A bipartisan coalition of 16 senators has sent a letter to Barack Obama and John McCain asking the two presidential candidates to begin work on major healthcare reform legislation to avoid "a replay of the bitter, highly polarized health reform effort during the 1990's."
The letter was signed by the 16 cosponsors of S.334, the Healthy Americans Act. The letter urged both Obama and McCain to use the legislation, which has stalled in the Senate since being introduced in January 2007 by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as a springboard for a reform package that could be signed into law early in the next president
In a statement released through his press office, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) reacted today to news that conservative columnist Robert Novak has been hospitalize with a brain tumor:
This is stunning news for anyone who follows American politics, and my thoughts and prayers go out to Bob and his family. I know Bob will confront this challenge with the same courage with which he has taken on the political establishment in Washington for decades. And with God
A new Gallup/USA Today poll of likely voters across the country has John McCain leading Barack Obama, 49 percent to 45 percent.
McCain had trailed Obama in Gallup/USA Today's June poll, 44 percent to 50 percent.
Obama has been leading in other national polls. The Democrat leads McCain in the Gallup/USA Today survey of registered voters, who "are much more important" than likely voters 100 days before Election Day, Gallup editor Frank Newport told USA Today. The pool of people considered likely voters is likely to change between now and November, Newport noted.
The Gallup/USA Today survey is different than Gallup's daily tracking poll, which has Obama ahead Monday 48 percent to 40 percent.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scolded Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday for wanting to hold off on energy legislation until Barack Obama is in the White House.
McConnell criticized Schumer for not wanting to immediately deal with "the most important issue in the country."
"He basically wants to put this whole issue off," McConnell said during the conference call with reporters. "In the meantime, consumers are paying the price."
Schumer told the Washington Post last week that Congress may pass smaller legislative energy items, but that no comprehensive energy bill will be in the works until until after the election.
The New York senator said that if Obama is elected and anticipated House and Senate margins are realized, "you will get, for the first time, a real energy policy."
MoveOn.org will begin airing a pro-Barack Obama ad Wednesday that facetiously treats the emotion of hope as a societal scourge along the lines of drug addiction and STDs.
A collection of actors deliver lines such as: "I never thought it could happen to me" and "I've been living with it for a while now."
Rider Strong (of "Boy Meets World" fame) says, "I got it from her" as he sits next to actress Alexandra Barreto. Strong delivers the ad's sign-off: "This is your brain on hope."
Barack Obama leads John McCain 51 percent to 39 percent in the first national poll by Research 2000.
Libertarian Bob Barr receives 3 percent and independent candidate Ralph Nader gets 2 percent in the survey.
kos notes that Obama leads McCain in three of the four regions, the East, West and Midwest. In 2004, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the Democrats' presidential nominee, lost the Midwest in addition to the South.
Mark Whitaker, former editor of Newsweek, has been named NBC News's D.C. Bureau Chief, filling the position vacant since the death of Tim Russert.
After leaving Newsweek in 2006, he has served as a Senior Vice President at NBC News, where he has overseen reporting for "NBC Nightly News," "Today" and MSNBC. As head of the Washington, D.C. bureau, Whitaker will be in charge of "Meet the Press" and the 2008 election coverage.
"I am honored and humbled to succeed Tim, whose commitment to journalism without fear or favor is a beacon for us all," Whitaker said in a statement.
Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) has yet to endorse Barack Obama for president.
"I'm unhappy with the current presidential race, so much so that I haven't endorsed Obama or Hillary (Clinton), though I'm well-known to be a Democrat," Cuomo said at a banquet Saturday, according to the Albany Times-Union. "I am not endorsing because I don't think they've been specific enough. We have these big, big issues, and the political theory is: 'I don't want to get into the specifics, because if I do I'm going to get into trouble.'"
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