An open letter to Caroline Kennedy, by Michael Moore. — read here.
Candidates escalate war of words on Iraq. The candidates have shown their teeth in their disagreement over Iraq in speeches to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention — Washington Post
McCain weighs Lieberman surprise. The Republican VP candidate may be… a former Democrat. Politico reports that the McCain campaign has been sounding out party officials about the possible fallout if McCain choses a pro-abortion rights running mate such as Joe Lieberman – the former Democrat who was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. — Politico
Obama skewers McCain over “rich” comment. “[McCain] was on a [Rick Warren] panel the other day… Warren asked him, ‘How do you define rich?’ He said, maybe he was joking, he said, ‘$5 million.’ Which I guess, if you’re making $3 million a year, you’re middle class,” Obama said. “But that’s reflected in his policies. For people who are making more than $2.5 million, he’s giving folks a $500,000 tax break.” — The Carpetbagger Report
The abortion issue. Obama’s quip that deciding when life begins is “above his paygrade” won’t help him win voters even if they agree with his pro-choice stance, but the Dems can and should make it an election issue, argues Drew Westen. — Huffington Post
Was Huckabee’s Israel visit an audition for the VP spot? Time’s Middle East blog looks at how Huckabee’s support for Israel might help McCain with jewish voters. — Time
Condi’s hypocrisy. Condoleezza Rice echoes John McCain’s recent statement about Russia saying military power is “not the way to deal in the 21st century”. — Salon
Can Obama lose from ahead? – Two ideas – that Obama may be victim to the “Bradley effect” which sees black candidates leading in polls being beaten on the day, and an argument that Obama will lose without Hilary Clinton on the ticket. — Huffington Post
Blogwar over Edwards affair. Liberal blogger Lee Stranahan got banned from the influential Daily KOS blog for reporting on the John Edwards affair. — LA Times
Picking Lieberman would be a mistake since it would only reinforce Conservative uncertainty about McCain, something he needs to overcome, not feed. The really interesting candidate for Republican VP is the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. He has an Anglo-Indian background, is a Rhodes scholar and convert to Catholicism from the Hindu faith and is as ‘black’ as Obama.
Strongly pro-life and an excellent communicator and clearly something of an enigma, winning the office of Governor in the “Deep South” , historically home to Baptists and the Klan, neither of whom had, in the past, much time for Catholics or Blacks, Jindal would be a very clever and far sighted choice.