Barack Obama may not have as large of a money advantage as previously thought after John McCain posted some impressive fundraising numbers for June, bloggers say Thursday. President Bush's unusual signoff to the G8 conference in Tokyo and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohi0) trying again to impeach Bush also have bloggers talking.

McCain raising $22 million in June gives him $95 million in cash on hand when combined with Republican National Committee fundraising, plenty of money to take on Obama The Next Right says. Hot Air's Ed Morrissey points out that Obama's fundraising has been decreasing since February and if that trend continues he may seriously regret forgoing public financing.

Bush saying "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" to other world leaders at the conclusion of the G8 conference outrages Ryan at Think Progress who calls the joke "destructive" to climate change efforts. Wonkette calls the joke a "national embarrassment."

And Kucinich's new attempt to impeach Bush will likely die the same slow lonely death in committee as his previous efforts, First Read writes. Even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) left the door open to holding a hearing on the impeachment article during her weekly press conference, Michelle Malkin calls the move nothing more than a "floor stunt."

FROM THE BLOGS:
Obama Mocks McCain Over Gramm - Political Ticker
Union Vets Speak Out Against McCain - Firedoglake
Bush: 'Goodbye From The World's Biggest Polluter' - Ryan, Think Progress
The Reverend Is a Tiger - Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Corner
Denny K Launches Another Impeachment Bid - Michelle Malkin
The Nutty Confessor - Kathleen Parker, The Corner
Kucinich at It Again - First Read
McCain Raises $22 Million in June - amerpun, The Next Right
McCain Gets $22 Million in June - Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
How Significant Is McCain's Haul? - Chris Bowers, Open Left
Bush Makes Annual Nation Embarrassment Joke - Wonkette

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
McCain Camp: Obama Needs $200 Million to 'Keep Pace' - The Hill
Clinton and Obama Mend Fences By Raising Funds - New York Times
A Gift From Jesse - Newsweek

Former White House adviser Karl Rove

The Netroots has lost the debate over telecom immunity in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rewrite, disappointing those liberal bloggers at the heart of the online movement. Rev. Jesse Jackson may have inadvertently helped Barack Obama by making a crude remark about him, according to conservative bloggers and pundits. Obama, however, has to worry about his fundraising numbers now that he has ticked off his base, conservative bloggers write.

Congressional Democrats hailed a president with low approval ratings by voting for the FISA overhaul President Bush wanted, according to both kos and the front page of the Huffington Post. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) deserves kudos for voting against the bill that Obama supported, writes Open Left's Matt Stoller, who wonders if she is trying to embarrass her former rival or is showing a new, less cautious side. Democrats, by caving in on FISA and making suggestions that they'll go along with Republicans on offshore oil drilling, are following a strategy just as ineffective as that of a teenager who commits suicide, writes Daily Kos's Devilstower.

Jackson, when he thought he was off the air, whispered into a hot Fox News mic that he'd like to castrate Obama for "talking down to black people." Obama should send Jackson a fruit basket for drawing attention to his centrist views about fatherhood and education, writes Marc Ambinder. Some conservatives will think that anyone who ticks off Jackson can't be that bad, according to Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner. But voters shouldn't forget that Obama has been condescending to other demographics, including "bitter" Pennsylvanians, reminds Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau.

Obama may have problems with formerly staunch supporters on the left. Some bloggers online regret donating to him now that he voted for the FISA bill, writes The Corner's Mark Hemingway. Obama already had a poor fundraising month by his standards in May, and Democratic donors could be running out of money to give him this late into the election, notes The Next Right's Sean Oxendine.

FROM THE BLOGS:
'Bowing' to Mr. 28 Percent - kos, Daily Kos
Clinton Votes 'No' on FISA - Matt Stoller, Open Left
Dems Prepare to Buckle on Offshore Drililng - Devilstower, Daily Kos
Jesse Jackson's Hot Mic - Marc Ambinder
Equal Opportunity Condescension - Carol Platt Liebau, Townhall
McCain on SS: Don't Get All Grammary on Me - J. Marshall, TPM
Missouri Looks a Lot Like a Swing State - Jonathan Singer, MyDD
60 Votes Matters: Today's Medicare Vote - Jonathan Singer, MyDD
Obama's Fundraising Cooked? - Mark Hemingway, The Corner
Obama Fundraising Petering Out? - Sean Oxendine, The Next Right
Congress and Internet: Like It's 1999 - Jon Henke, The Next Right
Senate GOP Needs Testicular Fortitude - E. Erickson, RedState
Complaint Over Obama's Sweetheart Mortgage - Calif. Yankee, RedState

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers - NYT
Candidates Use Iran Missile Test as Policy Debate - NYT
Obama's Ideology Proving Difficult to Pinpoint - Washington Post
Dramatic Kennedy Return - The Hill

Senate Democrats are getting an earful from liberal bloggers Wednesday after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rewrite was approved with immunity for telecommunication companies. Word that former Minnesota Gov. Jesse

Barack Obama

Barack Obama's policy shifts may have created a perception problem, according to bloggers. John McCain and Republicans in Congress, however, won't be able to distance themselves from President Bush this year, liberal bloggers write. But the latest poll of the Democratic-led Congress gives Republicans an opening, suggests one conservative blogger.

