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- John McCain gave a big speech on energy in Santa Barbara, CA, this afternoon. A number of protesters showed up to challenge McCain's calls for lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. (The Los Angeles Times reports that McCain could have picked a better venue, given that Santa Barbara was the site of a disastrous offshore oil spill in 1969 that is credited with birthing the modern environmental movement.) Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, NV, Barack Obama described McCain as part of the decades of failure in Washington. Gallup has reported that energy/gas prices are the top concern for Americans, and that 47 percent trust Obama on the issue to McCain's 28 percent.
- A front page story in today's New York Times looks at Obama's increasingly shaky relationship with Muslim Americans.
- Last Fall, when McCain's campaign was on the ropes, he opted into the public financing system in order to secure a bank loan and then withdrew from the public system once he secured the nomination. Now the DNC is suing the McCain campaign for violating campaign finance law.
- Via Marc Ambinder, a David Plouffe-authored PowerPoint presentation hints at the Obama campaign's general election strategy.
- Apparently, John McCain's "Blog Interact" page at his campaign web site rewards commenters for trolling. McCain might be "aware of the internet," but is clearly ignorant of annoyances therein.
- Polls, polls, polls: Obama opens up a big lead in Michigan, according to Public Policy Polling [PDF], beating John McCain 48-39. (PPP also recently gave Obama a big lead in Ohio). Meanwhile, Survey USA finds Obama beating McCain 48-47 in Indiana. Others have helpfully reminded us that Bush beat Kerry in Indiana in 2004 with 60 percent of the vote. Meanwhile a nation LA Times/Bloomberg poll shows Obama with a 15 point national lead over McCain.
- Richard Cohen has really outdone himself today, writing in his syndicated Washington Post column -- I refuse to link to it -- that John McCain's flip flops deserve less scrutiny than Barack Obama's because McCain was tortured by the North Vietnamese. No, seriously. He also lectures us that "A presidential race is only incidentally about issues. It's really about likability and character." Well guess what, Dick, the public thinks otherwise.
--Mori Dinauer
