Obama
Biden Time
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware will be announced today as Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee.
Obama sent word of the selection of Biden, a six-term Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an email at 6:55 this morning after the decision was first reported by Association Press around midnight.
"Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago," Obama told supporters.
A New Democratic Coalition
Can Sen. Barack Obama be the FDR of his time by bringing new segments of the electorate into the Democratic Party?
Battleground Zero
Reports from tight districts by The Washington Independent's sister sites around the country help explain Sen. John McCain's recent uptick in national polling.
He's Black -- 'Get Over It.'
When future historians dissect the press coverage of the first black person to run as the presidential nominee of a major party, they will surely marvel at all the linguistic acrobatics and patronizing euphemisms. There are exceptions, of course, and today's New York Times features a welcome break from vague racial speculation with a thoughtful, well-researched report on racial prejudice in rural Pennsylvania. Journalist Michael Powell hits the problems that many reporters are afraid to touch, largely because he did enough homework to ensure that the article enables voters to tell the story themselves:
McCain Flack: Rezko Is 'Fair Game' Now
Responding to the Obama campaign's attacks on Sen. John McCain's inability to say how many homes he owns, McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers basically said "it's on," according to The Washington Post:
Political Groups Rake in Funds
Even though the presumed presidential candidates have encouraged supporters to give directly to their campaigns, donations to independent political groups are up this cycle.
DNC Slams McCain as 'Sen. Hothead'
Who said Democratic campaigns don't launch personal attacks? The Democratic National Committee just hit a huge personal weakness of Sen. John McCain -- his anger-management problem.
In a research document blasted to campaign reporters, the Democrats are teeing off McCain's recent complaint that Obama is "testy." After asking whether McCain "Really Want[s] to go Down This Road," the DNC runs through reports of McCain's infamous temper -- from his own Republican colleagues:
Obama Hammers McCain on Homes
The Obama campaign wasted no time in jumping all over Sen. John McCain's admission in an interview with Politico that the doesn't know how many homes he and his wife own. In one of its sharpest attacks to date on the presumed Republican nominee, the Obama rapid response team quickly put together a video that portrays McCain as out of touch on the housing crisis -- and reminds him that he owns seven homes, worth $13 million.
It's a Daddy Thing -- Campaign '08 Edition
This year's presidential nominees have both penned autobiographies exploring their family roots. Sen. John McCain coauthored "Faith of My Fathers," tracing his initial rebellion and ultimate embrace of his dad's military traditions, while Sen. Barack Obama meditated on the role of an absent parent in "Dreams From My Father." The books' emphasis reveals that both politicians have "father issues," argues my friend Eli Sanders in a new essay, that gamely plays the father card on the presidential contenders.
Starting with the Obama side, Sanders plucks a striking quote from "Dreams," when the young Obama wrestles with his feelings on a visit to Kenya in search of information about his father's side of the family:
Obama Curbs Superdelegates and Eyes 2012
Today's Washington Post reports that Sen. Barack Obama will try to change party rules to reduce the power of superdelegates and reform the presidential nominating calendar:
The Dream Ticket, That Wasn't
LYNCHBURG, VA--They would have been the perfect couple, a marriage of experience and candor and simple toughness with the young avatar of the hopes and dreams of young Americans and the Democratic Party. That's the thought thought that came to mind when Virginia Sen. Jim Webb led his colleague, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama, into a school gymnasium literally shaking from the rafters with a racially mixed crowd of 2,200. The sight of Webb pumping his fist in the air as Obama followed, you saw not just two senators, but a dream ticket unrealized.
Confident and measured in his introduction, you looked at Webb and saw what Obama supporters had been hoping for since he cinched the Democratic nomination. While the Republicans offer up a candidate in Sen. John McCain who graduated from the Naval academy and served his country with honor and distinction in Vietnam, he would have been matched by Webb--himself a Naval academy graduate who served with valor in that same senseless war, a Democrat who went on to a post as Secretary of the Navy under the great Republican icon Ronald Reagan.
With any vice-presidential nominee you want a heavy, a person who's willing to be blunt and attack when needed, leaving the lead man to remain above the fray.
Measuring Obama's 'Up-Ticket Effect'
Democrats powered through several congressional primaries yesterday, including key districts in Oregon and Washington (the 5th and 8th, respectively). Looking toward November, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is arguing that several districts will benefit from an "up-ticket effect" driven by Obama's organizing success. The clearest example is Oregon, where Obama-fever drew one of the largest primary campaign rallies in U.S. history, prompting the state's Republican incumbents to flee the McCain campaign, as TWI's Matthew DeLong reported.
Obama in NASCAR Country
MARTINSVILLE, Va.--Let me make myself clear: I don't get NASCAR. I have no friends who get NASCAR. In fact, the only person I know who has any interest in the sport is my barber Ray in Oxford, Ohio who's turned his shop over the years from a wood-panel basement filled with deer heads and mounted fish into a shrine to Dale Earnhart. And, truth to tell I'm not which motif I find more strange. For the record Ray--who gave me first haircut at age two--has and will forever give one hell of a haircut.
Obama Personally Slams McCain's Millionaire Mindset
Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP nominee, is still catching hell for his estimate that it takes an income of $5 million to be rich in the U.S.
Former Clinton Strategist Declares Obama Swiftboater D.O.A.
Howard Wolfson, a former strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and current Fox News analyst, has concluded that the first Republican attempt to swiftboat Sen. Barack Obama is a failure.
Micro-targeting the Pot Vote
Pot-smokers vote, but most campaigns don't want to be seen directly appealing for their support. Of course, it's telling that our political culture coddles war crimes by government officials and warrantless wiretapping by corporations, but stoners are just too out there. Anyway, while activist pot smokers -- especially young ones -- could break strongly for Sen. Barack Obama, the campaign has not been officially engaging them. That's where the bottom-up organizing comes in.
When the Base Revolts
The blogosphere's response to a potential tapping of Sen. Evan Bayh for the veep slot exemplifies Obama's problem.
Obama Camp Hits McCain's Elitist Millionaire Delusion
There's an old saying in American politics -- elections are not decided by the producer price index. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is jumping on today's jump in the index, though, with a statement from Economic Policy Director Jason Furman assailing the Bush-McCain economic agenda:
Death by a Thousand Republican Jokes
Sen. John McCain finally found a salient line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama's remarkably resilient public profile. Throughout the campaign, calling Obama a defeatist, elitist or troop-hater has not been so effective. Calling him a joke, however, may be lethal.
Today The Daou Report, a site run by Peter Daou, a sharp strategist who worked for the presidential campaigns of Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, provides a must-read analysis of how McCain's greatest summer achievement was to pinpoint Obama's "mockability":
Democratic Obama Anxiety
Maybe political junkies suffer from some reverse-seasonal disorder that makes for a depressing summer. While most Americans kick back in August, this is the classic time for dark assessments of the presidential campaign. Now, percolating just beneath the veepstakes rumors, Democratic activists, operatives and donors are worrying that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is flailing.
Josh Marshall, a measured journalist with a large political following, captured the mood in an unusually bleak post yesterday. He argued that while Republicans charge Obama with "soft treason," he has not found "any consistent lines of attack" for punching back. Teeing off that critique, AmericaBlog reports that "a lot of people in [Democratic] politics" are worried:
