New Hampshire News

News

Measures to protect consumers made law

By Tom Fahey
Nashua Telegraph
July 8, 2008

CONCORD – Consumers should get expanded protection from a pair of bills on mortgages and investments that Gov. John Lynch signed into law yesterday. The new laws require mortgage originators to be licensed, and penalize those who falsely claim certification to provide investment advice to senior citizens...
 

New law protects NH home buyers

Associated Press
July 7, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --A new law will provide New Hampshire home buyers with greater protections when they obtain mortgages. Gov. John Lynch signed a law Monday that requires anyone who arranges mortgage loans to fill out an application and get a license from the state starting in April 2009...
 

Press Release: Governor Lynch Signs Law Aimed At Protecting Consumers From Mortgage Foreclosure
New Law Requires Mortgage Originators Be Licensed

Office of the Governor
July 7, 2008

CONCORD - As part of the state’s ongoing efforts to better protect consumers, Gov. John Lynch today signed a new law requiring mortgage originators to be licensed...
 

Lynch signs law aimed at protecting NH seniors

Associated Press
July 7, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has signed a bill aimed at protecting seniors from investment fraud. The new law prohibits an investor from using false professional designations, which infer they have special qualifications or specialized education in addressing the needs of senior citizens and retirees. This law will require certification of certain titles for financial professionals in an effort to better protect seniors from fraudulent sales practice...
 

Press Release: Governor Lynch Signs Law Aimed At Protecting Seniors From Investment Fraud

Office of the Governor
July 7, 2008

CONCORD -Gov. John Lynch today signed new legislation aimed at protecting seniors from investment fraud. The new law prohibits an investor from using false professional designations, which infer they have special qualifications or specialized education in addressing the needs of senior citizens and retirees...
 

Unemployment compensation benefits extended

Foster's Daily Democrat
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

CONCORD – Governor John H. Lynch has signed an agreement with the federal government for an extension of unemployment compensation benefits Those individuals that have exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits beginning May 1, 2007, could be eligible to collect an extension of up to 13 weeks of benefits should they still remain unemployed. Commissioner Richard S. Brothers of Employment Security says he is "committed to assisting New Hampshire citizens and this program will remain in effect until March 31, 2009, in hopes of giving citizens the additional financial means needed to secure a new employment opportunity"...
 

Bad Air Daze

By Dan Tuohy
Granite Slate
July 7, 2008

New Hampshire, the pollution tailpipe of the country, has issued an alert for 48 hours worth of harmful air. Officially, Tuesday and Wednesday are known as Air Quality Action Days. It means you don't want to take any physical action, lest you cough up a lung as you inhale high concentrations of fine particle pollution. Don't go for that noon run. Don't exert yourself in any fashion. Don't pass go. Where are the presidential politicians when these summer Red Alert days arrive? The air pollution will be greatest in Cheshire, Hillsborough, Merrimack and Rockingham counties -- as well as anywhere over 3,000 feet. It's a combo of air pollution from the Midwest -- and New England -- smogging over the region with these hot temperatures. You can read the NH Department of Environmental Services press release here in full...
 

Most towns behind IRS reimbursement rate for mileage

By Rebecca Correa
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
July 7, 2008

Not everyone can meet the Internal Revenue Service's standards, but when it comes to mileage reimbursement, Atkinson is the furthest behind. The town reimburses municipal employees who use their own cars for business 37.5 cents a mile, even though the IRS just upped the standard mileage rate to 58.5 cents a mile...
 

Towns work to cut fuel and energy use
Rising costs pinch municipal budgets

By Robert M. Cook
Foster's Daily Democrat
Sunday, July 6, 2008

DURHAM — Police Chief David Kurz is determined to hold the line on his 2008 gasoline budget of nearly $38,000, even though the price per gallon of unleaded regular has risen at least 80 cents since he set that amount. He said he calculated his gasoline budget based on the price of state Department of Transportation fuel, which was $2.80 per gallon of regular unleaded. That gas now costs much more, he said...
 

City highway employees get 4-day workweek
New schedule aims to cut on fuel expenses

By Shira Schoenberg
Concord Monitor
July 7, 2008

Beginning today, a three-day weekend won't be a luxury for those maintaining Concord's roads. It will be the norm. The 55 employees working on highway and utilities crews for the city's General Services Department are adopting a four-day workweek, in an attempt to cut down on fuel costs. The crews will work 10 hours a day...
 

