CAF In The News

thehill.com — Democratic strategists are criticizing Barack Obama’s campaign for discouraging liberal groups from waging an aggressive campaign this summer that would have defined John McCain as unsympathetic to the working class.

Democratic political operatives have scrambled in recent days to organize independent media campaigns to attack McCain, but some argue Obama missed a golden opportunity and that it may be too late to make up for the loss.

voanews.com — The attack ads are everywhere - on television, radio and the Internet. Some of ads are created within only a few hours.

A McCain campaign ad attacked Senator Barack Obama on the issue of taxes.

"Painful taxes. Hard choices for your budget. Not ready to lead. That's the real Obama."

The Obama campaign responded with an attack on Senator McCain and his ties to lobbyists.

"The lobbyists running his low road campaign. The money - billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours."

hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com — he Institute for America's Future is launching a print ad campaign challenging candidates and the media to "give us a debate worthy of a great nation in trouble," encouraging Americans to demand a real debate focused on "seven national crises that won’t wait." The first in a seven-week series of "op-ed" print ads will appear Tuesday facing the editorial page of The New York Times. Leaders of the Institute are urging people to take the ads to public meetings, church groups and civic associations. Other ads in the series will focus on global debt and financial crises, health care, public infrastructure, global warming, "increasing Robber Baron corruption" and the Iraq war and the "war on terror."

afp.google.com — WASHINGTON (AFP) — The jump in US unemployment to a five-year high has heightened worries about recession and puts the struggling economy into sharp focus two months ahead of the presidential vote, analysts said.

Friday's Labor Department report showed a surge in the jobless rate to 6.1 percent as 84,000 jobs were slashed in August.

washingtontimes.com — Barack Obama had his work cut out for him coming into this week's Democratic National Convention. Democrats said after two years of running for president, Americans still did not know him well. Polls showed he had fallen behind John McCain on key issues. The Republicans had beaten him up pretty bad throughout the month of August.

Pollster John Zogby remarked the other day that "As the Democrats head into their convention, should they be singing the Eurythmics 1985 hit 'Here Comes That Sinking Feeling'?"

online.wsj.com — Walk into almost any hotel here this week and you can find an odd sight: Liberal Democrats starting their day by lobbying moderate and conservative Democrats.

The lobbyists are members of the Progressive Democrats of America, an activist group working to keep the party true to liberal priorities, and they have been assigned to every hotel housing Democratic convention delegates.
[Doubts on the Left]

"At breakfast, where they go to get their talking points [from the national party], we will be there," says Tim Carpenter, a veteran of Democratic campaigns and national director of the PDA.

features.csmonitor.com — Washington – As the 2008 Democratic National Convention kicks off in Denver, the party is bursting with optimism and a sense of possibility.

Come the Nov. 4 election, Democrats are likely to build on their slim majorities in both houses of Congress, and their new standard-bearer, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has a serious chance of retaking the White House for his party after eight years in the wilderness. On most issues, from the economy and the Iraq war to healthcare and education, a majority of voters say they favor Democratic positions over Republican.

thehill.com — The liberal Campaign for America’s Future is launching an economic war room to help congressional challengers, state and local officials and activists navigate what is currently the top issue of the 2008 campaign.

The $440,000 project is set to deliver its message to about 50 congressional campaigns and thousands of officials, bloggers and activists, said Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage.

Borosage said the war room approach is important because the economy is such a fast-changing issue.

“There is constant new information coming in; there’s a constant set of different hooks you can use to make the argument,” Borosage said.

The war room is working in concert with author Drew Westen and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, and it will provide poll-tested talking points. The Economic Policy Institute will also be providing facts, figures and opinions.

The project will be detailed in a conference call Wednesday.

politico.com — A Democratic activist group is expected to announce the opening of an “economic war room” Wednesday.

The Campaign for America’s Future is planning to send daily dispatches to candidates, bloggers, talk show hosts and others to bulk up its party’s economic messages.

In addition to daily message alerts, the group also is considering parachuting additional resources into races where economic issues are most salient.

For instance, the group could dispatch a blogger, train local bloggers and organize events around the economy that could draw local publicity. They have no plans now for television advertising.

“The change in the economy has been abrupt, serious, and it’s a created a different kind of recession,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future.

voices.washingtonpost.com — AUSTIN -- The economy may be the top worry of most Americans, but a straw poll of attendees at Netroots Nation 2008 shows that liberal bloggers and Democratic activists are looking to the environment as much as their pocketbooks.

Asked their top concern, the bloggers in the informal survey cited "energy and global warming" (19 percent), "the growing gap between the rich and the poor" (17 percent) and "loss of constitutional rights" (15 percent). The straw poll was conducted July 17-20 at a conference booth by the Campaign for America's Future and Democracy Corps. Drawing 13 percent of the 2,000 registered conference goers, the poll is scheduled for formal release tomorrow.