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- The Washington Post profiles Harry Sargeant III, a Florida bundler who apparently possesses an affinity for getting apolitical and cash-solvent donors to cough up large campaign contributions for John McCain. McCain isn't the only presidential candidate who relies on Bundlers, of course, as this New York Times piece explores.
- Ben Smith reports that Barack Obama is lawyering up in the event of any voter disenfranchisement occurring at the polls in November, what the campaign calls its "Voter Protection Program."
- The NY Times' Opinionator blog has the lowdown on #dontgo, an astroturf Twitter group being used to organize the GOP as it protests in the House over Congressional action on domestic oil drilling.
- James Vega has a comprehensive post at the Democratic Strategist on "How to Attack John McCain" -- Karl Rove-style.
- Jonathan Cohn documents the latest wingnut viral attack -- courtesy of the RNC, no less -- on Obama's alleged support of a $845 billion (that's billion, mind you) subsidy for foreign development, spread out over ten years. There's just one problem -- the actual cost of the policy proposal is, to quote the Congressional Budget Office, less than one $1 million per year. Can't blame them for trying, I guess.
- Politico jumps on the "why isn't Obama winning in a landslide" bandwagon in an article today, including the immortal headline, "Obama stalls in public polling." Funny, I don't see any articles talking about McCain consistently hitting his 44 percent ceiling in the Gallup daily tracker (or for that matter, any poll of registered voters since the end of June) or why Obama's five-point lead in a new Time poll is sign of "trouble" for his campaign. But don't worry, Public Policy Polling [PDF] has McCain up three points in Florida, 47-44, which confirms Survey USA's results from yesterday.
- John McCain has a new "celebrity" ad out, but I think I like Paris Hilton's rebuttal better. Also, Steve Benen asks, "why is that Paris Hilton’s fake ad includes more substantive talk about energy policy than John McCain’s real ad?" and "why is it that a 27-year-old heiress/reality-show star can read a teleprompter better than the presumptive Republican presidential nominee?"
- The Wall St. Journal observes that ABC personnel are conspicuously missing from the list of presidential debate moderators announced yesterday and speculates that Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos' atrocious performance in the last Democratic debate might be the reason for ABC's omission. Considering that debate was little better than a show trial, I'm willing to be persuaded by the Journal's reasoning.
- And Finally, McCain calls for an "economic surge." This comes on the heels of his call for surges in Afghanistan and to fight crime in uban centers. I'm with Nick Beaudrot on this one: it's time to retire this term from the political lexicon until further notice.
--Mori Dinauer
