As you can see below, the McCain-Palin campaign is now using Palin's official portrait from the Alaska Governor's Office on its website, a clear violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The number of homes owned by John McCain is larger than the number of months that have elapsed since he first met his new choice to be Vice President of the United States of America.

So former McCain adviser Mike Murphy was on MSNBC during the Democratic Convention and baselessly claimed that Hillary Clinton actually supported John McCain. Chris Matthews challenged Murphy's claim, but Keith Olbermann had the guts to do the right thing: he said it was time to take Murphy off the air ("Let's wrap him up"). And now it appears that Murphy won't be on MSNBC again.

Del Ali, president of the nonpartisan research firm Research 2000, authors a guest post for Taegan Goddard's Political Wire arguing that Sarah Palin may prove to be the worst pick ever in modern presidential politics.

If this is true, Ali is right:

In fact, as Palin's cultural views become better known -- she oppose abortion in all cases and opposes the use of birth control pills and condoms even among married couples -- she will undoubtedly scare the hell out of the soccer moms and 98% of Hillary voters.

Update: I inadvertantly left the direct link off the original post. It's now been added.

Update 2: As noted in the comments, I very specifically used the words "if this is true" because this is a hard thing to believe. But if you think it's impossible, just take a look at what Mike Huckabee has to say about the pill (I think he's okay with condoms):

YouTube link

Republican's newest talking point: McCain's choice for VP is leader of "the largest state in the union."

Here's a shorter, crisper version of the McCain-Palin "Getting To Know You" video I posted earlier in the day:

And here's some of my favorite captions posted by viewers of the first version of the video:

• Awkward.
• "As long as I have this ring on, no one can see me...right?"
  
• McCain had actually been eyeing Palin for a while
  
• John McCain's 'Rove'-ing Eyes
• He's looking at her . . . podium! Yeah, that's it! He's checking out her podium!
• Nice shoes!
• I guess this brings a whole new meaning to "vice" president.
• "I wanna DRILL HERE, and I WANNA DRILL NOW!"
• Careful Sarah! He might take you to Sturgis!
  

McCain playing craps at Bellagio, summer 2006.
More on McCain's lobbyist gambling buddy here.

::: ::: :::

"McCain is an avid gambler. Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight."

-- Connie Bruck's profile of McCain in The New Yorker

Most of the media chatter about the vice presidential debate has focused on two things. (a) Joe Biden is way more qualified than Sarah Palin; but (b) if he directly attacks her qualifications, he'll be seen as beating up on a woman, and it will backfire on him like it did for Rick Lazio.

I don't mind this spin because it lowers expectations for Biden, but I do think that it makes a fundamental error: Joe Biden isn't going to attack Sarah Palin because this election isn't about Sarah Palin. It's about whether or not we want to change direction from the past eight years, and it's about the fact that John McCain embodies more of the same.

Her statement is short, simple, and to the point:

"I never knew a Republican could make a joke."

So yesterday Rush Limbaugh yesterday suggested that Barack Obama would have wanted to kill Sarah Palin's newborn infant after it had been born. Limbaugh's absurd suggestion came during this skit in which he imagines that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have just met for the first time and are asking each other questions.

Next question, Obama to Sarah Palin: When you found out your baby would be born with Down syndrome, did you consider killing it before or after the due date? You mean you had the baby? You really had the baby?

Normally, Limbaugh is on my permanent ignore list, but this one's relevant because the RNC thought it would be a great line of attack against Barack Obama.

A musical take on John McCain's big decision...

Update (7:05AM): Your guess is as good as mine as to what John McCain is looking at. On a separate note, I'm stepping away for a little while -- I'll be back in the early afternoon if not before.

YouTube link

The Obama campaign launches a new ad responding to John McCain's vice presidential selection and targeting his real running mate, George W. Bush:

Transcript: Well, he's made his choice. But, for the rest of us...there's still no change. McCain doesn't get it, calling this broken economy "strong." Wants to keep spending ten-billion-a-month in Iraq. And votes with George Bush ninety-percent of the time. So, while this may be his running-mate... (VISUAL: McCain/Palin) ...America knows this is John McCain's agenda.  (VISUAL: McCain/Bush) And we can't afford four more years of the same.

Love him or hate him, Bill Maher is back, and John McCain certainly gave him some material. You might fight the opening monologue raw at times, but the Tim Kaine interview is sheer brilliance. Kaine has the audience howling at McCain's VP selection just by delivering the facts.

On an only slightly related note...if you're a fan of Entourage, the new season begins a week from Sunday, on September 7.

It's almost like buying a car:

The campaign secretly flew Palin into Dayton last night. She and McCain met privately for a couple of hours. McCain concluded she would "shake up the system" and was "a maverick," qualities he believed Lieberman would have brought to the ticket. But she also would appeal to conservatives -- which Lieberman most certainly would not have done.

After their meeting, McCain concluded he was comfortable with his choice. He notified Pawlenty this morning that he was going in a different direction.

So (a) when the McCain campaign on Wednesday said that their boss had made a decision, they were wrong or lying; and (b) McCain's decision didn't come until after Obama's speech.

It was all about politics. Putting. Country. Last.

Update (11:21PM): In the comments of another post, erykah pointed out this incredible statement by Charlie Black, John McCain's closest adviser.

She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long.

The issue isn't so much the part about doctors (McCain is 72, and his mom is still alive at 96, though his dad passed away at 70), it's that Black essentially accepts the argument that she isn't qualified to be president.

