STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Joyce Susick, a Democrat who calls Pennsylvania — the state Hillary Rodham Clinton crowed would deliver her a win, and did because of all those “hard-working white Americans” — minced no words, exhibited not a hint of restraint when she told The Associated Press: “I don’t think our country is ready for a black president. A black man is never going to win Pennsylvania.”
Susick, by the way, ranks George Bush “among the worst presidents ever.”
But she is as firm in her pronouncements as she is when it comes to her vote. There are many who believe as she does, and they probably are right. They will never vote for a black man, even if he is the best candidate, even if the other guy in this case, Sen. John McCain, is a Bush clone and has voted 95 percent of the time with the Bush administration on a whole range of issues, many of them counter to her best interests — and those of millions of others.
Susick is representative of some voters, many of them Clinton backers,who deny race is at the root of their anti-Obama fervor. Instead they point to “inexperience,” or “youth,” or over-the-top, irrational anger that their candidate was bested by — in his words — the skinny black man with the funny name and big ears from the South side of Chicago. The man who had the audacity to take on, and beat, the fabled Clinton machine.
On the very day that skinny black guy made history by going over the top in delegates and popular vote to win the Democratic Party nomination for president, another man of dreams who inspired hope and urged us to dig deep for the better angels within ourselves was being targeted for assassination. Dreamers and those who hope don’t last very long on the in this world of ours. They fall victim to America’s favorite weapon of mass destruction — the gun.

silive.com

While Senator Obama ordered the Democratic National Committee last week to stop taking donations from lobbyists, the co-chairman and lead fund-raiser for the host committee for the Denver convention, Steven Farber, is a lawyer and federally registered lobbyist with Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck LLP, a firm with offices in Denver, Washington, and elsewhere.
“Not only that, they’re a donor,” an advocate of tighter regulation of political funding, Stephen Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, said, pointing to the firm’s logo among several dozen “partners” on the host committee Web site.
“Barack Obama’s failure to meet his own standards concerning the special interests running his party and campaign demonstrates the weak leadership defining his candidacy,” a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Daniel Diaz, said.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Thomas Vietor, said allies of Mr. McCain had no credibility on the issue because the senator from Arizona has counted dozens of lobbyists among the ranks of his senior campaign staff and fund-raisers even though he railed against what he called the “iron triangle of money, lobbyists, and legislation.”
Mr. Vietor said Mr. Obama has been candid that the donation ban he announced is not a cure-all. “It’s not a perfect solution or even a perfect symbol for the problem of lobbyist influence, but it’s a sign of his commitment and it’s certainly a strong contrast with Senator McCain’s campaign, which is paid for and run by Washington lobbyists.”
The Obama campaign also turned the tables on Mr. McCain and his aides for attacking a member of Mr. Obama’s vice presidential vetting team who once headed Fannie Mae, James Johnson, over his ties to a struggling subprime lending firm. Mr. Vietor noted that the Washington lawyer handling Mr. McCain’s vice presidential search, Arthur Culvahouse of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, is a former lobbyist and longtime Washington insider.

nysun.com

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama brings many distinctive traits to the 2008 presidential campaign, but one is especially rare for a Democratic candidate: He has an unusual ability to raise lots of money, which he will be able to spend earlier in the election season than his predecessors.
Dependent on federal matching funds, candidates in the past usually waited until Labor Day, when federal money became available, to begin most of their television advertising. Four years ago, Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts faced a monumental problem when his presidential campaign accounts dried up as he waited for federal funding. It hampered his response to attack ads that eventually helped President George W. Bush get re-elected.
But Obama is such a strong fundraiser that he is expected to skip the system of federal election funding — freeing him from the timing rules and spending caps that come with it. That will give the Illinois senator the ability to air television spots and organize field staff long before the traditional Labor Day start of general-election campaigning. Obama, for example, can use the money to introduce himself to Latino voters, a group that does not know him well even after the 16-month primary season.
“Money is not dispositive,” said Jim Jordan, who advised Kerry in his 2004 presidential campaign. “But I would rather outspend my opponent 4 to 1 than be outspent 4 to 1.”
With Obama expected to face an onslaught from Republicans and their allies — who may go after his lack of experience and his controversial former church affiliation — having the money available now means at the very least that Democrats would be better positioned this year to respond to the kind of Swift boat attacks that damaged Kerry during his cash-starved weeks.
Obama has raised three times more than McCain — $265 million to McCain’s $90 million. He has tapped far more donors than any other candidate in 2008. Although he has not yet reached the estimated 2 million donors who gave to Bush through November four years ago, Obama has received money from 1.5 million individuals, whose average gift is less than $100.

