The Batman pictures do very well when America is in a dark mood. The Dark Knight opens weekend after next.
… Not so serious on this holiday weekend as the national service essay on the 4th itself, but serious enough.
** SUNDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is off the trail in Chicago.
John McCain is off the trail for a third day in a row in Sedona, Arizona.
After being booed during a satellite address to the National Education Association yesterday when he again called for merit pay for teachers — all of it, obviously, by design — Obama is readying for a week-long economic tour to counter McCain’s week-long attempt to gain traction on economic concerns with the Arizona senator’s new “Jobs First” theme under the direction of new campaign director Steve Schmidt.
** ECONOMY TRUMPS NATIONAL SECURITY IN FLIP FROM ‘04. According to the Rasmussen poll, owned by Republican Scott Rasmussen, US voters’ priorities have flipped from what they were when President Bush narrowly won re-election over John Kerry. In 2004, 41% of voters believed that national security was the top issue area, to only 26% saying that about economic concerns. But today, with the economy slumping, record oil prices, and so on, that’s completely reversed. Now 43% name the economy, while only 26% cite national security.
** OBAMA LEAD OVER MCCAIN STEADY GOING INTO 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND. In the latest Rasmussen tracking poll, taken just before the 4th of July, Barack Obama continues to hold a 7-point lead over John McCain, 47% to 40%. More often than not, the candidate who leads at this stage of the campaign ends up winning, though there is always the counter-example of Michael Dukakis. Whose unfortunate campaign manager didn’t think the American flag was an issue …
** HALF SAY AMERICA’S BEST DAYS ARE BEHIND HER. In a special Rasmussen poll for the 4th of July, 50% of American voters say the nation’s best days are behind her. Just 32% say the future will bring America’s greatest years. Only 25% of women voters agree with the minority opinion.
** MY NEW PODCAST. The road ahead.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** SATURDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Butte, Montana and St. Louis Missouri.
John McCain is in Sedona, Arizona, off the campaign trail.
Next week, I’ll be explaining here and elsewhere what the McCain campaign shakeup means — with exclusive material on new campaign director and old NWN friend Steve Schmidt — and what to expect from both the Obama and McCain campaigns.
For one thing, Obama and Hillary Clinton will raise money together next week in New York. For Obama. So much for those widespread predictions of blood in the streets of Denver.
UPDATE: England’s own Lewis Hamilton won Sunday’s British Grand Prix in smashing fashion in the rain, lapping everyone in the field other than the runner-up. At the midpoint of the F1 season, the young Mercedes-McLaren star is now tied for the world championship lead with defending champ Kimi Raikonnen and his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa. It was an exciting race in the rain, as there multiple spin-outs, with Hamilton winning through with two key moves. First, he passed poll-winner Heikki Kovalainen on a curve, in the wet. Then, barely leading the flying Finn Raikonnen, he switched to more wet-appropriate tires when the two pitted simultaneously, as the Ferrari champ stuck to his existing tires, gunned it out of the pit lane a split second ahead of the “Iceman,” and then built a huge lead.
** F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX ON SUNDAY. The globe-spanning Formula One racing circuit reaches the midpoint of its season this weekend with the British Grand Prix. The race goes off live at 5 AM Pacific; shown on tape delay by Fox at 10 AM Pacific. England’s favorite Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, F1’s first black driver who was last year’s world championship runner-up by a single point in his rooke season, continues his battle against three other top drivers for the title: Reigning champion Kimi Raikonnen of Ferrari, Raikonnen’s teammate Felipe Massa, and BMW’s Robert Kubica.
The brand-new teaser trailer for Quantum of Solace, sequel to the outstanding Bond reboot Casino Royale, coming in November.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil closed at $144.18 a barrel on Friday, on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran and reports of a mysterious supply drop in the US. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
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27 Comments
Capitol Boy:Steve Schmidt better get MCain’s act together or the Republicans are going to get humiliated.
Jul 5, 2008 - 11:18 am Jonas Blane:The new Bond movie looks great.
Jul 5, 2008 - 11:27 am Jonas Blane:I wonder if “The Dark Knight” will be bigger than Indiana Jones. Everybody’s talking about it.
Jul 5, 2008 - 11:34 am Capitol Boy:Who was Dukakis’s dumb campaign manager?
BB:More often than not, the candidate who leads at this stage of the campaign ends up winning, though there is always the counter-example of Michael Dukakis. Whose unfortunate campaign manager didn’t think the American flag was an issue …
Jul 5, 2008 - 11:35 am Sacramento Solon:Do you mean it’s back to being “economy, stupid”?????
Jul 5, 2008 - 12:46 pm Bill Bradley:Could be.
Jul 5, 2008 - 1:40 pm Bill Bradley:Not quite how I’d put it, but the answer is Susan Estrich.
>Capitol Boy:
Who was Dukakis’s dumb campaign manager?
BB:More often than not, the candidate who leads at this stage of the campaign ends up winning, though there is always the counter-example of Michael Dukakis. Whose unfortunate campaign manager didn’t think the American flag was an issue …
Jul 5, 2008 - 1:40 pm Bill Bradley:Jul 5, 2008 - 11:35 am
The buzz is powerful. But it may be a little too dark for that.
>Jonas Blane:
I wonder if “The Dark Knight” will be bigger than Indiana Jones. Everybody’s talking about it.
Jul 5, 2008 - 1:42 pm Bill Bradley:Jul 5, 2008 - 11:34 am
I think it’s going to be another excellent Bond film.
>Jonas Blane:
The new Bond movie looks great.
Jul 5, 2008 - 1:43 pm Bill Bradley:Jul 5, 2008 - 11:27 am
Indeed.