People/Candidates   Running on empty? By Ryan Grim The Politico July 7, 2008 10:03 PM EST WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Droplets of sweat dot the back of John Sununu’s checkered blue shirt, open at the collar, as he zigzags through the Wolfeboro Fourth of July Parade. The road is lined with thousands of red shirts, American flags and folding chairs. Sununu is handing out lollipops and gives children who don’t say “thank you” an intentional “you’re welcome” — often lingering until the kid shows due gratitude. If only that approach would work with voters...   Sen. Sununu tours Goss, praises jobs By Leslie Modica Foster's Daily Democrat Monday, July 7, 2008 DURHAM — U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) received a quick lesson Tuesday on the inner workings of one of the country's largest printing press manufacturers. Sununu toured Goss International's Durham facility with Bob Brown, the company's CEO, and Chris Sieracki, the vice president, and asked questions about the various elements that go into building the complex presses...   SHAHEEN   Shaheen criticizes Sununu for joining 'war on science' She says GOP has politicized research By Lauren R. Dorgan Concord Monitor July 8, 2008 U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen yesterday denounced what she called the "Republican war on science," saying that her opponent, incumbent Sen. John Sununu, had played an important role on the GOP side. "Absolutely, he's complicit. Look at where he's been on stem cell research," Shaheen told reporters, referring to Sununu's votes against federal funding for studies of new embryonic stem cells. "He was the vote that could have overridden President Bush's veto on embryonic stem cell research. He refused to step up to the plate. He has consistently voted against it. He should know better"...   Shaheen outlines plan for scientific leadership By Holly Ramer Associated Press July 7, 2008 HANOVER, N.H. --Democrat Jeanne Shaheen on Monday accused Republican Sen. John Sununu of supporting what she described as an eight-year effort by the Bush administration to diminish scientific research and development. "Absolutely he's complicit," said the former governor and current candidate for Sununu's seat. "Look where he's been on stem cell research. He was the vote that could've overridden President Bush's veto on embryonic stem cell research and he refused to step up to the plate. ... He should know better"...   Update: Shaheen proposes four-point science plan By Brian Lawson Politicker NH July 7, 2008 Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury) proposed a four-point plan that she says would enhance the role of science in the 21st century...   Shaheen talks of science, policy By Allyson Bennett The Dartmouth Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Partisanship must not influence science policy, Jeanne Shaheen, former governor of New Hampshire and current Democratic candidate for Senate, said in a town hall meeting held in Hinman Forum on Monday. Speaking to a gathered crowd of about 60 people in what her campaign termed a “major policy address,” Shaheen argued science must play an enhanced role in 21st-century America...   US SENATE   Today in the U.S. Senate race By Brian Lawson Politicker NH July 7, 2008 Editors note: This is a daily summary of news about the U.S. Senate race between U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-Waterville Valley) and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury)...   EARMARKS   Lawmakers say earmarking is useful, despite flaws By Albert McKeon Nashua Telegraph Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Earmark reform sounds like a librarian-backed movement to stop people from dog-earing the pages of books. But the initiative actually focuses on the way members of Congress spend money...   Campaign donations play little to no part in earmarks By Albert McKeon Nashua Telegraph Monday, July 7, 2008 How a project can help New Hampshire and not how a potential donation can help their campaigns is what motivates the state's four federal legislators to direct tax dollars back home. That's what Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu and Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter say about the process known as "earmarking" – and the corresponding practice of many lawmakers on Capitol Hill to accept money from the companies and organizations that benefit from those earmarks...   Senators, BAE say earmarks, donations simply not related A look at the lobbyists Direct donations from earmark recipients Nashua Telegraph July 7, 2008   CLEGG   Surgery alters Clegg's health, view on power insurers have By Joseph G. Cote Nashua Telegraph Tuesday, July 8, 2008 HUDSON – Last September, Sen. Bob Clegg, R-Hudson, weighed about 380 pounds and was suffering from arthritis and gastro-reflux. He had back and kidney problems. Although he didn't know it, he had several hernias and adhesions plaguing some internal organs, thanks to past surgeries...   BLIND VOTERS   Aid for blind voters Concord Monitor July 8, 2008 Election officials across the state can get help making sure the polls are accessible to all voters this fall. Granite State Independent Living, a Concord-based nonprofit that helps people with disabilities, will train municipal officials to use devices that allow voters with visual impairments to cast ballots...   DODDS   Dodds faces judge today By Aaron Sanborn Foster's Daily Democrat Tuesday, July 8, 2008 PORTSMOUTH — Gary Dodds was an uninvited guest when he showed up at the Fox Run Mall last Thursday and got into his wife's vehicle while she was picking up their daughter and her friend from the mall, according to prosecutors. Dodds unexpected visit triggered a chain of events that would eventually lead to the former congressional candidate's second domestic-related arrest against Cindy Dodds in two months. The incident occurred almost two weeks after she filed for divorce at Portsmouth District Court...   Dodds' wife describes a night of threats, pleas, arguing, ambushes By Clynton Namuo New Hampshire Union Leader July 8, 2008 PORTSMOUTH – Gary Dodds allegedly ambushed his estranged wife, Cindy, at the Fox Run Mall in Newington last week and tried to force her to get a mental health evaluation as part of a series of events that led to his arrest. As a result, Strafford County prosecutors are now asking to have the former congressional candidate jailed while he appeals his February conviction for staging a 2006 car crash. That appeal process could take upward of a year...   Dodds back in court; police say wife wanted 'to get away from him' By Elizabeth Dinan Portsmouth Herald July 8, 2008 PORTSMOUTH — During a series of arguments that occurred in three towns Thursday night, former congressional candidate Gary Dodds grabbed his wife, Cindy, said he would rape her, blocked her escape, took her cell phone and car keys, stepped on the brake and grabbed the steering wheel while she was driving and chased her into the local hospital, say police...   Prosecutors: Dodds threatened to rape wife By Aaron Sanborn Foster's Daily Democrat Monday, July 7, 2008 PORTSMOUTH — Prosecutors say that former congressional candidate Gary Dodds allegedly surprised his wife Cindy Dodds by showing up at the Fox Run Mall on July 3 while she was picking up their daughter. The surprised visit set off a chain of events where Dodds forced himself into the vehicle and then led his wife to the Cutts Mansion after they dropped their daughter off in Rye...

