Records sought at McCain advisor's bank

by Aamer Madhani

In the aftermath of retired Gen. Wesley Clark's questioning of Sen. John McCain's military credentials, the presumptive Republican nominee's campaign is charging that the Arizona senator is the target of a smear campaign by the left.

In a conference call earlier today, Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, took offense with a series of barbs that Democrats have thrown in which they poked at the running narrative of McCain as a war hero.

In May, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) charged that McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, may have a narrow worldview because of his deep personal and familial military background. In April, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) argued that as a fighter pilot who dropped bombs on Vietnam McCain was insensitive to cold realities of war. Earlier that month, the liberal talk show host Ed Schultz called McCain a "warmonger."

"Many elements on the left are circulating in this stuff and it's risen to the level of acceptability," Rogers said.

Clark, the former NATO commander and Obama supporter, said on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday that McCain's "riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down" hardly qualified him to be the next commander-in-chief. McCain spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

The Obama campaign earlier today said that Obama "rejected" Clark's statement.

by Andrew Zajac

Hillary Clinton biographer Gail Sheehy weighs in with a fascinating post-mortem on the New York senator's just-concluded presidential campaign in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair.

According to Sheehy, fierce infighting among the Clinton inner circle "team of rivals" -- Harold Ickes, Mark Penn, Patty Solis Doyle, Mandy Grunwald and Howard Wolfson, left the campaign unable to recover from blunders, like woefully underestimating Barack Obama and dithering about competing aggressively in the Iowa caucuses.

Nor could the campaign reign in Bill Clinton, whom Sheehy portrays as an imperial figure carrying on as though the presidency for his wife was a family birthright.

In the end, the combination of Obama's unexpectedly impressive performance and the new Democratic establishment's wariness and weariness of the Clintons helped prevent the expected rescue of the campaign by the party's superdelegates.

Read Sheehy's entire take on the campaign here.

Barack Obama stands onstage as he is introduced to speak at the Truman Memorial Building in Independence, Mo., Monday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

by James Oliphant

It's been an interesting week for Obama-watchers.

if they have been paying close attention, they can watch with their own eyes the Democratic candidate making a play for the center of the American electorate, the Reagan Democrats, the Hillary supporters, the Security Moms, NASCAR Dads, etc.

Apparently, the Obama camp believes it has its base locked down and now is trying to convince moderates that the Illinois senator is one of them. Obama's patriotism roll-out this week is, of course, a prime example.

But in past seven days alone, Obama has

* Announced he would forego public financing of his campaign after earlier saying he would accept it. The move was viewed by many critics as a cynical, "win now" move from a man who had vowed to clean up the system

By Stephen J. Hedges

New federal grain production estimates released Monday are certain to stir more debate over the use of corn and soybeans for food or fuel.

Despite wash-out flooding in the Midwest, corn will remain king among crops in 2008, according to harvest forecasts released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday. Fueled by high prices and increased demand due to ethanol production, U.S. farmers planted more than 87.3 million acres of corn this spring, down from a record 93.6 million in 2007, the USDA found.

That 2008 figure is higher than USDA predicted as recently as March. Corn prices declined slightly with Monday's higher production estimate.

Flooding will cut the number of acres actually harvested down to about 79 million, USDA said. But the department states that it will conduct follow-up interviews with 9,000 farmers in grain states affected by flooding -- Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri - before it completes a harvest report due out Aug. 12.

Even after the flooding, USDA stated, the amount of corn acres planted is the second largest since 1946.

The soybean harvest is also expected to be large. Farmers have planted 74.5 million acres of soybeans, the third largest amount on record, "and up 17 percent from last year," according to USDA.

Both corn and soybean prices have been running high due to increased demand from the biofuels industry and increased exports prompted by a weak dollar.

Futures contracts for corn have traded from $7- to-$8-a-bushel in recent days, compared to prices of about $2.25-a-bushel just a few years ago. Soybeans prices have
also jumped to more than $15-a-bushel, compared to about $8-a-bushel just a year ago.

Cattle ranchers and dairy farmers, among others, complain that the corn-based feed they use has become too costy, driving up food costs. Many of them blame those higher prices on ethanol production, which distills fuel from corn. Congress and the Bush administration have enthusiastically backed ethanol, and biodiesel made from soybeans, as altenatives to gasoline.

by Amanda Erickson

Sen. Jim Webb has a new nickname: Mr. Vice President.

It's what Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was overheard calling the Virginia democrat as he stood up to deliver a speech on the war spending bill on the floor of congress Thursday night, according Roll Call's gossip column.

Webb, with his swing-state location and military roots, is thought to be one of the top contenders for the position. He has also been an out-spoken critic of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.

But McCaskill's name has also come up, leading Roll Call to wonder if the teasing was an inside joke "among Senators who've been fielding will-you-or-won't-you questions about their aspirations to be Obama's number two."

The vice presidential search has become a point of obsessive analysis for those inside or nearby the Beltway. A google search for 'vice presidential pick, 2008' turns up about 2.5 million hits, including a link to a poll that shows likely voters support Colin Powell for the number two slot on both tickets and a website that lets buyers choose their favorite executive branch combination for a T-shirt and buttons.

My favorite though, is a piece that compares the VP pick storyline to sex: "When it's happening, you're totally focused on it, it's all you want. Then, the second it's over, you can barely remember why it seemed so important."

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama today spoke with former President Bill Clinton, who has been described by associates in media reports as still smarting over his wife's primary loss. The Obama campaign described the converation as "terrific."

Clinton was not a part of the joint appearance Obama and Hillary Clinton had in Unity, N.H., on Friday. However campaign aids said the event was designed to concentrate attention on the two former rivals. The Obama campaign noted in a statement today that the former president is backing Obama's presidential campaign.

"Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign. He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation's great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

by Rick Pearson

The Democratic Leadership Council's hierarchy on Monday sought to reconcile divided presidential preferences with its core centrist-themed mission as it embraced Sen. Barack Obama as a candidate to further the group's moderate agenda in the White House.

"I say to my friends who supported someone else, put it aside," Harold Ford, a former Tennessee congressman who heads the group, said on the final day of its annual convention at a Chicago hotel. "Our reforms, the things that we stand for are all embodied in our nominee."

Obama did not appear before the gathering of an organization formed after Walter Mondale's 49-state defeat in 1984. The DLC saw its influence grow significantly under President Bill Clinton, a former chairman. Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, is among the group's leadership and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat-turned-independent who is backing Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency, is a former DLC chairman.

The group's previous support for welfare reform and fiscal responsibility and its push for such issues as expanded trade and charter schools have alienated more liberal elements within the Democratic Party which readily endorsed Obama's candidacy.

But as Obama has found himself under increasing criticism from the left in recent days for shifting positions on issues ranging from granting telephone companies immunity under the Foreign Service Intelligence Act to a refusal to express his belief on the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned the Washington, D.C., handgun ban, the founder and CEO of the DLC, Al From, said he found comfort in the Illinois Democrat's efforts to become "more practical" as a general election candidate.

by James Oliphant

Public relations professionals in the nation's capital are busy people.

So it isn't surprising that we occasionally receive an email such as the one below:

Good morning (First Name),

I wanted to make sure you received the below invitation for the luncheon tomorrow. Panelists will be covering the Supreme Court year in review including the DC gun ban, Louisiana child rape case and Guantanamo Bay case. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending or if you have any questions.

Best,

It's not that we don't know who you are. It's just that we don't really care who you are.

Seriously. This happens more than you would think. Who hasn't hit that send button a moment too early?

In fact, at the Swamp, it happens all the

(A perspective piece in the Chicago Tribune)

By Charles M. Madigan

We now have a new thing in presidential campaigning, the anticipatory smear defuser. It's a simple thought: Before your enemies get any traction, embrace the slander, spread it around on your own terms and debunk it.

Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, has launched a Web site called "Fight the Smears" to head off slanders at the pass.

That Obama is the first to do this makes sense, and not only because he has been subjected to some real whoppers. (Obama's a Muslim! Obama's related to Saddam Hussein!) He also has proved to be the most technologically inventive candidate, having already recast the business of campaign funding by fully exploiting the Internet.

Now Obama can deal direct, crafting and delivering his own message, to checkmate his opponents. A key component of campaign slander is that it needs a little quiet time to germinate before cracking into the public. Obama is using technology to attack during the germination phase, which is brilliant.

What is not new, of course, is the idea of slander itself.

