Bush gets the lion's share of coverage of the National Urban League meeting. Mike Allen of the Washington Post writes Bush "received polite but tepid applause as he described his dedication to 'bringing economic hope to every neighborhood, a good education to every child, and comfort and compassion to the afflicted.' " While the Democratic candidates used the forum to attack Bush's economic and civil rights policies, while black leaders complain that Bush has met rarely with African American organizations. Allen notes: "It was Bush's first appearance in 23 months before a large civil rights organization and one of the rare times that the audience was not controlled by the Republican Party."

The New York Times' Richard Stevenson frames Bush speech, "which received a polite reception from the crowd," as an effort to woo black voters. "Mr. Bush won only about 9 percent of the black vote in 2000. With his re-election campaign getting in gear, the White House has tried to make inroads among African-Americans in a variety of ways, including having Mr. Bush travel earlier this month to Africa, where he spoke of how an unbreakable spirit brought across the Atlantic by slaves ultimately helped strengthen and enrich the United States," Stevenson writes. Apparently, Sen. Arlen Specter has been tapped as a Bush spokesman on his campaigns' black voter outreach initiatives. Stevenson writes that the Pennsylvania Republican "told reporters traveling with Mr. Bush on Air Force One that the president would have to 'work hard' to increase the percentage of the black vote he draws next year, but that he had a chance to succeed. 'He's not going to leave anybody out, even if Democrats have done well in the past,' Mr. Specter said."

The Washington Times' Joseph Curl reports Bush's speech "drawing applause" and "the president drew mostly polite applause, although attendees clapped vigorously when he talked about the administration's efforts in Africa." His first coverage by the numbers:
2 : number of times Bush is quoted saying "hope"
2 : number of times Bush uses "opportunity"
2 : number of times Bush uses "promise"
7 : number of times Bush or Curl uses the words "Africa" or "African"

No word on how Bush's speech went over from USA Today's Laurence McQuillan, though one attendee says the room was a "tough crowd" for Bush.

Joe Lieberman attempted to carve out a position on Iraq somewhere between his Democratic rivals and Bush by arguing that the invasion was a "just war" but that Bush's post-war policies are failing. According to Dan Balz in the Washington Post, Lieberman said, "By its actions, the Bush administration threatens to give a bad name to a just war. But by their words, some in my party are sending out a message that they don't know a just war when they see it, and, more broadly, they're not prepared to use our military strength to protect our security and the cause of freedom."

Lieberman's position strikes us as very similar to the one Edwards tried out back in April, way back when Democrats didn't want to be seen as criticizing Bush.

Bob Graham finds himself in the middle of a major story as Bush plans to meet with Saudi officials who are furious about the congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks, which has led to new scrutiny of Saudi involvement in the plot. The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler and Dana Priest report, "A key issue in the dispute is that 28 pages of the 900-page report, in a section dealing with allegations about Saudi Arabia, were entirely classified — but well-publicized — and some U.S. officials said it appeared the Saudi government was moving toward asking the president to declassify those pages." Graham has urged the declassification of the report. "Yesterday, Graham sent a letter to Bush citing Bandar's statement last week as a reason for declassifying those pages," the duo report. "Bandar 'is frustrated by the fact that there are rumors and speculation but the Saudi government does not have the ability to engage,' Graham said in an interview. Not only would release of the material inform the American public, he said, but 'it is now important to the relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to make it public.' "

Graham also plays prominently in The New York Times report on the Bush-Saudi sit-down.

The Dean campaign announced that Howard Dean had raised $508,640 since Friday in its web challenge to beat out the $250,000 Dick Cheney was slated to raise in South Carolina yesterday. The A.P. gives some perspective (second item), noting that Cheney's Monday haul was a relative drop in the Bush re-election bucket: "Since Bush launched his bid for re-election on May 16, his campaign has raised at least $41.4 million, including $7 million on a recent two-day swing through Texas. That's more than $635,000 a day and counting since the effort started."

For a more celebratory account of Dean's accomplishment, see Glen Johnson in the Boston Globe.

The first item in the above A.P. story reports Dick Gephardt is set to receive the endorsement of the 100,000-member International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Technicians. The A.P.'s Leigh Strope notes, "So far, his support has come from mostly smaller unions.... Most of the large unions that spend a lot of money on elections have not chosen among the nine Democratic hopefuls. Some are waiting for the AFL-CIO to decide if it will endorse before acting."

This is the first post.