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Election Recycling: The Exhaustion of Power Edition
• Bushto decide whether more graphic photos are released.Lindsay Graham: "It's clear to me that we had systemic failure" within the military.McCain: "It would be terribly premature to call for[Rumsfeld's]resignation at this time." [ WP and NYT and WT ]
• Bushaims to avoid his father's problems: loss of Iraq and his reelection.Rovesays he will paintKerryas a condescending elitist;RicesaysBushshould not be underestimated. [ WT ]
•With abuse scandal,McCaintakes spotlight.McCain: "I have seen a lot of people die. I've seen a lot of terrible things in my life. But to see it done by Americans to human beings is what's so appalling. It's so outrageous, I can't describe it." [NYT ]
•IfRumsfeldsurvives, it's because ofBush.Senior administration official: "Rumsfeld'srelationship withBushis based on performance, not personal factors. When the performance was there, the relationship was fine." [ NYT ]
•Conservative intelligentsia complain politics distract from sound policies.George Will: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts." Said one intellectual conservative, "It's the exhaustion of power. Ideology has confronted reality, and ideology has bent. On the domestic side, it has bent in terms of the expansion of the government embodied in the Medicare prescription-drug law. On the foreign policy side, it has bent because of what has transpired in the last few weeks in Fallujah." [WP ]
•In state-by-state analysis,BushandKerryeach have 205 electoral votes, the remaining 128 are up for grabs. [ USAT ]
•21 million single women--most with liberal views--did not vote in 2000. [ LAT ]
• Bushcomes out swinging for free trade. [ WSJ ]
• Kerrybegins health care tour: "It's not acceptable to do nothing while those premiums are rising four times faster than workers' earnings." [ USAT ]
•Some see gay marriage initiatives in swing states as push forBushvote. [ WP ]
• Nancy Reagancalls for stem cell research. [ WP ]
• Bob Graham's4,000 diaries are seized byKerrystaff for VP vetting. [ WP ]
•Ad experts give bad marks to campaign ads; "These, to me, are just wallpaper," said an executive. [ LAT ]
• Jenny Backus,democratic strategist: "There's definitely a Beltway maelstrom [of complaints aboutKerry].There are a whole bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks who live in Washington and feed a lot of these reporters. People use the press as a giant instant-message board." [ WP ]