Read the rest of the piece in the Chicago Tribune.

by Katie Fretland

No lawmakers were present at President Bush's signing of a $162 billion war-spending bill today, but White House Press Secretary Dana Perino notes: "They're all out of town." Congress is out for a July 4 break.

The bill, however, will double GI bill college benefits for troops and veterans and provide funding for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of Bush's presidency and even further, depending on what the next president decides about the war.

The bill adds more than $650 billion to the Iraq war and $200 billion for the war in Afghanistan. Democrats had tried to force troop withdrawals, but failed.

"I appreciate that Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed to provide these vital funds without tying the hands of our commanders and without an artificial timetable of withdrawal from Iraq," Bush said.

The new GI bill offers troops and veterans free tuition to the equivalent of the most expensive school in their state and a housing stipend. Those who have served three years in the military are eligible.

by Aamer Madhani and Katie Fretland

The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama today rejected a statement by retired Gen. Wesley Clark who questioned whether John McCain's "riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down" qualified him to be the next commander-in-chief.

With his biting statement, Clark, a former four-star general and often mentioned potential running mate for Obama, might have hurt his chances of becoming the No. 2 on the Democratic ticket.

In a speech today in Missouri, Obama seemed to try distance himself from Clark's remarks, although he didn't mention the former NATO general by name.

"For those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary," Obama said. "And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides."

Ouch.

Separately, the Obama campaign issued a statement distancing the senator from Clark's statement.

"As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Today, McCain's campaign manager struck back at Clark and Obama for the former NATO commander's shot at McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent more than five years as prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"Sending Wesley Clark out as a surrogate for your campaign and attacking John McCain and his war record and his military experience and his service is, I think, just the lowest form of politics," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Monday on CNN's American Morning.

by John McCormick

Sen. Barack Obama provided his definition of patriotism today, while also seeking to inoculate himself from Republican attacks regarding his lack of military service, complex biography and past incidents that have generated questions about his national devotion.

"It's worth considering the meaning of patriotism because the question of who is - or is not - a patriot all too often poisons our political debates, in ways that divide us rather than bringing us together," Obama said in a speech at the Truman Memorial Building in Independence, Mo.

"Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given. It was how I was raised; it is what propelled me into public service; it is why I am running for President," he said. "Yet, at certain times over the last 16 months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged - at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears and doubts about who I am and what I stand for."

It was a topic explored in a story in Monday's Tribune, setting up a week where Obama is expected to continue on a theme of patriotism in advance of Friday's 4th of July holiday.

As part of his speech, Obama pledged to "never question the patriotism of others in this campaign" and that he will "not stand idly by when I hear others question mine."

The Illinois Democrat then offered several of his life experiences that he said defined feelings of patriotism for him.

by Frank James

It's been said before but bears repeating: If white working-class voters rebuff the entreaties of Sen. Barack Obama for many of them, perhaps even most, it may have less to do with race than other matters, like the senator's relative newness on the national political scene or his lack of deep national-security experience at a time when the world seems a pretty dangerous place.

So any ultimate analysis that says race was strictly the reason such voters didn't vote for him will be inaccurate to the degree that such an analysis fails to mention other factors.

That's a point well worth remembering and it's made by Peter Brown in his Wall Street Journal Political Perceptions column.

Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute, reminds us that Democrats haven't won a majority of the non-college educated voter since 1964. Race has certainly been a factor for some of those voters in the decades since LBJ's landslide win over Barry Goldwater. When Republicans like Richard Nixon talked of law and order and Ronald Reagan spoke of Cadillac-driving welfare queens, they used language meant to push racial buttons.

But there have been other issues too, cultural ones, that have often kept working white-voters from voting for Democratic presidential candidates:

For those voters, especially ones without college degrees, the fact that Sen. Obama is black may not be as much a disqualifier as his background as a Democrat from the Frost Belt with no national security or executive experience and a voting record judged by the nonpartisan National Journal as the Senate's most liberal during 2007.

by Andrew Zajac

Part of the process of reconciliation between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton requires the Illinois senator to schmooze and stroke Clinton's big donors.

Obama began the process last week with a meeting of Clinton's national finance committee.

One of the challenges this poses for Obama, whose campaign champions change in Washington, is how he will deal with some of the decidedly old school aspects of Clinton's fundraising wherein the candidate did not worry unduly about exactly where the money came from or what scrapes the donors may have been involved in.

Donors like Sant Chatwal, who has waged lengthy battles with tax collectors, bankruptcy court and government regulators, while maintaining his status as a key campaign bundler and door-opener among Indian-Americans for first Bill Clinton and later Hillary Clinton.

Chatwal also helped arrange one of Bill Clinton's bigger post-presidential paydays, serving as the go-between for Clinton and a London charity which wound up paying him $450,000 for an appearance at a 2006 fundraiser. That was nearly one third of the fundraiser's revenue and $170,000 more than Clinton charged for ordinary overseas for-profit appearances.

Now Chatwal is warming up to Obama.

by James Oliphant

There is politics. And then are the things that people really take seriously.

Take for instance, the blood-feud that is Cubs-White Sox in the Windy City. Witness this video, which comes off sort of like the McLaughlin Group if they actually, you know, came to blows instead of just talking over each other.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses the Texas Republican Party, June 13, 2008. (David J. Phillip/AP)

by James Oliphant

Veteran politics reporter Mike Allen reports in Politico today that the McCain camp is locking in one McCain's former rival, Mitt Romney, for the number two slot on the ticket.

Allen writes that Romney's great advantage is his ability to raise large amounts of money--and it helps that he has already been fully vetted by the media. (No "September Surprise").

Campaign insiders say McCain plans to name his running mate very shortly after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) does, as part of what one campaign planner called a "bounce-mitigation strategy."

The Democratic convention is in late August, a week ahead of the Republicans convention. That means McCain can size up the opposing ticket before locking in his own.

One of the chief reasons the Massachusetts governor is looking so attractive is his ability to raise huge amounts of money quickly through his former business partners and from fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons.

McCain sources tell Politico that they believe Romney could raise $50 million in 60 days. One close Romney adviser said it could even be $60 million.

There is a problem, though. Romney whacked McCain pretty thoroughly in the primaries and McCain, well, just doesn't like the guy.

That's why other names such as former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and North Dakota Sen. John Thune are also being strongly considered.

To read more, see this item in Top of the Ticket.

by Frank James

Congress may be in extremely low repute right now, but it appears House Democrats run little risk of losing their majority status in November.

Gallup's pollsters report that while voters may be sick of Congress and telling anyone willing to listen that they want "change," they appear not to be about to take it out on Democrats in 2008 the way they turned against Republicans in 2006.

This is how Gallup reported the results of its Gallup/USA Today poll:

PRINCETON, NJ -- The Democratic Party is in a good position to retain its majority status in Congress this November. Democrats lead the Republicans by 51% to 40% in the party preferences for Congress among all registered voters, and by 52% to 42% among likely voters.

The Democrats' 11-point advantage among registered voters is slightly less than what Gallup found in mid-February -- at that time, the Democrats led by 55% to 40% -- however, it still puts them in a comfortable position heading into the fall.

by James Oliphant

The just-ended Supreme Court term promises to provide some grist for a long, hot summer of campaigining for John McCain and Barack Obama. Rulings on guns, Guantanamo detaineees, the death penalty, and other incindiary issues have again placed the justices on center stage.

Here are a couple of op-eds Monday that throw down the gauntlet.

In the National Review, Jonathan H. Adler asks: "What Happened to the Conservative Court?"

But that isn't a lament, it's an appreciation of how, in the writer's estimation, the court has not launched a dramatic conservative revolution, but resolved cases in narrow grounds when possible:

Overall, the Supreme Court continued to embody a mildly conservative "minimalist" approach to deciding cases over the course of this past term. Most of the Court's decisions in 2007-08 carefully considered the discrete legal questions at issue and were decided on narrow grounds. Save for the expansive Kennedy opinions noted above, there were no sweeping changes or legal revolutions, and few decisions that were major surprises. Even the Court's gun-rights holding was quite restrained.

You can read the full column here.

On the opposite side is Sen. Joseph Biden writing an op-ed in this week's edition of Legal Times. Titled "Wrong Way McCain," Biden suggests that a John McCain presidency would accelerate the court's conservative drift.

A return to the cramped originalism advocated by Sen. McCain would be a tremendous step backward. The Founders did not intend to consign us forever to the thinking of the past, but instead recognized that, as Thomas Jefferson said, "Our laws and our institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind." Their genius is reflected in a Constitution that does not bind the country forever to the specific laws of 1789, but rather sets forth general principles for maintaining our system of government and our most fundamental values even as the nation evolves.

