New Hampshire News

New Hampshire has no gun bans

By Tom Fahey
New Hampshire Union Leader
June 27, 2008

CONCORD – There are no gun bans in New Hampshire cities and towns, due in part to clear protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the state Constitution. But two lawyers experienced in Second Amendment rights cases said yesterday their initial review of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the District of Columbia's gun ban indicates it could affect future concealed weapons permit appeals in New Hampshire...
 

Election fund-raising scrutinized
Commission aims to reform focus to state level

By Michael McCord
Portsmouth Herald
June 27, 2008

PORTSMOUTH — The future of public funding of elections was highlighted again last week when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama decided to withdraw from public funding for his general election campaign. But Obama's choice to forgo more than $84 million in public financing hasn't discouraged John Rauh, a New Castle resident and founder of Americans for Campaign Reform, a bipartisan group with a goal of creating a voluntary public finance system for all candidates for federal House, Senate and presidential elections...
 

Lynch urging support for more NH federal highway aid

Associated Press
June 26, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --Gov. John Lynch is asking Sen. Judd Gregg to help New Hampshire get more federal highway aid. Lynch called and wrote Gregg on Wednesday about the possible loss of $52 million in federal transportation money, which would reduce next year's aid to $108 million...
 

NH Vets Gripe About Travelling to Boston for some VA healthcare, but Vets elsewhere Travel Greater Distances

By David Darman
New Hampshire Public Radio
Thursday, June 26, 2008

New Hampshire politicians have joined veterans to push for the VA Medical Center in Manchester to be a full service hospital. They delivered that message to The Secretary of the Veteran’s Administration earlier this week. They claim Granite State veterans are shortchanged when it comes to VA services. But as New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman reports, veterans across the country are frustrated by what they see as a lack of access to healthcare...
 

Dissolving bodies with lye banned in NH

By Norma Love
Associated Press
June 26, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --Dissolving bodies with lye as a cremation alternative is no longer legal in New Hampshire. Gov. John Lynch signed a bill Thursday banning the new mortuary science that uses lye in hot water to dissolve bodies, according to spokesman Colin Manning...
 

Press Release: Gov. Lynch Appoints Co-Chair of Judicial Selection Commission

Office of the Governor
June 26, 2008

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch today named Emily Rice of Concord as co-chair of the Judicial Selection Commission. Rice succeeds Jill Blackmer of Hopkinton, an attorney with Orr and Reno in Concord, who recently stepped down as co-chair of the commission. The commission was created in 2005 through an Executive Order issued by Gov. Lynch, with the purpose of vetting candidates for judicial posts...
 

Tuition rates set at four USNH institutions

Associated Press
June 26, 2008

KEENE, N.H. --The University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees has approved its budget for new fiscal year and set tuition rates at the four institutions. Tuition will rise by 6.9 percent for in-state students at the University of New Hampshire, 6.8 percent at Plymouth State University and Keene State College, and 7.2 percent at Granite State College...
 

Universal preschool students perform better

By Greg Toppo
USA Today
June 27, 2008

An ambitious public pre-kindergarten program in Oklahoma boosts kids' skills dramatically, a long-awaited study finds, for the first time offering across-the-board evidence that universal preschool, open to all children, benefits both low-income and middle-class kids...
 

N.H. residents, GOP politicians applaud high court gun ruling

By Margo Sullivan
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
June 27, 2008

Al Bacon, owner of Al's Gun and Reel Shop in Derry, had one question yesterday about the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to strike down Washington, D.C.'s, handgun ban. Why was the court so divided over protecting the Second Amendment?...
 

Update: Republicans praise Court gun decision

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

New Hampshire congressional candidates are praising the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing individuals the right to own handguns. The ruling also provided one candidate with an opportunity to criticize two of his rivals...
 

NH Republican politicians praise US Supreme Court gun ruling

Associated Press
June 26, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --New Hampshire Republicans running for Congress and one of the Democrats they hope to replace praised the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting...
 

