McCain Prepares Rezko Ad; Wright “Now Fair Game”; GOP 527 Attacks  —  Sen. John McCain's campaign is finishing a hard-hitting television ad highlighting Barack Obama 's ties to shady Chicago land dealer Tony Rezko, the one-time Obama patron who was convicted earlier this summer of fraud.

Obama says he's chosen his VP — won't reveal who it is yet  —  Barack Obama told USA TODAY this afternoon that “yes,” he has made up his mind about whom his running mate will be — but he would not reveal the name or just when he will tell the nation about his choice.  —  USA TODAY's Kathy Kiely writes that:

2 GOP Sources: It's Romney  —  Two Republicans close to the situation say McCain has apparently settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate.  —  Two additional GOP sources say McCain had not offered the slot to anyone as of Thursday night, and that he could still change his mind.  —  Developing...

Born in the U.S.A.  —  The truth about Obama's birth certificate.  —  In June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen.  But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document's authenticity.

Obama & Being In Touch  —  Several readers have written to say I'm missing the point.  Obama's making the case that McCain is out of touch with the working man.  Others say I'm missing the point because McCain's policies are bad for the working man.  The upshot of a lot of this is that it's okay …

International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age  —  Tim Reid in Washington, Jeremy Griffin and Jane Macartney in Beijing  —  The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age …

Where's Obama's Passion?  —  A few days before Barack Obama was to announce his choice for Vice President, he was asked at a North Carolina town meeting what qualities he wanted in a running mate.  He wandered through a derisive, if desultory, critique of Dick Cheney, then switched gears.

Limbaugh: Obama's Nomination “Really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.”  —  Audio and more from Media Matters: … Yes, someone should have told this young, uppity negro to STFU and know his place in American society.  You knew he was a baby killer, right?

Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes  —  A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

OBAMA VS. BALDILOCKS  —  A blogger's African dad came here on the same airlift as Obama's dad.  All similarities end there  —  Los Angeles blogger Juliette Ochieng has a lot in common with the man who might be the next president, Barack Obama.  A lot.  —  Both were born to Kenyan fathers …

Transcript: Obama and Clinton Debate  —  Full Transcript of the Democrats' Before Pennsylvania Primary  —  But I have to say that, you know, for Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened in my city of New York, would have been just intolerable for me.

IndyMac Swift Boaters Strike Back! … This one is too good to pass up — be sure you read the punch line after the excerpt via Reuters: … Who is behind this “groundswell” of (former) IndyMac workers?  It turns out that the employee letter was distributed to the media by CRC Public Relations …