A new Rasmussen poll suggests that Barack Obama is shedding the "liberal" label and is being seen as more "moderate."
The Democrat was seen by 22 percent of likely voters as "very liberal." Last month, 36 percent of likely voters saw him that way.
Also in the new poll, Obama was seen by 27 percent of likely voters as a "moderate," which is up from his June number of 22 percent.
John McCain was seen by 23 percent of respondents in the most recent poll as "moderate," which is down from his 26 percent last month. About two-thirds of voters view the Republican as "very conservative" in both the new poll and the previous one.
Barack Obama urged students to stay in school at a campaign event in Georgia by telling them that they wouldn't play pro basketball or become the next Lil Wayne.
Obama made his remarks in response to a question about setting a universal drop-out age to better prepare students for the job market.
Obama encouraged states to pass their own limits to require students to stay in school up to a certain age. Then he said he understood the problems that teenagers can face when looking for careers without a high school diploma.
"You can't find a job unless you are a really, really good basketball player, which most of you brothers are not," said Obama, who won high school basketball state championship. "I know you think you are, but you're not. You are overrated in your mind. You will not play in the NBA. You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Lil Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school."
Obama also agreed with the questioner about the need for U.S. students to learn other languages.
"We live in a global economy," he said. "And, you know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, 'We need to have English-only.' They want to pass a law, 'We want English-only.'"
Obama continued: "Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can you child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language."
"You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say, 'Merci beaucoup.' Right?"
(Lil Wayne image by Ryan Dombal, via Creative Commons.)
Barack Obama, at a town hall meeting in Georgia, got the question about his position about Iraq.
A supporter, a self-proclaimed "reformed Republican," noted Republican accusations that Obama had shifted his position on a U.S. troop withdrawal. Then then supporter asked Obama to clarify his stance.
Obama took the opportunity to address criticism that he is "flip-flopping."
Here's his full answer:
Let me, first of all, talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center or that I'm flip-flopping or this or that or the other. You know, the people who say this apparently haven't been listening to me. And I have to say, some of it are my friends on the left and in some of the media.
I am somebody who is no doubt progressive. I believe in a tax code that we need to make more fair. I believe in universal health care. I believe in making college affordable. I believe in paying our teachers more money. I believe in early childhood education. I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive and squarely in the Democratic camp.
But as you just heard me talk about with education, I don't -- I'm not somebody who's just talking about government as the solution to everything. I also believe in personal responsibility. I also believe in faith.
So, for example, when I talk about the idea that we should recruit churches and places of worship, if they are willing to abide by the separation of church and state, to get involved in providing critical services to communities in faith-based initiatives, that's not something new. I've been talking about that for years now. I've been organizing with churches for years in the community.
And so the notion that somehow that's me trying to look like I'm, you know, more centered, more centrist, is just not true.
You know, there was a Supreme Court ruling saying that the Second Amendment gives people the individual right to bear arms. Now, I actually have said that I agree with that for years, even before the ruling came down. That doesn't mean that I also recognize that we need to make sure that we've got decent controls over the use of illegal firearms in our community. Those two positions aren't contradictory.
So a lot of this stuff -- you know, one of the things that you find as you go through this campaign is everybody has become so cynical about politics that the assumption is, "You must be doing everything for political reasons."
And the message I want to send to everybody is: You're not going to agree with me on 100 percent of what I think, but don't assume that, if I don't agree with you on something, that it must be because I'm doing that politically. I may just disagree with you.
But we can agree on 90 percent of the things that are important. And on those 10 percent, we'll agree to disagree.
Now, when it comes to Iraq, I opposed this war from the start.
(APPLAUSE)
I opposed this war from the start because I thought it was going to distract us from the war that had to be won in Afghanistan, because I thought it would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. I thought it would fan anti-American sentiment. It would help terrorists recruit.
And almost six years later, I have to say that most of my fears, unfortunately, came to pass.
Now, I have also consistently said that, once we were in, we had to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in, because once you get in, now you've got to make sure that our troops are safe. You've got to make sure that the country doesn't collapse.
And so what I've called for is a phased withdrawal, a phased redeployment that is not precipitous, that is responsible, getting our combat troops out at a pace of about one to two brigades per month. And at that point, we would have our troops out, our combat troops out in about 16 months.
Now, assuming that I take office in January...
(APPLAUSE)
... then that means that we would have -- we would still have our troops there for about two more years from now. There's nothing rushed about that, John Conyers. At that point, we will have been there for seven years.
So when I hear John McCain saying, "We can't surrender. We can't wave the white flag," nobody's talking about surrender. We're talking about common sense. We cannot be there forever. We can't be there for 50 years. We can't afford it. Our military families can't bear that burden. We've got to get more troops into Afghanistan.