>Capitol Boy:
Steve Schmidt better get MCain’s act together or the Republicans are going to get humiliated.
Jul 5, 2008 - 1:44 pm Pat Skipper:Jul 5, 2008 - 11:18 am
Obama is not Dukakis by a long shot. I always found estrich to supremely annoying, blaming the entire mess on her candidate. Sadly, Dukakis was such a boy scout that he tossed sasso aside, which I view as a fatal blunder. Of course, Hart should have been the candidate, anyway. Axelrod puts dukakis’s people to shame. He’s got obama running right to the clinton center, just as he should. Suddenly liberals who apparently weren’t listening too closely to obama are shocked SHOCKED to discover the man’s a politician and not some messiah. I, for one, am relieved to see it, as i don’t put much faith in re-creating the wheel when it comes to electoral politics. Just win, baby.
Jul 5, 2008 - 6:14 pm Ann:Your “Pajamas” colleagues in the right corner - lol - are real righty wingnuts.
Jul 6, 2008 - 1:03 pm Bill Bradley:Thanks.
Jul 6, 2008 - 1:47 pm Bill Bradley:Messiahs don’t get elected president of the United States; politicians do. Obama needs to protect his uniqueness. Total triangulation would be a mistake. But he’s not in trouble yet.
Dukakis would never have been the nominee had Hart not been followed around — not by journos, but by investigators and infiltrators — and destabilized. John Sasso I know, and with him in charge, Dukakis could still have beaten George Bush I. Susan Estrich had no clue.
>Pat Skipper:
Obama is not Dukakis by a long shot. I always found estrich to supremely annoying, blaming the entire mess on her candidate. Sadly, Dukakis was such a boy scout that he tossed sasso aside, which I view as a fatal blunder. Of course, Hart should have been the candidate, anyway. Axelrod puts dukakis’s people to shame. He’s got obama running right to the clinton center, just as he should. Suddenly liberals who apparently weren’t listening too closely to obama are shocked SHOCKED to discover the man’s a politician and not some messiah. I, for one, am relieved to see it, as i don’t put much faith in re-creating the wheel when it comes to electoral politics. Just win, baby.
Jul 6, 2008 - 1:49 pm Pat Skipper:Jul 5, 2008 - 6:14 pm
I sometimes daydream about how things might have gone had Hart won. I was a true believer. He had many innovative ideas. I particularly remember his plans for military realignment. We probably wouldnt have heard of GWB had GHWB lost. And the Clintons? Who knows?
John Sasso could have put duke over the top, I agree. It’s hard to imagine what a Dukakis presidency might have been like, however. I scramble for the remote every time Estrich appears.
Jul 6, 2008 - 3:07 pm Capitol Boy:What on Earth do the Republicans have to say about the economy they fracked up?
More tax cuts for the rich.
More profits for the oil companies.
More free trade deals with 3rd world countries to put Americans out of work.
Bring it on.
Jul 6, 2008 - 5:01 pm Sam Loomis:Economy is old school. Its dollars per gallon, stupid.
Just look at the lineup at huffingtonpst.com - fabulously wealthy environmentalists mostly unaffected by the cost of gas people who drive to work everyday and drive to places on weekends must pay ( ~ $500 a month).
It is very un-PC to whine about gas price. But at some point ones own life is more important than all this PC envirobullshit.
China is currently going through an Eisenhower era style interstate highway explosion. They are going full blast at enabling another 300 million car drivers. US Senators are proposing we go back to 55 MPH max. Total bullshit! Powering my car with corn, shit, or sunshine is simply not going to work.
You know. Are there any fucking leaders in this country anymore?
Jul 6, 2008 - 7:18 pm larry:Sam, I think you are living in a bubble of another century.
Jul 6, 2008 - 8:01 pm larry:Brasky,
In Monday’s NY Times William Kristol is hailing the arrival of Mike Murphy as the savior of the McCain campaign.
Jul 6, 2008 - 10:53 pm Bill Bradley:Thing is, Murphy has not actually, you know, arrived …
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:00 pm Bill Bradley:But if he ever does, I know him quite well, too.
It would be interesting to have the strategist who screwed up Schwarzenegger and the strategist who revived Schwarzenegger working together on the same campaign …
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:02 pm Bill Bradley:A few drinks, Sam? That’s not actually tracking …
>Sam Loomis:
Economy is old school. Its dollars per gallon, stupid.
Just look at the lineup at huffingtonpst.com - fabulously wealthy environmentalists mostly unaffected by the cost of gas people who drive to work everyday and drive to places on weekends must pay ( ~ $500 a month).
It is very un-PC to whine about gas price. But at some point ones own life is more important than all this PC envirobullshit.
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:03 pm Bill Bradley:There would have been no George W. Bush beyond Texas. Bill Clinton might have emerged, but only by continuing his earliest role in politics as a Hart protege.
>Pat Skipper:
I sometimes daydream about how things might have gone had Hart won. I was a true believer. He had many innovative ideas. I particularly remember his plans for military realignment. We probably wouldnt have heard of GWB had GHWB lost. And the Clintons? Who knows?
John Sasso could have put duke over the top, I agree. It’s hard to imagine what a Dukakis presidency might have been like, however. I scramble for the remote every time Estrich appears.
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:05 pm Capitol Boy:Jul 6, 2008 - 3:07 pm
Good times.
Jul 7, 2008 - 12:12 am Jonas Blane:I want to see video of Obama on the 4th.
Jul 7, 2008 - 5:49 am Capitol Boy:Me, too.
Jul 7, 2008 - 7:48 am Bill Bradley:Incidentally, NWN passed 66,000 comments sometime in the past week.
Jul 9, 2008 - 10:04 am