| 10:12 PM: | Obama Picks Sen. Joe Biden. This is a formidable ticket, and a risky ticket, and not a comfort zone choice for Obama. Atlantic. | |
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| 10:12 PM: | Biden speaks... and speaks... his own mind. Barack Obama told everyone he wanted a running mate who will challenge his thinking, and now he's got one. Joe Biden's tendency to speak his own mind - and speak and speak - is entwined in his DNA. AP. | |
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| 10:11 PM: | Obama-Biden. Obama-Biden works on several fronts, A longtime sentimental favorite among the Democratic faithful, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden provides a comfort zone for labor leaders, Catholics (he is one) and national-security voters. Craig Crawford. | |
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| 10:09 PM: | Obama picks Joe Biden as VP candidate. Multiple Democratic sources confirm to CNN that Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice presidential nominee. A text message with the announcement will be sent to Obama's supporters sometime Saturday morning. Both men are expected to appear at a rally later that day in Springfield, Illinois. CNN. | |
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| 7:47 PM: | CNN confirms: Kaine will not be VP. Sources close to Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia says he has been informed he will not be Obama's Vice President. One source tells CNN that Obama personally made the call to Governor Kaine. CNN. | |
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| 7:44 PM: | AP: Bayh out of VP running. AP reports that Bayh is out of the running for Obama's vice-presidential pick. Politico. | |
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| 6:48 PM: | The RNC's ready to hit the airwaves. First Read has learned that, during the Dem convention, the RNC will be up on the air with a significant TV buy on broadcast and cable in the battleground states of Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. MSNBC. | |
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| 6:47 PM: | Announcement will come Saturday AM. CNN is told by senior Obama campaign officials the text message announcing the Illinois senator's running mate will be sent Saturday morning. CNN. | |
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| 6:46 PM: | August 22 podcast. Show Summary: boycotting the political conventions; Olympics coverage we didn't see; a fact checking abomination On The Media. | |
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| 5:18 PM: | What the Hell Is Taking So Long? You can let the suspense build and build if you've got a Hillary or a Gore socked away somewhere. Possibly a Biden or a Webb (or some unorthodox pick like a general or a Republican). But you'd better not come with Jack Reed or Evan Bayh after toying with people for over a week. New Republic. | |
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| 4:59 PM: | Meet George Obama. CNN found Barack Obama's half-brother living in a Nairobi slum. CNN. | |
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| 4:59 PM: | McCain, Lieberman coziness irks Dems. Conservatives and Democrats rarely agree, but the decision to have Sen. Joe Lieberman speak at the Republican National Convention has put both groups on edge. CNN. | |
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| 4:58 PM: | Hurry up and wait. As cable-news channels showed live shots of the homes of prospective running mates, Obama dropped no hints. Politico.com: 3. | |
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| 4:57 PM: | Edwards... no, no... not that one. Chet Edwards has remained under the radar for a long time, but today his name is being resurfaced as a possible choice for Obama's VP. "We've all been pretty successful at keeping this a secret for the last two-and-a-half months, so I didn't necessarily expect my name floated out there today," Edwards told reporters outside his house in Waco, Texas, of reports that he was vetted by Obama camp. MSNBC. | |
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| 4:57 PM: | Company Printing Obama-Bayh Stickers. A company in Lenexa, Kansas has begun printing bumper stickers with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's (D) name showing up as Barack Obama's running mate. The Hill. | |
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| 4:56 PM: | Corporate Coziness At The Conventions. Is the political party just beginning for special interests and big business? The candidates' lavish convention events may be the ultimate display of the corporate coziness they say they're against. CBS. | |
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| 2:49 PM: | ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS. Meet the Press: Caroline Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi Fox News Sunday: Govs. Kaine, Ritter, Obama campaign advisor Gibbs Face the Nation: Govs. Sebelius, Rendell, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. Late Edition: Sen. Casey, Gov. Napolitano, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Clyburn, former Clinton chair McAuliffe This Week: Axelrod, Giuliani. Roundtable with Halperin, Will, Brazile, Roberts Mark Halperin. | |
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| 10:24 AM: | Gallup Daily: Obama Clings to 1-point Advantage. Barack Obama continues to hold the slimmest of margins over John McCain, 45% to 44%, in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update. Gallup. | |
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| 10:24 AM: | Reports: Clinton wasn't vetted, Chet Edwards was. One Democratic source says Hillary Clinton "was not asked for a single piece of paper" by Barack Obama's team. Salon. | |
