A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Clinton voters buck Obama's bid - CHICAGO Sen. Barack Obama's bid for party unity at the Democratic National Convention, which opens Monday, is being challenged by angry supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who refuse to let heal wounds from a brutal primary fight that their candidate lost. (READ MORE)
Archbishop: No Communion for Biden - The Catholic archbishop of Denver says that presumptive Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. should not take Communion because of his pro-choice stance. (READ MORE)
Anti-lobbyist rhetoric lost among festivities - DENVER Under Sen. Barack Obama's self-imposed ban on accepting money from federal lobbyists, Michael Dino isn't allowed to give a dime to the Democrat's presidential campaign. Neither could Steve Farber. (READ MORE)
Party Unity Tops Agenda for Democrats - DENVER, Aug. 25 -- Democrats prepared to open their national convention Monday with an ambitious agenda of selling the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama to a national audience, presenting a forceful case against Republican rival John McCain and unifying a party still recovering from a bruising primary. (READ MORE)
Placating the Clintons - DENVER -- As the Democratic National Convention opens officially today, talk has turned -- as it inevitably does these days -- to the Clintons and how their relationship with soon-to-be-nominee Barack Obama will impact the overall message coming out of Denver this week. (READ MORE)
Pakistan's Ruling Coalition Collapses Amid Dissent - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 25 -- Pakistan plunged deeper into political chaos Monday as a top party in the country's coalition government vowed to quit the coalition and support an opposition candidate for the presidency. (READ MORE)
Russian lawmakers recognize Georgia separatists - MOSCOW -- Russia's parliament voted unanimously Monday to urge the president to recognize the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions, stoking further tensions between Moscow and the small Caucasus nation's Western allies. (READ MORE)
Obama's Cheney - After 36 years in the Senate, Joe Biden has been called many things, but an agent of change isn't one of them. Barack Obama was 12 years old when Mr. Biden won his first Senate campaign in 1972, though in this campaign that's a virtue. The advantage the 65-year-old Delaware Senator brings to this Democratic ticket is experience, especially on foreign affairs. (READ MORE)
The Denver Democrats - The Democrats arrive in Denver this week flush with confidence. And why not? Yes, their rookie Presidential candidate suddenly finds himself in a tight race with John McCain. The party itself, though, has reason to think its moment to govern has arrived again after a generation of divided government or Republican rule. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
The Belmont Club: Hope - A lot of people waited for the 3am text message which Barack Obama promised would inform the ordinary person who his pick for Veep was going to be before the MSM. Then they saw the announcement that Joe Biden would be his running mate on the news. The inbox of their text messages still had nothing. SFGate tells the story: “But hours before the text was sent, the campaign’s famously tight communications ship sprung a leak. So the first to know that Sen. Joseph Biden would be in Springfield on Saturday were not those who had signed up for a text message, but those who were watching cable television news programs at around 10:45 p.m.” The article goes on to say that “tech problems” may have prevented Obama’s publicists from keeping their word. That raises the question: had anybody ever heard about development, test and production? (READ MORE)
The Foxhole: The Last Gasp of The New Republic’s “Man in Iraq” - The New Republic’s fabulist, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, is back like a bad case of acid reflux thanks to Spencer Ackerman, a ‘reporter’ on a tabloid website called Radar Online. It’s a self-described magazine chock full of ‘Pop, Politics, Scandal, and Style’. How catchy. Ackerman, who was fired by The New Republic, listens with fawning, rapt attention, as Beauchamp and his ex-TNR employee wife Elspeth Reeve whine, wail, bitch, and rehash all the ridiculous bullshit they produced while writing ‘dispatches’ for TNR’s “Shock Troops” articles. As an added bonus, the toadying Ackerman lends his 2 cents: “‘Among neoconservative war apologists and self-anointed superpatriots, discrediting the story became a crusade: Beauchamp must be proven a liar, and TNR must be humiliated’” (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: The “Revelatory Blunder” of the Biden pick - The first thought I had when I learned yesterday that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama had tapped Delaware’s Joe Biden running mate was what a poor job the Obama campaign had done of keeping this secret. They had given the McCain campaign and conservative bloggers a chance to prepare responses. The opposition was not “caught unawares.” This failure to prevent this from leaking helps define this pick as a revelatory blunder of the Obama campaign. It shows that they may be too close to the media for their own good. The staffer who leaked this probably assumed the reporter, sympathetic to the Obama campaign, would keep this under wraps. Or maybe the campaign wanted this information made public. In any case, it dulled the impact of Saturday’s announcement. It’s not just the failure of the campaign to keep this secret which reveals much about Obama’s White House bid. It’s the very pick itself. