Dem Campaign Chatter 8-9-2008

George Wenschhof

Today, Obama begins the second day of his 9 day vacation with family in Hawaii - although on vacation, he can not seem to totally escape - he will deliver the Democratic Radio Address today at 11:00 AM. You can listen to it here. Obama will also attend a sold out $2,300 per person fundraiser next Tuesday. Read more here.

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John Edwards admission of a extramarital affair has pundits talking - I pointed out the rumors two days ago right here and I have to admit I was hoping they were wrong. You can now definitely cross off Edwards from Obama's VP short list. It is also doubtful Edwards will be invited to speak at the Democratic Convention. With all the time the Clinton's are receiving at the convention, it is questionable if anyone else will have a prime time appearance.

Edwards has to hope the Olympics get the above the fold write up and he is below the fold. Expect the Republicans to make hay with this unfortunate situation. Already, old clips of interviews where he denied rumors of this relationship have surfaced along with admission by former finance chairman of the Edwards campaign, Fred Baron that he gave money to the woman. This momentarily takes the attention away from the failed policies of the Bush administration. Read more here.

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Republic of Georgia, South Ossetia conflict continues to intensify with Russian military and air strikes - as I pointed out yesterday, keep an eye on this for all the components are there for a U.S. response. South Ossetia has been trying to break away from the republic of Georgia while the President of Georgia has promised unification. The old cold war has come back to the forefront with the U.S. backing the republic of Georgia and Russia supporting South Ossetia and their drive for independence. Here is a good read in the New York Times.

Stay tuned to the responses by the candidates. The early response from McCain was to blame the Russians while Obama called for negotiation between all parties. Both called for UN action.

Georgia has now declared a state of war with Russia and President Bush has called for an immediate cease fire. Read more here. Russian President Medvedev said their intent is to have Georgia accept peace.

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Internal emails from Hillary Clinton campaign to be published by Atlantic Monthly - this will not be good for Democratic Party unity. Next week they plan to publish an article with excerpts from up to 200 emails obtained from strategists Mark Penn, Harold Ickes, and Geoff Garin - ouch! Read more here.

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Obama campaign readies Vice-President operations - David Wade who will be the spokesman for the Vice Presidential candidate picked by Obama. Here is a video where he talks about the operations. Watch it here. In a unusual move, the Obama campaign has already hired staff for the Vice-Presidential candidate. Typically, the VP candidate would bring along their own trusted staff.