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Karl Rove says Barack Obama may be overreaching by spending money in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Nebraska, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota, which means that Karl Rove is worried about losing North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Nebraska, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota.

Doug Feith, once described as the "stupidest guy on the face of the earth," gives five reasons why we went to war with Iraq...and three of them involve 9/11.  

David Broder decided to use his Washington Post real estate to tell about a report from a conservative think tank that concludes:

When it comes to the treatment of immigrants, the Bradley team sees a real threat in such things as multilingual ballots and bilingual classes. Such accommodations to the growing diversity of the population could lead to "many Americas, or even no America at all," they maintain. "Historical ignorance, civic neglect and social fragmentation might achieve what a foreign invader could not."

Broder doesn’t agree but apparently thought his readers should know that some people think brown people are scary.

Gail Collins talks about "Wesleygate," and the yawns that now greet calls for someone to be fired, saying that:

We yearn for the good old days when people saved proposals of employment termination for larger errors, like, say, mismanaging an entire war, or subverting the Constitution.

Ed Feulner says that yeah, things aren’t going well; gas prices are soaring along with foreclosures, the dollar is tanking, our treasury is teetering towards bankruptcy and we’re in the middle of a war. But there’s no reason to be pessimistic.  

Henry Miller wants us to stop demonizing those victims of government bureaucracy...the pharmaceutical industry.

Today Barack Obama announced that "to build a real partnership between faith-based organizations and the White House," as President he would create a President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  

The Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will "train the trainers" by giving larger faith-based partners like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services—and secular nonprofits like Public/Private Ventures—the support they need to help other groups build and run effective programs.

The announcement is raising concerns in some quarters over the separation between church and state. Says the Obama campaign:

The new partnership will not endanger the separation of church and state, so long as a few basic principles are followed. First, if an organization gets a federal grant, it will not be permitted to use that grant money to proselytize to the people it serves, and the group will forbidden to discriminate against them on the basis of their religion. And groups will be required to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws in their hiring practices—including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques will only be allowed to go toward secular programs. And Obama will ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

 

Obviously this will not satisfy everyone, but if you support government aid to secular groups that provide services to the poor, it's hard for me to understand objecting to assisting religious-based groups that do the same. That is, as long as there are clear-cut guidelines that assure that there will be safeguards against proselytizing.

Late last year the Washington Post ran a front page story detailing internet rumors about Barack Obama. It was an article so lacking in any journalistic value or ethics that the Columbia Journalism Review called it:

...the single worst campaign ‘08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.

And apparently not satisfied with having the single worst campaign ’08 piece, yesterday the Washington Post has followed up with: People Who Believe Internet Rumors:

On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor's house, at his son's auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate's background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Now there’s some breaking news for you...there are people in the world that ignore facts and rely on ridiculous rumors to justify their "concerns" about Barack Obama (much like the Washington Post seems to be doing). And while the Jim Petermans’ of the world may pretend that it is rumors that have raised doubts in their mind, there seems to be a much simpler explanation:

As the years passed, Peterman and his neighbors approached one another to share in their skepticism about the unknown. What was the story behind the handful of African Americans who had moved into a town that is 93 percent white?

A suggestion for the Washington Post; the next time you want to present the effect of internet rumors
as a legitimate news story, please find people who aren't quite so obvious about having already dismissed Obama as a candidate because he is black. Because otherwise it just seems like you are looking for an excuse to repeat those rumors.

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Richard Cohen apparently hired a ghost writer for the day as his column on pandering to the religious right makes a lot of sense.

E.J. Dionne wonders if history will repeat itself with the scores of judges appointed over the years of conservative rule, doing:

....exactly what conservative courts did for much of the New Deal era by using a narrow, 19th-century definition of property rights to void progressive economic, environmental and labor regulation.

David Brooks offers a laundry list of the type of big-money people who support Barack Obama versus John McCain. It seems that most of them lived in liberal suburbs and went to Berkeley or Harvard.

Thomas Schaller dismisses the idea that Barack Obama can win in places like Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi. Virginia is a maybe.