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| 10:24 AM: | McCain ad: Celebrities like Obama don't have to worry about money, but 'we' do. Repeating a theme of recent weeks (that Democrat Barack Obama is a "celebrity") and a claim that has been challenged by fact-checkers (that Obama wants to raise "your" taxes) Republican John McCain's latest TV ad underscores those messages. USA Today. | |
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| 10:24 AM: | Pawlenty defends McCain on homes. Less than a day after the Obama campaign put out a new ad about Sen. John McCain's recent inability to state the number of houses he owns with his wife Cindy, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is defending the presumptive Republican nominee. CNN. | |
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| 10:24 AM: | GOP Wants Barr Barred From Pa. Ballot. Of course they do, just as Democrats fought hard to keep Nader off the ballot in 2004. My sense is that this time around Barr will be more of a problem for Republicans than Nader will be for Democrats. Election Law. | |
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| 10:22 AM: | VP: who has been called so far? CNN first reported, and I can confirm, that Barack Obama has begun calling some folks who were vetted but who didn't quite make it. Maybe these aren't the short-listers. Atlantic. | |
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| 9:24 AM: | Obama Camp's Many Ties To Wife's Employer. There is a close relationship between the Obamas, their associates at the University of Chicago and Axelrod, the strategist most central to Barack Obama's rise. CBS. | |
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| 9:24 AM: | A look inside the veep vetting process. Ever wonder what its like to be on the short list? Well, Sen. Bob Graham can tell you because the Florida Democrat was vetted three times: in 1988, 1992, and 2004. CNN. | |
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| 9:23 AM: | King speech to Obama speech: A dream realized? The dreamer in him envisioned a day when "Whites Only" signs would no longer hang in restaurant windows. A time when everyone's desire to vote would be respected. A time when blacks and whites would work, pray and live together. AP. | |
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| 7:27 AM: | Worse Than A Scanner Moment? Maybe McCain isn't thought of as "rich," but it doesn't take a whole lot of persuasion to convince people that he doesn't have a feel for what's going on with the economy. I'd say that 99% of Americans know exactly what their mortgage rate is each month, not to mention how many homes they own. Atlantic. | |
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| 7:26 AM: | Bayh News? 'It's Not Mine to Report' As veepstakes speculation reaches a fever pitch all around him, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a rumored short-lister to share the Democratic ticket with Barack Obama, has managed to maintain a remarkably low profile. ABC. | |
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| 7:25 AM: | VP Guessing Game Nears Conclusion. Presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday the running mate he has chosen - but has not yet announced - had to meet three standards to join the Democratic ticket. CBS. | |
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| 6:46 AM: | A very good jeer. The Obama campaign needed to turn things around fast. Yes, the polls still show a tight race with maybe a slight edge. But a narrative was starting to emerge, of McCain as the comeback kid and Obama as the man who couldn't live up to his own hype. And those narratives can be deadly. Paul Krugman. | |
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| 6:38 AM: | McCain camp strikes back on houses issue. With a nasty ad, John McCain's campaign tries to shift the focus on to Barack Obama -- and Tony Rezko. Salon. | |
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| 6:38 AM: | Biden Enjoys V.P. Wait with Family By His Side. As a small media circus congregates at the driveway to the family home of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a collection of Biden relatives, staff, security and supporters have driven past in last 24 hours. ABC. | |
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| 6:36 AM: | Official Net Worth: McCain $36.4 Million, Obama $799,000. Earlier this year, the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation did an analysis of the net worth of each of the 535 members of Congress based on their personal financial disclosure. HuffPost. | |
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| 6:08 AM: | Disclosure reports show Clinton still deeply in debt. Well over two months have passed since Hillary Clinton formally abandoned her White House bid, but newly-released Federal Election Commission reports show the New York senator has made little headway in paying off her sizeable campaign debt. CNN. | |
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| 6:05 AM: | Why Isn't He Winning? Barack Obama can develop empathy, craft a compelling economic message, avoid the success of the surge, and get everyone to focus on the initial decision to support the war (unless of course Joe Biden or Evan Bayh is the VP). Commentary. | |
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| 6:04 AM: | Source: Obama calls Veep runner-ups. Sen. Barack Obama called some people on his short-list for the vice presidential slot Thursday night to tell them he had not selected them as running mate, a highly placed Democratic party source told CNN. The source did not say which people got the call. CNN. | |
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| 6:03 AM: | Mittmentum? One report suggests that John McCain has settled on former rival Mitt Romney as his running mate. Salon. | |
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