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3:15 PM ET, July 24, 2008

Top Items:

Obama Calls Berlin a ‘Symbol of the Victory of Hope’ — US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama started his much-anticipated trip to Germany on Thursday, and the expectations are massive. SPIEGEL ONLINE will be following his every move through Berlin with its Live Ticker.

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, TownHall Blog, Political Punch, Crooks and Liars, MyDD, Gateway Pundit, The Campaign Spot, FP Passport, NewsBusters.org, Commentary, MSNBC, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and TIME.com

Marc Ambinder:

Obama Team Begins Work On Presidential Transition — With less than six months to go before he would be sworn in as the nation's 44th president, Sen. Barack Obama has directed his aides to begin planning for the transition. — “Barack is well aware of the complexity and the organizational …

Discussion: Hot Air, Political Machine, Taegan Goddard's …, Commentary, The Other McCain, Salon, TIME.com and Boston Globe

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Competing optics: Cheering Germans or American military? Update: Snubbing wounded soldiers? Update: Touring Berlin instead? Update: It is/is not a campaign event? — I guess this is a question of priorities. Barack Obama apparently ran short on time in his visit to Germany today …

Discussion: A Blog For All, Weekly Standard Blog, American Spectator, NewsBusters.org and Confederate Yankee

Jaketapper / Political Punch:

Obama On Tonight's Berlin Speech: “A Crapshoot” — How does one prepare to speak to a million screaming Germans? — I asked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, this question as he boarded O Force One and came back to the reporters' veal pen before the plane took off from Tel Aviv, Israel to Berlin, Germany.

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, Power Line, The Trail, The Carpetbagger Report, Political Radar, NO QUARTER, Wonkette and TPM Election Central

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Obama Crowd Builds in Germany: Good or Bad? — Crowds gather to hear US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's speech in front of the Victory Column in Berlin on July 24, 2008. MICHAEL URBAN/AFP/Getty Images. — Barack Obama isn't speaking in Berlin until 1:15 eastern time today but the crowds are already massing.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Jefferson Chase / Deutsche Welle:
Anticipation, Griping Increases Before Obama Speech in Berlin

Discussion: The Confluence and Tennessee Guerilla Women

Jill Zuckman / The Swamp:
Barack Obama gets a workout at Ritz gym

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs

Erick Erickson / www.redstate.com:
Barack Obamessiah Goes To Berlin: Not Since 1939 Have So Many …

Discussion: World-O-Crap and alicublog

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

McCain Makes Significant Gains in Four Key Battleground States — Majority of Voters in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin Favor Keeping Troops in Iraq, According to Quinnipiac-washingtonpost.com- Wall Street Journal Survey — Republican John McCain has quickly closed …

Discussion: The Fix, The New Republic, Power Line, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, The Monkey Cage, Macsmind, Sister Toldjah and Boston Globe

Matthew Yglesias:

Beetle in a Box — So John McCain said the surge led to the Anbar Awakening even though the Awakening, in fact, happened before the surge began. So he's ignorant. Or maybe dishonest. But now we learn he's also rather stubborn: … Shawn Brimley tries to bring common sense to bear on this …

Discussion: protein wisdom, democracyarsenal.org, Gun Toting Liberal Blog, New York Times, TBogg, Obsidian Wings, Buck Naked Politics, Donklephant, The Carpetbagger Report and D-Day

Ilan Goldenberg / democracyarsenal.org:
What is John McCain Talking About?

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and Think Progress

Spencer Ackerman / ATTACKERMAN:
It's A Beautiful Thing, The Destruction Of Words

Discussion: The Huffington Post, MyDD and TPM Election Central

Tom Raum / Associated Press:
McCain denies he misstated timing of Iraq surge

Discussion: Martini Revolution, Eunomia, Salon, Newshoggers.com and Comments from Left Field

Barack Obama:

Remarks of Senator Obama in Berlin Germany — Senator Obama delivered the following remarks in Berlin, Germany... Continue reading for the full remarks (as prepared for delivery)... Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery) — “A World that Stands as One” — July 24th, 2008

Discussion: The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report and Taylor Marsh

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama's Berlin speech

Discussion: The Swamp

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Obama Plays Down Berlin Speech

Discussion: CNN, Time, Beltway Confidential and TPM Election Central

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Sorry We Asked, Sorry You Told — Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military. — The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Pam's House Blend, TBogg, Blue Girl, Red State, AMERICAblog News, On Background and Shakesville

NEWS.com.au:

Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up — FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist. — And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact …

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Newshoggers.com, Achenblog and Scholars and Rogues

ACLU:

Documents Released by the CIA and Justice Department in Response to the ACLU's Torture FOIA — Contains “communications from the CIA to OLC on a matter in which the CIA requested legal advice from OLC” and shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both “Standard Techniques” and …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Think Progress, Buck Naked Politics and The Washington Independent

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

GOP losing the new-media war — Republicans have no lack of would-be George F. Wills. — But what they really need are some more Robert D. Novaks. — The distinction between the two prominent conservative journalists isn't always obvious, but it's nevertheless important to understand …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, Whiskey Fire, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Other McCain, The Caucus, Real Clear Politics and Wilshire & Washington

David S. Broder / Washington Post:

Obama's Tour de Force — It made no sense when Barack Obama left the country on his nine-day overseas tour for some of my fellow columnists to describe it as a high-risk venture. — Foreign leaders, who can read the polls as well as anyone, would go out of their way not to embarrass a man who may …

Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
McCain Still Waiting for His Turn at Good Luck

Discussion: Truthdig

Ellis Henican / Newsday:

Andrew Giuliani files lawsuit against Duke — Andrew Giuliani tees off on the 10th hole during the first round of the 92nd Metropolitan Golf Assn. Open Championship at the Meadow Brook Club. (Newsday /David L. Pokress) — Andrew Giuliani has hit a rough patch in his drive to become a pro golfer …

Discussion: The Sleuth, New York Post, Gothamist, Gawker and JONATHAN TURLEY

Mark Murray / MSNBC:

FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA'S ELECTION TO WIN — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro — *** Obama's election to win: How important has this overseas trip been for Obama? Look no further than our latest NBC/WSJ poll, which has Obama leading McCain by six points (47%-41%), unchanged from last month.

Discussion: Think Progress, Top of the Ticket, Guardian, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org, The Swamp, Wake up America and Swampland

WJLA-TV:

Source: Novak's Victim Worse Than First Thought — The pedestrian who was struck by prominent Washington columnist and commentator Robert Novak is in worse shape than first thought, a hospital source tells ABC 7 News. — The victim, a 66-year-old man, appeared somewhat incoherent, said the source who had seen the victim.