Democrats' bus heads South to sign up new voters

The biodiesel bus will hit states in every part of the country before ending at the Democratic convention next month. (Josh Anderson/associated press)

The Democratic Party's chief will lead a nationwide voter registration effort, starting in the traditionally solid Republican South, seeking to build on the burst of enthusiasm during the primaries and to follow through on Barack Obama's promise of a 50-state campaign this fall.

Starting tomorrow, a biodiesel bus, decorated to be a huge Obama campaign logo, will tool around the country, the Democratic National Committee announced yesterday.

"People are really struggling. They want different leadership, not more of the same failed [President] Bush policies that John McCain will continue," DNC chairman Howard Dean said in a statement.

The tour kicks off near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, then goes on to Austin and New Orleans. A second swing next week will stop in North Carolina and Georgia - two traditionally Republican states where Obama hopes to register enough new voters, especially African-Americans, to make the Democrats competitive. The tour will hit states in every part of the country before ending at the Democratic convention in Denver.

Republicans were unimpressed.

"Part of the reason Democrats have consistently lost all the states Howard Dean is driving through is because politicians like he and Barack Obama don't understand that confiscating more of people's paychecks to pay for government expansion isn't popular. Barack Obama's partisan record coupled with Howard Dean's delivery is probably not going to change a lot of minds," Blair Latoff, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman, said in a statement.

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Satirical New Yorker cover not a big deal, Obama says
In his first extensive comments on a controversial New Yorker cover, Barack Obama defended the magazine's right to print it, but said it furthered misconceptions about him.

The cover showed Obama dressed in Muslim garb and fist-bumping his wife in the Oval Office while the American flag burned in the fireplace. The magazine's editors said it was an attempt to show how Obama's foes were resorting to the politics of fear.

"Well, I know it was The New Yorker's attempt at satire," Obama said in an interview that aired last night on CNN's "Larry King Live." "I don't think they were entirely successful with it. But you know what? It's a cartoon, Larry, and that's why we've got the First Amendment."

In the interview, Obama said he was not personally hurt by the cover. "One of the things when you're running for president for almost two years is, you get a pretty thick skin. And, you know, I've seen and heard worse," he said. "I do think that, you know, in attempting to satirize something, they probably fueled some misconceptions about me instead."

Obama has been fighting Internet-fueled rumors that he is Muslim, and he has created a website devoted to debunking untruths. In the CNN interview, he said that the e-mails are "actually an insult against Muslim-Americans, something that we don't spend a lot of time talking about."

"And sometimes I've been derelict in pointing that out," he added.

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Solid lead for Obama in latest national poll
A new national poll says Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain 50 percent to 41 percent, thanks to huge leads among women and young voters, and near unanimous support among blacks.

But among independent voters, the candidates are tied at 44 percent, and McCain holds a 47 percent-44 percent lead among men and a 49 percent-42 percent edge among white voters, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.

"Sen. Barack Obama's national lead is solid - but it's not monolithic," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

The candidates have similar favorability ratings, but the poll found voters appear more open to the nation's first black president than to the country's oldest to take the oath of office for the first time.

While 88 percent said they are "entirely comfortable" or "somewhat comfortable" having a black president and 86 percent said Obama's race won't affect their vote, 64 percent said they are "entirely comfortable" or "somewhat comfortable" with a president who is 72 and 20 percent say they are less likely to vote for McCain because of his age.

The survey was conducted July 8-13 and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

A new Washington Post/ABC News survey released yesterday gave Obama a similar 50 percent to 42 percent lead over McCain. And a New York Times/CBS News poll released last night gave Obama a 45 percent to 39 percent lead nationally.

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