Obama Opposes Slavery Reparations

This will go a long way towards ending racial division in America. Although it will cost Obama votes from some militant blacks, this issue does nothing but create resentment. The answer is to further racial equality through creating a equal playing field for all our citizens. I just wished Obama would come out against affirmative action. Although he opposes racial quotas.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders.

The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all.

"I have said in the past - and I'll repeat again - that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently.

Some two dozen members of Congress are co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations - that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supports the legislation, too. Cities around the country, including Obama's home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Obama has worked to be seen as someone who will bring people together, not divide them into various interest groups with checklists of demands. Supporting reparations could undermine that image and make him appear to be pandering to black voters.

Bicyclists in New York

When did having a bicycle give people special privileges? I'm standing here in a subway care on my way to work. Standing next to me on the typically crowded morning subway car is a guy with a bike. It doesn't occur to this numbskull that there is no room for a bicycle. He doesn't care; he's priviledged.

It is common on the streets of New York to see bicyclists riding on the sidewalk. And while the rest of us, including cars, must stop at the red light, those rules don't apply to a biker. And it can dangerous for all. There have been cases where bicyclists have run over and killed pedestrians. So it is dangerous. NY City government seems oblivious to the issue. Maybe one day some politician's mother will be run over and then something will be done.

While I was writing this the train was delayed for several minutes. This has also become an increasing problem. I don't expect that to improve either, especially in these weak economic times.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Source: Hillary Clinton Out of the Running for VP

Obama and his people are no fools. Choosing Hillary as a running mate would've been a mistake Obama would've regretted for at least 4 years. On top of that she would've been a drag on the campaign, along with Bill. These people are out for themselves.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will not be Barack Obama's running mate, but she will be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention - at least that is what some of her boosters are saying.

Though Democratic and Obama aides say no decision has been announced on either score, a group called Vote Both, created to lobby Obama to pick the New York senator as his second, yesterday said Clinton is out of the running.

"Because of your work, Senator Obama asked Hillary to be his keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention!" said Vote Both founders Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Arora on their Web site. "Regretfully, this means that Senator Hillary Clinton is no longer under consideration as Senator Obama's running mate."

Asked how he knows, Arora told The Associated Press, "All indications we have from people close to Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are that Hillary is not on the short list."

Clinton purportedly will make the coveted keynote address on Tuesday night, Aug. 26. The vice presidential nominee usually speaks on Monday and Wednesday.

Historically, keynote speakers have not been running mates but an up-and-coming leader, such as Obama in 2004.

Obama should choose Evan Bayh as his running mate. He has the credentials and is popular figure in a region that Obama needs, the Midwest. Kaine is just as inexperienced as Obama and lacks foreign policy expertise, which Bayh has.

White House hopeful Barack Obama is close to picking a running mate with Timothy Kaine, the one-term governor of the pivotal state of Virginia, a prime contender, reports said Tuesday.

Kaine, 50, has told close associates that he has had "very serious" conversations with the Democratic senator about running as his vice presidential nominee, the Washington Post reported.

The Obama campaign has been closely vetting Kaine's background, but is also taking a serious look at senators Evan Bayh and Joseph Biden, the newspaper said.

Video: Howard Wolfson debates Karl Rove on Race Card

Karl Rove admits that the McCain ad was not exactly the best. This could be one of Rove's last appearances on FOX before he goes to jail.

Another Victim of the Government Anthrax Witch Hunt?

The FBI got pie in the face with their Hatfill fiasco so they went after another innocent victim - Bruce Ivins. On the surface it would be suspicious, a scientist suspected of the anthrax attacks commits suicide before he could be arrested. That does not guilt. It could be he was guilty of some other activity for which he feared to be exposed. And if Ivins was the man why wasn't he suspected first rather than Hatfill? It seems the Feds are intent on finding their man no matter who they blame. The suicide makes it convenient for the feds to claim they found their man. The anthrax attacks were carried out by al Qaeda. That simple.

A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.

The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.

[...]Just last month, the government exonerated another scientist at the Fort Detrick lab, Steven Hatfill, who had been identified by the FBI as a "person of interest" in the anthrax attacks. The government paid Hatfill $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit he filed against the Justice Department in which he claimed the department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.

