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- James Kirchick has a bizarre op-ed in the Politico that attempts to argue that John McCain's foreign policy judgment makes him a better choice for president than Barack Obama. But Kirchick doesn't explain why McCain's judgment is better right now; he simply asserts that McCain was right to endorse the surge and spends the rest of the piece explaining away Obama's opposition to the Iraq War. Yet at the same time he argues that "on Iraq, now is when judgment matters" (emphasis mine). So let me get this straight: We have to be skeptical of the motivations behind past judgments (except in McCain's case) and we must evaluate foreign policy judgment in the present without actually discussing it. Do I have that right?
- Ari Berman wonders whether Obama's well-executed overseas trip will raise the ba -- that it will generate expectations that he dominate John McCain in the poll. This seems right to me. After all, as Berman points out, "Obama partisans should take a deep breath: he's black (or, if you prefer, multiracial), his middle name is Hussein, people think he's a Muslim, he's a one-term Senator, his opponent remains one of the most popular Republicans in the country, some Clinton supporters are still bitter over Hillary's defeat, Republicans have won the last two presidential elections, etc, etc."
- The McCain campaign releases a memo on the three "myths" in Barack Obama's foreign policy, all of which are an attempt to distract from McCain and Bush's movement towards Obama's policy concerning Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
- Apparently the scoop of the century is digging up Barack Obama's long-lost senior thesis from Columbia, even though Obama's thesis adviser recalls it being uncontroversial. Matt Yglesias shrugs that "an old college paper is just an old college paper." See also Ezra's thoughts.
- I think people might be thinking a little too hard about the political relevance of The Dark Knight. It's a movie, after all, about vigilantism's (i.e. Batman's) delicate relationship with legitimate power (the Gotham City Police) and how that delicate relationship is shattered when a wild card (The Joker) is thrown into the shuffle. Since we write about politics, I suppose this analysis was inevitable, but I'm afraid Andrew Klavan has pulled the ultimate reductio ad absurdum today in this childish WSJ op-ed comparing Batman to .... George W. Bush.
- Marc Ambinder gives us the highlights from a survey of 900 independent voters conducted by two Republican consultants. The results point to "several million voters over the next few years" going Democratic.
- TPM Election Central has a useful timeline of McCain's position on the Iraq War dating back to 2003.
- The Gallup Daily continues to fluctuate, with yesterday's 2-point Obama lead jumping to 6 points today.
- And finally, National Journal reports that "Nine of 12 targeted Republicans running in the most competitive Senate races this fall are either skipping the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., or have not decided whether to attend."
--Mori Dinauer
