CAF In The News

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motherjones.com — You've probably seen the ads. Ominous voice-overs warn you about how health care reform "could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions, not you." A massive bulldozer with "government-run insurance plan" written on the side crushes your health care "choices." Canadians and Britons relay horror stories of their experiences dealing with health care in those nightmarish socialist dystopias.

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform—especially what's been dubbed the "public option," which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

washingtonindependent.com — Who knew, eight years ago, that compassionate conservatism would include the partial nationalization of the banking industry?

It happened today, and some supporters of Sen. Barack Obama hope the new wave of broader federal regulation will spill over into the health-care debate.

In an ad in today’s New York Times, the Institute for America’s Future, a liberal watchdog group, warns that Sen. John McCain’s health-care plan might do for patients what deregulation of the finance industry has done for homeowners and investors.

americanbanker.com — Banks are ramping up public relations efforts to calm consumers panicked by the credit crisis - and to distinguish themselves from the string of big-name institutions that have gone out of business.

Raymond P. Davis, the chief executive officer of Umpqua Holdings Corp. in Portland, Ore., posted a letter to customers Monday on the $8.3 billion-asset company's Web site and at teller counters in its branches.

"Although the current environment is unlike anything we've seen in many years, it's important to remember that it won't last forever," Mr. Davis wrote. "And we will continue to operate our company as we have for five decades - as a community bank committed to serving the communities we serve with financial resources that help them grow."

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.

washingtonpost.com — ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Campaign for America's Future, a political organization that champions Democratic and progressive causes, is airing a TV ad this week that "thanks" conservatives and Republicans for the past eight years and promises, "We'll take it from here."

rollcall.com — Campaign For America’s Future, a liberal advocacy group, has hit the television airwaves with a spot designed specifically to needle Republican delegates who are spending the week in St. Paul, Minn., for the GOP presidential nominating convention.

adspotlight.nationaljournal.com — A left-leaning advocacy group released an ad today in almost 400,000 hotel rooms across the country, including 5,000 in the Twin Cities area, tweaking conservatives for what the group contends has been eight years of "failure" -- most notably Republicans’ response to Hurricane Katrina.

boston.com — A self-described progressive advocacy group is putting a sarcastic ad in the hotel rooms of Republican National Committee delegates "thanking" them for skyrocketing gas prices, soaring home foreclosures, and the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

abcnews.go.com — To think we worried that this convention week would be dull.

To the pile of history-making events in this remarkable political year, we add another: There will be no Republican National Convention, essentially, on Monday. There might not be one on Tuesday, either -- not really, not as we've come to recognize one.