Compiled by Mary Grace Lucas
CNN Washington Bureau
CNN: Obama prepares to deliver speech in Berlin
Without offering up too many hints, Senator Barack Obama told reporters that his much-anticipated public address here later today will not be "a wonkish policy speech." Obama sought to "tamp down" expectations of crowd size and did concede he was seeking out a larger audience beyond the one that will gather in Tiergarten Park.
NY Times: With Arizona Changing, McCain Focuses on Home
As a general rule, Senator John McCain does not alert the news media when he eats breakfast in Arizona. But on a Monday morning this month, Mr. McCain campaigned in a local diner, after a Sunday stop at his campaign office here, where he urged volunteers to “make sure we get our voters registered, to make sure we are organized.”
Washington Post: McCain Still Waiting for His Turn at Good Luck
It seemed like a great way to counter Obamamania. Sen. John McCain would board a helicopter in New Orleans today, skim quickly over the Gulf of Mexico and land on an oil rig — a made-for-TV moment to highlight his call for offshore drilling, an issue that Republicans believe will be a big winner in November.
WSJ: 'Generation Gap' Widens in the 2008 Electorate
Voter preferences have long been split by race and gender, but this year's election is adding another divide: a sharp age gap. Democrat Barack Obama has a strong lead among younger voters, and Republican John McCain is solidly in front among older voters. That divide has grown in the past month, according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News
poll.
CNN Radio: Criticism of President Bush gets septic and the VP field appears to have narrowed
Your daily presidential campaign goof, Louisiana's governor makes a clear statement about his future, and San Francisco's sewer system could become a political statement. Lisa Desjardins has today's CNN Radio political ticker.
CNN: Obama ends Middle East trip with visit to Western Wall
Barack Obama departed Israel early Thursday after a pre-dawn visit to one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites, the Western Wall. Under tight security, Obama arrived at a section of the Wall that had been cordoned off at 5:11am local time. While the visit had not been announced in advance, dozens of people were waiting in the darkness for his arrival.
WSJ: Christian PAC to Run Obama Ads
A new Christian political action committee backing Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race is escalating its efforts to elect the Illinois senator with the help of Christian voters this November.
WSJ: Voter Unease With Obama Lingers Despite His Lead
Midway through the election year, the presidential campaign looks less like a race between two candidates than a referendum on one of them — Sen. Barack Obama.
CNN: McCain talks up Pawlenty
Reluctant at first to wade into the vice presidential selection process, John McCain Wednesday was coaxed into offering more praise for one of the hotter names in the speculation game this week.
CNN: McCain broadens definition of surge
John McCain defended comments he made in an interview on Tuesday when he incorrectly argued that the surge in Iraq gave way to the so-called “Anbar Awakening” – when Sunni leaders joined forces with U.S. troops to fight Al Qaeda in the fall of 2006.
NY Times: Candidates Spar Over Troop Surge and Iraq Chronology
Senator John McCain was chiding Senator Barack Obama for “a false depiction of what actually happened” in Iraq in a television interview this week. But in giving his chronology of events in Iraq, Mr. McCain gave what critics said was his own false depiction.
LA Times: McCain and Obama tax plans are criticized
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says that both candidates' proposals would increase the national debt by trillions and may make the system more complex.
New York Sun: Schumer Scolded Over Politics At Economic Hearing
Presidential politics veered into a congressional hearing on the economy yesterday as a top Republican lawmaker scolded New York's senior senator for inviting two informal advisers to Senator Obama to testify before his committee.
WSJ: Housing Bill Will Extend Federal Role In Markets
A sprawling bill that reaches deep into the U.S. housing industry is close to becoming law, in what will likely stand as the federal government's most expansive effort to stabilize the mortgage and financial markets.
WSJ: States Slammed by Tax Shortfalls
The stumbling U.S. economy is forcing states to slash spending and cut jobs in order to close a projected $40 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year. That gap — identified Wednesday in a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures — is more than triple the size of the previous year's. It is the result of broad economic weakness at the state and local levels that could cause pain throughout this year and into 2010.
LA Times: Obama makes connection with Israeli family in Sderot
'This terror is intolerable,' he says after touring their home, damaged by a Palestinian rocket. McCain visited them in March.
CNN: Obama stands by plan to talk with Iran
Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a "game-changing" situation, not just in the Middle East but throughout the world.
CNN: Dems, Republicans spar over oil speculation bill
The Senate voted Wednesday to move forward on a bill meant to crack down on oil speculators. But Republicans vowed to block the Senate from taking up any other measure until the Democratic leadership agrees to vote on other energy-related issues.