Jonah Goldberg must be in pain today after the stretching he does to explain why a President Obama, if he "does his job right," will validate George Bush’s presidency.

William McGurn says that if John McCain plays his cards right, he can grab the mantle of JFK.

Bret Stephens warms the cockles of Jim Inhofe's heart with his look at global warming:

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Much of the science has since been discredited. Now it's time for political scientists, theologians and psychiatrists to weigh in.

• Quote of the day, from Hillary Clinton's Unity speech:

  In the end, Senator McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change.

• The Washington Post's editorial board Fred Hiatt continues his one-man campaign for John McCain. In an editorial originally titled "His Latest Flip Flop," Hiatt says the only way for Obama to "practice the change he preaches" is to meet John McCain for 10 town hall meetings.  Hiatt doesn't say if those town halls should be stocked with random voters.
• John McCain is still struggling to shore up his conservative support, although you won't be seeing that 24/7 on cable news.
• House Republicans have concluded that things don't look good for November and think that:

  GOP candidates on the ballot in November must show "deep empathy towards the voters" and rely on local rather than national issues...

  In other words, run as fast as they can from George Bush and John McCain.

• Apparently Virgil Goode (R-VA) didn't get the memo, because he has become the third Republican to falsely claim that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba. So far, Goode is standing by his debunked talking point.
• Will Smith wants to play President Obama in a movie because "America just loves ears."
• Mark Blumenthal (in National Journal) explains why Party ID changes from poll to poll... and why a single poll shouldn't give anyone the vapors (but multiple polls should).  - DemFromCT

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Richard Perle, one of the architects of the war in Iraq, a man who in 2003 predicted that there would soon be a square in Baghdad named after George Bush, is now offering his foreign policy expertise on what to do about Iran.  What’s next from the Washington Post?  Woody Allen offering advice on how to bond with your stepchildren?

David Broder decides to take on the evils of gerrymandering.  So naturally he opens with a dig at Barack Obama for rejecting public financing.

Robert Novak adds nothing new to the "Obamacons" story, but this quote makes it worth a mention:

The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of 'Weekend With Bernie,' handcuffed to a corpse.

David Limbaugh gets his money’s worth from his all-purpose-rightwing-talking-points guide as he warns his readers about Barack Obama...he hits ‘em all:  elitist, snobbery, flip flopper, slick, Bill Clinton, and of course, the liberal media.  Limbaugh does lose points for forgetting to mention lattes or Birkenstocks.  

Karl Rove thinks that Barack Obama is arrogant and ambitious, and to prove it, he conflates, distorts and whines.  Business as usual from Bush's Brain.

Todd Domke has a strategy to ensure a McCain victory in November:

The simple answer is that he must be the maverick McCain of 2000 - a straight-talking, bipartisan-solutions reformer.

Great idea.  I can’t wait for McCain to call the religious right "agents of intolerance," tell George Bush that he "should be ashamed of himself," come out against tax cuts and champion a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.  

George Curry takes on an issue that will not endear him to his band of journalistic brothers:  he makes the case that Tim Russert was "not as tough on Washington insiders as has been portrayed."

 

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Richard Cohen explains that while Barack Obama may have a lot of charisma, his character is in question because of his lack of experience.  And apparently the only experience that could answer that character question is if he was tortured while a POW. Not that John McCain is perfect or anything (more on this moronic screed later today).

David Brooks is thankful that George Bush is stubborn, self-confident and secretive, because the "surge" is working!  The naysayers may harp on the fact that 1,073 U.S. troops and more than 20,000 Iraqis have died since it began and complain that the benchmarks that it was supposed to enable haven’t happened, but they’ll eat their words because victory is just around the corner.

Jonah Goldberg, renowned energy and environmental expert, says that it’s time to end our "self-imposed embargo" and let the drilling begin.  He didn’t mention what he thought the oil companies should do with the millions of acres worth of leases that they are currently sitting on.

