 10th mindset" attack comes a full four years after the Republicans last used it successfully; it comes nearly seven years after the attacks themselves. And two years ago, this same attack line failed to stave off massive losses for the GOP.

More on this soon.

Late Update: Here's the audio from the call:

Click To Play

The Gore event yesterday gives Obama exactly the headlines he wanted today in the Detroit papers...

Obama has edged into a lead in polls of the crucial state, now that he's started to campaign there in earnest.

Barack Obama laid out some of his economic policies in an interview with the Wall St. Journal -- and the right-wing paper isn't impressed with his ideas about raising the top tax rates and increasing government spending on energy infrastructure, declaring that it "appears like a return to an older-style big-government Democratic platform skeptical of market forces."

Obama does seem to cover himself against the accusation that he'd be an across-the-board tax-hiker, though, with an openness to cutting the corporate tax rate. However, this would carry a tradeoff: Loopholes that help certain companies game the system would have to be closed, thus creating a more even playing field.

John McCain will deliver a speech today in Houston on energy policy, seeking to satisfy the goals of both environmentalists and those who want a more plentiful oil supply.

"We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States," McCain will say, according to pre-released excerpts. "But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use."

McCain will also say: "In the face of climate change and other serious challenges, energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue. Conservation serves a critical national goal. Over time, we must shift our entire energy economy toward a sustainable mix of new and cleaner power sources."

Another survey is showing Barack Obama ahead of John McCain nationwide, with the ABC/Washington Post poll giving the presumptive Democratic nominee a 49%-45% lead among registered voters, and 48%-42% lead among all adults.

Other questions in the poll don't have much good news for McCain. Only 34% of respondent feel the Iraq War was worth fighting, with 63% saying it was not. If US casualties are involves, 55% of respondents want to withdraw forces from Iraq rather than maintain civil order.

The only good question for McCain involves the recent Supreme Court decision on Guantanamo detainees, with only 34% saying prisoners there should be able to challenge their detentions in civilian courts, and 61% saying they should not. As such, expect the GOP to hammer this issue.

John McCain's new TV ad confirms that he'll be trying to run far away from Bush during this election season, in his quest to win over moderate voters. This ad focuses on the environment, with a declaration that "John McCain stood up to the President" on global warming:

Clearly, the McCain camp is worried about the Democrats' message that he would simply be a third Bush term, and they're doing what they can to rebut it.

The ad will be running in battleground states and on national cable.

A new SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota has some bad news for Al Franken -- and for Senate Democrats, who are hoping to pick up a Senate seat in this blue state.

The numbers: Coleman 52%, Franken 40%, well outside of the ±4% margin of error. If former Gov. Jesse Ventura were to enter the race as an independent, the numbers would be Coleman 41%, Franken 31%, and Ventura 23%. The two-way matchup is not significantly changed from their last poll from a month and a half ago, which had it at Coleman 52%, Franken 42%.

Other recent polls have shown the race to be closer than this, but they too give Coleman the lead. It looks like Coleman is definitely ahead -- with Franken having been hurt by controversies surrounding his finances and his sexually-explicit humor -- with the question being just how big Coleman's margin currently is.

Barack Obama could very well end up flipping Virginia -- a state that has voted Republican in every election since 1968 -- over into the Democratic column, a new Rasmussen poll suggests.

The numbers: Obama 45%, McCain 44%, within the ±4% margin of error. A month ago, McCain led by a 47%-44% margin. This is on top of a SurveyUSA poll from a few weeks ago, which gave Obama a 49%-42% lead.

The Obama campaign has aggressively targeted Virginia as a state they think they can win over, thanks to the growth in the Democratic voter base that has happened there over the past ten years. If they can successfully take its 13 electoral votes, it would become very difficult for John McCain to get a winning map without a state that Republicans have normally been able to count on.

This one bears watching: Hillary is set to hold a private conference call with her top fundraising leadership on Thursday evening.

A source forwards me the email from her national finance director, Jonathan Mantz, inviting the money people on to the call. The email says that she wants to thank them for their "dedication and commitment" to her candidacy.

But the real question is what she'll say to them about Obama -- how strongly she'll signal to her top money people that it's time to get serious about throwing their fundraising weight behind the Illinois Senator.

