By Media General News Service
TAMPA — Openly frustrated at the heavy news coverage of Barack Obama’s trip to the Middle East, the John McCain campaign is responding with a public relations offensive, including a new web video that accuses television news reporters of being “in the tank” for Obama.

“The media is in love,” was the subject line of an email news release from the campaign Tuesday, introducing two versions of the web video posted on his web site.

Meanwhile, the campaign has released two new national TV ads and hosted a nationwide series of veterans’ gatherings, including one in Tampa, to boost McCain’s image on national security and the war in Iraq and criticize Obama’s. Read the rest of this entry »

SDEROT, Israel (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday it is in Israel’s interest to achieve a lasting peace with the Palestinians, but he emphasized Israeli’s right to defend itself.

He also said that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel, but that the issue should be settled through negotiation.

“That’s an issue that has to be dealt with the parties involved, the Palestinians and the Israelis, and it is not the job
of the United States to dictate the form in which that will take, but rather to support the efforts that are being made right now to resolve these very difficult issues that have a long history,” Obama said. Read the rest of this entry »

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - Republican John McCain is crediting the recent $10-a-barrel drop in the price of oil to President Bush’s lifting of a presidential ban on offshore drilling, an action he has been advocating in his presidential campaign.

The cost of oil and gasoline is “on everybody’s mind in this room,” McCain told a town-hall meeting Wednesday.

He criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for opposing drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Ten days ago, Bush lifted a 1992 presidential ban on offshore drilling and urged Congress to do likewise. McCain said, “The price of oil dropped $10 a barrel.”

McCain also said Obama’s Iraq policies amount to “unconditional withdrawal.”

Global Warming

Climate scientists say drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are needed to prevent or delay environmental catastrophe. John McCain and Barack Obama are both strong supporters of a “cap-and-trade” system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by giving businesses a financial incentive to become greener.

Obama wants to cut carbon emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, while McCain wants a cut to 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Energy Funding

Both McCain and Obama say they want to dramatically increase investment in renewable sources of energy and technology to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, boost tax credits for energy research, and offer federal incentives to develop more fuel efficient vehicles. One major difference: corn-based ethanol. McCain opposes federal subsidies for that bio-fuel, while Obama supports them.

Nuclear Power

A new nuclear power plant has not been built in this country in decades because of safety concerns, but interest in nuclear power has surged in recent years. Nuclear facilities do not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, unlike coal-fired power plants, which release thousands of tons of the global-warming gas each year.

McCain wants to speed construction of 45 new plants over the next 25 years. Obama is less enamored with nuclear power. He thinks new nuclear plants should be built, but only if a national plan is developed to safely capture and store waste somewhere other than a controversial site at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada.