Former White House adviser Karl Rove

Barack Obama

The presidential election at this stage is all about Barack Obama, according to bloggers. The Democrat should block passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rewrite, liberal bloggers suggest. He'll have a tough time winning over supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), conservative bloggers write. And Obama, not John McCain, is the one on the defensive early in the general election campaign, his online critics note.

Obama and other Democratic senators should heed MoveOn.org's call and block the FISA overhaul, since it includes retroactive immunity for telecom companies that they have opposed before, writes Daily Kos's mcjoan and MyDD's Todd Beeton. But some liberal activists are taking it too far in suggesting that Democrats who support the bill are "dismantling the Constitution" and thus deserve to lose their seats, according to The Plank's Josh Patashnik. It wouldn't be a bad thing for Republicans if Obama filibusters the FISA bill, since that would hurt Democratic unity, Moe Lane writes at RedState.

Obama will have a problem winning over female Democrats who backed Clinton if he keeps telling them to get over it, writes The Corner's Ramesh Ponnuru. Bill Clinton has yet to endorse Obama and was less than effusive in his praise of Obama's climate change proposals, notes Hot Air's Ed Morrissey. But McCain may have trouble capturing the Clinton vote, as he failed to condemn a supporter who called the New York senator a "b****" while campaign during the primaries, suggests TalkingPointsMemo's Josh Marshall.

Obama is now hearing it from the press for failing to keep his pledge to take general election public funds, notes Carol Platt Liebau at Townhall.com. He also has failed to practice the "new politics" he talks about by taking a liberal stand on terror detainee rights and by backpedaling on his call for talks with rogue leaders, notes RedState's Mark I. And he has yet to face the kind of "Swiftboating" that hurt Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, as those kinds of attacks came from critics who knew the candidate personally, The Corner's Byron York points out.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Amnesty, Obama and The Good Fight - mcjoan, Daily Kos
The Imperial Senate - smintheus, Daily Kos
MoveOn: Tell Obama to Filibuster FISA - Todd Beeton, MyDD
Keeping FISA in Perspective - Josh Patashnik, The Plank
MoveOn Calls for Obama to Filibuster FISA - Moe Lane, RedState
Obama Courts the Clintonites - Ramesh Ponnuru, The Corner
Can You Feel Unity Yet? Neither Can Bill - Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
McCain: 'That's an Excellent Question' - Josh Marshall, TPM
'Swiftboating' - Byron York, The Corner
Obama Might Just Blow It - Mark I, RedState
Trading Free Good Press for Paid? - Carol Platt Liebau, Townhall
Obama: 'And Did I Mention He's Black?' - H. Hewitt, Townhall
Special Prosecutor for Chris Dodd - Ironman, The Next Right
Al-Hurra Struggles 'Shocking' - Josh Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo
Congress Wrapping Up FISA, War Bills - D. Herszenhorn, Caucus
Flip Flops Looking Like Hot Summer Trend - J. Harwood, Caucus

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol - New York Times
Karl Rove: Old Rampart, New Battles - Washington Post
Obama Plans a Reintroduction - Washington Post
Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner - NYT

John McCain ran nearly even with Barack Obama in the May money race, showing Obama may not have as big of a general election fundraising advantage as previously thought, bloggers write Sunday. Most agree that NBC made the right choice in picking Tom Brokaw to head "Meet the Press" through the election and liberal bloggers applaud MoveOn.org for putting its foot down on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act overhaul.

Obama may not have made a good call in choosing to forgo public financing after his May fundraising slowed substantially, Matthew Yglesias writes. The blogger points out that Obama's advantage among small donors may prove to be his undoing as a huge group of small donors are harder to rally in a crunch than a small group of big donors. But conservative blogger Patrick Ruffini was not put at ease by the numbers, worrying the slowdown is only the calm before the storm as Obama joins forces the with the Democratic National Committee and small donors start kicking in toward the general election.

Picking Brokaw to host "Meet the Press" is a temporary, but necessary, fix for NBC, TV Decoder writes. The blogger points out that Brokaw will keep the show on top of its competitors through the election and allow a permanent replacement to make his or her mark past the high tension of a presidential election. The Swamp agrees, writing that the easiest way to replace the irreplaceable Tim Russert is to not permanently replace him yet.

And MoveOn.org is flexing its political muscle against Obama, hoping to hold the Democratic standard-bearer to a pledge to work to strip telecommunications immunity from the FISA rewrite. MyDD's Todd Beeton sides with MoveOn, arguing now is the time to hold Obama accountable to some of the liberal stances the Illinois senator took during the primary campaign.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Elian Gonzalez Haunts Obama - Top of the Ticket
MoveOn: Tell Obama to Filibuster FISA - Todd Beeton, MyDD
What Will Bill Clinton Do? - The Corner
Most Disagree with GITMO Decision - Allahpundit, Hot Air
The CIA's Torture Hole in Poland - Jeralyn, TalkLeft
May Fundraising - Matthew Yglesias
McCain Nearly Outraises Obama in May - Patrick Ruffini
Brokaw on 'Meet' Through November - The Swamp
Brokaw to Host 'Meet the Press' - TV Decoder

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation - New York Times
U.S. TV Station Fails to Find Niche in Middle East - Washington Post
McCain, Obama Try to Stick Flip-Flop Label on Opponent - The Hill

Barack Obama voicing support for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rewrite that passed the House Friday had liberal bloggers wondering if Obama actually does represent change. Continuing money trouble for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and an over-the-top ad from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also have bloggers talking Saturday.

