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- This McCain ad on global warming is hilarious. It says that one side denies the reality of global warming while the other supports "high taxes and crippling regulation." McCain you see, takes the moderate aproach we need: Admitting there's a problem without actually doing anything about it. Now that's a maverick! See Kate's recent piece for more on McCain's lousy environmental record.
- Noam Scheiber has some interesting thoughts about the dangers to Obama's tentative agreement to have unmoderated debates with McCain. Scheiber makes some good points, but I wonder if they're outweighed by Obama's sheer superiority to McCain in rhetoric. Can it really help McCain to be repeatedly and directly contrasted with a younger, more charismatic, and more substantive opponent? Seems to me he's better off sticking to musty biographical ads and veiled attacks on Obama's patriotism -- both hard to accomplish face to face. And hey, other people agree!
- Ben Smith makes an important and ridiculously overlooked point that I've been trying to make for weeks: Most of the narratives surrounding the Democratic primary doggedly refuse to acknowledge that the calendar just happened to put Clinton-friendly states late in the game.
- Clinton's campaign is apparently $20 million in debt. She's got nothing on Mitt Romney though; he's likely going to lose $35 million from his own pocket.
- Like a lot of folks I've been impressed by Kathleen Sebelius's record, but unsure about her rhetorical gifts. She's no Obama, but this endorsement video I recently came across is impressive.
- This new MoveOn ad in which a Republican explains why he is supporting Obama is quite interesting. There's a lot of evidence that the biggest influence on people's behavior, in many spheres of life, is what they think other people like them are doing. This, for example, is why anti-drug ads often actually increase drug use. There's no obvious reason a similar aproach couldn't work in politics.
- Ron Paul's supporters are preparing for a good old fashioned revolt at the RNC in September. Jonathan Martin says the GOP can prevent this by being nice to them. 'Cause that's soooooo likely to happen.
- Meanwhile, former GOP congressman Bob Barr formally an announces his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination -- he aims to draw the Ron Paul coalition out of the Republican party.
- SNL seems to know which way the wind is blowing. The sketch has some cheap shots, but there's also some great satire. After all, saying "my supporters may not support Obama" really is tantamount to saying you should be the nominee because your supporters are racists.
- Add another job to the what-could-Clinton-do-next debate: Mayor of New York City. I guess if Governor of New York doesn't work out ...
- Speaking of cheap shots, this blog about things younger than John McCain is hilarious as is this site about totally awesome things that will happen if Obama wins the presidency.
