On this Hump Day, I hope you got to be or will be able to assume whichever role you want - either humpee or humper. I wonder what the candidates' stance on Hump Day is? Inquiring minds want to know!

I've got nothing else "Intro" - wise; I've felt like my alarm just went off all day today. So, on to tonight's Countdown diary!

When people ask Mayor McLin about her unique eyeglasses – one frame is ovular, the other rectangular – she always offers the same quip.  The glasses are like Dayton: the city is well rounded and gives you a square deal.

I think I just saw the first 527 ad of the 2008 campaign season.  A group calling itself "LetFreedomRingUSA.com" has a new ad out charging that Barack Obama is "worse than a flip-flopper."  If anyone has had any previous experience with these wingnuts, please enlightenment me.  In the meantime, to the fold...

Over the last few days the McCain camp has started to get desperate with all the good news for Obama. So what does a campaign run by the architect of negative campaigning do?

Do some good 'ole negative campaigning of course. Here's a recap.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll continue the final elimination thread of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This elimination series began with the bottom 14 names, and eliminates the bottom vote-getter(s) and replaces them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we go (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not be the ones cut--who's cut will be determined by the new averages generated from this series's votes only). I hope that'll be complicated enough to dissatisfy and confuse everyone equally. I'm hoping we'll have five or six candidates left when Obama picks and see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. It should take about 14 threads to get all of the top candidates in the poll again, out of the 28 or so total threads. Fmr. Sen. Bob Graham (FL) was eliminated in the previous round, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO) rotated in to replace him this time.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case please include them. "Oh my God, where's Jane/Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

It has been a tough month of July for many of us.  We saw some blurring of the clear contrasts betweeen Obama and the Republicans with regard to FISA.  Yes, it was disappointing, and we have more work to do on that issue.

But for everyone who was disappointed then, the tables have now turned.  Obama's whirlwind tour of the Middle East and of Europe has so far shown a candidate who thinks, looks, acts and speaks like a Commander-in-Chief should.

We have seen that President Obama would restore America's stature in the world.  We have seen that President Obama would make the right choice on Iraq and Afghanistan.  We have seen that President Obama would have the respect of our Allies in Europe, of Israel and Palestine, and of our "frenemies" in the Middle East.

By contrast, we have seen that Senator McCain continues to make clear his lack of knowledge of foreign affairs in an ever more frenetic effort to blunt the Presidential momentum of the Senator from Illinois.

(more below...)

I'm very excited to announce that Swing State Project has upgraded Josh Zeitz's vigorous challenge to Republican and anti-choice House caucus chair Chris Smith. The NJ-04 race has now been dubbed a 'Race to Watch' by the well-respected site.

Blue Jersey has also reported on the upgrade.

In NJ-4, Josh Zeitz got some welcome news as his race has been added to the list of Races to watch. This will certainly be good for the Zeitz campaign as they try to keep up the momentum they've been building.  It's also good to see the continuing expansion of the playing field.

We at the campaign are hopeful that you'll join in the momentum (Josh-mentum?-just kidding). Please come to Josh's website and consider making a contribution. You can also contact ian_at_joshzeitz_dot_com if you want to volunteer. Please do recommend this diary so that we can get the news out.

Norm.  I'm seriously concerned about your well-being and your family.  I realize you're barely making it financially as a Senator and the stress of your reelection campaign has got to be giving you an ulcer.  It's just not fair that a Senator such as you should be living in the dive basement of a Replubican political operative and yet have to work so hard in such a anti-Replubican reelection environment.

But I have an idea.  You should become a lobbyist.

You gotta love Jack Cafferty sometimes.  

On the "Situation Room" he was just talking about Bush's "Wallstreet got drunk" comments and how the administration "shallowness" has created an appetite, "both here and abroad" for someone like Obama.

He then went on to how King Abdullah flew all the way back from Aspen, cutting his vacation short, just so he would have an opportunity to meet with Obama.

But his best comment was about how the King drove Senator Obama to the airport personally, and

"It must be like someone working at a nursery all week, and then finally, on Friday afternoon, they get the opportunity to talk to an adult"  

It's almost time to jump in the pool, everyone.  We're getting ready to have an adult swim!

