Obama And Hillary Teaming Up For Fundraising
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are set to work together this coming week to bring in a lot of money for the Obama campaign and the DNC. First up is a D.C. fundraiser with a $33,100 ticket price, followed by New York fundraiser ranging from $250 to $23,000 per head.

Obama Addressing NEA, Then Goes To Missouri
Barack Obama started his morning in Butte, Montana, speaking via satellite feed to the National Education Association's annual conference in Washington. He then headed off to St. Louis, where he will address the African Methodist Episcopal Church's conference. John McCain is taking time off from the trail for his Independence Day weekend.

GOP Struggling With Bush's Role
The New York Times reports this morning that the Republican Party is trying to reconcile the need to have President Bush rally the party grassroots at their convention, against the need to not have his unpopularity rub off on John McCain. Bush will speak at the convention on opening night, but a source said a joint appearance with McCain is "highly unlikely."

GOP Is Still Okay With Bush Fundraising
Meanwhile, the Washington Post notes that Bush is as strong as ever in the less public area of fundraising for down-ticket Republicans. Bush has done 31 events this year, bringing in $70 million for GOP candidates and state parties.

Pro-War Group Gearing Up For Big Ad Buy
Vets For Freedom, a pro-Iraq War political action committee, is poised to launch major ad campaign for this general election season starting this coming week. The group will open with a $1 million TV ad buy targeting Virginia, Ohio and New Mexico, and will then branch out to other states from there.

Philly Radio Station Won't Run Dem Ad With Bush Impersonator
A Philadelphia radio station has refused to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's latest radio ad, which features a Bush impersonator praising incumbent Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach. The station's general manager said they were "concerned that our listeners would have been misled by usage of an impersonator in the creative delivery."

Barack Obama is spending today in an unlikely place for a Democratic candidate for president: Montana, a state that has only voted Dem twice in the last 50 years but where a recent poll has put him ahead. It's a further indication of just how the wide the playing field could be this year.

The Associated Press notes that Obama has hired staff and targeted the state with his ad campaign, while John McCain has zero paid staff here and has yet to visit.

In a sign that he wants to reach out to pro-life voters, Barack Obama has told a Christian magazine that he would be against overly-broad exceptions to the prohibition on late-term abortions.

"Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother," Obama told Relevant Magazine. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions."

During the primaries, Obama was critical of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the federal ban on late-term abortions, saying that the court had disregarded "a woman's medical concerns and the very personal decisions between a doctor and patient."

This one slipped our attention at first, but it turns there was yet another Republican who continued to push the China-Cuba Oil Myth even after Dick Cheney retracted it: Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama.

By our count, this makes 12 Republicans who have continued to push the story.

In a guest op-ed for the Opelika-Auburn News published on June 16, Rogers wrote:

In December 2006 Congress passed, with my support, a bill that partially expanded drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. But there is still a large area that is off limits to U.S. companies.

Since then, you may have seen China has signed an agreement with Cuba to drill for this oil. That's right: China has set up shop off the coast of Florida and is using oil our country could readily use instead.

Rogers' Congressional office has not responded to our requests for comment.

Republicans struggling to "define" Obama
Leading Republicans are beginning to complain that the McCain campaign hasn't yet settled on a way of "defining" -- a.k.a. "sliming" -- Barack Obama, prompting some to worry that Obama may prove as elusive a target for them as he did for Hillary. It's worth noting that the multiple GOP lines of attack floating around right now clearly contradict each other: One moment Obama's an elitist at a country club; the next he's a "street" organizer; and so on.

Candidates celebrating July 4th
Barack Obama will honor Independence Day with his family by attending a parade and a picnic in Montana. Meanwhile, McCain will be taking it easy in his home state of Arizona.

Poll: Slightly more see McCain as a flip-flopper
New numbers from CNN suggest that a substantial majority doesn't buy the McCain-as-straight-talker narrative. The poll finds that 61% say McCain shifts positions for political reasons, though nearly as many (59%) say the same about Obama.

Six-term GOP Congressman in Virginia suddenly facing competitive challenger
The emergence of a tough and well-funded Democratic challenger to GOP Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr., who represents south-central Virginia's fifth district, has prompted CQ Politics to shift its rating of the race from Safe Republican to Republican Favored, essentially declaring the contest a competitive one. Goode's challenger, lawyer Tom Perriello, is expected to run well in and near Charlottesville, especially among liberal academics around the University of Virginia, and will also benefit from Obama's vigorous efforts in the state.

McCain to talk about the economy in key battleground states next week
McCain plans to spend the week following July 4th weekend talking about the economy in important battleground states, beginning on Monday with the release of a jobs plan in Colorado. McCain, who will also visit Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, trails Obama in polls by a substantial margin among voters citing the economy as a top concern.

Obama's national lead over McCain edges up
CNN's latest poll of polls finds Obama leading McCain by six points in the national match-up, up very slightly from his five-point lead last week. A cautionary note: On July 4th, 2004, John Kerry led George W. Bush by four points in CNN's poll of polls, and in the summer of 2000, Bush led Al Gore by six points before going on to lose the popular vote (and becoming president anyway).

Conservative pundits begin lying about Obama's Iraq remarks
Right-wing opinion-makers have begun falsifying Obama's Iraq remarks yesterday, starting with Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post, who has a remarkably dishonest column this morning asserting as fact that Obama has "already begun" his "shift" in the direction of erasing "all meaningful differences with McCain on withdrawal from Iraq." Curiously, there's no mention in Krauthammer's column of the subsequent presser Obama held yesterday firmly reiterating his commitment to a 16-month withdrawal timetable.

Happy fourth, everyone!

The Associated Press is reporting tonight that the Obama campaign is considering a novel idea for staging his acceptance speech at the convention: Don't actually give it at the convention, but at a much larger venue in Denver.

Instead of speaking at the Pepsi Center, which seats 21,000 people, in this scenario Obama would speak at Invesco Field, the site of the Denver Broncos games that holds 76,000 -- an astonishing number for a political gathering. Obama previously spoke to a similar-sized crowd in the run-up to the Oregon primary, and could almost certainly fill the stadium for his acceptance speech.

Franklin Roosevelt began the tradition of nominees directly addressing their conventions back in 1932, and it's been taken for granted ever since then. But the Obama camp's idea, if put into practice, would seriously outdo FDR.

Late Update: As commenters have noted, Invesco Field is not across town from the Pepsi Center, but is in fact right nearby.

Barack Obama held a second presser today to respond to the suggestion that because he said he would "continue to refine" his Iraq policies that this somehow heralded a change in his position on withdrawal from Iraq...

The key line: Obama said that he would "not refine the 16-month timetable."

For the first time, Barack Obama has publicly addressed the group that was formed on his Web site to urge him to change his position on the FISA cave-in bill.

Obama responded with a long statement on his site. He continued to defend his support for the bill by saying it was better than a previous version.

But he gave kudos to his opponents for organizing against it, suggesting that the Obama campaign is hoping to offset the damage supporting the bill has caused by demonstrating a willingness to engage opponents, and by giving props to dissenters and to the idea of dissent -- even on his own site.

"Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I'm happy to take my lumps on this side and elsewhere," Obama wrote. "For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions."

"Democracy cannot exist without strong differences," Obama also wrote. "And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have."

This won't do a great deal to make opponents of the bill happy. But it's a minor victory for those who built this group that Obama ultimately felt the need to respond to it. The rest of Obama's response here.

That was quick. Today on the trail Obama suggested that he would "continue to refine" his Iraq plans in consultation with commanders on the ground, and the big news orgs are already getting this wrong.

Here's the Associated Press headline and lede:

Obama opens door to altering his Iraq policy

Democrat Barack Obama opened the door Thursday to altering his plan to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq in 16 months based on what he hears from military commanders during his upcoming trip there.

That's a reckless distortion. "Alter" is a far stronger word than "refine" is. And worse, when you take the stronger word "alter" and put it next to "plan to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq in 16 months," it makes a far, far stronger suggestion than Obama did. Obama merely said he would "continue to refine his policies." The tone of this lede makes it sound like Obama is preparing a wholesale junking of his withdrawal plan.

Here's The Washington Post's headline:

Obama Softens on Iraq Withdrawal Timeline

This is way overstated. It states as outright fact that Obama signaled that he'd backtrack on the time-line. But that didn't happen at all. The Los Angeles Times used this formulation, too, but it at least had the decency to pose it as a question, and not state this as established fact.

All Obama is doing here is defusing the GOP argument that he'd withdraw recklessly and preserving flexibility for himself as commander in chief. These journalistic errors are matters of nuance. But nuance is hugely important here.

Will Obama in fact change his withdrawal policy at any point? I have no idea. Anything is possible. But he certainly didn't say anything today that's even remotely as suggestive or ominous as this reporting makes it seem.

This quote on Iraq, from Barack Obama on campaign trail today in North Dakota, is getting some attention:

"I've always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed," he said. "And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies."

Separately, on MSNBC, Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said:

"But he has said over and over again we have to be as careful getting out as George Bush was careless getting in. So he will redeploy our forces responsibly, at a rate that our commanders say is safe and sustainable."

These strike me as less a signal of a coming change in his position on withdrawal and more like a combined effort to defuse the charge that he'll withdraw recklessly and to preserve flexibility as commander in chief.

Looks like John McCain is the first out of the box with a "contrast" ad of sorts. He's going up in the swing states of New Mexico and Nevada with Spanish-language radio spot that goes after Obama by saying:

"It seems to me that the other candidate just discovered the importance of the Hispanic vote."

The ad features Frank Gamboa, John McCain's roommate at the U.S. Naval Academy, claiming that McCain "has stood for our community even in the most difficult of times" and "shares our same conservative values and faith in God."

On McCain's claim about the Hispanic vote, the truth is that Obama has repeatedly talked about how he competed aggressively for -- and won -- those voters when he ran for Senate. The audio and English translation after the jump.

Read more »

We now have our eleventh big-name Republican spreading the China-Cuba Oil Myth -- the idea that we need to drill offshore because the Chinese are already grabbing our oil in concert with Cuba. Even Dick Cheney retracted this claim three weeks ago.

Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican in a tough race against Al Franken, made the claim yesterday when speaking to a local reporter at an event in Mankato, Minnesota. Here's the video made by the Minnesota Dems' tracker, provided to us by a national Democratic source:

"At the same time, we've got to be producing more -- outer continental shelf exploration," Coleman said. "The Chinese are able to begin operating 90 miles from our shore by working for Cubans. American companies should tap into those resources."

Read more »

Steve Schmidt, the former top operative to the 2004 Bush campaign who took control of the McCain campaign in a big shake-up yesterday, is quickly moving to tighten control over the McCain operation, making it much more centralized and coordinated operation than in previous months.

Schmidt announced in a memo to staff today that he'd hired a new political and field director. However, he also made it clear that in some respects yesterday's shake-up doesn't really amount to a complete leveling and rebuilding of the campaign.

For instance, it was reported yesterday that Schmidt would be scrapping the previous campaign structure, which had 11 regional campaign managers across the country, an approach that made message drift and disunity much more likely. But according to his memo, this isn't really true. The system will remain, but those regional operatives will now be much less autonomous and will be controlled from the campaign's central headquarters.

Upshot: Before long, the McCain campaign will look much, much, much more like the Bush operation in 2004.

Another upshot: The Obama campaign will probably not be able to count on the McCain camp's incompetence and inability to gain organizational or message traction for much longer.

We've assembled a time-line of most of Barack Obama's public statements about FISA and telecom immunity.

The Senate could be voting on the FISA bill containing immunity as early as next week, and on June 20th, Obama announced his support for the bill. Obama's position continues to disappoint even some of his supporters, who have formed a surprisingly large group on Obama's Web site to urge him to oppose the bill, and their disappointment has become something of a national story.

In that context, we thought the record of Obama's evolution on the issue should be assembled in one place. Viewing his statements, it's striking how forcefully he argued in the past that the choice between civil liberties and safety is a false one.

If we've left out any of Obama's FISA statements, please let us know and we'll add them. Check out our time-line after the jump

Read more »

Oh man. We now have another Republican voicing the silly myth that China is drilling for oil off of American shores -- and not just any Republican, but Rudy Giuliani himself!

As noted by Think Progress, Rudy appeared last night on Glenn Beck's TV show and made the claim.

"You look at Cuba," Rudy said. "Cuba is going to allow China to drill for oil within 80 miles of Florida. And Florida had a 300-mile limit. So in essence, we have China drilling for American oil."

Um, no. China's agreements with Cuba extend only to shoreline areas. Some exploration contracts for deep sea areas have been sold to firms from other countries, but no active drilling is happening as of yet.

Maybe Rudy hasn't heard that the GOP's heavy-hitters have already retired this line -- Dick Cheney himself retracted it three weeks ago, though a few GOP stragglers here and there continue to repeat it.

At a fundraiser last night, Obama shared with his donors a bit more detail about his private chat earlier week with Bill Clinton, saying that the former president indicated he was bullish about Obama's chances in Colorado, one of the Dem-trending western states Obama hopes to win.

From the pool report on the fundraiser:

A collection of western states is changing politically, Mr. Obama said, which could benefit Democrats in the fall. That was one of the topics of conversation with former President Bill Clinton earlier this week, he said.

"I was talking to Bill Clinton this week. We were talking about Colorado," Mr. Obama recalled. "He said, when I ran the first time, it would have been tough to win if Ross Perot hadn't been in the race, but you've seen a seismic shift in attitudes here."

One other interesting tidbit: Obama also told his donors that he needs to improve as a candidate if he is to win. "I'm going to have to be a better candidate," he said.

Full pool report after the jump.

Read more »

Yes, this is today's daily FISA post, and yes, you'll get mad about it, but this needs to be flagged.

The networking group set up on Obama's Web site with the sole purpose of urging him to oppose the FISA cave-in bill has now rocketed up to the number one group on his site, with over 14,000 members.

