AT MSNBC.com‘s politics web pages, New York Times reporter Rachel L. Swarns discusses the increase in black elected officials representing predominatly white districts and constituencies across the nartion, and the good it has done for the nation, as well as Democrats and Obama.
Thomas Frank’s Wall St. Journal op-ed “The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil: Suddenly Republicans Are Against Market Values” is a useful read for Dem candidates at all levels. Frank captures the irony of the GOP scam: “Conservative misrule, prompted by conservative disdain for government, proves that government cannot be trusted — and that the only answer is to elect another round of government-denouncing conservatives.”
At HuffPo, Pulitzer Prize recipient Carl Bernstein sheds some fresh light on the question “Does John McCain pal around with terrorists?” in view of McCain’s controversial friendship with Watergate burglar and advocate of political violence G. Gordon Liddy. (See also James Vega’s TDS post on the topic)
CNN political editor Mark Preston takes a look at the increasingly important role of independent groups in the political ad wars of the presidential campaign, noting that pro-GOP expenditures now match Dem outlays.
Christopher Hitchens makes the case for Obama, or at least against McCain-Palin at Slate. Best line: “It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.”
Alex Green and Rick Klein have an ABCnews.com update on the Dems’ quest for a ‘super-majority’ in the U.S. Senate, including a focus on prospects to unseat Senator Elizabeth Dole in NC.
And Over at the Princeton Election Consortium, Sam Wang reports on Republican activists’ “Save the Filibuster” campaign and their call on the RNC to redirect $15 million from the McCain campaign to key senate races — and Wang challenges Dems to “get on the bus” and invest some dough down ballot as well.