Gallup daily tracking poll: Obama 46%, McCain 43%
Remember the Bush administration? In a new book, author Ron Suskind claims the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. The White House denies it. [Politico]
"I don't believe it is possible to transcend race in this country," Obama says in an interview with the magazine Essence, which is aimed at black American women. "Race is a factor in this society. The legacy of Jim Crow and slavery has not gone away." There's plenty of the usual magazine-profile Obamadoration (he "bound[s] through the throng with a lanky ease" -- see also The Onion), but it's worth reading for the candidate's remarks on race. "If you've got Michelle as first lady, and Malia and Sasha running around on the South Lawn, that changes how America looks at itself." [Essence]
Obama got a pretty good birthday present yesterday: about $5m. [Boston Globe]
For all the jokes the McCain campaign are making at Obama's expense, the Democrat's "tire gauge" notion is correct: keeping America's tires inflated would make a nationally noticeable difference in energy consumption, says Time magazine. [Time]
And guess who else approves of Obama's energy plan? The increasingly interesting Texas oil billionaire T Boone Pickens, who's been turning green lately. [MSNBC]
On some days recently, McCain beat Obama in YouTube views. [Silicon Alley Insider]
The subprime mortgage crisis claims The Shire, an Oregon housing community modelled on the Lord of the Rings. [Bend Bulletin]
