Inside Politics

Two priorities

“In unison, senior Democratic strategists say that Obama faces two overriding priorities at the convention,” Ronald Brownstein writes at www. nationaljournal.com.

“One is to resolve doubts about his qualifications and agenda that McCain has seeded this summer with ads portraying the Democrat as a vapid celebrity and a soft-on-defense, tax-and-spend liberal. Even more important, many argue, Obama must reframe the fundamental choice in the election from whether he is ready to be president to whether the country wants to continue in the direction set by [President] Bush, particularly on economic policy.

“‘They’ve got to push the debate back onto economic issues and the direction of the country under Bush, and they have to connect McCain to Bush, particularly on the economy,’ said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. ‘They’ve got to really go for that … or they are going to spend all of their time fighting these cultural cartoon characterizations of Obama [from the Republicans].’

“Obama’s campaign appears to be thinking along the same lines. Asked in a Friday interview with ‘CBS Morning News’ what he most hopes to achieve at the convention, Obama said he wanted to make the economic ‘choice clear to the American people’ by asking whether they want to continue on the economic course Bush has set. ‘I want the American people to focus on whether or not we can afford to continue those policies for another four or eight years,’ Obama added. ‘Because that’s essentially what John McCain’s offering.’”

Biggest story

“Here’s an intriguing thought: The John McCain-Barack Obama fight isn’t this season’s biggest political story. That honor should be reserved for the intense Democratic push to win a filibuster-proof Senate majority,” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley A. Strassel writes.

“Democrats know this is a huge prize, and they are throwing at least as much money and sweat into that effort as they are into electing Mr. Obama. What isn’t clear is that voters are as aware of the stakes. An unstoppable Democratic Senate has the potential to alter the balance of power in Washington in ways not yet seen,” the writer said.

“A quick recap of the numbers: Republicans must defend 23 seats, compared to 12 for the Democrats. Of those GOP slots, 10 are at potential risk: Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, Maine and North Carolina. The Democrats claim only one vulnerable senator this year, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Depending on how big a day the party has in November, it is at least conceivable Democrats could get the nine seats they need to hit the magic 60.

“The nation has had prior almighty Senates, of course, and it hasn’t been pretty. Free of the filibuster check, the world’s greatest deliberative body tends to go on benders. It was a filibuster-proof Democratic majority (or near to it, in his first years) that allowed FDR to pass his New Deal. It was a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate that allowed Lyndon Johnson to pass his Great Society.”

Forget Iraq

“After five years of asking respondents how they think things are going in Iraq, New York Times pollsters suddenly switched to Afghanistan, where prospects are worse. Is it because an improving Iraq is losing its potency as an antiwar issue?” Clay Waters writes at the Media Research Center’s Web site (www.mrc.org).

“The story accompanying Thursday’s release of the latest New York Times/CBS News poll was buried on page 14, perhaps because there’s no real news: Obama led McCain by three, 45 to 42 percent, just within the margin of error, which is in line with other recent polling showing a tightening race.

“More revealing was the poll’s treatment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: It contained not a single question about Iraq (the war was cited briefly, when respondents were asked to list favored priorities for their preferred candidate).

“Instead, the Times asks about Afghanistan, where things are becoming more unstable: ‘Question 72: What is your impression of how the war in Afghanistan is going for the United States right now - very well, somewhat well, somewhat badly, or very badly?’

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