If he gets elected, McCain's doctors had better have been right.

Andrew Sullivan linked to this audio of Sarah Palin talking about her views on Iraq policy earlier this month.

Listen to it. Seriously. She makes George W. Bush sound coherent.

How could John McCain entrust the country to someone so ignorant?

Keith O. and Rachel M. talk about Palin, spotlighting her false claim to have consistently opposed the bridge to nowhere:

Well, let's be honest. It's no mystery. There's almost no doubt that either the McCain campaign or somebody close to Palin is responsible for the unethical whitewashing of history just hours before her candidacy was revealed.

This is of course a major no-no for Wikipedia. NPR reports. And their source is unimpeachable: a pro-Palin Wikipedia editor.

(h/t: Kos diarist CarrieNYC)

A fresh face for more of the same: Palin (far left) admiring Bush

::: ::: :::

For most of the day, the media has been obsessing over one question about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin: "How will it play?" But as Joe Sudbay points out, the real question is whether or not Sarah Palin is ready to be President of the United States.

And if, as Joe argues, she's not ready to be President of the United States, doesn't that mean that John McCain has just put the country in danger by putting politics first?

Hasn't John McCain just destroyed the entire rationale for his campaign: not just his "experience" argument, but also his "country first" argument?

Why did Sarah Palin support Pat Buchanan over John McCain in the 2000 presidential election?

Chris Hayes digs through the AP archives and hits gold -- it turns out that Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan's 2000 presidential campaign. (Earlier today, Buchanan told Hayes "It's great for the base. I'm pretty sure she's a Buchananite!")

From time to time, Buchanan makes interesting points, but I'd instantly disqualify from the presidency anyone who supported him for President. As a Jew, I'm particularly sensitive to his antisemitic rhetoric, but he has also uttered many a racist comment. For starters, just look at this litany of bigoted comments from Buchanan (compiled by the ADL), all made before Palin went public with her support for Buchanan in 1999.

As you may know, Pat Buchanan is also an outspoken opponent of Israel. It's one thing to criticize Israel -- I have done so and will continue to do so. But the country has a right to exist, and given Palin's support for Buchanan, pro-Israel activists should be very alarmed about McCain's commitment to Israel. (McCain has suggested James Baker, who famously said "Fuck the Jews," would be his Middle East envoy.)

According to Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd, John McCain had only met Sarah Palin once or twice before selecting her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Also, earlier today McCain's campaign chairman Sen. Lindsay Graham admitted that he had never met Palin, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison also said that she didn't know much about Palin.

So not only is America getting to know McCain's VP, but so is John McCain. That's downright scary. A total lack of judgment.

Here's video:

Update (2:50PM): Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru praises Palin for being a pro-life woman, but slams McCain for making a "reckless" choice given his age. Ponnuru also questions whether "they would work well together" given that they don't know each other.

Guest post by Jed's father, Richard Lewison

What this choice does is put the lie to McCain's "Country First" mantra.

A 72 year old chooses a VP candidate with no national political experience. He clearly would put the country at peril if he thinks it will win him enough votes to become president. What a fraud. He reacts to the presidency the way Gollum reacts to The Ring. I wouldn't be surprised if in his dreams he thinks of it as 'my precious.'

Those who compare Palin's slim experience with Obama's should remember that Obama wasn't chosen by a dispeptic old man to run for office.  He was chosen by voters after a long and hard campaign.

Last night was spectacular. Obama was smooth as silk and hard as nails.

Last night, more than 38 million people watched the greatest convention speech in history.

That's twice as many people as watched John Kerry in 2004.

As the day continues, let us not forget that the promise for change embodied in that speech is the reason John McCain made the running mate choice that he did.

John McCain made a political calculation that the only way he could regain the initative in this campaign was by picking Sarah Palin.

I don't think it will work, but only time will tell. But one thing is clear: in choosing Sarah Palin, John McCain put politics first.

Palin is a fresh face alright, but she's a fresh face for more of the same.

A couple of Palin clips from Kudlow & Co. earlier this summer:

This is what the Sarah Palin VP pick comes down to: She's a fresh new face for more of the same.

During her speech earlier today, she did not say one single thing to show differentiate herself from John McCain or George Bush.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar knocked this message out of the park in an interview on MSNBC just a few minutes ago:

YouTube link

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, underwhelming in her enthusiasm, obviously has no clue who Sarah Palin is:

Well, a lot of energy, enthusiasm, youthfulness...I don't know too much about her...I'm sure that John has talked with her and is comfortable that she can take the helm. Everyone said early on that he should have a younger running mate, so he certainly has picked someone who is a real up-and-comer.

I think we now know why John McCain wanted to keep this pick a secret: Sarah Palin has such a thin record of accomplishmen that if her name were leaked before the pick, she'd have been ripped to shreds.

Well, Sarah Palin is an outstanding pick for conservatives: she's anti-choice (even in the case of rape), anti-science (supports creationism and denies global warming), and has a Watergate-style corruption scandal brewing back home. Brilliant!

I like what GOP strategist Alex Castellanos said yesterday after Barack's acceptance speech:

Whoever didn't get picked for Republican VP today may be a lucky Republican.

YouTube link

Well, I was wrong about Pawlenty! Here's the Obama camp statement on McCain's selection of Palin:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

I think I'm going to wait a day or two before I watch the speech again, but if you're ready for another viewing, here it is:

Update (like two minutes later): I lied...I just started watching it.