The Times said federal investigators moved away from Hatfill and concluded Ivins was the culprit after FBI Director Robert Mueller changed leadership of the investigation in 2006. The new investigators instructed agents to re-examine leads and reconsider potential suspects. In the meantime, investigators made progress in analyzing anthrax powder recovered from letters addressed to two U.S. senators, according to the report.

O'Reilly Commentator Calls McCain Ad "Stupid": Transcript

This is good stuff. FOX doesn't know what to think.

[...]Scott McClellan cavalierly saying that some people at FOX, including me, get White House talking points. Totally untrue. What's your take on it?

[...]I think Scott McClellan is Richard Rich. And much like the movie, the only person he can probably depend on down the road to take him back is Bush, the man he was a traitor to. Bush is a good man. He'll probably take him.

O'REILLY: I don't think he'll take him back, but I could be wrong on that.

But I told Scott McClellan, look, you're being played, you're being used. And in this business, news and entertainment, people use people all of the time, but McClellan is resisting that. He doesn't seem to get it yet. And I'm just going, is he obtuse, or does he just not want to get it?

MILLER: He's a little stupid, and at this point, Chris Matthews fancies himself sort of Edward R. Murrow to coffee gophers, and I guess he likes — this is sport for him. It's like, you know, sitting ducks in a barrel or something. He weighs in, and he takes guys like McClellan apart. It's easy play, it seems, for him to take these guys apart. He's not exactly Dorothy Parker.

Dennis calls McCain campaign Stupid:

O'REILLY: All right. So Britney and Paris, when they say celebrity, they show them. Does it work?

MILLER: I don't want John McCain and his campaign to be aware of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. If he's in the gravitas business, and I know that's overused, but I don't even want him to know about that.

Now granted, if you're talking about a testimony to the dangers of being over-drilled, you might want to go to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. But quite frankly, it seems a little stupid to me, a little juvenile. Maybe they should have shown those women screaming on the "Sullivan" show and cut to the Beatles with, you know, Obama's head art-boxed onto all four of the Beatles or something. But this one seems a little stupid.

Like I said, those two girls are so down-marketed at this point, why does a presidential candidate, indeed one in his 70s, even know who they are?

O'REILLY: I just want to make two points. No. 1, I did not get the drilling joke that you just put out. I didn't get that. And No. 2, it's a subliminal thing. That's what this is. That they present these people, lightweights, and nobody takes them seriously, in the commercial with Obama. And the subliminal message, as "Saturday Night Live" used to do all the time — remember the subliminal guy? — is that he's a lightweight. He doesn't know anything. That's why they did that. But you don't think it worked?

MILLER: I don't think he's a heavyweight, but I think you, at your own danger, start comparing him to pop idols like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. That's a little bit too disparaging.

McCain's Silly Strategy: Isn't it Just Jealousy?

Aren't they really describing McCain?

Barack Obama’s critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the “Audacity Watch” back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as “coolly arrogant.”

All McCain does is complain about Obama. You can't win an election by whining.

The strategy has very real potential dangers for Team McCain. Obama’s unmistakable charisma and his campaign’s deft brand of stagecraft have created an often lopsided contrast with McCain’s sometimes painful-to-watch public events. As presidents as diverse as Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy showed, Americans do like a touch of celebrity in their commander in chief; though not too much.

It's the economy, stupid. This will be McCain's downfall in the Fall: sluggish economic growth.

The economy grew less than expected from April to June, the government said on Thursday, and it shrank in the final months of 2007, dimming the outlook for a quick recovery.

Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported, primarily because of a surge in export sales powered by the weak dollar. The government’s tax stimulus package pushed consumer spending higher, but the ongoing pain in the housing market took a sharp toll on overall growth.

But that figure was below the estimate of many economists, who had expected growth of 2.3 percent, and it cast doubt on whether the stimulus package would be able to prop up the economy in the months ahead.

[...]More troubling, however, was news that the economy actually shrank in the last three months of 2007, by 0.2 percent. It was the first time that the economy had contracted since the third quarter of 2001. The government had originally reported growth of 0.6 percent in that quarter.