This comes roughly a week after the group was created. Separately, the group continues to get national press coverage, with a story about it in this morning's USA Today.

And with that, you've read the last post this blog will do about the group. Probably.

Wow. A new Rasmussen poll shows that Barack Obama is ahead in Montana, a state that voted for President Bush by a 59%-39% margin in 2004. It's a further sign of just how much the electoral map may be expanding this year.

The numbers: Obama 48%, McCain 43%, with a ±4.5% margin of error. Back in April, Rasmussen put McCain ahead by an identical 48%-43% margin.

Democrats can be very successful at the state level here -- they have the governorship and both Senate seats -- but the presidential vote has historically been much tougher to crack. The state has voted Democratic only twice in the last 50 years: The Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964, and Bill Clinton narrowly winning its three electoral votes in 1992.

Obama Increases Big-Money Fundraising Events
The Obama campaign is stepping up its focus on big-money fundraisers, with the candidate set to go to a dozen events over the next two weeks -- many of them requiring a $30,000 per person donation to the joint fund set up by the Obama camp and the DNC. This greater focus comes from both the recent decision to opt out of public finance, and from the influx of Hillary Clinton's big-money donors.

Obama In Historically-Red North Dakota Today
Barack Obama will be holding a town hall meeting today in an unlikely place: Fargo, North Dakota. This state hasn't voted Democratic since the 1964 Lyndon Johnson landslide, but has been placed on the Obama camp's target list thanks to polls showing a close race. Obama will be joined by the state's top three Democrats: Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, and Congressman Earl Pomeroy.

John McCain In Mexico Today
John McCain will be wrapping up his tour of Latin America today, meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and stopping at the Basilica de Guadalupe, a Catholic holy site.

Obama Courts Military Times Editorial Board
Barack Obama met yesterday in Colorado with the editorial board of the Military Times, a part of his outreach to the traditionally Republican military constituency. This is a demographic where John McCain is counting on a big margin, thanks to his biography and hawkishness, but Obama has also done well in fundraising among this group.

Obama Camp Considering Shorter Convention
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Obama campaign is floating the idea of cutting the length of the Democratic convention by one day, due to the Republican convention being set to begin just a few days later. The hypothesis is that ending the convention a day early would given Obama an extra day of bounce in the polls, allowing him to build up a bigger lead before the GOP convention.

Poll: What Is Patriotic?
Ahead of Independence Day, a new USA Today/Gallup poll asks respondents what they consider to be patriotic. Supporting U.S. foreign policy is seen as patriotic by 80%, while protesting is also seen as patriotic by two thirds of respondents. The question of protest has a serious partisan divide -- Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to view it as a sign of patriotism.

Here's a sign that the McCain campaign could be worried that Obama has a real chance of winning in Virginia, a state that's historically voted red but has been trending blue.

The McCain camp has bought up ad time for a sixty-second spot in at least four major Virginia media markets, a Democratic ad buyer tells me. The markets: Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, and Tri-Cities.

A McCain aide confirmed the buy but declined to discuss specifics.

The ad is set to begin airing next Tuesday, and the buy is a moderate one, the buyer says, meaning that the ad will probably run four or five times a week.

"At this point in the campaign, that's a good start," the buyer says. He added that it shows that the McCain campaign realizes that Camp Obama's efforts in the state -- Obama is airing an ad and has sent key staff -- isn't "just a head-fake."

"It shows they're worried about Virginia," the buyer said.

Looks like the Republican money machine is really gearing up to go after Barack Obama.

The Republican National Committee -- the one arm of the GOP that has consistently out-raised its Democratic counterpart -- is planning to throw its formidable cash advantage into a new round of ads going after Barack Obama, set to air in the swing states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Roll Call reports that the RNC's initial ad campaign will cost $3 million, and go after Obama on "energy security" -- clearly part of McCain's current efforts to rephrase the issue of fuel prices in terms of national security rather than economics. The RNC's ad campaign was first reported by the Politico.

Despite all the talk about Barack Obama's fundraising prowess, it's worth keeping it in some perspective. The most recent numbers up through May showed that the RNC had a $50 million advantage over the DNC, way ahead of Obama's cash lead over McCain -- thus giving the GOP the real advantage in this area for now, unless the June numbers and Obama's decision to opt out of public finance can change things drastically.

Brian Beutler, a well-known progressive blogger, was shot and seriously injured during a mugging last night in Washington, D.C.

One bullet damaged Beutler's spleen, and he had it removed during surgery this morning at the Washington Hospital Center. He's expected to make a "pre-trauma" recovery, which is to say, a completely full recovery.

The shooting was confirmed to us by Tracy Van Slyke, the project director of the Media Consortium, a network of leading progressive news organizations (TPM is a member) for which Beutler is the Washington correspondent.

Some of the details of the incident are still sketchy. According to Van Slyke, Beutler was walking with a friend after leaving a bar in Washington's Adams Morgan section when the two were confronted by a man demanding their cell phones near 17th Street and Euclid Street.

Read more »

We already knew that Elizabeth Edwards was going to advise Barack Obama on health care, but now she's taking on another role that could boost the profile and importance of health care as a driving issue in the presidential race.

Edwards will be playing a key role in promoting a new group of health care organizations, called Health Care for America Now, which vows to pour $40 million dollars into TV ads pushing for universal health care.

Efforts like this will help the Obama campaign counter the expected onslaught of outside spending from the right, such as the National Rifle Association's recent announcement that it would spend $15 million to pummel Obama on guns.

Any visibility that this brings to Elizabeth can only help Obama win over female voters and enhance his credibility on health care. Obama's health care plan was probably the one domestic policy proposal of his that was most often criticized on the left, including by Elizabeth herself.

Late Update: Elizabeth actually won't be heading up the group, just taking a lead role in promoting it. We've edited the above to reflect that.

The McCain campaign, which spent weeks beating up on Barack Obama for not visiting Iraq, is now moving to put a negative spin in advance on his planned trip to that country, which Obama has announced he'll undertake before the election.

Camp McCain's argument: What good is an Iraq trip if Obama has already made up his mind on what to do there as president anyway?

"I guess the question is, if indeed he's gonna to go to Iraq, and nothing that he sees will change or impact his decision-making on this, then why is he going?" McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers asked on a conference call with reporters just now.

"Is it just to check a box politically?" Rogers continued. "It sort of represents the kind of cynical politics that most people here, that the American people are pretty sick and tired of."

That's a case we'll be hearing from the McCain campaign a lot in the days ahead, particularly when the specifics of the trip become known and Obama actually goes to the war-torn country, something that will be an international story.

The Republican argument that the Dems want to pull out of Iraq regardless of the allegedly improving reality on the ground there is the GOP's best shot at fighting back against the Dem mirror-image argument, which is that the Repubs are committed to saying there forever regardless of reality. The battle is joined.

A McCain aide confirms to us that there's been something of a shake-up at the top of the McCain campaign, as first reported by Jonathan Martin:

Steve Schmidt is taking over the day-to-day operation of John McCain's campaign, according to multiple campaign sources.

