TRAIL BLAZERS

The latest Fox News poll shows that Barack Obama would improve his election chances substantially by picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
The survey, taken by Opinion Dynamics on Tuesday and Wednesday this week among 900 registered voters, shows Mr. Obama beating John McCain by a statistically insignificant 1 point in a two-way race and by 3 points if independent Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr are included.
But an Obama-Clinton ticket beats a GOP combine of Mr. McCain and Mitt Romney by nine points. It's the the third straight month the poll has shown a similar result, but the nine-point margin is the biggest so far.
What the poll doesn't show is whether that outcome is due to Mrs. Clinton's political strength or Mr. Romney's weakness. It also doesn't show how the combines would run in key states, though a Michigan poll in May produced a similar result.
The Fox poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

Republicans are solidly behind Pete Olson's congressional candidacy in the Houston-area district formerly represented by Tom DeLay.
As House GOP Whip Roy Blunt put it, "We think Pete Olson is a great candidate in that district."
But Mr. Blunt also noted in his commnts at a press breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor that Democratic incumbent Nick Lampson has sided with the GOP on energy issues, noting that Mr. Olson will "have to work hard to be as reliable a vote for me as Nick Lampson is now" on energy issues.
Mr. Blunt also said he didn't think the influx into the Houston area of Hurricane Katrina refugees from Louisiana would have much impact in the heavily Republican suburban district.

I'm stuck in Dallas this week, but my heart's in San Diego, the site of Comic-Con International, the world's largest gathering of fanboys, geeks and other assorted nerds. This is where comic book publishers and movie studios announce projects that will appeal to dudes like me, and there's already a bit of campaign news. IDW Publishing plans to release graphic biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

A coalition of left-leaning groups has launched an on-line petition drive urging the House Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt and send him to jail. Its web site -- sendkarlrovetojail.com includes a provocative three-minute video suggesting all manner of skullduggery. Rove has refused to appear before the committee to testify under oath about his involvement in disclosing the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and whether he had anything to do with the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The committee subpoened Rove, but he didn't show.

Who's behind it? Brave New Films, The Nation magazine, Campaign for America's Future, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Progress Now Action and CREDO Mobile. They say the on-line petition has collected almost 100,000 names in less than six days.

Polls have consistently shown that voters feel more comfortable with John McCain than Barack Obama as commander in chief. Obama is counting on his current trip to the Mideast and Europe to shake off doubts about his foreign policy credentials. Is he convincing skeptical voters? Tell us.

In part, because it probably wouldn't depressurize while skirting the stratosphere.

Paul, a Texas congressman and former 2008 Republican presidential candidate, was among seven Texas congressmen on Continental Airlines Flight 458 which made an emergency landing tonight in New Orleans. The others: Ted Poe, John Carter, Solomon P. Ortiz, Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar.

After the pilots detected a loss in cabin pressure, they made a rapid descent, and the plane landed safely at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Paul, a former Air Force flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force, and his congressional cohorts are reportedly unhurt.

But the reason for their flight? Attempting to return to the nation's capital in time to vote on the Aviation Safety Enhancement Act, reports the Associated Press's Chevel Johnson.

Good Lord. You can't make stuff like that up if you tried.

(Warning - a little coarse language. I mean, is there any other kind?!@#$%^&*)

John McCain campaign just sent out a press release/email thing with the subject line "The media is in love" - and they've made two videos (vote on your favorite?) that are supposed to show what they call a "bizarre fascination" with Barack Obama.

(The video's at the bottom, but you have to read my post first or it won't play. It Knows.)

They then proceed, in the video, to repeat that ridiculous quote by Chris Matthews about the thrill running down his leg. And then you've got Tucker Carlson - who is the right's own Chris Matthews - cracking up about the same thing - like har har, yeah, the media's love for Barack is all consuming.

Because HE's so objective.

Then you've got a lot of news types just SAYING the words Barack Obama in their reports, as if that's supposed to prove .... that we say his name during news reports about him. OOH. Got us on that one.

It also shows a NBC news type telling Brian Williams that if you haven't seen Obama speak, you're not cool. It's taken out of context, naturally, AS WE ALWAYS ARE and what the guy is really trying to describe is the mystique. Not his personal opinion.

Although I'm guessing the producer knows all this, it's just a campaign trick, the media is officially counted among the COLLATERAL DAMAGE, and fine, go ahead if you need a whipping boy, it won't be the first time.

Lookit. Chris Matthews is NOT a journalist. He is a talking head. He is PAID to deliver his opinion, and as he is liberal, he will never be in favor of McCain. On the flip side, I'm sure McCain could count on righties like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh to balance some of the Obama love among the liberal talking heads. What about THAT media?

Here's what. I just got back from a Netroots convention that featured a panel about how the media is BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO APPEASE THE RIGHT. I spend a lot of time over on Texas political blogs defending the media from random commenters who, most recently, accused us of CREATING this perception of the Obamas being anti-American (because we covered the controversy over the flag lapel pin, God forbid.)

I find the dichotomy amusing and think that the last laugh, in these cases, belongs to the media. Quite frankly.

The other thing is, who CARES what the media thinks and why is it suddenly part of the story?

But my REAL question is this: If McCain is right and the media loves them some Barack Obama, why would McCain want to shout it from the mountain tops? I mean, this can only help Obama, right? The public LOVES its media and would do anything we tell it to, right?

RIGHT???

Sure.

So what's his point, exactly? He's hoping that the public will see that the liberal talking head types like Obama and somehow that will make them decide to vote McCain? He's telling the American public that the media is trying to dupe them, and unless he comes to their rescue, they'll be robots doing exactly as we tell them to?

Really? Do we have that much influence? WOW. Maybe I should ask for a raise.

Anyway. Here's the video. End rant for the day. Or, at least, for the moment.

If you're one of the few Americans who have not yet seen The Dark Knight, keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by Sen. Patrick Leahy. The Vermont Democrat, who lists Batman as his favorite superhero on his official bio, can be seen during the party at Bruce Wayne's penthouse. He talks tough to the Joker, who puts a knife to the senator's throat.

Conservatives at that other blogger shindig in Austin -- Defending the American Dream -- will get an earful about vanishing tax cuts on Saturday.

Will Lutz, managing editor of Lone Star Report, said his boss, Lone Star Foundation chairman David Hartman, will present a study of property tax trends since 2005 in Texas' five biggest school districts, including Dallas.

The bottom line? Property owners DID get net reductions in their school tax bills, as the Lege ordered in 2006. But soaring appraisals and failures by cities, counties and other non-school taxing units to sufficiently lower their tax rates have all but wiped out the average homeowner's school tax cut -- and DID wipe out that of business, and then some.

"The other units of government saw that school rates were going down and said, 'Let's have a party, because people won't notice,'" Lutz said.

Elna Christopher of the Texas Association of Counties said the study is flawed. Noting that Lutz and Hartman included growth in appraisal rolls caused by new construction, she said, "That's new stuff coming on the rolls. That's not homeowners who have been there. So it looks higher when you do that."

Lutz, though, said new growth, while swelling a tax roll's value, also increases the number of parcels. So to figure average valuation, he divided the roll's total value by a bigger number of parcels. He said that should ease her concern.

(Question: Has he met Elna Christopher?)

The wireless Internet connection here is called "internets."

Those guys!

This one. About the right-wing media. All of us.

I probably should have. Perlstein was nice and personally invited me, and Krugman I'm sure is a good guy, too. Heck, he's a journalist - how could he not be?!

Don't answer that.

I was curious, but I really needed to get some work done and I've already tangled with these people and my thin skin can only take so much bashing. No matter how right they are.

At the RightOnline convention across town - a meetup of conservatives interested in getting on the Internet - I mentioned to someone that the lefty bloggers were having a panel about how the media has "bent over" to please the right since like the 1960s, including making up Democratic misdeeds so they can balance their bad stories about Republican misdeeds.

Uhm. Ok, yeah don't get me started.

The two women I mentioned this to started laughing in disbelief. They shook their heads and totally blew me off as I tried to convince them that apparently their whole liberal-bias in the media thing is waaaaay off, sister.

"And that's why the media is always trashing Bush," one said. "That's why conservativces are so evil. That's why the love Obama. Because they're right wing."

Now see, I didn't go all medeival on her, either, because quite frankly I've had this fight one two many times this week and it might be time to open my eyes a little and quit giving myself ulcers over this stuff.

But the way I see it, if the lefty progressives are P.O. , and the conservatives are P.O., then we must be doing something right.

Thank goodness I didn't get into this business to please anyone.

I just sat through a panel earlier today that would have been great fun and extremely interesting if it hadn't made me want to shoot myself in the head.

It's all about documentary films - which are AWESOME when they're done right - but it was against the backdrop of whether they can start performing the jobs that "the media USED TO DO."

Used to do? Excuse me. I'm right here.

Great points were made by filmmakers of Fahrenheit 911 (although, sorry, the media may have "hated" some of the footage but we are one of the main reasons ya'll got such huge exposure, so.... just sayin..), the Delay movie, Baghdad ER (hottie) and Paul Stekler, local flim guy extraordinare.

The last two defended the role of the MSM against the blogger audience - a large part of whom seemed to think that the MSM (mainstream media) is ALREADY dead and spent a good portion of the time complaining (or gloating, it was hard to tell) about how newspapers and TV are irrelevant now. Or that they've "shut me out" when they tried to pitch a story, or that the news "never reported" the story about Tom DeLay (what?!)

Everyone's got an opinion.

Paul's point, and I quote: "Kicking the mainstream media is a waste of time." He was looking right at me when he said it and I figure it's because my eyes were rolling into the back of my head.

On that note, by the way, Mike Birnbuam of the Tom DeLay movie (I'm blanking on its name) was the one who said the media didnt' cover the DeLay story - I suspect he meant to the connect-the-dots extent that he did. I can't argue with that - a series of articles over the course of a few years does not have the same impact as a doc. I can respect that. But I do differ in one respect and that's this - as a reporter, i bet I wrote Tom DeLay's name in stories under my byline alone about 50 times. Or more.

He's got another movie coming out about the demise of newspapers and how they might just shut down altogether one day. I'm also blanking on the name of that one but will get back to you with (sorry, I'm on a really tight deadline and haven't posted in hours. Sorry about that).

I'm interested to see this movie, but only if there are no sharp objects or firearms anywhere near me.

Over at The Hotline, they like to serve up political news with a sense of humor, particularly in their afternoon update, cheekily named Last Call. (Sorry, it's for subscribers only.) Today, they targeted their jokes at the fine folks gathered in Austin. My two favorites:

En route to Europe, Obama's going to avoid flying over Netroots Nation, lest his plane get trapped in its sucking vortex of petulant yet impotent rage.

and...

And in a historic first, the denizens of Netroots Nation may not be the only ones wearing Batman costumes this weekend.

We kid because we love.

President Bush just landed at Ellington Field in Houston en route to a private fund-raiser for Pete Olson, the former John Cornyn chief of staff and Navy fighter pilot hoping to oust Rep. Nick Lampson from the suburban congressional seat that used to belong to Tom DeLay.

"I'm proud to support him," Bush told reporters on landing. "...Our country faces some big issues, one of which is to make sure we defend our homeland against cold-blooded killers; I'm convinced Congressman Olson understands that."

The president must be jet lagged. Couple days ago at a news conference, he denounced terrorists who have "no disregard for human life." Hate when that happens.

Barack Obama is returning to Texas for a July 31 campaign fund-raiser. The Houston event will be Obama's first trip to Texas since becoming the party's presumptive nominee.

The fund-raiser is being hosted by Houston lawyer Richard Mithoff.

Democrats are also trying to get Mr. Obama to make a stop in Dallas, perhaps on the same day as the Houston trip or sometime in August.

I'll keep you posted.

Obama has pledged to help Texas Democrats win down-ballot races. His popularity in the state's urban centers could give Democrats running there a boost.

Hillary Rodham Clinton won the popular vote in the Texas primary. But Obama's strength in the cities ultimately won him the delegate battle.

Boone Pickens -- legendary oilman, wind-power entrepreneur and big-time Republican donor -- apparently has some crossover appeal.

Pickens is garnering Democrats' praise for his plan to wean America off foreign oil by getting more cars to run on natural gas. Our energy writer Elizabeth Souder broke this story on July 8, and Pickens has been running commercials about his ideas ever since. More on his ideas on his Web site, PickensPlan.

