Vanity Fair Covers The New Yorker  —  We here at Vanity Fair maintain a kind of affectionate rivalry with our downstairs neighbors at The New Yorker.  We play softball every year, compete for some of the same stories, and share an elevator bank.  (You can tell the ones who are headed …

Obama , Couric Spar Over Surge  —  Check out this exchange between CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric and Sen. Barack Obama about why Obama says he still wouldn't have supported the surge back then had he known it would help reduce violence so significantly.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!  —  Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.  —  The married ex-senator from North Carolina …

McCain gaffes pile up; critics pile on  —  Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” when he apparently meant “Afghanistan” on Monday, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.  —  Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken “Somalia” …

Obama on the Surge: “Had Those Political Factors Not Occurred, I Think That My Assessment Would Have Been Correct”  —  “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence” in Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said in January 2007.

Novak: “I Just Put Something on the Internet” (!!)  —  Prince of Darkness tells Fox News Channel: His report about McCain announcing his running mate this week may have been “a dodge” by the campaign to grab some headlines from Obama.  —  The conservative columnist goes on to say he'd gotten the tip from a …

Hell hath no fury like a Maverick spurned  —  So, the McCain camp is trying to have fun with the Obamedia lovefest.  They've posted two music video spoofs and are asking supporters to vote for their favorite.  I agree with the message, of course.  And the vids are well-executed.

OBAMA ON THE SURGE....Over at the Corner, Andy McCarthy berates Barack Obama's explanation for the reduction in violence in Iraq ("What you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops"): … Hmmm.  Let's roll the tape:

Pickens Tells Offshore Drilling Advocates: 'You're Going To Get A Rude Awakening'  —  Testifying before Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, conservative Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens explained his plan to dramatically decrease oil usage by greatly expanding wind power electricity.

Maliki's Endorsement: Not Lost in Translation  —  German magazine Der Spiegel caused quite a commotion this week by printing an interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in which he endorsed Obama's Iraq plan by name.  Some tried to downplay the significance of this endorsement …

“Wall Street Got Drunk”: ‘Banned’ Bush Video Surfaces  —  An ABC-TV outlet in Houston, and now the Houston Chronicle, have posted a video taken at a political fundraiser for Pete Olson, featuring George W. Bush last week — capturing some embarrassing/revealing moments after, he noted, he had asked cameras to be turned off.

Too young for the No. 1 job?  —  Barack Obama is too young to be president.  Yes I know he is 46 and the Constitution sets the presidential age qualification at 35 or higher, but Obama has said that we ought not to interpret the Constitution woodenly and formalistically.

Dueling Ohio Polls  —  Rasmussen has a new poll out in Ohio where they show John McCain with what they headline as a “modest lead”.  Actually, McCain's lead is 6 points, and 10 including leaners, which I would probably describe as a little bit more than modest.

Is the Media Trying to Elect Obama?  —  Tomorrow, CBS's Katie Couric will interview Barack Obama from Jordan.  On Wednesday, ABC's Charlie Gibson will chat with him from Israel.  And on Thursday, NBC's Brian Williams will do the honors from Germany.  Call it the presidential campaign equivalent of Shooting the Moon.

Analysis: Obama's Gravitas  —  Barack Obama's press conference this morning in Amman, Jordan, was a major moment — perhaps the major moment — of the Illinois senator's much-ballyhooed trip abroad this week.  —  All eyes were on Obama to see how he would perform on a world stage …

Could Obama presidency harm race relations?  —  (CNN) — “We had a dream.  Now it's a reality.”  —  That's the slogan on a popular T-shirt linking Sen. Barack Obama's presidential run to the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality.  It's one of several T-shirts — including …

Stephanopoulos falsely suggested Obama “now” aligned with McCain on more troops in Afghanistan — but Obama has called for more troops for years  —  While discussing Sen. Barack Obama's trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos falsely suggested during …