The evolution of John McCain  —  As a maverick Senator, he took pride in just saying no to everyone's wish list.  But as a presidential contender, he's become a tax cutter and defender of home mortgages.  The inside story of how the candidate is shaping his plan to fix the economy.

Rove: Obama's the Guy at the Country Club Holding a Martini Making Snide Comments About Everyone Else  —  ABC News' Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as “coolly arrogant.”

Obama Campaign Drops Faux Presidential Seal  —  The Possum Sleeps Tonight  —  Last week, Barack Obama unveiled a new campaign seal — and not the kind that swims, barks and balances balls on the end of its nose.  Rather, it was the kind that has a big old eagle on it and some Latin …

‘The Google’  —  The first question at an excellent panel at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York today with top web folks from the leading campaign goes to McCain aide Mark Soohoo.  —  Moderator Andrew Rasiej asks for a show of hands on whether the panelists have had to tell the candidate not to say …

Too Good to Check  —  I have no way of knowing if this is true, though the source is excellent...but the word in Republican circles is that John McCain is quite frustrated by the vice presidential selection process because he can't go with any of his top three choices.  They are:

Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol  —  When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry's most prominent boosters showed up.  Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association …

Home Not-So-Sweet Home  —  “Owning a home lies at the heart of the American dream.”  So declared President Bush in 2002, introducing his “Homeownership Challenge” — a set of policy initiatives that were supposed to sharply increase homeownership, especially for minority groups.  —  Oops.

The New Republic syndrome  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  The number one problem facing the Democratic Party is that, as events of the last week demonstrate, it continues to be plagued by The New Republic Syndrome, one of the most fatal political afflictions that exist.

Some Muslim Americans Feel Shunned by Obama  —  As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country's first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.  —  Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama's message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims.

Why Clinton voters say they won't support Obama  —  The attack of the PUMAs, or a dozen reasons why Clinton voters are still too angry to come home.  —  Hillary Clinton supporters wait for their candidate to arrive at the National Building Museum in Washington on June 7.

PDF: Visualizing the political blogosphere  —  If innovations in the citizen media community are shaping the political process, it's worth looking closely at the structures and architecture of that new space.  Two speakers at PDF specialize in visualizing and analyzing mass sets of data.