This explains why all McCain does is attack Obama. He wants to divert your attention from the failures of the Republicans. Maureen Dowd explains the jealousy point.

The image of John McCain in a golf cart with Bush 41 in Kennebunkport — with Poppy charmingly admitting that they were “a little jealous” of all the Obama odyssey coverage — was not a good advertisement for the future, especially contrasted with the shots of Gen. David Petraeus and Obama smiling at each other companionably in a helicopter surveying Iraq. (Asked by a Democratic lawmaker a while back why there weren’t more Democrats in the military, General Petraeus smiled slyly and said “there are more than you think.”)

A foiled and frustrated McCain — trying to get covered when the entire media world has gone fishin’ for Obama stories — took the Hillary tack of mocking the press for having a “love affair,” as his campaign said, with the senator. McCain is hopping mad that the surge that he backed, and Obama resisted, has now set the stage for the Bush puppet Maliki to agree with Obama’s exit strategy. But Obama has a better batting average with his judgment on how we shouldn’t have gotten into Iraq, we should have gone after Osama and we should talk to Iran and other foes, if only to better assess their psychology. Then we might have deduced that Saddam had the “Beware of Dog” sign up without the dog.

Pentagon: The War on Terror will Last for Decades

The administration is doing it's usual scaremongering in time for the elections. But they are right about terror staying with us indefinitely - thanks to Bush.

"Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is crucial to winning this conflict, but it alone will not bring victory."

You can't win the war on terror if you can't even win wars unrelated to terrorism and only make it worse.

"The use of force plays a role, yet military efforts to capture or kill terrorists are likely to be subordinate to measures to promote local participation in government and economic programs to spur development, as well as efforts to understand and address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies," the document said. "For these reasons, arguably the most important military component of the struggle against violent extremists is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we help prepare our partners to defend and govern themselves."

Like what isn't being done in Afghanistan.

Defense sources said Gates's strategy met resistance among the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of its focus on irregular warfare. Gates met with the Joint Chiefs to present the rationale behind his strategy, and they expressed concerns over the long-term risks of shifting the focus too far from conventional threats. The service chiefs have worried publicly about shunning preparation for conventional warfare because it could give adversaries a competitive advantage in key arenas, such as in the skies or in space.

Sounds to me like Gates is not much different from Rumsfeld. They still miss the point.

James Jay Carafano, a military expert at the Heritage Foundation, said he finds it refreshing that the Defense Department acknowledges that China and Russia are potential adversaries, but he said he believes the strategy is too heavy on battling extremism.

I got news for you - China and Russia are adversaries. Once again, Bush has made it worse.

Some in Congress Want to Legalize Marijuana

Why not? Just about everything seems to be acceptable nowadays. Why should we expect Congress not go along with slide towards moral abyss. The pro-Marijuana lobby has become quite vocal in recent years. I imagine some of them even contribute to members of Congress. And there is nothing politicians love more than campaign contributions.

The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.

Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans, said Frank, flanked by legislators and representatives from advocacy groups.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

The Massachusetts Democrat and his supporters emphasized that only the use -- and not the abuse -- of marijuana would be decriminalized if the resolution resulted in legislation.

[...]Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, according to the drug control office.

"Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science -- it is not medicine and it is not safe," the DEA states on its Web site. "Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the expense of our children and public safety. It will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to use of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers."

Report: U.S. 'Wasted' $560 Million on Iraq Repairs

It's too bad the surge didn't have much impact on the waste and corruption which is the Iraq War. I've said it before - Americans are dying propping up an inept government. Not only are our troops dying (even if the violence is down lately) but our tax dollars are being wasted at a time when Americans are suffering hardship at home. It couldn't be any worse.

The United States has "wasted" more than half a billion dollars in Iraq repairing facilities that were damaged because of poor security, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says in a report released Wednesday.

Stuart Bowen's quarterly report arrived at a price tag of $560 million by tallying the results of more than 100 audits his office has conducted.

Further billions had to be diverted from reconstruction to security because the Bush administration did not adequately foresee how volatile Iraq would be when it began rebuilding the country, the report says.