The McCain campaign has been attacking Senator Obama's patriotism in various ways.  Here's a new ad from the Republican National Committee attacking Barack Obama for voting against funding the troops in May 2007.  

"There are few votes as important as funding our men and women in uniform. But when our military needed necessary resources, Barack Obama failed to stand up."

The Obama campaign response, after the fold.

This is a diary about how to run a voter registration drive. Specifically, it’s about how I run the all-volunteer voter registration drive for the Travis County Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign. It is intended to help all of you set up your own voter registration efforts, whether it’s you and a friend on a street corner, or a group of eager individuals at a community event. Read it, print out the text, email the link, however you think it can help. The key is for everyone to start registering voters.

To conduct a voter registration drive, you need three things:

• Volunteers
• Locations
• Supplies

I’m going to cover each of these three aspects below. In the coming weeks, my fellow voter registration all-star casperr and I will post a few more diaries to help you all get involved with voter registration.

This is good timing, because today marks a major milestone in our Austin Vote for Change efforts: tonight we will register our 1000th voter. More on that, too.

Apologies upfront for this being a fairly short diary but I am sick to death of Andrea Mitchell.

► With Defense Minster, Ehud Barak

*

BOOOO-YAHH!!  Let the smackdown begin.

► Whiner!!

► Too Old!!

► Too Angry!!

► Smear Merchant!!

The Village™ elders dropped an anvil on his head.

► Update: He's Losing it.
*

► First up: Jack Cafferty knee-caps McWhiner.

Cross-posted at Strategy 08.

CBS is in defense mode over its cut-and-paste McCain interview, where different answers were substituted for different questions.

"As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night’s Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates' major differences,"  CBS spokeswoman Jennifer Farley emailed. "The full transcript and video were and still are available at cbsnews.com."

The problem is, of course, that they didn't simply edit the response, they cut in an entirely different answer.  They lied.  And they presented this lie to the American people as fact.

"We need to focus not on middle-east oil, but on mid-west innovation. ~ Senator Major John Boccieri(D-Alliance)

In July, John spoke about high gas prices and his energy solutions at a Canton gas station. You can watch video excerpts below:

More below the fold!

Yesterday I wrote about how Gordon Smith and the Oregon Republican party had released a web ad and website smearing Jeff Merkley's record.  Today, the DSCC fired back with a brilliant ad nailing Gordon Smith on the war on Iraq.  See more below the jump...

Cross-posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/...

The Gaffe-a-thon machine that has become John McCain just cancelled it's Press availability today and it's been noted by Politico with a nice detailed run down of just why...

He hasn't explained what he meant by juggling the timeline on the surge and Awakening; whether he meant that Obama was deliberately selling out the country; whether he shares his campaign's grievance with the press; or what he thinks of his staff's genocide-themed attack.

So while Barack Obama has the guts to go into Ramallah to discuss Isreal/Palestine, McCain can't stand a few hot questions from the press in Pennsylvania....

Remind me again whose the Brave War Hero?  Looks like a Chickenhawk to me!  Then again maybe there was fear that only 2 reporters would show up.

Senator Obama is holding a live Press conference in the town of Sderot Israel now.

He is being hosted by the Mayor of Sderot. The town is at the center of the fighting, and has received over 2600 missle attacks so far this year (that's whats behind Obama; spent missle shells).

But, further below (in the body), are the latest McCain Shenanigans. McCain, has altered his Surge story again. Today, in a speech, he blurred the lines between the Surge, and the Sunni Awakening, with out every calling it by name, but prasing General Petraeus's "new strategy" as a hero

Now to Obama: Dressed in a white open collar shirt, with no suit jacket.

He looks, and sounds so Presidential.

Obama is not picking the questions. That's being done by an Israeli (and so far most of the questions are being asked by Israeli media).

But these guys, are trying to really ask tough questions, or put Obama in a pickle. He's truly walking a minefield before he leaves for Europe. The haters (like A. Mitchell) are gonna really look for gaffes here.

This is being broadcast on MSNBC and CNN right now.

Here's the webstream, for those with no TV ascess. http://www.cnn.com/...