Biden's op-ed can be found here .

Watch for more of this as the campaign unfolds.

by Katie Fretland

Recently unsealed court documents show that federal prosecutors considered presenting more evidence about campaign contributions to Barack Obama at the trial of Antoin "Tony Rezko," but decided against it.

Rezko, a longtime contributor to Obama's previous campaigns and top adviser and fundraiser to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was convicted earlier this month on a list of corruption charges (wire and mail fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting bribery).

Obama was not accused of any wrongdoing. The Democratic candidate for president has returned an estimated $250,000 in donations related to Rezko, who he considered a friend. Following Rezko's guilty verdict on multiple counts, Obama said he was saddened and that this was not the person he knew.

Several unsealed documents mention campaign contributions that were not brought up at trial. One document says Rezko asked employee, Elie Maloof, to contribute $10,000 to Obama and Rezko would reimburse him. Maloof understood that Rezko had already donated the maximum amount he could, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also planned to present evidence that another employee, Joseph Aramanda, made a contribution to Obama, but did not have direct evidence that the contribution was made on behalf of Rezko.

Prosecutors also planned to call witnesses to testify that Rezko "has been a long-standing supporter and fundraiser for Barack Obama, including during Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate," according to the documents.

To read more about the Rezko trial, see this article in the Chicago Tribune.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

by Katie Fretland

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over documents relating to the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity -- the case that led to the conviction of former Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby on perjury and obstruction charges.

The House panel seeks to find out whether President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney had any role in the leak of the covert operative's identity to several journalists.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said the subpoena is warranted in light of many prior requests for the documents. In the subpoena, Conyers asks for complete transcripts of interviews with Bush and Cheney. Conyers also asks for the complete FBI interview reports with Libby, former Bush advisor Karl Rove, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

McClellan has said the administration leaked Plame's identity in an effort to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who criticized Bush on the Iraq war. Former deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage first leaked Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.

The subpoena also asks for documents relating to other cases, including an investigation into the jamming of telephones at the New Hampshire Democratic party in 2002 and the replacement of Tom Heffelfinger in the position of U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota.

To see a copy of the subpoena click here: Conyers.pdf

(Photo credit: Associated Press)

From Monday's Chicago Tribune

by John McCormick

To some ears, his name sounds foreign. His father was not an American citizen. Many of his relatives live overseas. And a portion of his own childhood was spent abroad.

Every presidential candidate tries to demonstrate patriotism, sometimes in ostentatious ways, from headlining July 4th parades to leading crowds in the Pledge of Allegiance. But Barack Obama's complex biography seems to heighten the burden.

While his multiracial, multicontinent background has provided a compelling narrative for his political rise, it also makes him a more complicated character and potentially more vulnerable to attack. There is also the not-so-small matter that Obama is running against John McCain, a war hero who spent more than 20 years in the Navy, roughly a quarter of that time in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp.

All this helps explain why Obama is expected to ratchet up the telling of his own American story this week as Independence Day approaches, embarking on an effort that, in a sense, is an attempt to redefine the very idea of patriotism.

The message will be that love of country is not defined only by such traditional measures as serving in the military or tracing one's ancestors to the Mayflower. Patriotism, he and his supporters will say, can be reflected in living the national dream, which in Obama's case means rising as the Hawaiian-born son of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother to professional and political prominence.

by James Rainey

It's over between Roberta and me. At least for now.

What with her constant travels, her series of handlers and the 3,000-mile separation (she's in D.C., I'm in L.A.), it just wasn't working.

I concede, with only a tinge of embarrassment, that I've been captivated by that world traveler, grandmother, freeway speedster and potential First Mother of the United States, Roberta McCain.

But after months waiting in vain for a formal interview, I'm beginning to believe that her son's presidential campaign really isn't interested in getting Roberta McCain and me together for, as the man likes to call it, a little "straight talk."

"They've got me muzzled," Mrs. McCain, 96, said when I phoned the other day. She added with a chuckle: "Now don't you print that. . . . I really don't like to be interviewed."

Democracy will not collapse for want of another Roberta McCain profile. But it makes me a little sad that the presidential season apparently will feature only rare media outings for Mrs. McCain, a charming and feisty woman who enjoys life more than many people a quarter her age.

The McCain camp insists that Mrs. McCain will face the public and the press again. But her low profile of late seems at least partly designed to prevent the kind of distractions she created during the primaries.

Read the full story of Rainey's call with Robert McCain in the Los Angeles Times.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Monday, June 30.

President Bush is attending a White House Tee Ball game this afternoon.

The Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center is hosting a discussion on the Bush Administration's final six months of Middle East peace efforts.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Hyde Park Project are hosting a workshop critiquing Republican presidential candidate John McCain's policy proposals.

Congress is taking its Fourth of July break.

by James Oliphant

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius is espousing a radical notion: Why don't John McCain and Barack Obama take their contest to the heart of the Arab world?

Ignatius would like to see the two presidential candidates debate in the prosperous city-state of Dubai, sending a message to the Middle East that America is a concerned partner in solving the region's deep-seated conflicts.

Dubai is also a symbol of the new global prosperity, thriving even as the economy in the United States sputters.

Writes Ignatius in Sunday's Post:

But the idea of a Dubai debate is appealing, not least because it would link the epochal 2008 campaign with a world that cares passionately about where America is heading. The United States is unpopular abroad these days in part because of a perception that we're arrogant -- that we don't care what the world thinks. An overseas debate would help change that perception.

And there's something compelling about taking the campaign to the region that will present the toughest challenges for the next president. Americans will be voting in November partly on how they think McCain or Obama will deal with the war in Iraq, the confrontation with Iran and the threat of terrorism. Why not debate these life-or-death issues in a place that is, almost literally, in the shadow of the war zone?

You can read the entire op-ed here.

by Katie Fretland

In downtown Orlando, 24 cars were vandalized yesterday and the culprits left behind note cards with messages that supported Hillary Clinton and insulted Barack Obama and John McCain.

Our friends at the Orlando Sentinel report that three of the cars had political messages painted on them. One read "Obama smokes crack," according to photographs from the scene.

Note cards at the scene, signed by "CR," contained a variety of messages, including, "How about them Gators," "Legalize marijuana/stop building prisons," and "Ladies I'm single, some girl step up."

Orlando police Sgt. Barb Jones said police were investigating the vandalism, which occurred sometime before 4:30 p.m. yesterday at a public parking lot off of downtown Orange Ave.

Read more about the vandalism in the Orlando Sentinel.

by John Crewdson

The Swamp watches the Sunday talk shows, so you don't have to:

The issues this first week of summer: Democratic unity (meaning can Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stand to be in the same room together? And will Hillary or Bill speak at the Democratic convention?). Can Obama win over the critical Western states and the Hispanic vote he needs to defeat John McCain? Are U.S. commandos operating secretly in Iran? And, why is Ralph Nader running for president--again?

Nader famously cost Al Gore the presidential election in 2000, an election in which Gore garnered a half-milllion more popular votes than George Bush but lost by five electoral votes when the Supreme Court accorded Bush the state of Florida. Nader won only 2,883,105 votes, or 2.7% of all votes cast nationwide. But post-election research showed that 60% of Florida voters who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore, had Nader not been on the ballot.

Nader never accepted responsibility for making Bush's victory possible, blaming what he sees as the corporate conservatism of the Democratic Party, and asserting his responsibility to offer voters a third choice.

Many of Nader's former adherents didn't agree. Public Citizen, the group he founded in 1971, but with which he currently has no connection, reportedly lost 20 percent of its membership after the 2000 election.

Now Nader is back, confidently predicting on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos that his name, which is currently on the ballot in only five states, will be on 45 state ballots--one more than in 2000--by election day.

by Jim Tankersley

At a basic level, the art of presidential politics is knowing just how far you can drift from your "base" supporters and still win their votes. It's an art both John McCain and Barack Obama practiced heavily last week.

Fresh from securing the Democratic nomination, Obama rankled liberals with a series of policy announcements that seem targeted at moderate swing voters, including: supporting a compromise bill on federal government phone surveillance, opposing a Supreme Court decision barring the death penalty for child rapists and carefully phrasing his reaction to a Court decision striking down the District of Columbia's handgun ban to express no judgment on whether he believes the ban was constitutional.

