1) Politico has a piece today about how Obama manages some of his attack messages. His staffers deliver the message and Obama then disavows by saying his staff was “overzealous.” It’s the rhetorical equivalent of WORM (What Obama REALLY Meant) when delivered by his staff. Now Obama says “what my staff SHOULD have

The latest disavowal of his staff’s comments on his behalf or in his name [the initial slam against Palin] continues a tactic Obama employed repeatedly during his contentious battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

When confronted about a campaign memo during the primary that criticized Clinton’s ties to India, referring to her as D-Punjab, Obama called it a screw-up on the part of our research team and said it was stupid and caustic.

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ESCAPING John (GUSTAV) McCain

Republican Party presidential hopeful John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin were travelling to Mississippi on Sunday to observe storm preparations.The Republican National Convention is due to open on Monday in Minnesota and officials are considering what to do about the gathering.

News of the forthcoming convention however, caused near panic as the people of Minnesota started to escape in their thousands upon hearing that the Republican convention may not be canceled after all. The rumour in Minnesota was that Mr McCain had only hinted there might be changes to the tone of the event, rather than a cancellation. This is believed to be the true reason for the ensuing panic and not the approaching hurricane due to hit the gulf coast.

State Sen. Dick Ackerman not only has to deal with the possible changes to his party’s national convention in Minneapolis this week, he doesn’t even know when he’s going to get there given the budget crisis in Sacramento.

I talked to Ackerman from the state Capitol this morning. His wife, Linda, is on her way to the convention.

Whatever happens with Hurricane Gustav, Ackerman said, the party needs to find a way to legally nominate John McCain for president and  Sarah Palin for vice president. That’s because the state needs that action in order to pout those names on the November ballot.

They can just shorten it and do away with a lot of the speeches, the balloons. Just do the nominations,” Ackerman said.