Seen on The Front Page of CNN.com Today

• U.S. to launch 24/7 hunt for bin Laden: “U.S. forces searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon implement high-tech surveillance tactics in the region, enabling them to monitor the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CNN has learned.”

  That seems like a good idea. Maybe we could have started doing that in, say, two thousand and one?

• Giuliani defends Bush’s use of 9/11 images: “The ads, which began airing Thursday, outline a series of challenges that the United States has faced since Bush became president, including the 9/11 attacks. The tag line is that Bush presents ‘strong leadership in times of change.'”

  I think The Poor Man has the right take on this: “You were expecting, what, exactly? Commercials featuring the smoldering remains of the Clinton budget surplus?”

• Explosions in Baghdad ahead of Iraqi law signing: “BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A large explosion has been heard in central Baghdad, coalition officials tell CNN, hours before the planned signing of the country’s interim constitution.”
• Former astronaut Glenn criticizes Bush space plan: “U.S. space pioneer John Glenn said on Thursday that President George W. Bush’s space exploration plan ‘pulls the rug out from under our scientists’ and might waste too much money to ever put astronauts on Mars.”

  For my Mars plan, see this post.

• Gasoline prices state-by-state: “The current average price for regular gasoline in the United States is about $1.71, up from $1.62 a month ago, according to AAA. A year ago, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.69.”

  And they’re going to get even higher.

• Job boom: only a hope: “On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its figures for February unemployment and non-farm payrolls growth. Economists, on average, expect that unemployment held steady at 5.6 percent and that payrolls grew by 125,000 jobs, according to Briefing.com.

  Such job growth would be nothing to sneeze at. But the labor force grows by about 150,000 people a month, meaning that, even if economists’ forecasts are accurate — no sure thing, of course — there would still be about 25,000 more people looking for work.”

With the possible exception of the ads that briefly feature 9/11 scenes, each of these stories hurt the president’s reelection chances. And that’s just in one day.

AB

UPDATE: While not yet on the front page of CNN.com, there’s also nows on the Valerie Plame investigation. Grand jury seeks records from White House regarding CIA agent: “NEW YORK (AP) _ A federal grand jury that is probing the leak of a CIA officer’s identity has subpoenaed the records of telephone calls made from Air Force One the week before the name of the officer was published in a July newspaper column.”