Obama is still basking in the love of the Europeans, while McCain is dodging hurricanes and criticism of his Iraq policy back home. Is god a Democrat?

Obama in Berlin – Barack Obama has given his much-anticipated Berlin speech in the latest stop on his European tour. The Kennedy comparisons have been working overtime, and as we mentioned the other day, commentators said Obama was setting himself up for comparison with Kennedy’s famous Cold War Berlin speech (read the transcript here) in which he won over the Germans by declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner”. National Review Online griped that Obama was overreaching in his statement that “The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil. “

Their gripe? It was squarely an attack on America, with less than 1% of foreign nationals amongst those who perished. — NRO

Iraq and the Surge – We mentioned yesterday that McCain’s been making mistakes under pressure about his Iraq policy. George W. Bush’s “Surge” strategy and it’s success or otherwise has been much discussed by the candidates. Today, Balloon Juice points out that McCain’s statements lately appear to be mistaken about the timetable of the Surge. “Has anyone pointed out yet that McCain is giving credit to the surge for things that happened not only before the actual surge began, but to events that took place before General Petraeus, the architect of the surge, was even in Iraq?”

MyDD also jumped into the fray, pointing out that in trying to clarify his position, McCain was revising what he considered to be the Surge itself, leading one reporter to ask “So when you say ‘surge’ then, you’re not referring to just the one that President Bush initiated, you’re saying it goes back several months before that?”

McCain likes the environment, likes drilling more. Two of McCain senior policy advisors held a press briefing overnight to discuss his energy plan. The timing was a little trick, since the last couple of days has seen a tanker spill near New Orleans and the cancellation of McCain’s visit to an oil rig due to inclement weather in the form of Hurricane Dolly. They managed to produce this gem of a quote:

“This [offshore drilling] is the right thing for the economy, it is the right thing for national security. And, as [McCain] is always committed to pursuing these endeavors in an environmentally friendly way, it’s the right thing for the environment in the long run as well.” — Grist

The Obama media bias issue – Quoting some stats about how media reports on Obama outnumber reports on McCain, the Swampland blog points to some interesting poll results which suggest the polls are much closer than the blanket Obama coverage might suggest.” The post suggests that while Obama’s current popularity is riding the anti-Bush coattails, McCain can take heart from stats like an 11-percentage-point advantage over Obama when voters were asked which candidate’s background and set of values they identify with more.

Should there be a John Edwards scandal? As recently as June, John Edwards was being mooted as a possible VP candidate for the Democrats. So Slate asks why the kerfuffle about his alleged affair and alleged love child isn’t getting any media scrutiny. “Is it because it broke too late yesterday afternoon, and news organizations want to investigate it for themselves before writing about it? Or are they observing a double standard that says homo-hypocrisy is indefensible but that hetero-hypocrisy deserves an automatic bye?” — Slate