memeorandum: Terrorists' assignment: Protect Barack Obama (Aaron Klein/wnd.com)

3:17 AM ET, July 22, 2008

Top Items:

ENPR Special: Sources say McCain Veep Pick to Come This Week — Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip.

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

McCain To Meet With Jindal — John McCain will huddle with vice presidential aspirant Bobby Jindal during a trip to New Orleans later this week, sources close to the campaign confirm to The Fix. — McCain's trip to Louisiana on Wednesday was the cause of much head scratching in the political world …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, Capitol Annex, Eunomia, www.redstate.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Blue Girl, Red State and TIME.com

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:

McCain closes in on VP — John McCain has narrowed his vice-presidential possibilities to the point where he considered a decision this week — but he's likely to hold off, say sources close to the campaign. — The prospect of stepping on Barack Obama's much-anticipated overseas trip …

Discussion: TownHall Blog and The New Republic

Drudge Report:

NYT REJECTS MCCAIN'S EDITORIAL; SHOULD ‘MIRROR’ OBAMA — An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES — less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

CNN:

New York Times rejects McCain essay — (CNN) — The New York Times has rejected an op-ed piece written by John McCain defending his Iraq war policy in response to a piece by Barack Obama published in the paper last week. — In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, Opinion Page Editor David Shipley …

Discussion: TPM Election Central, TIME.com and www.redstate.com

Daniel Finkelstein / Comment Central:
Why the New York Times were right to reject John McCain's article

Discussion: Newshoggers.com, www.redstate.com and The Mahablog

Rasmussen Reports:
Belief Growing That Reporters are Trying to Help Obama Win

Discussion: Fox News, www.redstate.com, American Elephants, The Huffington Post, Don Surber, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Opinionator, The Confluence, Power Line, American Power and Pajamas Media

CNN:
McCain's rejected New York Times op-ed piece

Discussion: American Thinker and Winds of Change.NET

Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org:

Andrea on Obama Trip: ‘What Some Would Call Fake Interviews’ — Andrea Mitchell might be a doyenne of the liberal media, but she has her reporter's pride and principles, both of which have been trampled by the way the Obama campaign has managed the media during the candidate's current trip to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Discussion: TownHall Blog

ABCNEWS:

Obama Won't ‘Rubber Stamp’ Military Decisions — In Exclusive ‘Nightline’ Interview, Senator Says He Still Doesn't Support Surge — After meeting with top U.S. military commanders and members of the Iraqi government, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., today said his opposition to the surge …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs and Betsy's Page

Marc Ambinder:

Obama Concedes That Surge Didn't Go As He Expected — Sen. Barack Obama said it was “fair” to notice that he did not anticipate that the surge of U.S. troops into Iraq would be coincident with the so-called Sunni Awakening and the decisions of Shia militias to reduce their footprints …

Discussion: Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and Sister Toldjah

New York Times:

For Obama, a First Step Is Not a Misstep — BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government on Monday left little doubt that it favors a withdrawal plan for American combat troops similar to what Senator Barack Obama has proposed, providing Mr. Obama with a potentially powerful political boost on a day he spent …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo and The Agonist

Hillary Clinton / The Huffington Post:

An Outrageous Attempt by the Bush Administration to Undermine Women's Rights — The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers …

Discussion: The Confluence, Feministe, puma pac, The Democratic Daily, TalkLeft, Shakesville, Taylor Marsh, Corrente and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Gary Gensler / The Huffington Post:

Hillraisers Donated Less Than $20,000 To Obama In June — By now, most political junkies know that Barack Obama raised a lot of money in June. — But his campaign's $52 million dollar take for the month becomes all the more impressive when considering the utter lack of help he received …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Trail, Jack & Jill Politics, The Democratic Daily and Hotline On Call

Matthew Weaver / Guardian:
New Yorker's plane snub over Obama ‘terrorist’ cartoon

Discussion: Gawker

David Weigel / Reason Magazine:
Ceci n'est pas une movement

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Political Machine

New York Times:

Bosnian Serb Under Arrest in War Crimes — PARIS — Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted war criminals for his part in the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, was arrested Monday in a raid in Serbia that ended a 13-year hunt.

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Matthew Yglesias:

The Iraq-Pakistan Border — John McCain, like all decent Americans, is concerned about the trouble on the Iraq-Pakistan border. Ali Frick, like a typical liberal, derides this on the grounds that there is no such border. But if she had McCain's years of foreign policy expertise …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Big Brass Blog and MSNBC

Ali / Think Progress:
McCain Warns Of ‘Hard Struggle’ On The ‘Iraq-Pakistan Border’

Discussion: Firedoglake, Political Machine and Top of the Ticket

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

WHY IT'S WORTH TALKING ABOUT MEAT. — I've been struggling with exactly the right statistic to encapsulate why it's worthwhile to elevate meat into the energy conversation, but I think this, from the PB&J Campaign, might do the trick: … And it's much easier.

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Karl / protein wisdom:

Obama's moneywoman was a subprime mortgage queen — The Wall Street Journal's John R. Emshwiller notices that Penny Pritzker — Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman — helped run Hinsdale, IL-based subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank to its collapse in 2001:

Discussion: MSNBC, The American Mind and Scared Monkeys

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

Losing Sight of Progress — HOW BLIND SALAMANDERS MAKE NONSENSE OF CREATIONISTS' CLAIMS. — It is extremely seldom that one has the opportunity to think a new thought about a familiar subject, let alone an original thought on a contested subject, so when I had a moment of eureka a few nights ago …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs