Democratic Campaign Chatter 6-17-2008

Al Gore's endorsement speech of Obama was great last night - In a speech - watch video here - delivered at a rally for Obama in Detroit, Michigan, Gore continued the theme of we can not stand another four more years similar to the last eight. Al Gore was the last Democratic heavyweight to endorse and his support is extremely meaningful. Recognized as the world leader on climate control and environmental issues, Gore also has a million plus people signed up to his websites. Yes, I said websites for he has several and the "We" can solve the climate crisis, site promoting climate issues is especially popular. This is the first time Gore has used the websites to promote a candidate and it will prove to be of immense help to the Obama campaign. Read more here.

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Obama continues focus on the Economy - Today, he is at a town hall meeting in Taylor, Michigan talking about affordability of college tuition. I have mentioned in the past, I believe it is time for our country to extend publicly funded education through the first two years of college as a High School diploma is not sufficient to compete in today's world.

The Wall Street Journal has a front page story on Obama and his economic plan - read it here.

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McCain sounding Bush-like calls for off-shore oil drilling and an end to oil exploration ban - Instead of recognizing the need for a new direction in energy, McCain stays the course. Obama correctly points this out. Read more here.

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Patti Solis Doyle hire by Obama campaign upsets some Clinton supporters - It shouldn't - Doyle was the Clinton campaign manager who was let go in one of the moves made to get the Clinton campaign re-focused. At the time of her firing, she was talking to David Pouffle, Obama campaign manager as they has been friends for some time - the rumors back then were that she would be hired by the Obama campaign and those rumors were correct. The Clinton supporters claim that since she was hired to be the chief of staff to the VP candidate, this indicated that Hillary will not be on the ticket. Perhaps, but not necessarily - campaigns give a lot of titles to staff at this point and it is very likely that the VP candidate chosen will bring their own chief of staff to the party. Look to see Ms Doyle's role in the campaign evolve. Read more here.

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Perhaps setting up his rumored tour of foreign countries in August, Obama says he will visit Iraq and Aghanistan prior to November. Obama recently spoke with the Iraq foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari informing him that he did not envision a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq and he favored the gradual withdraw of U.S. troops. Read more here.

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Obama maintains national lead over McCain - In a poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, Obama received 48% and McCain 42% - the margin of error was 3%. Another important stat is the split of Independents and here McCain is barely leading 45% to 43% over Obama. The vote by Independents is crucial in November.