The Bush Administration today stepped up the war of words and its assistance to the beleaguered Georgian Republic.

“This is not 1968,” said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphatically at a Washington news conference, “where Russia can threaten a neighbour, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it.”

In addition to sending Secretary of State Rice to Tbilisi, the Bush Administration is sending humanitarian aid courtesy of the US Fleet (as I said we should, the idea being making the Russians think twice). From the BBC:

As well as providing aid to many thousands of displaced Georgians, it also sends a range of political messages.

It goes some way to responding to the concerns of many Georgians who believe Uncle Sam was not there for them when they needed him, and it tells the Russians that Washington is not backing away from the country it has described as a “beacon of democracy”.

There is something of a military subtext too.

The US is to use its navy and air force for this mission and warned the Russians that they must keep all transport infrastructure open. So, no more blocking major roads and no interference with ports or airspace.

There is no hint whatsoever that the US would be prepared to use military force against the Russians – far from it. But bringing American forces into the equation on the ground is an implicit warning to the Russians to back off.

It is frankly the best policy option we have sending the message that we intend to defend Georgia without actually having to fight for it. To use a baseball metaphor, we throwing hard and inside but not hitting the batter.

Meanwhile, Senator McCain his send two of his closest political allies, Senator Lieberman of Connecticut and Senator Graham of South Carolina to Tbilisi. Clearly for McCain, the Georgian crisis is an opportunity to demonstrate his command of foreign affairs and to differentiate himself from Senator Obama.

From the New York Times:

Senator John McCain turned aside questions today about whether Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, had strayed over the political line yesterday when he said that Senator Barack Obama had shown inexperience in his initial response to the war between Russia and Georgia.

And he tried to tamp down earlier charges from the Obama camp that he was responding to the Russian crisis with a belligerence that could only make the situation worse. He said he was taking a hard line on Russia but wasn’t trying to “reignite the Cold War.”

It was all part of a continuing effort by the McCain campaign to seize on the events overseas to appear presidential and in command on the world stage while at the same time not appearing to be political. At several points today, he emphasized that he had visited Georgia many times and was familiar with the players.

He also said he was sending Mr. Lieberman, of Connecticut, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to Georgia, as both stood beside him at a flag-bedecked news conference here. All three are members of the Senate Armed Services committee.

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The Obama campaign has released a new ad attacking Senator McCain on economic issues. The ad is a 30 spot and is to air nationwide.

The McCain campaign did respond to the ad issuing this release:

“In the Senate, Barack Obama has voted in lockstep with President George W. Bush nearly half the time, including the Bush-Cheney Energy bill which gave close to 3 billion dollars in new giveaways to Big Oil – a terrible policy that John McCain opposed. The truth is Barack Obama’s plan is a job killing machine that ignores the struggling economy and raises taxes on family savings, social security and small businesses,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain.

As I have noted previously Obama has a credibility problem attacking McCain on energy because Obama voted for the Bush Cheney Energy Policy and McCain did not. Obama defends his vote by saying he did so because the Bush Cheney Energy Policy was the only way to jump start investment in alternative energy sources. That’s a bit of a stretch. What it jump started was development of a US corn ethanol industry, not wind or solar.

For more on why corn ethanol is a poor investment see my earlier post, Backtracking with Barack — Corn Ethanol.

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When all is said and done, the Bush legacy for Americans is a widening income disparity. Not that this should be a surprise, after all, George W. Bush boasted at a fundraiser in 2000 of the nation’s high and mighty that what he saw there that night dinner was the “haves” and the “have-mores”. That top 1% should be quite appreciative. The rest of us, not so much.

Bush’s top economic priority was to cut taxes on the supra-wealthy; as he famously said at that dinner, the “have-mores” are his political base. The marginal income-tax rate, the estate tax, the tax on dividends, and the proceeds of the profits tax all fell sharply in his first term. The result is below. The table shows average income gains, adjusted for inflation, from 2002 through 2006.

From the Center for Budget and Policy Priorties:

Average pre-tax incomes in 2006 jumped by about $60,000 (5.8 percent) for the top 1 percent of households, but just $430 (1.4 percent) for the bottom 90 percent, after adjusting for inflation, according to a new update in the groundbreaking series on income inequality by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Their analysis of newly released IRS data shows that in 2006, the shares of the nation’s income flowing to the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent of households were higher than in any year since 1928.

1928? Look above and then tell me you’re not worried.

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“We are here to take up the fight. For the first time in years our eastern neighbours show their true face that we have known for hundreds of years”, Kaczynski addressed the crowds gathered at a rally in Tbilisi on Tuesday evening.