At a staff meeting in the campaign's Arlington, Va., headquarters this morning, campaign manager Rick Davis made the announcement about Schmidt's new role.

Schmidt, a bald and barrel-chested operative known for his aggressive brand of political combat, responded by exhorting campaign aides with a speech that one staffer likened to a locker room pep talk out of the football movie "Rudy."

McCain sources say Schmidt, who ran Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign and was a top communications aide in Bush-Cheney '04, will coordinate the campaign's daily pro-McCain and anti-Obama message but also will have an increased role in shaping most every facet of the organization including scheduling, policy, coalitions and surrogates.

Davis will focus more on big-picture issues such as general strategy, helping to plan the convention, picking a vice president and tending to the needs of major donors.

The perception among Republicans is that the McCain campaign failed to exploit the opportunity that arose when he secured the nomination this spring. The Dem candidates continued bludgeoning each other for weeks afterwards, but McCain failed to gain enough organizational or message traction in the interim for it to translate into any kind of advantage.

The rest of the story here.

The networking group set up on MyBarackObama.com to oppose Obama's support for the FISA cave-in started as a mere trickle last week. But the group has grown and grown, and now it's gone national with a story about it in this morning's New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama's decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters.

Thousands of them are now using the same grass-roots organizing tools previously mastered by the Obama campaign to organize a protest against his decision.

In recent days, more than 7,000 Obama supporters have organized on a social networking site on Mr. Obama's own campaign Web site. They are calling on Mr. Obama to reverse his decision...

Today's New York Post also has a story today on this that generously quotes yours truly. I hear another reporter for a major national daily is working on a story on it for tomorrow.

Here's yet another variation of the GOP-pushed tall tale that China and Cuba are drilling for oil off American shores.

This latest one comes courtesy of GOP Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, who has trailed Democratic opponent Jeanne Shaheen by wide margins in all the polls, and who by our count is the eighth GOPer to push this silly myth.

Sununu's version: He's dropped the China part from the tale -- now it's the Cubans who are supposedly doing the oil drilling.

Read more »

These new numbers from Gallup really should dispel the media myth that Obama has a problem with Hispanic voters:

Those numbers are holding steady, and Obama is doing significantly better than John Kerry, who only won Hispanics by 53%-44% in 2004. Obama is, however, not performing quite as well among them as Al Gore, who won them by 62%-35% on 2000. At least 10% are still undecided, however, so there's room for improvement.

( Via Politico.)

A fun number buried in a new Quinnipiac poll shows that if John McCain were to pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate, it would actually cost McCain a lot of votes in Lieberman's home state:

If McCain picks Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, only 14 percent of Connecticut voters say they are more likely to vote Republican, while 32 percent are less likely and 52 percent say it won't affect their vote.

If McCain were to pick Lieberman, more than twice as many in Connecticut would be more likely to vote against McCain than would be likely to vote for him.

Of course, that's not terribly surprising. After all, Lieberman misled his own constituents in not one, but two key ways. In order to survive the 2006 challenge from Ned Lamont, he said that no one wanted to bring the troops home from Iraq more than he did. He also pledged to support a Democrat in 2008.

Now, of course, Lieberman is supporting a Republican who explicitly says he wants the troops to say in Iraq indefinitely.

WaPo: Obama Got Discounted Home Loan
The Washington Post casts a critical eye on Barack Obama's reformer image this morning, with a report that he received a home loan in 2005 with a below-average interest rate, saving him as much as $300 per month. The Obama campaign said that the interest rate was low due to competition from a competing bank, as well as other factors that went into the rate calculation.

Obama To Speak On Public Service, Address Steelworkers
Barack Obama will be delivering a speech today in Colorado Springs -- a Republican stronghold in a swing state that he is trying to move into the Democratic column -- and deliver a speech on national service. He will also address the United Steelworkers annual convention in Las Vegas via satellite, an effort to secure support among union members and blue-collar workers.

McCain Speaking Today In Mexico
John McCain will be delivering a speech today in Mexico City, part of his tour this week of Latin America. McCain is expected to address issues like immigration and trade, all controversial subjects back home in the United States that have split the Republican Party from Hispanic voters also have have led to much distrust of McCain himself with the conservative base.

Poll: Fear Of Terrorism Is Fading
A new CNN poll shows that Americans are much less afraid of terrorism now than they used to be: Only 35% of respondents think a terrorist attack against America is likely, compared to 41% in the summer of 2007 and majorities in the five summers before that. From the pollster's analysis: "As the threat of a terrorist attack continues to recede in the mind of the American voter, the state of the economy and other domestic issues are likely to become even more important."

CQ: Dems Now Likely To Pick Up Staten Island House Seat
CQ is now changing its rating for the open New York House seat of retiring GOPer Vito Fossella from "Toss-Up" all the way to "Democrat Favored," an upgrade of two whole ratings for the Dems. Republicans have had a serious run of bad luck here, with a long search for a new candidate, the death of an actual candidate, and now a whole new search that has so far come up empty.

Well how about that. We now have a seventh Republican continuing to spread the myth that China is drilling for oil off American shores: Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Christian Right champion from Colorado, repeated the idea to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

The Coloradoan immediately called Musgrave on it, causing her to then refer them to her staff. To his credit, her chief of staff told the paper that she misspoke -- which is more than we've personally seen from other Republicans we've encountered.

Musgrave faces a tough race against Betsy Markey, a former top aide to Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar.

So, will Musgrave no longer repeat the myth, assuming her chief of staff has informed her of the facts, or will we be hearing it from her again?

As you may have heard today, Washington state Dem Congressional candidate Darcy Burner's home was destroyed in a fire. Everyone made it out safely.

Campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik told Election Central that the cause is believed to be faulty wiring in a lamp. "We'll just have to wait for a final determination, but the indications are that that was the cause," said Kaushik.

Kaushik also told us that Burner's dedication to her very competitive House race against incumbent Republican Dave Reichert has not been affected: "She'll take a couple days off, obviously, to deal with the issues surrounding the fire. But she'll be back on the campaign trail shortly."

Spoof or goof?

Sen. Jim DeMint, a very right-wing South Carolina Republican up for re-election in 2010, might want to hire some new people to do his campaign Web site -- the current one links to a YouTube of a homemade comedy sketch stereotyping gays.

The Palmetto Scoop discovered that DeMint's site has a link at the bottom to their Webmaster, a company called Under The Power Lines:

Clicking through on the company's link then takes the reader to a YouTube channel featuring three guys who do dirty comedy, with the current top entry about an effeminate gay man literally coming out of the closet:

Late Update: Well, that was quick. DeMint's campaign has hastily changed the link to the right one, another organization called Under The Power Lines that actually built their site.

Though he does label Wes Clark's comments "inartful," Obama offers no apologies for them at his presser today. Instead he makes the novel argument that as a candidate for the most powerful post in the world, he's got other, more important things to think about...

The McCain campaign rushed out a statement moments ago attacking Obama for the above appearance, saying: "Apparently Barack Obama now thinks that smear attacks on John McCain's military service are fair game."