McCain, meanwhile, reopened a longtime feud with conservatives by slamming Obama for allegedly helping to kill a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate. McCain sponsored that bill, but charges from his rivals that it constituted "amnesty" for illegal immigrants forced the Arizona senator to back away from it during the GOP primaries.

It's easy to see which groups both men are courting. McCain is after Latinos, a voting bloc that could sway the election in states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. In the parlance of the 2004 election, Obama appears to be after rural "NASCAR dads" who favor gun rights and suburban "security moms" who worry about crime and terrorist attacks.

Tacking to the center for a general election is a time-honored tradition in presidential politics. But the strategy could carry particular risk for both these candidates.

By Stephen J. Hedges

A year ago, federal food safety experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture were scrambling to figure out how they'd missed so many food contamination warning signs. People and pets nationwide were falling ill and even dying from salmonella contamination in spinach and peanut butter, bad seafood, contaminated pet food ingredients from China and an alarmingly high number of cases involving E coli bacteria in ground beef.

Both agencies have spent the past year promising reforms and even making some. The FDA, which regulates everything but meat, poultry and egg products, has launched a new food safety plan. After a string of meat recalls, including the largest recall ever - 143 million pounds in February -- the USDA has conducted a review of meat packing plants.

But in the past year, contamination cases have continued, and some remain unsolved.

E coli cases are down this year, though a recall by Kroger supermarkets last week after illnesses were reported in Ohio and Michigan raised new questions about the effectiveness of the USDA's reforms..

The same can be said of the FDA, and new confusion over recent salmonella poisoning caused by the consumption of some tomatoes. The FDA back-peddled on the tomato contamination theory Friday, telling reporters that there's a chance that tomatoes may not be to blame at all. The more than 800 illnesses reported due to salmonella could have been caused by something else that's still out there.

by Bay Fang

During a visit to earthquake-stricken Sichuan province in China, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited a project run by Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham's evangelical aid organization.

She made the point that it is the relationship between people that makes the difference in relations between countries, and invoked the experience of Hurricane Katrina, saying that even the US needed international assistance during times of disaster.

"I remember very well during Katrina in the United States," she said. "People think of the United States as a developed, wealthy country with its own resources. But we so much appreciated the outreach from countries around the world to help the people in need."

By James Oliphant

With his third term as chief justice coming to a close amid three explosive cases last week, John Roberts has proved to be almost everything conservatives hoped and liberals feared.

Despite pledges during his 2005 confirmation hearing to hew to judicial centrism, Roberts has shown himself to be a reliable member of the Supreme Court's right flank--rarely, if ever, disagreeing with its positions on civil rights, gun control, the death penalty, affirmative action and a host of other issues.

That may come as no surprise to those who paid close attention to Roberts' career before his elevation to the high court, but the picture is at odds with the non-ideological face he presented after his nomination.

"I come before this committee with no agenda, no platform," Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005. "I will approach every case with an open mind."

Roberts branded himself then a judicial "umpire" who called the balls and strikes as he saw them, without reference to ideology. He was confirmed by a wide margin, 78-22, with half of the Senate's democrats supporting him.

"Some people will like what Roberts has done and some people will be upset about it, but it is hard to describe it as the work of a 'neutral umpire,' " said Christopher Eisgruber, a professor at Princeton University and an expert on the court appointments process.

by Amanda Erickson

Longtime Obama supporter Richard Fizdale adopted a nickname at a rally in Chicago two weeks ago. On his nametag, the supporter wrote "Hussein," winning a big grin from presidential hopeful Barack Hussein Obama.

The Democratic senator from Illinois has been followed by rumors that he is Muslim since his campaign began more than a year ago. But now, his fans are trying to put an end to those whispers by adopting Obama's middle name as their own. Obama is a Christian.

On Facebook pages and in comments and in chatrooms, these fans have altered their name to include 'Hussein.' This online movement, the New York Times reports, has created a group of Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, Asian and Italian Americans, who live all over the country and are united by two things: their support of Obama and their newly adopted moniker.

See the full article here.

by Laurie Goering

NEW DELHI -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, already running ahead of his Republican rival John McCain in international popularity, has won a host of new fans in India since a photo published earlier this month revealed that he carries a tiny brass monkey king among his handful of good-luck charms.

In India the charm is presumed to be an image of Hanuman, Hinduism's popular monkey god. So on Tuesday, a delighted Brij Mohan Bhama, a politician associated with India's ruling party and a devotee of Hanuman, decided to boost Obama's mojo (and chances in November) by presenting the Illinois senator with a 2-foot-high gold-plated Hanuman idol, blessed by a dozen Hindu priests in a special prayer service.

The $2,500 idol, handed to a local representative of Democrats Abroad India, a private organization that encourages U.S. Democrats overseas to vote, isn't expected to make it beyond India's borders given that U.S. senators are not allowed to receive such lavish gifts.

But Carolyn Sauvage-Mar, chairwoman of Democrats Abroad India, promised to pass on news of the Bhama-Obama goodwill gesture to the Democratic candidate's campaign.

"Best wishes are free," she said. The idol, meanwhile, is back in the hands of Bhama, who's plotting a new way to get it to U.S. shores by November.

Laurie Goering writes for the Chicago Tribune. Read the story at ChicagoTribune.com

by Katie Fretland

Add Stephen Baldwin to the ranks of celebrities who have threatened to leave the country based on which candidate for president wins an election. In 2000, it was Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand who made that pledge if Bush won the election. (They didn't really move).

Now, Stephen Baldwin, the younger of the Baldwin brother actors, vowed (with crossed fingers) he will leave the United States if Sen. Barack Obama wins the election. (Baldwin supports McCain).

Baldwin also adds this insight into celebrity culture:

"You're going to have lot of celebrities coming out just because quote un-quote they want change, whatever, without really fully recognizing who the best person for the job is, which is kind of scary to me," Baldwin tells Fox News.

Our colleagues at Top of The Ticket have more on this story here.

(Photo by Kristie Bull/ Graylock.com/ AP Photo )

by Katie Fretland

In the June 30 issue of Newsweek, journalist Holly Bailey goes in search of the "real" Cindy McCain.

The potential First Lady offers the magazine a glimpse into her 28-year marriage to the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Many years were spent apart, with her husband on Capitol Hill while she raised their children in Arizona.

"It was almost like a deployment," Cindy told Newsweek. "What I told the kids from the time they were little is that their dad was deployed and serving our country in Washington."

McCain, 54, was far from her husband during trying times, Bailey reports, including two of three miscarriages, an addiction to painkillers and a debilitating stroke.

"Cindy says she doesn't resent the time she has spent without her husband. It was her choice to stay in Arizona while he rose in Washington, and she says she knew when she married him that he was always going to 'put country first,' Bailey writes.

Recent polling shows that McCain is the lesser known of the candidates' wives. The public tends to hear more news about Michelle Obama, wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

McCain has set out to show the public she is not a "Stepford wife," Bailey reports. The heiress is also chairman to the beer business her father started, an amateur pilot and she knows how to drive a race car. She recently traveled to Vietnam in support of a children's charity, Operation Smile.

To hear Bailey talk about the story of Cindy McCain, click here.

To read the full Newsweek article, click here.

By Euna Lhee

When Fran Visco welcomed 1,600 breast cancer researchers and their advocates to Baltimore this week, she was doing more than opening a symposium for scientists. She was celebrating one of the most successful medical lobbying efforts in the nation's history.

The researchers and physicians are funded by the Department of Defense - an unlikely source for cutting-edge programs in breast cancer.

It was 17 years ago that Visco, a Philadelphia lawyer and breast cancer survivor, began lobbying for increased spending to fight breast cancer.

Her efforts paid off two years later, when Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, expanded a tiny Defense Department mammography project to $210 million.

Now known as the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, its grants have provided a total of $4.7 billion to scientists who study not only breast cancer but also autism, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, neurofibromatosis and other diseases far removed from the battlefield.

Officials acknowledge that the beneficiaries of the research extend beyond the military to the general public. And they said no one suffers as a result.

Read the full story in the Baltimore Sun.

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama charged that rival John McCain had "walked away" during Republican primaries from a commitment to immigration reforms that would provide citizenship to illegal aliens.

Obama made the accusation this afternoon in a speech to a group of Latino elected officials shortly after McCain went before the group to promise that immigration reform that included citizenship for illegal immigrants would be the Republican's "top priority" as president.

"Now, one place where Senator McCain used to offer change was on immigration. He was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it," Obama said. "But when he was running for his party's nomination, he walked away from that commitment and he's said he wouldn't even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote."