"The U.S. government did not fully anticipate or plan for the unstable working environment that faced U.S. managers when reconstruction began in Iraq," it says.

Contractors spent an average of 12.5 percent of their reconstruction contracts on security, the inspector general found.

Bowen's team also criticizes the government for poor coordination between agencies.

The lack of cooperation "contributed to delays, increased costs, terminated projects, and completed projects that did not meet program goals," the report says.

McCain's Flipflop Express: On Abortion...2006

Here's more evidence that John McCain's flipflopping predates the current election year. This from the Carpetbagger Report, November 20th 2006:

Just to follow-up briefly on Michael’s guest-post from yesterday, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) new-found opposition to Roe v. Wade is rather remarkable, even for him.

In 1999, McCain was in New Hampshire, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a moderate. He proclaimed himself a pro-life candidate, but told reporters that “in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.” He explained that overturning Roe would force “women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.” Yesterday, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a conservative, McCain said the opposite.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask one question about abortion. Then I want to turn to Iraq. You’re for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, with some exceptions for life and rape and incest.

MCCAIN: Rape, incest and the life of the mother. Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So is President Bush, yet that hasn’t advanced in the six years he’s been in office. What are you going to do to advance a constitutional amendment that President Bush hasn’t done?

MCCAIN: I don’t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should — could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support…. Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states.

The old McCain didn’t want an amendment and didn’t want Roe overturned. The new McCain completely disagrees with the old McCain.

Joe Klein: Neocons Trying To Have Me Fired From Time

The neocons are the sinister power behind the Bush administration. Therefore it is no surprise that they would want to silence anyone who dares challenge them. The American people are unaware of the power of this un-American clique.

I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel's best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran.

Happily, these people represent a very small sliver of the Jewish population in this country. Unhappily, their views have had an impact in the highest reaches of the Bush Administration--and seem to have an influence on John McCain's campaign as well.

Mexico's Drug Cartels Target Bystanders

We need to worry about what's going on along our border. This is the price to pay for a lack of immigration policy. When is the last time you heard any of the candidates talk about the crisis along our border. The Mexican drug cartel is getting rich from the easy access to America. And guess where they get those guns to kill innocent people. Before too long we will have complete chaos along our southern border.

The three teenagers started their big weekend singing "Happy Birthday" to the parish priest.

The next day, they prayed for hours with their church youth group, then went on to a quinceañera, Mexico's archetypal 15th-birthday celebration. As the party wound down, they talked their parents into letting them go for a late-night cruise down the main drag in Guamuchil, a Saturday night ritual in this sleepy market town, friends and family say.

During that cruise, investigators believe the teens inadvertently blocked drug cartel assassins in hot pursuit of their enemies. Once police arrived in the wee hours of July 13, the assassins were gone but the three teens and a 12-year-old girl who was riding with them lay dead in their cars. Four others -- another teenager and three adults -- were dead in nearby cars. There were 539 bullet casings on the ground.

U.S. Combat Deaths in Iraq Plunge in July

So what? We are still in Iraq in large numbers while Afghanistan rapidly deteriorates. Even if no American dies in Iraq we are still paying a fortune to be there ($10 billion /month) to maintain the status quo. And if the Republicans have their way we would be there for the indefinite future. We cannot afford to be in a place that shouldn't have been in the first place.

The number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat in Iraq has dropped sharply in July and the monthly total is likely to be the lowest since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Five U.S. soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq so far in July compared to 66 in the same month last year, according to the independent website icasualties.org, which keeps records of U.S. military losses in the conflict.

The drop underscores the dramatic fall in violence in Iraq to lows not seen since early 2004.

Seeking to build on those gains, thousands of Iraqi security forces launched a major operation in northeastern Diyala province on Tuesday. Al Qaeda has sought to stoke tensions in religiously mixed Diyala, which lies close to Baghdad.

Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari said on Wednesday that 35 militants had been detained so far. Iraqi police and more than two Iraqi army divisions, each of up to 9,000 troops, are taking part in the offensive.