The McCain campaign does indeed want an apology from Obama, as opposed to a rejection of Clark's comments. An apology would constitute a kind of admission that Obama had somehow participated in an exercise designed to demean someone's military service. This would make the subtext -- that Obama doesn't sufficiently respect military service in general -- that much easier for the GOP to keep alive. That subtext is what this is really about, of course.

But as Ben Smith notes, Obama -- having already rejected Clark's statements yesterday -- just isn't prepared to allow himself to fall further back on defense and won't cede McCain any moral high ground.

Oh, man -- we knew the Repubs were in trouble in this fall's Congressional races, but this is just comical.

A leading GOPer in the House, whip Roy Blunt, sent out a release today touting a new fundraising effort on behalf of Republican candidates. The program has this rather optimistic title:

Regain Our Majority Program (ROMP) II

But in the same release, it also contains a list of all the GOP House candidates that will benefit from this program designed to regain the GOP's majority.

ROMP will benefit the following Members and candidates:

Shelley Moore Capito (WV-2)

Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL-21)

Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25)

Phil English (PA-3)

Tom Feeney (FL-24)

Chris Hackett (PA-10)

Pete Olson (TX-22)

Steve Stivers (OH-15)

Get this -- only two of the names on this list are challengers running to unseat House Dems -- Hackett and Olsen. The rest are incumbents, with the exception of Stivers, who's running for an open GOP-held seat.

But to regain their majority the GOP would need to knock off 19 House Dems. So this program to win back the majority is approximately 17 candidates short of what they need to accomplish its stated goal!

By contrast, the DCCC's Red to Blue program lists 20 Dem candidates challenging Republican House incumbents -- ten times the number of the GOP's vaunted "ROMP" program.

Jim Webb spokesperson Kimberly Hunter sends us a statement rejecting the McCain campaign's accusation that he collaborated with the Obama camp to attack McCain's service...

I can tell you that Senator Webb has never spoken with Senator Obama about this issue nor has he spoken to Wesley Clark. Senator Webb's comments were not targeted at McCain's military service. He has consistently called for politicians not to insert politics into military service. This is the exact same argument that he used against Lindsay Graham last year in their Meet the Press interview regarding objections to giving troops adequate dwell time at home.

Senator Webb has never, and would never, demean the service of anyone who has stepped forward to serve our country. To the contrary, he was calling on those on all sides of the debate to refrain from implying that their political views are representative of the military writ large.

Of course, Webb is now in an argument about whether he demeaned McCain's military service.

Discuss.

This is fun: A campaign staffer for a leading GOP Senator has been busted posting fake posts on liberal blogs under an alias.

Burnt Orange Report, the premier state-level liberal blog in Texas, has discovered that commenter "Buck Smith" -- who claimed in the site's comments to be a liberal and who was critical of Texas Democrats and their candidates -- was in fact none other than David Beckwith, a top Texas Republican operative who works for GOP Sen. John Cornyn.

What makes this story funny is the way this joker managed to get himself caught.

Read more »

Now the McCain campaign is accusing the Obama campaign of coordinating with Jim Webb to "attack" McCain's war service.

On MSNBC last night, Webb told McCain that he should "calm down" with the use of his military service in the campaign, adding that it was time to "get the politics out of the military."

Now the McCain campaign is responding to Webb, arguing that Webb's comments prove that Obama "can't control his surrogate operation." McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers sends us this:

If you didn't think this was a coordinated attack on John McCain's credentials before, it's clear now that it is. Barack Obama's surrogates are telling the McCain campaign to "calm down" about attacks on his military record? Seriously? Now somehow Wes Clark's attacks are John McCain's fault? It's absurd. If Barack Obama can't control his own surrogate operation, how can he be trusted to run the country?

The truth is that there's zero evidence that there's any coordination going on or that the Obama campaign wants this conversation to be taking place. Not that this matters: The McCain campaign is very determinedly pointing to anything it can -- Webb's comments included -- to drive the message that Obama is demeaning McCain's military service.

But no one -- not Obama, not Clark, not Webb -- has done this. No one.

Late Update: A Webb spokesperson strongly rejects the charge.

Barack Obama's support has significantly risen in Florida -- a place where John McCain is thought to have an advantage -- to the point where he's taken the lead in a new poll.

The latest numbers from Public Policy Polling (D): Obama 46%, McCain 44%, within the ±3.6% margin of error. In their last poll from March -- taken right in the middle of the first Jeremiah Wright controversy -- Obama trailed 50%-39%.

For now, the polls are mixed on Florida. PPP, Quinnipiac and ARG have given Obama a narrow lead, while Rasmussen puts McCain ahead.

Here's a blooper if there ever was one. The Congressional office of Florida Democrat Tim Mahoney, a freshman who faces a potentially tough re-election fight this fall, was forced to put out a statement apologizing for a mailer they sent to the district two months ago in which the Congressman touted his support for veterans.

The problem: The mailer featured a stock picture of an elderly veteran who turned out to be a Soviet soldier! Click the picture to enlarge:

Right-wing blogs were the first to note the foul-up, raising questions about the veteran's lack of American medals.

"This was an honest staff error," Mahoney's chief of staff said in the statement, forwarded to us by his office. "We deeply apologize to those who were offended and we will take steps to ensure that this mistake doesn't happen in the future."

Translation: D'oh!

Have the initiatives undertaken by the McCain campaign to achieve separation from George W. Bush -- such as his frequent discussion of his POW past and his focus on energy and environmental policies -- achieved their desired goal?

Not according to a new poll from Gallup, which finds that a big majority of Americans is either very or somewhat concerned that McCain would pursue policies too similar to those of President Bush:

Sixty eight percent are concerned about this, the poll finds. Even more tellingly, the survey also finds that 67% of independents are worried about this, too. That's some very fertile ground for the Democratic message to take root in.

Separately, Think Progress has some examples that demonstrate that Americans have good reason to fear this.

That social networking group set up on MyBarackObama.com for the specific purpose of urging Obama not to support the FISA cave-in bill has now grown to nearly 7,500 members.

It's the fourth largest group on the site, after less than a week in existence.

The McCain campaign, keeping up the pressure over Wes Clark's comments, is holding its second conference call on this topic in two days -- but now the story has taken a new turn, with a McCain surrogate demeaning Clark's service.

Here's what Orson Swindle, a fellow POW of McCain's, said on the call, in a reference to generals, admirals, and other officers who back the Arizona Senator:

"General Clark probably wouldn't get that much praise from this group. I can't speak for them, but we all know that General Clark, as high-ranking as he is, his record in his last command I think was somewhat less than stellar."

Clark's last service was as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

So does this count as demeaning Clark's service? This McCain surrogate actually lodged a direct criticism of Clark's service itself, whereas Clark's comments about McCain were, well, not this at all.

So does McCain himself agree with this? Will this be covered as an "attack" on Clark's service, as Clark's non-attack on McCain's service was?

