memeorandum: Barack Obama gets his own nifty Great Seal; all he needs now is votes (Andrew Malcolm/Top of the Ticket)

3:30 PM ET, June 21, 2008

Top Items:

Caren Bohan / Reuters:

Obama says Republicans will use race to stoke fear — JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said on Friday he expects Republicans to highlight the fact that he is black as part of an effort to make voters afraid of him.

Discussion: TownHall Blog, baldilocks, Right Wing Nut House, Macsmind, Sister Toldjah, Boston Globe, Let Freedom Ring, GINA COBB, Flopping Aces, JammieWearingFool, doubleplusundead, PrestoPundit, The Other McCain, PoliGazette and NO QUARTER

Karl / protein wisdom:

Barry O plays the race card, nurses his grudges — The general election is in November, but for Barry O, it is not too soon to start dealing the race card: … He made similar comments to his fatcat San Francisco donors in conjunction with his claim that people in small-towns in flyover country …

ABCNEWS:

Sparks Fly at Black Caucus Meeting — Just What Was Said Between the Presumptive Democratic Nominee and Clinton-Supporting Congresswoman? — A Thursday afternoon meeting between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus grew tense and emotional for a moment …

Discussion: NO QUARTER, CANNONFIRE, Atlas Shrugs, Wake up America, Hot Air and Raw Story

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

John McCain may lag in money, but RNC out-raises the DNC by 5 times — Led by chairman Mike Duncan, the Republican National Committee ended May with 13 times more money in the bank than its Democratic counterpart and raised five times as much money in the same time frame.

Discussion: The Swamp, Political Machine, Macsmind, Wake up America, HillBuzz, JammieWearingFool and The Trail

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Who's playing the race card? Update: Audio added

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Obama alienates the editors — For most voters, Barack Obama's shift away from public financing is not as big a deal as the mounting death toll in Iraq, surging gas prices — or even what they're going to make for dinner tonight. — But Obama's announcement Thursday that he would become …

Discussion: Hot Air, Flopping Aces, The Daily Dish and TIME.com

Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:

McCain closes the cash gap against Obama — For the first time in the campaign, Republican John McCain in May raised about the same amount of money, $22 million, as Democrat Barack Obama. — McCain also closed the gap in the amount of cash the two parties' presumptive presidential nominees …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, MyDD, PoliBlog (TM), QandO and The Other McCain

M. Duss / Think Progress:

Report: Scalia's Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’ — A new report from the Seton Hall University School of Law explodes the myth that some 30 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay prison have “returned to the battlefield” against American forces.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit

Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:

White House Dismissed Legal Advice On Detainees — 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.

Discussion: Commentary, Prairie Weather and Newshoggers.com

Washington Post:
White House Refuses To Release Documents On Air-Quality Policy

Discussion: Obsidian Wings

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Barack Obama gets his own nifty Great Seal; all he needs now is votes — Just before the president of the United States makes an appearance at a speech, a usually tall, muscular person with a machine gun hanging under his suit coat quietly walks on stage and hangs the presidential seal on the podium front.

Discussion: The Room, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Power Line and Redstate

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Obama 46%, McCain 44% — Race about tied for second straight day — PRINCETON, NJ — At the start of the long summer in which John McCain and Barack Obama will hone their messages and strive to fill their campaign coffers before the crucial fall campaign season …

Discussion: The Swamp and The Other McCain

Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Split electorate nudges Obama ahead

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, TIME.com, The New Republic, The Moderate Voice and Gallup

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Obama's support for the FISA “compromise” — (updated below) — In the past 24 hours, specifically beginning with the moment Barack Obama announced that he now supports the Cheney/Rockefeller/Hoyer House bill, there have magically arisen — in places where one would never have expected to find them …

Discussion: Political Punch, Technology Liberation Front, protein wisdom, The Raw Story, Buck Naked Politics, Obsidian Wings and UT Documents

Jerusalem Post:

ElBaradei: I'll resign if Iran attacked — International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamad ElBaradei, will quit his position in the event of a military strike on Iran, according to a Reuters report Friday. — The report quoted him as warning that any military offensive …

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Bush May End Term With Iran Issue Unsettled

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, War in Context and Balloon Juice

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Obama's War Chest Drives a 50-State Strategy — Senator Barack Obama is drawing up plans for extensive advertising and voter-turnout drives across the nation, hoping to capitalize on his expected fund-raising advantage over Senator John McCain to force Republicans to compete in states they have not had to defend in decades.

Discussion: The New Republic

Alayna Demartini / The Columbus Dispatch:

Science teacher dissed evolution — He taught creationism, report says — A Mount Vernon teacher undermined science instruction in the public school district by discrediting evolution in his classroom and focusing on creationism and intelligent design, an investigation has found.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, On Deadline, The New Republic and Obsidian Wings

Doug Whiteman / Associated Press:
Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Corrente

New York Times:

Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger — Baghdad residents in Abu Niwas Street park on the Tigris River. Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004, but the improvements are fragile. More Photos > — BAGHDAD — What's going right? And can it last?

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, JustOneMinute, Washington Post, abu muqawama and TIME.com

Mary C. Curtis / Washington Post:

The Loud Silence Of Feminists — Michelle Obama has become an issue in the presidential campaign even though she isn't running for anything. An educated, successful lawyer, devoted wife and caring mother has been labeled “angry” and unpatriotic and snidely referred to as Barack Obama's “baby mama.”

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Althouse and Michelle Obama Watch