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The blast-off didn't materialize, and the Dalibama found his numbers falling in Ohio, Pennsylvania an Florida. Even worse, the late night comics were having a field day with his "inflate your tires, end the energy crisis" pronouncement. Michelle Obama returned to the political lists, and is her habit, she portrayed a grim America the outlines of which just don't register with most voters, even among many of the single moms and working mothers she was appealing to. Mrs. Obama told a crowd she didn't want Obama to run, but then changed her mind: But then I had to take a...

LAST weekend, Barack Obama dazzled crowds in Europe. Discussing international security, he spoke eloquently about needing an American-European partnership to defeat terrorism. In Paris, he said that “terrorism cannot be solved by any one country alone,” and that we should establish partnerships. In Berlin, he expressed hope that Europeans and Americans “can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks” of terrorists worldwide. But there’s one problem. We already have a counterterrorism partnership with the European Union. And it works. Indeed, despite news media caricatures of aggressive Americans feuding with pacifist Europeans, both groups are quite serious...

Barack Obama's claims that he was not going to use a planned visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as a photo-op were blown out of the water tonight by a spokesman for Landstuhl who told Stars and Stripes that plans had been made for Obama's campaign press contingent to film the candidate as he entered and left the hospital.U.S. European Command spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian said that local and traveling press would have been brought to the entrance of Landstuhl to film Obama entering and leaving the hospital.The article also noted that it would have been permissible for Obama...

His endorsement of the Democratic candidate, against John McCain, his Republican rival, would usually be considered unusual for a Conservative. But during his recent European tour, Mr Obama proved successful at winning over politicians of all persuasions, charming David Cameron, the Conservative leader, who he met for talks in his House of Commons office. A survey carried out last month found that a third of Tory MPs want the Democrat to emerge triumphant. But the Mayor of London is the most high profile Conservative publicly to throw his weight behind Mr Obama. He told this month's Square Mile magazine: "I...

The Washington Post published a smart, thorough takedown Wednesday of the baseless charge that Barack Obama spurned a visit with wounded troops because he couldn't turn the trip into a public relations coup. SNIP After reading the Post story online, I ventured to the adjoining public comment board to see how the public was receiving news about the bogus McCain attack. I shouldn't have bothered. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, the washingtonpost.com forum had been flooded with nearly 1,400 messages. A few ventured toward rational discussion of Obama and his overseas travels, but the forum also overflowed with ignorance, profanity, impertinence and...

U.S. News & World Report Despite media raves about Barack Obama's weeklong trip to the Mideast and Europe, Republican strategists say his nation-hopping exposed major vulnerabilities that they hope to exploit in the fall. GOP strategists, including advisers to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, concede that Obama demonstrated an ability to seize the moment and make the most of his opportunities. He lived up to expectations that he would perform well; he dealt smoothly with pressure; and he didn't make any big gaffes. He drew huge, receptive crowds in Berlin. But McCain advisers see a weakness in that Obama emphasized...

Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally. Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, "This is the moment . . ....

During the Democratic primary battle, blasting the private security firm Blackwater USA as a bunch of unaccountable trigger-happy mercenaries was an easy crowd pleaser - particularly after the September 2006 Nisoor Square incident and a subsequent congressional report that stated the company's use of force was "frequent and extensive". Hillary Clinton announced she was sponsoring legislation banning the use of private security contractors. Barack Obama didn't sign up to this and would not rule out using Blackwater and its ilk. But he made clear his disdain for the outfit, trumpeting in Iowa City last October his proposal for "tougher government...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama's lead over John McCain, having reached a nine percentage point margin a few days ago, has been reduced for the second Gallup report in a row, and is now at a 6-point, 47% to 41%, margin among registered voters in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 26-28...

MIDI - LIVING ON A PRAYER

Has Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's chances of landing the coveted spot as Obama's Veep risen? According to stories at both The Politico and the Washington Post Kaine has risen to the level of serious contender, along with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. The WaPo story has close Kaine associates acknowledging that Kaine has told them that he has had "very serious" conversations with Obama about joining the ticket.

The Sen. Barack Obama campaign held a conference call this morning on one of the key battleground states in this race: Pennsylvania. Team O, led by Gov. Ed Rendell, stressed the importance of registering and winning over the one-million-plus, un-registered voters spread out over the Keystone State.

It's complicated. Pennsylvania is a "purple" state that must go Democrat blue instead of Republican red for Barack Obama to win the November election. John McCain does not need Pennsylvania to win the White House, but Obama sure does.

So now that you know that the rest of the world loves Obama, how about you? I raised that question last Thursday night on my radio talk show at Washington, DC’s 630 WMAL, albeit rather facetiously. Despite what the forces at CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Rueters, The New York Times, and “CNN International” may want me to believe, I don’t assume that “the world loves Obama,” anymore than I assume that “the world hates Bush.” But now that the week of cathartic revelry is behind us and the excitement has subsided a little bit, it’s time for some reflection....

Berlin, Paris, Kalamazoo. He could have given this speech anywhere. Obama goes to Berlin and winds up in Bangor. But maybe that was the point. Unlike JFK, Clinton, or Reagan, Obama's purpose in Berlin was essentially self-serving. The great cause at stake was his own campaign — not the threat of Communism, or adapting to a post-Communist world. The great purpose to which Obama was asking his Berlin audience to rally was his own presidential aspirations. Pretty thin, not the stuff of history books. And so far the American public agrees. All of the hoopla leading up to this moment...

Return to the Article July 26, 2008Obama the PridefulBy Jeff Dobbs When Hillary Clinton was beating the stuffing out of Obama beginning in March, she was paying off the notion that Obama is elitist, via the infamous bitter and clingy remark. Though Hillary eventually succumbed to Obama, elitism remains the candidate's fatal flaw. Many people are noticing the high regard Obama has for himself as a defining hallmark of the candidate and his campaign. He has proven unable to stop the flow of telling signs. His attempt to earn Joe Sixpack cred by bowling a line blew up in his...

While Senator Barack Obama was on his world tour, Senator John McCain should have been busy—neither planning to speak at an Gulf Coast oil rig, visiting with the Dalai Lama, nor whining about his coverage in the press. Instead, McCain should have paid a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. There, of course, fifteen counties have just been declared federal disaster areas, thousands are still without power, and an assessed $750 million dollar clean-up task awaits. All this as a result of Hurricane Dolly. The two contrasting images of the presidential candidates would have been staggering. Imagine: Obama assuring hordes...

Obama is not even feet dry on U.S. soil, and McCain loosens a few of his teeth for him.

LONDON — He stood in the shadow of the Temple of Hercules, held forth at the Élysée Palace and convened a one-man news conference here on Saturday outside No. 10 Downing Street, all with a simple aim: to make a one-term senator from Illinois look presidential to voters back home in America. But along the way to appearing presidential, did Senator Barack Obama cross a political line — as he and his advisers quietly feared, and some Republicans hoped — by coming across as too presumptuous? “In terms of raw politics, in the short-term there’s just as much downside as...

Here's the good part: In Iraq, it’s not new that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has wanted to take control of his own country. But there’s always been this gap between his assessment of his abilities and American commanders’ saying he’s not up to it. As president, faced with that difference between what he says he can do and what the commanders say he can do, how would you choose between them? Iraq is a sovereign country. Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their...