Late Update: A McCain aide emails us to say that this wasn't an attack on Clark's service. The aide sends us this link to an article about Clark, and this statement:

It certainly was not an attack on his service - no one would ever disparage that. Everyone honors Gen. Clark's service and sacrifice -- he's literally bled for our country. It was about policy disputes.

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

Click To Play

The McCain campaign hits Obama over Wes Clark's comments for the third day running, releasing yet another statement...

"Yesterday, Barack Obama's campaign said he rejected Gen. Clark's attack on John McCain's military service. But last night, Gen. Clark admitted to speaking with the Obama campaign, and then went out and repeated his attacks. It's clear that the Obama campaign isn't telling Wes Clark to apologize, and are either encouraging or tolerating his attacks on John McCain's military service.

The Obama campaign even said they were 'glad' that Gen. Clark 'clarified' a comment they supposedly repudiated. If this kind of wink-and-nod game is how Barack Obama wants to run his campaign, then fine. But spare us the empty talk of 'new politics' and raising the dialogue in this country. We just wonder: Will Barack Obama's actions ever match his words?"

It's really unclear what exactly the McCain campaign is pretending to be outraged about. Whatever the wisdom of Obama's repudiation of Clark's comments, this is pretty simple: Obama doesn't stand by Clark's comments, and Clark does. Clark communicated as much to the Obama campaign.

How does this prove that Obama is "encouraging or tolerating" the attacks? It doesn't, of course. At this point McCain advisers are simply manufacturing outrage, secure in the knowledge that they won't get called out for it. Oh, and by the way, Clark didn't "attack" McCain's military service.

Barack Obama's prepared speech on faith-based initiatives is in, and in it, the candidate strikes a delicate balance between expanding the role and clout of religious charities, while at the same time taking care to avoid outright violation of the separation of church and state.

On the one hand, Obama's aim is to include church groups -- and remember, he's often talked about his own involvement with churches as a community organizer in Chicago -- and to cement an image with most Americans as a believer in traditional values. On the other hand, many on the left could be taken aback by this expansion of public money going to religious organizations.

From the speech:

"Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea - so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work."

Full speech after the jump.

Read more »

It's looking like Joe Lieberman's embrace of John McCain and Republican talking points has taken a toll on his numbers back home in Connecticut, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

The poll gives Lieberman a 45% approval rating, a statistical dead heat with his 43% disapproval rating. This is a decline from his 52%-35% rating this past March, before he really started taking on the role of a partisan attack dog for McCain.

This is Lieberman's lowest ever rating, according to Quinnipiac's analysis, and the first time in 14 years that his approval rating has gone under 50%.

Obama To Promote His Version Of Faith-Based Social Programs
Barack Obama will be speaking today in Ohio, where he will deliver a speech calling for an expansion of government cooperation with faith-based programs. The Obama campaign's e-mail to reporters says that religious charity programs would be held to all civil rights standards in hiring and who they serve, while the Associated Press adds that religious organizations would still be able to discriminate in non-taxpayer funded areas.

McCain Speaking To Sheriffs Today
John McCain will be speaking this morning to the National Sheriffs' Association conference in Indianapolis -- possibly a sign that his campaign views Obama as a serious threat to carry the red state of Indiana, or that he aims to pitch himself as a Nixon-style "law and order" candidate. He will then travel to Mexico and Colombia, where he will likely promote the principles of free trade.

NRA To Go After Obama This Year
A right-wing group is set to mount a major offensive against Barack Obama: Namely, the National Rifle Association. The NRA is planning to spend $40 million on the presidential campaign, with $15 million on ads portraying Obama as a threat to Second Amendment Rights.

McCain Takes Money From Swift-Boat Backers
USA Today points out this morning that John McCain has had no problem accepting $70,000 in donations this cycle from backers of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth in 2004, despite his condemnation of the group at the time. On top of this, it should be noted that the McCain camp has included Bud Day, an active participant in Swift Boat commercials, in their "Truth Squad" to go after Wesley Clark's criticism of McCain's national security credentials.

Rasmussen: McCain Ahead In Florida
A new Rasmussen poll of Florida gives John McCain the lead in this large swing state. The numbers: McCain 48%, Obama 41%, with a ±4.5% margin of error. Other recent polls have put Obama ahead, leaving the situation ambiguous.

Poll: Dem Ahead In Deep-Red House Seat In Kentucky
A new SurveyUSA poll suggests that Democrats could be poised to pick up a deep-red Kentucky House district that voted 65% for President Bush in 2004. In the district of retiring GOPer Ron Lewis, Democratic state Sen. David Boswell has a 47%-44% edge over Republican state Sen. Brett Guthrie, within the ±4.3% margin of error.

Wesley Clark is not backing down from the controversy created by his statements about John McCain on Sunday.

In a statement released tonight to reporters, Clark reiterates that he respects McCain's war record, but sticks to his main point that McCain's record does not qualify as the sort of judgment needed to be president:

There are many important issues in this Presidential election, clearly one of the most important issues is national security and keeping the American people safe. In my opinion, protecting the American people is the most important duty of our next President. I have made comments in the past about John McCain's service and I want to reiterate them in order be crystal clear. As I have said before I honor John McCain's service as a prisoner of war and a Vietnam Veteran. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. I would never dishonor the service of someone who chose to wear the uniform for our nation.

John McCain is running his campaign on his experience and how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country - but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions. And in this area his judgment has been flawed - he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America. But as an American and former military officer I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues.

Clark also put in an appearance tonight on MSNBC, where he stood by his comments. We'll have video shortly.

Late Update: Here's the video:

Oh boy. We've now spotted two more Republicans who have continued to push the idea that China is drilling for oil near Florida, even after Dick Cheney retracted the claim and GOP Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida called it an "urban legend."

One is an incumbent Congressman, Mark Kirk of Illinois, and the other is Kieran Michael Lalor, a candidate running against an incumbent Democratic Congressman from New York. They do have something in common: Both are in extremely tough fights, and this is the kind of nationalist talk that can really rile up the party's base, regardless of the facts.

First up is Kirk.

Read more »

Check out this headline on The New York Times's wrap-up of today's skirmishing between McCain and Obama over war service and patriotism...

Now Obama is "defending" his patriotism while McCain is forcefully hitting back at people trying to disparage his war record? Is that what happened today?

This headline could just as easily have been: "Obama Rebuffs Patriotism Critics; McCain Defends Relevance Of War Service."

But since the story always has to be that Republicans are on offense and Dems are on defense, it goes without saying that The Times had to write the headline the way it did.

Of course, in fairness, it should be noted that Obama's disavowal of Wes Clark's criticism of McCain doesn't make it easier to make the case that McCain was on defense today and to some degree plays into the preferred narrative line of The Times (and, no doubt, other media outlets).

And now for a bit of happy hour comic relief. A group called the National Black Republican Association -- which previously achieved minor infamy for some really inflammatory and historically-inaccurate radio ads in the Maryland Senate race -- has set a new goal: Turn African-American voters against Barack Obama.