Political Columns

Press Release (not available online)

Portside for Tuesday, July 8^th

Even though the mainstream book press refuses to promote it, Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's new book The Prosecution of George W Bush for Murder has become a national bestseller. On today's Portside, Burt Cohen plays it again. Find out why it will be risky for George W Bush to travel in America after he leaves office. That's Portside with Burt Cohen, today Tuesday July 8th noon to one, streaming live on Portsmouthcommunityradio.org, or at 106.1 FM
 

Political Chowder - 6 July 2008

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday, July 7, 2008

Google video
 

NH Polls
 

Editorial: Senators should stop the Medicare pay cuts

Concord Monitor
July 8, 2008

Washington lawmakers are playing a high-speed game of chicken over a plan to revoke drastic cuts in the fees paid to doctors to treat Medicare patients. If someone doesn't swerve, the result will be tragic. On one side is the House, which passed a bill to scrap the 10.6 percent cuts and increase the physician payment scale, albeit far less than the annual rate of health-care inflation. On the other side is a Republican contingent in the Senate that includes Judd Gregg and John Sununu of New Hampshire. Their support could have given the Senate the 60 votes needed to send the bill on to President Bush and test his threat to veto it. Gregg voted no. Sununu didn't participate in the 58-40 vote. He opposes the House version and supports a rival Medicare bill sponsored by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley...
 

Editorial: Packing a wallop: Cigarettes and taxes

New Hampshire Union Leader
July 8, 2008

WITH FOOD and fuel prices hurting everyone, New Hampshire's tax advantage over its neighboring states is even more important. That's why it was so short-sighted of legislators and Gov. John Lynch to approve yet another hike in the state's cigarette tax. Thankfully, cooler heads in the House altered the bill so that the 25-cents per pack tax increase will take effect only if the current tax doesn't bring in $48 million by Oct. 1...
 

Editorial: Economy taking toll on big retail plans

Nashua Telegraph
July 8, 2008

Every once in a while, Nashua serves as a microcosm of sorts to what's occurring in the rest of the country. That thought came to mind upon reading Monday's front-page story previewing a Nashua Planning Board meeting this week, where two major retail projects have a slot on the agenda...
 

GOP's suburban advantage fading with time?

By Robert David Sullivan
Boston Globe
July 7, 2008

IT'S OFTEN said that people get more conservative as they grow older, but places seem to get more liberal or, at least, more Democratic as they mature. For several decades, the Republican Party has thrived in fast-growing communities, first in the West and then in the South...In the oldest metropolitan areas, there are outlying counties that were solidly Republican in the 1960s and 1970s, but have trended Democratic as development has cooled down. (They include Barnstable County in Massachusetts. Southern New Hampshire, past its peak rate of growth, is heading in the same direction.)...
 

Shea-Porter would rather hurt corporate America than hunt terrorists

By Jeb Bradley
New Hampshire Union Leader
July 8, 2008

IN A rare show of bi-partisanship, the U.S. House last month passed legislation that would allow national security officials to monitor foreign terror suspects, in foreign nations, without bureaucratic delay. This legislation contains, as it should, strong protections to guard against violations of American's civil liberties. The vital legislation passed, but without the vote of 1st District Rep. Carol Shea-Porter...
 

Gay marriage: the key to happiness?
A study finds that countries whose people enjoy more freedom tend to be happier.

By Gregory Rodriguez
Los Angeles Times
July 7, 2008

Who knew? The legalization of gay marriage might make Californians happier. At least that's what a new study based on surveys of 350,000 people in nearly 100 countries suggests. No, the authors aren't gay activists, nor do they seem to be peddling any particular political agenda. But in their search to discover which countries are happier than others and why, these scholars -- led by University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart -- have stumbled on one pretty fundamental conclusion about what people want out of life: freedom...
 

Don't save legal marriage; end it

By Paul Campos
New Hampshire Union Leader
Monday, July 7, 2008

MODERN JOURNALISM should adopt the acronym NAOS (Not an Onion Story) to identify actual news that can't otherwise be distinguished from outright satire. A perfect candidate is the report that Sens. Larry Craig and David Vitter have co-sponsored the Marriage Protection Amendment...
 