Gun ruling results in great divide

By Robert M. Cook
Foster's Daily Democrat
Friday, June 27, 2008

DOVER — Seacoast gun owners, police and Congressional candidates were just as divided as the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday after it upheld the Second Amendment's right to bear arms by striking down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns...
 

Hodes, Shea-Porter split over gun ruling

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes (D-Concord) and U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-Rochester) have split over the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing individuals to own handguns...
 

SUNUNU
 

Sununu criticizes VA chief for view on services in NH

New Hampshire Union Leader
June 27, 2008

MANCHESTER – U.S. Sen. John Sununu calls Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake "shortsighted" for saying this week that New Hampshire should not expect a full-service veterans hospital. Sununu, R-N.H., underscored his commitment to expanding health-care access. He was responding to Peake's comments to reporters during a visit Tuesday, comments that have raised the ire of a number of veterans...
 

Sununu takes issue with VA chief on Manchester hospital

Associated Press
June 26, 2008

WASHIINGTON --Senator John Sununu says he is not giving up on his attempt to expand healthcare services for New Hampshire veterans. Sununu said today that Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake is being short-sighted by saying he does not see the Manchester VA Medical Center returning to a full-service center. In a visit to the center this week, Peake also said he does not think veterans should be given medical cards to allow them to get treatment at other hospitals...
 

Sununu sends out fundraising e-mail

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-Waterville Valley) has e-mailed supporters requesting their donate money before the ending of the filing period...
 

SHAHEEN
 

Shaheen sets five-day fundraising goal

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

$200,000 in five days: That is the most recent fundraising goal former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury) has set for her supporters...
 

KENNEY
 

Kenney feels ‘bad’ for Unity

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

Commenting on the upcoming event with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), state Sen. Joe Kenney (R-Wakefield) said he feels "bad" for the town of Unity and added that the Democratic presidential candidates must quickly unify...
 

STEPHEN
 

Stephen takes aim at rivals during visit
Candidate views relief technology

By Adam Leech
Portsmouth Herald
June 27, 2008

PORTSMOUTH — Former state health commissioner John Stephen stopped by Global Relief Technologies on Thursday as he continues his campaign to win the Republican Party nomination and unseat U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H...
 

STATE HOUSE
 

Lucy Mears looks to continue her husband's legacy in N.H. legislature

By Craig Lyons
Berlin Daily Sun
June 26, 2008

BERLIN— Lucy Mears filed to run for the seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives left vacant by her husband, on their 42nd wedding anniversary. Mears filed to run for the district four seat on the Democratic ticket. The seat was left vacant after her husband, Ed Mears, passed away in March...
 

DLC
 

Dems to participate in DLC conference

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

Seventeen New Hampshire Democrats will be participating in the Democratic Leadership Conference meeting this weekend. Concord City Councilor Rob Werner is organizing the trip to the DLC's "National Conversation" conference in Chicago...
 

VARSALONE
 

Varsalone in witness protection program. We expose it here!

By Wally Edge
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

Many of you may remember long time Republican operative Rob Varsalone who worked on campaigns for close to a decade in New Hampshire. If you don't remember what he looked like, here he is...
 

Primary News

NEW HAMPSHIRE
 

Obama, Shaheen rally women

By John DiStaso
New Hampshire Union Leader
June 27, 2008

MANCHESTER -- – Michelle Obama yesterday set the table for today's Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton "unity" rally in Unity by praising his former rival as a ground-breaking leader on issues that matter to women and working families. Campaigning with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the would-be first lady told a women's forum at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel that her husband will be a champion for issues important to women. She quickly stressed that the nation is closer than ever to ensuring equal pay for women, expanded sick time and paid family leave "because of an extraordinary woman who's not in this room, but she's traveling with my husband tomorrow, and that woman is Hillary Clinton...
 

Michelle Obama praises Clinton at N.H. event

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 26, 2008

MANCHESTER - During a roundtable discussion with working women, Michelle Obama commended the presidential campaign efforts of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at an event with U.S. senatorial candidate Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury) earlier today. "Because of Hillary Clinton's work, the issues of importance to women who work and the working family are front and center in this election," Obama told the crowd of 300 people...
 

