One Thousand Reasons

Former GOP foe Mitt Romney is the rage in Sen. John McCain's circles as the Republican moves to pick a running mate with good bu

Paul Bedard — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:17:40 -0400

Source: US News & World Report Former GOP foe Mitt Romney is the rage in Sen. John McCain's circles as the Republican moves to pick a running mate with good business and economic creds�and moderately youthful good looks. But if you want a really juicy rumor, consider who some key Democrats want for Sen. Barack Obama's No. 2: his veep search aide, Caroline Kennedy....

Gallup Daily: Obama Retains Lead, 48% to 41%

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:16:15 -0400

Source: Gallup PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama has stretched his lead over John McCain among national registered voters to seven percentage points, 48% to 41%, in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 23-25....

When a Candidate Seeks That Presidential Look

JEFF ZELENY — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:39:42 -0400

Source: New York Times LONDON � He stood in the shadow of the Temple of Hercules, held forth at the ?ys?Palace and convened a one-man news conference here on Saturday outside No. 10 Downing Street, all with a simple aim: to make a one-term senator from Illinois look presidential to voters back home in America. But along the way to appearing presidential, did Senator Barack Obama cross a political line � as he and his advisers quietly feared, and some Republicans hoped � by coming across as too presumptuous?...

McCain vs. Obama World

Clarence Page — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:52:51 -0400

Source: Chicago Tribune Memo to John McCain: You're probably kicking yourself right about now for goading Barack Obama into getting out to see the world. That's like throwing ol' Br'er Rabbit into a briar patch. Before you could say "photo op," the junior senator from Illinois was turning Obama Nation into what looked like Obama World. ...

A History For Iraqis To Write

David Ignatius — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:48:47 -0400

Source: Washington Post With characteristic self-absorption, Americans are looking at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent statements about a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in terms of our 2008 presidential election. We should see this issue instead in terms of Iraqi history....

A Change Election Abroad, Too

Jim Hoagland — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:47:00 -0400

Source: Washington Post John McCain's prisoner-of-war experience is a strong selling point for him in this American election. But it is a powerful drag on his popularity in Europe, where past U.S. involvement in Vietnam still generates intensely negative feelings. Barack Obama's flirtation with protectionism similarly divides opinion at home and abroad. His attacks on NAFTA helped him compete for the Democratic nomination. But they cause important foreign partners such as Mexico, China and Japan to wonder if an Obama presidency would be good for them....

The Bauer of Suggestion

Dahlia Lithwick — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:12:28 -0400

Source: Slate The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer, or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning The Dark Side and Philippe Sands' The Torture Team, I quickly realized that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's 24: Jack Bauer....

Horror Stories

Dahlia Lithwick — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:11:17 -0400

Source: Slate This week saw the start of jury selection in the first military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. After six years of waiting, Osama Bin Laden's alleged chauffer, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, went on trial for dangerous acts of driving in furtherance of terrorism. Whether he is convicted or acquitted, Hamdan may live out the rest of his lifetime at Guantanamo. The tribunal probably won't do much to improve the Bush administration's reputation for making up the rules on the run in the legal war on terror. The summer of 2008 offers up a bumper crop of great new reads about law and the war. Will you sleep better or worse at night after reading this stuff? Probably not at all if your last name is ...

Race may not decide the race

Paul West — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:10:15 -0400

Source: The Swamp This year's election promises to be one of the great experiments in U.S. history. Is the country ready for an African American president? No one knows for sure. It's increasingly clear, though, that the '08 vote will be a referendum on the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas....

Barack Obama visits Downing Street on last leg of overseas tour

Peter Walker — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:00:46 -0400

Source: Guardian Barack Obama was holding talks with Gordon Brown in Downing Street this morning � having already met Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair � on the final leg of a largely successful foreign tour....

Obama and the world

EDITORIAL — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:59:37 -0400

Source: Toronto Star With his talk of a "shared destiny," Barack Obama has signalled that, if he becomes president, the United States will abandon the unilateralist ways of George W. Bush and rejoin the world community....

The Fabric of America Is Fraying as the Economic Downturn Continues

David Wann — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:58:40 -0400

Source: AlterNet By certain measurements, the U.S. economy has been quite successful in the last several decades, but the fundamental question remains: Successfully what? We may lead the world in categories like gross domestic product, average house size, and ownership of color TVs, but we also "lead" the industrial nations in debt per capita, the child poverty rate, overall poverty rate, ratio of people in prison, rate of traffic fatalities, murder rate, carbon dioxide emissions per capita, and the per capita consumption of energy and water....

How Should the Next President Deal with the Bush White House's Crimes?

Amy Goodman — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:57:13 -0400

Source: AlterNet Amy Goodman:The dominant role of corporations is one of a number of issues fueling skepticism around the 2008 campaign. Criticism has also mounted recently over presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama's perceived shift to the right....

To defeat Obama, conservatives take the initiative

TIM RUTTEN — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:56:05 -0400

Source: Los Angeles Times Social and religious conservatives are placing an increasingly large wager on a strategy they believe may overcome their constituents' lack of enthusiasm for Sen. John McCain, giving him a competitive edge over Sen. Barack Obama even in states as deeply blue as California....

Obama's popularity as anti-Bush is telling

Paul Richter — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:13 -0400

Source: Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's electoral rival is John McCain, but Obama's overseas trip this week has given heartburn to another Republican -- President Bush. In stop after stop across the Middle East and Europe, Obama was embraced as the man whose promise of change meant a change from Bush: on Iraq, Mideast peace, the treatment of terrorism suspects, climate change, alliance relations and more....

3 Hours in Paris, and Smiles All Around

JEFF ZELENY and STEVEN ERLANGER — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:47:26 -0400

Source: New York Times PARIS � President Nicolas Sarkozy of France warmly embraced Senator Barack Obama at the ?ys?Palace here on Friday, saying his presidential candidacy presents a bold moment to change the United States� image around the world....

Americans Move to the Middle

CHARLES M. BLOW — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:42:12 -0400

Source: New York Times Can you hear that? I can. It�s the sound of political action committees and party extremists sharpening their wedge issues and setting the timers on their bombshells. The fall�s battle is looming. It�s going to get ugly....

Getting to Know You

BOB HERBERT — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:39:41 -0400

Source: New York Times The conventional wisdom in this radically unconventional presidential race is that the voters have to get to know Barack Obama better. That�s what this week�s overseas trip was about: to showcase the senator as a potential commander in chief and leader of U.S. foreign policy. According to this way of thinking, as voters see more of Mr. Obama and become more comfortable with him (assuming no major foul-ups along the way), his chances of getting elected will be enhanced. Maybe so. But what about the other guy? How much do voters really know about John...

Time to Regulate Big Tobacco

EDITORIAL — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:38:30 -0400

Source: New York Times The House of Representatives is poised to vote next week on a pioneering bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration its first real power to regulate tobacco products, much as it now regulates food, drugs and medical devices. This is a critically important bill, the culmination of more than a decade of struggle to bring the renegade tobacco industry under regulatory control....