Straight Talk Express Comes to Manchester Today

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday, July 7, 2008

No, not McCan't. I'm talking about this bus.  It'll be at Manchester West High School (9 Notre Dame Ave. Manchester) at 10am...
 

"Rabble Rousers and Publicity Seekers"

By Doug
GraniteGrok
July 7, 2008

That's what the two plaintiff's in the ongoing Belknap County Sheriff appointment/ Right-to-Know law debacle have been called in a anonymously-written and mailed warning letter received over the weekend. (It has been turned over to the Gilford PD, which has opened an active investigation.)...
 

Primary News
 

Democrats

Adding up the cost of Obama's agenda
Some budget analysts say the Democrat's proposals for funding tens of billions of dollars in programs may not be enough.

By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — In more than a year of campaigning, Barack Obama has made a long list of promises for new federal programs costing tens of billions of dollars, many of them aimed at protecting people from the pain of a souring economy. But if he wins the presidency, Obama will be hard-pressed to keep his blueprint intact. A variety of budget analysts are skeptical that the Democrat's agenda could survive in the face of large federal budget deficits and the difficulty of making good on his plan to raise new revenue by closing tax loopholes, ending the Iraq war and cutting spending that is deemed low-priority...
 

Obama’s Campaign Shifts to a Bigger Stage for His Big Night

By Jim Rutenberg and Brian Stelter
New York Times
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — Borrowing from the political repertory of John F. Kennedy, Senator Barack Obama will accept his party’s nomination outside of the main Democratic convention hall this August, in the Denver Broncos’ football stadium that seats more than 75,000 people. The move, rumored for days and announced by the Obama campaign on Monday, set off a round of complaints from news executives, who for more than a year have been drawing up elaborate plans for a convention that was to culminate in the main hall, at the Pepsi Center in Denver...
 

N.H. Dems react to Obama convention announcement

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
July 7, 2008

The leader of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and a senior advisor to the Obama campaign are praising U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) decision to hold the convention speech at Denver's Invesco field at Mile High...
 

David Plouffe is the man steering Obama's campaign
The political operative is smart, competitive, frugal and confident. And he has no intention of straying from his unconventional plan to get Obama elected.

By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — Early in the presidential race, Hillary Rodham Clinton asked former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli whether the little-known political operative running Barack Obama's longshot campaign was any good. "I warned her," said Torricelli, who was in a position to know. The operative, David Plouffe, had helped Torricelli win his Senate seat in 1996. It was one of the most toxic campaigns in memory -- "unrestricted chemical warfare," Rutgers political scientist Ross K. Baker called it -- and Plouffe demonstrated a talent for devising a campaign strategy, staying with it under fire and doing what it took to win...
 

Editorial: Mr. Obama on Iraq
His hint of softening on his unrealistic withdrawal plan is only sensible.

Washington Post
Tuesday, July 8, 2008; A14

BARACK OBAMA has taken a small but important step toward adjusting his outdated position on Iraq to the military and strategic realities of the war he may inherit. Sadly, he seems to be finding that the strident and rigid posture he struck during the primary campaign -- during which he promised to withdraw all combat forces in 16 months -- is inhibiting what looks like a worthy, necessary attempt to create the room for maneuver he will need to capably manage the war if he becomes president...
 

Editorial: Careless nonsense

Keene Sentinel
Monday, July 7, 2008

As each election cycle rolls around, many of us hope the politicians and the news media will take their tasks seriously — that they will refrain from twisting dubious information into poisonous little knots that they then use to create fusses and make people look foolish or evil. Yet every election cycle, the pattern is repeated. Al Gore said he invented the Internet. He didn’t say that. John McCain said he wanted to keep the war going in Iraq 100 years. He didn’t say that...
 

Editorial: Obama is puzzled

Foster's Daily Democrat
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Barack Obama is puzzled by the frenzy attending his comment he might “refine” his timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq...
 

Lurching With Abandon

By Bob Herbert
New York Times
July 8, 2008

In one of the numbers from “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings, with a mixture of emotions: “We haven’t got the man ... we had when we began.” Back in January when Barack Obama pulled off his stunning win in the Iowa caucuses, and people were lining up in the cold and snow for hours just to get a glimpse of him, there was a wide and growing belief — encouraged to the max by the candidate — that something new in American politics had arrived...
 

Healthcare overhaul would be risky for a President Obama

By Peter S. Canellos
Boston Globe
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - The news last week that Democratic senators, led by an ailing but determined Ted Kennedy, are already laying the groundwork for a major revamping of the national health system may or may not be welcome news to Barack Obama. On the one hand, the move clearly indicates that the senators are expecting an Obama victory, with their party controlling Congress. And Obama, whose Senate aides have participated in Kennedy's planning sessions, has promised to provide universal coverage by the end of his first term...
 

A Cog in the Chicago Machine?

