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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will make a campaign stop with Barack Obama Thursday morning in New York City. The two will headline a Women for Obama fundraising breakfast at the Hilton Tower.

Former Virginia Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner (D) says Barack Obama will have a good chance at winning Virginia if he can perform as well as down-ticket Democrats have in rural areas of the state.

Warner laid out a logistical strategy for Obama in an interview with The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza.

Obama will have to generate "big turnout in the outer suburbs which were, even as recently as five or six years ago, heavily Republican but are shifting back Democratic and not get smoked in the rural parts of the state," Warner said, responding to Cillizza's question about Democratic presidential candidates performing poorly in Virginia.

"If he can hold the kind of traditional Democratic performance across rural Virginia, an area that's actually still my strongest part of the state, I think that you're gonna see Virgina be a very competitive state," Warner said.

Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) thinks the Republican Party has a long way to go before regaining power in Washington, saying the GOP needs to "clean house" over the next few elections, hoping to regain the majority "within the next 10 years."

"I'm of the position that we really need to clean house in this Republican Party, and I think the next couple of election cycles are going to do that," Heller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Heller said many Republicans were "changed" by Washington, suggesting many fell out of touch with their constituents.

"I think we got to the point where the majority of Republicans were trying to change America and tell [Americans] what they wanted instead of listening to ... what they need," Heller said.

The Nevada Republican told the paper he sees signs that House Republicans are changing their ways, but that it will take some time for the party to get back on its feet. "I do believe we will be back in the majority within 10 years," Heller said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sent a letter to fellow members of Congress Tuesday asking them to support a new article of impeachment against President Bush he plans to introduce this week.

"We owe it to our troops who even at this hour stand as sentinels of America because they love this country and will give their lives for it," Kucinich wrote. "What are we willing to do to match their valor and the valor of their successors? Are we at least willing to defend the Constitution from the comfort and security of our Washington, DC offices?"

"There can be no greater responsibility of a Commander in Chief than to command based on facts on the ground, and to command in fact and in truth. There can be no greater offense of a Commander in Chief than to misrepresent a cause of war and to send our brave men and women into harm Read more...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today pointed to President Bush

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.

Lil Wayne

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.

(Download the letter here.)

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.