Daily Tidbits: July 15, 2008

• NY Times/CBS Poll: Obama leads 45-39%. That’s two national polls today in which McCain had less than 40% support (WaPo/ABC and NYT/CBS), and one in which he had 41% (Quinnipaic).
• Obama Campaign Hits McCain over His Confusion. Spokesman Robert Gibbs: “The self-professed candidate of “straight talk” and “experience” spent today changing his position on gay adoption, adopting Senator Obama’s position that we need more troops in Afghanistan after having resisted taking that position, flip flopping on whether he’d send U.S. or NATO troops (he actually offered three different explanations on where those additional troops would come from), and referring to a country that hasn’t existed since 1992 for the second time in two days.”
• New WaPo/ABC Poll: New WaPo/ABC poll shows biggest lead for Obama in their polls to date: 51-39%, all voters, 50-42, and registered voters in head-to-head contest with McCain. When Barr and Nader are included, Obama leads 49-36% among all voters, and 49-39% among registered voters.
• After resisting Obama’s policy to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, where the real enemy is, McCain finally concedes that Afghanistan needs more attention from military. A flip flop, you might say.

• Indiana in Play. Obama to hold national security event at Purdue University on Wednesday with Senators Bayh and Nunn. Team Obama also has offices and paid staff in the state, while the McCain campaign has no presence.
• Czech Please. For the third time in days, McCain refers to Czechoslovakia, a country that ceased to exists two decades ago.
• Quinnipaic University national poll gives Obama a signficant lead, 50-41%. One reason for the boost seems to a rise in former Hillary supporters “coming home” to the Democratic Party nominee. In this poll, about 1/5 of former Hillary voters declined to support the party nominee, while earlier polls showed about 1/3 of Hillary supporters withholding support. The poll also shows a decisive lead by Obama in the states won by Kerry in ‘04 (an average Obama lead of 50-39%) while only a modest deficit in states won by Bush (an average McCain lead of 47-44% in ‘04 red states). Obama’s favorability/unfavorability (55 – 29) is also better than McCain’s (50 – 31) in the poll.
• TPM: NY Times “airbrushes away” Joe Lieberman’s betrayal of Connecticut voters on two key promises he made to voters during his reelection battle in 2006.
• E.J. Dionne: Virginia is looks ripe for a Democratic pick-up.
• Economy: Gas and food prices spur inflation while retail sales stagnate. Stocks in Asia and Europe drop amidst concerns about the global financial system, and value of Euro climbs versus U.S. Dollar.
• The Body is not going to run for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, but Franken may have picked up a Democratic primary challenger.