CIA Accuses Pakistan of 'Backing Militants'

Pakistan military/intelligence agencies were responsible for putting the Taliban in power in the first place. So it shouldn't be any surprise that they are today supporting our enemies again. Our relationship with Pakistan is a house of cards that is really to collapse. And the potential for militant Islamists in that country to take over is very real. And if the Jihadists gain control of Pakistan's bomb it could mean world war. What a mess Mr.Obama will have on his hands come January.

A senior CIA official this month confronted Pakistani officials over ties between the country's intelligence service and militants in the tribal areas, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Citing defense and intelligence sources, the Times said that the trip by agency deputy director Stephen Kappes demonstrated a harder line being taken against Pakistani ties to those responsible for the surge of violence in Afghanistan, including militant Maulavi Jalauddin Haqqani.

Earlier this year, the US military pressed for Pakistani troops to hit the Haqqani network in the tribal areas.

"It was a very pointed message saying, 'Look, we know there's a connection, not just with Haqqani but also with the other bad guys and ISI, and we think you could do more and we want you to do more about it," a senior US officials told the Times, referring to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.

The daily said the meeting could be a sign that the relationship between the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan's ISI "may be deteriorating".

A US official said there was no evidence of official Pakistani support of Al-Qaeda, but there was "genuine and longstanding concerns about Pakistan's ties to the Haqqani network, which of course has ties to Al-Qaeda."

Study: China Trade Deficit Cost Millions of American Jobs

We've known this for decades but it continues unabated. And both parties have been to blame for not protecting American industries. Both parties have been in complicity to sell out America.

The Economic Policy Institute, supported by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, reports that the growth of U.S. trade with China since the country entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 has devastated the domestic economy.

The study says China’s soaring deficit cost Americans 2.3 million jobs and $19.4 billion in lost wages between 2001 and 2007.

Virginia lost 39,500 jobs and North Carolina has lost nearly 80,000 jobs to China since 2001. The apparel industry was most affected in North Carolina with 11,372 jobs lost between 2001 and 2007.

North Carolina ranked eighth among the 50 states and Washington D.C., with 79,800 jobs lost. California suffered the most losses, with 325,800 fewer jobs. West Virginia’s job losses totaled 7,200, including 900 workers in the wood products manufacturing industry who were displaced last year.

The Washington, D.C.,-based think tank blamed the trade imbalance for pushing down wages an average of $8,146.

Scott Paul, exeuctive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said any jobs that are being created are not making up for the income lost through jobs shipped overseas.

The study is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and United States International Trade Commission.

Video: Countdown Exposes McCain Record on Not Supporting Troops

This segment on Keith Olbermann's Countdown finally puts to rest the notion that McCain is a champion of American troops. The report also debunks the myth that the media is more sympathetic to Obama than McCain.

McCain on Larry King Live (7-28-08): Transcript

Read the entire transcript of John McCain's appearance on Larry King.

KING: Senator, you criticized him for the trip, a trip that you told him to make. MCCAIN: Actually, I was glad that he went to Iraq. I was puzzled and befuddled by the fact that he announced his policy towards Iraq and Afghanistan before he went. I had hoped that he would go, and for the first time, sit down and get a briefing from General Petraeus. You know he never had before?

I had wished, in a way, that he had a hearing in the subcommittee that he chairs on Afghanistan since he has the responsibility oversight of NATO. But incredibly to me, still, is that he does not acknowledge that the surge succeeded. No rational person could go to Iraq in the last few days and compare it to two years ago and not acknowledge that the surge has succeeded. And that's why I question very much why he would continue to fail to acknowledge that a strategy -- admittedly -- he condemned it, he said it wouldn't work, he said that it would make things worse, et cetera.

But at least he ought to acknowledge -- after getting briefed by General Petraeus and meeting these brave young Americans who have sacrificed so much in making sure that this strategy succeeded -- that he should acknowledge their success. How do you welcome this last brigade home that's coming home and say, hey, great job, but by the way, you didn't succeed? I don't know how you do that.

KING: But was he right in saying that a lot more emphasis should have been put on Afghanistan?

MCCAIN: Well, listen, this is -- if we had failed in Iraq, our complications in Afghanistan would have been far, far more complicated.