I am going to bring this war to an end. So don't be confused: I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I'm president of the United States of America.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) sent a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last week asking him to calculate the potential savings of a switch to a 55 mph speed limit on major federal highways.
Warner wrote in the letter that the first time a 55 mph limit was enacted, back in 1974, national highway fuel consumption dropped by 2 percent. The 55 mph federal limit was repealed in 1995.
Warner said on Fox News Tuesday that he's merely urging lawmakers to study consider ways to help families deal with soaring gas prices.
"This is just an idea -- repeat, an idea of how America faced a similar crisis in 1973-'74, did reduce the demand at the pump and did reduce the cost at the pump," said Warner, who also noted he's a supporter of more domestic offshore oil drilling. "So why shouldn't we at least look at it as we scramble together here and work to put forward a program that'll help alleviate the very serious problem of cost to families at the gas pump today?"
Der Spiegel reports Barack Obama will be in Germany on July 24 to deliver a speech in Berlin, but German officials are hesitant to allow Obama to speak at the famous Brandenberg Gate.
"The Brandenburg Gate is the most famous and history-rich site in Germany," the Chancellery source said. In the past, the location has only been used on very special occasions for political speeches by world leaders. And it has been reserved for use only by elected American presidents, not candidates. The decision on whether the Democrat can speak at the location ultimately lies with the Berlin state government. Chancellery officials are concerned that the Brandenburg Gate could be turned into an "arbitrary stage" that other campaigns could also seek to use in the future.
It's a traditional practice for US presidential candidates to visit Germany before the election. However, the source pointed out that agreements can only be made with elected presidents. The source also noted that a the German federal government would also be equally pleased to play host to a visit by Republican candidate John McCain. The door is just as open for him, the source said.
John McCain, speaking before the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, pointed to his support for comprehensive immigration reform, a position he downplayed during the Republican presidential primaries.
"I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic necessity of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country," McCain said according to prepared remarks.
McCain, who championed comprehensive reform in the Senate, stressed his support for securing U.S. borders to stem illegal immigration during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2007 and earlier this year. But on Tuesday, he suggested that securing the borders is just one step.
"Many Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts," he said. "We must prove to them that we can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. But we must not make the mistake of thinking that our responsibility to meet this challenge will end with that accomplishment. We have economic and humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in meeting them."
McCain, whose campaign released a television ad Tuesday highlighting his military service, also referenced in his speech his ties to his Hispanic-American constituents in Arizona and a Hispanic-American serviceman he was imprisoned with in Vietnam.
"When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered early release by my captors," McCain said. "Most of us refused because we were bound to our code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to be released the soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of Mexican descent, had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for his country much more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would have shamed us."
UPDATE: The Corner's Byron York notes that McCain threw a bone to conservative activists in his speech Tuesday. McCain said that he would "secure our borders first," after leaving out the word "first" in a recent speech. Opponents of comprehensive immigration reform have called for a "secure-the-borders" approach to immigration before trying other reforms.
Georgia Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey lit into Barack Obama on a conference call Tuesday ahead of a town hall meeting the Illinois Democrat is holding in Gingrey's state.
"He's the worst flip-flopper that I've ever seen," Gingrey said pointing to Obama's positions on Iraq, taxes and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"He may get away from this in California and New York, but he
The Barack Obama campaign tried to poke holes in John McCain's budget plan Tuesday, saying McCain's numbers "clearly are not adding up."
House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) said McCain's proposed budget is unlikely to balance the budget in four years, as the McCain camp claims, pointing to further tax cuts that Spratt says will add to future deficits.
"McCain is not just embracing [President] Bush, but all the Bush tax cuts and then some," Spratt said.
Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said the numbers "don't add up," calling McCain's proposals "gimmickry" that do not address the "real math" of the budget.
Jason Furman, Obama's Director of Economic Policy , attacked McCain for relying on a draw down in Iraq to help close shortfalls in the budget, claiming McCain "has no plan for victory in Iraq." Spratt, however, conceded the idea may work.
"Obviously if there is a substantial drawn down in Iraq," Spratt said, "there will be a peace dividend of some kind." Spratt said though that while a peace dividend may help erase deficits, the Department of Defense may soak up alloted funding to help recover from a war that has stretched personnel and resources.
Barack Obama's campaign released a new ad today that hits back at John McCain after a Republican National Committee (RNC) ad accused Obama of having "no new solutions" for rising energy costs.
Obama's ad will run in the same battleground states where the RNC ad is already running: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The ad promotes Obama's plan for tax breaks and higher mileage standards for cars. It calls McCain "part of the problem" on gas prices, and accuses him of favoring "big oil" with tax cuts. See the ad below:
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