Update 2: Roger Simon has a funny line. "Obama's speech soared many times, but it always came back to earth. And it usually came back to earth on John McCain's head."

I hate to divert attention from Barack Obama's magnificent speech tonight, but it's looking increasingly likely that John McCain will select Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to be his running mate on Friday morning. (See my update below.)

As voters get to know Pawlenty, they might be interested to learn about a humiliating joke he told about his wife's lack of interest in having sex with him. Appearing on sports radio last May with his wife at his side, Pawlenty said that while she liked sports and fishing, she'd really be perfect "if I could only get her to have sex with me." Listen here:

Given McCain's own crude sense of humor, it kind of gives you a sense of what he must see in Pawlenty, doesn't it?

Update (1:35AM): The reason why I think it is Pawlenty is primarily due to the fact that Alex Castellanos, who was Romney's media guy, said that in the wake of Barack Obama's great speech, "whoever didn't get picked for Republican VP today may be a lucky Republican." Unless he's had a falling out with Romney, I can't imagine him saying that unless Romney had told him he wasn't the guy.

Assuming that I'm right about Romney, I settled on Pawlenty because I don't see anyone else getting the nod. Of course, I could always be wrong. In fact, Marc Ambinder is reporting that Mitt Romney will be in Dayton tomorrow, which would suggest he's the guy. In any event, I'll be sleeping through McCain's announcement, so when I wake up in the morning, I will either be able to claim clairvoyance or I'll look like a fool.

Pat Buchanan: "It was a genuinely outstanding speech. It was magnificent. It is the finest - and I saw Cuomo's speech, I saw Kennedy in '80, I even saw Douglas MacArthur, I saw Martin Luther King - this is the greatest convention speech, and probably the most important because unlike Cuomo and the others this is an acceptance speech. This came out of the heart of America and he went right at the heart of America..."

GOP Strategist Alex Castellanos: "Whoever didn't get picked for Republican VP today may be a lucky Republican." (Update/note: Since Castellanos worked for Mitt Romney, this probably means Pawlenty will be the VP choice.)

I watched the speech on ABC, and just after it concluded even Charlie Gibson concluded it was extraordinary. He had a look of bewilderment on his face. There was nothing to criticize.

I turned off the TV at that point. I realized I didn't want to listen to anyone else's analysis of the speech. I know what it meant to me, and I wanted to think about that before letting the thoughts of any of those pundits get in my way.

And instead of listing off all the superlatives I can think of, I think the political ramifications of the speech boil down to this: if you can win an election in August, then Barack Obama just won the election.

Update: Andrew Sullivan, brilliant as usual. Now why don't they put him on television. That'd be punditry worth watching.

8:22PM Pacific: In one speech, Barack Obama not only destroyed every single argument John McCain has made during this campaign, but he also explained who he is and what he's fighting for.

But Barack Obama wasn't just talking about the election tonight. He was talking about America. He wasn't just addresing the challenges his campaign must confront. He was addressing the challenges our nation must confront.

A conservative friend wrote me after the speech ended: "Barack Obama is going to win in a landslide," he said. There's a lot of work yet to be done, and I don't know that we'll win a landslide, but as I said yesterday, I have no doubts we will win. The question is by how much.

Bill Richardson delivers a funny line:

"John McCain may pay hundreds of dollars for his shoes, but we're the ones who will pay for his flip-flops."

By the way, the stage is looking even better now that the sun is setting. Lighting makes such a big difference.

Update: Another good one. "John McCain served his country in war. We honor his service, but that doesn't mean we have to make him president. At a time when the country needs change, and not more of the same, America needs Barack Obama."

Howard Dean and John Lewis just took to the stage at Invesco Field, using the same podium as Barack Obama. I took screenshots of each of the camera angles from the speeches to create something of a preview of how things might look tonight. Other than the lighting (which is a big deal) and of course the guy at the stage, these screenshots give something of a sense of what tonight's visuals will be for the television audience.

I think you'll be happy.

::: ::: :::

1) Most of the speech will probably be broadcast from this angle:

Check this ad out -- it's from the South Carolina GOP trying to innoculate John McCain from his houses gaffe, using his POW experience as a defense.

They must be really freaked out.

YouTube link

From a Daily Kos diary currently atop the recc list:

by Kristina40

I had to work last night but luckily I'm a bartender and have a couple of television sets at my disposal.  I was surprised a few people requested that I turn up the volume so we could listen to the speeches.  I decided to flip the channel from the cable news channel to cspan.  Several of the customers asked me why.  I replied

"Because I'd like to process what is said in the speech without someone telling me what I'm supposed to think of it".

One Republican customer commented,

"Wow, I never really thought about it that way."

So began my experiment..
Follow me below the fold for results.

MNSBC decided to do a segment on political blogging, which is great, but the featured interview was between Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Tom Brokaw.

With all due respect to Schmidt (who Brokaw called "Eric Google"), Brokaw should have interviewed Markos. Markos knows as much as anybody -- and certainly more than Schmidt -- about the blogosphere, and is better suited to offer genuine insight into political blogging.

It gives you insight as to how clueless these folks are on some issues.

Drudge is pushing a rumor that McCain will leak his VP choice just before Barack Obama's speech tonight. If true, it would be an obviously classless act, but I love the way Obama campaign communications chief Dan Pfeiffer is "presponding":

"It's one more piece of evidence that the McCain campaign is a war room masquerading as a presidential campaign."

Pfeiffer did, however, call McCain's bluff.