Michelle Obama lauds Hillary

By Carrie Dann
First Read / MSNBC
Thursday, June 26, 2008 4:12 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Two days after Hillary Clinton's husband raised eyebrows with a tepid endorsement of Obama, the spouse on the other side of the Democratic equation praised the former First Lady for bringing women's issues to the forefront of this election's debate. Before a roundtable discussion in New Hampshire -- the state that relaunched the Democratic battle after Clinton's surprise win in January -- Michelle Obama paid homage to those who have dreamed of equal rights in America...
 

Michelle Obama Visits New Hampshire On Eve Of Unity Event
Obama Speaks On Issues Important To Women

WMUR
June 26, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Michelle Obama rallied New Hampshire Democrats on Thursday in advance of her husband's visit to the state on Friday. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has planned an event Friday in Unity, N.H., with former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton. Michelle Obama reached out to Clinton supporters on Friday and also tried to connect with women on issues that are important to them...
 

Michelle Obama campaigns in N.H.

By Holly Ramer
Associated Press
June 26, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. --Michelle Obama says the country is closer than it's ever been to truly supporting working families, in large part because of her husband's former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The wife of Sen. Barack Obama campaigned in New Hampshire Thursday with former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who is running for U.S. Senate. Her visit comes a day before her husband returns to New Hampshire with Clinton for their first joint appearance since he effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination...
 

Seacoast Democrats aim for Obama-Clinton Unity
Obama, Clinton will be together

By Michael McCord
Portsmouth Herald
June 27, 2008

PORTSMOUTH — Veteran party activist Anita Freedman was an early and passionate supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Freedman said during the long and sometimes bitterly fought primary battle between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama that Clinton "was the most qualified and ready to lead" candidate. But today Freedman is traveling across the state to the small town of Unity to throw her unqualified support to Obama — and see the former rivals make their first public appearance together since Clinton withdrew from the race on June 7...
 

Editorial: Obama, Clinton won't leave them laughing

Concord Monitor
June 27, 2008

Remember Bill Richardson? He sure had a good sense of humor. So did John McCain, at least back when he was the underdog. Mike Huckabee was all about making voters chuckle, even those who would never even consider voting for him. Some candidates - Mike Gravel and Ron Paul spring to mind - got laughs even when they weren't trying. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton? Successful at the polls, perhaps, but no one would have mistaken these two policy wonks for the jokesters of the New Hampshire presidential primary. Nonetheless, nearly six months after the local vote, Obama and Clinton return today, going to extreme lengths for a corny gag...
 

Editorial: Joseph W. McQuaid: Get a grip, NH, Obama's coming

By Joseph W. McQuaid
New Hampshire Union Leader
June 27, 2008

NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENTS, grab something sturdy today. Barack Obama is coming and his ability to switch positions on major issues is dizzying. It wouldn't matter, except Obama wants to become President. If that happens, hold on for dear life. This is the man who eloquently declined to disassociate himself from his hate-filled friend and pastor, the Rev. Jeremiath Wright. His "incendiary'' remarks were taken out of context, Obama said. He was like family, like a grandma. But Obama cooly threw "grandma'' under the bus when it became politically advantageous...
 

Editorial: Obama in NH: How about joining McCain, too?

New Hampshire Union Leader
June 27, 2008

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President, appears in the little town of Unity today with the winner of the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton. We hope he comes back soon for an appearance with the winner of the 2008 New Hampshire Republican primary...
 

Michelle Obama/Jeanne Shaheen Have Great Event!

By Kathy Sullivan
Blue Hampshire
Thursday, June 26, 2008

This afternoon, I attended the women's roundtable event with Michelle Obama and Jeanne Shaheen. There was a smattering of men in the audience, including BH'ers Douglas Lindner, Paul Twomey and Raymond Buckley (perhaps others - there were a lot of people there).  I became a little nostalgic, because it was in the armory at the Center of NH, where Senator Obama spoke for the first time in NH, at our post 2006 election victory event. So much water under the bridge and over the dam since then!...
 

