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- Over the weekend the McCain campaign issued a new ad claiming that Barack Obama "made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops" ostensibly because he wouldn't get a good photo op, a false accusation. (MSNBC appears to be the only big news outlet willing to point this out.) Oddly, the footage of Obama at the gym featured him playing basketball with U.S. soldiers, and, as Greg Sargent observes, the ad's weak buy probably means it was aimed at journalists -- rather than the general population -- to get them chattering about it.
- McCain has essentially adopted Obama's sixteen-month plan for withdrawal from Iraq, claiming that the "surge has worked." But as James Vega, Brian Katulis and Robert Dreyfuss point out in separate pieces, the current stability in Iraq is largely illusory and at Iran's whim. Also see the Prospect's roundup of expert opinions on the efficacy of the surge.
- Capping a week of foreign policy ignorance and incoherence, John McCain told George Stephanopolous on This Week that U.S. soldiers were "greeted as liberators" in April 2003.
- The Chicago Tribune has an interesting profile of Valerie Jarrett, the "other side of Barack Obama's brain."
- Hillary Clinton has confirmed that she will campaign for Barack Obama beginning in August.
- Obama's overseas trip appears to have produced a spike in national polls, with Gallup posting a 49-40 high on Sunday (48-40 today) and Research 2000 reporting a 51-39 lead. A USA Today/Gallup poll, however, shows McCain ahead of Obama amongst likely voters, 49-45, and trailing Obama among registered voters by only three points, 47-44.
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's chief economic policy adviser, on the candidates' tax plans: "I used to say that Barack Obama raises taxes and John McCain cuts them, and I was convinced. I stand corrected." Now that's some good Straight Talk.
- Robert Novak believes Mitt Romney could help John McCain carry Michigan as VP. Nate Silver, however, remains skeptical.
- Thomas Edsall writes in The Huffington Post on the lack of consensus in the political science community about the accuracy of polling in the presidential race and concludes the race will either be an Obama blowout or a narrow McCain win.
- And finally, over 6,000 tickets to the alternative Ron Paul convention have already been snatched up -- in about six hours.
--Mori Dinauer
