Daily Political Wire 6-24-2010

George Wenschhof

Today, President Obama turns to foreign policy - as he has meetings at the white House with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev and Israel Foreign Minister Ehud Barak. The focus with Medvedev will be on improving U.S./Russia trade. Reuters.com has more here.

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NBC/WSJ poll shows declining approval for Obama - only 45% said the approved of the job the president was doing, down 5 points from last month. 62% responded they felt the country was moving in the wrong direction and 48% said they disapproved of the job performance of the president.

As to congress and which political party should control, the vote was even with 45% preferring Republicans and 43% Democrats. MSNBC.com has more here.

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Firing of McChrystal shifts focus from BP oil spill to Afghanistan - President Obama was able to take advantage of General Stanley McChystal's lapse of judgement and turn it into a situation where the president was seen as taking the right action and showing strong leadership. Strong leadership was what Obama was being accused of lacking in his actions surrounding the BP Gulf oil spill - a big reason for the favorable poll drop posted above.

The swift nomination of General David Petraeus, who is sure to gain rapid Senate confirmation, was a a great political as well as military decision. Now, Petraeus is on the hot seat in Afghanistan, where U.S. involvement has been going poorly. Politico.com has a good read on what to do for in regard to success in Afghanistan here.

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House set to vote on campaign finance bill today - Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has been working on this bill ever since the Supreme Court issued it's narrow 5-4 "Citizens united" decision allowing unlimited campaign donations from corporations. TheHill.com has more here.

The law would provide disclosure of campaign expenditures by corporations and unions to their members. To garner Republican support, Van Hollen accepted a amendment which would exempt the NRA, leading to more organizations being added to the list.

This has angered progressives, so House passage is not guaranteed and the Senate promises to be a challenge as well.

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Wall Street Reform bill vote today? - it continues to be a struggle in conference committee as bank lobbyists have worked hard to water down the bill. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and her legislation on derivatives is being attacked hard and she has not signaled any room to negotiate. Two Democratic Senators have already said they will vote against the bill, because it is not strong enough. This is putting added pressure on conference chairs Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.). You can read more of the intrigue here.

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Former Vice President Al Gore's turn for sexual misconduct story - CNN.com is reporting today a story about a license massage therapist who accused the former vice president in 2006 of "unwanted sexual contact". The alleged incident occurred in October 2006 at a hotel in Portland, Oregon. No charges were filed as police were unable to substantiate the claim. In January 2007, after police were unable to interview the woman, police were informed by her attorney they were pursuing civil litigation and declined their assistance. CNN.com has more here.

Wonder if this has anything to do with the announcement by Al and Tipper Gore recently that they were separating. Stay tuned....

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