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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

More Americans Question Religion's Role in Politics  —  Some Social Conservative Disillusionment  —  Some Americans are having a change of heart about mixing religion and politics.  A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep …

Hoping It's Biden  —  Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate.  And while I don't know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.  —  Biden's weaknesses are on the surface.  He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and …

Video: Volleyball team wins gold, blindsides NBC with shout-out to Bush  —  A palate cleanser by popular request; you'll remember our heroines here from the Butt-Pat That Wasn't.  The official Olympics site has highlights of the match but this snippet had to be rescued from oblivion by Tivo.

They're Paying Attention Now  —  Why is it a real race now, with John McCain rising in the polls and Barack Obama falling?  There are many answers, but here I think is an essential one: The American people have begun paying attention.  —  It's hard for our political class to remember …

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 …