Bob Novak says the decision is coming this week:

Sources close to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain’s running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.

I don’t know if he will, but this certainly gives us a new chance to discuss VP pick speculation.

I saw The Dark Knight earlier this evening… it’s breaking all sorts of records… I thought it was really good. Very dark and intense… and I can’t not mention Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker… he brought a whole new element of creepiness to the character..

Anyone else see it this weekend? Feel free to discuss.

Looks like the Obama campaign will have to trash the latest draft of Obama’s foreign policy talking points.

A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.

“U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months,” he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday.

“That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” he said.

But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks “were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.”

al-Maliki’s actual meaning more closely resembles the position of John McCain… so one has to wonder if the bungled translation was inf act bungled, or deliberately misquoted to try to give Obama a foreign policy credentials boost.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And John McCain pretty much says it all about Obama’s ludicrous junket (H/T NRO’s The Corner):

My opponent, Senator Obama, announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq before departing on a fact-finding mission that will include visits to both those countries. Apparently, he’s confident enough that he won’t find any facts that might change his opinion or alter his strategy. Remarkable.

George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress successfully turn around a slumping economy, waged a war on terrorism, and passed all sorts of important legislation on education with bipartisan majorities… Since the Democrats have returned the majority, the economy has slowed down, gas prices have gone up, partisan bickering is at all all time high, and congressional approval ratings are at an all-time low… Yet, Pelosi says Bush is the failure?

Under Pelosi’s “leadership” the country has been headed in the wrong direction. The progress made by Bush and the Republican Majority has been undermined by the Democrats and their incompetence.

Apparently, in order to make up for his inexperience Obama reportedly has 300 advisors helping him with foreign policy.

It’s nice to know he needs so many people to come up with a position.

Last month it was projected that Barack Obama would raise $100 million.

Well, he raised more like half of that

Yet, curiously enough, Obama’s campaign is misleading potential donors by misrepresenting the combined fundraising numbers of McCain and GOP vs. the Obama camp and the DNC.

This morning, the Obama campaign fired off an emotionally-tinged fundraising email to their supporters. The urgent message stated:

“The Obama campaign and the DNC ended June with a combined total of nearly $72 million in the bank. It’s a healthy number. But McCain and the RNC together still have a huge cash advantage, and we need your help to close the gap.

As I mentioned in my video message to you earlier in the week, we’re facing a Republican machine with unprecedented resources at its disposal. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee finished June with nearly $100 million in the bank.”

(Emphasis theirs).

… But in an under-stated blog post, Politico’s Ben Smith informs us that the Obama campaign’s math was off by $20 million:

“In total, the Democrats have some $92 million on hand, to the combined Republican total of $95 million.”

(The Obama email said they only had $72 million — now we find out they have $92 million).

First the Obama campaign operates their own Orwellian Ministry of Truth, now they’re trying to tell us that 2 + 2 = 5.

But, why would Obama want to mislead his supporters like that?

Of course, the cynical observation is that Obama’s campaign wanted to fire-up their supporters by pretending as if they were losing the money game to the GOP. Remember, Hillary’s donors didn’t come to her rescue until they knew she really needed it (when she invested $5 million of her own money.) The point is that political donors are more likely to become emotionally involved if they believe they are needed — and that their candidate is in danger of being beaten — so there was an incentive for Obama to play-up the disparity.

But a less sinister — and more charitable — analysis is that their math was off by $20 million. Of couse, this would be a gross error for such a polished political operation to commit.

But, par for the course for someone like Barack Obama.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And while $52 million might seem a hefty sum, it doesn’t work too well when you burned through $42 million at the same time…and you’ve eschewed public financing, which means that you’re money has to last all the way to November. Obama is said to be getting together 2,000 paid staffers…five times what President Bush had in 2004…the guy must already think that he’s President.

Rob at Say Anything brought my attention to Michelle Obama’s criticism of the the recent economic stimulus checks that went out, since $600 apparently can only buy you a pair of earrings.

Amanda Carpenter adds to this

She made these remarks at a “working women’s roundtable discussion.”

Although Mrs. Obama has been praised by fashionable outlets like Vogue magazine for her sense of style, her comments about $600 earrings reinforces an unflattering image of the Ivy-league educated Obama lawyers. They’ve both been called “elitist” several times though the course of the presidential campaign season.

Mr. Obama’s former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called him at “elitist” for telling donors at a private fundraiser in San Francisco that “bitter” Americans in places like Pennsylvania “cling to guns or religion.”

I recently got my stimulus check, and ended up using it very quickly to purchase a number of things. It certainly helped, but more tax cuts would help even more.

Looks like Barack Obama is taking some cues from Big Brother, by turning his website into his own Ministry of Truth:

Barack Obama’s campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a “problem” that had barely reduced violence.

“The surge is not working,” Obama’s old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks – not U.S. military muscle – for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the fewest since March 2004.

Obama’s campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an “improved security situation” paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007.

It praises G.I.s’ “hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice.”

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is “not softening his criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in current events.”

Or, more accurate to reflect his flip flops and false predictions.

…but will Congress take the next step to lower gas prices?

President George W. Bush said today he’s lifting a presidential ban on drilling for oil and natural gas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, setting up a showdown with Congress over a separate ban it put in place in the 1980s.

“Today I’ve taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration of the OCS,” Bush said in a statement at the White House. “This means the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action by the U.S. Congress.”

Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress rejected the president’s call, saying the move to end the moratorium would have no effect on prices and better options are available.

The Democrats once again reveal their stupidity and their hypocrisy. Steny Hoyer, who has come out opposing Bush’s actions today, said the following last week:

Now, of course, bringing new resources to market might have, hopefully will have, and we want them to have a reduction in prices.

Why do Democrats want gas prices to stay high? They haven’t proposed anything to address the energy problems we’re facing… All they know how to do is blame Bush for want to do something to lower gas prices.