Tara Wall is shocked that Barack Obama is inciting fear by suggesting that Republicans will use his name and his color in an attempt to make voters distrust him.  What?  Does he think Republicans will suggest he’s a closet Muslim or say that there’s videotape of his wife ranting against "whitey"?  That’s crazy talk.

William McGurn takes on the pro-choice Catholic supporters of Barack Obama and points out that they want judges who will "impose their own views upon the law on issues that ought properly be left to the American people." Because we wouldn't want anyone imposing their own views on anyone's choices.  

Jerry Seinfeld pays tribute to George Carlin:

You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George.

This week the Washington Post will be taking a two-part, front page look at the failure of al-Hurra, an Arabic-language propaganda network financed by the U.S. government and created to win those ever-elusive hearts and minds in the Middle East.  But let’s save you some time because the reason for this $350 million dollar failure is pretty much summed up in these three lines:

[A] succession of executives who either had little experience in television or could not speak Arabic.

One news anchor greeted the station's predominantly Muslim audience on Easter by declaring, "Jesus is risen today!"

In 2004, when an Israeli airstrike killed the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, virtually all Arabic news channels interrupted their regular programming. Al-Hurra continued with a cooking show.

And now that the mystery of why al-Hurra only manages to attract 2% of its target audience is solved, perhaps the Washington Post could take some time to investigate the Pentagon sponsored propaganda program that propelled us into a war in Iraq.  The one that has cost more than $500 billion, 4,103 American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.   Because the Washington Post still hasn’t bothered to report on that story.

A major endorsement for Orange to Blue candidate Mark Begich:

In a blow to the re-election campaign of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska AFL-CIO has endorsed his Democratic opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Unlike most states, unions in Alaska often endorse the dominant Republicans, and the AFL-CIO has endorsed Stevens in all his past re-election campaigns -- but his lagging both numbers and ethics investigations may have changed the calculations this time.

In the past, Stevens was better than almost any Republican on labor issues, but now he's gone too far right, he's weakened, and Begich is a strong enough candidate that labor is obviously not worried about angering Stevens, so they're going for the better candidate. This is a huge boost for Begich given that Alaska is the scond most unionized state in the country.

Race tracker wiki:  AK-Sen

Race tracker wiki: AK-Sen

After eight years of a photo-op presidency, John McCain is ready to step in on day one:

An aide to Iowa's governor said Thursday that Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored the governor's request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood recovery effort in the state.

McCain toured flood-damaged sites in Iowa on Thursday, including the town of Columbus Junction in the southeast.  [...]

Patrick Dillon, Gov. Chet Culver's chief of staff, said the governor was concerned that McCain's trip would divert local law enforcement from the flood recovery effort to provide security for McCain.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled a scheduled visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials.

McCain's campaign claimed that no resources were diverted.  Of course they also claim that McCain is a straight talking maverick.

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David Broder tells us to forget about Obama or McCain, because Joe Biden and Richard Lugar are the ones who can cure what ails us.

Gail Collins, besides being surprised that George Bush is still President, points out that:

McCain does not want this to be an election in which the public is asked whether they’d rather have Carter II or Bush III.

We would.

Tim Rutten thinks that the Bush administration tricked us into war and made torture the official policy of the United States, but that "policy mistakes" should only be punished at the ballot box.

Steve Johnson thinks that the google may indeed be making us stoopid.

Tony Mauro wonders if a President Obama would follow in the footsteps of Lincoln and Eisenhower and nominate Hillary Clinton for the Supreme Court.

Daniel Henninger's solution to global warming seems to be, build a better house and don't count on the government.  Apparently it's the difference between living in the here-and-now and being "out there."

Garrison Keillor bids farewell to the Winnebago and predicts that skyrocketing gas prices will lead to the return of the banjo, the front porch and the art of storytelling.  We can only hope he's wrong about the banjo.

It seems that the McCain campaign is getting a bit cantankerous.  They don’t like anyone saying that John McCain is old.  And they don’t like anyone implying he’s old.  In fact, they don’t like it if they think that someone might be hinting that he’s old:

As some Republicans see it, Democrats are deliberately talking in code about the presumptive 71-year-old GOP nominee as part of an attempt to highlight his age.