OTHER NEWS
 

Obama, Clinton Join Together in Show of Unity
Former Rivals Stress Goal of Bringing Democrats Together

By Anne E. Kornblut and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; A04

Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton showered each other with praise yesterday in their first joint appearance since the end of the Democratic presidential primary season at an event in which the senator from New York urged hundreds of her top donors to get behind the party's presumptive nominee. Clinton spoke first at the event at a Washington hotel, telling her disappointed supporters that Democrats "are a family, and we have an opportunity now to really demonstrate clearly we do know what's at stake, and we will do whatever it takes to win back this White House." Obama hailed his former rival and her backers...
 

Contributions flow in to help retire Clinton debt
Obama and Clinton unite in Washington and urge supporters to help the New York senator balance her books.

By Peter Nicholas and Dan Morain
Los Angeles Times
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — In a show of Democratic unity Thursday, Barack Obama told Hillary Rodham Clinton's top fundraisers that he and his wife, Michelle, had donated $4,600 to help retire her debt and some of Clinton's biggest boosters presented Obama's campaign with checks...
 

Obama Gives $2,300, Intended as a Spur, for Clinton Debt

By Jeff Zeleny
New York Times
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama said on Thursday that he had written a personal check of $2,300 to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a good-will gesture intended to nudge his top donors to help ease Mrs. Clinton’s campaign debt and help the two Democrats move beyond their rivalry to focus on the fall contest. In a ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel here, Mrs. Clinton introduced Mr. Obama to about 300 of her leading contributors, most of whom raised at least $100,000 for her campaign. It was the first time the senators shared a stage since she suspended her candidacy and endorsed him nearly three weeks ago...
 

Clinton legacy presents quandary for Obama

By Ben Smith
The Politico
June 27, 2008 4:42 AM EST

After Senator Barack Obama emerged as the winner of the Democratic nomination, he announced that he’d be glad to meet Senator Hillary Clinton at the time and place of her choosing. But now that Clinton has conceded defeat and endorsed Obama, he’s the one choosing the time and place. And the central choice he faces is whether he can – and wants to -- win with the Clinton legacy, or without it...
 

After The Press Leaves, Some Edgy Questions

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
June 26, 2008

Barack Obama drew his biggest cheers of the night when he vowed to help Hillary Clinton pay off her campaign debt. The pooler was ushered out of the meeting room where about 200 of Clinton's top donors -- those who had raised a combined $230m -- had gathered to watch the Democratic nominee try to build a bridge. But a few minutes later, a few, less happy donors asked pointed questions...
 

For Obama, a Pragmatist’s Shift Toward the Center

By Michael Powell
New York Times
June 27, 2008

Barack Obama has taken a stroll this week away from traditional liberal political positions, his path toward the political center marked by artful leaps and turns. On Thursday, he seemed to embrace a Supreme Court decision, written by the court’s premiere conservative and upheld 5-to-4, striking down Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns. Mr. Obama seemed to voice support for the ban as recently as February. On Thursday, however, he issued a Delphic news release that seemed to support the Supreme Court, although staff members later insisted that might not be the case...
 

Obama: Change agent goes conventional

By Kenneth P. Vogel
The Politico
June 27, 2008 6:13 AM EST

Barack Obama has crafted an image as an unconventional candidate, a change agent and a post-partisan politician who represents a dramatic break from the status quo. But since securing the Democratic presidential nomination, when confronted with a series of thorny issues the Illinois senator has pursued a conspicuously conventional path, one that falls far short of his soaring rhetoric. Faced with tough choices on fronts ranging from public financing and town hall meetings to warrantless surveillance and the Second Amendment, Obama passed up opportunities to take bold stands and make striking departures from customary politics. Instead, he has followed a familiar tack, straddling controversial issues and choosing politically advantageous routes that will ensure his campaign a cash edge and minimize damaging blowback on several highly sensitive issues...
 