With gas prices so high, Democrats are admitting that Pickens' ideas make sense. Majority Leader Harry Reid gave Pickens (once Reid's "mortal enemy," the Nevada Democrat said) props yesterday when he said, "T. Boone Pickens is talking about the solution. And he's putting his money where his mouth is."

Next up: a visit with House Democrats, who are trying to show they're interested in increasing supply without allowing drilling rigs all over the Florida coast. Pickens will meet with House Dems and testify about energy security before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. He'll also see his friends from the GOP House Caucus on Wednesday.

The McCain camp is now risking the ire of the Prince of Darkness, taking direct issue with the report from Robert Novak regarding the surrogate who just won't go away.

Gramm in or out? Out, says McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky. Well, most of the way out.

He's still a campaign co-chairman. So his name will still appear on campaign materials, unlike Clayton Williams -- the Texas oilman and ex-guber nominee whose name was airbrushed from the list of McCain bundlers like some disgraced Belarus politburo member from a May Day photo.

"While they are old friends from the Senate, Senator McCain obviously strenuously disagrees with Gramm's comments. There is no change in his voluntary status, but no, he is not a surrogate for the campaign, nor does he speak on behalf of the campaign or John McCain," Sadosky said by email.

Conservative columnist Robert Novak reports today that Phil Gramm "will continue as an adviser and surrogate" to John McCain - notwithstanding the uproar last week over the former Texas senator's description of America as a "nation of whiners."

McCain quickly distanced himself, joking that he'd rather send his old pal to Belarus than assign him a chair in the cabinet. Two other top McCain advisers whomped on Gramm, too. The campaign's top economic and domestic policy guy, Douglas Holtz-Eaken, told PBS' "Nightly Business Report" that Gramm no longer advises McCain on the economy. "I haven't spoken to Senator Gramm since the comments took place, and I'm not expecting to," he said.
And on NBC's "Meet the Press," Carly Fiorina went even further, saying that not only did McCain disagree with Gramm, "I don't think Senator Gramm will any longer be speaking for John McCain." (Fiorina, a former HP chief executive, herself caused McCain some heartburn recently by talking about the irrationality of health insurance plans that cover birth control but not Viagra; does there really need to be a campaign talking points memo reminding everyone that a 71-year-old candidate doesn't want to talk about ED?)

So if Novak is right, that would be quite a reversal.

Here's what Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor had to say this morning.

"Senator McCain's economic plan gives nearly $4 billion in tax breaks to the oil companies but doesn't provide any tax relief to more than 100 million middle-class families. But that shouldn't come as a surprise since today we learned that Phil Gramm will continue to advise Senator McCain on economic policy despite calling Americans struggling in this economy 'whiners.'"

So today the Netroots Nation kicks off in earnest with a ton of panels on everything from whether foul language helps your cause (I was told that the basic message was "Yeah, and the media needs to get over it.") to how military types blogging the war affects policy, Texas candidates to rural america to the national popular vote to sunshine laws for bloggers.

One panel featuring former Dean internet type Zephyr Teachout and former Ed Kennedy campaign guy Joe Trippi (that guy is HILARIOUS) was pretty entertaining. One guy in the audience raised his hand and expressed a lot of fear about emerging voter technology - like, identifying voters' fave issues by things like what magazines they subscribe to and "using GPS to zero in on your house."

I'm not sure what that would tell you - if it has more than five rooms, you're ... what? A Republican? An elitist Democrat? A resident of Plano?

Anyway, this guy was afraid that the "hyperdemocratization" of our soceity would lead to a big brother type mentality (keep in mind this is a TECHIE afraid of, apparently, emerging technology).

To which one panelist quipped, "Well, THAT'S not change we can believe in" (RIMSHOT).

Trippi, author of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything" said that when people express that fear about the Internet, for example, he usually just tells them to "get over it."

The issue, he said, is not keeping it down. It's "how to use it to create a movement to take this country back to wher eit needs to be, where we stand up for things and create a country we really want. That's not going to happen by accident."

The JFK president, he said, was widely known as the first Televised Presidency (or something, sorry, I didn't get that exact wording). "When" Obama gets elected, he said, it'll be known as the "first networked presidency" in which millions of people will educate and organize instantly around the policies their president puts forward.

"It'll be the people and their president creating the change we need to make."

Trippi has worked on the Ed Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Howard Dean and, John Edwards campaigns.