The Huffington Post's Sam Stein reports that the NBRA has unveiled a new set of radio ads that it plans to run in battleground states on black radio stations, but they haven't yet clarified exactly when or how big their buy will be. The ads manage the neat trick of sliming both the Democratic Party as racist and Obama as elitist:

Among the ads' more subtle pronouncements: "The Democratic Party is a racist party"; "Today racist Democrats will not vote for Obama, a black man"; "Obama is an arrogant elitist who turned his back on poor blacks and his own country"; "Look beyond Barack Obama's skin color and soaring rhetoric and you will see an arrogant, elitist millionaire"; and "Obama's mentor for 20-years was Rev. Jeremiah Wright who said innocent Americans deserved to die on September 11th."

It's unlikely that the NBRA could actually succeed at getting a great number of black voters to choose John McCain -- the ads don't even attempt to positively advocate on McCain's behalf. The ads are probably a last-ditch effort to suppress black enthusiasm for Obama's candidacy and dampen turnout.

The Dems really are serious about tying Congressional Republicans to President Bush -- so serious, in fact, that their newest radio ad, which will run against GOP incumbents across the country, features a Bush impersonator pretending to leave voicemails with incumbent House GOPers.

Click To Play

"I guess that's why they call us the Grand Oil Party. Heh, heh, heh," the impersonator says, mocking Bush's sarcastic giggle. "Seriously, _______, I know I can always count on you."

In a sign that the Democrats are determined to expand the playing field in a big way this year, the ad will air against Republican incumbents in some very tough districts for Democrats: Jean Schmidt of Ohio, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, and many more.

Obama campaign spokesperson Bill Burton:

"Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign. He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation's great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come."

Cue up pundits telling us what a liability Bill will be to Obama...

Late Update: Apparently Obama skipped Maureen Dowd's column yesterday saying that Bill is trying to undermine Obama.

Late Late Update: Here's the statement from Bill's office:

President Clinton had a very good conversation with Senator Obama today. He renewed his offer to do whatever he can to ensure Senator Obama is our next President.

President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come. The President believes that Senator Obama has been a great inspiration for millions of people around the country, and he knows that he will bring the change America needs as our next President.

Barack Obama delivered a big speech on patriotism today in Missouri in which he sought to do something that John McCain has done extensively with his war service throughout this campaign: Define patriotism through the prism of his own biography.

"For me, as for most Americans, patriotism starts as a gut instinct, a loyalty and love for country rooted in my earliest memories," Obama said, according to the prepared text.

Obama then directly faulted the notion that the window dressing of patriotism -- such as the now-infamous flag pin -- constitutes the genuine article.

"I'm not just talking about the recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance or the Thanksgiving pageants at school or the fireworks on the Fourth of July, as wonderful as those things may be. Rather, I'm referring to the way the American ideal wove its way throughout the lessons my family taught me as a child," Obama said, recounting his grandfather's World War II service and other episodes.

But Obama also appeared to be distancing himself from some elements of the cultural left, attacking a key ally, MoveOn, over the "General Betrayus" ad, which Obama skipped a vote to condemn last year.

Obama has often argued that he's unencumbered by the political baggage of the 1960s. In this speech he appeared to be trying to reinforce this view, but with a twist, attacking what he called the "so-called counter-culture of the sixties" as a way of preempting any future efforts to associate him with the allegedly anti-military and anti-American sixties left...

Meanwhile, some of those in the so-called counter-culture of the Sixties reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself -- by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day.

Most Americans never bought into these simplistic world-views -- these caricatures of left and right. Most Americans understood that dissent does not make one unpatriotic, and that there is nothing smart or sophisticated about a cynical disregard for America's traditions and institutions. And yet the anger and turmoil of that period never entirely drained away. All too often our politics still seems trapped in these old, threadbare arguments -- a fact most evident during our recent debates about the war in Iraq, when those who opposed administration policy were tagged by some as unpatriotic, and a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal.

Full text after the jump.

Read more »

The Obama campaign goes up with its second general election ad, a biographical spot that highlights his role moving people from welfare to work, his securing of tax cuts for workers, and his respect for the "dignity that comes from work"...

The ad will air in exactly the same 18 states that his last ad did, including deep red ones like Alaska, Indiana, and Georgia.

Full script after the jump.

Read more »

Here's the McCain campaign's response to Obama's rejection of Wes Clark's comments about McCain's military record...

"Of course Barack Obama has called many times for a new kind of politics, but his campaign just hasn't lived up to it. We've learned we need to wait and see what Senator Obama actually does, rather than take him at his word."

Can you believe it? The McCain camp isn't accepting Obama's disavowal of Clark's comments!

I was certain that the McCain campaign would respond by saying: "Okay, we appreciate Obama's response, and Clark's comments are now a dead issue. Let's get back to talking about the issues." (Editor's note: Please tone down the sarcasm. Way too heavy-handed.)

Late Update: Here's McCain speaking about the whole controversy at today's press conference:

This is noteworthy: Asked directly at today's presser whether he questioned Obama's patriotism, McCain actually didn't give a direct answer.

Here's the exchange:

QUESTION: "Do you question at all his patriotism and secondly do you think your idea of patriotism and his are any different and is that something that you share?"

McCAIN: "I think that Senator Obama is a great American success story. I think his family is. I think he's someone who is admired and respected throughout this country and the world. I think our differences are how we intend to move forward in conducting the affairs of this country. We have very different views and very different positions, and I look forward to ventilating those.

"But I think all Americans are proud of Senator Obama and what he's been able to accomplish, he and his entire family have been able to accomplish, in this nation, and I think it's living proof of some of the greatness of America."

What McCain didn't say: "Of course I don't question Obama's patriotism. We both love our country and are both running for president only to serve it. End of story."

No direct answer.

Late Update: Here's the video:

The Obama campaign has a new statement out condemning Wes Clark's comments in an interview yesterday in which he questioned whether John McCain's military service means he has the qualifications to be commander in chief.

"As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark," said Obama campaign spokeman Bill Burton.

But what did Clark actually say? In the course of arguing that military service alone doesn't qualify you to be a commander in chief -- a topic Clark himself knows something about -- he said: "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

It's unclear how anyone can construe what he said -- unless they're trying to cook the facts, of course -- as an attack on McCain's military record.

So what does Obama disagree with about what Clark said? Clearly, the Obama campaign didn't want the dispute over the Clark comments to overshadow his big patriotism speech today. And they probably saw no percentage in getting into an in-the-weeds dispute about what Clark meant.

But still, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that by condemning Clark's line of argument, the Obama camp is strengthening the McCain camp's ability to suggest that his POW bio does make him more qualified to be president than Obama is. And that really is one of the key rationales for McCain's candidacy.

Late Update: Surprisingly, the McCain campaign isn't accepting Obama's disavowals.

Late Update: Here's video of Obama top strategist David Axelrod discussing the Clark comments...

Oh, this is fun. Today the McCain campaign held a conference call unveiling a new "truth squad" Web site designed to defend McCain from attacks on his military record.

This was in response to Wes Clark's claim yesterday that McCain lacks the necessary experience to be President, which wasn't an attack on McCain's military record at all.