"It is code; there is no question it is," [said] Ed Rollins.

First, let’s pause for a moment and ponder the hypocrisy of Republicans whining about using code words to create doubt or fear for political gain.  And now that you’re done laughing, who is the McCain campaign trying to kid?  John McCain has no problem mentioning his age in a self-deprecating, ah shucks, kind of way when he thinks it’s to his advantage, but he’s going to be outraged that people are talking "in code" about his age?   Because he certainly doesn’t seem to have a problem using age as an issue

"I admire and respect Senator Obama," Mr. McCain said, his voice full of sarcasm. "For a young man with very little experience, he’s done very well."

He went on: "For his very, very great lack of experience and knowledge of the issues, he’s been very successful. So don’t get me wrong, I admire and respect Senator Obama, but he does not have the knowledge background or judgment to lead this nation in these difficult and challenging times and I do, and I can keep this nation prosperous and secure."

Or is it okay if you simply skip the code?  And then there’s the pseudo-outrage, such as when McCain was "obviously disappointed" that John Kerry would insult his age by calling him "confused" about Sunnis and Shiites.  Given that McCain has said on three separate occasions that Iran is training Sunnis to fight in Iraq, McCain should be grateful that Kerry went with confused rather than calling him either stupid or a liar. Calling him confused was a kindness, not a slur.

While some might want to make McCain's age and less than stellar health an issue, the real problem is that his ideas are old. From running a campaign that can’t master the google, to vowing to continue the failed policies of the last eight years, John McCain is living in the past and that fact is a valid campaign issue.  And Democrats can’t fall into the trap of censoring their language because the McCain campaign complains about supposed code words. Saying that McCain has lost his bearings, lost his mind, or that he can't remember what he said last week isn't a slur against his age, it's reality.    

John McCain, last week:

But I'm not for, quote, "privatizing" Social Security.  I never have been, I never will be.

And back in the day when, side by side with George Bush, John McCain fought to privatize Social Security.

• 2004: "Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits.  [C-Span Road to the White House, 11/18/2004]
• 2005: "McCain has been especially supportive of his onetime rival, appearing with Bush at three events over the past two days in trying to prod Democrats into negotiations to include private accounts in a plan to revamp Social Security." [Washington Post, 3/23/05]
• 2008: "As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines of what President Bush proposed. I campaigned in support of President Bush's proposal and I campaigned with him, and I did town hall meetings with him." [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

In the words of Barack Obama, "privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It's a bad idea today."  As for John McCain lying about his previous position?  It's yet another YouTube moment for Senator Straight Talk.^TM

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David Brooks waxes poetic over Tiger Woods - and  can’t decide if competence is awesome or scary.  Really.

George Will wonders if John McCain bothered to read the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush before deciding to make it a campaign issue.

Horace Cooper, on the other hand, saw the decision to uphold the the great writ of liberty as a "major power grab by an arrogant judicial majority," a "radical manifestation of judicial imperialism," and an "activist decision."  Oh, and it emboldened the terrorists.

Dawn Turner Trice discusses context, history and racial slurs.

E.J. Dionne hopes that Barack Obama’s speech on fathers and responsible parenting won’t be dismissed as a political ploy, saying that, "It actually matters that a presidential candidate is taking the costs of fatherlessness seriously."

Bret Stephens didn’t have the time or the money to poll Iraqis, but he did talk to four members of the government, and he’s here to tell you, Iraqis are praying for a John McCain victory.

Marc D. Stern is concerned that same-sex marriage will "obliterate" religious freedoms.

More McCain versus McCain:

Beside not wanting to pass up an opportunity to debunk McCain's claim that he is not running for George Bush's third term, I just can't get enough of the "cottage cheese in a lime green jello salad" speech.

