Obama campaign loses advisor to military duty

The Naval Reserve has called Mark Lippert, Obama's top foreign policy adviser, to active duty.

Lippert, a master's graduate from Stanford University, is a lieutenant junior grade in the Navy, which he joined three years ago.

Obama for America told reporters that Denis McDonough, a former foreign-policy adviser to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, will increase his involvement in Lippert’s absence.

Obama to offer rural policy

Sen. Obama plans to host a rural policy forum on Friday in Dallas County, Iowa, in mid-August focusing on rural economic development, quality of life, agriculture and green energy.

"People in the rural economies suffer from many of the things people do all across the country," Obama told the Associated Press.

Obama also announced a team of experts that will help him develop his rural policy.

They include:

-- Mike Dunn, of Keokuk, former Clinton under secretary of agriculture for marketing and regulatory programs ,

-- Gary Lamb, of Chelsea, has served as president of the Iowa Farmers Union, chairman of the Iowa State Committee of the Farm Service Agency and an agricultural liaison for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

--Neil Hamilton, of Waukee, director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University. In 2000, he was appointed by Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as chairman of the Iowa Food Policy Council.