Thursday Archive

The Battle for Catholic Voters

By Amy Sullivan
Time
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Douglas Kmiec is the kind of Catholic voter the GOP usually doesn't have to think twice about. The Pepperdine law professor and former Reagan Justice Department lawyer (Samuel Alito was an office mate) attends Mass each morning. He has actively opposed abortion for most of his adult life, working with crisis pregnancy centers to persuade women not to undergo the procedure. He is a member of the conservative Federalist Society and occasionally sends a contribution to Focus on the Family. He is also a vocal supporter of Barack Obama...

Powell, The Noncommittal Meerkat Manor Fan

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
July 2, 2008

ASPEN -- A group of reporters caught up wit Ret.Gen. Colin Powell as he strolled along a sidewalk outside our Allstate Exchange tent. We asked Mr. Powell about his meeting last week with Barack Obama, which drew a laugh. "Well, I also met with John, but nobody reported that," he said. The meeting took place at McCain's home in Arlington. A courtesy call was how Mr. Powell described both meetings. Powell said that he would not attend either party's conventions and offered no hint as to when -- or whether -- he might endorse. (My guess: probably not.) Much of the subsequent conversation was off the record, so there we are...

McCain and Obama Differ on Same-Sex Marriage Initiative

By Michael Falcone
New York Times
July 3, 2008

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are at odds over a California ballot initiative that would amend the state’s Constitution to ban same-sex marriage...

Editorial: Private patriotism
Questioning Obama's or McCain's service to country is like asking if they love their wives.

Christian Science Monitor
July 3, 2008

It's as easy as grilling hot dogs to revel in Fourth of July rituals. Fireworks, parades, flags, and picnics help bind Americans. But the holiday is also a time for each person to recall the good in the nation's past – and renew faith in the good still to come. That private patriotism is hard to show, as Barack Obama and even war hero John McCain have learned. In a contest starting to be laced with personal attacks, each man's past service to country has come under the rocket's red glare of a media onslaught...

What We Learned in the War

By Gail Colllins
New York Times
July 3, 2008

As we slink off into the long holiday weekend, let’s see if we can tout up the lessons learned from Wesleygate. That was the outcry that erupted when Wesley Clark, the retired general, suggested that John McCain’s military command background did not, by itself, qualify him to be president. You’d have thought that Clark had dissed McCain’s record as a prisoner of war. (“Minimized five and a half years in a hole!” — Laura Ingraham.) Clark, who has been available for a vice-presidential nomination for so long that his shelf-life sticker is expiring, actually said that the year McCain once spent running an aviation squadron in Florida did not amount to serious executive experience...

Inside the Obamacans and McCainocrats

By John P. Avlon
The Politico
July 3, 2008 5:00 AM EST

John Martin just got back from serving a tour with the Navy Reserves in Afghanistan. Entering his third year at St. John’s Law School, this National Review reader, former Rush Limbaugh devotee and son of a cop has resumed his volunteer duties as the founder of RepublicansforObama.org...

ENPR: Republicans Demoralized But Presidential Race Still Close

By Robert Novak and Timothy P. Carney
Evans-Novak Political Report
July 2, 2008

Outlook
   1. From the standpoint of morale, enthusiasm, and confidence, the presidential election can be called no contest—Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain. The Republican candidate has not used the long period since he clinched the nomination to establish an effective campaign strategy. The level of depression among Republicans outside the McCain inner circle is worsening as Obama inches his way rightward, toward the middle of the road (at least rhetorically).
   2. Actually, it still looks like a close race on a state-by-state basis. Despite the enthusiasm gap, this remains a winnable race for McCain in a terrible Republican year. The truth is there remains voter resistance to Obama that to some degree is based on race.
   3. While Obama has been inching rightward carefully (most recently on his “I am patriot” speech), almost overlooked is his announced opposition to the California initiative on same-sex marriage. That could mobilize social conservatives nationwide...