CNN Navarrette Commentary: To stay relevant, media must diversify
Thanks to the history-making candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, Americans find themselves at a defining moment in our politics.
CNN: Headline grabber for McCain: Armstrong, but not oil rig
Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night only works for the post office – not presidential campaign photo ops. The McCain camp planned a Thursday visit to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana coast, an off-shore drilling event designed to help attract attention as Barack Obama delivered his speech in Berlin.
CNN: House weighs overturning 'don't ask, don't tell'
A House panel weighed overturning the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy Wednesday, the first time Congress has considered the rule since it was implemented 15 years ago.
Washington Post: Sorry We Asked, Sorry You Told
Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military. The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday.
NY Times: Spotlight on Gas Prices, and Parties in Stalemate
Congressional Republicans and Democrats agree that high gasoline prices are the driving domestic political issue of the moment, spurring new campaign advertisements and maneuvering almost every day. But that is about all they can agree on when it comes to the national panic at the pump.
CNN: Senator: Waste, fraud, neglect hurting U.S. soldiers
Tens of billions in taxpayer dollars have been lost, wasted or remain unaccounted for in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some of those funds — and some missing weapons — have landed in insurgents' hands, a U.S. senator alleged Wednesday.
CNN: Plouffe briefs Dems on Obama's campaign strategy
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe briefed House Democrats Wednesday on the campaign's strategy to win the White House and bolster the Congressional Democrats’ majority in November.
Washington Post: Gilmore Filed False Information On Campaign Disclosure Forms
Former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III, the state's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, submitted false information on two financial disclosure forms that hid his ties to a government contractor embroiled in a legal dispute over allegations that two of its executives had conspired to defraud the federal government.
NY Times: No Cloaks, No Daggers, Just the Mayor
To the ever-expanding résumé of Gavin Newsom — San Francisco mayor, California hopeful for governor, Montana-bound groom — one may now add this: code-breaker.
Washington Post: Democrats Ask Labor to Forgo 'Secret Rule'
Congressional leaders demanded yesterday that the Labor Department withdraw an eleventh-hour rule proposal that would make it more difficult to set industry limits on the amount of dangerous chemicals that U.S. workers are exposed to on the job.
Washington Post: Rangel Acknowledges Seeking Gifts
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) acknowledged yesterday that he hoped his personal entreaties to foundations and corporations would bring in donations to an academic center that bears his name.
Washington Post: Lawmakers to Honor Officers Slain in Capitol in 1998
A simple moment of silence today on Capitol Hill will mark one of the most somber moments in recent congressional history — and serve as another reminder of the fortress that Congress has become.
NY Times: Bush Ex-Official Says Corrupt Afghans and a Hesitant Military Hinder Drug Fight
Corrupt Afghan officials, a reluctant military and divisions over policy, as much as the Taliban, have contributed to a failing policy to fight narcotics in Afghanistan, a former Bush administration official writes in an article in The New York Times Magazine on Sunday.
AP: FEMA seeks immunity from suits over trailer fumes
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is requesting immunity from lawsuits filed on behalf of Gulf Coast hurricane victims who claim they were exposed to dangerous fumes while living in government-issued trailers.
NY Times: Plan Would Use Antiterror Aid on Pakistani Jets
The Bush administration plans to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading that country’s aging F-16 attack planes, which Pakistan prizes more for their contribution to its military rivalry with India than for fighting insurgents along its Afghan border.
Washington Times: Agreement for 'respectful' treatment of troops reached
Military personnel returning home from war zones can expect friendlier greetings by airport officials under a new agreement designed to prevent the reoccurrence of an incident last fall that stranded troops on a tarmac for hours at Oakland International Airport in California.
Washington Post: Court Ruling Tightens Investors' Safety Net
A recent decision by a federal appellate court goes a long way to protect investors. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed a lower court that had ruled a stockbroker could have a customer's complaint purged from his record.
NY Times: Polygamous Sect to Defend 6 Members in Court and Its Practices on Capitol Hill
Texas Rangers and prosecutors prepared Wednesday to arrest five members of a polygamous sect indicted the day before with their imprisoned leader on charges relating to under-age marriages and bigamy.
Washington Post: $500 Million Is Offered in Fight Against Tobacco
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates said yesterday that they will together provide $500 million to fight tobacco use around the world, especially in developing countries where smoking rates are rising.
