Records sought at McCain advisor’s bank June 30, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in McCain, News, Politics.add a comment
by Andrew Zajac
This can’t be good for the campaign of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
The IRS is trying to serve a summons on Swiss bank UBS AG seeking information on U.S. taxpayers who may have used the bank to gin up records to avoid billions in taxes on offshore investments.
Top McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm is vice chairman of UBS’ U.S. division which already has drawn unflattering scrutiny for writing off big losses in subprime mortgage-backed securities.
Gramm, the former Texas senator and presidential candidate, was registered to lobby Congress last year on mortgage securities issues on behalf of UBS.
There’s no indication that Gramm has any involvement in the tax-avoidance scheme, but his presence in the pilothouse of a global finance company under fire from U.S. regulators is precisely the sort of special interest coziness that McCain insists he represents a break from.
At least five top McCain aides have left the Arizona senator’s camp because their lobbying or business involvements were judged to be more than a maverick, tell-it-like-it-is campaign could bear.
The RNC was quick to point out today that Barack Obama has his own ties to UBS in the person of Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who is a major fundraiser for the Illinois Democrat. MORE
McCain Surrogate Condemning Attacks On His Military Record Was In Swift Boat Vet Ads Against Kerry June 30, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in McCain, News, Politics.add a comment
By Greg Sargent – June 30, 2008, 12:30PM
Oh, this is fun. Today the McCain campaign held a conference call unveiling a new “truth squad” Web site designed to defend McCain from attacks on his military record.
This was in response to Wes Clark’s claim yesterday that McCain lacks the necessary experience to be President, which wasn’t an attack on McCain’s military record at all.
Be that as it may, on the call, the McCain camp rolled out a leading surrogate named Bud Day — who was described merely as a fellow POW of McCain — who blasted such attacks. “John was slandered and reviled in the 2000 campaign in a way that denigrated his service enormously…it was absolutely important to face this issue right off the bat.” MORE
Pastor Who Officiated at Jenna Bush Wedding Launches Pro-Obama Website June 26, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
Posted at 3:52 PM ET on Jun 26, 2008
By Krissah Williams
Sparks are flying in the 2008 culture wars.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled “James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me.” The site is a jab at Dobson, a stalwart of the religious right who this week called Sen. Barack Obama’s interpretation of the Bible in a 2006 speech distorted “to fit [Obama’s] own world view, his own confused theology.”
Caldwell’s site launched a day after Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program aired a harsh assessment of Obama’s speech on faith and public policy and encourages readers to sign a statement declaring that Dobson does not represent them.
“I think it’s a crime and a shame that Senator Obama has had to explain the fact that he’s a Christian,” Caldwell said in a recent interview. “Criticize his politics. Criticize his stance on whatever, but don’t question his faith. Never in the history of American politics has someone said that he is a Christian and someone came back to say, ‘No you’re not.'” MORE
Oregon Republican Tries To Hitch A Ride On Obama’s Coattails June 25, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in Democrats, News, Obama, Politics, Repiglicans.add a comment
June 25, 2008 11:33 AM
If you cast your mind back to the May special election held in Mississippi between Democrat Travis Childers and Republican Greg Davis, the GOP thought the best way to maintain their hold on that traditionally ruby-red district was to run advertisements linking Childers with Barack Obama. Famously, the effort failed. Perhaps that’s why Oregon Senator Gordon Smith is embracing a fully different tactic: running ads that compare himself to the Democratic presidential nominee.
Over at Time‘s “The Page,” Mark Halperin is selling this item as something awkward that Obama has had to “distance” himself from, asserting that Smith was “aligning himself with Obama,” making things uncomfortable for the Democratic challenger, Jeff Merkley. But if you watch the ad, you’ll see it’s really not that complicated. The ad merely notes that Obama praised Smith’s leadership on a single issue, and goes on to play up Smith’s willingness to “work together across party lines.” There’s no mention of an endorsement in either direction, so while Bill Burton issued a statement attesting to Obama’s support for Merkley, it’s hardly an example of Obama frosting a key supporter. MORE
Leave it to Sleazy Smith to do something like this! I can’t wait to get rid of him!
~Susan~
Biden says couldn’t turn down VP offer from Obama June 23, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in Democrats, News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
June 23, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Foreign policy heavyweight Joseph Biden said Sunday he would serve as Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee if asked, but insisted he was not angling for the job.
Senator Biden, a front-runner in the media VP stakes whose own bid for the Democratic nomination this year was short-lived, said on NBC television: “I am not interested in the vice presidency.”
