Ventura: I'm not running for Senate  —  (CNN) — Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has decided not to run for U.S. Senate in that state, he told CNN's “Larry King Live” Monday night.  —  Ventura, a former professional wrestler, had said last week he was weighing whether to run.

McCain Tops Obama in Commander-in-Chief Test; Stays Competitive on Iraq  —  Poll Finds 72 Percent of Americans Say McCain Would be Good Commander-in-Chief  —  Americans divide evenly between Barack Obama and John McCain's approaches to the war in Iraq, and rate McCain much more highly …

JAMIE GORELICK'S TIES TO FANNIE MAE AND WHAT SHE'S DOING NOW— In reading this article about Crony Capitalism at Fannie Mae (tip to Instapundit), I noticed that Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting.

Flipping Out  —  So Obama will listen to his generals and consider the facts on the ground before fully withdrawing from Iraq.  OMG!  WTF?  Rick Klein of ABC News exclaimed, “There's been lots of speculation this week about whether Barack Obama has an Iraq problem.  He does now.”

UNIVERSAL THEORY OF BAMBOOZLEMENT?  —  Earlier today we noted the possible role of AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier is turning the AP's campaign coverage into complete crap.  Now from the just released Tillman Report, it seems Fournier was also one of the reporters exchanging emails …

AP Stringer Stands by as Taliban Murder 2 Women, Gets Snuff Footage [UPDATE: Worse than Bilal Hussein!]  [UPDATE: Confirmed: Took Video of Murder]  —  AP photographer Rahmatullah Naikzad was a witness to a Taliban murder.  The two women were alleged to have been prostitutes who served Western clientèle.

Matthews Worries ‘Right’ Will Turn New Yorker Cover into T-Shirt  —  On Monday's “Hardball” Chris Matthews was so upset about the New Yorker's cover, depicting Barack Obama in a turban and Michelle Obama toting an AK-47, because he feared “the right will be using that as t-shirt material within the next couple of weeks.”

McLaughlin takes heat for ‘Oreo’ comment  —  (CNN) — Longtime Washington talk-show host John McLaughlin is facing fire Monday for referring to Barack Obama as an “Oreo” during a segment on his Sunday political program, “The McLaughlin Group.  —  The veteran Washington journalist was discussing …

Six Questions for Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side  —  In a series of gripping articles, Jane Mayer has chronicled the Bush Administration's grim and furtive dealings with torture and has exposed both the individuals within the administration who “made it happen” (a group that starts …

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO  —  This morning President Bush rescinded the executive order that has prohibited drilling on the outer continental shelf since 1990.  Many of us have wondered why he didn't do that some time ago.  Rescinding the order will not, of course, allow exploration to go forward …

Want Obama in a Punch Line?  First, Find a Joke  —  What's so funny about Barack Obama?  Apparently not very much, at least not yet.  —  On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image depicting the presumptive Democratic …

McCains to Profit on Anheuser, InBev Deal  —  T. W. Farnam reports on the presidential race.  —  Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, is set to get a huge payout from the sale of Anheuser-Busch Cos., brewer of Budweiser and hundreds of other brands, to Belgian beverage giant InBev NV.

The Surprising Closeness of the Contest  —  Despite a general sentiment that John McCain's campaign has gone through an extremely difficult — and disorganized — past month, a series of recent polls suggest that the Arizona senator remains within striking distance of Barack Obama with less …

Citigroup's $1.1 Trillion of Mysterious Assets Shadows Earnings  —  At an investor presentation in May, Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said shrinking the bank's $2.2 trillion balance sheet, the biggest in the U.S., was a cornerstone of his turnaround plan.

McCain's Hillary Problem  —  He's running her same campaign.  And she lost.  —  Feel free to tell me I'm nuts for asking the question, but doesn't it seem that, more and more, the McCain campaign is turning into the Clinton campaign?  —  The comparison smacked me upside the head last week …

Taliban Breached NATO Base in Deadly Clash  —  KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban insurgents who attacked a remote American-run outpost near the Pakistan border on Sunday numbered nearly 200 fighters, almost three times the size of the allied force, and some breached the NATO compound …

POLITICS AND POWER  —  Yet another member of John McCain's presidential campaign is stepping down after coming under scrutiny for shady business dealings.  McCain finance co-chair and former New Jersey congressman Jim Courter, chief executive of telecom corporation IDT …