Barack Obama is in Afghanistan but the big political news imo is that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Speigel that he agrees with Barack Obama's plan for Iraq:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months. In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

Perhaps Maliki will start referring to it as a "time horizon." I believe this is devastating to John McCain.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Say goodbye to Phil Gramm. The man was always good for a laugh. He'll be missed.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm stepped down today as co-chairman of his friend John McCain’s campaign, eight days after he went seriously off message to say that the nation is in a “mental recession.”

Gramm's departure avoids further missteps by a guy who can be counted on for embarrassment, but it doesn't make John McCain any the wiser on economic policy. Advantage Obama:

“The question for John McCain isn’t whether Phil Gramm will continue as chairman of his campaign, but whether he will continue to keep the economic plan that Gramm authored and that represents a continuation of the polices that have failed American families for the last eight years,” said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.

Nailed it.

The Straight Talk Express took a detour yesterday so that John McCain could revive the "Commie menace" rhetoric of an earlier era.

Asked later if he thought Obama was an extremist, McCain said: “His voting record … is more to the left than the announced socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”

Does McCain think Obama is a socialist? “I don’t know. All I know is his voting record, and that’s what people usually judge their elected representatives by.”

Is Obama a socialist? That would be news to those on the left who criticize him for being insufficiently progressive. Yet McCain's answer amounts to "Gee, I dunno, but he sure looks like one." McCain stopped short of calling Obama a pinko, but it's still early in the campaign.

Matt Yglesias writes:

McCain doesn't need daily [foreign policy] talking points. But the reason he doesn't need daily talking points isn't that he can talk about national security issues with fluency and skill without them. Lacking daily talking points, he's repeatedly confused Sunni and Shiite, repeatedly forgotten that Czechoslovakia doesn't exist, changed his position on Afghanistan twice in 24 hours, etc. In short, he's made a ton of gaffes just as you would expect from an underprepared candidate. But he's allowed to get away with a lack of adequate preparation because, in the mind of the press, his years in captivity decades ago are adequate demonstration that he understands national security issues even though there's no real basis for that view.

(Emphasis supplied.) Wes Clark spoke at Netroots Nation last night and said about his now infamous remarks about McCain:

I do not know if the Big Dog is fired up, but he is ready to go for Obama:

"I told him that whenever he wanted me to do it, I was ready, and so it's basically on their timetable," Clinton said. "He's got a lot of things to do between now and the convention, of which this is simply one, so I'll do whatever I'm asked to do, whenever I can do it."

Quite frankly, it is on Obama now how and when Bill Clinton campaigns for him - which I took to be Bill Clinton's message.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Today, Speaker Pelosi joined Senators Clinton and Murray condemning the Bush Administration's proposed new Department of HHS regulations regarding contraceptive services. Yesterday, Senators Clinton and Murray wrote:

A good fundraising month for Obama:

Senator Barack Obama raised $52 million in June, his campaign announced on Thursday morning, more than twice the amount he raised one month earlier before claiming the Democratic presidential nomination.

. . . Last week, Senator John McCain announced that he had raised $22 million in June, which was the best fund-raising month of his campaign. So while Mr. Obama’s $52 million haul is significantly higher, he also faces a bigger fund-raising burden because of his decision to not accept public financing. . . . . [Obama] . . . has set a goal of raising $200 to $300 million for their general election effort.

More . . .

Reading the LA Times blog, one would think Hillary is raising money for a 2012 presidential run. She's not. As the article it quotes from the New York Observer makes clear, and as was anticipated in this June, 2008 CBS News article, she's under a 60 day deadline and is asking donors to allow her to transfer the money to her 2012 Senate campaign rather than requiring her to refund it.

Chris Dodd did the same thing. His situation may be iffy because he agreed to public financing which Hillary did not. He's waiting for a ruling from the FEC.

The point is Hillary only has 60 days from the end of her campaign to either refund the money donated to her general campaign or get permission to redesignate it to another campaign. I don't see this as an indicator she's planning another Presidential run.

The key finding in the CBS NYTimes Poll is not the 6 point lead it shows for Barack Obama, 45-39. And it isn't the race relations stuff Adam Nagourney fixated on that has some of the blogs hopping mad (and apparently and foolishly, the Obama campaign.) The key findings come from Question 42, which asks "If John McCain were elected President, do you think he would generally continue George Bush's economic policies or not?" 63% of those polled said McCain would continue George Bush's economic policies. In that, they agree with John McCain, who also says he will continue George Bush's economic policies (he does not say those words literally, he just promises to continue policies that George Bush has implemented.)

The reason this is the key finding is found in the data produced in Question 14, which asks "do you approve or disapprove of the way George Bush is handling the economy?" 20% of Americans approve while 71% disapprove.

This ain't rocket science. The Obama campaign should know what to do - tie McCain to Bush. State ACCURATELY that John McCain will continue George W. Bush's policies. That he is running for George W. Bush's third term.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Remember this morning when I posted about the McCain 72-48 advantage on the C-i-C question and how if McCain were not close despite that advantage, it would indicate how slim his chances are for November? As I suspected, McCain is cooked - WaPo has Obama by 8 - 50-42.

McCain is finished barring some incredible and unforeseen event, imo of course.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sen. Barack Obama was on Larry King Live tonight. I only got to hear a few minutes. Here's what I heard:

• Osama bin Laden: He'll go after him and the U.S. will either kill him or bring him back for a trial and if it's a trial, the death penalty is appropriate. If he's in Pakistan, we'll ask Pakistan to help. We'll go get him if we have to.

• VP Stakes: He will pick someone who shares his vision and will bring a new kind of politics to Washington.

Did I miss anything?

Addressing the NAACP last night, Sen. Barack Obama said he will continue to stress his theme that black voters must take accountability for bettering their own lives.

Obama got a standing ovation at the annual NAACP convention here, presenting himself as a symbol of the political power that earlier black leaders had won. Touting the sacrifice of these activists, Obama said their courage had allowed him to "stand before you tonight as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America."

But Obama, in diagnosing conditions in the black community, made it clear that he was prepared to break with the generation of black leadership represented by Jackson. He said that government and business alone couldn't be blamed for the pain suffusing some black neighborhoods, but that black parents needed to show more maturity and demand more from their children.

Obama's advice to parents: [More...]