latimes.com

In a speech here, on the final weekend of campaigning before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday, Mr. Obama urged voters to move beyond the political controversies that have dominated the Democratic nominating fight and stirred skepticism about his strength as a general election candidate.
“That’s the only way I can win this race,” Mr. Obama said, “if you decide that you’ve had enough of the way things are, if you decide that this election is bigger than flag pins or sniper fire or the comments of a former pastor — bigger than the differences between what we look like or where we come from or what party we belong to.”
As Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed to voters in North Carolina, holding a breezy chat session with a few hundred mothers and later appearing before Nascar enthusiasts, she highlighted her support for suspending the federal gas tax this summer. Mr. Obama derided the idea as “a Shell game — literally,” drawing distinctions with Mrs. Clinton and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Mr. Obama’s speech here underscored his efforts to retool his campaign — and fend off what his aides acknowledged was unexpected strength from Mrs. Clinton in Indiana and North Carolina — by forcefully returning to themes that had served him well in Iowa and other states, presenting himself as an outsider and an agent of change. He did not, at least on this day, seem prepared to end the campaign with harsh attacks on Mrs. Clinton.
In television commercials and in his public appearances, Mr. Obama confronted the issue Mrs. Clinton has put at the front of her campaign — a three-month moratorium on gas taxes — and tried to turn it against her, portraying her as being politically calculating and cynical. That left the two rivals pointedly arguing over one of the few major policy areas on which they disagree.

nytimes.com

Continuing his week-long tour of places that have played important roles in his life, Republican presidential candidate John McCain this morning will speak in Annapolis, Md., about his days at the U.S. Naval Academy.
"The most important lesson I learned here was that to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest," McCain plans to say, according to excerpts provided by his campaign.
He’s also releasing the third in a series of Web ads about his life — this one about his time at Annapolis:
McCain, as he has often before, will also tell a few jokes about his years as a midshipman. "In truth, my four years at the Naval Academy were not notable for exemplary virtue or academic achievement but, rather, for the impressive catalogue of demerits I managed to accumulate," he plans to say. "By my reckoning, at the end of my second class year, I had marched enough extra duty to take me to Baltimore and back seventeen times — which, if not a record, certainly ranks somewhere very near the top."
McCain got off a few one-liners last night on CBS-TV’s Late Show with David Letterman as well.
During his monologue, Dave said — among other things — that McCain looks like "the guy who goes into town for turpentine."
The Arizona senator, who joined Dave on stage, said that "you look like a guy whose laptop would be seized by the authorities."
On a more serious note, the two had this exchange about Iraq and how long U.S. troops might need to be there (transcript courtesy of CBS):
Letterman: "Now, quickly, John, and I hate to say quickly, 4,000 American men and women soldiers dead since we went into Iraq, another 30,000 wounded, untold Iraqis dead. We rarely hear that number. What would that number be? A quarter of a million, half a million?"

blogs.usatoday.com

Meghan McCain listens to her father, Republican presidential candidaye, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speak during a town hall meeting in Tyler, Texas in this Feb. 27, 2008 file photo. "McCain Blogette" seems an oxymoron: a senior citizen and his presidential campaign chronicled by the Facebook generation.This is the goal of John McCain's daughter Meghan and her Internet diary, www.mccainblogette.com. Meghan, 23, offers an insider's view, offbeat and sometimes surprisingly intimate. (AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman, File)
By The Associated Press – 11 hours ago
IN THE HEADLINES
McCain’s daughter offers offbeat, sometimes intimate view of father on Internet blog … Rushville, Ind., woman chosen to have dinner with Barack Obama … Poll: Voters split over Obama’s speech on race
Meghan McCain has offbeat campaign blog
WASHINGTON (AP) — “McCain Blogette” seems an oxymoron: a senior citizen and his presidential campaign chronicled by the Facebook generation.
This is the goal of John McCain’s daughter Meghan and her Internet diary, http://www.mccainblogette.com. Meghan, 23, offers an insider’s view, offbeat and sometimes surprisingly intimate.
While the Web site is about a campaign, it is not about issues and rarely mentions other candidates. Rather, it is intended to make her parents, and politics, seem more real.
There is a message for anyone worried her 71-year-old father is too old: “I have yet to see Dad take a nap on the trail,” Meghan writes under a picture of herself napping.
A different photo shows Meghan demanding, arm outstretched, that her father hand over the candy bar he wants to eat for dinner.
Meghan uses backstage images to spotlight her father’s sense of humor: cracking up with former President Bush just before Bush endorses him and snapping tongs at the camera as he grills for journalists at home in Sedona, Ariz.
There is a photograph of her mother, Cindy, barefoot in pink polka-dotted pajamas, having her hair taken down the night McCain clinched the nomination in Dallas. Meghan also reveals that her mother, chairwoman of a family beer company, knows if a beer is fresh “depending on the taste.”

ap.google.com