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Another Exercise in Confidence Building Futility - The Israeli government has gone through yet another pointless exercise in confidence building for Fatah. They've released still more Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails in exchange for what? Nothing. Well, nothing except Fatah demands that they wont stop until Israeli jails are completely emptied of Palestinian prisoners. That includes convicted terrorists like Marwan Barghouti. And it's done nothing to stop the kassam rockets either. It's supposed to help bolster Fatah in their internecine struggle with Hamas, but all it does is provide more fodder for the terrorists to hold out hope that they can beat Israel for control over all territory West of the Jordan River. Hamas can be counted on to claim that Fatah is collaborating with Israel, and they'd be right. (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: What's the matter with the Democrats? - The radicalization of the Democratic Party occurred under the rules adopted by the McGovern-Fraser Commission in the aftermath of the Democrats' disastrous 1968 convention in Chicago and culminated in the nomination of George McGovern as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972. In Party of Defeat, the invaluable new book by David Horowitz and Ben Johnson, the authors date the dissolution of bipartisan unity over support for the war effort in Vietnam to the presidential campaign of 1972, by which time both parties had concluded that military victory was no longer politically possible. I slightly disagree with Horowitz and Johnson only on the dating of the transformation of the Democratic Party into the party of defeat. The inauguration of Richard Nixon in January 1969 unleashed the forces of defeat within the heart of of the Democratic Party. (READ MORE)
McQ: Enjoy the conventions, but remember what they are - People on a whole, are just beginning to pay more attention to the November election. This week - with the Democratic convention - signals the "official" start of the election drama (even though it’s really been underway for almost 2 years). Voters will take a look at both candidates and depending on their perceptions, juxtaposed with what they perceive as their priorities, pull the lever for one of them. I have to wonder what those not yet caught up in the hype of the election or the super-hype associated with Obama are going to see when they view the Dem convention. I wonder if they’ll be blinded by the glitter (and glittering generalities) or will be able to see through all of that? (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Top Ten Things I Don't Give A Rat's Ass About This Election Season - The Blog Princess woke in the middle of the night with a deep sense of fear and loathing. The election is beginning to wear a bit thin. The candidates have now officially been campaigning since the early Mesozoic Era. There are fossils older than some of the scandals still popping up like Whack-a-Mole between the National Enquirer, Drudge, the MSM, Bill Keller, and the BlatheroSphere. In my more rational moments I suspect there must be one or two decent human beings left somewhere in the universe. I keep hoping someone will do the right thing and refuse to drop another savory Hamsher Pellet into the open jaws of the Beast. I keep being proven wrong. I am tired of being whipsawed between the MSM, the blogosphere, and the latest scandal du jour. But most of all, what I'm sick to death of is Us. Because "we" - the seemingly insatiable hunger of both sides in this political slugfest - is what these people keep pandering to. (READ MORE)
Westhawk: America’s last dilemma in Iraq - Top U.S. decision-makers, both in the current and in the next administration, face a strategic and moral dilemma. Should the U.S. respect the sovereignty of Iraq’s government, the increasingly powerful central government the establishment of which has been the principal goal of America’s campaign? Or should the U.S. government fulfill the promises it made to Sunni-Arab leaders in Iraq, promises that convinced the Sunnis to stop resisting and thus led to an apparent American victory in Iraq? An increasingly confident Prime Minister Maliki wants the U.S. to choose between him and the Sons of Iraq militias the U.S. military organized in Sunni areas to reduce the violence in the country. While the U.S. ponders what to do, Prime Minister Maliki is sending his security forces into Sunni-Arab areas to arrest Sons of Iraq leaders, or to chase these men into exile. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: The Three "B's" Of Joe Biden - Over the weekend, I found myself slightly miffed at my colleague Lorie Byrd. On Saturday, she wrote a piece about a certain video featuring Joe Biden about 20 years ago. I had planned on writing about it Sunday morning, and felt a certain sense of proprietary interest -- after all, it had been shot in Claremont, New Hampshire, and I feel like I should have "first dibs" on any New Hampshire stories. Anyway, Lorie did her usual superb job, and my idea set aside. But not for long. There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from that short video clip about the man who wishes to be one heartbeat from the presidency, and I think that I can mine even more from it than Lorie did. (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: Palestinian [in]gratitude - The Palestinian welfare culture is so incredibly ingrained, that no good deed goes uncriticized. The big lefty boat extravaganza—the ones that Israel allowed to land in Gaza after all, rather than cause front page pictures of the Israeli navy forcing the “peace protesters” away from Gaza’s shores—landed in Gaza to, well, not cheers. Jeers. “A Gaza activist told Ynet Saturday that local residents were disappointed by the small quantities of food brought in by two boats carrying international leftist activists. ‘Many people thought these boats will make a significant contribution to break the siege, not only politically but also in terms of brining in goods, equipment, food, and medicine,’ he said. ‘However, once it turned out these boats contain too little food and mostly activists…some people left the beach disappointed.’” (READ MORE)