By Seth Gitell
New York Sun
July 8, 2008

Four decades after the mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, saw his city torn apart at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, his son, the current mayor, Richard M. Daley, will see his candidate nominated at this year's DNC. While the convention will be held in Denver it will give off the greatest Chicago cast since 1996, when Mayor Daley hosted the convention that nominated President Clinton for his second term. The June decision to place operations of the Democratic National Committee in Chicago together with Mr. Obama's headquarters reinforces the Windy City's dominance of Democratic politics. The big question is whether American voters will notice...
 

Conservatives for Obama?

By Thomas Sowell
Real Clear Politics
July 8, 2008

A number of friends of mine have commented on an odd phenomenon that they have observed-- conservative Republicans they know who are saying that they are going to vote for Barack Obama. It seemed at first to be an isolated fluke, perhaps signifying only that my friends know some strange conservatives. But apparently columnist Robert Novak has encountered the same phenomenon and has coined the term "Obamacons" to describe the conservatives for Senator Obama. Now the San Francisco Chronicle has run a feature article, titled "Some Influential Conservatives Spurn GOP and Endorse Obama." In it they quote various conservatives on why they are ready to take a chance on Barack Obama, rather than on John McCain. What is going on?...
 

Obama's Nixon Reprise

By Bret Stephens
Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2008

Richard Nixon came to office with a rumored secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. Maybe Barack Obama's plan to end the war in Iraq is going to wind up being a secret, too. The presumptive Democratic nominee set off media firecrackers last week by hinting at further refinements to his strategy for withdrawal. Previous strategies include his January 2007 call for a complete withdrawal by March 2008, followed by his March 2008 call for a complete withdrawal by July 2010, or 16 months after he takes office...
 

The Stand That Obama Can't Fudge

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
Monday, July 7, 2008; A13

When a candidate calls a second news conference to say the same thing he thought he said at the first one, you know he knows he has a problem. Thus Barack Obama's twin news conferences last week in Fargo, N.D. At his first, Obama promised to do a "thorough assessment" of his Iraq policy in his coming visit there and "continue to gather information" to "make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable." You might ask: What's wrong with that? A commander in chief willing to adjust his view to facts and realities should be a refreshing idea...
 

Are Democrats backpedaling on abortion rights?
As feminist Obama supporters, we believe Clinton voters will come around -- but not if the party adopts an abortion reduction strategy.

By Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling
Salon
July 7, 2008

It's an official quadrennial tradition: Every four years, self-described moderates advise the Democratic Party that its long-standing and electorally successful pro-choice position is the reason that "values voters" are deserting the party. We are told these voters could be brought into the fold if Democrats would temper their defense of women's freedom with tacit condemnation of the choices many women make...
 

Obama's Jesus Talk

By David Brody
CBN
July 7, 2008

There is only ONE presidential candidate talking about faith. There is only one candidate talking about Jesus. There is only one candidate talking about having his sins redeemed. In case you've been in a cave the last year, that candidate is Barack Obama, not John McCain. And you know what? It's driving some conservative Evangelicals batty...
 

Obama’s Message to Europe

By Roger Cohen
New York Times
July 7, 2008

BERLIN - Senator Barack Obama is expected here on July 24 to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Democratic presidential candidate is scheduled to make a speech at the Brandenburg Gate that aides describe as the major address of a European tour also taking him to London and Paris. Here’s what he should say:...
 

Obama: Strength Out of Weakness

By David Ignatius
Washington Post
Sunday, July 6, 2008; B07

During the July 4th week, Barack Obama did something that's becoming characteristic of his campaign: He took an issue on which he appeared to be vulnerable -- in this case the cluster of themes lumped together as "patriotism" -- and by going on the offensive in a powerful speech, he subtly changed the terms of the debate...
 

The Mind and the Obama Magic

By George Lakoff
Huffington Post
July 6, 2008

Barack Obama should not move, or even appear to be moving, toward right-wing views on issues -- even with nuanced escape clauses. Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and the NY Times Editorial Page all agree, for various reasons. I agree as well, for many of the same reasons, as well as important reasons that go beyond even excellent political commentary. My reasons have to do with results in the cognitive and brain sciences, as discussed in my recent book...
 

Obama's Faith-Based Reform

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
Friday, July 4, 2008; A17

Barack Obama keeps trying to end the wars over culture and religion, and good for him. The 1960s are so 40 years ago. But Obama's opponents, as well as some of his friends, won't let him do it. His latest foray is on a subject dear to my heart: the effort to find constitutional ways to build partnerships between government and faith-based groups doing essential work for the poor and the marginalized...
 

Paying Tribute to a Good Idea

By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
Friday, July 4, 2008; A17

If I may be permitted a moment of nostalgia, I witnessed the beginnings of the faith-based initiative. It was the height of the Gingrich revolution in 1994. A few perceptive (and lonely) Republicans, including Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana, were convinced that an exclusively anti-government approach would be both morally incomplete and politically self-destructive -- that a party with nothing hopeful to say about addiction, disadvantaged youths or homelessness would not remain a governing party for long. As a young staffer, I worked with Coats's legislative team on a package of legislation called the Project for American Renewal, designed to promote the work of community and faith-based charities...
 

