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By Ellen Goodman, Patricia O'Brien $18.85
Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death
By Robert Scheer Hardcover $13.16
$35
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 AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
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Mitt Romney sure is acting like a man who has it in the bag, and he practically does after racking up more wins lately in the GOP primary sweepstakes. That means, of course, that it’s time to show President Obama what he’s got, and on Wednesday he threw down by accusing Obama of ... “rhetorical excess.” Wait, what?
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 AP / Alex Brandon
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On Thursday, Supreme Court hopeful Elena Kagan observed the nominee tradition of making the rounds on Capitol Hill by dropping in on key senators from both sides of the aisle, and it seems she made some key gains—even Scott Brown might vote to confirm her!
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 AP / Farzana Wahidy
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Hamid Karzai is having issues in his second term as Afghanistan’s president. It seems that the Afghan parliament has nixed 17 of his 24 Cabinet nominees.
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 AP / Charles Dharapak
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If she is approved by the Senate, Dr. Regina Benjamin has a big job ahead of her as the next surgeon general during a time of upheaval in the health care industry. Luckily, given her résumé, she seems more than qualified for the position.
Posted on Jul 13, 2009
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 White House / Pete Souza
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Apparently nobody wants to be President Obama’s commerce secretary. The second candidate for the post, Sen. Judd Gregg, has dropped out. The Republican senator cited “irresolvable conflicts,” including the stimulus package and the census. That’s what you get for trying to make nice with those fussy Republicans.
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 telegraph.co.uk
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Well, the Academy has spoken, picking this year’s Oscar nominees, and they couldn’t be safer or more boring ... except for those categories in which “Milk” figures in somewhere. At least that’s what the San Francisco Chronicle’s completely unimpressed critic Mick LaSalle thinks.
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One of the cardinal rules for any politician or spouse thereof must be: Don’t ever ad-lib on “Oprah.” Jill Biden found this out during a taping of Winfrey’s show on Monday when she let it slip that Barack Obama initially offered Joe Biden either the vice president position or that of secretary of state.
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 Flickr / sskennel
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As Sen. Saxby Chambliss squares off Tuesday against challenger Jim Martin in Georgia’s runoff election, a certain Alaska governor has managed to work her way back into the spotlight. Stumping for Chambliss, Sarah Palin continues to draw throngs of Republicans while others wish she would simply go away.
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 AP photo / Susan Walsh
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By Bruce Fein — Would the Republican VP nominee vote for herself? During her debate with Joe Biden, Sarah Palin said “we have to fight for” and “protect” our freedom, but her party and the policies she seems to support have crippled American liberty.
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Bill Boyarsky — As was the case in the first presidential debate, Barack Obama emerged from Tuesday night’s confrontation with John McCain in Nashville, Tenn., in command of the situation. The Democratic nominee looked calm, confident and presidential as he won their second contest.
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Truthdig is excited to collaborate with Capzles.com on a unique new way of telling a story – in this case, about VP hopeful (and, yes, possible president) Sarah Palin – using video, audio and text “moments” along an interactive timeline.
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“Saturday Night Live” alumna Tina Fey returned once again to fulfill her comedic duty on the Sept. 27 episode of NBC’s comedy show, spoofing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s one-on-one interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric earlier in the week. Fey’s fellow “SNL” comedian Amy Poehler dropped her Hillary Clinton act to play Couric in this clip.
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 gopconvention2008.com
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Although critics are still accusing the “elite media” of unfairly scrutinizing Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, less than two months remain before the Nov. 4 election to suss out who she is and what she stands for. Saturday’s New York Times article on Palin will no doubt draw more protests, but the Times’ findings are worth voters’ close consideration before they head to the polling booths.
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John McCain may have gotten more than he bargained for when he sat down on a comfy couch with the ladies of “The View” Friday morning, only to be cornered by Joy Behar about whether or not he really lives up to his prized “maverick” rep anymore. In response, McCain challenged Behar, along with others who have posed the same question, to tell him exactly how he’s changed.
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To his credit, ABC’s Charlie Gibson posed some practical and pertinent questions in the first installment of his interview with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and he didn’t let her off the hook when she conflated “national security” with “energy independence.” Updated
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Politicians, take note: “Local” interviews are no longer all that local. In this interview, Rob Caldwell, anchor for WCSH in Portland, Maine, asks Republican presidential nominee John McCain about his running mate Sarah Palin’s credentials when it comes to “national security, diplomacy, foreign policy” and “the fight against Islamist extremism.”
