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- At a fundraiser dinner last night in Colorado, John McCain raised $3.2 million for his presidential campaign, apparently setting a "Colorado record" according to one participant. Meanwhile, Barack Obama held an atypically low-key event in Missouri, netting $250,000.
- Crooked Timber notes the language of the Phoenix Initiative, a Democratic foreign policy shop comprised of some members of Barack Obama's foreign policy team, that de-emphasizes the United States as the "indispensable" nation: "Even liberal internationalists used to talk a few years ago about how the US needed to create the institutions for a global system that would ensure US soft hegemony. Now, this group at least, isn't talking in these terms, but implicitly suggesting that the US is just one large power among several."
- Harry Reid, fully intending to keep the Senate in pro forma session over the August recess, challenges the Republican minority to come to D.C. to do business instead of campaigning back home: "So if they want to stay here and work during the August recess, it’s fine with us. I'm not sure it's fine with the Republican senators who have these challengers with them. But we're here. I have no problem. If they -- if they think that it's going to hurt us in any way, I'm not concerned at all, because it won’t hurt us one bit."
- The Washington Post has a piece on Patti Solis Doyle's role in the Obama campaign, and her falling out with Hillary Clinton.
- Campaigning in Missouri, Barack Obama brought up an odd "family legend:" that he is distantly related to Wild Bill Hickok, using the gunslinger as a challenge to John McCain:
"I'm serious. I'm serious. I don't know if it's true ... We're gonna research that. Because I'm ready to duel John McCain on taxes."
He pantomimed a quick draw.
"A quick draw...." he said.
And yes, that would be the second Deadwood reference in as many days here on the Lightning Round.
- The Washington Post has a front page story that directly challenges the accuracy of McCain's "Obama went to the gym instead of visiting the troops" ad and the Wall Street Journal has decisively come out against McCain's tax plan.
- A University of Wisconsin study [PDF] finds that John McCain and Barack Obama spent a combined $50 million on advertisements since June, CNN discovers that more than two thirds of Americans are in favor of off-shore drilling, but only 49 percent believe it will lower gas prices, and Public Policy Polling [PDF] reports a narrow three point lead for Obama over McCain in Michigan, 46-43.
- And finally, Chris Hayes plays "If I Were a Right-Wing Blogger" with the irrelevance of McCain's $520 designer shoes.
--Mori Dinauer
