Obama leads McCain among Hispanic voters

Fla. Gov. Crist engaged

Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, is engaged to socialite Carol Rome. Crist, 51,  proposed to Rome, 38, yesterday morning. No wedding date has been set. The couple has been dating for nine months.

Crist, who is on John McCain’s VP short list, would have been the first bachelor VP (if elected) since Franklin Pierce’s vice president, William King. Speculation over Crist’s sexuality has been rampant since he ran for governor in 2006. Were he to be picked as McCain’s running mate and remained a bachelor, the speculation would be brought to a national level.

Sunday talk show lineup for July 6

ABC’s This Week: Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), then Libertarian Party presidential candidate & former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, followed by a roundtable with Mark Halperin, Michelle Cottle, Jonhathan Capehart and Ted Koppel

Meet The Press: Will not air this week because of Wimbeldon coverage

Fox News Sunday: Fred Barnes, Mara Liasson, Brit Hume and William Kristol

Face the Nation: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), then David Sanger

Former Senator Jesse Helms dies at 86

Helms, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for five terms, fought hard against civil rights and foreign aid and was one of the more powerful senators during his time in office.

Top McCain fundraiser financed terrorists

A top fundraiser for John McCain has been directly linked to financing the terrorist group AUC while he was CEO of Chiquita Brands International. Carl Lindner, the fundraiser, authorized Chiquita to pay the AUC, a group that the United States has listed as a terrorist organization, over $1.7 million.

McCain campaign staff shakeup

Rick Davis, the McCain campaign’s campaign manager, has “shifted his focus to long-term positioning” while McCain advisor Steve Schmidt will now run the day-to-day operations. Many in the GOP have been frustrated at how the McCain campaign has been run the past few months and behind closed doors, there were many calls for a staff shakeup.

GOP prepares for possibility of Gephardt being Obama’s VP

Republicans are already preparing opposition research in case former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) is chosen to be Barack Obama’s running mate. In 2004, John Kerry came quite close to choosing Gephardt as his running mate, but opted for John Edwards.

Video: Obama’s speech “The America We Love”

Transcript: Obama’s speech on faith

You know, faith based groups like East Side Community Ministry carry a particular meaning for me. Because in a way, they’re what led me into public service. It was a Catholic group called The Campaign for Human Development that helped fund the work I did many years ago in Chicago to help lift up neighborhoods that were devastated by the closure of a local steel plant.

Now, I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious household. But my experience in Chicago showed me how faith and values could be an anchor in my life. And in time, I came to see my faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community; that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I went out and did the Lord’s work.

Transcript: McCain’s speech to the National Sheriffs’ Association

Thank you, Sheriff Webre, for the kind introduction, and thank you all very much. I appreciate the warm welcome to Indianapolis, and I am proud to be in the company of more than two thousand sheriffs and deputy sheriffs. I’m very honored, and have never felt safer.

There is a small fraternity of occupations that deserve every citizen’s gratitude, every day. And sheriffs and deputy sheriffs are charter members. Some functions of government take place far from public view, and success and failure can be hard to measure. But that is never true in your calling. In law enforcement, the standard is always 100 percent success, and there is no such thing as “close enough” for government work. Protecting innocent citizens from those who would do them harm is the most elementary responsibility of government. Law enforcement work is often hard, sometimes heroic, and always necessary. We are all in your debt, and I thank you for your service.

Poll: Obama maintains lead over McCain

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll has Senator Obama leading Senator McCain nationally 50% to 45%.

McCain ad “Colombia Free Trade”

Colin Powell and Obama hold private meeting

In what is sure to fuel speculation of an endorsement, former secretary of state Colin Powell, met with Barack Obama two weeks ago in Powell’s office in Alexandria, Virginia. Powell is widely rumored to be considering backing Senator Obama over Senator McCain. It should be noted that John McCain also privately met a few weeks ago.

Obama ad “Dignity”

Clark stands by comments

Last night, retired General Wesley Clark stood by his comments that John McCain’s military experience does not give him the necessary experience to be president.

Transcript: Obama’s speech “The America We Love”

On a spring morning in April of 1775, a simple band of colonists - farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and printers, men and boys - left their homes and families in Lexington and Concord to take up arms against the tyranny of an Empire. The odds against them were long and the risks enormous - for even if they survived the battle, any ultimate failure would bring charges of treason, and death by hanging.

And yet they took that chance. They did so not on behalf of a particular tribe or lineage, but on behalf of a larger idea. The idea of liberty. The idea of God-given, inalienable rights. And with the first shot of that fateful day - a shot heard round the world - the American Revolution, and America’s experiment with democracy, began.

Lieberman on Face the Nation

Part 1:

Part 2:

[yotube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJgkNROUfZ8]

McCain ad “Seal”

Wesley Clark on Face the Nation

Clark blasts McCain on military service

On this morning’s Face the Nation, retired General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, blasted John McCain’s military record saying, “He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron,” Clark echoed attacks that Republicans made against McCain in 2000 further saying, “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.” Clark, an Obama supporter, is considered to be on Barack Obama’s VP short list.