Video of the Day: How To Leave the White House

Sure, you want to leave the White House with dignity. But you also want to leave with lots of free stuff -- and maybe leave a few surprises for the next guy.

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Lawmakers Seek To Reform Presidential Campaign System

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress have introduced bills to overhaul and modernize the U.S. public financing system to elect its presidents.

Reps. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and David Price (D-NC) announced the introduction of legislation to fix the presidential public financing system. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) introduced companion legislation in the Senate as well.

The legislation would take effect on January 1, 2009 and be effective for presidential elections following the 2008 election, however.

"We are heading into a presidential election in 2008, in which the two major party nominees are expected to decline public financing for their races and to spend $500 million each, or a combined $1 billion, in private contributions for their primary and general election campaigns," says Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a campaign finance advocacy organization. "In order to raise this massive amount of private campaign contributions, big-money fundraisers are bound to play a preeminent role in the presidential campaigns.

The presidential campaign bill increases the amount of matching funds for the presidential primaries from a 1:1 match for up to $250 of an individual's aggregate contributions, to a 4:1 match for up to $200 of an individual's contribution," Wertheimer adds.

The presidential campaign bill increases the spending limit for candidates who choose to participate in the presidential primary public financing system from its current level of approximately $45 million, to $150 million, with a sub-limit of no more than $100 million to be spent by April 1. The bill increases the spending limit for participating general election candidates from its current level of $75 million, to $100 million. The limits are indexed for inflation. The bill repeals the primary state-by-state spending limits.

To qualify for public financing in the primary election, a presidential candidate must raise $25,000 in each of 20 states, in amounts of no more than $200 of each individual's aggregate contribution. This increases the $5,000 per state requirement in current law. A candidate also must commit to accept public financing in both the primary and general election in order to receive public funds for the primary election.

The presidential campaign finance bill moves the starting date for the payment of matching funds to primary candidates from January 1 of the election year to six months before the first primary or caucus is held by a party to select it presidential nominee.

The presidential campaign finance bill provides that if one or more participating candidates in the primary election are running against a non-participating candidate of the same party who raises or spends more than 120 percent of the primary election spending limit, the spending limit for the participating candidates is increased to $150 million during the pre-April 1 period or $200 million for the whole primary period.


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Newsweek Poll: Bush Standing Hits All-Time Low

U.S. approval for President Bush has hit a record low level despite pitching policies in his recent televised State of the Union address, according to a new Newsweek poll.

President Bush's job approval rating hit an all-time low in theNewsweek Poll at 30 percent. Sixty-one percent of all those polled says they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time; just 30 percent are satisfied.

Sixty-seven percent of those polled believe Bush's decisions about policy in Iraq and other major areas are influenced more by his personal beliefs regardless of the facts, while just 22 percent say his decisions are influenced more by the facts. And 71 percent say Bush will not have enough support over the next two years to make a difference in getting things done in Washington; just 21 percent say he will. The public is split on whether or not Congress is likely (42%) or not likely (48%) to give serious consideration to the proposals Bush made in the State of the Union address about energy, health and other domestic policy.

Fifty-three percent of all those polled say they think history will see Bush as a below average president; 30 percent say average and 14 percent say above average. And 58 percent of all those polled say at this point in time, they personally wish that Bush's presidency was over; 37 percent do not feel that way.

In deciding whether to vote Democratic or Republican in the 2008 presidential election, among registered voters, 31 percent say their view of Bush will be very important; 17 percent say it will be somewhat important and 15 percent say not too important.


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Online Crowd Prefers Obama Over Hillary

U.S. Sen Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- not Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- is the top choice for president in 2008, according to an online poll in which nearly 200,000 AOL users responded.

In the U.S. Senate for just two years, Obama is weighing a White House run and will announce by Feb. 10. Former first lady Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is also reportedly close to starting her bid for the presidency. Clinton in 2006 was re-elected to a second term as senator from New York.

But Obama, son of an American and a Kenyan, is the top choice in the unscientific AOL poll. Obama seems to offer an inspirational, less-partisan alternative. Obama was the star televised speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention.

Answering the question, "Who would do better in a race for the Democratic nomination?" 58% favored Barack Obama compared to 42% for Clinton. Some 199,523 AOL users responded to the question.

On "Who would do better against a GOP nominee?" Barack Obama came out on top with 61% of 198,064 who replied to that question compared to Hillary Clinton with 39%.