While the traditional media is slowly starting to take John McCain’s straight talking image with increasingly large grains of salt, his base isn’t quite ready to give up on their favorite son. Jonathan Alter’s bizarre defense of McCain after he was caught telling an outright lie, perfectly captures that reluctance:

...it’s a learning curve for him to get up to speed, to recognize he’s living with new rules.

We live in a society where the media salivates over "gotcha" moments, where we are subjected to 24/7 coverage of media-created outrage, yet John McCain, in his quest to carry out George Bush’s third term, contradicts himself on issues big and small and somehow manages to escape the level of scrutiny given to expensive haircuts and botched jokes. Throughout the course of this presidential campaign season, we’ve watched McCain pander for the evangelical vote, contradict himself on issues ranging from tax cuts to immigration, call himself the anti-lobbyist candidate while surrounding himself with lobbyists, vilify special interests despite his history of brokering deals for big-money contributors, denouncing 527 groups as he parrots their message, all while running as fast as he can from George Bush even as he embraces a stay the course X 100 Iraq policy.

The bottom line is, associating the words "straight talker" with John McCain is nothing short of laughable.  Volumes could be written on the issues that he has flip flopped on, or the positions he has embraced in an effort to pander to a particular voting bloc, but today let’s focus on the John McCain whose devotion to the men and women of the military is unquestionable.  

During McCain’s first run for political office in 1982, after declaring that:

One of the things I've never tried to do is exploit my Vietnam service to my country because it would be totally inappropriate to do.

...he proceeded to do just that, responding to charges of being a carpetbagger with, ""Listen, pal. My father was in the Navy and we moved around a lot. So now that I think about it, place I've lived the longest is Hanoi," and in the ensuing 26 years he has continued exploit that experience, culminating with his first ad for the general election.  You might shake your head over the notion that McCain doesn’t use his personal experience for political gain, but he honorably served and suffered for his country in ways that most of us cannot even fathom, so even if he once thought that doing so was inappropriate exploitation, it’s his story to tell as he sees fit. But when he uses that service as a talisman against criticism, it is a problem. Time and again we are told that his support for the men and women serving in our military is unwavering and unquestionable, and that as someone who has sacrificed for his country, to question him somehow dishonors his own service.  But as the saying goes, "facts are pesky things," so instead of relying on McCain's rhetoric, let's look at some of those facts:

• McCain has repeatedly voted against amendments in the Senate that would have...covered such important services as improving care at veterans’ hospitals, providing mental health services to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse problems. [2006 Senate Vote #7, 2/2/2006]
• In 2006, McCain voted against the Kerry amendment that would eliminate increased fees and co-payments for veterans in the TRICARE health care program by raising the discretionary spending limit by approximately $10 billion. The provisions would have been fully offset by eliminating creating corporate tax breaks. [2006 Senate Vote #67, 3/16/2006]
• McCain was one of only 13 Republicans to vote against an amendment that added over $400 million for inpatient and outpatient care for veterans. [2006 Senate Vote #98, 4/26/2006]
• McCain voted against increasing funding for veterans health care by $2.8 billion in 2006. [2005 Senate Vote #55, 3/16/2005]
• McCain joined his Republican Senate cohorts in opposing exempting all military personnel and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy cases. [2005 Senate Vote #13, 3/1/2005]

• McCain opposed an amendment that would reduce from 60 to 55 the age at which certain members of the National Guard and Army reserves could receive retirement benefits. [2004 Senate Vote #136, 6/23/2004]
• Senator McCain opposed $322 million in funding for "battlefield clearance and safety equipment for U.S. troops in Iraq." A reduction in Iraqi reconstruction funds would have funded the additional protection for troops in the battlefield. [2003 Senate Vote #376, 10/2/2003]
• McCain voted against an amendment that would increase spending on the veterans health care program TRICARE by $20.3 billion over 10 years to members of the National Guard and Reserves. The increase would be offset by a reduction in tax cuts. [2003 Senate Vote #81, 3/25/2003]
• McCain opposed an amendment that would have increased veterans spending by $13 billion from 1997-2002 to be offset by closing corporate tax preferences and reinstating expired taxes. [1996 Senate Vote #115, 5/16/1996]