"If they do it, I will pay all of McCain's mortgages next month," he quipped.

McCain, as Pfeiffer well knows, has no mortgages on the numerous properties and he and his wife own.

By the way, if the speculation that McCain is picking Mitt Romney is true, it'll take the edge off my ire. Those guys alone probably have a combined net worth larger than that of everybody sitting in the upper deck at Invesco Field tonight. Update: Reading tea leaves here, but the fact that Romney and Ridge will be going to a rally with McCain on Saturday tells me that Romney isn't the guy. Tim Pawlenty or Kay Bailey Hutchinson are probably more likely. Update 2: Not KBH.

Update (2:44PM): Thanks to commenter PQuigley, here's John McCain speaking at the Utah GOP with his own (admittedly lame) columns.

::: ::: :::

Original post:

So here's the context:

Later today, Barack Obama will speak before a crowd of 75,000 at Denver's Invesco Field to accept the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, John McCain will announce his VP at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. He still hasn't been able to give fill all of the 10,000 seats available at his venue, even though it's his 72^nd birthday.

So how does the McCain campaign respond? Instead of recognizing the huge difference between Barack Obama's historic nomination and his absolutely typical selection of a VP, McCain and his Republican supporters have decided to mock the stagecraft of Barack Obama's speech.

What petty, childish, worthless human beings.

What disgusting pigs.

No matter who you support this November, today is a great and proud moment for the United States of America. For the first time in our nation's history, an African American will be a major party's nominee and will have have a very real chance of being elected President.

And this is how they respond? Their contempt for America and its history shows no limits.

No matter what they say, the obvious historical and architectural inspiration for Barack Obama's stage is the Lincoln Memorial and The White House. Yes, the very same Lincoln Memorial where 45 years ago today Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech. Yes, the very same White House that has housed every President of the United States since John Adams in 1801.

If they don't understand these cultural references, then it is their own ignorance that they are putting on display. These people wrap themselves in the flag,  bludgeon their fellow citizens with the club of patriotism, but cannot see an obvious reference to the architectural tradition embodied in two of our nation's most important landmarks.

What complete jokes these people are.

This is kind of funny. Two reporters from TIME were not at all happy with their recent interview with St. Maverick of McCain:

The McCain on display in the 24-minute interview was prickly, at times abrasive, and determined not to stray off message.

The reporters seem to think the McCain they saw was an aberration. I guess I'd say how could they possibly know? Who is the real McCain anyway?

The following clips were sent out by the Obama campaign:

David Gergen on Joe Biden's convention night: "What I think worked both in the hall and on television was the tableau that unfolded here over the past hour. In that I think the Democrats had their best hour of television of the convention"

Apparently, good things come in threes:

1. Bill Clinton delivers the best speech of his post-presidency, laying out the terms of this election in no uncertain terms, and offering an unequivocal endorsement of Barack Obama and his qualifications to be President of the United States of America.
2. John Kerry delivers the best red meat speech of the convention, tearing apart John McCain for his cynicism and bad judgment and his devolution into a clone of George Bush.
3. Joe Biden delivers a fantastic acceptance speech, deeply personal from the very start. He placed Barack's life story squarely in its true context, America. He laid out the theme of the change we need versus more of the same. And he directly challenged John McCain's judgment on national security and said that 8 years of Bush-McCain policies have made us less secure.

Just think about all the talent we have at the top of the Democratic Party. Add in Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama -- and let's not forget a guy named Barack who made a suprise appearance. (NBC said they'd teased it, but I had no idea it was coming, and was pleasantly floored.)

This is a strong Democratic Party, and we're on the right side of the issues in this election. We're going to win this, and we're going to win it because our country -- and this world -- needs us to win. We have no other choice. We cannot fail. We must succeed. We will succeed.

So on C-SPAN I was watching a rousing speech by Tammy Duckworth connecting Steven Spielberg's excellent film about veterans to the policy options supported by John McCain and Barack Obama.

I flipped over to CNN, curious to see what they covered. A brief review of the DVR's recording showed that they did show the video, but not Duckworth's speech.

The irony? The caption on the screen when I flipped over to CNN was "What issues are being ignored?" Maybe a better caption would have been: "Who is ignoring the issues?"

Maybe I'm caught up in the moment after watching Bill Clinton speak, but I'm more confident than ever that we're going to win this thing, and I think in the end we're going to win it by a lot more than people are predicting.

One of the key things to remember about the current state of the race is this: after six weeks of unrelenting attacks from John McCain, Barack Obama still has a narrow but real lead. In the course of those attacks, McCain has all but emptied the kitchen sink: even his latest smear attack ad about Iran is just a repackaging of an old attack.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, has barely used anything against McCain. People have been critical of this, but don't forget, the election still isn't for another two months. Unlike McCain, Obama's campaign has shown restraint, saving some of its best lines of attack for when they matter. And the key thing is that we -- those of us who support Barack Obama -- are on the right side of history, to borrow a line from Bill Clinton's speech.

This election isn't just about John McCain or Barack Obama, it's also about whether we are going to change course after eight years of calamity after calamity, or if we're going to continue down the same old path. And on that fundamental question, Barack Obama is on the right side. And because of that fact, no matter what the polls may say right now, by November 4th, I think a substantial majority of Americans will be with us, to bring about the change we need.

Update: John Kerry's speech was incredible. I missed the beginning of it -- can't wait to see the full thing.

Here's partial video of Kerry's outstanding speech. When I find the full video, I'll post.

