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| THE WAR OVER PATRIOTISM |
 When critics challenge Barack Obama's patriotism, his supporters have a ready reply: True patriotism has nothing to do with little flags on politicians' lapels. It's not about symbols; it's about actions. It's not about odes to American greatness; it's about taking on your government when it goes astray.
But there Obama is, in his first TV advertisement of the general-election campaign, talking about his "deep and abiding faith in the country I love." And there, perched below his left shoulder, is a subtle, but not too subtle reminder: a tiny American flag.
Obama's no fool. He may not believe that things like flag pins should matter politically, but he knows the difference between should and does. Since Vietnam, the ability to associate oneself with patriotic symbols has often been the difference between Democrats who win and Democrats who lose. Why couldn't George McGovern buy a white working-class vote in 1972? more |
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| McCAIN GETS A GOOD REVIEW IN MEXICO |
 Presidential hopeful John McCain called for a "tamper-proof" temporary worker program, promoted free trade, and praised joint drug-fighting efforts yesterday as he finished a three-day tour of Colombia and Mexico.
"I believe we must have comprehensive immigration reform, but Americans want our borders secured first," McCain said, speaking in a heavily guarded federal police hangar in the rough Mexico City neighborhood of Iztapalapa.
"In the short term we need a temporary worker program, but one that is verifiable, with biometric tamper-proof documents. . . . When it is known that people who come illegally to our country can't get a job, it will cut off the magnet that attracts people," McCain said. McCain met with President Felipe Calderon to discuss immigration, trade, and the recently passed Merida Initiative, a $400 million US aid package to help Mexico fight an increasingly bloody drug war. more |
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| BARR SAYS HE’S NO NADER |
Bob Barr was once a loyal soldier in the Republican Party -- a lawmaker GOP leaders could count on to return home each weekend and echo their talking points at local political events, town hall meetings and civic lunches.
As a young political reporter in Marietta, Georgia, I often heard Barr serve up generous helpings of Republican doctrine over buffet lunches and chicken dinners. For Republican leaders such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who represented a neighboring district, Barr was a dedicated warrior. And he remained so even after he lost a primary fight in 2002 to colleague John Linder, a battle set up by redistricting.
He is now the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee and is crisscrossing the country promoting its principles and hunting for votes. Barr could be the Ralph Nader of 2008 taking away enough support from presumptive Republican nominee John McCain to hand presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama a victory in November. more |
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| HUNTING FOR OIL VILLAINS |
 Atlanta hedge fund manager Michael Masters has been a star witness in two recent Congressional hearings on how speculators are supposedly driving up oil prices. Masters and I don't see eye-to-eye on this issue, so I was surprised to get a call from him after my "Don't Blame The Oil Speculators" column went up on Fortune.com last week.
Masters contends that without speculators, the price of oil would be $65 or $70 a barrel. He points out that the amount invested in commodities index products has risen from $13 billion to $260 billion in five years, a fact he thinks is key to understanding oil prices.
"When a trader sends a buy order to the exchange floor or presses the 'buy' key on their trading terminal, if he or she is attempting to buy more contracts than are currently offered for sale at the market price, then the market price will rise," Masters told a House subcommittee in June. My own view is that speculators can't materially impact prices if all they're doing is making bets on the direction of oil prices by trading futures. more |
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| NADER’S OBAMA REMARKS DRAW FIRE |
Independent presidential hopeful Ralph Nader is pressing the case that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama is another corporate candidate who won't really change Washington.
But remarks published yesterday, which tossed race into the critique, are drawing fire.
Nader - the longtime consumer advocate who has been a bane to Democrats - told the Rocky Mountain News that Obama is trying to "talk white" and to appeal to "white guilt."
"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said in what the Denver newspaper described as a wide-ranging interview. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. more |
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