In perhaps the strongest measure of Obama's sudden candidacy, asked "Would you like to see Clinton run?" 57% of the 195,736 respondents said "No." Forty-three percent said, "Yes."

By contrast, 61% of 196,202 respondents want Barack Obama to run compared to 39%
who don't.

AOL cautions its poll results are not scientific and reflect the opinions of only those users who chose to participate.

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New Obama Site On Iraq Launched

A grassroots organization encouraging U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to run for president in 2008 announced the launch of ObamaWasRight.com, an affiliated website and blog dedicated to discussion and solution-finding on the issue of the war in Iraq, the group says.

The new site coincides with Obama filing paperwork to open an exploratory committee as a prelude to a White House campaign. Obama's top Democratic competition in the primaries could come from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York who is also mulling a 2008 run. Former Sen. John Edwards ofNorth Carolina is another prime contender for the Democratic nomination.

Obama reportedly will decide on a 2008 run by Feb. 10.

"We're incredibly excited about Obama's exploratory committee," says Ben Stanfield, founder of DraftObama.org. "It's a major step in our ultimate goal, seeing Senator Obama enter the presidential race. We've been working hard for the last few months to organize thousands of volunteers across all 50 states, and we'll continue that hard work right up to his announcement on Feb. 10th."

The website was launched today in response to strong interest from participants in the DraftObama.org movement for creating a forum specific to issues concerning the war. It highlights Obama's uniquely consistent position in opposition to the war in Iraq among the six leading presidential hopefuls in both parties, organizers say.

"Although he could easily be the 'I-told-you-so candidate,' Senator Obama has shown remarkable statesmanship by focusing not on the past, buton the future," says Stanfield. "Our new site,'ObamaWasRight.com' will become a leading forum for Americans whoappreciate that Senator Obama has been consistently opposed to the Iraq War, and who want to follow his lead, and help in the process of findingnon-partisan approaches to bringing our troops home."

President Bush launched the invasion of Iraq nearly four years ago. It has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 American service personnel. Polls have found Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq.

DraftObama.org is an all-volunteer grassroots organization supporting apresidential run by Senator Obama. Spearheaded by a growing collection ofvolunteers from around the country, the movement has grown from a singleweb page created by Ben Stanfield, a computer technician in Rockville, Md., to a national movement with tens of thousands of petition-signers, hundreds of volunteers in every state, and over half a million unique visitors tothe DraftObama.org site, site organizers say.

The movement gained national attention by airing the first television advertisement of the 2008 presidential election cycle, airing "Believe Again" in Washington, DC, New Hampshire, Iowa and Hawaii. The 60- second spot also reached many YouTube milestones, including moer than 100,000 viewings, site organizers add.


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Op-Ed: If You Haven't Heard of This Guy, You Will

His name is Martin O'Malley. A Democrat, he's been mayor of Baltimore since 1999 but tomorrow he will be sworn in as governor of Maryland. In November, O'Malley became the only Democrat to beat an incumbent Republican governor.

But he'll run for president someday. It's only a matter of time.

Actually, in a way, he already is. O'Malley's been running at least since 2005. At the time, Martin O'Malley was still a second-term mayor and hadn't even kicked off his campaign against Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

In August 2005, Martin O'Malley delivered a major speech on homeland security at the National Press Club in Washington. Like all mayors and governors who focus on domestic policy, O'Malley plainly looked at his speech as a means to demonstrate he understands and can talk tough about security and defense issues.

O'Malley clearly articulated not only what cities and states need to do better in terms of homeland security, but the federal government as well. And he very obviously used the occasion to take on President Bush and burnish not only Democrats' security qualifications, but his own.

"The way I see it, there are two ways to look at the issue of federal responsibility for our national defense at home," O'Malley said. "One view says that our homeland security should be a federal funding responsibility -- that it is the responsibility of all Americans to contribute to her defense during a time of war. The second view says homeland security should be a local funding responsibility -- that the people of a poor city or a rich suburb should do the best they can, using local taxes and the proceeds from fire hall bingo nights. Unfortunately for America's security in this time of war, the second view now controls the White House and Congress.

"This 'weak-defense' view, which sees homeland security as an unfunded local option, cannot truthfully be called 'conservative,'" O'Malley added. "President Eisenhower made a massive federal investment in building the National System of Interstate and Defense highways to better protect America in the event of a nuclear attack. Ronald Reagan was unabashed when it came to federal investments in defense. But in Washington today, the traditional strong defense values of the party of Abraham Lincoln are found only in the words carved on the cold walls of his memorial."

