Democratic Campaign Chatter 6-14-2008

Obama to take a world trip to stress international relations? - Speculation is he will take a world trip, visiting countries prior to the Democratic Convention in August. Recently, McCain was inviting Obama to take a joint trip with him to Iraq - don't count on that happening. However, including Iraq on his world trip itinerary is a good bet. I pointed out just the other day that Obama is rated much higher than McCain overseas so this would be a good idea if it came to be. McClatchydc.com has a good read here.

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Changes to (FISA) near passage in congress. - The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act came under intense scrutiny after 9/11. Under the George W. Bush administration, phone companies provided information to them and the legality of this action has been questioned by many Democrats. The compromise language in the bill centers on any action, if any, to be taken on companies who provided this information. Read more here.

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McCain campaign says five debates are not enough - The back and forth in the media continues as both campaigns work toward an acceptable number of debates, their locations and dates. You may recall the McCain campaign recently fired off a press release calling for 10 town hall meetings without moderaters in addition to the 3 currently planned traditional debates. The Obama campaign responded with a proposal of 2 town hall meetings - one on the economy in July and one on foreign policy in August. This is obviously a proposal from Obama's campaign that is scheduled to benefit him the most. Obama is presently conducting a two week tour on his economic policies which the July debate would be good timing and a August debate on foreign policy after a world wide tour (see above) would also be good timing. You can count on more negotiation from both campaigns on the town hall debates. Read more here.

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Speaking of Obama's Economic Tour - He is in Wayne, Pennsylvania today speaking about gas prices. You may recall he criticized both McCain and Hillary Clinton for their proposals calling for a temporary suspension of tax on gas. Read more here.

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Gallup poll shows people feel "moral values" getting worse - look to see the Republicans jump on this, especially the "moral right" Read more here.