McCain Reverses Himself on Affirmative Action  —  ABC News' Teddy Davis and Kevin Kilbane Report: During a “This Week” interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos John McCain reversed himself on affirmative action and endorsed for the first time a proposed state ballot measure which would end race …

Gallup Daily: Obama 49%, McCain 40%  —  Third day with Obama holding a significant lead over McCain  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama now leads John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40% margin in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 24-26.

Obama visits hospital for sore hip  —  All that basketball seems to be taking at least a slight toll on Sen. Barack Obama's nearly 47-year-old body.  —  Late Sunday, he visited the University of Chicago Medical Center to have a sore hip checked by an orthopedic doctor.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)  —  MR. TOM BROKAW: And we are here with Senator Obama late Saturday afternoon in London, the last stop of his nine-day overseas trip.  —  You head back to the United States in a few hours.  For purposes of this program, we'll say good morning.

Listening to the Dalai Lama in Aspen  —  ASPEN — My late husband, Hunter S. Thompson, said that he was a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend.  I realized something as I watched the highest ranking monk of Tibetan Buddhism: His Holiness is a teenage girl trapped in the body of a Dalai Lama!

New battles erupt over gun laws  —  From airports to Disney World, the fight to limit firearms continues in the courts  —  ATLANTA—Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a ban on handguns, gun opponents are fighting to preserve or expand gun-free zones …

Barack Obama's brother pushes Chinese imports on US  —  BARACK Obama's half-brother has been helping to promote cheap Chinese exports in a low-profile business career while the Democratic senator has been winning worldwide fame in his race for the White House.

Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans  —  Banks struggling to recover from multibillion-dollar losses on real estate are curtailing loans to American businesses, depriving even healthy companies of money for expansion and hiring.  —  Two vital forms of credit used by companies …

Speaking In Code  —  I haven't finished Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals yet, but so far it's the probably the creepiest book I've read yet about the Torture Regime.  (Philippe Sands' book Torture Team …

Democracy Institute Gives Donors Access to McCain  —  As Senator John McCain waited to speak at the annual awards dinner of the International Republican Institute, a democracy-building group he has led for 15 years, lobbyists and business executives dominated the stage at a Washington hotel ballroom.

Impractical Scheme of the Day  —  The health policy reform world has, in my view, a tragic if understandable tendency to get bogged down in the swamps of the politically viable so I'm always glad when someone puts something obviously unpassable on the table.  Here's Robert Waldman:

Officer: Part of anti-Obama e-mail was wrong  —  An Army officer's negative e-mail account of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's visit with the troops in Afghanistan that set the blogosphere ablaze prompted Army officials to correct aspects of the e-mail and resulted in a statement …