Pushing Bush to Attack Iran

Congratulating Obama

Reuters reports: "President George W. Bush offered his congratulations to Sen. Barack Obama for securing the Democratic presidential nomination, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Wednesday.

"'President Bush congratulates Sen. Obama for clinching the Democratic party's 2008 nomination for president,' Perino told reporters. . . .

"Perino said Bush did not personally call to offer his congratulations."

McCain: Keeping His Distance, Sort of

If the 2008 presidential election ends up as a referendum on Bush, then Obama wins in a landslide -- and nobody knows that better than his opponent.

Michael Cooper writes in the New York Times from Louisiana: "Senator John McCain marked the unofficial beginning of the general election with a speech here Tuesday in which he sought to distance himself from President Bush. . . .

"Mr. McCain has worked to unite the Republican Party by vowing to continue many of Mr. Bush's policies, including continuing the war in Iraq, extending the Bush tax cuts and appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. But he used his speech here to highlight his independence from the president in areas including the early handling of the war, global warming and government spending."

And yet on one particularly salient issue -- that of presidential power -- McCain appears to be changing his position to match Bush's. McCain had previously portrayed himself as an opponent of executive overreach, including signing statements.

But as Ryan Singel blogs for Wired: "If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday." Glenn Greenwald has more in Salon.

McClellan Watch

Joe Strupp, writing for Editor and Publisher, asks Washington reporters if they think the revelations in former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's new book (see my Monday column, Vindication for the Bush Critique) will affect future press-spokesperson relations.

"Some, such as Chicago Tribune Washington bureau chief Michael Tackett, say it will spark some closer scrutiny by both sides of how they relate to each other. 'Any time something like this happens, it places a greater burden on the White House press secretary and the White House Press Corps,' he said. 'The former to be more truthful and the latter to be more skeptical.' . . .

"Mike Abramowitz of The Washington Post said he was disappointed to find out that McClellan did not object more strenuously when he discovered he was misled by higher-level officials. 'I would like to think that if that happened in the future, the press secretary would resign,' he told E&P. 'It seems as if he was being a dutiful soldier.'

"But Abramowitz said he would not let McClellan's actions tarnish his view of future press secretaries, adding that each must be approached individually, but with clear skepticism.