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Pictured: The miniature ‘Greek temple’ from which Barack Obama will launch his final push for the U.S. presidency — Barack Obama's big speech on tomorrow night will be delivered from an elaborate columned platform resembling a miniature Greek temple, it has been revealed.
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High Anxiety in the Mile High City — I've been to a lot of conventions, and there's always something gratifyingly weird that happens. — Dan Quayle acting like a Dancing Hamster. Teresa Heinz Kerry reprising Blanche DuBois. Dick Morris getting nabbed triangulating between a hooker and toes.


CONVENTION MIDTERMS. — We're halfway through this convention. Not all the way through, nor even near it. And I'm inside the convention, not watching it on television and consequently not sure how most Americans are actually experiencing it. But if I were doing the grading now, I'd fail the thing.


Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer makes the most of the spotlight — DENVER — Montana Democrats no doubt will revel in Barack Obama's appearance in Billings today, his last campaign stop before heading here. But they already had reason to be excited this morning — their offbeat folksy governor …


Many Clinton Supporters Say Speech Didn't Heal Divisions — Hillary Rodham Clinton's most loyal delegates came to the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night looking for direction. They listened, rapt, to a 20-minute speech that many proclaimed the best she had ever delivered, hoping her words …
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Bush's 2004 temple — Barack Obama's appearance in Denver won't be the first convention speech framed by Greek columns. — Republicans who are mocking Obama's appearance haven't mentioned it, but George W. Bush accepted his own nomination in 2004 on a set with a similar neoclassical theme …
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Commentary


Columns — On cable they seem really upset that Barack Obama's stage at Invesco Field involves some classical columns to invoke the civic architecture of America: — It's funny that cable news never seemed to object to column backdrops before. I keep reading liberals bloggers saying …


Conservative Democrats Peeling Away From Obama — Moderate/Liberal Republicans also shifting more to McCain — PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama has been struggling to maintain his Democratic base thus far in August, and according to weekly averages of Gallup Poll Daily tracking, the problem seems to be with conservative Democrats.
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Plouffe Sanguine About Obama's Prospects — Barack Obama's margin among independent swing-voting women and sporadically voting Democrats are two of the main metrics his campaign is closely monitoring, Obama's election manager, David Plouffe, said today. — Plouffe, speaking to reporters …
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Reason Magazine

Gallup Daily: Race Still Close With Obama 45%, McCain 44% — No major change in structure of race, though Obama is doing slightly better — PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking average from Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday shows a race that is still close …

From the Fact Check Desk: Did Obama Say Iran Is a ‘Tiny’ Country That 'Doesn't Pose a Serious Threat'? — We, in the media, have given a lot of airtime to the TV ads of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., this week, starring, as they do, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
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Smears And Fears — My main worry with John McCain is foreign policy.
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The Jed Report


Avoiding a Lieberman Disaster — Creators Syndicate is pleased to announce that Robert D. Novak will be writing occasional columns. All his groundbreaking election analysis will be available on creators.com. Read it here first. — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Reports of strong support within …
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Chatter over Hutchison as possible VP pick grows louder — CRAWFORD — Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's long-shot odds for vice president are getting a push from conservative and other pundits in the lead-up to next week's Republican National Convention. — The latest flurry of speculation online …

Liebermanworld pushes back HARD on Novak report
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog

Howard Wolfson Goes To War With MSNBC, Hammers Chris Matthews And Keith Olbermann — On Fox News just now, Howard Wolfson unleashed a broad attack on MSNBC and its top on-air personalities, slamming the network's coverage of Bill and Hillary, hitting back at Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann …
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ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors — Asa Eslocker Was Investigating the Role of Lobbyists and Top Donors at the Convention — DENVER—Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures …

Greek columns? Really? — DENVER — Thus far, the Democratic convention has gone very smoothly, and it has been stage-managed well. That's one reason it's so jarring to see the preparations being made for Barack Obama's big speech, to be delivered Thursday night.
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JustOneMinute
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OBAMA'S GREEK TEMPLE, UP CLOSE — This YouTube video is pretty entertaining. It's by a guy who has a backstage pass at Invesco Field, and includes a walk on and around Obama's set for Thursday night, the infamous Greek temple. The narrator puzzles, by the way, over whether it's Greek or Roman …
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Files linking Obama to '60s radical a hot commodity — UIC library releases Annenberg records — The University of Illinois at Chicago on Tuesday released more than 1,000 files detailing the activities of an education reform group in which both Barack Obama and former 1960s radical William Ayers played key roles.
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Fox News
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Round and Round We Go — Part of the perverse logic of conservative foreign policy founded on a bizarre combination of hysteria and hubris is that there's this kind of quicksand phenomenon where the worse things get, the more you need to keep flailing. I think that's the best …
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Kevin Drum
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Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid's Limits — When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge …

TIRE SWING — I don't want to get in the way of reporter colleagues who can't help getting spun by their Republican sources. But we do all know that virtually every American civic building is based on Greek Revival architecture, right? And that the Obama backdrop actually looks like …
Discussion:
Salon

McCain Decision Soon — I'm told McCain's inner circle is having a final meeting on the vice presidential issue. It's not entirely clear whether it is to go through the choices again and reach a final decision, or whether it is for McCain to inform his inner circle of his choice.
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TIME.com