Martin O'Malley has a very Clintonesque quality about him. He's very smart but has a very folksy way about him and can easily tap into spirtual and religious dimensions without sounding strident. He can also, as he did in his homeland security speech, bash the opposition without coming across as too partisan, but as common sensical.

Like Bill Clinton, Martin O'Malley is cool. He's the leader of an Irish rock band called O'Malley's March. O'Malley's St. Patrick's Day concerts are the stuff of legend in Baltimore.

As a presidential candidate and as president, Martin O'Malley has the opportunity to be Clinton without the baggage. In fact, in the recent governor's race, O'Malley's opponents tried to use the womanizing smear against him in a very Clinton-like way only to have it backfire. Ehrlich was forced to fire the staffer who was peddling the rumors.

The big knock on Martin O'Malley is ambition. He's too ambitious, some people say. I'm not sure why people see ambition among public servants as a bad thing, though. When you or I are good at our job, we hope for and expect raises and promotions. It's a very positive quality in America. Why shouldn't the same hold true for good public servants.

Martin O'Malley, though, understands one can be too ambitious. That's why O'Malley sat out the 2002 governor's race. At that time, he was still a first-term mayor. He waited until he got re-elected to ponder a run for governor.

The same will be true when O'Malley runs for president.

So when will he run? O'Malley will wait to be a re-elected governor in 2010 before he looks further to the national stage. Further timing will depend on whether a Democrat wins the White House in 2008. If a Democrat becomes president in January 2009, O'Malley won't challenge the incumbent in 2012, but will wait until 2016. He's a young man and can bide his time.

If a Republican wins in 2008, however, O'Malley may stage a run against the GOP incumbent as a sitting governor in 2012.

Watch Martin O'Malley. You will be hearing more from him sooner or later.

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Dems Tie McCain To Bush 'Surge' Strategy

In a potential glimpse at the 2008 race for the White House, Democrats are tying U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to the unpopular escalation of the war in Iraq that President Bush unveiled this week.

McCain is looking at a second bid for president. McCain ran for the GOP nomination in 2000 but ultimately lost to Bush.

"Cementing himself as the establishment candidate committed to continuing the Bush legacy of failure in Iraq, John McCain yesterday wholeheartedly endorsed the president's escalation of the war. Although the president's new increase of troops for the civil war in Iraq falls shy of the 35,000 troops McCain had proposed, the Arizona senator said he was satisfied with the move, stating 'I think it meets our criteria,'" the Democratic National Committee says, citing a McCain interview on CNN.

"Spearheading the effort to escalate the Iraq War with tens ofthousands more American troops may cement John McCain in Bush's camp, but it won't help him become Bush's successor," says Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "The American people have made it clear they want a new direction in Iraq, not another troop increase that keeps our brave men and women in uniform bogged down in the Iraqi civil war."

Inability to articulate clear position has garnered McCain broad criticism, according to the Democratic National Committee.

Polls find Americans disapprove of sending more troops to Iraq.

"Harold Meyerson wrote in the Washington Post that McCain's continued hawkishness, even if held sincerely, was flawed, writing that 'integrity in the pursuit of fantasy is no virtue,'" the DNC says. "Joel Connelly, a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, noted that, 'The heady spirit of a reformer on the road is gone,' and concluded that McCain 'is the last person in the world that you'd want to be in charge of cleaning up Bush's [foreign policy] excesses.' Ann McFeatters wrote that McCain has become 'garbled' in explaining his Iraq position. And pollster John Zogby noted that McCain's 'going to be all alone in suggesting the Iraq Study Group' was wrong.

McCain has criticized aspects of Bush's war handling, however, and called attention to mistakes in remarks in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Iraq.

"We have made many, many mistakes since 2003, and these will not be easily reversed," McCain said. "Even greater than the costs thus far and in the future, however, are the catastrophic consequences that would ensue from our failure in Iraq. By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis and their partners the best possible chances to succeed.

"From everything I saw during my trip to Iraq last month, I believe that success is still possible," McCain added. "And I would not support this new strategy if I didn’t think it had a real chance of success. But let us realize that there are no guarantees. By controlling the violence, we can pave the way for a political settlement. Once the government wields greater authority, however, Iraqi leaders must take significant steps on their own, and they must do it right away."

McCain acknowledges that "[i]ncreasing U.S. troop levels will expose more brave Americans to danger and increase the number of American casualties."


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