Obama may be correctly adjusting his Iraq withdrawal plan to the facts on the ground, but it's "discordant" for him to suggest that he hasn't changed his mind at all, writes Marc Ambinder. Obama's move to the center shows that he's getting stuck in the political culture and isn't the new kind of leader that he said he would be, writes Jon Henke at The Next Right. Obama sounds like former President Richard Nixon when he makes equivocal statements about ending a war, according to Townhall's Michael Medved.

Republicans will try to put distance between Bush and McCain, perhaps by having the president speak on the first day of the Republican convention, before McCain arrives, notes SusanG at Daily Kos. But just like Bush, "McSame" has aides who say that U.S. attorneys firings were "nonsense" and were involved in the controversy themselves, writes TalkingPointsMemo's Josh Marshall. Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), who has the reputation of being "independent," has voted 93 percent of the time with Bush, giving him a record that won't help him in his race this year, writes MyDD's Todd Beeton..

But with Congress's approval rating in the single digits, Republicans can make gains by offering optimism and reforms, such as more offshore oil drilling and an end to earmarks and higher taxes, according to Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau. House Democrats certainly aren't helping their case with open-minded, tech-savvy voters, as they're proposing that members post material only to websites that get congressional approval, RedState's Directors note.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Perception More Dangerous Than Reality for Obama - Ambinder
Obama's Hope-a-Dope - Jon Henke, The Next Right
Barack 'Makes One Thing Perfectly Clear' - M. Medved, Townhall
Obama and Soldiers' Trust - haystack, RedState
McCain to Ensure Bush's Glory at Convention - SusanG, Daily Kos
Yep, Nuthin McSame About That - Josh Marshall, TPM
Another AP Beaut on McCain - Josh Marshall, TPM
The Verdict is In: Joe Must Go - Todd Beeton, MyDD
Exposing Dreier as Bush Rubber Stamp - Todd Beeton, MyDD
If The GOP Only Had a Message - C.P. Liebau, Townhall
Pelosi Wants to Shut Down Member Blogging - Directors, RedState
Those FISA IG Reports - smintheus, Daily Kos
The Case for Tim Kaine - Chris Cillizza, The Fix
John McCain's Bold, Gutsy New Ad - P. Ruffini, The Next Right
Monolingual Americans? - Victor Davis Hanson, The Corner

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Obama Donors Aren't Rushing to Aid Clinton - NYT
Cheney Sought to Alter Climate Discussion - WSJ
McCain Shifts His Message to Latino Immigrants - LAT
Dems to Target McCain for Medicare Non-Vote - The Hill

Barack Obama

Senate Democrats are prepared to vote with the GOP on a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) overhaul and Barack Obama may be to blame, bloggers suggest, while the plethora of advisers working on John McCain

Now that Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) has withdrawn his name from veep consideration, Barack Obama will likely look at former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), according to bloggers. Conservatives, who have heaped fulsome praise upon late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), should be condemning the racist aspects of his legacy, a conservative and a liberal blogger both write. Democrats running for the House, who continue to fare well in polls, are taking a heavy-handed strategy in the primaries that Republicans could learn from, one conservative blogger writes.

Obama will now either turn to an elder statesman like Nunn or someone who reinforces his message of change and bi-partisanship like Sebelius, writes MyDD's Todd Beeton. Webb joins other "A-List" Democrats Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in not wanting to be considered for the second slot on the ticket, notes RedState's Moe Lane. Nunn, a national security expert from the South, would be a great pick for Obama and for headline writers, who would find "Nunn" of the other names better, writes The Plank's Christopher Orr. As for John McCain's running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is the only prospect who could fit the three different categories of picks -- media types, conservatives and "McCain insiders" -- according to Townhall's Matt Lewis.

Conservatives' passion for Helms's stand for "political incorrectness" would be better directed against the way he opposed the civil rights agenda, writes The Plank's Isaac Chotiner. It's troubling that some Helms's supporters are willing to gloss over the racist aspects of his past since other conservatives have been willing to condemn the racism of the John Birch Society and other figures on the right, according to The Next Right's Jon Henke.

House Republicans could learn from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's willingness to endorse candidates in primaries to boost them in the general election, according to The Next Right's Patrick Ruffini, who links to The Hill's story about the strategy. Polls show Democrats virtually tied against Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, the Republican brothers in South Florida who have handily won their past races, TPM Election Central's Eric Kleefeld notes.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Webb Withdraws From VP Consideration - T. Beeton, MyDD
Scratch Webb From VP List - Moe Lane, RedState
Webb Exits VP Lottery - Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
GOP Opponent Claims Credit for Webb's Bill - SusanG, Daily Kos
Nunn Better - Christopher Orr, The Plank
Three GOP VP Lists - Matt Lewis, Townhall.com
Helms, the Right, and the History of Racism - I. Chotiner, The Plank
Racism and the Right - Jon Henke, The Next Right
A Clintonian at Fox - Jim Rutenberg, The Caucus
Anti-Theist Left Knows It's Not Real - Jeff Emanuel, RedState
Sanitizing Obama's Past - Carol Platt Liebau, Townhall.com
Wheel of Fortune: BMW Direct Responds - David Kurtz, TPM
Surge Amnesia - A. Huffington, The Huffington Post
Polls Show Close Races for Reps. Diaz-Balart - Eric Kleefeld, TPM EC
DCCC Plays in Primaries - Patrick Ruffini, The Next Right

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Adding Up The Cost of Obama's Agenda - L.A. Times
McCain Says He Would Balance Budget By 2013 - Washington Post
Internal Politics Heat Up McCain Campaign - New York Times
Party Scrambles to Meet Obama's Call for Change - The Hill