Both Obama and McCain are engaged in a struggle to win support from Hispanic voters, one reason both agreed to appear today before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which was meeting in Washington.

An Obama spokesman said the Illinois senator was referring during his speech to a statement McCain made during the Jan. 30 Republican debate at the Reagan library in which McCain was asked whether he would vote for comprehensive immigration legislation he had sponsored.

"No, I would not, because we know what the situation is today," McCain responded at the debate. "The people want the border secured first. And so to say that that would come to the floor of the Senate -- it won't. We went through various amendments which prevented that ever -- that proposal."

by Katie Fretland

President Bush today called Zimbabwe's violence-plagued election a "sham" and promised that the United States was working to punish the country's leader, Robert Mugabe, for his regime's "blatant disregard" for human rights.

Mugabe is accused of using violence and intimidation to force the people of Zimbabwe to vote for him during Friday's runoff election. In today's Chicago Tribune, correspondent Paul Salopek reports from Africa about the people killed in political violence. The opposition released a list of the names of the dead, including 4-year-old Brighton Mambwera, burned to death, and Temba Muronde, tortured and killed with an axe.

Bush instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson to pursue sanctions against the government of Zimbabwe and its allies. The U.S. could introduce a U.N. resolution as early as next week seeking measures against Mugabe.

"We will press for strong action by the United Nations, including an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and travel ban on regime officials. We will continue to work closely with the African Union, Southern African Development Community, and other world leaders to resolve this crisis," Bush said.

by Aamer Madhani

As the Bush administration weighs whether to introduce a United Nations resolution calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe following yesterday's controversial election, a newly published report charges that agents of Robert Mugabe intimidated members of the opposition movement living in Britain.

The report published in today's edition of The Independent says that members of the Mugabe-controlled Central Intelligence Organization have targeted some 4,000 Zimbawaeans living in Britain and aligned with the Movement for Democratic Change with threats against family members in Zimbabwe, menacing late-night phone calls and bogus messages saying that fundraising activities are cancelled or disrupted.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, beat Mugabe in the first round of the election on March 29, but fell short of the 50 percent threshold he needed to cross to avoid a run-off. Tsvangirai announced last week he was boycotting the election because of the wide-spread intimidation and harassment of his supporters.

After the first round of voting, about 90 of his supporters had been killed in attacks by pro-Mugabe thugs, and Tsvangirai claims that tens of thousands of his supporters have been driven from their homes.

The Bush administration and Britain pushed to have the UN declare the election illegitimate, but South African President Thabo Mbeki has thwarted official condemnation. Instead, the UN Security Council issued a statement yesterday saying it was a "matter of deep regret that the elections went ahead in these circumstances."

"The elections, if they can be called that, are a complete sham,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington yesterday.

by Mike Dorning

John McCain declared today that comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal aliens would be his "top priority" as president.

"It will be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow," McCain declared at a forum this morning before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

McCain and rival Barack Obama are engaged in a struggle for the nation's Hispanic vote, which both campaigns have identified as a constituency open to inroads from their candidate. Obama is set to address the Latino group this morning after McCain.

Obama performed weakly among Latinos during the primary season but is currently leading among Hispanic voters in the polls. McCain has had a long relationship with Latino groups as a senator representing heavily Hispanic Arizona and as a longtime champion in Congress of immigration reform.

Immigration reform and particularly citizenship for illegal aliens has been deeply unpopular with the Republican party's conservative base. During the Republican primaries, McCain generally emphasized other facets of immigration reform more popular with conservatives, such as strengthening security of the nation's borders.

In front of the Latino group, McCain stressed both his willingness to take on his own party on immigration and his support for the pathway to full citizenship for illegal aliens.

"It wasn't very popular--lets have some straight talk--with some in my party," McCain said.

"We must also understand that there are 12 million people here and they are her e illegally but they are God's children, they are God's children," McCain said, pounding the podium as he repeated the words., "and must be treated as such."

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama announced this morning that he will make a foreign trip this summer to Europe and the Middle East which has long been expected. Though the campaign did not announce dates for the trip, aides have said privately for some time that the campaign was looking at mid-July for a foreign trip.

The campaign said Obama will be visiting Britain, France and Germany in Europe and Israel and Jordan in the Middle East.

"This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security, and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face," Obama said in a written statement e-mailed to reporters.

The announcement does not mention Iraq and Afghanistan, which the candidate said earlier this month he will visit. But members of Congress and high government officials typically keep the dates of visits to the two combat zones secret in advance for security reasons.

The announcement does not indicate whether a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan will be included in the same trip as the broader overseas tour.

Republican rival John McCain challenged Obama to visit Irag and Afghanistan earlier this year. Obama has not visited Iraq since January 2006.

The overseas itinerary Obama announced this morning bears striking similiarities to an overseas tour McCain made earlier this year after the Republican clinched his party's nomination. The McCain tour also included stops in Britain, France, Israel and Jordan.

McCain will be visiting Mexico and Columbia in the coming week.

by Katie Fretland

Faith In America has praised the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama for her speech this week at the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council in New York.

At the Manhattan fundraiser, Michelle Obama said, "We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union."

Brent Childers, executive director of Faith In America, a civil rights advocacy group, has thanked Obama for her words which drew parallels between the Selma to Montgomery marches and the Stonewall riots in New York City of the 1960s.

"When Michelle Obama makes that connection, it will eventually lead Americans to recognize religion-based prejudice and discrimination as the commonality of not only injustices against African-Americans and the gay and lesbian community but also women, interracial couples as well as religious minorities.

"The California Supreme Court in its recent ruling on marriage equality made that same connection...that deep-seated prejudice within majoritarian institutions cannot stand as a barrier to social justice."

Michelle Obama said her husband will fight for equal rights for the gay community.

"Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws," she said.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, campaigning for the White House in 2000, pledged to "rally the armies of compassion,'' enlisting faith-based organizations in government-backed aid for the needy.

And during his tenure, the federal government has pumped more than $2 billion a year into the budgets of charities associated with houses of worship, aid which the White House maintains has helped to alleviate homelessness and bring other relief on the street.

There have always been people willing to help others, the president said in his weekly radio address today, but "because many of them worked with small charities, they were overlooked by Washington as potential partners in service. And because many of them belonged to faith-based organizations, they were often barred from receiving support from the federal government.

"So I set about to change this with a new approach called "compassionate conservatism.,''' said the president. "This approach was compassionate, because it was rooted in a timeless truth: that we ought to love our neighbors as we'd like to be loved ourselves. And this approach was conservative, because it recognized the limits of government: that bureaucracies can put money in people's hands, but they cannot put hope in people's hearts.''

See what else Bush had to say about this today, here:

By Naftali Bendavid

As Democrats move into the fall campaign, many are asking where Clinton fits into the new landscape.

Not Hillary Clinton, who just held a major "unity" event with Barack Obama and backed him with apparent enthusiasm. Rather, many of the questions now surround her husband Bill. Before this year, the former president was moving comfortably into a perch as an elder statesman, even if the old whiff of controversy never quite went away. But Bill Clinton received decidely mixed reviews this year as he careened across the political stage during his wife's recent campaign, and it's not clear where its end leaves him, especially since much of the commentary suggests he is sulking.

A striking feature of the past week was the difference in the Clintons' tones as each surfaced for the first time since Barack Obama claimed the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton was gracious and poised in her return to the Senate, as well as at the rally in Unity, N.H. Greeted emotionally by staffers and colleagues, she handled what must have been a tough moment with self-deprecation and humor.

by Katie Fretland

Michelle Obama will headline a $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser on Monday at private residence in Chicago, our colleagues at Clout Street report.

The fundraiser hosted by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) will benefit two suburban Chicago candidates for Congress.

Susan Kuczka has the rest of the story at Clout Street, the Chicago Tribune's local politics blog.

By Paul West

Barack Obama is on his way to a blowout victory this fall, if you believe recent polling that shows him leading John McCain by 15 percentage points.

Big, summertime leads in presidential contests can vanish, though. Comparisons are already being drawn with 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, who looked like a mortal lock after he bounced, in late July, to a 17-point advantage over George H. W. Bush.

Obama could lose, too, if he can't make a convincing case to millions of undecided voters who regard him as a stranger, despite the fact that his name and face are recognized around the world.

His campaign manager seems to say as much, describing this summer as a rerun of 2007, when Obama was introducing himself to activists for the first time.

