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.

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...

Is The Narrative Shifting for Hillary as VP?  He's ready!  —  USA Today reports: … With a slew of new polls coming out that have not been good for Obama, I wonder if his camp is rethinking their strategy for selecting a VP?  —  Check out this CBS/NY Times poll:

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.

Veep Picks  —  Veep Day is tomorrow, by all accounts.  My against-the-grain prediction: Sebelius.  What do you think?

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

Public Enemy may play DNC concert after all  —  After a day of contentious back-and-forth accusations between rappers Public Enemy and protest group Re-create 68, the two will try to hammer out a deal to put on a free concert - though it won't be Tuesday as originally planned.

Survey: More say churches shouldn't be in politics  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A slim majority of Americans think churches should stay out of politics, according to a new survey.  —  The survey suggests that for the first time in more than a decade, there has been a shift away from the view …

McCain campaign offices get threatening letters  —  DENVER, Colorado (CNN) — Sen. John McCain received two suspicious letters at two campaign offices, with at least one containing an unidentified white powder, U.S. Secret Service and McCain's spokespeople said.