Obama's Supreme Move to the Center

By Massimo Calabresi
Time
June 26, 2008

When the Supreme Court issues rulings on hot-button issues like gun control and the death penalty in the middle of a presidential campaign, Republicans could be excused for thinking they'll have the perfect opportunity to paint their Democratic opponent as an out-of-touch social liberal. But while Barack Obama may be ranked as one of the Senate's most liberal members, his reactions to this week's controversial court decisions showed yet again how he is carefully moving to the center ahead of the fall campaign...
 

Obama hedges on gun ruling
Republicans accuse candidate of 'flip-flop'

By Mike Dorning
Chicago Tribune
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama offered a guarded response Thursday to the Supreme Court ruling striking down the District of Columbia's prohibition on handguns and sidestepped providing a view on the 32-year-old local gun ban. Republican rival John McCain's campaign accused him of an "incredible flip-flop" on gun control...
 

Obama’s Careful Gunplay

ABC News Political Radar
June 26, 2008 4:26 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: In responding to the Supreme Court’s high-profile ruling on the D.C. gun ban, Sen. Barack Obama is attempting to find safe political ground on an explosive issue for Democrats. Obama, D-Ill., issued a carefully crafted statement that avoided taking a firm position on the gun-control measure tossed out by the Supreme Court, despite previous indications that he supported Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban...
 

Obama's Bipartisanship

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
June 26, 2008

The Obama campaign disputes the description of Obama's record of bipartisan achievement as broadly liberal ( -- "Obama's bipartisanship is more rhetorical and has never really extended outside a broadly liberal comfort zone" -- ), and points to his work with Dick Lugar on loose nukes, his pressuring Democrats on ethics reform (which led to anonymous holds on the bill), his work with Republicans to reform the death penality in Illinois, his work with Sen. Coburn to put all spending bills online. I think the characterization holds...
 

AFL-CIO endorses Barack Obama
The union's backing could help Obama gain ground among blue-collar whites and Latinos.

By Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times
June 27, 2008

PITTSBURGH — Barack Obama consolidated his organized labor support Thursday with an AFL-CIO endorsement that puts much of Hillary Rodham Clinton's union muscle behind his bid for the White House. Obama's newly enlarged labor coalition could help the presumptive Democratic nominee appeal to some union constituencies that favored Clinton, including blue-collar whites in the Rust Belt and Latinos in the Southwest...
 

AFL-CIO Endorses Obama

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post The Trail
June 27, 2008

After months of holding back, the AFL-CIO endorsed Barack Obama today, saying it would put more than $50 million and hundreds of thousands of volunteers to work helping elect the Illinois senator after he defeated the primary candidate whom the coalition's biggest two unions had endorsed, Hillary Clinton...
 

Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy
The candidate endorsed subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build low-income units. But, while he garnered support from developers, many projects in his former district have fallen into disrepair.

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Boston Globe
June 27, 2008

CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else. But it's not safe to live here. About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition...
 

Obama's wife says he'll fight for gay equality

By Samantha Gross
Associated Press
June 26, 2008

NEW YORK --Barack Obama will fight for equal rights for gays just as he fought to help working-class families overcome poverty, the Democratic presidential hopeful's wife told a gay Democratic group Thursday. Recalling his past work as a community organizer to help struggling families, Michelle Obama said he would take the same approach as president. "Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws," she said at a Manhattan fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council...
 

Pastor Who Officiated at Jenna Bush Wedding Launches Pro-Obama Website

By Krissah Williams
Washington Post The Trail
June 27, 2008

Sparks are flying in the 2008 culture wars. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled "James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me." The site is a jab at Dobson, a stalwart of the religious right who this week called Sen. Barack Obama's interpretation of the Bible in a 2006 speech distorted "to fit [Obama's] own world view, his own confused theology"...
 

Tactical Leap of Faith

By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; A17

The latest findings of the Pew Forum's massive and indispensable U.S. Religious Landscape Survey reveal some intriguing confusion among Americans on cosmic issues. About 13 percent of evangelicals, it turns out, don't believe in a personal God, leading to a shameful waste of golf time on Sunday mornings. And 9 percent of atheists report that they are skeptical of evolution. Are there atheist creationists?...Barack Obama's campaign looks at this political diversity and sees opportunity...
 

