Political Browser: The Trail
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CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Tallies Indicate Troops Favor Obama
The Center for Responsive Politics has found that the bona fide war hero is garnering far less financial support from the troops than the Harvard-trained lawyer.
"Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely antiwar Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul," the report said.
The report also included this surprise: "Members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008. . . . Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel have gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama."
The analysis of campaign records found Obama has raised more than $60,000 from 134 men and women deployed overseas. McCain has raised $10,665 from 26 deployed donors.
-- Matthew Mosk
TALKING TAXES
Obama Lowers Rate Targets
Barack Obama said he would set the tax rates paid on most dividends and capital gains at 20 percent, well below where they stood during most of Bill Clinton's presidency and lower than most Republicans expected.
He also said a proposal to impose Social Security taxes on incomes over $250,000 would not start for at least a decade.
Obama has said for some time that he would raise dividends and capital gains tax rates from the 15 percent level reached in President Bush's 2003 tax cuts, but he put the range somewhere between 20 percent and 28 percent. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, two Obama advisers picked the lowest point in that range -- a decision made as McCain pummels Obama as a tax hiker in a barrage of ads running during the Olympics.