The reality and the rhetoric of John McCain are at complete odds, yet the fact that McCain is a champion of the military is the unchallenged, conventional wisdom in the traditional media.  Which brings us to McCain’s more recent opposition to Senator Jim Webb’s G.I. Bill of Rights (pdf), a bill that provides real educational benefits for veterans and that enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support. McCain’s objection?  That providing the men and women who have risked their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq with the means to attend college when their service is complete might hurt retention rates in the military.  All of this cuts right to the heart the problem with the media’s unwillingness to meaningfully challenge McCain on his issue...Iraq and his alleged support for the troops.  

Despite a six-year history of being wrong on Iraq, wrong about current troop levels, wrong about the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, and his continual claims that things are going well, McCain is accepted as the foreign policy candidate.  And when McCain, ignoring the reality of our overextended military, blithely said that staying in Iraq for 100 years was "fine" with him, and more recently, when he said it was "not too important" to bring the troops home, he defended the remarks by saying he meant only if the troops weren't being attacked or killed. And the media reacted.  They dutifully reported the remarks, the Democratic denouncements, and of course McCain's clarifications of what he really meant, but they never asked the all-important question:

Exactly how many years is John McCain willing to let U.S. troops be attacked and killed in Iraq?

• Four U.S. Marines were killed by a roadside bomb today in southwestern Afghanistan.  And in other news about the "forgotten war," 870 inmates escaped from prison with the help of the Taliban.
• Good news:

  House rank and file Republicans are tens of millions of dollars short of meeting fundraising targets set by their own campaign committee in advance of this fall's elections, according to figures circulating among the leadership, heightening concerns inside the party about major losses in November.

• Fox News has apologized for using the "Obama's Baby Mama" graphic, saying that a producer "exercised poor judgment."  That would be as opposed to their usual stellar news judgement.
• Go to CNN for your "Straight Talk Express stalls after query" t-shirt.
• The space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth today after successfully expanding the International Space Station...and fixing a clogged toilet.
• Tom Shales has a nice column on Tim Russert, describing him as a man who was "in love with his life and lived it with contagious esprit."
• Bay Area Kossacks: WY-AL (and Orange to Blue) candidate Gary Trauner is going to be in town this weekend. Come meet him at the rooftop bar at Medjool Sunday evening.

  Date/time: Sunday, June 15th from 5-7
  Location: Medjool, 2516
  Mission Street (24th/Mission BART station. Medjool is located three
  blocks north on the left hand side of Mission Street between 22nd and
  21st Street)  [mcjoan]

• Do we really want the NASCAR vote?

On the day John McCain challenged Barack Obama to join him in a series of old-style town hall meetings, he said:

I believe they should be people who are selected randomly, who come and enjoy the oldest form of democracy in America, and let them tell us what’s on their minds and let each of us make a response.

What a maverick.  What a straight talker.  What a load of garbage.  

Yesterday, after the McCain campaign spent the day hyping an event as a town hall meeting where McCain would "answer questions from real voters," and tsk, tsking Obama for not being there to "revolutionize our political process and start a real change in the tone in politics," there was clarification, as reported by Fox News’ Shepard Smith, at the end of the broadcast:

I reported at the top of this hour that the campaign had told us at Fox News that the audience would be made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. We have now received a clarification from the campaign and I feel I should pass it along to you. The McCain campaign distributed tickets to supporters, Mayor Bloomberg, who of course is a registered Republican, and other independent groups.

And other attendees:

Sens. Joseph Lieberman...and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Others were culled from McCain e-mail lists and from independent voter groups.

Well, you can't get much more random or real than that, can you?

And by the way, today the Associated Press is reporting that:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday rejected Republican rival John McCain's proposal for 10 joint town-hall appearances, offering instead to have just one on the July 4 holiday.  [...]

McCain told reporters traveling with him in New Jersey that was "a very disappointing response."

...but not a word about last night's stacked deck.