The Ever-Malleable Mr. Obama

By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; A17

"To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." -- Obama spokesman Bill Burton, Oct. 24, 2007

That was then: Democratic primaries to be won, netroot lefties to be seduced. With all that (and Hillary Clinton) out of the way, Obama now says he'll vote in favor of the new FISA bill that gives the telecom companies blanket immunity for post-Sept. 11 eavesdropping. Back then, in the yesteryear of primary season, he thoroughly trashed the North American Free Trade Agreement, pledging to force a renegotiation, take "the hammer" to Canada and Mexico and threaten unilateral abrogation. Today the hammer is holstered. Obama calls his previous NAFTA rhetoric "overheated" and essentially endorses what one of his senior economic advisers privately told the Canadians: The anti-trade stuff was nothing more than populist posturing...
 

CLINTON
 

Hill, Yes! O., No!
The Battle Isn't Over for Many Women Who Fought for Clinton

By Kevin Merida
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; C01

For several weeks, some of Hillary Clinton's fiercest supporters, most of them women, have been struggling with a defeat that burns and a question with no soothing answer: What next? Sometimes anger settles in the mind like sediment, waiting to be shaken or stirred...
 

HAGEL
 

Hagel at Brookings

By Lauren Appelbaum
First Read / MSNBC
Thursday, June 26, 2008 4:59 PM

During a speech billed as focusing on U.S. foreign policy and the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) avoided partisanship while outlining what the next president will he have to do. He called on the candidates to avoid “political tension” and focus on important issues instead of “glib 10-second answers and clever 30-second television ads.” "These two candidates must not allow this reality to control the process, thereby obfuscating the serious discussion of serious and specific issues so critical to the future of America and the world," Hagel, a rumored potential Obama VP, said at the left-leaning Bookings Institution in Washington, D.C...
 

KENNEDY
 

Caroline Kennedy's new profile: Politics

By Kathy Kiely
USA Today
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — With Barack Obama's bid for the White House, the torch has been passed to a new generation in more ways than one: For the first time, the best-known Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail is named Caroline. As Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the nation's most famous Democratic family, battles brain cancer out of the public eye, his niece is emerging as a political player in her own right. Caroline Kennedy's role as a surrogate for Obama and adviser to him on choosing a running mate raises the intriguing possibility that the only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy is taking an unexpected step into the family business...
 

NEW HAMPSHIRE
 

The Line: Sorting Out the Presidential Playing Field

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post The Fix
June 27, 2008 6:00 AM

Less than five months remain before the November election and slowly but surely the outlines of the national playing field are coming into focus... The states Line is below. The number one ranked state is the most likely to switch its presidential voting preference. As always, this list is meant as a conversation-starter. Agree or disagree with these picks? Have a Line of your own? The comments section below awaits. To the Line!...

7. New Hampshire (Sen. John Kerry won with 50 percent in 2004): It's not an accident that Obama's campaign chose New Hampshire as the site of the first public appearance by the Illinois Senator and Hillary Rodham Clinton since the protracted primary fight ended earlier this month. Kerry, despite representing a neighboring state for two decades, eked out a win over Bush in 2004. And McCain's maverick sensibilities should appeal to the flinty independents who comprise the swing vote in the Granite State. But, New Hampshire was at the center of anti-Republican sentiment in 2006 and the political environment has only gotten worse for the GOP since then. (Previous ranking: 6)...
 

Editorial: McCain, Obama both look dirty in finance arena

Portsmouth Herald
June 27, 2008

We weren't surprised when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama publicly announced last week he was opting out of the public financing system for the general election. For the first time since campaign reform laws were passed following the Watergate scandals of the Nixon administration in the early 1970s, a major presidential candidate has turned down money — in this case, it was $84 million — and set off a firestorm of controversy. We were disappointed that a candidate we endorsed for the New Hampshire primary in January made a commitment last year he chose not to keep. We were more disappointed that he didn't make a persuasive case to justify his actions...
 