Obama himself wants this. He is privately signaling to Hillary's top supporters that the time for them to start helping build a fearsome general election war-chest to take on the McCain-GOP apparatus is right now.

We'll bring you details on the call if we can get them.

Late Update: I'm told by a Clinton source that she will be using the call to urge her top fundraisers to throw their energy behind Obama.

* Late Late Update: A source tells me that the call has now been rescheduled for Thursday; I've edited the above to reflect this.

The fact that Al Gore is campaigning for Barack Obama -- as the Obama campaign announced today -- could give Obama a big boost among undecided Dems, particularly people who are still embittered by the divisive primary.

That's because Gore is the man who suffered the ultimate electoral highway robbery when he was robbed in 2000. Furthermore, his presence will serve as a warning to any disgruntled Hillary supporters: Just as the Nader voters' obstinacy gave us Bush, a lack of party unity can hurt us all by helping to elect McCain.

Gore announced his endorsement of Obama in a post on his own blog, with a teaser about the Detroit rally tonight.

Another crack is showing in the McCain campaign's attempts at crafting a down-home image.

The campaign contributed a recipe to Parents magazine, "Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies." However, it looks like it was copied directly from the Hershey's site.

The McCain campaign previously got caught copying some other recipes, purportedly from Cindy McCain herself, off of the Food Network's site. Just try to imagine the outpouring of pundit outrage and ridicule if a Dem did something like this once, let alone twice.

The McCain campaign -- which has said they want Barack Obama to visit Iraq -- is already reacting dismissively to today's news that he will indeed be going to Iraq and Afghanistan some time this summer.

"I think first it's a very good thing that Barack Obama has decided that he will visit the reality on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan," top McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said on a conference call with reporters. "And hopefully he will be moved by the facts on the ground. He will have to acknowledge that the surge is working, and perhaps this will cause him to change his position."

I suppose that all depends on how many helicopters and tanks will be needed to escort Obama when he goes to a marketplace.

Seriously, the Obama visit will be big news when it happens, and the McCain camp will be hard-pressed to spin it as a negative.

Though Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the other day that Obama can win without Ohio and Florida, the campaign is moving aggressively this week to beef up its efforts in the Sunshine State.

The campaign tells us that Dem operative Steve Schale will manage the state's Florida campaign, while Ashley Walker, who ran the state during the primary, will be the Florida political director.

Obama advisers regard these two as among the very best the state has to offer. Obama aides say Shale has a great track record in winning House races in the state, meaning he has the sort of fine-grained local knowledge necessary to find extra votes in odd places -- the sort of thing that can make a big difference in a close race.

The personnel moves, combined with the fact that Obama will visit the state later this week, suggest that the Obama camp knows that Florida is going to be a grueling fight and that for all the talk of remaking the map, they will compete as aggressively as possible there -- starting now.

Meanwhile, as expected, the Obama campaign also announced today that longtime Clinton loyalist Patti Solis Doyle has joined the campaign as the head of the Veep-candidate-to-be's staff. The move is either a sign that Hillary's Veep prospects are good or that they're bad, depending on which pundit is doing the talking.

Late Update: A long list of Obama staff hires announced today after the jump.

Read more »

On the trail moments ago, Obama confirmed that he will be visiting Iraq before the November election:

The presumed Democratic presidential nominee said he spoke with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Monday about the war and told him he looks forward to seeing him in Baghdad.

Obama has said before he was considering a trip, but his comment to reporters Monday was his first firm declaration that he will be making the trip. He said more details will be announced shortly.

This of course will do nothing to stop the McCain/GOP attacks on Obama for not visiting the country, since reality has nothing to do with such stuff, but the news will certainly blunt any effects the attacks were having, if they were having any at all.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how the campaign handles the timing, optics, and politics of the trip. We'll bring you more detail when we get it.

Just what you all have been waiting for: Our long and detailed rundown on the coverage of Hillary during 2008.

This is being endlessly debated right now on television and elsewhere: Was the media biased in favor of Obama and against Hillary? But that's the wrong question, because it's a question about the motives of the press, rather than about the actual coverage.

What we should be asking is this: Was the media's coverage unfair in its treatment of Hillary? Was it more unfair to Hillary than to Obama?