A Man of Seasonal Principles

By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post
Friday, July 4, 2008; A17

You'll notice Barack Obama is now wearing a flag pin. Again. During the primary campaign, he refused to, explaining that he'd worn one after Sept. 11 but then stopped because it "became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism." So why is he back to sporting pseudo-patriotism on his chest? Need you ask? The primaries are over. While seducing the hard-core MoveOn Democrats that delivered him the caucuses -- hence, the Democratic nomination -- Obama not only disdained the pin. He disparaged it. Now that he's running in a general election against John McCain, and in dire need of the gun-and-God-clinging working-class votes he could not win against Hillary Clinton, the pin is back. His country 'tis of thee...
 

CLINTON
 

Clinton wields powerful e-mail list

By Ben Smith
The Politico
July 8, 2008 5:31 AM EST

Hillary  Rodham Clinton folded her campaign’s tent last month, shedding spokespeople, fundraisers, lawyers, and advance men and women by the dozen. But two senior aides remain: Katie Dowd, who runs Clinton’s website and e-mail list, and Peter Daou, her campaign liaison to the blogosphere. The survival of Clinton’s online operation highlights her induction into a small but growing new club of presidential losers who have used the Internet to maintain some of their national profile and power...
 

DODD
 

Opponents of Retroactive Immunity Live To Fight Another Day

By Sen. Chris Dodd
Huffington Post
July 7, 2008

That the United States Senate would even have to debate whether to uphold the rule of law is infuriating enough. But two weeks ago, the contrast in priorities became too much: as the Senate refused to address the tide of foreclosures impacting more than 8,000 people every day, it was poised and ready to provide immunity to giant corporations that may have broken the law. So, I did what I felt I had to: I said no...
 

VEEP
 

Webb Withdraws as Possible Vice President Pick for Obama

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 8, 2008; B05

U.S. Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) announced yesterday that he will not seek a place on the Democratic ticket next to Sen. Barack Obama, ending months of speculation that he was a front-runner for the vice presidential nomination. Webb told Obama (D-Ill.) last week that "under no circumstances" would he consider the vice presidency, according to a statement issued yesterday. Webb said he will campaign for Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president...
 

Obama's Search Team Begins To Vet

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
July 7, 2008

Barack Obama's vice presidential selection team has begun to ask potential candidates for information and documents, a signal that the formal vetting phase of the search process has begun. Last week, members of the team gave Sen. James Webb of VA a list of what they needed to begin their investigation of his background and career. Webb refused, telling them that he did not want to be considered for the position...
 

Analysis: Webb Drops Out Of Veepstakes

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post The Fix
July 7, 2008

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's decision today to voluntarily remove his name from the pool of people being considered as Barack Obama's running mate came as a significant surprise to those closely monitoring the veepstakes.
 

Obama veepstakes: The other woman
She's no Hillary Clinton, but Kathleen Sebelius, the popular governor of Kansas, may have a shot at being Barack's running mate.

By Walter Shapiro
Salon
July 7, 2008

Kathleen Sebelius -- the silver-haired two-term Democratic governor of mostly ultra-Republican Kansas -- is a passionate advocate of political moderation, as oxymoronic as that may seem. Discussing the Republican Party's lurch to the far right in a speech last week to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Sebelius said, "It gives an enormous opportunity for Democrats to reintroduce themselves as the sensible, pragmatic, practical approach to coalition government. That is what attracted me to Barack Obama in the first place"...
 

Internal Politics Heat Up at McCain Campaign

By Adam Nagourney
New York Times
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s campaigns have long been defined by internal squabbling and power plays, zigzagging lines of command and a penchant by the candidate for consulting with former advisers without alerting current ones, always a recipe for disquiet. After a period of relative calm on that score, it is becoming clear that his campaign is once again a swirl of competing spheres of influence, clusters of friends, consultants and media advisers who represent a matrix of clashing ambitions and festering feuds. The cast includes the surviving members of Mr. McCain’s 2000 campaign...
 

Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget by 2013

By Robert Pear
New York Times
July 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — The package of spending and tax cuts proposed by Senator John McCain is unlikely to achieve his goal of balancing the federal budget by 2013, economists and fiscal experts said Monday. “It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed,” said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group...
 

McCain Says He Would Balance Budget by 2013

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 8, 2008; A04

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would balance the federal budget by 2013, the end of what would be his first term in office, returning to a promise he had strayed from as he sought to emphasize his concern about the plight of the U.S. economy. In his first public event since shuffling his campaign leadership last week, McCain gave a speech in Denver before holding a town-hall meeting that aides said would focus on "Jobs for America"...
 

News Analysis: McCain Plan for Budget: Fiscal Hawks vs. Tax Foes

By Michael Cooper
New York Times
July 8, 2008

DENVER — As Senator John McCain kicked off a week of economic-themed campaigning here on Monday, it was apparent that some of the underlying tensions between the two schools that guide his economic thinking — the supply-siders who want to cut taxes and the deficit hawks who want to balance the budget — remain unresolved. Mr. McCain has promised once again to balance the budget by the end of his first term in 2013, his advisers said Monday. They were reverting to an earlier pledge that Mr. McCain abandoned in April, when he proposed a series of costly tax cuts and, citing the ailing economy, said that it might take two terms to balance the budget...
 

