During my interview with New Agenda founder Caren Turner last night, the subject of PUMA and their political wing, PUMAPAC, came up. This is what she had to say:

We are not involved with PUMAPAC. I don't know where they are in terms of raising money, but I think they were, let's say, overly optimistic about the money they raised to retire Hillary's debt, and that put question marks in some people's mind as to whether we should affiliate with them at all.

It looks like she made the right call. Chief Pumas Darragh Murphy and Will Bower have each claimed to have raised $7 to $10 million towards retiring Hillary's debt.

However, an official Clinton spokesperson disputed that in a statement to me last month. Darragh Murphy's response was to wait for the July filings.

Now that July's fundraising figures are in, we can see how close PUMA got to retiring Hillary's campaign debt. From The LA Times, via Yestodemocracy:

Hillary Clinton whittled down her presidential campaign debt by $1.3 million in July, and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama chipped in to help.

Here's PUMA's claim:

First, we had the debate over the veracity of the "cross in the dirt" story. Now, it seems that the McCain's may have exaggerated when describing the adoption of their daughter. Via Right Wing News:

I hate to admit it, but Cindy McCain appears to have been caught telling an embarrassing untruth about how she came to adopt her daughter. Originally, she was claiming that Mother Theresa personally convinced her to adopt her daughter Bridget.

That story is also was also repeated by John McCain, in public and on his website. The trouble? Though the McCain's nobly adopted from Mother Theresa's orphanage, Cindy never met her:

This is disappointing, not just because it's apparently untrue that Cindy McCain spoke to Mother Thereas, but because it makes you scratch your head. The McCains adopted a little girl from overseas. That's an amazing, incredibly compassionate thing to do. Why embellish a story like that?

Moreover, why embellish such a detail in your campaign literature? That's the truly brazen part.

The presidential campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain issued a joint statement today outlining an agreement on a series of presidential debates for the general election. The agreement is the fastest ever accomplished between rival campaigns and comes after a negotiation between Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), representing Obama, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for McCain, and the private Commission on Presidential Debates.

"The Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns have agreed to hold three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate in September and October sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The campaigns have come to the earliest agreement on presidential debates reached in any general election in recent history. This announcement reflects the presidential campaigns' agreement on dates, locations, and the formats for the fall debates. Campaign-appointed debate negotiators House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said they were pleased to have reached an early agreement to provide the American people with the opportunity to see and hear the candidates debate the critical issues facing the country. The two campaigns have accepted sponsorship of the debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates, subject to the debates being conducted under the terms of their agreement."

Two of the presidential debates will be traditional question and answer and one will follow the town hall format with the candidates taking questions from the audience. One debate will have foreign policy and national security as its theme, and one will deal with domestic issues. Details for the vice-presidential forum will be worked out after the running mates for each candidate are announced.

With the debate dates and formats set, speculation will now turn to the anticipated performance of each candidate. Sen. Obama is a better speaker than Sen. McCain when using a TelePrompTer, however, none will be available during the debates. Obama is generally considered to be smarter than McCain, though, and could prove quicker on his feet. McCain will almost certainly have the advantage in the town hall debate, having hosted hundreds of them on the campaign trail. Both men and their campaigns will seek to lower expectations before the first debate, in hopes of scoring a surprise good showing.

There has been, today, a bit of a housing flap. No, I don't mean the mortgage crisis. The DNC put out an ad this morning touting their new attack on John McCain, which has been echoed by their supporters in the media and blogosphere, and which essentially posits that, because Senator McCain wasn't sure about his real estate holdings, he's a big old fat cat millionaire wickedly twisting his jet black, pencil thin moustache and constantly kidnapping Penelope Pureheart to secure his ill-gotten oil gains ... or something along those lines.

This line of attack is an extension of the absurd lie the DNC has been pushing this week about McCain's $5 Million dollar comment. I can only deduce the Democrats think owning real estate is bad and proves you hate people with jobs. A bit of a strange position considering how much rhetoric they've dumped into the value of home ownership this year. It's especially strange considering how both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are tied to beleagured and villified sub-prime lenders. Add to that the fact that some Democrats have been exposed for their sweetheart home loans in the last few months, and you'd think bringing up houses would be something the DNC wouldn't want to touch.

After all, we could talk about Barack Obama's house, now couldn't we?