While the United States has likely provided intelligence to Georgia and some logistical support such as the transporting of Georgian troops back to Georgia, no country has been as openly supporting Georgia as Poland. Yesterday, Polish President Kaczynski visited Tbilisi and spoke to the Georgian nation. More from Polskie Radio:

Polish President Lech Kaczynski delivered a confrontational speech in support of Georgia at a rally in Tbilisi, Tuesday.

“We are here to take up the fight. For the first time in years our eastern neighbours show their true face that we have known for hundreds of years”, Kaczynski addressed the crowds gathered at a rally in Tbilisi on Tuesday evening.

“They think other nations should be subordinated to them. We say no! That country is Russia,” Kaczynski shouted to the applauding crowd.

The Polish President accused Russia of still believing “the era of the empire was coming back,” and that “domination was a characteristic of the region”. He explained that many nations had been familiar with “that domination which had brought disaster upon all of Europe”.

In Kaczynski’s assessment, the current situation demanded a sharp reaction.

“We are here today so that the world reacts even stronger, in particular the European Union and NATO. Some had thought the Presidents were afraid of coming here. No one was afraid! Everyone came!”, Kaczynski continued.

The crowds gathered outside the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi responded enthusiastically to Kaczynski’s accusations towards Moscow’s actions. They shouted, “Poland, Poland, Friendship, Friendship, Georgia, Georgia”.

President Lech Kaczynski arrived in Tbilisi late last night and was accompanied by the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.

Those countries know that Russia hasn’t changed. It still considers its “Near Abroad” as areas ripe for intervention and control. Russia must be stopped.

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Over on Real Clear Politics, Mark Davis of the Dallas Morning News has an interesting article. He writes:

This is a torturous month of what-ifs for Hillary Clinton and her still substantial number of followers.

First, they have to wonder if the Democrat-friendly media that helped her for so long may have doomed her by refusing to follow a John Edwards adultery story that could have given her the Iowa win that Barack Obama used as his nomination springboard.

Instead, Hillary and her followers will have to make do with a Tuesday night convention speech the week after next. But she could have accepted the nomination that Thursday night if only she had followed the instincts of discarded communications director Mark Penn, cast aside for a lobbying controversy no one cared about. What she and her handlers should have cared about was the wisdom of his advice, laid bare in an upcoming issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

It details numerous e-mails that reveal the depth of the internal squabbling that stalled the Clinton campaign. But a larger question looms: What if she had followed Mr. Penn’s inclination to focus strongly on voter unease with Barack Obama’s far-flung upbringing and resulting lack of mainstream American values?

“His roots to basic American culture and values are at best limited,” Mr. Penn wrote in March 2007. “I cannot imagine America electing a president at a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and values.”

(And they say Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on anything.)

He continues: “Let’s explicitly own ‘American’ in our programs, the speeches and the values … he doesn’t.”

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The highly respected Pew Research Center has a new national poll out this morning. In the Pew poll, Obama’s lead has narrowed from eight points in June to five points in July to now three points in August. Obama leads McCain 46% to 43% in this latest poll. Obama’s lead is just outside the margin of error of 2.5% but effectively the race is tied.

Since June, McCain has solidified his support among whites, men, Republicans, white evangelicals and whites who haven’t completed college. Obama has made few gains among women, but has retained his overwhelming advantage among blacks and leads by 13 points with women and by 24 points among those under age 30. Seven in 10 who backed Senator Clinton for the Democratic nomination now support Obama — little, if any, progress for Obama since June. Again, exit polls consistently showed that anywhere between 20% and 45% of Clinton supporters depending on the state would not vote for Obama. This 30% number thus sounds about right. The problem for Obama among Clinton supporters is largely centered on values and character and to some degree the belief that the nomination process was not open and fair. These beliefs are fairly hardened and it is unlikely that Clinton supporters will be “coming around.” Growing numbers of voters pick McCain over Obama as the candidate who is personally qualified, could handle a crisis and is willing to take a stand. The poll was largely taken before the Georgian crisis erupted. And while Obama is effectively tied with McCain in the Presidential race, any generic Democrat leads any generic Republican by eight points. The problem with Obama seems to be Obama.

The Pew Research Center poll was conducted from July 31-Aug. 10 and included telephone interviews with 2,414 registered voters. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. You can view the full results here.