Biden, who is chairman of the Senate’s powerful foreign relations committee and would bring national-security heft to an Obama ticket, said he had told the party’s new standard-bearer that he was not interested.
But he added: “If the candidate asks me to be vice president, the answer is I got to say yes. But he’s not going to ask me.
“Unlike most other people, I’m being straight with you. If asked, I will do it. I’ve made it clear I do not want to be asked,” said the Delaware senator, 65, whose birth state of Pennsylvania is a big prize in November’s election. MORE
Washington Post Reporter: Obama ‘Is Much More White Than Black’» June 23, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
By on Jun 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
During a washingtonpost.com web chat today, a questioner noted that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has launched a new presidential campaign television ad, claiming it is “playing up his white family.” “Until now he’s been ‘African American;’ now suddenly he’s a white Midwesterner?” wrote the questioner.
He or she then asked Post reporter Jonathan Weisman if Obama would be “criticized” for allegedly changing his image. Weisman responded by saying Obama’s “great irony” is that he “is much more white than black“: MORE
Michelle Obama’s strategy to woo Clinton supporters June 22, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in Clinton, News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
June 22, 2008
Michelle Obama’s strategy to woo Clinton supporters and shape her role as First Lady: the inside story.
WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama climbed into her charter jet Friday and flew here from Chicago for lunch and a speech — I clocked it at seven minutes — before an influential women’s group whose board includes key supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Obama’s brief appearance before the National Partnership for Women & Families — she turned around and flew right back home when she was done — shows how Obama is shaping her role as a potential first lady and how the Obama campaign is working hard to build bridges to the women who supported Clinton over presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Michelle Obama’s visit came in advance of Clinton and Barack Obama making their first joint appearance in Washington on Thursday before big-money Clinton fund-raisers. They will then stump together Friday.
Michelle Obama’s speech to the mostly female audience Friday touched on her experiences as a working woman and mother. It was also about how Obama is shaping what she sees as her role if she becomes first lady. She would take on women’s and family affairs as her signature issues, as I reported in the Chicago Sun-Times on May 10. MORE
National Push by Obama on Ads and Turnout June 22, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
By JIM RUTENBERG and CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: June 22, 2008
Senator Barack Obama is drawing up plans for extensive advertising and voter-turnout drives across the nation, hoping to capitalize on his expected fund-raising advantage over Senator John McCain to force Republicans to compete in states they have not had to defend in decades.
With his decision to give up public financing and the spending limits that go with it, Mr. Obama has added several seasoned hands to his advertising team, a harbinger of a multifaceted television campaign that people inside and outside Obama headquarters said would grow well beyond its already large presence in 18 states. MORE
Obama’s strange appeal to high priests of US conservatism June 22, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in News, Obama, Politics, Repiglicans.add a comment
by Jitendra Joshi Sun Jun 22, 1:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – They’re called the Obamacons — the conservative thinkers who are disgusted with the Republicans and are rallying to Democrat Barack Obama as the nation’s economic and diplomatic savior.
They are joining younger evangelical leaders who see more to their religious mission than slavish devotion to Republican social mores, and fiscal conservatives who reject the war-fueled spending of President George W. Bush.
“The Bush coalition is dissolving,” pollster John Zogby told AFP.
“We have polling showing one-fifth of conservatives supporting Obama,” he said.
It seems an unlikely alliance, as some of the star intellectual names who have long given philosophical sustenance to Republican rule clamber aboard Obama’s bid for the White House. MORE
Arming Obama June 21, 2008
Posted by trouble97018 in Democrats, News, Obama, Politics.add a comment
Sen. Jim Webb — Vietnam Vet, ‘Redneck’ — Is Emerging As the Democrats’ Military Point Man; The ‘VP!’ Chant
By MONICA LANGLEY
June 21, 2008; Page A1
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With his two Purple Hearts, three tattoos and spoiling-for-a-fight attitude, Sen. Jim Webb is emerging as the Democrats’ point man on two of the most profound matters facing the electorate this November: national defense and the military.
A highly decorated war veteran who opposes the Iraq war, Sen. Webb is considered by many Democrats to be the best person to go into battle against another war hero, expected Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. The ex-Marine, who hails from the important swing state of Virginia, could also become Sen. Barack Obama’s go-to person on national security, where the Democratic presidential candidate’s résumé is weak compared with rival Sen. McCain’s. MORE
The Central Tabulator 