DJ Drummond: Veep Value - So, Senator Barack Obama has tapped Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate this fall. Senator John McCain may or may not know whom he wants, but in any case he has not announced a pick. At this point there's not really much substance to the decision anyway, though I think the choices are interesting in what they say about the campaigns. That is, for all the hype, there's not really much chance the VP choice does much to improve a candidate's chances - in my entire life I cannot remember anyone saying something like 'I was going to vote for 'X', but when 'Y' picked so-and-so for his veep he won me over'. Sure, maybe there are some few, some very few voters somewhere that could be swayed by the running pick to vote for someone, but I have to think such a number is too small to really matter. (READ MORE)
C.H.U.D. Busters: Sadr Sympathizers Migrate from Basra to Denver - Trouble a-brewin in Denver was predicted weeks ago, and it appears to have manifested even before the actual DNC has started. Besides speeches from fake Native-American Ward Churchill on how North America is under military occupation and clowns in bandanas heckling Fox News, a sign was spotted calling for solidarity with murderous thug Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's Mahdi Army is responsible for massacring Sunnis in Baghdad, engaging in massive corruption and intimidation throughout southern Iraq, and killing our troops with advanced weaponry provided by Iran. He is a bit of an unsavory character, so it is confusing why protesting CHUDs would want to align themselves with the cleric, unless they wanted to trade their fashionable "Defend Denver" t-shirts for the not-so-cool abaya. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Faustian Bargain At The Heart Of Obama's Campaign - People who are honest will admit that race is a double edged sword for Barack Obama. Yes, there are certainly racist Democrats and independents out there who will not vote for Barack Obama because he's black. On the other hand, if Barack Obama weren't black, he could have never gotten this far. A white man with his experience and abilities wouldn't have even been considered qualified to run for the presidency, much less actually become the party's nominee. Moreover, Obama may have been talking about "change" and "hope," but in reality, race has always been at the center of his campaign -- although admittedly, in a different way than it would be in the case of a Sharpton or Jackson. At the heart of Obama's appeal is a Faustian bargain that has been subtly offered by his candidacy: "put Obama into the White House even though he's not qualified to be President and we can have a post-racial era. (READ MORE)
The Virtuous Republic: Doonesbury: Worst Comic Ever - Today’s Doonesbury exemplifies the simplified, emotional, illogical, childlike belief system and thought process of the left.Unending war? Where does one start? Does the left think anything good would happen if we ran from Iraq? Even if one called Iraq a mistake, a grown up, logical, responsible person would understand the concept of responsibility and the U.S. has to see this through. Sort of like fathering a child and being there…. Okay, now I get it…. Afghanistan? Maybe the left can’t remember that the Taliban backed, supplied, and supported al-Qaeda. Afghanistan is a legitmate war. Sometimes love of country requires long term sacrifices. Of course, that is something the left doesn’t comprehend at all. Guantanamo? President Bill Clinton fought the war against Islamic terror as if it were crime wave. The result? The Cole, the African embassy bombings, the Khobar Towers attack, and finally 9/11. This is a war. (READ MORE)
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay: No unity here now move along - It's clear that the rift between Hillary and Obama is far from being repaired, and both sides are complaining in Denver. Bill Clinton isn't happy with the speech he has to give on Wednesday, and Hillary's supporters are vowing to make a floor fight. The Politico is on the scene, and they're reporting that there is no unity in Denver: “As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is ‘Securing America’s Future.’ The night’s speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: Hillary's Convention Narrative - Long-time readers will recall that I blogged the presidential primaries like a man on fire. I recall, earlier this year, as the Democratic race wore on, many commentators suggested that the party schism between the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was potentially fatal to Democratic Party hopes in the fall. I discounted such talk. Anger at nearly eight years of GOP rule would provide a central focal point binding the disparate left-wing factions together by the time of the national party conventions and beyond. That scenario might have held, but with Barack Obama becoming the Democratic nominee, the passions of the "Hillraisers" haven't settled down; and the selection of Joe Biden as running-mate may have been the ultimate slap in the face... (READ MORE)
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