Insider Report from Newsmax.com

Insider Report from Newsmax.com


(Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Bill Clinton Voters Not Yet Backing Obama
2. McCain Fights POW 'Smear' from Left
3. Bob Woodward Offering New 'Secret' White House History
4. Republicans Prefer Their Drinks Straight Up
5. Hillary Still Wallowing in Debt
6. How Many Homes Does McCain Own?



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1. Bill Clinton Voters Not Yet Backing Obama

Barack Obama desperately needs the support of Bill and Hillary Clinton voters if he's to win the presidential race in November — and so far he's not getting it.

That's the view expressed by NBC News political director Chuck Todd during an appearance with host Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" on Wednesday. Republican John McCain and Democrat Obama have "carved up" the partisan vote and "the vote that is left to get is a vote that loves Hillary Clinton," Todd said.

"They make less than $50,000. They're Catholics … They live in small towns and rural America, the places that Bill Clinton spent all his time campaigning. And oh, by the way, they love Bill Clinton."

Matthews stated that 11 percent of voters "are sitting out there, loving the Clintons, not liking Barack Obama. What has to happen between now and November to get that critical 11 percent to move into Barack Obama's column?"

What is needed, Todd observed, is for both Hillary and especially Bill Clinton to speak strongly in support of Obama at the Democratic Convention and convince the undecided that Obama is ready to be president.

Todd: "The Clintons have to make the case, I know this guy, he's ready, I like him, he can lead."

Matthews: "Can they do it?"

Todd: "I don't know."

Todd said he's confident that Hillary will express strong support for Obama, but added: "It's the Bill Clinton question, I think, that a lot of people are going to watch."

Matthews noted that people believe Bill is angry about the way the Barack campaign dealt with him in the primaries and is reluctant to help him win.

Said Todd: "You've got to assume he's going to say and do all the right things. But how does he say it? What kind of enthusiasm is behind it?...

"Maybe the election eventually won't be about the Clintons, but … whether Obama likes it or not, the group of voters he has yet to unite are Clinton Democrats."


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2. McCain Fights POW 'Smear' from Left

John McCain's Web site has responded to an attack from what it calls the "most vicious corner of the Internet" that impugns his memories of his prisoner of war years.

According to the site, "liberal bloggers at the Daily Kos" have accused McCain of plagiarizing from Russian writer and Gulag denizen Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who told of a prisoner who drew a cross in the dirt in a Soviet prison camp. McCain told of a guard who drew a cross in the dirt in a Vietnamese POW camp.

McCain's site points out: "The only similarity between the two stories is a cross in the dirt, but it is hardly an unlikely coincidence that there were practicing Christians in both Russia and Vietnam, or that in the prisons of those two Communist countries the only crosses to be found were etched in the dirt, as easily disappeared as the Christians who drew them.

"But those desperate to discredit Senator McCain's record will have to impugn his fellow prisoners as well."

The site refers to Orson Swindle, who was held as a prisoner of war along with McCain. He told the McCain Report that he heard the cross in the dirt story from McCain as early as the summer of 1971, "when we first moved in together."

The article on McCain's site, headlined "Smears the Left Can Fight For," observes: "It may be typical of the pro-Obama to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others…

"As Swindle said, this is a 'desperate group of people trying to make something out of nothing.'"


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3. Bob Woodward Offering New 'Secret' White House History

The contents of Watergate journalist Bob Woodward's new book have been kept a closely guarded secret, but the work is not likely to be a highly critical expose of the Bush administration.

"The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008," due out on September 8, was written with cooperation from all levels of the administration, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Woodward regularly visited the White House, Pentagon, various intelligence agencies and the homes of generals and other officials, Politico reports.

Even the title of the book was kept secret, appearing as simply "Untitled on Bush, Volume IV" on Amazon.com. Its title was revealed by The Associated Press.

Publisher Simon & Schuster said the book "declassifies the secrets of America's political and military involvement in Iraq." White House officials are optimistic that it will shine a more favorable light on Bush than did Woodward's previous work, "State of Denial."

In particular, Bush aides believe Woodward's book will reflect that Bush's "surge" strategy has slowed the violence in Iraq.

Politico observed: "The book's revelations are likely to propel a re-examination of the Iraq war into the headlines just as the fall presidential campaign is taking off."

Woodward has co-authored or authored nine No. 1 national best-selling non-fiction books since his first blockbuster, "All the President's Men," detailed how his reporting with fellow Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein helped bring down President Richard Nixon.
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4. Republicans Prefer Their Drinks Straight Up

Bartenders in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area preparing for the GOP convention there in September might take note of a new survey of the drinking habits of Republicans and Democrats.

Among the findings of the survey of about 100 bartenders in the Washington, D.C., area, which were reported by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:

Asked who is more likely to order a drink straight up, 82 percent of respondents said Republicans, and 14 percent said Democrats.
Democrats are more likely to order a fruity (pink) drink — they were chosen by 58 percent of the bartenders, compared to 34 percent for the Republicans.
74 percent of bartenders said Democrats have the best pick-up lines, and just 14 percent chose Republicans.
Republicans are more likely to arrive first for happy hour — but Democrats are more likely to be the last to go home.
The survey was commissioned by Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc., whose beverages include Jim Beam bourbon and Canadian Club whisky, in collaboration with Clarus Research Group.


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5. Hillary Still Wallowing in Debt

Barack Obama has encouraged his supporters to help Hillary Clinton retire her massive campaign debt, but so far they have been anything but generous.

Hillary raised less than $2.5 million in July and at month's end still owed nearly $24 million, according to a report filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Obama donors gave just $105,000 in June to help Clinton repay her campaign debt, according to the Los Angeles Times.

About $13.2 million of Clinton's debt is in loans she made herself, and she has said that any donations will be used to pay vendors, not herself, the Boston Globe reported.

Obama raised $51 million during July.


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6. How Many Homes Does McCain Own?

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain isn't sure how many homes he owns — and neither is anyone else.

McCain and his wife Cindy own "at lease four," located in Arizona, California and Virginia, Politico reports.

But Newsweek this summer estimated that the couple owns at least seven properties.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York told Politico that McCain "has six houses."

The Associated Press reported that McCain and his family appear to own at least eight homes: A ranch and two condos in Arizona; three condos in Coronado, Calif.; a condo in La Jolla, Calif.; and another in Arlington, Va. But the ranch has at least four houses and a two-story cabin on it.

And in a New York Times interview, David Axelrod, Barack Obama's chief strategist, referred to "the portico of the McCain estate in Sedona — or maybe in one of his six other houses."

McCain himself, when asked by Politico how many houses he and Cindy own, said: "I think — I'll have my staff get to you. It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

Democrats have sought to portray McCain as living an extremely wealthy lifestyle — just as Republicans in 2004 focused on the five homes owned by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and his wife.

Cindy McCain inherited control of the largest beer distributorship in Arizona, and is estimated to be worth more than $100 million.