Barack Obama releases yet another negative ad. He now has zero positive ads running in battleground states. He's gone all negative, all the time. The latest is a :30 second spot titled "Never."

John McCain's campaign just released another video, "The One II," that compares Barack Obama to the mighty Moses, the man who was (as the Christians and Jews believe, anyway) hand-picked by God to lead the Jews out of Israel.

This man (Moses, not Obama) unleashed 10 plagues against Egypt, guided the freed slaves for 40 years, and carried the 10 Commandments down from Mount Sinai.

The campaign says: "Due to the overwhelming popularity of the original Web video, 'The One' is back as Barack Obama prepares to head to Denver for the Democratic National Convention next week," where the video's narrator says "the faithful will gather." "As the biggest celebrity in the world, Barack Obama has millions of fans, and we hope that millions will check out our latest fun video. "

The video interweaves remarks and actions by Obama with that of the late Charles Heston, who played Moses himself in the 1956 film "The Ten Commandments" (which is on TV nearly non-stop every year around Easter.)

"Sparking the flames of the faithful ... and now, 'the One' returns to lead us on the road to Denver," the narrator says in his deep, God-like voice (well, what one imagines God's voice would sound like anyway).

A clip shows Heston's Moses parting the Red Sea, then cuts to Obama trying to surf, accompanied by chants of "Obama! Obama! Obama!" It cites House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for saying Obama is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time." Later cut to one Obama speech in which the candidate tells an audience: "A light will shine down from somewhere. It will light upon you. You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack.'"

In Google Earth style!



And here's a handy map, too.

Update: The candidates and campaigns go at it, and Obama releases an ad. More after the jump.

As David Knowles reported earlier, John McCain, in an interview Wednesday, was unable to recall just how many houses he owns, telling Politico, "I think - I'll have my staff get to you...It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you." (Audio Here)Coupled with his remark at Saddleback that $5 million is the rich people's Mendoza Line, it doesn't look good for Mac.

Now, the Democrats are piling on McCain, who has been laying the elitism charge on thick against his opponent. The DNC came up with this catchy slogan: (From TPM)

"John McCain's Message to Working Families: Money -- Don't Worry About It -- You're Rich in Other Ways."

And Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a fading VP short-lister, pitched in with this:

"He couldn't count high enough apparently to even know how many houses he owns."

That's really funny, Tim, if you're Mr. Spock.

There is a silver lining. McCain sometimes takes heat from the left about McCain criticizing Bush's response to Katrina, when McCain himself spent that day with Bush cutting up Mac's birthday cake. In light of these new comments, it appears that McCain actually did want to help, and intended to let struggling New Orleanders eat the cake.

Hillary Clinton's staff, headed by Craig Smith, is forming a 40 member "Whip Team" for the Democratic National Convention in Denver, to keep her most rabid supporters in line during the roll call. From Politico:

"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said a person involved in the planning.

"Is it typical for a losing candidate to have their own whip team? No. But it's also not usual for a losing candidate to get 18 million votes either," said the person.

Convention staffer Myron Kazoos refused to comment.

My first thought was, if they're blowing kazoos, what good are the signs going to do? Are they sound-proof signs? (Actually, my very first thought was, "Whip teams? That sounds hot!")

My second thought was, "Will there be poo cannons?"

My third thought was, "Please, let them start playing kazoos!"

See, the grown-ups in this process have moved on to try and enact the things that Hillary fought for. A little "kazoo-certo" would go a long way towards showing who's serious about change and who isn't.

In the past 24-hours, we've heard a bit of cognitive dissonance from John McCain, especially as it concerns the following two items:

1. Patriotism

Point

"I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign thtn lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."

Counterpoint

"He said I am questioning his patriotism. Let me be clear: I am not questioning his patriotism; I am questioning his judgment."

Analysis: How can you say that Obama favors his personal ambition over the national interest and still claim that you aren't questioning his patriotism?

2. Lobbyists

Point

"Whenever there's a corrupt system, then you're going to have these birds of prey [lobbyists] descend on it to get their share of the spoils."

Counterpoint

McCain's campaign is chock full of lobbyists.

Analysis: What credibility does McCain have on the lobbyist question when his responses to the Georgian crisis were in large part crafted by Randy Scheunemann, a former Washington lobbyist for Georgia itself?