"In many ways, it feels like, let's say, last July or August in Iowa for us," says David Plouffe. "You look at these voters who are going to decide the election in these battleground states, and they know very little about him."

Obama has been aptly described as elusive. And while a candidate may want to fuzz his image--to gain the widest possible appeal and keep from alienating potential supporters--it is the news media's responsibility to sharpen the picture.

by Mark Silva

Retiring Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska says he will not endorse his party's presumptive nominee for president, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, but will be willing to serve on the Cabinet of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama should he win election as president, Bloomberg News reports.

"I don't have any plans to endorse any candidate," Hagel, says in an interview on Bloomberg Television's Political Capital With Al Hunt.

Hagel, who has called the war in Iraq a "catastrophic mistake,'' has bucked President Bush in voting with Democrats to set a timeline for troop withdrawal. McCain supports the president's war strategy. Obama supports a withdrawal.

Hagel is critical of McCain for his own criticism of Obama, with the senator from Arizona accusing the senator from Illinois of misunderstanding the war in Iraq.

While he has differences with both candidates, Hagel says in the Bloomberg interview that his differences with Obama are "probably... not as big.''

And, while Hagel has been mentioned as a potential running mate on a bipartisan ticket, Hagel says he would be duty-bound to consider any president's request for help - and that includes serving as secretary of defense for Obama.

Hagel considered his own campaign for president but instead decided not to seek reelection to the Senate.

by Mark Silva

David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager, is hardly a household name. You won't see him on the news talk shows. He is, by his own design, a backroom manager.

But with a new e-mailed video for supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate - and, of course, that means a fundraising appeal - Plouffe is walking people through the outlines of an Electoral College stragegy for Obama's victory in November.

It's no trade secret: It starts with the states which Sen. John Kerry claimed in 2004, and it adds some - including some unlikely candidates such as Montana and Alaska. And it looks, with some confidence, toward Iowa, which gave Obama his launch in the Democratic primaries. And even Georgia.

The video is filmed without lights or staging at the Chicago desk of the campaign manager to give it that, you know, laptop look. It also has some Perot-like charts, maps of the perceived path to victory. It's worth a watch -- you know John McCain's campaign is -- and a listen. It's viewable at the campaign Web-site.

Some of what the elusive Mr. Plouffe has to say is summarized here, in the Swamp:

"We're going to start with the map from 2004, very familiar to all of us. It has Bush with 286 electoral votes, and Kerry with 252,'' Plouffe says in the video appeal. "We're trying to get to 270 electoral votes. So, Kerry only fell 18 short of that in 2004. So our first goal is to hold on to John Kerry's 252 electoral votes.

by Matthew Hay Brown

With world leaders and global celebrities preparing to celebrate the 90th birthday of freedom champion Nelson Mandela, Congress has moved to remove the Nobel peace laureate from a U.S. database of terrorists.

The Senate voted late Thursday to lift longstanding travel restrictions on Mandela and his comrades in the African National Congress, which was banned in 1960 by South Africa's apartheid government and labeled a terrorist organization by the United States because it used armed force in the struggle against white minority rule.

The voice vote, reported by Reuters, follows a similar move by the House. Lawmakers hoped to strike Mandela's name from the list before his birthday on July 18.

Mandela was jailed for 27 years in the struggle against apartheid. Freed in 1990, he was the first South African president elected in a fully democratic election, and became a force for racial reconciliation in the divided nation.

The State Department and the Department of Justice have supported taking Mandela off the list; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called the designation "embarassing."

"This is a country with which we now have excellent relations, South Africa, but it's frankly a rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader Nelson Mandela," Rice told a Senate committee in April.

(Video above shows Darren Manzella in the 60 Minutes interview the Army later used as evidence the sergeant is gay.)

by Aamer Madhani

U.S. Army Sgt. Darren Manzella told his commanding officer nearly two years ago that he was gay--something he felt he had to do after receiving anonymous threatening e-mails from someone who said that people in the Army were aware of his sexual orientation.

He later provided Army investigators intimate pictures and video of him and his boyfriend--kissing, snuggling and holding each other. He said he wanted to stay in the Army, but he didn't want to hide who he was.

The Army investigated, but Manzella was told they could find no proof of his homosexuality. He would deploy to Kuwait with the rest of his unit.

Manzella, a decorated combat medic who also served in Iraq, even went on 60 Minutes in December to tell his story and speak out against the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy" that prohibits out-of-the-closet troops from serving.

It wasn't until this spring that the Army concluded that Manzella, a 30-year-old from Upstate New York, was in fact gay and recommended him for discharge for violating don't ask, don't tell. Earlier this month, Manzella was officially kicked out of the service.

When his command at Fort Hood, Texas, notified him that they were recommending his discharge, Manzella said they offered him the 60 Minutes transcript as well as a copy of an Associated Press story about him as evidence that he was gay.

Never mind that he told his commanders the same story months before.

"I don't know if their hands were forced because of the 60 Minutes interview," Manzella said in telephone interview. "At that point it had gone up the chain of command."

by Katie Fretland

Just two summers ago, North Korea tested seven missiles, including one that failed but was believed to be capable of reaching the United States. In October of the same year, the country's secretive leader, Kim Jong II, said North Korea had detonated a nuclear device underground.

The demonstrations of its development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons drew worldwide condemnation, economic pressures from China and skepticism that North Korea would fail to return to negotiations with five other nations to resolve international concerns over its weapons programs. President Bush made his concerns clear: that North Korea was one of the leading countries in the proliferation of missile technology and cooperated with Iran and Syria.

Fast forward to 2008. North Korea has taken steps to dismantle its nuclear program by removing equipment from its uranium fabrication and plutonium production sites. The country also issued a long-awaited disclosure of its nuclear program to China, prompting a reward from the United States. President Bush announced Thursday that the U.S. will remove North Korea from its terrorist sponsor blacklist and lift three sanctions against the country under the Trading with Enemies Act.

But keep in mind, experts say, that Pyongyang has a track record of going back on its agreements on nuclear weapons and the country likely has more demands in mind. The 60-page document handed over to China also fails to include how many nuclear weapons the country has. The declaration also fails to explain North Korea's activities with Syria - The United States has said the country worked with Syria on developing nuclear weapons.

A cynical interpretation of North Korea's recent moves toward disarmament would be that the country is simply stalling - taking the minimum steps necessary to avert pressure from China, said Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

"The more generous interpretation is that North Korea is in the midst of a fundamental change in policy that requires a much more normal relationship with the U.S., Japan and other key players," he said in an interview. "The nuclear program is a major obstacle in the creation of that kind of normal relationship."

by Mark Silva

In his show of unity with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Unity, N.H., Sen. Barack Obama made note of what the former first lady's campaign for president had done for the cause of women's rights.

"Because of the campaign that Hillary Clinton waged, my daughters and all of your daughters will forever know that there is no barrier to who they are and what they can be in the United States of America,'' Obama, father of two girls, told the crowd. "They can take for granted that women can do anything that the boys can do.... and do it better, and do it in heels.

"I still.... I still don't know how she does it in heels,'' he said, sharing a laugh with Clinton by his side.

Obama has told supporters that Republican Sen. John McCain threatens to set women's rights back - arguing, during a recent private meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington reported by The Hill, that the Arizona senator's likely appointees to the Supreme Court could roll back the gains of the last 50 years.

"I respect Sen. Obama,'' McCain said today, campaigning at an automobile assembly plant in Ohio and asked about these remarks, "and I admire his success, and I will conduct a respectful campaign.

But "that kind of a statement or allegation is not worthy of Sen. Obama or worthy of the debate that the American people want and deserve,'' McCain said at the GM plant. McCain reiterated his call for "town-hall'' style debates with Obama before the summer conventions. "If Senator Obama wants to make a statement like that while we're both on stage or before a group of Americans, then I will be glad to respond to him. I think my record speaks clearly for itself."

On stage with Clinton today, Obama was interrupted by someone in the crowd calling out, as he lavished praise on his erstwhile rival: "Hillary rocks.''

"She rocks,'' Obama replied. "She rocks. That was the point I was trying to make.''

In heels.

by James Oliphant

Wall Street Journal columnist, Republican pundit and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan is concerned about John McCain.

She is sensing a certain, well, Bob Dole vibe emanating from him. And for Republicans, that's not good.

Her prescription? Take the strait-jacket off the candidate. Let him be the McCain of old. The outrageous cut-up, who delighted in saying things that others would not dare.

