New Quinnipiac University polls show that Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But his leads in each state have declined since the last Quinnipiac surveys.
In Florida, Obama is up 46 percent to 44 percent. He had led by four percentage points in the June survey.
In Ohio, Obama also leads 46 percent to 44 percent, after having been up by six points in June.
In Pennsylvania, Obama has a 49 percent to 42 percent lead. The margin was 12 percent last month.
The margin of error is 2.8 percent in the Florida and Ohio polls and 2.7 percent in Pennsylvania.
Voters in those states also overwhelmingly support calls for more domestic oil drilling, which McCain has called for and Obama has opposed.
"While Obama was on tour, trying to show voters he could handle world affairs, voters were home trying to fill their gas tanks," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Responding John McCain's new ad linking him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Barack Obama said Wednesday that McCain only seems interested in focusing on him.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will address the one of the unions to back her presidential bid, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), at its convention in San Francisco Thursday.
Clinton is expected to urge AFSCME members to back Barack Obama. She hinted earlier this week that she would be traveling "out West" to stump for her former rival.
A group of four senators led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) are calling for the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, saying that he gave misleading testimony to a Senate committee.
Johnson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in January that he had denied a waiver to California that would have allowed it to enact its own fuel efficiency standards because the state failed to meet necessary criteria. But Boxer and three other senators said Wednesday that Johnson's testimony conflicted with that of an aide, who said that the waiver was denied partly because President Bush opposed it.
Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Envionment and Public Works Committee, had supported the California standards, which are stricter than federal ones. She again chastised Johnson Tuesday for his decision.
"He has become a secretive and dangerous ally of polluters, and we cannot stand by and allow more damage to be done," she said in a statement. "We have lost all confidence in Stephen Johnson's ability to carry out EPA's mission in accordance with the law. I call on Administrator Johnson to immediately resign his position."
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) joined Boxer's call for Johnson to step down.
The four Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have also asked for a federal probe into whether Johnson's testimony was false or misleading. Download their letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey here.
Barack Obama said Wednesday that he is ready to "duel" John McCain, claiming the Republican presidential candidate is trying to make voters "scared" of him.
"Nobody thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face. So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said at a town hall in Springfield, Missouri.
"He's risky - that's the argument," Obama said. "Seriously, that's basically the argument. It's like, well we don't have very much to offer but he's risky."
The Democratic presidential nominee said he won't back down to challenges from McCain, joking that he is a distant cousin of famous gunslinger Wild Bill Hickock.
"I'm ready to duel John McCain on taxes. Right now, right here," Obama said, adding "I'm a quick draw."
Retiring Rep. Terry Everett (R) said he's thinking of running for Alabama governor in 2010.
The 8-term congressman told the Montgomery Advertiser that he's considering his options, which includes a gubernatorial bid. Everett added that several people have contacted him about a possible run.
He also told the newspaper that he is backing Republican Jay Love in the race to replace him. Everett said that he would donate money to Love's campaign but reserve much of the approximately $806,000 remaining in his campaign account for a possible future race.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that the Bush Administration "could absolutely not defend" reports of politicized hirings at the Department of Justice by senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
"There should be concern any time anyone is improperly using politics to influence career decisions. We believe that is improper," Perino said. "We could absolutely not defend that."
Referring to a report released Monday claiming that hiring decisions for non-political positions were often dictated by political affiliations a voting records, Perino said, "there's obviously information in there that would cause concern to anybody."
The White House press secretary said potential department hirings "should not have had any sort of questions put towards them as to what sort of party they represent, or what affiliation they might belong to, or who they might vote for," calling those question "inapropriate."
Perino did not address reports that sexual discrimination based on preference took place, as the report says.
The spokewoman said Bush had expressed "overall disappointment" to the report and is "glad" the practice is "no longer ongoing."
Though the report came out Monday, Wednesday was the first time the issue was addressed during the daily White House press briefing.
New surveys by Public Policy Polling shows Barack Obama and John McCain running neck and neck in Michigan and North Carolina.
In Michigan, Obama leads McCain 46 percent to 43 percent. The margin of error in that poll is 3.3 percentage points. Obama had led McCain by nine percentage points in the previous Michigan poll.
In North Carolina, McCain is ahead of Obama 47 percent to 44 percent. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr gets 3 percent. The margin of error in that survey is 3.4 percentage points. McCain had led Obama by four percentage points in the last poll of Tar Heel State voters.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) kept after China Wednesday for what he sees as government spying on hotel guests.
Brownback, on CNN, repeated his concerns that China is going to use a security system set up in hotels to spy and gather information on guests staying in Beijing during next month's Olympics. He said that the spying system and China's decision to censor large parts of the Internet for foreign journalists goes against their previous pledges to keep things open.
"But this is just totally outside of what they agreed to do in the Olympics," he said. "They agreed to host an open Olympics. This is this big coming-out party for China to the world, and then they are doing something like this."
When Brownback was asked whether he thought giving the games to Beijing is a mistake, he said, "Well, if they're not going to monitor their agreements, I think it is. I don't think the president should go. He think he should spend his time meeting with Darfur refugees or refugees from North Korea. China is the biggest enabler of human rights abuses around the world today for the number of countries that they block for. And I think we ought to highlight that instead of the accomplishments of China, what they're doing against human rights."
"He's the biggest celebrity in the world," a narrator tells viewers in John McCain's latest TV ad, which features footage of paparazzi darlings Britney Spears and Paris Hilton mixed with shots of McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
"But is he ready to lead?" the narrator asks. The ad will air on national cable and in "key states," according to McCain's campaign.
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