Obama's trip abroad, What liberal media?, Good campaign News

Obama's trip abroad, Berlin

Just a quick reminder: McCain, the RNC and Fox needled Obama about visiting the Middle East...do you think they now feel that was a good strategy?

Good overview of what made this trip successful: Obama's actually really smart.

• The Berlin speech can be seen here
• Great photo essay here.
• Way, way too cute! Little kids: "Just a moment, Obama is speaking"
  
• Short, moving essay about seeing American flags being waved in Berlin.
• Lame republican responses--McCain suggests that Obama shouldn't be making speeches on foreign soil, forgetting that he did so himself in Canada just a month ago; others complain that Obama should use the phrase "citizen of the world," even though it was used by Reagan and Kennedy (in his inaugural address) before...McCain also said Obama was wrong to cancel a visit to the troops in Rammstein--but it turns out that the Pentagon reversed their previous approval of the visit, and wouldn't allow Obama to visit.
  

Where is this liberal media I hear about??
CBS "edited" an interview between Katie Couric and John McCain, in which he made a serious mistake about the timeline (and causes) of the decline of violence in Iraq (watch the real footage, released later). McCain then tried to spin and lie his way out of it, claiming that the term "surge" does not refer to the jan '07 increase of 30k troops, but the broader strategy of the "counterinsurgency". He really thinks we are fools. Or thinks we won't notice that he's a fool: he also, in that same interview, claimed that Iraq was the first major military action since 9/11. What about Afghanistan???

McCain's "respectful" campaign: Timeless tidbits from this week

• McCain said that Obama would rather win an election than lose a war.
• McCain campaign suggests Obama is soft on genocide, in response to Obama's statement at the Holocaust Memorial

Good campaign news

• Analysis shows that it's not a "toss up" or "dead even" race
• Obama leads McCain by 43% with Hispanic voters!
• Obama's small donors--alone--outraise McCain
• From 50-state strategy to 50-state ad buy: Obama purchases $5million ad buy during the Olympics
• We caught up in DNC, House and Senate fundraising in June
• We've grown! 1.7 million new democrats since 2004.

Nas delivers 600k petition sigs to Fox, in protest of ongoing racism

wish i was near la jolla, ca

Device art gallery. La Jolla, California
Show: Fantastic
Contraption, opens July 19 (and runs through Sept. 2).

Wha? McCain leaks Obama's Iraq travel details...

Sources are reporting that McCain blithely spilled the beans about when Obama is going to Iraq...info that's kept under wraps for a reason.

"I believe that either today or tomorrow -- and I'm not privy to his
schedule -- Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other
senators" who make up a congressional delegation, McCain told a
campaign fund-raising luncheon.

howard dean, mccain--blech!, good news and bad media

Man, Howard Dean is great.
Watched Howard Dean talk to the Netroots Nation annual gathering last night, and read his interview with major lefty bloggers. Here's some links if you want to find out what he's been up to--launching the "Register for Change" campaign, building the Democratic Party...and it's working. Obama's opening 20 campaign offices in Virginia!

Man, John McCain is a tool.

• Asked if Obama is a socialist, McCain shrugs and says "I don't know."
• 10 flip-flops in 2 weeks (as of June 15--list needs updating!)
• Oh, here's an update: flipflop on Afghanistan...did anyone hear?
• In an interview with ABC News, when reminded that he has publicly admitted to not being expert on economic matters, McCain says "I never said that."
• Nice little video: McCain's YouTube Problem

This week's good news.

• $52 million raised in June by Obama; more than $20 million by DNC. Obama's second-best month of fundraising yet...take that, Wall Street Journal (reported earlier that Obama was expected only to raise $30 mill). Unbelievably, because of campaign finance law loopholes, we're still the underdog. Donate $5 or more, and you can win tix to the convention (or give them to me!)
• We are competitive in a whole lotta states--July 15: national and swing state poll roundup. Up 9% points in Oregon. Up by 2% in Nevada. Only down by 3% in North Carolina.
• And McCain's excitement deficit.

More Bad Media.
ABC/Washington Post withholds poll results that favor Obama

NYTimes: "Obama isn't closing the divide on race"--(didn't know that one person could be expected to do so!). Analysis suggests that he has a problem with white voters. But the Times' actual polling results do not bear this out, in fact, on some issues his favorability is higher than McCain's. Obama camp responds, and NYTimes Adam Nagourney tries to defend his sloppy work.

You may not have heard that McCain described the way that Social Security works "a disgrace." That's because the media was whupped up in a frenzy over Jesse Jackson talking about cutting Obama's "nuts" off. Besides the complete disregard for journalistic ethics (essentially "eavesdropping" on Jackson's conversation when he didn't know he was being recorded), the media has shown once again how they just can't focus on the important aspects of this presidential race.

what's making you happy?

Hi everyone! Here we go:

Happiness is: mounting evidence of the wisdom of pursuing the "50-state strategy": Obama is up 5 points in Montana!

Happiness is: documenting and disseminating the oh-so-long-and-ever-growing list of McCain flip-flops and "misstatements" (that means send this list around!)

Happiness is: Looking at Obama's numbers in key swing states. RNC to buy early ads, and we'll be able to study the impact and respond.

Happiness is: someone in the mainstream press finally starting to debunk the "McCain is a maverick" myth.

Happiness is: judges using Lewis Carroll to ridicule the logic of the Bush Administration on habeus corpus. Snark!

Happiness is learning that nearly 2/3 of the public fear McCain is likely to carry on Bush's policies.

Happiness is watching Joe Lieberman get his comeuppance. He's a drag on McCain chances...in CT!~Excellent news for those of us who shudder at the thought of a mccain/lieberman ticket.