The Thursday ‘BushWhack’ing

The weekend is nigh! The weekend is nigh! Must be why today’s ‘Daily’ is so damn long…

• A new a new CNN poll of polls indicates that Sen. Obama is increasing his lead over Sen. John “not too important” McCain…
• With quite a few evangelical groups saying they'll sit this election out because they’re disaffected with the gop’s leadership and nominee, Sen. Obama's campaign has revealed an effort to court young evangelicals and Catholics. (It could work… especially with the younger crowd. If Obama can make any inroads with evangelicals, his chances of winning will increase quite a bit. Stay tuned…) Another poll shows that Obama is picking up support from older female voters; aka – former Sen. Clinton supporters. Again, if this trend continues, November could be huge…
• Not surprisingly, a certain member of Obama’s VP search team has resigned his post as Jim Johnson stepped down following questions about a mortgage he received. I agree this was a mis-step by Obama’s campaign, but rather than let it play out in the press and let it fester, McCain’s camp tried to make it out to be something larger that it was and brought their own judgment within their campaign into question. Tucker Bonds, a McCain spokesman, said Johnson's resignation "raises serious questions about Barack Obama's judgment. […] By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. […] America can't afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That's not change we can believe in.” Naturally, Obama’s camp responded much more strongly when spokesman Bill Burton said, "We don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge the lobbyists from their staff and only did so because they said it was a 'perception problem.” (Pwned…)
• Dennis Kucinich’s impeach effort is, not surprisingly, trapped in congressional limbo… (where it will, unfortunately, probably stay… or not)
• The U.S. military released video today from an unmanned drone that shows airstrikes along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The strikes targeted fighters engaged with coalition forces.
• A new WSJ/NBC poll finds that voters don’t like “President” Bush on a personal level. From the survey; “By 60% to 30%, they have negative views of him, his worst showing ever. […] By a majority of 54% to 42%, voters say they’d ‘prefer a president ‘who will bring greater changes’ over one who is ‘more experienced and tested.’” (Hmmmmm…)
• The House passed a nearly $15 billion Amtrak bill that will fund the railroad over the next five years. The passage was a stunning example of bipartisanship as it passed 311-104. Naturally, because it aims to help the average American, the White House is threatening a veto because they say the bill doesn't hold Amtrak accountable (hello pot, this is the White House – you’re black). Problem with that threat is that it’s empty because similar legislation has passed the Senate already and both houses have more than enough support to override a veto… so it seems the White House will get pwned and something that could help ease travel costs on the average American will be passed. Way to go Congress, keep it up)
• In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled this morning that “foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.” (Ouch, talk about a slap in the face of this administration. I love it…)
• Obama and McCain are talking about their tax plan this week, and a non-partisan analysis of them shows that Obama’s “offers three times the break for middle class families” than McCain’s that would “steer the bulk of the benefits to the wealthiest families.” (Nooooooo???? Realllllllyyyyy??? McCain’s would benefit wealthy families more?? I can’t accept that, damn liberal media bias… it’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form)
• And have we mentioned? That Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice banged the war drums at Iran once again? Speaking during Bush’s Euro Trip, she warned Iran that the “world” is losing “patience” with them… (of course by ‘world’ she means “President” Bush and by ‘patience’ she means “before the end of his term.” That reminds me, I should really finish that bomb shelter...)