Here's an excerpt from her WSJ piece today:

by Katie Fretland

The other day, Barack Obama delivered a check to former opponent Hillary Clinton for debt relief. If they both signed the check, Obama writes it out and Clinton endorses it, then how much would the check be worth to a collector, or fan? More than the $4,600 written on it to begin with?

At WorldOfAutographs.com, political memorabilia generally goes for less than an item signed by a sports figure, Hollywood star or musician. They have a photograph signed by Gerald Ford for $149.99 and another photo signed by Clarence Thomas for $29.99.

However, on eBay, the price of signed copies of My Life by Bill Clinton and Living History by Hillary Clinton starts at $750.

Over at the Top of the Ticket, our colleagues ask a rare books and autographs store how much a check signed by Obama and Clinton would be worth. Check out the answer here.

by James Oliphant

Reaction in Chicago was fast and mostly furious among city officials to Thursday's Supreme Court decision that found a constitutional right to gun ownership and struck down Washington D.C.'s ban on handguns.

While Mayor Richard M. Daley (who said "the world is laughing at us") and others grapple with how to defend the city's handgun ban from the oncoming legal onslaught, the members of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board had a more radical idea.

In an editorial in Friday's editions, it called for a repeal of the Second Amendment:

by Jill Zuckman

Some people are just saying no to Unity and just saying no to coming together behind the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Two longtime Democrats in New Hampshire said yesterday that they would lead "Democrats for McCain," rather than back Sen. Barack Obama for president.

While Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are trying to rally Democrats in Unity, N.H. today, James McConaha, a former Clinton administration official, and his wife, Valery Mitchell, a Democratic activist, are working to gather support for the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain.

"I think in general both of us felt that this is such an important position, perhaps the most important job in the world that it requires a person who has the experience and the competence to hold it," McConaha told my friend, Kevin Landrigan with the Nashua Telegraph. "We just liked Senator McCain for a lot of reasons. In our minds, he is that person."

Read Kevin's story here

By John McCormick and Mike Dorning
updated

UNITY, N.H. - Two fierce and sometimes spiteful rivals offered a schoolyard embrace Friday, standing in the same state where one had first blocked the other from what could have been a much quicker and less painful path to the Democratic presidential nomination.

In an effort to display the equivalent of this tiny town's name, Sen. Hillary Clinton praised the man she beat in January's New Hampshire primary, triggering a prolonged primary fight that threatened to drain party unity and resources for November.

"We may have started on separate paths, but today our paths have merged. Today our hearts are set on the same destination for America," Clinton said. "Today, we are coming together for the same goal: to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States."

Obama, dressed in shirtsleeves and a baby-blue tie that matched the color of Clinton's pantsuit, sat on a stool beside Clinton as she spoke. When it was his turn to speak, he led the crowd in cheers of "Hillary, Hillary."

He offered fulsome praise for her "toughness" and "unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans."

"I've admired her as a leader. I've learned from her as a candidate," he said, pausing and picking up on a shout from the crowd. "She rocks, she rocks. That's the point I'm trying to make."

With the two candidates every gesture closely scrutinized, their body language was picture-perfect.

Obama kissed Clinton on the cheek when they met on the tarmac of Reagan National Airport in Washington for the morning flight to New Hampshire and followed her into the plane. The two worked the crowd in New Hampshire together and on-stage he patted her on the back and she nodded agreement as he spoke.

Obama also offered a nod to the gender biases many of Clinton's supporters saw in her treatment during the primary campaign while paying tribute to the barriers she broke as a major presidential candidate.

"I know that there have been times over the last 16 months when those biases have emerged. And Sen. Clinton has always brushed them off, dealt with them with her usual grace and aplomb," Obama said.

"Because of the campaign that Hillary Clinton waged, my daughters and all of your daughters will forever know there is no barrier to who they are and what they can be in the United States of America," he added.

The unified image sought to show any transgressions of the past have been forgotten, as well as help more fully move the storyline forward from Obama vs. Clinton to Obama vs. Sen. John McCain.

In was the couple's first public joint appearance since the end of the grueling 17-month primary campaign.

The two had also appeared together in private Thursday evening at a Washington hotel in front of some of Clinton's top fundraiser.

by Mark Silva

This makes the demolition of a Las Vegas hotel look like firecrackers.

As promised, North Korea demolished the visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program today, part of a commitment to disclose its program and cease enrichment of uranium that is winning a lifting of some restrictions by the United States.

President Bush is taking North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 45 days, if Pyongyang follows through on its commitments.

But Pyongyang hasn't done much as promised -- so the White House remains wary of the regime's intentions and maintains that full verficiation will be required to ensure that North Korea is not building any more bombs.

The Yongbyong reactor -- its tower at an already idled facility taken down for a live television audience -- is where North Korea has enriched uranium. Now the government is providing the United States and other partners in the six-party talks with North Korea an accounting of how much plutonium it has made -- which leads in turn to how many bombs it has built.

All of this is "the first step'' in a nuclear-weapons free Korean peninsula, the White House hopes. But, as Bush put it this week, his administraiton harbors "no illusions" about North Korea.

They did, at least, get some great TV out of the deal.

by Mark Silva

I say Exxon-Mobil, and you say... "Profitable.''

I say John McCain, and you say... "Honorable.''

This is how it went when Barack Obama agreed to play a lightning round of word-association with the Fox Business Network's Alexis Glick, who also challenged the candidate for president to a round of basketball. She's "got game,'' she insisted. Obama agreed but wanted to see her nails -- and suggested a trim before she gets on the court.

Courtey of FOX:

Alexis Glick: Senator, I want to have a little fun with you if you don't mind because you like to have some fun. We do something on our show about word association.

Senator Obama: Go ahead.

Alexis Glick: I'm going to give you a couple of words and you just tell me what you think.

Senator Obama: I'll do my best.

Alexis Glick: NAFTA

Senator Obama: Mixed bag.

Glick: Wall Street.

Obama: Money.

Glick: Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Obama: Caution.

Glick: Iran.

Obama: Threat.

Glick: Exxon-Mobil.

Obama: Profitable.

by William Neikirk

LEWES, Del.-- At one of the outlet malls between this small town by the bay and nearby Rehobeth Beach, a salesperson laments the decline in customers this summer. Gas prices and a tough economy are to blame, she said.

"You can't keep pushing this stuff on people," she added. "They have to conserve their money."

This is one small parable in how inflation can cause recession, but it is a rather widespread view across the country. On a drive to Kentucky from Washington, D.C. and back to the beach, traffic seemed a tad lighter, and so was the line at the popular ice cream store in downtown Lewes.

Yes, it feels like a downturn, but commerce is not dead, an important thing to remember. People are still driving their SUVs to the beach, and frequenting the restaurants and bars. But there is a noticeable scaling back, especially when a fill-up the gas station can easily hit $65 or more.

One cannot get one's arms around how much of a storm is coming, and just how deep any downturn might be. The huge decline in the stock market on Thursday represented another crack in confidence and proved chastening to market experts who had represented this as a "buying opportunity" only a few weeks ago.

By Naftali Bendavid

Now that it turns out Barack Obama and Bob Dylan share a mutual admiration, the analysis can be the beginning of what all this means and how Dylan's oracular, obscure lyrics might shed light on Obama's candidacy. After all, the two men are among the most highly analyzed of their times. Dylan's songs have prompted a talmudic literature so extensive as to constitute an entire field of study, with every utterance and offhand lyric studied as though it were a scrap of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And analyzing Obama's significance has become an equal obsession in some quarters. Put the two together and you get a sort of harmonic convergence of delphic inquiry, a perfect storm of over-analysis. You can picture a group of geeks in a room somewhere--the sort of people who would otherwise be arguing about the finer points of Klingon grammar, or who used to believe that Paul was dead--cross-referencing Dylan's lyrics with Obama's speeches.

An interesting element of Obama's musical preferences, by the way, as described in the issue of Rolling Stone out today, is that they track some of the candidate's key demographic support groups. For instance, the candidate says he likes the rappers Jay-Z and Ludacris, and so do many of the young, hip and/or African-American voters who have lent so much energy to his campaign. Obama also cites among his favorites some of the well-worn staples of classic rock radio--songs by the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder--likely to resonate with the educated, upper middle-class voters that form the other key pillar of Obama's support.

Obama does not mention the Grateful Dead as one of his faves in the Rolling Stone interview. Just a guess, but maybe that's because he doesn't want to be associated with the psychedelic, acid-trip, tie-dyed culture that often surrounds the Dead. ("Vote Obama: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been.") Even in this age of voter microtargeting, it's not clear Deadheads constitute a demographic the Obama camp wants to pursue. While they are arguably concentrated in key swing states, it's kind of hard to vote if you're stoned, and even harder to make sure you pull the right lever. Or so I'm told.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Friday, June 27.

