Democratic Campaign Chatter 7-3-2008

Obama in Fargo, North Dakota today - schedule includes a visit to a children's museum and a town hall with Veterans. He will talk about his support of increased benefits - most likely the Senator Webb amendment to the recently passed war funding bill.

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Democratic and Republican conventions coming soon - only two months away and lots of work to still be done for these major political events. With the Republican convention beginning only days after the Democratic convention, there is some thought being given to have McCain announce his VP pick immediately following the Democratic convention. The idea would be to stunt any bounce Obama may receive for that announcement would grab the headlines. The Obama campaign is considering reducing the days of the Democratic convention by a day so they would get more attention. Regardless, the Republican convention occurs almost immediately after the Democratic convention and will steal a lot of the post convention thunder of the Democrats. Read more here.

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More bad news on the Bush economy - It is now six straight months of job losses - the Labor Department reported an additional 62,000 in job losses for June. The unemployment rate stayed at 5.5%. The summer is traditionally a time when jobs are added due to seasonal work. This is not a good sign. Keep an eye on these figures for July and August for if continued job losses are reported, the September numbers will be even worse as seasonal jobs will be over. Read more here.

Meanwhile the Dow Jones enter bear market territory - Oil is at $144 a barrel and GM loses are making some worry about them declaring bankruptcy. Read more here.

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Health Care for America Now receives the support of Elizabeth Edwards - The wife of John Edwards will lend her support to this organization that intends to spend 40m to battle the insurance companies and argue for affordable health care. Read more here.

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Afghanistan, Pakistan and Special Ops - an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer talks about how a 2002 special operations plan directed at terrorists in the mountainous regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been stalled for six years due to infighting between the White House, the CIA, and the Pentagon. Meanwhile, while the US has provided 10 billion in military aid to Pakistan, the Taliban presence in Afghanistan has increased and the US casualties have been higher than those in Iraq. Speculation is the Bush administration may finally give this plan the go ahead.

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The HuffingtonPost.com talks about how racial profiling may be considered by the Justice Department in terror prevention. Read the column here Combating terror and protecting the civil liberties of Americans will continue to be an issue for debate. Americans want their families to be safe and they value the civil liberties afforded them under the US constitution. Stay tuned.