Full video now posted (thanks RandyH).

YouTube link

Here's the full video of Clinton's speech -- if you haven't seen it, it's a must-see.

::: ::: :::

Well, while I was out I managed to get stuck in the world's worst traffic (overturned cement truck), but the good news is that during that time, Barack Obama officially became the nominee of the Democratic Party.

Of course, I turned on CNN first thing upon returning and despite Hillary Clinton's motion to make Obama the nominee by acclimation, the topic was -- you guessed it -- Democratic disunity.

What a bunch of lying scoundrels they are. I could stomach their coverage if it bore some relation to the facts at hand, or if they were somewhat balanced in their treatment of John McCain's own problems with unity, but that doesn't fit their script.

In a January debate, McCain questioned Romney's patriotism.

Jonathan Martin:

At a lunch with reporters here today meant to counterprogram Obama -- an event that amounted to vice presidential audition -- Romney struck back hard at Democratic criticism over McCain's inability to say how many houses he owns.

"John McCain is a man who has served his nation in the military; he served it in a prison camp," Romney said. "And to suggest that because he and his wife own four homes that they use for their personal living quarters, that that somehow means he's detached from America, is simply wrong and -- I think -- offensive."

I'm not sure what's a bigger overreaction: going POW, or whining about "offensive" criticism. And if you're John McCain, I really don't understand why you'd want Mitt Romney out there defending you on this.

::: ::: :::

Housekeeping note: I'm going to be out for a while buying some computer hardware to replace two failed hard drives and to expand my ability to record television coverage of the campaign. I wish such things were free, but unfortunately they aren't, and if you'd like to help cover these expenses, you can support TJR with a donation via PayPal. Thanks!

On sale this weekend at Washington state's Evergreen State Fair by the Snohomish County Republican Party (h/t: kos diarist ManageWA):

After complaints started pouring in and the press started paying attention, they stopped selling the fake currency, but according to the Everett Herald, Luke Esser, the state party chairman, "did not criticize Snoho­mish County Republicans for" selling the smear bills. In June, a McCain ad mocked the idea of Obama's face on a hundred dollar bill.

Andrew Sullivan has a pair of great posts on McCain's new smear ad, first summing up McCain's campaign as "smears and fears" and then demonstrating the utter baselessness of McCain's new lying attack ad.

To Andrew, the problem with McCain is that his combition of bitter moralism and ignorant bluster could mean that he would actually be worse than Bush.

If past is prologue, it's worth taking another look at a video I posted last month, John McCain's Neverending War:

YouTube link

Ben Smith gets an interesting tidbit on McCain's embrace of Daddy Yankee (and his sexually explicit song Gasolina):

A Democratic Party source tells me a representative for Daddy Yankee approached Obama's Latino outreach staffers earlier this year about possibly endorsing Obama.

But he didn't pass the vetting, and Obama's aides said they weren't interested in his support. So, apparently, he moved over to McCain.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel had some fun with McCain's awkward alliance:

YouTube link

Michael Calderone has the skinny on an overlooked aspect of the McCain houses story:

My colleague Marty Kady reports that within the McCain traveling press corps, there's been a little debate going on about what to call the senator's place in Sedona.

"Ranch?" Well, there's actually no ranching going on. The McCain family calls it a "cabin," but it's not exactly a little place in the woods. Some say "vacation home," but that not quite right, either.

So the verdict: "compound," since it comprises several buildings.

I thought this was a neat picture of Barack Obama watching Michelle Obama (who was watching Hillary Clinton).

More pictures after the jump.

When the Associated Press calls John McCain's new smear ad "misleading" you know that it has got to be a pretty hard ad to defend.

Nonetheless, some of the media isn't getting it. CNN's Political Ticker blog initially accepted the ad's claims uncritically and even calls the ad "tough." Fortunately, CNN provided an update stating Obama "does not say that Iran does not pose a serious threat." Unfortunately, they tacked the update on the end of their post, so anyone reading just the headline and first few graphs won't get the full story.

Meanwhile, the rest of the media is coming to the conclusion that McCain's smear ad is false. For example, Politico's Ben Smith says McCain's ad takes Obama's words "fairly badly out of context." Greg Sargent of TPM says the ad "rips Obama's words out of context."  Politico's Jonathan Martin is a bit weaker, but still says the ad "takes some liberties with the quote they attribute to Obama." And ABC's Jake Tapper had previously called the ad "dishonest."

Here's a press release from the Obama campaign press shop exploring John McCain's own ties to Iran:

What McCain Won't Tell You About Iran: The McCain campaign's latest false attack ad raises the issue of Iran.  What Senator McCain doesn't want you to know is that many of his top advisors lobbied for companies doing business with Iran or otherwise have a vested interest in Iran.  At the same time, and despite all his bluster to the contrary, John McCain opposed closing a loophole that allowed foreign subsidiaries of American corporations to do business with Iran and refuses to support a bipartisan bill written by Barack Obama that would direct divestment from Iran.

And the rest of the response:

When ABC's Jake Tapper calls out the McCain campaign this forcefully, you know that (a) the McCain camp is wrong and (b) there's a chance other reporters will listen. (Emphasis added.)

Today's new McCain ad -- "Tiny," which you can watch HERE -- crosses a new line into dishonesty...

The script reads; "Iran. Radical Islamic government. Known sponsors of terrorism. Developing nuclear capabilities to 'generate power' but threatening to eliminate Israel.

