Campaign Chatter

Obama to begin foreign tour next week - In what will be an unusually highly publicized trip. All the major news networks have their anchors heading along and the eyes will be on how the Senator conducts himself on the world stage. A slew of meetings are planned with officials including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, then on to meet with Israel, Palestinian and Jordon officials. Visits to Iraq and Afghanistan are also planned.

Obama has put together quite a foreign policy advisory committee that provides him with daily briefings. The New York Times has more here. Look to see Senator Obama receive warm greetings as he travels abroad and to handle himself well. Minor gaffes are expected, regardless of how knowledgeable or prepared you are on foreign affairs.

--------------------

House Speaker Pelosi wants 50 Billion stimulus package - with the economy continuing to struggle she wants to add another 50 Billion to the already passed 150 Billion stimulus bill. It would include more rebates, public works programs, funds to states to help with their medicaid expense and increased funds for food stamps. Although it sounds good, many times these catch all bills are not much help. The rebates checks did not do much good the first time and actually add to inflationary problems and weakening of the dollar. Putting unemployed to work repairing a crumbling national infrastructure does make sense and should be a priority. TheHill.com has more here.

--------------------

Al Gore's Ten Year Goal - In a speech yesterday, he proposed a ten year goal for the United States to have 100% of our electricity from renewable sources. You can watch and read his speech here. Sound impossible? not really as wind, solar and geothermal methods are available if instituted at a national level. Remember President John F. Kennedy and his pledge to put a man on the moon in ten years? E.J. Dionne has a good read today in the Washington Post - read it here. As to VP with Obama? Gore says no - read more from CNN.com here.

--------------------

Jonathon Prince to head up independent ad campaign to target McCain - He was John Edwards campaign manager. Interestingly, this ad campaign can be funded with DNC money, but can not be coordinated with the Obama campaign or the DNC campaign - how weird is that? Time.com has more here.

--------------------

Gallup Poll - Bush quarterly approval rating - 29%, Congress - 14% - Whew! tough being on Capitol Hill these days. Democrats will need to heed these numbers as well as Republicans. The Chicago Tribune swampolitics.com has more here.

--------------------

Netroots Nation convention - continues - David Kurtz of TalkingPointsMemo.com interviews Howard Dean - watch the video here. It was the Dean campaign in 2004 that inspired many to begin using the Internet to help manage campaigns and to raise money.