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The Morning Grind / Political Hot Topics |
Poll: Kerry takes the lead
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Stay with CNN for reports in the run-up to the coming 9/11 commission hearings with former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Attorney General John Ashcroft and others. CNN plans live coverage beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
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 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on the White House memo.
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 CNN's Bill Schneider names the 911 panel vs. Bush his Play of the Week.
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 CNN's Howard Kurtz analyzes media coverage of the Rice testimony.
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 CNN/Money: Kerry cites 'misery index'
 Bush: 'What we're doing in Iraq is right'
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Check out the links below to hot political stories around the country this morning.
KERRY AHEAD: After weeks of increasingly violent news from Iraq, presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts now leads the president in a two-way trial heat by seven points (50 percent to 43 percent), according to the latest Newsweek poll.
Newsweek: The race heats up
DEMOCRATIC UNITY: Since John Kerry virtually locked up the Democratic presidential nomination last month, he has been welcomed by cheering crowds -- many bigger than expected -- and volunteers signing up and opening their wallets with unprecedented generosity. And last month, Kerry raised $38 million -- more than Al Gore raised for his entire primary campaign in 2000.
The Boston Globe: Kerry riding a wave of Democratic unity
SHE'S BACK: Advisor who resigned to spend more time with her family is rejoining the Bush team.
The Los Angeles Times: Hughes answers the call
WEB TRICKS: Some jokers who don't like the Democratic presidential candidate are trying to make his campaign Web site, johnkerry.com, the first answer to a search of the word "waffles" on Google.
USA Today: Kerry gets served up with 'waffles'
BUSH REACTS: President Bush said yesterday that a memo he received a month before the September 11, 2001, attacks did not contain enough specific threat information to prevent the hijackings and "said nothing about an attack on America." In his most extensive public remarks about a briefing he received August 6, 2001, titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US," Bush also said that he "was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into" by the FBI and the CIA that summer and that they would have reported any "actionable intelligence" to him.
The Washington Post: Memo not specific enough, Bush says
KERRY'S EASTER: While President Bush used the occasion of Easter to comment on Iraq and visit troops injured during the fighting there, John Kerry, his Democratic challenger, paid a quiet visit to his local parish -- where the only news was that Kerry took Communion despite some criticism within the Catholic Church over his religious practices.
The Boston Globe: Kerry celebrates with Communion
THE FRENCH CONNECTION: As the presidential race gets tighter and nastier, the F-word has increasingly crept into attacks against presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry. It has made its way into comments by the House majority leader, onto Internet blogs, and onto the Republican National Committee's Web site. It has shown up on sweatshirts and T-shirts, and been thrown around in columns by nationally known conservative writers. Kerry, his foes complain, might as well be French.
The Boston Globe: Kerry criticized for French connection
LOBBYING RICHES: To the general public, the November election is all about who becomes the next president. But for many in the multibillion-dollar influence industry, far more is at stake. The campaign trail can lay the path to lobbying riches. Heavyweight lobbyists are often made or broken by their performance as consultants to major-party candidates. Winning the White House is not essential; merely playing at the top level is credential enough.
The Washington Post: Lobbyists try to parlay a presidential campaign
YOUNG VOTERS: Democrat John Kerry is opening a concerted appeal to younger voters, using new figures his presidential campaign has gathered to show the soaring costs of a college education amid lagging incomes. The Massachusetts senator is releasing a "misery index" suggesting that working families have been hammered by stagnant incomes at a time college and health insurance costs have soared.
The Associated Press: Kerry courts young voters in Boston
KERRY'S WIFE: If Teresa Heinz Kerry becomes first lady, she plans to oversee one of the nation's significant nonprofit empires from the White House - acting on a diverse agenda that involves cultural, environmental, economic and educational programs. Heinz Kerry's plan to continue her philanthropic work if Sen. John Kerry is elected president could be the source of political headaches, some analysts say.
The Los Angeles Times: Kerry's wife would keep her philanthropic role
WHAT'S THE POINT: Democrat John Kerry's latest television commercial accused President Bush of wanting to send American jobs overseas. In the same week, a Media Fund ad covered a different topic, criticizing Bush's $87 billion reconstruction plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. A spot by a MoveOn.org affiliate, meanwhile, claimed Bush used the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as an excuse to invade Iraq. Commercials by such liberal interest groups are meant to hurt Bush and, in effect, help Kerry's presidential bid. But some media strategists acknowledge that such efforts could backfire by muddying Kerry's message of the moment.
The Associated Press: Campaign ads could muddy Kerry message
Compiled by Heather Riley