"Obama says Iran is a 'tiny' country, 'doesn't pose a serious threat,'" the ad continues. "Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren't 'serious threats'? Obama -- dangerously unprepared to be president."

This is a dishonest representation of Obama's words.

...Watch [Obama's actual words] HERE.

That is not even close to Obama saying Iran is a "tiny" country that "doesn't pose a serious threat."

Not even close.

If Monday told the story of the the Obama family, and Tuesday told the story of Democratic unity, Wednesday needs to tell the story of why John McCain is unacceptable -- and the person responsible for telling that story is Joe Biden.

Hopefully, we'll see a mix of sober criticism and humorous, mocking derision. Based on his effort from Saturday, Biden should be able to pull that off, and if he does, his speech could be the most fun of the convention so far -- even more entertaining than Brian Schweitzer's which definitely wins the award for the most enjoyable rock 'em, sock 'em affair of the convention.

I'm sure there will be plenty of material in Biden's speech about Barack Obama and about himself, but tonight is the night to begin the closing argument of the convention: that the past eight years have been a calamity, and that the only thing that John McCain offers is four more years of the same old stuff.

So John McCain on Tuesday accepted the endorsement of reggaeton recording artist Daddy Yankee at a high school in Phoenix. Obviously, with his 72^nd birthday on Friday, McCain wanted to look cool, young, and hip.

But in introducing Daddy Yankee, McCain highlighted a song titled "Gasolina" which is not exactly about high energy prices. In fact, it's a song about sexual intercourse (to put it clinically).

Let's look at it this way: McCan held a campaign event at which he touted a song about screwing, and he did so in front of an audience of teens.

I'm going to do something I don't normally do: I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt -- he must not have had any idea what he was saying. Kind of reminds you of Sturgis, when he unknowingly volunteered his wife for a nude beauty pageant.

The sad thing is that clueless McCain is probably preferable to dangerous McCain. You know who I'm talking about -- the trigger happy John McCain whose two most important advisers on the Russia-Georgia conflict have been a registered foreign agent of Georgia and Wikipedia.

Update, 9:24PM: Full video of Hillary's speech.

Paraphrasing Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on oil independence:

Senator McCain has it wrong -- we can't simply drill our way to energy independence. If you drilled everywhere, if you drilled in all of John McCain's back yards, even the ones he doesn't know he has, that single answer proposition is a dry well.

He's really got the crowd fired up. I'll post video soon.

Update, 8:50PM: Here's video (and I cleaned up the quote for accuracy).

YouTube link

Charlie Gibson on what Americans want for the economy:

The people want sort of a slogan.

M'kay.

"I'm sure you remember a girl from Kansas who said there's no place like home," says Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. "Well, in John McCain's version, there's no place like home. And a home. And home. And home."

h/t: Ben Smith.

The LA Times offers a rundown. Here's some highlights:

• Overall, 22 million viewers, up 20% from 2004
• During primetime, NBC led primetime with 4.7 million viewers. CNN was second with 4.3 million, besting ABC (4.2 million) and CBS (3.5 million)
• Between 5PM and 8PM Pacific, CNN averaged 3.7 million viewers. FOX averaged 3 million and MSNBC averaged 2.2 million.
• PBS had 2.8 million. No numbers were available for CSPAN.

Over the past few days, the McCain campaign has helped to dramatically boost interest in Hillary Clinton's speech tonight.

I'll give them credit for driving a message forward by once again using their patented "video press release disguised as an ad" tactic, but in the end, I think they've fallen into a trap.

McCain's infamous "you can't do it" line. At issue: his offer to pay workers $50 an hour to pick lettuce.

YouTube link

At Daily Kos, Hesiod documents the litany of character flaws and improper actions of Harold Simmons, the billionaire funder of the pro-McCain 527 using William Ayers to wage an illegal smear campaign on Barack Obama's patriotism. My favorite:

Simmons has already admitted in the civil trial, which began Oct. 23, that he forged his daughters' signatures to make political contributions from the trusts to Jessie Helms, R-N.C.

"I thought it was right to sign the names because it would help the Helms campaign. It was a mistake, wrong and bad judgement," he testified.

Simmons' political donations have been a cornerstone of the trial by Ms. Swanson and Ms. Patigian, who say they do not support the conservative Republican causes to which their father has given money in their names.

The reason why Simmons' campaign is illegal is that it violates FEC contribution limits. This is not unusual for 527s, but in the past the only penalty they've had to pay have come after the fact. This time, however, the Obama camp is aggressively pushing back against Simmons' illegal activity.

Something tells me that John McCain is going to regret the way he's handled Hillary Clinton. If she rips him to pieces tonight -- and I think she will -- what's he going to do? Start attacking her?

LENO: As much as I'd like the job, I could make more doing a week in Vegas, but thanks. It's just a lousy job for the money.

MCCAIN: The house is nice.

LENO: Hey, but you've got enough of those...you need a White one too? C'mon!

YouTube link

LENO: Pick Hillary, That Would Be Fantastic!

MCCAIN: Yeah, Eh. Um.

YouTube link

So today the Census Bureau released its annual study of Income, Health Insurance, and Poverty statistics. Some highlights:

In a sense, all you really need to know for Hillary Clinton's speech tonight are the numbers in that table: Under Clinton's economic policies, income rose, poverty fell, and more people got health insurance. Meanwhile, under Bush-McCain policies, income fell, poverty rose, and health insurance coverage fell.

