Oh-eight (D): Nice press for Edwards
Posted: Friday, July 20, 2007 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
BIDEN:
The
Des Moines Register reports that Biden will introduce legislation overhauling US policy on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. "Our actions from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo really have undermined our worldwide credibility," Biden said. "We, as they say, have created more terrorists. This is an attempt to legislatively redefine what I thought are basic precepts of the American criminal justice system that we have just blown away."
CLINTON:
The
New York Times examines the female vote from the latest NYT/CBS poll, and it notes that women view Clinton "more favorably than men do, but she still faces skepticism among some women, especially those who are older and those who are married." For instance: "A majority of single women view Mrs. Clinton favorably, while married women are split." Also: "The poll shows that Mrs. Clinton might find additional supporters among certain groups. A third of politically independent women say they have not made up their minds about her. Similarly, liberal women make up one of her most reliable bases of support (66 percent of them have a favorable view) although one-fourth of them are still undecided."
Per the liberal news site TalkingPointsMemo, here's the letter to Clinton from the Pentagon we discussed above. Yet when one reads the letter in full context, it's hard to describe it as a full rebuke. It reads, frankly, more bureaucratic than anything else. In fact, one could interpret that the Pentagon is conceding they may have some contingency plans but won't talk about them publicly.
Remember when Russ Feingold was going to be the next maverick leftie politician? Remember when he was going to be the anti-war answer in the '08 Dem primary? A new biography of the Wisconsin senator is coming out next week, and US News has an excerpt of a fascinating spat between Feingold and Clinton over the campaign finance legislation that bears Feingold's name.
EDWARDS:
In the new
Time (we're still getting used to this whole Friday release thing), reporter Eric Pooley seems to be truly touched by the tour. Here's his lead: "After three days on the road with John Edwards in some of the poorest places in America, it's not only the depth of human need that hits you, but the layered and interlocking complexity of it — the way a complete lack of health care, for instance, can all by itself consign someone to ignorance and joblessness. But you're also struck by how so many of the people who have been dealt these difficult hands manage to play them with grace and fortitude. That may sound trite to some ears, but it probably wouldn't to anyone who has spent time with James Lowe," a disabled coal miner from E. Kent. "Maybe Edwards succeeds in linking those problems to the concerns of the middle class and ignites his candidacy. And maybe he doesn't. Either way, he did some good this week."
Meanwhile, the Economist weighs in on Edwards and claims that he “is a man of big plans. No other presidential candidate, of either party, can match the sheer quantity, let alone the ambition, of his policy ideas. He has grand, progressive, goals—to end the war in Iraq (obviously), provide universal health care, address global warming, eliminate poverty in America within 30 years—and detailed blueprints of how to do it all… If Obamamania fades, or the Clinton machine stalls, an Edwards nomination is just possible. But even if the man himself does not make it, the Democrats' presidential platform will be shaped by Mr Edwards's plans."
The Boston Globe front-pages Edwards' poverty tour with the headline "Poverty is key theme for Democrats in '08." It even has a pull quote from Edwards and complimentary photo in which Edwards is framed between an American flag and a large image of Martin Luther King Jr.
Edwards’ hometown paper, however, gave it a more skeptical review.
The Des Moines Register also highlights that Edwards, in Iowa yesterday, was warmly received for highlighting poverty and for his sharp words blasting President Bush's record on the issue. "I want George Bush to come to these places that I just visited with me and look in the eyes of the people that I saw and tell them why he's turned his back on them."
OBAMA:
The
Concord Monitor has the details of Obama's 11th visit to New Hampshire yesterday, where he drew 500 folks beside Lake Sunapee. He used the visit to call on the state’s two GOP senators to back the plan that Democrats were pushing during the all-night session earlier this week. "The crowd wildly cheered Obama's statements on Iraq, despite heavy rains and Obama's late arrival, 48 minutes after the campaign told supporters that they would begin serving ice cream."
The AP's coverage of this stop focused on an answer Obama gave about whether potential genocide in Iraq was a reason to stay. “‘Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven't done,’ Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea,’ he said. Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, said it's likely there would be increased bloodshed if U.S. forces left Iraq. But he said there was a greater risk in Iraq by staying.”
RICHARDSON:
How many times have we seen a version of this
story? A government official leaves for the private sector and sees his personal assets "soar." Bill Richardson saw a 10-fold increase in his personal assets after working in the private sector for just two years before becoming New Mexico governor. Here's the kindest way someone has described the amazing brisk policy evolution going on with Richardson:
Salon's Walter Schapiro calls it an "in-progress campaign platform."