McCain newly assertive on judicial philosophy

By Avi Zenilman and Ben Adler
The Politico
July 8, 2008 4:33 AM EST

Despite his background as a lawyer and law lecturer at the University of Chicago, Barack Obama has said little from the stump about legal issues, particularly what sort of justices he’d want on the Supreme Court, whose makeup is likely to be shaped for decades to come by the next president’s nominees. John McCain, who has no legal background and who generally has not made matters of jurisprudence one of his signature issues in the Senate, has recently been more aggressive in offering his views on the law while campaigning...
 

Conservatives Ready To Battle McCain on Convention Platform

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post
Monday, July 7, 2008; A01

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles. McCain has not yet signaled the changes he plans to make in the GOP platform, but many conservatives say they fear wholesale revisions could emerge as candidate McCain seeks to put his stamp on a document that currently reflects the policies and principles of President Bush...
 

McCain Campaign, in Relaunch,Seeks Tighter Message Focus
Topic of the Day To Dominate Talk; A Rise in Surrogates

By Elizabeth Holmes and Laura Meckler
Washington Post
July 5, 2008; Page A4

John McCain will spend the coming week talking about the economy, but the Republican presidential candidate isn't expected to say anything new. Rather, he will repackage proposals he has already outlined -- ones the campaign fears nobody heard. "We don't think we've made the case eloquently," Doug Holtz-Eakin, the campaign's policy director, said...
 

McCain Rips Obama's 'Pay or Play' Health Plan

ABC News Political Radar
July 7, 2008 10:11 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis, Bret Hovell, and Gregory Wallace report: Republican John McCain launched a new line of attack against Barack Obama today, portraying the Democrat’s health-care plan as an unaffordable job-killer...
 

McCain campaign gets new political director

By Dana Bash
CNN
July 7, 2008

In one of his first moves to centralize control of McCain's political organization, Steve Schmidt has tapped Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager, Mike DuHaime, to be McCain's new political director, a top campaign adviser tells CNN...
 

So Where’s Murphy?

By William Kristol
New York Times
July 7, 2008

From the gun clubs of Northern Virginia to the sports bars of Capitol Hill — wherever D.C.-area Republicans gather — you hear the question: “Where’s Murphy?” “Murphy” is Mike Murphy, the 46-year-old G.O.P. strategist who masterminded John McCain’s 2000 primary race against George Bush, helping McCain come close to pulling off an amazing upset. Murphy was then chief strategist for Mitt Romney’s successful Massachusetts governor run in 2002...
 

Ultimatum to the GOP

By Robert D. Novak
Washington Post
Monday, July 7, 2008; A13

When House Republican leaders left Washington for the Fourth of July break, they felt good about having outwitted the Democratic majority. The feeling was not shared 3,000 miles away, where conservative California Republican activists were drafting an ultimatum. The Lincoln Club of Orange County is telling the GOP leaders of both the House and Senate that it is too late to repent. They must go -- or else lose big money. The message: "Come Nov. 5, should the current GOP leadership in either house survive to lead in a new Congress, the Lincoln Club of Orange County will review the financial backing of all congressional Republicans, and we urge others to do likewise. A GOP caucus that would re-elect such leaders is not one we would likely continue to support. Because, simply put, we refuse to support a permanent minority"...
 

Behind the Bush Bust

By Paul Krugman
New York Times
July 7, 2008

By huge margins, Americans think the economy is in lousy shape — and they blame President Bush. This fact, more than anything else, makes it hard to see how the Democrats can lose this election. But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush’s economic leadership? Not exactly. We really do have a lousy economy, a fact of which Mr. Bush seems spectacularly unaware. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the bad economy is Mr. Bush’s fault...
 

FIORINA
 

Fiorina: McCain to focus on job creation
Economic advisor Carly Fiorina leaves her options open as potential running mate.

By David Cook
Christian Science Monitor
July 7, 2008

At a Monday morning breakfast with reporters, McCain campaign economic advisor Carly Fiorina was asked what her candidate would do for the economy that President Bush has not. Ms. Fiorina, the former Chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard, replied, “A focus on job creation. The American dream starts with a job. It is all about growing jobs.” So began a week in which both presidential campaigns plan to focus on the economy, a subject of growing concern to voters...
 

Carly Fiorina lauds McCain insurgency
Warns that he is on the rise

By Ralph Z. Hallow
Washington Times
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, a senior adviser to John McCain, on Monday said the Arizona Republican's presidential campaign is "doing pretty darned well" for being outraised, outspent and outstaffed. And, in effect, she warned Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who shows signs of losing traction with donors as he moves to the political center, that Mr. McCain is on the move...
 

