THEY HOPE PEOPLE DON'T NOTICE HOW THEY'VE CHANGED THE GROUND RULES  —  In today's Chicago Tribune, the Obama camp responds to nitpicky concerns about their attempts to shut down radio shows that might say things they don't like, via their “Obama Action Wires”:

John McCain just forget where Spain was.  Seriously, not kidding.  —  (UPDATE: I now have the Spanish version of the interview cropped to the 1 minute 37 seconds in question.  You can listen to it here, but it's in Spanish.)  —  This isn't funny.  It's actually quite serious.

LOSING IT  —  Did John McCain really just suggest that the Prime Minister of Spain might be one of America's enemies?  One of those international leaders he'd refuse to meet with?  —  Does he want to liberate Spain too?  —  The passage in question is at the end of the interview linked here (with translation into Spanish) ...

EL CID!  (MORE ON MCCAIN'S LIBERATION OF SPAIN)  —  We wanted to give you an update on the post below where we described Sen. McCain's latest gaffe in which he seemed to suggest that he might not be willing to meet with Spanish Prime Minster Zapatero because he is among those world leaders who want to harm America.

Will McCain Waste Palin?  —  The media is turning the news into a presidential video game.  “Hurricane Ike” or “Wall Street Meltdown” appears onscreen, and the media boots up Barack Obama and John McCain to see how well they talk the problem.  Mostly they are speaking gobbledygook about things they barely understand.

Poll: Obama Retakes Lead Over McCain  —  Though McCain's supporters have become more enthusiastic about the Republican nominee, he still suffers from an enthusiasm gap.  Sixty-one percent of Obama supporters are enthusiastic about their candidate, up eight points from last week's poll …