Today on the presidential campaign trail

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - IN THE HEADLINES

Controversial New Yorker cover depicts Obama as Muslim, wife as armed terrorist ... Palestinian official: Obama to visit West Bank during Middle East trip ... Medical experts say candidate's age should not be a factor in voters' decisions ... At Nevada conference, American Indian youth focus on presidential race, consider Obama, McCain

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Magazine's 'satirical' cover stirs controversy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is "tasteless and offensive."

The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands Monday, titled "The Politics of Fear" and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing traditional Muslim garb — sandals, robe and turban — and his wife, Michelle — dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder — standing in the Oval Office.

The couple is doing a fist tap in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantle hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

In a statement Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.

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Palestinians: Obama to visit West Bank

PARIS (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama will visit the West Bank next week as part of a swing through the Middle East, a Palestinian official said Monday, giving an important diplomatic boost to the Palestinians at a sensitive time in peace talks.

The Palestinians expressed satisfaction over the planned meeting with the presumed Democratic nominee, which comes months after Obama's likely Republican opponent, John McCain, passed on meeting with the Palestinians during a brief visit to Israel.

Obama is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his July 23 stop in Ramallah, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was in Paris for a Mediterranean summit.

"We welcome this meeting," Erekat said. If Obama is elected, he added, "we hope he will stay the course between Israel and the Palestinians in reaching peace and a two-state solution."

During the same visit, Obama is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials. The Obama campaign declined to comment.

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For some, McCain is "too old"

WASHINGTON (AP) — So how old is John McCain? Six-packs, automatic transmissions and the American Express card were all introduced after he was born, not to mention computers which McCain admits he doesn't use.

McCain, himself, jokes that he's older than dirt. And while his age is being raised as a campaign issue, medical experts say voters shouldn't be concerned that, if elected, McCain would be the oldest man to assume the presidency, at 72.

In politics and other fields, they explain, it's not unusual for talented people to do signature work late in life, when they can apply the cumulative wisdom of experience, and leverage personal connections cultivated over time.

Nonetheless, a significant slice of the electorate has qualms about McCain's age. The presumed Republican nominee will celebrate his 72nd birthday shortly before his party's convention. Polls show the age question isn't going away, despite the Arizona senator's efforts to deflect it with self-deprecating humor, or disprove it by keeping a grueling schedule.

McCain's senior-citizen status raises more concerns among voters than Sen. Barack Obama's relative youthfulness, a new AP-Yahoo News poll indicates. Twenty percent said "too old" describes McCain "very well," compared with 14 percent who felt strongly that Obama is "too young." Overall, 38 percent said "too old" describes McCain somewhat or very well, compared with 30 percent who worried that the Illinois Democrat, who turns 47 this summer, is too young.

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Young Native Americans mull Obama, McCain at event

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Hundreds of young Native Americans gathering for a five-day conference here are being urged to become politically active because the American Indian vote could make a difference in this year's presidential election.

Jackson Slim Brossy, legislative associate of the nonpartisan National Congress of American Indians, said the Indian vote — which traditionally has been Democratic — is up for grabs this year as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain both try to woo it.

He said the Indian vote was a factor in Obama's defeat of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in June's Montana primary, as well as in past victories of U.S. Sens. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.

"The vote will go to the candidate who reaches out more to Indian country and has the best policies for Indian country," Brossy told The Associated Press.

Both McCain and Obama tried to do just that with messages for the 1,000-odd attendees at the annual United National Indian Tribal Youth conference in Reno. The gathering ends Tuesday.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama speaks at the NAACP's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain addresses the National Council of La Raza in San Diego.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"The Native American vote has been overlooked in the past, but there's a trend of it making a difference and I think 2008 will continue the trend." — Jackson Slim Brossy, legislative associate of the nonpartisan National Congress of American Indians.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

President Bush captured about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, to Democrat John Kerry's 58 percent, which was down from the 62 percent former Vice President Al Gore got in 2000.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_el_pr/2008_race_rundown [link]