OBAMA CAMPAIGN APOLOGIZES FOR SNUB OF MUSLIM WOMEN

Senator Obama’s campaign is apologizing after campaign volunteers reportedly kept two Muslim women from appearing behind the senator at a Detroit rally on Monday because they were wearing headscarves.

One witness, Ali Koussan, told the Politico that one volunteer cited “the political climate,” “what’s going on in the world,” and “what’s going on with Muslim Americans” before stating that it wouldn’t be helpful for one of the hijab-wearing women to appear in television pictures with Mr. Obama.

“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me? Are you serious?” Mr. Koussan said.

“This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run,” a spokesman for the campaign, William Burton, told the political news outlet. “We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Mr. Obama to invite the two women who were snubbed to appear with him at a future event.

OBAMA CONCEDES OWN NAFTA RHETORIC ‘OVERHEATED’

Senator Obama is acknowledging that some of the bashing of the North American Free Trade Agreement during the primary race with Senator Clinton went too far. “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he told Fortune Magazine after a reporter reminded him that he had called the deal “devastating” and “a big mistake,” even though many studies view it as, on balance, somewhat positive for America.

Asked if he was saying his own comments were too extreme, the senator said, “Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself.”

Mr. Obama, who had earlier threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the treaty if labor and environmental protections were not added, seemed to back away from that stance in favor of a “dialogue” with Canada and Mexico, the magazine said.

NADER: OBAMA AIPAC SPEECH ‘DISGRACEFUL’

An independent candidate for president, Ralph Nader, is slamming an address Senator Obama delivered to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee earlier this month in which he called Israel’s security “sacrosanct,” said Jerusalem must remain undivided, and said the holy city must always be Israel’s capital.

“I think Barack Obama is in training to become panderer-in-chief. That was really a disgraceful speech,” Mr. Nader said yesterday on a left-leaning radio program, Democracy Now. “He basically sided with the militaristic approach to occupying, repressing, colonizing, destroying the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. He hasn’t even spoken out against the international crime of the blockade of Gaza, one-and-a-half million people, from medicine or drinking water, fuel, electricity, food–lots of silent fatalities in Gaza because of that.”

Mr. Nader is also urging potential supporters concerned about taking votes away from Mr. Obama to enter a “votepact” with Republicans who pledge not to vote for Mr. McCain. “Pick up the phone and call a friend, or a relative, who is a moderate anti-Iraq War Republican,” an e-mail sent by the Nader campaign yesterday said. “Nader/Gonzalez get two votes, McCain and Obama get zero. Nothing ‘spoiled.'”

MCCAIN CALLS FOR 45 NEW REACTORS

Senator McCain is calling for the construction of 45 new nuclear power plants in America as way to simultaneously reduce global warming and the country’s dependence on foreign oil. “If we’re looking for a vast supply of reliable and low-cost electricity with zero carbon emissions and long term price stability, that’s the working definition of nuclear energy,” the senator said during a discussion at Missouri State University in Springfield, according to the Washington Post. There are presently 104 working plants in America, generating about 20% of the nation’s electricity. No new plant has been ordered since the 1970s.

An aide to Senator Obama, Jason Grumet, told PBS’s “Newshour” the Democratic candidate also supports nuclear power, though he has serious concerns about waste disposal issues.

MICHELLE OBAMA PRAISES FIRST LADY

Senator Obama’s wife, Michelle, said she was “touched” when First Lady Laura Bush said Ms. Obama must have been misunderstood when she said she was never “really proud” of America until her husband’s campaign. “That’s what I like about Laura Bush….calm, rational,” Ms. Obama said on ABC’s “The View.” “You know, I’m taking some cues.”