One of the unintended consequences of John McCain's sudden embrace of Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy is that if she so chooses, she can attack him during her speech tonight with reckless abandon -- and he can't really fire back, at least not without betraying the disengenuous nature of his current advertsing campaign.

This is -- and I'm not snarking -- really good news for Hillary, because the best and easiest way for her to help unite the party is to go after McCain something fierce.

Sure, she should talk about how she plans to position herself as a Senator, and celebrate her historic run for the presidency, but if she wants to have a really big impact, she'll go after John McCain.

This has to be one of the most memorable moments to ever take place on the first night of a Democratic National Convention.

YouTube link

If you're seeing this post, you've made it to the new server home for jedreport.com. (If the screen looks garbled to you, simply press control+F5.)

Michelle Obama just wrapped up her speech, which went perfectly. But that moment after the speech with her and the girls talking to Barack...how can you top that? Seriously. How can you top it?

What did you think?

Update: I've posted the full text of her remarks here.

I thought it was all good, but it was especially powerful starting with her "Standing at the crosscurrents of history" line.

Update 2 - Leave it to Andrew Sullivan to sum it up (thanks middlegirl3 for the heads up!):

Michelle did it. She more than did it. She struck fear in the GOP tonight. Their lies about the Obamas will fail. As they should.

Update 3: How many people can honestly say they stole the show from Ted Kennedy?

Steve Benen reports that Debra Bartoschevich, the former Clinton supporter now appearing in a John McCain campaign ad, today falsely claimed that McCain is pro-choice -- with McCain adviser Carly Fiorina standing nearby.

Other than TIME's blog, I've seen no coverage of this in any MSM publication. More importantly, I've seen no indication that Fiorina or anyone else from the McCain campaign has attempted to correct the record.

Based on these reports, it seems the McCain camp is guilty of a major distortion of John McCain's true record, which is stridently anti-choice.

Chuck Todd, gently but firmly, says that reporters are overplaying the whole PUMA thing in large part because they are all in Denver and they don't have much else to cover. By Wednesday or Thursday, he says, reporters will be wondering why they were so obsessed with the story.

Yet another reason to love Chuck Todd's reporting. He truly is one of the very best -- and most honest -- journalists.

TJR Video Archive Blogging - June 4, 2008

...then you've probably got a problem. Take, for example, Mark Halperin on This Week yesterday. He actually said McCain's houses gaffe was the worst moment of the campaign -- for Barack Obama. Seriously.

The good news is that he was almost laughed off the set.

Posted yesterday on Barack Obama's YouTube Channel:

One thing that should now be obvious is that John McCain is incapable of restraint, and it's not working too well for him. The most recent example: his ads trying to drive a wedge between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters.

Instead of dividing Democrats, McCain's ads actually give Hillary a bigger platform from which to bring the party together, a platform from which she can deliver lines like "I am Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message." They give her a chance to say:

"I just want to make it absolutely clear -- we cannot afford four more years of President Bush's failed policies," she said. "I am looking forward to being at the White House when President Obama signs quality, affordable health care for every American."

Whatever you think about Hillary Clinton's private desires, publicly she has been 110% behind Barack Obama. Now that McCain has run these ads, she's going to be 120% behind Obama, and she's going to be doing it during prime time on Tuesday night.

McCain and his merry band of Rovians might like the storyline today, but by Wednesday morning, they will regret their strategy.

TJR Video Archive Blogging -- Originally posted April 27, 2008

Michelle Obama prepares for her prime time speech tonight.

TJR Video Archive Blogging -- Originally posted June 15, 2008

So earlier this morning I was just about to hit the road to Denver. I got everything ready -- even checked my tire pressure! -- but confronted with the reality of a ten or eleven hour drive in each direction, I decided to bail on the convention. I've always wanted to go to one, and I was looking forward to meeting folks there that I've worked with online, but the upside of staying here is that I'll probably get a better perspective on how things are playing, at least in the media.

So that means I'll be resuming my normal posting routine. Things may be a bit slow today -- I'm going to switch over to a new server, and I also needed to take care of some technical issues with my video recording setup. One of my machines had a bizarre failure yesterday, and my file server had a disk failure. So I want to take care of those things, but hopefully it won't take that long.

In the meantime, I'll continue with the automatic video archive posts.

This is the best ever! Talk about a politician you can mock -- you have to watch it:

TJR Video Archive Blogging -- Originally posted June 4, 2008

One of my great regrets is that I have not yet built out a good archive site for my videos to showcase my best ones, or at least the ones that I liked the most.

Since I'm either going to be in Denver or driving there and back over the next five days, I won't be posting as much fresh content as you may have grown accustomed to.

But with the miracle of automatic post scheduling, I can set up a series of posts of videos from The Jed Report's video archives. If you enjoy the videos, I think you'll like the posts -- they'll give you a chance to look back down memory line.

My plan is to still post at least a couple of fresh posts each day, with the possible exception of Monday.

Also, I regret to announce the the much-anticipated sequel to "007: GoldenMansion" is going to have to wait until I get back from the convention.

Meta-analysis results since 4/1

Princeton University neuroscience professor Sam Wang (whose approach to debunking political smears is must-read material) has revived his meta-analysis of state polls.

There are two key things that makes Sam's analysis unique. First, he's not trying to predict anything; rather, his analysis aims to determine where we are at now -- not where we will be on November 4. Second, instead of running simulations or simply averaging available data, he uses a mathematical formula to determine the probability of electoral vote distributions for each state based on current polling data.

