CNN

CNN: Campaign stops add to VP speculation
In the run-up to the vice presidential announcements, a campaign stop is less about what's said than where it is; geography and choreography are clues.

WSJ: McCain Takes Hands-Off Approach With Platform
Jean from Ferrisburgh, Vt., wants the Republican Party to get off "the global-warming bus." Paul from Carrollton, Texas, wants it to "reject fetal stem-cell research." And Larry from Waynesboro, Pa., wants the party to promise to "deport those who are here illegally."

NY Times: Obama’s Ads in Key States Go on Attack
Senator Barack Obama has started a sustained and hard-hitting advertising campaign against Senator John McCain in states that will be vital this fall, painting Mr. McCain in a series of commercials as disconnected from the economic struggles of the middle class.

AP: McCain, Obama to silence critical ads on Sept. 11
Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain plan to pull ads on Sept. 11 that criticize each other, a respite from the political fray to honor the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

CNN Radio: Looking for clues in the VP whirlwind
The letters "v" and "p" may go up in value on the Scrabble board, as we get deeper into the daily guessing game about Barack Obama and John McCain's choices for number two. Lisa Desjardins has today's CNN Radio Political Ticker.

USA Today: St. Paul hopes GOP convention wows guests
The last time the Twin Cities hosted a major political party's nominating convention, delegates from the 44 states arrived at Minneapolis' Exposition Building in horse-drawn buggies and street cars, and "Flour City" was derided by some Easterners as a frontier town.

Washington Post: This Time, McCain Knows the Drill
Last month, a hurricane and an oil spill derailed Sen. John McCain's visit to an oil rig to tout his support for offshore drilling as a solution to the nation's energy woes.

Washington Times: Obama courts military voters; Gives nod to success of surge
Sen. Barack Obama, edging away from a long-held position, tacitly acknowledged the success of the Iraq troop-surge strategy during an appearance Tuesday before the country's largest organization of combat veterans.

USA Today: Democrats planning everything but the weather in Denver
Democrats are hoping for an open-air sendoff of Barack Obama on Aug. 28 as big as the Colorado sky. But what if Denver's heavens open up with a thunderstorm, as they can do on late-summer evenings on the Rockies' eastern slopes?

Washington Post: Candidates' Abortion Views Not So Simple
The narrative of the presidential campaign appeared to be set on the issue of abortion: Sen. Barack Obama was the abortion-rights candidate who was reaching out to foes, seeking common ground and making inroads. Sen. John McCain was the abortion opponent whose reticence about faith and whose battles on campaign finance laws drew suspect glances from would-be supporters.

LA Times: In announcing a running mate, timing and place are key
For McCain and Obama, the choice of when and where to announce their vice presidential picks can maximize publicity and minimize potential problems at their conventions.

Politico: McCain weighs a Lieberman surprise
John McCain is seriously considering choosing a pro-abortion-rights running mate despite vocal resistance from conservatives, with former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) very much in the mix, close McCain advisers say.

Politico: Biden their time? Lieberman, Graham head to Georgia, too
McCain men Joe Lieberman (a rumored veep choice) and Lindsey Graham are leaving today for a two-day tour of Poland, the Ukraine and Georgia, where they will meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Bloomberg: Bayh's Running-Mate Chances May Be Hurt by Wife's Board Seats
Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, on a short list of Democrat Barack Obama's possible running mates, may face questions about potential conflicts of interest from his wife's work on seven corporate boards that paid her more than $837,000 last year.

NY Times: Obama’s 2003 Stand on Abortion Draws New Criticism in 2008
Abortion, a familiar issue in elections past, has again emerged in recent days as a focus of controversy. Senator Barack Obama is coming under intense fire from anti-abortion groups because of the position he took as an Illinois state senator on legislation regarding the status of fetuses that survive abortion procedures.

NY Times: Talk of McCain’s No. 2 Concerns Conservatives
Senator John McCain is facing increasing scrutiny about his selection of a running mate as some social conservatives expressed alarm on Tuesday that Mr. McCain might ask a candidate who favors abortion rights to join him on the ticket.

NY Times: One Hand on Her Job, the Other Across the Aisle
Of all those said to be on the short list for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas best embodies the kind of bipartisanship that Barack Obama hailed in the convention speech that made him a household name four years ago: no red states or blue states, just the United States.

WSJ: Biden's Foreign Policy Background Carries Growing Cachet
Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden returned from a visit to the war-torn country of Georgia to find himself in a new spotlight as speculation intensifies over Barack Obama's imminent choice of a running mate.

CNN: Blake: A glimpse of the young Obama in action
In 1987, I got a sneak preview of one of the most unlikely political stories of our time. It would take me nearly 20 years to figure out that I had stumbled upon a slice of American history.

CNN: Slow change frustrated young Obama, friends say
As a young man, Barack Obama idolized the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. "Reading about people not that much older than me who had gone to jail and suffered beatings in order to liberate a people," he said, "I thought there's something powerful about that."

Washington Post: Obama's Wide Web
Amid the cramped, crowded cubicles inside Sen. Barack Obama's campaign headquarters here, sandals are as ubiquitous as iPods.

Politico: Nader predicts Obama to pick Clinton
Count Ralph Nader as unimpressed by the crop of supposed finalists to be Barack Obama’s running mate. “I don’t think he’s that dumb,” said Nader, commenting on widespread speculation that Obama’s choices are down to Sens. Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

CNN: MoveOn.org targets Elizabeth Dole's Senate race
MoveOn.org has its sights set on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's unexpectedly competitive contest for re-election in North Carolina, spending nearly half a million dollars on an ad accusing the North Carolina senator and fellow Republican John McCain of being "in the pocket of Big Oil."

Washington Post: Agreement on Drilling Doesn't Yet Mean Action
Republicans are in their third week of House floor protests on the energy issue, and the political terrain appears to have shifted significantly since they launched their efforts Aug. 1.

NY Times: Some Democrats Urge Delay in Building a U.S. Missile System in Eastern Europe
As the Bush administration speeds ahead with plans to construct a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, some Democrats in Congress want to put on the brakes, saying it has not been adequately tested.

USA Today: States throw out costly electronic voting machines
The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers.

Washington Post: Sibling Revelation: An Overlooked Branch of Cindy McCain's Family Tree
When Cindy McCain talks about growing up, she usually refers to herself as an "only child" - a phrase that ignores the existence of her half sisters. "It's terribly painful," Kathleen Hensley Portalski said yesterday. "It is as if she is the 'real' daughter. I am also a real daughter."

Washington Post: Bush Administration Rule on Pollution Struck Down
A federal appeals court yesterday struck down a Bush administration rule that prevented states and local governments from imposing stricter monitoring of pollution generated by power plants, factories and oil refineries than required by the federal government.

Washington Post: Capturing The Bush Legacy Online
The Bush administration will soon be packed and gone, but part of its legacy will live on in cyberspace. A consortium of government and nonprofit agencies plans to capture snapshots of every federal government Web site before Jan. 20, when the next president moves into the White House and starts remaking the federal bureaucracy to fit his agenda.