Window on Washington
News, analysis, color and photography from Cox Newspapers' Washington BureauRSS feed
What's on this page →
All the entries posted on September 25, 2008.
Categories
| RSS | |
| RSS | |
| RSS | |
| RSS | |
| RSS | |
| RSS | |
| RSS |
Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F
Recent entries
Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2008 > September > 25
Thursday, September 25, 2008
No deal
Here’s Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, emerging from the West Wing on Thursday to announce there was no agreement on the bailout measure pushed by President Bush.
Earlier in the day, Democratic and GOP congressional leaders said there was an agreement.
No, says Shelby.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Republicans Building Jewish Support
Barack Obama is enjoying far less support from Jewish voters than previous Democratic candidates, according to a poll released Thursday by the American Jewish Committee.
The poll shows the Illinois senator leading 57 to 30 percent among Jewish voters, with 13 percent still undecided. If those numbers remain steady through election day, Obama will have won fewer Jewish votes than any Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won 78 percent of the Jewish vote in the 2004 presidential election, according National Election Pool exit polls.
The AJC poll shows that Jews are still a reliably Democratic voting base: On issues like support for Israel and energy independence, Jewish voters prefer Democrats by a margin of at least 20 percentage points.
However, Republicans have sought to make inroads in the Jewish community by portraying Obama as softer on terrorism and more likely to make concessions to Iran. Ads produced by the Republican Jewish Coalition say his foreign policy is “naive and dangerous.”
It remains to be seen if John McCain, who has been touting his foreign policy experience, will be able to capitalize on uncertainty over Obama this November.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Reid picks a number, any number
At a 12:15 p.m. EDT briefing with reporters on Thursday, Senate Democratic leaders said the crafting of a financial-sector bailout bill was nearly finished. But they would not release specifics, saying some details were still being negotiated.
While they had little to say about the bailout’s provisions, the Democrats did have plenty of comments to make about presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has been largely absent this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said it was “stunning” to hear McCain announce he’d return to the Hill to help out — now that the bailout legislation is done.
Reid did say Democrats want legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgages to ease the burden on struggling home owners. He then gave an example of how the law currently works in favor of wealthier people who own more than one home. His example involved a family that owns seven homes.
“I just happened to pick seven out of the air,” Reid said. He did not mention that last month during an interview, McCain said he was unsure of how many houses the owns. The total is seven.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Washington
Perino: No politics in bailout meeting
White House Press Secretary sets up today’s meeting involving President Bush, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, and congressional leaders.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Not so great expectations
On Wednesday, about an hour before John McCain called for postponement of the Friday debate, his campaign’s political director Mike DuHaime said this at a lunch with Washington reporters:
“We know Senator Obama is a phenomenal debater. I mean he is somebody who is one of the most gifted orators that we’ve seen. We understand he is very good at this. He is good at speaking. He is somebody who speaks very well. So we know that. Senator McCain does not have that same reputation as a debater, but I think his message will come across as somebody who is sincere and certainly has, I would say, a greater knowledge of the issues and I think that will come across.”