Be that as it may, on the call, the McCain camp rolled out a leading surrogate named Bud Day -- who was described merely as a fellow POW of McCain -- who blasted such attacks. "John was slandered and reviled in the 2000 campaign in a way that denigrated his service enormously...it was absolutely important to face this issue right off the bat."

But guess what -- it turns out that this very same Bud Day was featured in the Swift Boat Vets ads attacking John Kerry in 2004!

To make matters even better, recall that McCain himself condemned the Swift Boat Vets. Yet now the McCain campaign is cheerfully enlisting someone who did what McCain claimed to decry -- attacks on Kerry's credentials -- and using him to defend McCain against the same sort of attacks.

That's a good one.

Late Update: As Ben Smith notes, on the call Day defended his Swift Boat Vets work as being "about laying out the truth."

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

Click To Play

Uh oh. Looks like Joe Lieberman is experimenting with new and creative ways of amplifying the GOP message that if we elect Barack Obama president, we'll all die.

On CBS yesterday, Lieberman strongly suggested that we would be hit by a terror attack in 2009 -- and that this should make us pull the lever for McCain...

As a special bonus for all you Lieberman fans, also note that Lieberman cited Hillary's attack on Obama's commander in chief cred during the primaries.

Now, there' s nothing wrong with debating the question of who would make a better president in the event of a terrorist attack. The problem is that when Lieberman does this sort of stuff, it allows the big news orgs to report it the way CNN has here...

"Democrat predicts new terror attack," CNN claims, thereby helping Lieberman get away with the ruse of giving phony bipartisan legitimacy to a thoroughly partisan GOP attack.

This is something. On Friday I noted that someone had set up a social networking group on MyBarackObama.com specifically devoted to opposing Obama's decision to support the FISA cave.

Well, since then it's grown rapidly: It now has over 4,000 members.

That's six times the 500 or so it had on Friday. It's a strong signal from Obama's own supporters that they won't sit idly by when he takes a position that they view as a betrayal of the change movement he's building.

It's also a suggestion that the powerful social networking tools spawned by Obama's formidable Web operation could end up being used to pressure Obama on this or that issue, should he become President. You can sign up for the anti-FISA-cave group right here.

In yet another sign that the GOP knows it could be facing more disastrous and widespread losses in the Congressional races this fall, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell openly declared yesterday that it is "impossible" for the party to regain the Senate this year:

McConnell has in the past said it was highly unlikely for the party to win the Senate, but we don't think he's ever gone so far as to say "impossible." So, how should Republicans feel about a party leader admitting defeat this early?

"Leader McConnell was voicing his opinion about the upcoming Senate races," NRSC spokesman John Randall told Election Central via e-mail. "He was not admitting defeat but explaining the current situation."

Indeed he was.

Obama To Show Missouri A Patriotism Speech
Barack Obama will be at the Harry Truman Memorial Building in Independence, Missouri, where he will deliver a speech this morning on "what patriotism means to him and what it requires of all Americans who loves this country and want to see it do better," according to the campaign's morning e-mail to reporters. The event is clearly a key move to answer the McCain's recent push to tie every issue to the idea of patriotism, and the notion that McCain is a more loyal American. The doors open for the event at 10 a.m. ET.

John McCain In Pennsylvania Today
John McCain will be spending his time today in Pennsylvania, a major swing state that has not voted Republican for president since it went to George H.W. Bush in 1988, but where McCain is hoping to win working-class voters. McCain will be greeting supporters in Allentown, and then touring a sheet metal factory in Pipersville.

McCauliffe: Obama And Bill Clinton Will Talk Soon
Terry McAuliffe told CNN yesterday that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will finally talk to each other some time soon, and that Bill will be ready to campaign for Obama soon. "I believe that in the next 24 to 48 hours they will talk and off we will go," McAuliffe said.

McCain Camp: Obama Should Condemn Clark's Comments
John McCain's campaign is demanding that the Obama camp condemn remarks yesterday by Gen. Wesley Clark on CBS' Face The Nation, in which Clark said that McCain's having been shot down in Vietnam was not a qualification to be president. "If Barack Obama wants to question John McCain's service to his country, he should have the guts to do it himself and not hide behind his campaign surrogates," said retired Adm. Leighton Smith in a McCain campaign press release.

Poll: Dead Heat In Virginia
A new SurveyUSA poll of Virginia shows Barack Obama with a statistically insignificant lead of 49%-47%, with a ±4% margin of error. A little over a month ago, Obama had a 49%-42% lead. The vice presidential match-ups also show that Gov. Tim Kaine would not affect the margins, and that Sen. Jim Webb would potentially bring a net three points to the Dem ticket.

Poll: McCain Up By Ten In Georgia
A new Rasmussen poll of Georgia gives John McCain a 53%-43% lead, outside the ±4% margin of error. This is contrary to a recent InsiderAdvantage poll that gave John McCain only a one-point lead, and had native son Bob Barr's presence on the ballot significantly affecting the race. In this Rasmussen poll, Barr only gets one percent.

McCain Meets With Billy And Franklin Graham
John McCain met today with Billy Graham and his son Franklin, himself an influential Christian, in an opportunity to reach out to Christian conservatives who have tended to mistrust him over the years. Fun fact: In 2003, Franklin Graham looked forward to the Iraq War as an opportunity to spread Christianity in the Middle East.

Obama And McCain Camps Fight Over Immigration
The weekend has turned into a mini-slugfest between the two presidential campaigns over immigration. Obama used his speech yesterday at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Washington to attack McCain for backing away from his immigration reform proposals. This was then followed by the McCain camp blasting out e-mails blaming Obama for undermining the 2007 reform -- and the Obama camp then blasting out a 2006 letter from McCain, thanking Obama for his help on the issue.

Poll: McCain Ahead But Under 50% In Home State
A new Rasmussen poll of Arizona gives John McCain the lead in his home state -- but he is unable to get over 50%, a sign that he may end up having to take time to campaign here when he could be in other states. The numbers: McCain 49%, Obama 40%, with a ±4.5% margin of error.

Holbrooke To Raise Money For Obama in London
Former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke -- a top foreign-policy man in Bill Clinton's administration who supported HIllary during the primaries -- will be holding a fundraiser in London on July 8, for Americans abroad supporting Barack Obama. The ticket price: $2,500.

WaPo: Nation's Socio-Economic Political Geography Shifting
An article in today's Washington Post examines the shifts in political demographics. "In 1976, Republican Gerald R. Ford won 10 of the 12 states with the highest per-capita income but lost the election; in 2004, John F. Kerry did the same for the Democrats," the paper observes. The two high-income states won by the GOP in 2004 were Colorado and Virginia -- which are today at the top of Barack Obama's target list.

NYT: Internet Freelancers Changing Political Dialogue
The New York Times this morning profiles the effect that the Internet has had on political discourse: "This year, the development of cheap new editing programs and fast video distribution through sites like YouTube has broken down the barriers, empowering a new generation of largely unregulated political warriors who can affect the campaign dialogue faster and with more impact than the traditional opposition research shops."