News

According to AP:

The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Kyle Iturralde was driving a hard bargain, but Frank Adamo would not be denied. He wanted the Montana delegation button. Iturralde, a member of the New Jersey delegation, initially held fast.

John McCain's campaign today e-mailed a video to supporters of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) speech acknowledging her selection as McCain's running mate.

The video, which shows speech excerpts cut together with music and newspaper headlines favorable to Palin, is designed to introduce Palin to McCain's supporters, the campaign's e-mail says.

Since the weekend, Palin has been embroiled in controversy over her teenage daughter's pregnancy, her previous membership in a secessionist political party, and her firing of a public safety commissioner who would not fire her former brother in law from his job as a state trooper.

UPDATE: And the OK! magazine cover story.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) will praise John McCain as having the character that "civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders" during his address to the GOP convention tonight.

Thompson will also emphasize that McCain is a reformer and someone who has taken on his party to do "what is right" and not what is popular.

The excerpts as released by the Republican National Convention are after the jump.

- Ian Swanson

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet next Tuesday to review the Department of Justice's preparations for the 2008 presidential election, the committee announced this afternoon.

The department is responsible for enforcing U.S. voting laws and safeguarding citizens' right to vote. That includes upholding nondiscrimination laws and prosecuting election crimes.

The committee has requested testimony from the assistant attorneys general of the department's criminal and civil rights divisions, as well as a law professor from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis tells The Fix:

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won't ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has "ultimate faith" in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do.

Left off the initial list of speakers at the Republican convention, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will now address delegates on the floor sometime this week.

As one of John McCain's most vocal supporters in the House, Cantor's absence from the official program fueled rumors that he would be selected as a running mate. The Virginia Republican underwent the formal vetting process in August and was seen as a potential dark horse candidate for the slot.

When asked about the omission last week, Cantor's office attributed the omission to the "vacuity of [the scheduling of] convention speakers."

Cantor's specific convention speaking slot has yet to be determined.

-Jackie Kucinich

Barack Obama has reached his highest level of support in Gallup's tracking poll.

Obama leads John McCain 50 percent to 42 percent according to Gallup's Tuesday survey, which takes into account responses from Saturday through Monday. The two candidates had been virtually tied in the polls at the start of the Democratic convention last week.

In Rasmussen's tracking poll, Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 43 percent. When "leaners" are included, Obama leads 50 percent to 45 percent. Obama has increased his support among Democrats, 85 percent of whom now support him.

Since stepping down as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman has become a vocal advocate of limiting carbon dioxide emissions to reduce the potential threat of global warming.

Along with Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace leader, Whitman is co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which promotes nuclear energy. Nuclear plants don