The debate on this stuff has been downright surreal. On Friday, for instance, The New York Times ran a long piece interviewing members of the press on whether they had treated her fairly -- because we are the most objective judges of our own conduct, of course. You'll be surprised to hear that many of these media figures pronounced their own conduct impeccable.

Here's another way to approach this: Let's take a look at the coverage itself.

I've compiled a long list of episodes after the jump where media figures indulged in bogus, unfair, or outright misleading coverage of the New York Senator. While this puts me at risk of being declared the "worst person in the world" by Keith Olbermann, I submit that it's a useful exercise, on the theory that a debate about the coverage should include a discussion of the actual coverage.

Do my examples prove that the media was unfair to her as a whole or worse to her than to Obama? Not really. But taken together, they amount to a startling parade of media buffoonery and mendacity that should have been unacceptable to any reasonable observer -- even ones who supported one of her rivals.

Read more »

It looks like John McCain could have another controversial campaign associate on his hands. This time it comes in the form of Paula Abeles, a former Clinton-backer who has now taken a lead in organizing support for McCain among women voters.

One problem, as Ben Smith has discovered: Abeles previously attained notoriety in 2003 as part of her husband's association of Thomas Jefferson descendants, working hard to keep out any of Sally Hemmings' African-American descendants. When it was discovered that she'd used a fake Internet identity to undermine the efforts of Jefferson's alleged black descendants, she said it was necessary to make sure the family reunion was "a calm and civilized gathering."

An anonymous McCain aide told Smith: "We typically don't vet people who are simply expressing an interest in supporting the campaign, but the campaign will evaluate the policy to assure that appropriate steps are being taken."

In a sign that the Obama campaign's strategies will deviate significantly from Democratic campaigns of recent years, campaign manager David Plouffe is now indicating that two of the biggest swing states will not be considered must-wins by themselves, but only part of a comprehensive plan to compete in more states

Plouffe reportedly told the crowd at a fundraiser on Friday that Ohio and Florida would not be required for victory, though he certainly plans to compete there. "You have a lot of ways to get to 270," he later told the Associated Press. "Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th."

As Barack Obama works to win evangelical voters who have normally voted Republican, he's picking up an unlikely ally in Steven Mansfield, an evangelical writer who has previously written gushing biographies of George W. Bush and Tom DeLay, and has now written a similar treatment of Obama -- even though he doesn't plan to vote for him!

Mansfield's upcoming book, The Faith of Barack Obama, paints a compelling picture. "Obama's faith infuses his public policy," Mansfield writes, "so that his faith is not just limited to the personal realms of his life, it also informs his leadership."

Barack Obama is campaigning today in Michigan, a must-win state where he's facing something of a late start.

Obama will speak in Flint, a blue-collar area where a Democrat has to run up big totals in order to win statewide, with a speech on maintaining competitiveness in the global marketplace.

The primary controversies kept him out of here for much of the year, hurting his poll numbers against McCain, but recent surveys show he's starting to take the lead.

A new Mason-Dixon poll shows a competitive race for Nevada, a swing Western state that went for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but then for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

The numbers: McCain 44%, Obama 42%, within the ±4% margin of error.

The Obama campaign has vowed to fight for Western states, but Nevada appears to be a tougher sell than either Colorado or New Mexico, where polls have put him ahead.

John McCain's campaign has arrived at a new solution in canceling their planned fundraiser with controversial Texas oilman Clayton Williams -- a compromise that allows them to both distance themselves from a man who would seriously complicate their efforts at outreach to women voters, while also getting access to the money he's helped bring in.

The original fundraiser, planned for Monday, was cancelled after Democrats publicized a statement about rape that Williams had made during his 1990 campaign for governor, and which had arguably cost him the race.

The fundraiser will now be rescheduled for later this summer at a new venue. All the people on the guest list that Williams had organized will be invited -- just not Williams himself.

Barack Obama paid a visit yesterday to southern Illinois, helping flood victims by personally filling sandbags:

As Andrew Sullivan points out, "the contrast with Bush after Katrina is powerful."

The Obama campaign is also using its Web site to ask supporters to contribute to relief efforts:

The Democratic National Convention's host panel is falling far short of its fundraising goals, one of the few serious weak spots in Dem fundraising along with the DNC as a whole.

The host committee would need to raise $15 million by Monday in order to reach its goal -- an unlikely occurrence, to say the least.