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In this clip from the sit-down session with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, Gibson asks Palin to elaborate upon a statement she made earlier this year about the war in Iraq: “Our national leaders are sending them [U.S. military members] out on a task that is from God.” Here’s her response, in which she claims she was paraphrasing President Abraham Lincoln.
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 Flickr / Photo Mojo
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Last spring, it seemed like tug of war over the Democratic presidential nomination would never end, but now that seems part of the distant past, as Barack Obama enters the final stretch leading to November’s election. Luckily, his relations with Bill Clinton appear to have improved over time, and the former president now says he’s willing to roll up his sleeves to help Obama’s campaign however he can.
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Thespian and concerned citizen Matt Damon would like some answers about this Sarah Palin person we keep hearing about whose unlikely career arc might just catapult the bouffant-wearing hockey mom from the snowy wilds of Wasilla, Alaska, into an international staring match with tiger-slaying Russian judo master Vladimir Putin.
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“Let’s give the Lord a hand for our governor,” says Ed Kalnin, senior pastor at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, after Sarah Palin holds forth about the role of God’s will in her work as Alaska’s governor in this widely circulated clip from Palin’s visit to her former church last June.
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John McCain, a lobbyist and fixture of Congress for more than 30 years, nominee of the incumbent party and self-proclaimed foot soldier in the Reagan revolution, tried to convince Americans Thursday night that only he could bring real reform to that wretched place called Washington. Updated
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 cafepress.com
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The GOP merchandising machine is kicking into gear following VP nominee Sarah Palin’s Wasilla-to-Washington pep rally on Wednesday night, angling to compete with those ubiquitous Shepard Fairey Obama T-shirts and such by offering “Sarah Is My Homegirl” cotton separates and, yes, “Wonder Palin” thong underwear.
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 AP photo / Stephan Savoia
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By Robert Scheer — Welcome to the People’s Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state’s Republican governor.
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Here’s the hopeful commercial the McCain campaign recently released to introduce Sarah Palin to voters around the country, featuring a hopeful soundtrack and bittersweet reminders of a more hopeful time in the McCain presidential campaign—as in, five days ago—when Palin was really, really new to McCain too!
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 AP photo / Stephan Savoia
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Many Republicans who originally planned to spend Monday in St. Paul with other Republican National Convention-goers were compelled to change their plans, thanks to Hurricane Gustav—including the GOP’s own presumptive presidential nominee, John McCain, who was busy over the weekend playing the anti-Bush when it came to disaster preparedness.
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Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview with his vice presidential pick, Joe Biden, to talk about why he chose Biden and what he thinks about rival John McCain’s choice, Gov. Sarah Palin, for whom Obama has a couple of nice words before noting that she “subscribes to John McCain’s agenda.”
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 AP photo / LM Otero
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Considering that she is the source of much of the McCain family fortune, it’s not surprising that Cindy McCain says she was offended by Barack Obama’s assessment that John McCain is out of touch with the middle class, as well as by the Obama campaign’s ads about the McCains’ multiple homes.
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“Fox & Friends” co-host and international relations genius Steve Doocy filled some time before John McCain’s official VP unveiling extravaganza on Friday by suggesting that McCain’s chosen She-publican, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is actually a formidable player on the world stage because of Alaska’s proximity to Russia.
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 AP photo / Matt Sayles
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In what was perhaps the most highly anticipated (and no doubt the most highly scrutinized) moment of his political career thus far, newly nominated Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was saddled with a huge task Thursday night, but by the end, Obama had both thrown down the gauntlet and risen to the occasion—at least in the eyes of thousands of supporters who came to see his history-making acceptance speech at Denver’s Invesco Field.
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 Flickr / Photo Mojo
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According to a one-line report on CNN, a “source close to former President Bill Clinton” has tipped off the news network that, unlike Hillary, Bill Clinton will be conspicuously absent from the crowd watching soon-to-be-official Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday.
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 AP photo / John Raoux
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By Robert Scheer — Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran’s nuclear program is unchecked and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president.
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A possible plot to kill Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during his acceptance speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention was foiled in Denver on Monday night when at least three suspects were arrested, authorities reported.
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 AP photo / M.Spencer Green
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The New York Times sheds some light on the back-room dealings, global developments and veep-vetting sessions that went into whittling down Barack Obama’s short list of vice presidential candidates to the final contender, who heard Obama’s final pitch while at the dentist’s office.