What Senator Obama doesn't understand is that they are all connected. If we had lost the war in Iraq, we would have had much greater problems in Afghanistan. And also, the strategy that he said wouldn't work in Iraq is the same strategy we have to employ in Afghanistan. It's not just to increase the number of troops; it's secure and hold, it's a government that functions more effectively, it's taking on the narco-traffickers, it's the issue of Pakistan, which is of course the border area -- it's uncontrolled. So it's got to be an overall strategy. And Senator Obama does not understand that, just like he didn't understand the situation in Iraq.

KING: So you're not criticizing him for the trip, which you told him to make, you're criticizing him for what you say is a lack of awareness?

MCCAIN: Lack of understanding -- complete lack of understanding of what America's national security threats are.

But the other thing is that, of course -- the fact that in Germany he did not go to Landstuhl. And I can assure you that the troops welcome, especially those who are the gravely wounded ones, welcome American senators. And if he had wanted to go with just a staffer, I am confident that he could have gone, rather than cancel his trip to see those brave young Americans.

But it's also about bringing back prosperity. KING: He must have understood that. Why do you think he didn't go?

MCCAIN: I have no idea except that I know that according to reports that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers and I want to guarantee you, if I had gone to Landstuhl, which I have and met with the troops there and met with the wounded but if I had gone there and the military had said, you can't see these wounded people. I guarantee I'd have been on the phone with the secretary of defense immediately. I'd have seen them.

Presidential Candidate Ahead in the Gallup Poll 100 Days From Election Usually Wins

The candidate ahead in the Gallup poll 100 days from the Fall election usually wins. That means that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. This report comes from CNN's pollster Bill Schneider:

Right now, the presidential election is 100 days away, and as we saw only a moment or so ago, our new Poll of Polls shows Obama now nine points ahead of Senator McCain.

Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. He's watching this story for us. I'm not sure our Poll of Polls does show nine points ahead. I think that was the Gallup poll that showed a nine-point tracking poll. Our Poll of Polls is a little closer, about six points, is that right, Bill?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: The Poll of Polls is six points, and the latest Gallup tracking poll which just came out about an hour ago shows an eight-point lead for Obama.

Well your question, what does it mean, 100 days out? As the one- time Democratic nominee, Al Smith, used to say, let's look at the record.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice over): They say a week is a long time in politics. A hundred days looks like forever. Everything could change. Or could it?

Let's see how accurate the polls were 100 days before the election for the last 50 years.

In three out of 12 elections, the 100-day-out Gallup polls were just about right. 1968, the midsummer poll predicted a close one: Republican Richard Nixon over Democrat Hubert Humphrey by two. Nixon won by one.

1972, the poll predicted a 26-point Nixon landslide. It was nearly that. Nixon beat Democrat George McGovern by 23.

2004, the polls showed a dead heat between George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry. The election was close. Bush by three.

Six times the Gallup poll got the winner right, but the margin was too big. In 1976, for instance, 100 days before the election, the Gallup poll showed Democrat Jimmy Carter leading Republican Gerald Ford by 22. Carter did win, by two.

Only once did the 100-day poll understate the winner's margin. That was in 1984. The midsummer poll showed Reagan getting reelected by 12. He did get reelected, by 18.

Have the 100-day polls ever gotten it wrong? Yes, twice.

In 1960, Nixon led Democrat John Kennedy by six in midsummer. Kennedy ended up winning by less than a point.

In 1988, Democrat Michael Dukakis was 17 points ahead of George Bush in late July. The most famous blown lead in history.

Usually, however, the 100-day poll gets the winner right, but more often than not, the race gets closer. So where are we now? Barack Obama leads John McCain by eight points in the Gallup poll.

It looks like this one could be close.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: Why is this race different from all other races? In every one of the last dozen presidential elections, either the president was running for re-election, or the vice president was running to succeed him. Imagine what would be happening if either George W. Bush or Dick Cheney were running this time. But, they're not -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Which makes for some fascinating potential.

Video: Legalized Loan Sharking - Payday Loans

First there was the subprime ripoff. Now those who haven't been finished off by the mortgage collapse and taking out payday loans. In both cases working people are being ripped-off by what are essentially modern day loan sharks. All with the blessing of the government.