News

John McCain's campaign knocked Barack Obama's speech Thursday as "premature" talk in a statement released to reporters.

"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election," said campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. "Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."

Police estimated that about 200,000 people turned out to see Barack Obama's speech in Berlin, Der Spiegel reports.

The German magazine also wrote on its blog that people had to have their bags checked and go through a metal detector before entering the grounds of the Victory Column, the site of the speech. They were treated to a concert featuring reggae musician Patrice and the rock band Reamonn before Obama took the stage.

More than five months after the Rep. Tom Lantos's (D-Calif.) death of esophageal cancer in February, the late lawmaker Read more...

With Barack Obama's speech in Berlin receiving roadblocked press coverage, John McCain's campaign is trying to showcase its candidate as someone who gets things done at home.

McCain advisers tried to play up the contrast between the two candidates in a Thursday conference call.

"So there's a stark difference in the viewpoint of what is important for America and there's a stark difference in the nature of action," said Nancy Pfotenhauer, McCain's campaign policy adviser. "John McCain is committed to doing the hard things, reaching across the aisle at times when the nation needs action to take correction in its course. He has stood on the Senate floor with Russ Feingold for campaign finance reform. He has mobilized the Gang of 14 to have Supreme Court justices put on the court. He has stood with Ted Kennedy when it was important to address immigration."

She added: "In contrast, Barack Obama is touring Europe and, back home, his leadership, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are opposing any effort to expand exploration in the United States and trying to muddy the waters by bringing up a vote for additional [Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program] help. John McCain supports making sure that those who are suffering from high energy prices get the help they need in this heating season, but he also supports solving the problem itself. And that is the major difference between the two candidates today."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that she tells Democratic House candidates to look ahead to the prospect of serving in a Democrat-led Congress with a Democratic White House.

Pelosi made her remark Thursday when asked about a meeting between House Democrats and Barack Obama, which will reportedly happen next week.

Pelosi first responded by saying that Democrats shouldn't take anything for granted.

Then she added: "But what I say to some of my candidates who are running is -- if you want to talk politics -- I met with 20-some of them this morning, and I said, 'Your opponent is going to spend a lot of money defending a failed Republican agenda to serve in the deep minority under a Democratic president. That's not a good prospect for them.'"

Pelosi said that the members of Congress will be looking to hear directly from Obama about his ideas on national security and the economy. She said, however, Congress plans to work with him, as well.

"We want to hear what he has to say. But we've been laying the foundation for this new direction and for change. And we look forward to sharing ideas with him on those scores," she said.

While his campaign rival delivered a much-anticipated, worldwide-attention-drawing speech at Berlin's Victory Column in Germany today, John McCain reportedly spent the early afternoon in a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.

McCain told reporters he would love to give a speech in Germany, but that he would "much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president," the Associated Press reported.

Before being put to death by lethal injection Thursday morning, Mississippi inmate and convicted murderer Dale Leo Bishop apologized to the family of his victim and urged those present to vote for Barack Obama.

"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said shortly before he was executed, according to the Clarion Ledger.

Bishop was convicted for murder in 2000.

Obama actually supports the death penalty, though he has criticized some of its uses.

The Illinois Democrat disagreed with a recent Supreme Court decision that banned the death penalty from being applied in a case involving the rape of a child. "I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said at the time.

As an Illinois state senator, Obama helped rewrite the state's death penalty laws after DNA evidence freed dozens of Illinois convicts on death row.

An exclusive look at Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, their two daughters and Chicago home will be the cover story of People magazine Read more...

House Republicans rolled out their healthcare agenda Thursday, drawing contrasts with and taking aim at Democrats.

Though the plan is unlikely to be brought up this Congress, Republicans are touting the plan as the alternative they would pursue in the majority.

"Through this reform agenda and the other reforms Republicans have put forth, we

Germany and its capital Berlin are wrapped up in Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's visit to the city.

His visit gets around-the-clock coverage that includes a "live ticker" on some news outlets