Talking Sense on Iraq

Today's New York Times has a good editorial about Iraq. Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, Senator John McCain, is no longer able to ignore the situation on the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Al Qaeda and the Taliban — the true threats to American security — are resurgent. But he has not matched Mr. Obama’s seriousness on Iraq. Mr. McCain is still tied in knots, largely adopting Mr. Bush’s blind defense of an unending conflict.

Mr. Obama has a better grasp of the big picture, despite Mr. McCain’s claim to more foreign policy experience. For far too long, Mr. Bush’s preoccupation with his misadventure in Iraq — which fostered a presence for Al Qaeda where there was none — has dangerously diverted precious manpower, resources and high-level attention from Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Mr. Obama correctly asserted in an Op-Ed article in The Times on Monday and in a speech on Tuesday, those countries, not Iraq, are the real frontline of the war against terrorism.

...The more the United States insists it will not even consider withdrawal, the less incentive Iraqis have to settle their political differences. Iraq’s leaders have asked for a withdrawal timetable. The next president needs to take them at their word. The candidates need to keep talking about how they will meet that goal and then address the real threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama Leads by 8 Points In Poll

This is good news:

[Sen. Barack Obama] has a lead of 50 percent to 42 percent over Republican Sen. John McCain among registered voters nationwide, lifted by a big edge among women, and he has also regained an edge among political independents. But it is Obama's 19-point lead on the economy that has become a particularly steep challenge for McCain.

Economic concerns continue to eclipse other issues, with half the country saying the economy will be "extremely important" to their vote. Gasoline and energy prices, which voters rarely mentioned at the start of the year, come in just behind. The Iraq war, which was again the subject of direct engagement between Obama and McCain yesterday, ranks third. A cluster of domestic issues, including education, health care and Social Security, ranked behind the war, as did the issue of terrorism.

Obama continues to hold an edge over McCain on many domestic policy areas.

Click here for more details.

McCain’s Fuzzy Math

Today's Washington Post points out that John McCain's budget plan doesn't add up:

SEN. JOHN McCain says that President McCain would balance the federal budget by 2013. The plan is not credible.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $443 billion in 2013 if President Bush's tax cuts are extended, as Mr. McCain wants, and the alternative minimum tax is merely patched to make certain it does not hit growing numbers of taxpayers. But Mr. McCain is proposing far more tax cuts. The only way he avoids having them add hundreds of billions more to the deficit in 2013 is by phasing them in and adding other caveats. Mr. McCain says on the campaign trail that he would repeal, rather than merely adjust, the alternative minimum tax, slash the corporate tax rate, now 35 percent, to 25 percent, and double the exemption for dependents. It turns out that none of that would be fully implemented by the end of the first McCain term. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates the extra cost of the scaled-back plan at $47 billion in 2013, bringing the deficit to a daunting $490 billion. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign claims it would be far higher, somewhere between $650 billion and $750 billion.

...Mr. McCain sells American voters short -- and he does himself a disservice -- with his implausible claim.

More McConnell hypocrisy

David Hawpe of the Courier-Journal calls out Mitch McConnell over his rank hypocrisy:

...Mitch McConnell's office just announced that the new Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill includes $16.45 million in taxpayer money for various local projects in Kentucky. When this measure passes the full Senate, he'll have another opportunity to announce this largesse, and when the bill clears Congress, and when the President signs it -- you get the idea.

I love it when conservatives hand out taxpayers' money. On the one hand, they insist that the federal government should keep its hands out of the people's pockets -- that taxpayers know how to spend their own money without Big Brother's help and guidance, that Washington ought to stay out of local decision making, that government is best when closest to home.

But here is one of the U.S. Senate's most self-consciously conservative members, bragging about a fortune in federal funds he just grabbed for clearly local projects -- everything from buses to bike paths.

Click here to read the entire column.

This week's Democratic radio address

Congressman Nick Rahall, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, delivers this week's Democratic Radio Address. Chairman Rahall discusses Democratic efforts to provide relief for Americans at the pump, and those of George Bush and John McCain to rally behind the oil industry's agenda.

Click here to read the transcript of Chairman Rahall's address.

Republican ’values’ harming America

You might recall John McCain's shameless flip-flopping on the issue of torture last February. (In a nutshell: John McCain was for banning torture before he was against it.) Luckily, there are still folks in Washington willing to say what should be obvious to everyone:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The use by the United States of harsh interrogation methods against suspected terrorists has stained the country's image and is putting US soldiers' lives at risk, experts said here Wednesday.

"If we use torture when we question prisoners, we forfeit the right to demand that anyone treat our soldiers decently if they are taken prisoner," former army intelligence officer Stuart Herrington told AFP at a forum on the use of torture in interrogations.

"If we engage in that kind of activity, we put our soldiers at increased risk," he said.

Click here to read the full article.

SurveyUSA poll: Lunsford within striking distance

SurveyUSA just released a poll on Kentucky's Senate race. They find that Bruce Lunsford is doing astonishingly well:

KY Senate Race: McConnell and Lunsford Start Off Neck and Neck

Incumbent Republican US Senator Mitch McConnell leads Democrat Bruce Lunsford by 4 points in a poll with a 4.0 percentage point margin of sampling error, according to this SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WHAS-TV Louisville, WLEX-TV Lexington, and WCPO-TV Cincinnati.

McConnell can't be very happy to learn that Lunsford is within the margin of error in this poll. Ol' Mitch shouldn't be too surprised though; his partisan obstructionism in the Senate is surely one reason why Kentuckians are opting for Lunsford.

More Republican obstructionism

Today's New York Times addresses the Republicans' obstructionism over energy policy:

Given a chance to do something important about global warming, the Senate fell flat on its face earlier this month when it could not even produce enough votes to have a good debate. It can begin to redeem itself, by approving a bill to extend vital tax credits for renewable fuel sources like wind and solar power.

...The Republicans say they believe in fiscal responsibility; this bill responsibly exchanges one set of tax breaks for another. They say they believe in technological innovation, which this bill encourages. They say they believe in creating new jobs, which a robust wind and solar industry would do.

If they believe all that, they should stop being stubborn and approve the House bill.

You can read the entire piece by clicking here.

This week's Democratic radio address

Jeff Alberici, an eight-grade teacher in New York, husband and father of three, delivered this week's Democratic Radio Address:

"Democrats are trying to change things, but Republicans only want more of the same old ideas that got us into this mess in the first place," Jeff Alberici, of Auburn, New York, said in the Democratic Party's weekly radio address today. "More of the same isn't working for my family, and I bet it's not working for yours."

...With the costs of gas, food and health care "skyrocketing, even with a second paycheck, things are no easier," Alberici said.

"My wife and I don't talk that much in public about politics, but we are both proud Democrats," Alberici said. "Democrats understand what families like ours are going through, and they're trying to make things better."

Click here to read the entire transcript of Alberici's address.

Democrats working to balance the budget

Here's the story via the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON --The chairman of the House Budget Committee said Saturday that a 2009 spending blueprint passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress will restore funding for health care, energy and education while leading to a balanced budget by 2012.

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said the budget plan rejected proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and would broaden the Children's Health Insurance Program. The plan would also add nearly $5 billion to the Veterans Affairs health care system in 2009, he said.

In his party's weekly radio address, Spratt promised the bill would address skyrocketing fuel prices by spending more on home energy assistance for low-income families. "As for funding for alternative fuels, renewable energies and other energy initiatives, our budget provides $7.7 billion," he said.

Click here to read the entire article.