Obama's support for a FISA deal that includes immunity for telecommunication companies shows he is just another politician, writes Talk Left's Big Tent Democrat. The blogger calls Obama "disingenuous" for leading liberals to believe he would be different. DemFromCT takes Obama's approval of the FISA rewrite as a sign that he is starting to move to the middle, hoping to run as a moderate in the general election.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) ended the month of May with thirteen times the cash on hand that the DNC had in the bank, showing the RNC's strong fundraising may prove equal to the Obama money machine, The Swamp reports. Top of the Ticket writes that the numbers prove President Bush is still a top money magnet for the GOP as Bush hit the closed-door fundraising circuit hard in May.

Cornyn unveiled a ultra-cowboy themed ad at the recent Texas GOP convention that Hot Air's Allahpundit calls "the cheesiest reelection ad ever." Cornyn claims the ad was a joke, but if it was a joke, the conservative blogger asks, where is the punchline?

FROM THE BLOGS:
Hillary Coming Back to the Hill - The Page
Obama up 15 in New Poll - SusanG, Daily Kos
Obamaweek Strikes Again - Mark Hemingway, The Corner
The Cheesiest Reelection Ad Ever - Allahpundit, Hot Air
Obama Promises to Filibuster Telecom Immunity - Talk Left
The Seal Deal - Mark Hemingway, The Corner
Saturday Musings - DemFromCT, Daily Kos
RNC Flush with Cash - The Swamp
DNC Lags Behind - Top of the Ticket
Bush Calls out Dems - John Hinderaker, Power Line

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
More Congressional Computers Hacked from China - The Hill
It's Vetting Time - National Journal
Obama Plans National Push on Ads and Turnout - New York Times

The House approving a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rewrite including telecom immunity has liberal bloggers fuming Friday afternoon. Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee and a twitter debate between the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns also have bloggers talking going into the weekend.

There was nothing bipartisan about the FISA compromise, write Glen Greenwald who calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

David Brooks

Before John McCain again attacks Barack Obama for opting out of the general election public financing system, he may want to examine his own actions, according to Obama's online defenders. Obama is already putting his privately funded war chest to work, airing an ad that has liberal bloggers dreaming of victories in red states and conservative bloggers crying foul. In Congress, Republicans have secured legislative victories over Iraq war funding and wiretaps, their blogging supporters eagerly note.

While McCain is attacking Obama for going back on his pledge to take public funding, the Republican is the one who has broken campaign finance law by unilaterally opting out of the primary public funding system, writes Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo. McCain once praised the private, small-donor fundraising model that Obama will rely on, back when former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.) pioneered it in 2004, notes Daily Kos's DHinMI.

Obama's first general election ad is airing in a slew of red states, including Georgia, Montana and North Dakota, showing that the Democrats will be on the offensive this year, writes kos. By contesting Georgia, where McCain barely leads Obama, 44 percent to 43 percent in the latest poll, Obama will force the Republican to defend a state he must win and thereby increase his chances of winning overall, writes MyDD's Jonathan Singer. But Obama, in his ad, "exaggerates" his accomplishments on welfare reform, middle-class tax cuts and healthcare for troops, according to Townhall's Matt Lewis.

The Democrat-led House approved on Thursday the emergency war-spending bill that President Bush called for, something that should frustrate Code Pink and other liberal activists, notes Jeff Emanuel at RedState. The House compromise over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rewrite makes it too easy for telecom companies who participated in domestic wiretapping to get immunity from lawsuits, writes Matthew Yglesias. And now that two Florida freshmen in the House, Reps. Tim Mahoney and Ron Klein, have stated support for more offshore oil drilling restrictions, Republicans should go after them hard in November, according to RedState's pilgrim.

FROM THE BLOGS:
McCain Breaking the Law in Plain Sight - Josh Marshall, TPM
McCain Backs Obama's on Private Funds - DHinMI, Daily Kos
Bauer v. Potter: The Lawyers Spar - Marc Ambinder
McCain 'Never Loved' Country Before Capture - J. Marshall, TPM
The Early Obama Map - kos, Daily Kos
Georgia on My Mind - Jonathan Singer, MyDD
Obama Ad Exaggerates Accomplishments - Matt Lewis, Townhall
House Passes Bush Iraq War Funds Bill - J. Emanuel, RedState
Two Florida House Dems Ripe for Defeat - pilgrim, RedState
FISA Followup - Matthew Yglesias
Burned Again by Oil Companies - Texas Nate, MyDD
Debating Cap-and-Trade - Jim Manzi, The Corner
The 11 Moral Senators - Amanda Carpenter, Townhall
Generic Ballot Distress for House GOP - C. Cillizza, The Fix
McCain Reiterates ANWR Drilling Opposition - The Caucus
McCain Campaign Chief's Ukraine Ties - S.C. Walls, HuffPo
Oppose Bush's Lies: Send Money to Franken - P. Begala, HuffPo

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Surveillance Bill Offers Protection to Telecom Firms - WaPo
Obama, in Shift, Says He'll Reject Public Financing - NYT
Obama's Decision is Biggest Threat to Pub. Financing - NYT
Cheney Gets Last Laugh - The Hill

House Democrats have sold out their base after agreeing to a deal on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), liberal bloggers furiously charge Thursday. Rep. Don Young