The Commerce Department is releasing the May report for personal income.

The Institute of Medicine is holding a workshop to assess the nation's current level of medical readiness to respond to a nuclear detonation of up to 10 kilotons in such large metropolitan areas as the national capital region, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund is hosting a discussion on how the next president can best model the success of FDR's achievements during the first 100 days of his presidency.

By Mike Dorning

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may have chosen the aptly-named Unity, N.H., for the public debut of their efforts to overcome the divisions of the Democratic primaries. But first came a joint appearance Thursday evening to pitch a group of well-heeled Clinton loyalists responsible for much of the financial power behind her presidential campaign.

The former rivals offered generous praised for each other in warm, upbeat performances as they implored members of Clinton's national finance committee to rally behind the election of Obama, the presumptive nominee.

Clinton reminded the donors, most of them deeply partisan Democrats, that the party had only won the presidency in three of the past 10 elections.

"I know my supporters have extremely strong feelings, and I know Barack's do as well," Clinton said. "But we are a family, and we have an opportunity now to really demonstrate clearly we do know what's at stake, and we will do whatever it takes to win back this White House."

Obama offered a tribute to Clinton, telling the audience of about 200 that Clinton's quest to become the first female president had touched even members of his own family. Among them, he said, was his grandmother, who he said sometimes complained Clinton wasn't getting a fair shake even though she was rooting for her grandson.

"When I see that instinct of hers to fight on behalf of those who need a champion, she reminds me a little of me," Obama quoted his grandmother told him. He said the story illustrated "the ability of Hillary Clinton to inspire passion on behalf of those who have
been left out in the past."

The biggest applause of the evening came when Obama said that he had asked his own high-level donors to contribute to Clinton to help retire her campaign debt. Obama wrote the Clinton campaign a check for $4,600, representing the maximum legal contribution from both he and his wife, Michelle.

Still, earlier in the week, Obama said at a press conference that he would not make the same request of his many lower-dollar donors, who remain eligible to make additional contributions to Obama's campaign

The two senators are engaged in delicate maneuvering to heal ill will left over from a grueling 17-month primary campaign and strengthen the party as it heads into the fall general election while each of the former rivals pursues their own political agenda.

by Amanda Erickson

It's official: FISA isn't going anywhere until after the Fourth of July recess.

Lawmakers will not vote on the domestic spying bill until July 8. The decision to hold the measure until then came after a day of procedural maneuvering by some senators who were upset with the bill's offer of retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the federal government 's warrantless requests to eavesdrop.

When the bill comes back to the floor, Sen. Chris Dodd (D. Conn.) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) will introduce an amendment that would strike the immunity clause. Civil liberty proponents say this is important because it will give them the tools they need to dig up more information about the program. Without data, they say, they aren't able to bring cases arguing the wiretapping should be illegal.

"I hope that over the July 4th holiday, Senators will take a closer look at this deeply flawed legislation," Feingold wrote in a statement. "It is possible to defend this country from terrorists while also protecting the rights and freedoms that define our nation."

When the Senate finally votes, the bill will almost certainly pass with the immunity amendment.

Until late this afternoon, some staffers had still been (optimistically, it turns out) predicting that the measure would pass before the senators fly home for their breaks. Others thought it would be held until after the holiday. An announcement on the floor by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) around 7:15 tonight put the rumors to rest.

by Jim Tankersley

An old friend made a surprise appearance at President Bush's speech to a conference of faith-based groups this afternoon. Perhaps you remember him. He goes by "compassionate conservatism."

The phrase was a staple of the then-Texas governor's winning presidential campaign in 2000 before terrorism, war and a slumping American economy pushed it aside. Bush dusted it off today before an adoring crowd that celebrated his two-term effort to open the gates of government funding to religious groups working to combat homelessness, AIDS and other societal ailments.

In the process, he fondly recalled the early days of that first White House run, which, he noted, "seems like a long time ago."

"You've helped revolutionize the way government addresses the greatest challenges facing our society," Bush told the crowd. "I truly believe the Faith-Based Initiative is one of the most important initiatives of this administration."

The speech had a late-term, legacy-boosting feel to it, touting success in several areas - all of them stemming from the general concept that "faith" goes a lot farther than "bureaucracy." Here's an excerpt from the official White House transcript:

by Katie Fretland

In a speech directed to the candidates for president today, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the problems the country faces -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism, health issues, environmental degradation -- will require more than "glib 10 second answers and clever 30 second television ads."

Hagel called on Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to unite the country if elected.

"One of these candidates is going to have to bring this country together, make the Congress a partner, form a broad consensus to govern, and help lead the world," Hagel said. "If they so polarize and divide our country during the campaign, they will find it difficult to govern. The complexities of an interconnected world will require leadership and decisions from the new president the day he takes office. These realities won't wait until America might come back together."

Hagel drew attention recently when the Republican senator said he would consider being Obama's running mate. Hagel, a friend of McCain's and a fellow Vietnam veteran, has not endorsed either candidate. He is a staunch Bush critic and arguably the president's most prominent GOP critic of the Iraq war.

Today, syndicated columnist Robert Novak, calls Hagel an "Obamacan," or a Republican who has defected from the party to support the Democratic senator.

"The Obamacan syndrome is based on hostility to Bush and his administration and on revulsion over today's Republican party," he writes.

by Matthew Hay Brown

And for vice president? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to tout Edwards.

"I've always tried to encourage Mr. Edwards to run for leadership or something," Pelosi told reporters this morning. "I think he's an extraordinarily talented person."

Wait a moment. Didn't former Sen. John Edwards run for leadership or something four years ago? When he sought the Democratic nomination for president, and ended up the vice presidential nominee? And again, earlier this year, when he tried again for the nomination?

"We're talking about Chet Edwards, a member of Congress from Texas, who represents Waco," Pelosi clarified.

In fact, the nine-term Democrat also represents Crawford, which makes him President Bush's congressman. Pelosi sent reporters a-Googling earlier this week when she mentioned him as a possible running mate for Barack Obama. She was asked about the choice during her weekly press conference this morning.

"He is really one of the finest people I've ever served with, and he demands the respect of his colleagues, I could say, on both sides of the aisle," she said.

by Aamer Madhani updated at 6:20 p.m.

More than a week has passed since government auditors called on the Pentagon to reopen the bidding of a $35 billion contract to overhaul the Air Force's tanker fleet, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that he still isn't sure if he will restart the bidding process for the lucrative contract.

"I haven't made any decisions yet," said Gates, weighing in publicly for the first time since the Government Accountability Office's report was released on June 19. "But I would say that I take the GAO report very seriously. They clearly pointed out some areas where we were deficient."

Gates comment was somewhat of a departure from his stance prior to the GAO recommending that the contract be re-bid, because the Air Force made several critical mistakes in evaluating the bids from Chicago-based Boeing Co. and the winning partnership led by Northrop Grumman.

The Air Force announced in late February that it was awarding the contract to build 179 new tankers--what essentially are flying gas stations--to a consortium of Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., the parent of Boeing rival Airbus SAS.

After Boeing appealed the Air Force's decision to award the contract to Northrop, top Pentagon officials, including Gates, defended their decision and said that the process was fair and transparent.

Since the GAO recommendation was announced last week, Gates said he has met with top Pentagon brass to consider some of the GAO's concerns.

Among the errors the GAO said the Air Force made was not adequately evaluating whether the Northrop plane could fly faster and outmaneuver the service's fighter and transport fleet. There were also concerns that the Air Force made significant errors in calculating the military construction costs associated with the project.

by Jill Zuckman

File this under 'kids say the darndest things.'

Sen. John McCain, who is campaigning in Cincinnati today, met with Spencer and Piper Macke, the two young children of Fox 19 reporter Tricia Macke following a town hall meeting at Xavier University.

Piper, who is in kindergarten, asked: "Um, is the president like being a king?"

McCain laughed before responding. "Is the president like being a king? I think there have been some presidents who thought that," he said. "Uh, we won't mention any names."

He continued: "No, I don't think being a president is like being a king because in the old days kings had all power, and these days kings have very little if any power. They are there for people to respect and admire. But I think our president and our system of government is that we are equal with the congress and with the judiciary, the judges.

"So we are kind of co-equal branches of government, and so I don't think the pre