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With the Memorial Day holiday as a backdrop, the presidential candidates are on the road in key areas today, with issues like veterans health care and the war in Iraq still themes on and off the campaign trail.
Both Senator John McCain and Barack Obama, who traded barbs last week over a new G.I. bill that would provide education benefits to veterans, make Memorial Day appearances in New Mexico – a key electoral swing state.
Mr. McCain will give a speech Monday morning at the New Mexico Veterans’ Memorial in Albuquerque. He spent the weekend at his ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where the guest list included several potential vice presidential picks.
In Las Cruces, N.M., Senator Obama and Gov. Bill Richardson will appear together at a veterans’ town hall. On Sunday Mr. Obama delivered a commencement speech at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, standing in for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The Times’s Katie Zezima reports that Senator Obama, “implored the 737 undergraduates and 100 graduate students to change the country and the world through service to others, a theme Mr. Kennedy planned to focus on.”
Newsweek devoted its cover this week to Senator Obama, with its topic piece on race.
And while the front-runners for the Democratic and Republican nominations will be tackling military issues, the highest-ranking officer in the armed services, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, has issued a directive to service men and women to remain neutral throughout the presidential election. According to The Times’s Thom Shanker, “The essay can be seen as a reflection of the deep concern among senior officers that the military, which is paying the highest price in carrying out national security policy, may be drawn into politicking this year.”
The Los Angeles Times reports how both the McCain and Obama campaigns stack up when it comes to aides with previous lobbying ties, noting that “the history of both candidates is peppered with campaign operatives, policy advisers and others who have clear links to the long-standing but often scandal-tinged practice of making money by trying to influence politicians.”

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com

Tags: angeles, day, events, los, memorial

Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday where U.S. men and women who have died in military service are remembered. Federal and state offices are closed, as well as post offices, schools, financial markets, and banks. Alternate side of the street parking rules are suspended and mass transit is running on weekend schedules (though there’s additional weekend service on some lines)
Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park at 11 a.m. and the Whitestone Memorial Field at 12:15 p.m.; he’ll be marching in the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade at 2 p.m.
There are also many remembrances, whether about the military or the season, from the local papers: Here are editorials from the NY Post and NY Daily News that remember the fallen, while ones from NY Times and Newsday discuss the summer. And, as always, there are many events going on today, from Fleet Week to concerts and sunbathing. But the nation’s moment of remembrance is at 3 p.m. today–here is President Bush’s Prayer for Peace for this Memorial Day.
Photograph of Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park by dschaub on Flickr

gothamist.com

Tags: day, events, memorial, nyc