CAF In The News

publicnewsservice.org — A 235 thousand dollar lifetime reduction of retirement benefits would push more than 39,000 future New Hampshire retirees into poverty – that’s the scenario under Social Security "privatization" according to a new study from the Campaign for America's Future.

And the research doesn't take into account current stock market woes.

thenation.com — This should be a big election about big issues. The greatest financial crisis since the Depression. Soaring global debt. Collapsing public infrastructure. A broken health care system. Gilded Age inequality. Two disastrous occupations and a failing "war on terror." Yet, until Wall Street imploded this weekend, it seemed as if no one could move the 24/7 mainstream media beyond the trivial. Tired of talking about swine and lipstick, moose and baby bumps? We are.

That's why The Nation's lead editorial this week calls for an end to gotcha journalism and the politics of distraction and diversion. It's time to say, Enough! Let's refocus this election on what's truly at stake. To that end, we're laying out a series of questions in the magazine and at TheNation.com that we believe should be asked of both candidates--not only in the upcoming debates, the first of which takes place just one week from this Friday--but by a mainstream media that seems, well, "hell-bent" on reporting on the election as if it's a new hit reality show.

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.

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.