NBC/WSJ Poll: McCain halves Obama's lead  —  Obama up three points; still hasn't convinced some Clinton backers  —  WASHINGTON - With just days before the vice-presidential announcements, the political conventions and the final sprint to Election Day, Republican Sen. John McCain has cut Democrat …

Wow [Rich Lowry] From McCain campaign:  —  Please see comment from me on Barack Obama's new ad supposedly running in Georgia:  —  “Barack Obama's ad is ridiculous.  Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died, sources say  —  U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, has died after suffering a brain aneurysm, said sources familiar with the situation.  —  She was removed from life support at 12:19 p.m. at Huron Road Hospital, the sources said.

Does McCain Favor a Draft?  Nope.  —  Liberals are having a conniption over Sen. John McCain's purported endorsement of a draft today.  —  In Las Crucas, New Mexico, a woman asked McCain about the “horrible conditions” that veterans often see when return from combat.  Here's the last few sentences:

Rare Video: Barack Obama Circa 1995  —  Curious to see what Barack Obama was like before he got into politics?  —  This rare TV interview from 1995 will give you some insight.  One thing is clear - the guy is consistent.  He's been talking about post-racial, non-polarized politics for over a decade now.

Obama's Rice, Clarke Drill McCain Over and Over  —  The Obama advisers light into McCain, his support for the Iraq War and his general attitude toward combat on afternoon media call.  —  Listen to the full call here. … McCain camp response here.

FREE ADVICE, WORTH EVERY PENNY  —  Don't ever demand someone stop attacking you.  Doesn't work.  Don't do it.  Sounds weak.  Sounds pathetic.  And a lot else.  —  Look at John McCain attacking my patriotism.  It's sad what he's become.  He'll do anything to get elected.  Attack my patriotism.

Obama team to hold ‘major’ event Saturday in Bayh's Indiana  —  Campaign team gathering for possible veep announcement  —  NashvillePost.com has learned that senior campaign officials from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign are being dispatched from various locations around the country …

Obama Looking to Diminish Superdelegates  —  Barack Obama's campaign will call next week for the creation of a new commission to revise the rules for selecting a presidential nominee in 2012 with a goal of reducing the power of superdelegates, whose role became a major point of contention during …

Limbaugh: Obama's nomination “goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy” … On the August 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said that “it is striking how unqualified [Sen. Barack] Obama is and …

Clinton creates ‘whip team’ to quell anti-Obama protests  —  In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member “whip team” at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination …

McCain's Free Media Pass  —  TPM's Greg Sargent [corrected] is correct that “the national press is basically giving McCain a pass on the McCain campaign's double-talk about Obama's patriotism.”  McCain is not just questioning Obama's patriotism; he's lying about it.

Barack Obama's ‘lost’ brother found in Kenya  —  Senator Barack Obama's long lost brother has been tracked down for the first time living in a shanty town in Kenya, reports claimed.  —  The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut …

What Late Veep Pick?  —  The following guest post is from Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report.  —  I thought it odd last month when there was a flurry of talk about Senators Barack Obama and John McCain possibly announcing their running mates.