A simpler way of thinking about it is that his approach should quickly reflect changes based on events in the campaign. Basically, he's trading off the potential of predictive value for the precision of a real-time snapshot.

With that preamble out of the way -- and I hope I haven't butchered anything -- Sam's model is already showing a bounce from McCain's "Seven Kitchen Tables" Gaffe, boosting Obama's lead over McCain in the current snapshot by about 20 electoral votes.

Earlier today, I posted a video of John McCain's answer to a question posed by Katie Couric about his homes gaffe. Tonight, I happened to watch CBS Evening News -- the broadcast edition -- and lo and behold, they had completely cut out his POW comment. Instead of airing his full answer, they picked up at the point where he talks about his wife's father's WWII service.

More positive reaction from the media to the Biden selection, as compiled by the Obama campaign:

The Times-Tribune (Borys Krawczeniuk) Remembering His Roots: Though he has spent the bulk of his 65 years in Delaware, Scranton is close to his heart. LINK

The Times-Tribune (Megan Reiter) VP Pick No Stranger to Hank's Hoagies: Mr. Biden has been visiting the Green Ridge establishment for years, [Hank's owner Tom] Owens said, and the shop is filled with memorabilia of the senator, from signs supporting his presidential run in 1988 to a Joe Biden trading card. LINK

FOX News (Geraldine Ferraro): This choice shows that he can exercise good judgment. LINK

Philadelphia Inquirer (Editorial) Democrat Barack Obama's selection of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running mate puts pressure on John McCain to choose an equally strong running mate for the Republican ticket. LINK

It's doubly amusing listening to GOP flacks make the disingenuous argument that the nearly 50/50 popular vote split in the Democratic primary is a sign of weakness.

First of all, because of caucuses and a variety of other factors, in the Democratic Party, there really is no such thing as the popular vote -- it's just a clever play on words.

But the funny thing is that even if you were to count up all the votes, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won a higher percentage of the Democratic primary vote than John McCain did of the Republican primary vote. Even though his chief rival Mitt Romney dropped out of the race just after Super Tuesday, McCain still managed only 46.65% of the GOP primary vote, winning just under 10 million votes -- barely half as much as either Obama or Clinton.

Here's a gem of a video clip from the archives. During the January 30 GOP debate at the Reagan Library, Janet Hook of the LA Times asked John McCain why he was more qualified than Mitt Romney to manage the economy. In response, McCain managed to:

• Say nothing about the economy
• Say he was more patriotic than Mitt Romney
• Cite his experience as a POW
• Argue that "radical Islamic extremism" is a more important issue
• Criticize a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq
• Did I mention, say nothing about the economy?

It's truly a hall-of-fame moment in the annals of chronic dodgery.

If you don't already know, I bet you can guess what his answer was.

Guest post by debrazza

Guest post by debrazza

Without a doubt, Ohio State football is the biggest thing in the state of Ohio.  It is so important that tickets for games and events have been at the center of a few recent high profile political scandals.  So it is no surprise that Ohio State head coach, Jim Tressel, is probably the most popular man in state.

Around the Horseshoe on gameday, signs around the stadium read "God wears a sweater vest" and there is consensus that should Tressel decide to run for Governor, he'd win in a landslide.  As a testament to his popularity, when he published a book this summer about his coaching philosophy, the publisher ordered an initial print of 70,000 copies and hundreds of people camped out over night for a book signing.

I was therefore taken aback Saturday afternoon as I was watching ESPN and Lee Corso said that Tressel has stolen a page from Obama and adopted "the fierce urgency of now" as the motivational motto for his team this season.

John McCain is making it too easy. Here's my response to his latest ad:

John McCain responds to Joe Biden's "seven kitchen tables" line:

“I am grateful for the fact that I have a wonderful life,” McCain said. “I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it's like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation. ... So the fact is that we have homes, and I'm grateful for it. We spend our time primarily in Washington, D.C., where I have a condominium in Crystal City, [Va.]; here in this beautiful Sedona that I am blessed every moment that I can spend here; our condominium in Phoenix, Ariz.; and a place over in San Diego. The others are also for investment purposes.”

Kos diarist kubla000 has more.

A look at how it's playing around the nation:

Guest post by debrazza

Guest post by debrazza

Steve Benen calls Bill Kristol, "the gift that keeps on giving".  Well he's just delivered us another such 'gift' Saturday on the Weekly Standard's blog. 

You see, Bill Kristol is absolutely outraged OUTRAGED, that Hillary Clinton is not the Democratic party's VP nominee.  Citing the 18 million odd voters that Hillary garnered in the primaries, he says that it is downright unfair and indicative of the "glass ceiling" in the Democratic party for Obama to select Biden instead of her.

Will the Democratic party, which is committed (to say the least) to gender equity, and which in fact has a 50 percent quota for female delegates, accept Obama’s imposition of a glass ceiling at its convention?

Guest post by debrazza

Guest post by debrazza

If anyone is curious why Biden is the choice, Amy Sullivan of TIME points us to a 2005 interview with Biden in Kentucky that interested her because he delivered this gem of a quote about politics and religion.

If I'm the nominee, Republicans will be sorry.  The next Republican that tells me I'm not religious I'm going to shove my rosary beads down their throat.

It is a brilliant quote all on it's own and shows the feisty spirit and quick wit that is Joe Biden and why he will make such a formidable running mate for Obama.  But if you read the rest of the article, you will see exactly how closely Biden's views are echoed in Obama's and key clues as to why Obama was inclined to pick him.