WATCH: The Bottom Line on the '08 Race

clipped from abcnews.go.com WATCH: The Bottom Line on the '08 Race

Comfy New Commuter Bikes for Getting Around Town

When I read this article I had four immediate thoughts. How do we make money from this trend? Twenty years from now are we going to look like China looked about 20 years ago? How is this going to effect oil prices? And, I wonder how many pounds American's are going to lose in the next ten years?

File this under food for thought.

clipped from health.usnews.com If $4-a-gallon gas has you looking for relief, consider: A concerted effort is underway to attract casual bike riders into the fold. The lure is a range of new commuting bikes that promise to make everyday travel by bicycle as comfortable and fashionable as it is cheap. Meantime, a bill that will allow employers to offer financial incentives to bicycle commuters is winding its way through the House and Senate. The Trek Lime, for example, one of a series of coasting bikes designed for especially easy riding, has an automatic shifting system powered by a generator on the front hub, as well as old-fashioned pedal brakes designed to make the riding experience carefree. It runs slightly under $600. The Breezer Villager, which features a light aluminum frame and a seven-speed shifting system, was recently named best commuting bike of 2008 by Bicycling Magazine. Beginners and older riders might like Electra Bicycle Co.'s Townie

Video: Barack on Offshore Oil Drilling

clipped from my.barackobama.com

Artists for Obama: Limited Edition Antar Dayal Print

You can click the link and then listen to a brief video of the detailed production of this print. Look down the page for the link

clipped from my.barackobama.com We are excited to announce the third print in our Artists for Obama Gallery at Store.BarackObama.com.

Message from Barack: "Declaring our independence"

clipped from my.barackobama.com

Analysis: McCain hampered by campaign missteps

clipped from news.aol.com Sen. John McCain is hampered by missteps and self-generated controversy in the early days of the general election campaign for the White House. Tuesday, he criticized his rival for proposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. The attack was complicated by McCain's earlier statement that he would consider the same thing. The following day, he met with a group of Hispanics in Chicago. Aides who had kept word of the event secret were placed on the defensive within hours after one participant criticized some of McCain's comments. On Thursday, the Arizona senator flew to Iowa, a likely battleground state in the fall, where he expressed sympathy with victims of severe flooding and pledged support for federal recovery aid. The event was overshadowed by President Bush's appearance elsewhere in the same state on the same day. Even some Republicans have cringed in recent weeks at the campaign's efforts to ramp up for the fall campaign, although they will speak only privately.

Analysis: Rejecting public funding won't hurt Obama

clipped from www.cnn.com Sen. Barack Obama's decision to reject roughly $85 million in public financing -- as well as the strict spending limits that would accompany those funds -- did not come as a surprise to most political observers. The decision was criticized by his opponent, some Democrats and public interest groups. But does the public really care? Probably not.

Live Election Coverage

clipped from www.cnn.com Barack Obama speaks to U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami Watch Now: Live on CNN.com »

Obama Speaking

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com   Video: In his own words Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to the primary themes of his presidential campaign.

Obama Cartoons

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Cartoons: Obama MSNBC.com's editorial cartoonists weigh in on Obama's candidacy.

Play the Veepstakes

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Interactive Play the Veepstakes! Who will be the No. 2 on the tickets? It's your turn to play pundit and predict. NBC News

The Week in political Cartoons

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com The week in political cartoons

Ready to attack Obama, if some money arrives

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com A Bible verse taped to a whiteboard in Floyd Brown’s office that he uses to track his efforts to attack Senator Barack Obama reads, “That is why for Christ’s sake I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” Mr. Brown, 47, a 6-foot-6 bear of a man is perhaps best known for his involvement with the Willie Horton television advertisement that helped sink Michael S. Dukakis’s candidacy in 1988. Mr. Brown has had much in his career to be delighted about as the source of scores of conservative assaults on Democrats that have earned him their lasting enmity. Mr. Brown is back to his trade of bludgeoning a Democratic candidate for president, producing an innuendo-laden advertisement that is being televised this week in Michigan, albeit sparsely on cable, questioning Mr. Obama’s religious background.

White House dismissed legal advice on Gitmo

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Senior lawyers inside and outside the Bush administration repeatedly warned the White House that it was risking judicial scrutiny of its detention policies in Guantanamo Bay if it did not pursue a more pragmatic legal strategy that considered the likely reaction of the Supreme Court. But such advice, issued periodically over the past six years, was ignored or discounted, according to current and former administration officials familiar with the debates. In August 2006, for example, the top lawyer at the State Department told senior officials at the White House that unless they won a congressional mandate that broadly supported their system of detaining terrorism suspects, their goal of keeping the detainees locked up was in jeopardy. "I can virtually guarantee you, without a legislative basis, federal courts are not going to be willing to uphold the indefinite detention of unlawful combatants," John B. Bellinger III warned in an e-mail.

Georgia on His Mind

clipped from www.blog.newsweek.com Barack Obama must be pleased as a peach. another morsel of good news for the Land of Lincolner: a poll from Atlanta-based Insider Advantage showing McCain with 44 percent of the Peach State vote--and Obama with 43. For those of you keeping score at home, that's a tie.

McClellan: Bush Embraced Political 'Game' Too Often

clipped from www.npr.org Morning Edition, May 29, 2008 · Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan dropped a bombshell on the White House on Wednesday. But he insists in an interview with NPR that his new behind-the scenes book is not simply the work of a disgruntled ex-employee — as some of his former colleagues have argued — but a stab at truth-telling to help clean up Washington. McClellan states in the book that the Bush administration used a "political propaganda campaign" to sell the Iraq war, managing the lead-up to the conflict in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would be the only feasible option. Listen Now [4 min 49 sec] add to playlist

A Whole New First Wives Club

clipped from www.npr.org Obama will be the first candidate of either party ever to turn down public money for the fall campaign. He's counting on his new, Internet-driven strategies for raising cash. "We've won the Democratic nomination by relying on ordinary people coming together to achieve extraordinary things," he told supporters in a video Thursday. That's true of Obama's 1.5 million donors today. But Fred Wertheimer, head of the watchdog group Democracy 21, says it didn't start out that way. In 2007, when Sen. Obama was raising the money that was essential for him to become a serious candidate, "54 percent of his contributions came in contributions of a thousand dollars or more, and much of that money was raised by bundlers," he says

A Whole New First Wives Club

clipped from news.aol.com Who would have thought that Barack Obama's seemingly-subtle spouse would garner more headlines in the final days of the Democratic primary than Hillary Clinton's certifiably-sensational hubby? Yet, Michelle Obama has proven herself as subtle as a shotgun, and has caused no small degree of rancor for her candidate-paramour. However, with a newly edited (read: softened) stump speech, an appearance on "The View" yesterday and an upcoming spot in Us Weekly, Mrs. Obama is widely viewed as undergoing a personality makeover. On the other hand, the GOP ticket has been particularly reserved with regard to Cindy McCain. The Beer Baroness has rarely spoken at length and has provided little grist for the rumor mill. Of course, Mrs. McCain has battled her demons, and she is potentially vulnerable in a general election due to her fabulous wealth - but as the wife of a long-standing senator, her story has already been told.

Obama and Clinton to Campaign Together

clipped from news.aol.com The Obama campaign sent out the following press release this morning, via email: Chicago, IL – Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton announced today that they will campaign together on Friday, June 27th. Further details to be announced soon. That's it, that's the whole thing. Remember, you heard it here first.