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- Barack Obama gave a major speech on patriotism today in Independence, Missouri, designed to convey the same transcendence as his speech on race back in March.
- The Obama speech was also a retort to Wesley Clark, who, on Face the Nation yesterday, accused John McCain of implicitly arguing his military service is a qualification for the office of the President. McCain's surrogates accused Clark of "swiftboating" McCain, although it's clear the remarks were meant to question the relevance, rather than the veracity, of McCain's military experience. Obama formally distanced himself from Clark today, claiming that he would never question anyone's patriotism on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, ThinkProgress reports that McCain's "truth squad," designed to defend McCain's military record from swiftboating, employs an actual former swiftboater.
- Veep watch: Ben Smith reports that Mitt Romney's chances for being VP might be greater than widely assumed. Bobby Jindal, who ran for and won the governorship of Louisiana on a promise to root out corruption and waste, already has a scandal on his hands as his legislative director resigned today over controversies stemming from payraises in the state legislature.
- Barack Obama has released a second general election ad today, touting the "dignity of work" and his support for working families. The spot is running in the same 18 campaign-defined battleground states as his previous general election ad.
- The Wall St. Journal has an informative article on the Obama campaign's GOTV effort amongst Southern blacks.
- Amanda Marcotte does some digging and discovers that the founder of the PUMAs -- female Hillary Backers who plan to vote for McCain out of spite -- never even donated money to the Clinton comapaign. She did donate $500 to John McCain, however.
- Freedom's Watch, the Sheldon Adelson-funded outfit determined to make sure America stays in a 9/11 mindset throughout the 2008 election, has begun running radio ads in 13 Congressional districts attacking Democrats for high gas prices.
- After three straight days being tied with McCain, Gallup's daily tracking poll now reports Obama with a five-point national lead, 47-42. Rasmussen has McCain with a healthy 10 point lead in Georgia, 53-43, and Survey USA has Obama up by two in Virginia, 49-47.
- And finally, Nate Silver runs laps around the pundits today, including Paul Krugman, with this excellent analysis of Obama's recent moves towards the political "center."
--Mori Dinauer
