Afghanistan Pushes Back

Jonathan Martin writes for Politico that Rove called Lieberman late last week and urged him to withdraw his name from vice-presidential consideration.

"Lieberman 'laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call [McCain] on it,' said one source familiar with the details," Martin writes. "'Rove is pushing Romney so aggressively some folks are beginning to wonder what's going on,' grumbled one veteran Republican strategist."

Convention Bush-Bashing Watch

From Sen. John Kerry's speech last night: "Never in modern history has an administration squandered American power so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common sense and fundamental American values. Never has short-term partisan politics so depleted the strength of America's bipartisan foreign policy.

"George Bush, with John McCain at his side, promised to spread freedom but delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. They misread the threat and misled the country. Instead of freedom, it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and dictators everywhere that are on the march. North Korea has more bombs, and Iran is defiantly chasing one."

From Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden's speech: "As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. And for the last seven years, the administration has failed to face the biggest the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India's great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror."

From former President Clinton's speech: "Look at the example the Republicans have set. In this decade, American workers have consistently given us rising productivity. That means, year after year, they work harder and produce more. Now, what did they get in return? Declining wages, less than one-fourth as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty, and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s.

"American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage. . . .

"What about the military families pushed to the breaking point by multiple, multiple deployments? What about the assault on science and the defense of torture? What about the war on unions and the unlimited favors for the well-connected? And what about Katrina and cronyism?"

McCain on Bush

From a prickly interview with Time's James Carney and Michael Scherer:

Q. "How different are you from President Bush? Are you in step with your party? Are you independent from your party?"

McCain: "My record shows that I have put my country first and I follow the philosophy and traditions of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Sometimes that is not in keeping with the present Administration or my colleagues, but I've always put my country first, whether it's saying I didn't support the decision to go to Lebanon or my fighting against the corruption in Washington or out-of-control pork-barrel spending, which has led to members of Congress residing in federal prison. So I've always stood up for a set of principles and a philosophy that I think have been pretty consistent over the years."

Hurricane Watch

James Gerstenzang blogs for the Los Angeles Times: "Are the weather gods conspiring to deliver a reminder of one of President Bush's lowest points just as he is about to speak to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.?

"A five-day forecast has tropical storm Gustav moving up the Gulf of Mexico this weekend, and striking the same swath of Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Katrina did three years ago some time on Monday."

Live Online

We had a lively Live Online yesterday. Come read the transcript.

Cartoon Watch

Pat Bagley on Bush's broken heart.