Conservative Christian leader blasts Obama speech

As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee yesterday of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

The criticism, aired on Dobson's radio program, came shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization's headquarters in Colorado Springs, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

Dobson took aim at a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal in which he asked about biblical passages as guides for public policy - chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said. " . . . He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Obama told reporters that his speech made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."

Of Dobson, he added, "I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GOP, McCain camp decry Obama's seal, funding plan
If there's a label that Republicans are trying to pin on Barack Obama, it might be something like arrogant hypocrite.

They're chortling over the Obama campaign's decision to retire - after just one appearance - a seal that to many eyes too closely resembled the presidential seal. The Republican National Committee sent out a compilation of ridicule of the seal yesterday.

And John McCain's campaign launched an Internet ad yesterday that pummels Obama for his decision to opt out of public financing. The spot tries to use the presumptive Democratic nominee's own words against him, showing him saying he supports public financing, then announcing last week that he would rely on private fund-raising for the general election campaign instead.

The ad shows a selection of newspaper editorials criticizing Obama's move and ends with a takeoff of Obama's campaign slogan: "CHANGE That Works For Him: Breaking His Word."

FOON RHEE

Exhibit slamming Bush begins cross-country tour
Unions supporting Barack Obama are taking the tried-and-true bus tour to a new level.

Yesterday, the "Bush Legacy Bus" left Washington, D.C., on a nearly 150-stop trek across America through the summer and fall to remind voters of what its sponsors call President Bush's failures.

The biodiesel-powered bus features interactive exhibits on the government mishandling of Hurricane Katrina recovery, the Iraq war, and what the group calls "trickle-down" economic policies that favored the wealthy.

The tour is sponsored by Americans United for Change, supported by the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and others. Democrats, including Obama, contend that John McCain would represent a third term for Bush.

FOON RHEE

GOP senator leans on ties to Obama in campaign ad
It's come to this: A Republican US senator, trying to keep his seat in November when there could be a Democratic surge, is citing praise from Barack Obama, who then has to clarify that he is actually supporting the Democratic candidate.

Gordon Smith of Oregon - a state Obama won handily and where he had the biggest rally of the campaign - says in a TV ad that Obama praises his partnership on a bill to increase fuel efficiency standards. "I'm Gordon Smith and I approve working together across party lines," he says.

In case voters in Oregon were confused, an Obama campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, said in a written statement last night: "Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington."

FOON RHEE

McCain trails Obama by double digits in new poll
A new presidential poll suggests Barack Obama has a double-digit lead over John McCain, and predicts the lead is even larger with two possible spoiler candidates.

The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey released yesterday has Obama ahead 49 percent to 37 percent. With independent Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr in the mix, Obama's lead widens to 48 percent to 33 percent.

Nader, whom many Democrats blame for Al Gore's narrow defeat in 2000, is thought to take more support from Obama. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, is believed to siphon votes from McCain.

The poll also found far more enthusiasm for Obama among self-described liberals than for McCain among conservatives.

The poll's margin of sampling error is three percentage points.

FOON RHEE