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In the Franklin & Marshall College poll that was released today, Obama maintains a narrow but consistent lead in Pennsylvania. The Franklin & Marshall poll surveyed 641 registered voters from August 4 through August 10. While Obama led 44 percent to 36 percent among all survey respondents, he led 46 percent to 41 percent among likely voters. With both candidates securing support from a large majority of their party’s voters, Obama’s lead, significantly, comes from the support of almost twice the number of Independent voters backing McCain. The margin of error is 3.9%. You can download and read the full poll here (pdf.)

The biggest opening for McCain in the Keystone state is that half of respondents are also expressing some concern about Obama’s relative inexperience. The Franklin & Marshall College Poll was produced in conjunction with the Philadelphia Daily News, WGAL-TV, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, WTAE-TV, WPVI-TV/6ABC, and Times-Shamrock Newspapers.

In the Show Me state, the news is much better for McCain. In Missouri, McCain has added two points to his lead and now holds a seven point advantage according to Rasmussen Reports.

John McCain leads Barack Obama by seven percentage points in the race for Missouri’s Electoral College votes.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Missouri shows John McCain attracting 48% of the vote while Barack Obama earns 41%. This is the third time in the last four months that McCain’s support has been at 47% or 48%. The one exception came in early June—McCain’s support dipped as Obama was wrapping up the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Obama has been in the 41% to 43% range for four straight months.

Last month, McCain enjoyed a five-point lead in Missouri.

When leaners are included in the current survey, McCain leads Obama 50% to 44%, little changed from a month ago. Leaners are survey participants who initially indicate no preference for either major candidate but indicate that they are leaning towards either McCain or Obama.

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Japan’s economy, the world’s second biggest, contracted last quarter as exports fell and consumers spent less, bringing the country to the brink of its first recession in six years. Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank at an annualized 2.4% rate during the three months that ended June 30 after expanding 3.2% in the first quarter of 2008. Exports dropped for the first time in three years, robbing Japan of the engine that drove its longest postwar expansion, while record fuel and food prices deterred spending at home. Toyota Motor Corp. last week reported its worst earnings decline in five years as U.S. sales slumped, and Japan Airlines (JAL) said it will cut wages to counter rising costs.

The UK Guardian covers economic data from East Asia.

News from Africa

Zimbabwe Talks Update
South African President Thabo Mbeki said Wednesday talks over Zimbabwe’s crisis had paused to allow opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai “time to consider”, while denying claims of a deal that excludes him. A report from Agence France-Presse.

Togo Wins Its First Olympic Medal
Benjamin Boukpeti earned a bronze medal for Togo in the men’s kayak slalom, the first ever Olympic win for the West African nation. More from All Africa.

Life in Lagos
The International Herald Tribune looks at life in an opulent and chaotic Nigerian boomtown, Lagos.

The Plight of Ogaden Refugees
Drought and recent fighting around the town of Beletweyne, in central Somalia’s Hiiraan region, have aggravated the plight of at least 1,000 Ethiopian refugee families, who were already facing acute food shortages, local sources told IRIN. The full report from IRIN News.

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Musharaff To Resign?
The South Asian press is quoting a report of Pakistan that embattled President Pervez Musharaff plans to resign after Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14th. Here is my earlier post on the reports of Musharraf’s intentions to resign: Musharraf to Resign? Here is an report from the Times of India on the reports that Musharraf will resign within the month. Also from yesterday, I highlighted the impeachment proceedings currently underway in Pakistan with video reports from Al-Jazeera.

Kashmir & Jammu At A Boiling Point
Indian security forces fired into crowds of protesters for a second day yesterday as they defied curfews in Indian Kashmir, killing a reported 14 people, in the worst violence seen in the region since an anti-Indian uprising in the 1990s. The demonstrations were sparked when Hindus of the Jammu region, near the plains of India, began blocking the main highway in the state – preventing Muslim traders from selling their goods. The clashes have broadened into a pro-independence protest and have raised fears that relations between India and Pakistan could once again be destabilised. Reports from the UK Guardian, the Asia Sentinel and the Times of India.

Inflation In India
Inflation reports from around the world for the month of July are beginning to be released. Inflation in India has surged to 12.1 per cent, the highest in over 13 years, for the week ended July 26. More from the Times of India.

Sri Lankan War
Sri Lanka’s air force launched airstrikes on Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers in the embattled north Tuesday, while renewed fighting in the region killed 26 rebels and six government soldiers, the military said.

The air attack was part of the government’s offensive to crush the Tamil Tigers and seize their de facto state in the north. More from the Lanka Academic. Meanwhile, India warns that Sri Lanka offensive may not succeed. Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan told the Straits Times newspaper that Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been weakened but retained the ability to stage terror strikes. More from Agence France Presse.

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