OTHER NEWS
 

Latino vote 'up for grabs,' could swing election outcome

By Kathy Kiely
USA Today
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — The battle for the Hispanic vote is on. Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama plan back-to-back appearances Saturday before the annual meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. The non-partisan group represents more than 5,500 officeholders and the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation. In a report issued Thursday, the group, known as NALEO, predicted a record-breaking turnout of at least 9.2 million Hispanic voters this fall. They could be key to winning swing states such as New Mexico, Florida and Colorado...
 

Recent rulings spotlight election's supreme stakes

By Joseph Williams
Boston Globe
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON - A series of highly anticipated Supreme Court rulings in recent days and weeks has injected the high court into the presidential campaign, underscoring the likelihood that the next president will almost certainly get the opportunity to dramatically shift - or solidify - the judicial balance of power for decades to come. Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and Senator John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, have laid out vastly different visions for the Supreme Court should they win the White House. Obama pledges to appoint justices with a broader social outlook, while McCain said he wants more jurists like Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative who was appointed by President Bush...
 

McCain's Day Of Repudiation

By George F. Will
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; A17

Two of yesterday's Supreme Court rulings -- both decided 5 to 4, and with the same alignment of justices -- concerned the Constitution's first two amendments. One ruling benefits Barack Obama by not reviving the dormant debate about gun control. The other embarrasses John McCain by underscoring discordance between his deeds and his promises...
 

National News

Landmark Ruling Enshrines Right to Own Guns

By Linda Greenhouse
New York Times
June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday embraced the long-disputed view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal use, ruling 5 to 4 that there is a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense. The landmark ruling overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns, the strictest gun-control law in the country, and appeared certain to usher in a new round of litigation over gun rights throughout the country...
 

Supreme Court asserts broad gun rights
The historic 5 to 4 ruling says the right to bear arms applies to individuals.

By Warren Richey
Christian Science Monitor
June 27, 2008

Washington - Americans have an individual right to possess and use firearms, even when the guns are not related to service in a government militia. In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Thursday declared 5 to 4 that the Second Amendment's guarantee of a right to "keep and bear arms" means that the government cannot enact an outright ban on certain commonly held weapons or otherwise prevent citizens from having a gun at home for personal protection or other lawful uses...
 

Judicial activism by conservatives
The high court's 2nd Amendment opinion makes the majority's agenda clear.

By Erwin Chemerinsky
Los Angeles Times
June 27, 2008

The Supreme Court's invalidation of the District of Columbia's handgun ban powerfully shows that the conservative rhetoric about judicial restraint is a lie. In striking down the law, Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion, joined by the court's four other most conservative justices, is quite activist in pursuing the conservative political agenda of protecting gun owners. If the terms "judicial activism" and "judicial restraint" have any meaning, it is that a court is activist when it is invalidating laws and overruling precedent, and restrained when deferring to popularly elected legislatures and following prior decisions...
 

The D.C. Handgun Ruling
Originalism Goes Out the Window

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
Friday, June 27, 2008; A17

In knocking down the District's 32-year-old ban on handgun possession, the conservatives on the Supreme Court have again shown their willingness to abandon precedent in order to do whatever is necessary to further the agenda of the contemporary political right. The court's five most conservative members have demonstrated that for all of Justice Antonin Scalia's talk about "originalism" as a coherent constitutional doctrine, those on the judicial right regularly succumb to the temptation to legislate from the bench. They fall in line behind whatever fashions political conservatism is promoting...
 

America's 21st-century gun right

By Cass Sunstein
Boston Globe
June 27, 2008

FOR THE FIRST time in the nation's history, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to possess guns for nonmilitary purposes. This is a stunning development - and a dramatic departure from how the Constitution has long been understood. Despite the court's emphasis on constitutional text and history, its 5-4 decision yesterday in the District of Columbia gun control case reveals a much broader point: Constitutional change often comes from the efforts of energetic political movements, of which the movement for gun rights is merely one example...