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- Politico has a roundup of conservative reactions to McCain's floating the possibility of a pro-choice VP yesterday. It seems clear that McCain would never make a pick that distances him from the conservative base, but that the step was aimed, as usual, at the chattering classes to bolster his maverick image. Then again, maybe McCain really wants to put his BFF Joe Lieberman on the ticket and floated Tom Ridge's name as a way of testing the waters. Sarah Blustain has a good summary of McCain's myriad flip flops on the possibility of a pro-choice running mate.
- John McCain raked in $27 million in July, another record-breaking haul for his campaign, which combined with the RNC's coffers gives McCain about $100 million to compete with Barack Obama before public financing kicks in.
- "Buy American, Vote Obama." This is the new campaign the Obama camp is unveiling in Pennsylvania to draw attention to McCain's opposition to economic policies that favor domestic business.
- Marc Ambinder asks why the rumor persists that Obama and Hillary Clinton don't get along and that Obama has "capitulated" to Clinton by allowing her name to be put on the ballot. I blame Sullivan.
- Ed Kilgore has a brief tour of keynote addresses, acceptance speeches and other other party convention anachronisms whose original purpose has been lost to the pageantry the modern convention as a coronating event.
- John McCain dazzles us once again with his astonishing command of world history, remarking that the conflict in Georgia is "the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War." That's about as in touch with reality as his observation that Guantanamo Bay is "one of the nicest places in the world to live in."
- Blasts from the past: Phil "whiny Americans" Gramm has returned to advising McCain on the mental state of the public and the GOP has a new radio ad that resurrects Obama's "bitter" comments from the primaries.
- Fringe watch: Dave Weigel reports on the PUMA movement's ties to "Obama is a Muslim" smear peddlers and the presidential platform of Lyndon Larouche while protesters outside of John McCain's New Mexico campaign office were attacked for celebrating the 73rd birthday of Social Security: "While McCain supporters screamed, “Obama sleeps with a Teddy Bear and a night light,” staffers approached the Democratic group, yelling, took the 20 inch sheet cake that said “Happy Birthday Social Security” and threw it away."
- The biggest news of the day, of course, is that Barack Obama takes off his shirt when he swims in the Pacific Ocean and that the McCain campaign considers this indicative of being a "global celebrity." Greg Sargent muses that it's "hard to know what's more bizarre: The fact that this is indeed the Reuters headline, or the fact that the McCain campaign is flogging it."
--Mori Dinauer