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Both Barack Obama and John McCain have recently changed their positions when it comes to dealing with the burgeoning energy crisis and America’s all-too-apparent dependence on foreign oil, but that doesn’t mean each presumptive nominee isn’t going to keep pointing out the other’s potential inconsistencies and flaws, as Obama’s new ad here demonstrates.
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 AP photo / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — The adoring media coverage of Barack Obama’s international tour is masking the reality that, whether he wins or loses, we’re almost certain to be stuck in Iraq for a long time, thanks to the legacy of George Bush.
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 AP photo
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Barack Obama embarked on his international diplomacy tour—a key step in raising his profile on the world stage and demonstrating his readiness to take over the American presidency—with an important first major stop. The Illinois senator landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday as part of congressional delegation surveying the current situation in that troubled nation.
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 AP photo / Sergei Chuzavkov
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We all know about this week’s Controversial Satire Attempt by that wicked, bad New Yorker magazine, which critics can now bash for being wicked instead of just elitist. (Boring!) That particular faux pas rocked the ever-intertwined worlds of politics and publishing and seemed to prove that poking fun at a certain presumptive presidential nominee can be a precarious enterprise, if not an absolute no-no.
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 washingtonpost.com
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The third time’s no charm for Fox News, which has been forced yet again to apologize to Barack Obama for making racist comments against the presumed Democratic nominee. This marks the third “oops” moment for the television channel, all in the span of only two weeks.
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 AP photo / Jose Luis Magana
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Regardless of the end result of her efforts, Hillary Clinton has endured a grueling trial by fire in recent months in her historic bid for the presidency. The Nation’s Katha Pollitt points out the gains she believes Clinton made for women in and beyond the strictly political realm, arguing that ” ... Women and men of every party and candidate preference, and every ethnicity too, owe Hillary Clinton a standing ovation, even if they can’t stand her.”
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 Richard Phibbs / HillaryClinton.com
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Inching closer to concession, Hillary Clinton shifted gears on Thursday, taking a different tone in an e-mail to her allies and readying them to back her rival for the top spot on the Democratic presidential ticket, Barack Obama. However, she will still wait until Saturday to make any kind of formal announcement about her status in the race.
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 commons.wikimedia.org
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This isn’t the first time someone has accused Sen. John McCain of not being conservative enough, but now former Republican congressman-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr is upping the ante on his critique of McCain’s conservatism by running against him in this year’s presidential election.
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 AP photo / Bob Bird
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Despite the doomsday tones that some in the blogosphere and in more traditional media circles took in their assessment of Hillary Clinton’s chances of nabbing the Democratic nomination after last Tuesday’s primaries, supporters have flocked to West Virginia. They are working hard there to keep their favorite candidate in the running, even if it means dealing with heckling from some locals who don’t share their mission.
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 AP photo / Mary Altaffer
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In a bid to clarify his stance on the (current) Iraq war, as well as just how long he’d be “fine” with maintaining a U.S. military presence in the region, Sen. John McCain held one of those town hall meetings that are so de rigueur among campaigning politicians these days, this time in Denver, where he performed some semantic gymnastics for his audience at the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center.
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 flickr.com
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All right, people, it’s high time someone dealt squarely with this question: Does John McCain have anger-management issues? Monday brought word on this potential problem, the Republican Party’s sword of Damocles, from provocateur Christopher Hitchens, who dares to ask “whether [McCain’s] elevator goes all the way to the top.”
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 msnbc.com
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As the race for the Democratic nomination slogs ahead, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Barack Obama with a 10-point national lead over Hillary Clinton, with the added insult of six in 10 voters seeing Clinton as neither honest nor trustworthy.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democrats’ hopes of regaining the White House hinge on how the party proceeds in the coming weeks and months. If momentum or civility reigns, they’ve got a shot. But if back-room dealing and cheating prevail, don’t hold your breath.
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 nytimes.com
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President Bush issued an ultimatum of sorts on Thursday over his embattled nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, who refuses to say whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture. Bush said if the Democrats block the nomination, it “would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war.”
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Political analyst James Carville shocked the crowd at CNN’s America Votes 2008 gala by suggesting that Jeb Bush would be the Republican nominee. According to the Ragin’ Cajun: “There is nobody in this field who can rally the Republican Party; he’s the only person in America that can do it.”
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 pbwt.com
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President Bush has selected former federal judge Michael Mukasey as his new attorney general. Mukasey has a reputation for being tough and impatient, which is fortunate, considering that he’ll have only 15 months to turn around an ailing Justice Department.
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Stephen Colbert takes on Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, who has argued that homosexuality is a disease that can be cured.
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