Risky Business

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 8, 2008; A03

The waiters were still clearing the breakfast dishes yesterday when John McCain's most prominent adviser raised the subject of erection enhancement. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now the Republican National Committee's "Victory Chairman," was discussing consumer-driven health insurance at a breakfast with reporters when she proposed "a real, live example which I've been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice." For effect, the woman frequently mentioned as a possible McCain running mate repeated: "Those women would like a choice." Silence filled the meeting room at the St. Regis Hotel. "I don't know where I go after that," said the moderator, Dave Cook of the Christian Science Monitor...
 

Time for a Bob Barr Reality Check

By Steve Kornacki
New York Observer
July 7, 2008

I’m noticing a pattern here: Some outfit conducts a poll, throws Bob Barr’s name into the mix, and reports back that the former Georgia Congressman and current Libertarian presidential nominee is scoring somewhere in the mid-single digits. Then, a bunch of news outlets run the same basic story about how Barr is poised to play the spoiler this year. Here are three such stories just from the past few days. Believe me, there are – and will be – plenty of others. Maybe we need some perspective here...
 

McCain, Obama focus on economic recovery plans
McCain renews a pledge to balance the federal budget. Obama ridicules the Republican's new tax cuts.

By Maeve Reston and Louise Roug
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2008

DENVER — Three months after he discarded his pledge to balance the federal budget in four years, John McCain on Monday renewed his vow to do so, saying his tax cuts and spending cuts could kick America's ailing economy into robust shape. The Republican presidential candidate's newly optimistic scenario for fiscal recovery came as he and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, dueled over the economy...
 

Candidates Diverge on How to Save Social Security

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 8, 2008; A01

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are both proposing dramatic changes to Social Security, taking on the financially fragile "third rail of American politics" that Congress and recent presidents have been unable to repair...
 

Joseph W. McQuaid: NH town meeting for Obama, McCain

New Hampshire Union Leader
July 8, 2008

Now that Barack Obama has had his make-nice photo-op in Unity with Hillary Clinton, it is time he engage in the serious business of letting voters compare him up close and personal with John McCain. Sen. McCain has already suggested a series of joint town-hall meetings and we know just where and when they could begin. Sen. McCain is due in New Hampshire two weeks from today. He is supposed to drop by this newspaper, but we would happily waive our time if he and Sen. Obama would agree to meet and take questions from New Hampshire voters...
 

Where the Race for the White House Stands Right Now

By Stuart Rothenberg
Rothenberg Political Report
July 7, 2008

This column is not a prediction. Predictions aren't worth much. Instead, readers should view what follows as an assessment -- an assessment that leads to a relatively obvious conclusion, but one that is not set in stone. With just about four months to go until Election Day, the national political landscape continues to favor Democrats strongly. Indeed, almost every bit of national- level data reflects problems for the Republicans...
 

Pump Prices Hurt Americans Not Just in Pocketbook

By Gerald Seib
Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2008

Both presidential candidates are focusing on the economy this week, and for good reason: $4-a-gallon gasoline has Americans sliding into pocketbook shock. But pain at the pump is only one reason energy now should be the central issue of this year's campaign. Here's the other, more insidious one: High oil prices are shredding America's financial independence and producing a massive transfer of wealth from U.S. pocketbooks into the hands of suspect actors around the world, including Iran, Venezuela and Russia...
 

National News

Editorial: Compromising the Constitution

New York Times
July 8, 2008

Congress has been far too compliant as President Bush undermined the Bill of Rights and the balance of powers. It now has a chance to undo some of that damage — if it has the courage and good sense to stand up to the White House and for the Constitution. The Senate should reject a bill this week that would needlessly expand the government’s ability to spy on Americans and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of President Bush’s unlawful wiretapping...
 

Put War Powers Back Where They Belong

By James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher
New York Times
July 8, 2008

THE most agonizing decision we make as a nation is whether to go to war. Our Constitution ambiguously divides war powers between the president (who is the commander in chief) and Congress (which has the power of the purse and the power to declare war). The founders hoped that the executive and legislative branches would work together, but in practice the two branches don’t always consult. And even when they do, they often dispute their respective powers...
 

Listening to Compromise

By Morton H. Halperin
New York Times
July 8, 2008

TWO years ago, I stated my belief that the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program and disregard for domestic and international law poses a direct challenge to our constitutional order, and “constitutes a far greater threat than the lawlessness of Richard Nixon.” That was not a casual comparison. When I was on the staff of the National Security Council, my home phone was tapped by the Nixon administration — without a warrant — beginning in 1969. The wiretap stayed on for 21 months. The reason? My boss, Henry Kissinger, and the director of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, believed that I might have leaked information to this newspaper...
 

Bush offered Palestinians a state, and they refused

By Clifford D. May
Wall Street Journal
July 7, 2008

THE ANNIVERSARY passed with scarcely a mention. Six years ago, on June 24, 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a groundbreaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state. His only condition was that Palestinians first choose "leaders not compromised by terror." He asked also that they "confront corruption," and "build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty"...