The folks at JibJab, who made a considerable satiric online splash during the 2004 presidential race, have just posted their first take on this year’s campaign. It features the candidates and a cast of hundreds singing a rewrite of “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” It’s worth a look.

Planned Parenthood has taken John McCain to task over a bump in the road his Straight Talk Express hit last week over the question of whether health insurance plans that cover the cost of Viagra also should be required to cover the cost of female contraceptives.

Video of the exchange between McCain and a female reporter have been circulating for days and liberal columnists, such as the Strib’s own Nick Coleman, have made hay over the issue.

This week, Planned Parenthood has upped the ante by melding the video into a campaign ad now airing in Minnesota, Wisconsin and four other battleground states.

It’s either an amazing coincidence, or the talking points have been going out to some of the presumptive short-listers being considered by John McCain as his vice-presidential running mate.

Over the weekend, Rob Portman, a former member of Congress from Ohio, said flatly of his prospects, “I don’t expect to be asked, honestly.”

Back on June 18, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, offered his own version of the demurral: “The fact is, I haven’t been asked, and I don’t expect to be asked.”

And Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, asked about his vice-presidential prospects in May, offered up “Let me be clear — I do not think the senator is going to ask.”

Beating all three to the punch was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who made many of the initial short lists, but whose name has since faded. Back in April, after he had dropped his presidential bid, Huckabee called the vice presidential position a job that no one could refuse but also one he does not expect to be offered.

Perhaps notably (or not), Google and Nexis searches don’t turn up any such modest statements by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who remains fully in the mix of vice-presidential speculation. In fact, one report published Monday placed Romney at the top of McCain’s list.
The nutgraf:

“Romney as favorite” is the hot buzz in Republican circles, and top party advisers said the case is compelling.

Meanwhile, Pawlenty’s prospects simultaneously took a whack in the New York Observer, concluding that Pawlenty wouldn’t be all that much help to the Republican ticket.

The Washington Post’s political blogger, Chris Cillizza, has been one of the most persistent of the Great Mentioners, placing Gov. Tim Pawlenty on John McCain’s short list of vice-presidential running mates. (Never mind the fact that McCain said Thursday after his plane landed in Minnesota that he really doesn’t have a short list.)

Anyway, Cillizza laid out the pros and cons of a Pawlenty candidacy in a couple of posts this week. Here’s the case for picking him. Here’s the case against him.

Thoughts?

When Barack Obama launched his first advertisement of the general election campaign this week, it was notable where his strategists decided to air it — and more to the point in this supposedly purple state, where they opted not to.

The Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee is running the ad in a dozen battleground states, but also in six that lean heavily Republican: Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia and Alaska. Conspicuously missing from the list of battlegrounds are such presumed battlegrounds of Minnesota, Washington and Oregon.

And it’s notable that Minnesota was on the list of states where John McCain targeted his first ad last week. All of which raises a couple of (at this point unanswerable) questions: Does the Obama team assume Minnesota’s in the bag? Does McCain’s really, truly think the state is going to be competitive in November?

In any case, here’s the ad, a soft and fuzzy paen to America, American values and Obama’s American roots.

One of the enduring (and endlessly frustrating) limitations of the dead-tree version of this newspaper is the finite amount of space we’ve got in which to give you the news. No problem here, though. So here are some bits and pieces about John McCain’s visit to the Twin Cities Thursday, his first campaign stop of the year.

First, the pool reports (one reporter on the inside, filing to everyone else) from the Straight Talk Express ride from MSP and then the fundraiser McCain held at the Minneapolis Hilton:

On the Straight Talk Express from the airport to the hotel in Minneapolis, Sen. John McCain said that his campaign has decided that it will accept public financing for the general election. “We will take public financing,” Asked what his thinking was, he said, “Because we decided to take public financing.”

McCain also expanded on comments yesterday about whether he would reconsider opposition to drilling in ANWR. He said if given new information he would of course consider it, but that he remains opposed to drilling. Detailed quotes available to anyone who wants them. If enough requests, I’ll send another pool report.

On the bus, most of the questioning was done by two local reporters. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his wife, Mary, were aboard, and one of the reporters asked McCain in several ways whether Pawlenty was being considered for VP. McCain praised the governor but declined to say whether he was on a short list or give any other insight into the matter. He said there really isn’t a short list.

The other reporter asked a series of questions along the lines of “if you could have any super power, what power would you want” and “what is the worst thing you ever did as a youth. (McCain didn’t name a super power but spoke of his awe for Mohammed Ali; he could not manage to decide which of the things he did at the Naval Academy would be the worst.) He was also asked what he wanted his epithet [sic] to be: “Served his country honorably.” Favorite TV shows: He mentioned “24,” “The Tudors” and “Damages.”

There were about 75 people at the fund-raiser in Minneapolis, and the room was at least half empty when Sen. John McCain addressed the group. He spoke for just under 20 minutes, including several questions and answers.

In his introductory remarks, he predicted protestors would appear at the town hall meeting later this evening.

“Americans are asking us to stop yelling at each other,” he said. “That’s what they want us to do. Sit down together, work out these issues.”

He praised Gov. Tim Pawlenty as “one of the finest governors in America,” a comment which drew hearty applause.

In thanking the assembled for their support, McCain made clear that he needs their money.

“Thank you for your support. Thank you for being here. It means a lot, it means a lot .We are probably going to be outraised in this campaign, but thanks to your support… we’re going to be competitive. I’ve never been in a competitive race where I wasn’t outraised.”

“We’ve got enough to run this campaign.”

“We have a small staff. When I say small it’s about 300 people now that we are in the process of hiring for our entire campaign. Sen. Obama has over a thousand and it’s growing. So I can assure you that we will make sure your support goes where it’s most needed and frankly that’s to media. and to organizing get out the vote and absentee ballot programs. Those are the things that win and lose elections. I’m grateful for your support.”

He then pivoted to Obama’s decision to opt out of public financing.

“As you know after the scandal of Watergate we enacted certain reforms and one of those was the ability of a candidate in the general election after the primary to take public financing. In other words a certain amount of money is given and then campaigns are run on those. Well today Senator Obama, for the first time since the Watergate era reforms any candidate has decided he will not take public financing, and the interesting thing about that is that a little over a year ago there was a questionnaire sent out to me and to Sen. Obama and said, ‘If your opponent will take public financing, will you?’ and I said, ‘Of course.’ And he signed his name to a piece of paper that said if the Republican nominee takes public financing then he would too. Well–and he signed his name to it. You know, this campaign is supposed to be about trust– supposed to about trust and taking people’s word for things. Sen. Obama, because obviously his status has changed from what was clearly not a frontrunner status to one that now has the ability to raise a lot of money, he has reversed his position on that. He has reversed his position on a number of issues and so this is going to be a hard campaign my friends. I have to give you straight talk. It’s going to be hard.”

Among McCain’s repeated shots at Barack Obama was this one, citing Obama’s willingness to meet with hostile foreign leaders: “There are stark differences between us and this campaign will draw them out … My record and my principles are closely aligned with those of Ronald Reagan. I believe he is a good role model.”

The 13th and final question of the night broached the Tim Pawlenty-for-vice-president issue, with the questioner asking McCain what the governor’s prospects are.”I knew we should have stopped - this meeting is adjourned,” McCain cracked.
Without directly answering, he returned to a formulation he has repeatedly used to describe Pawlenty as “the next, new generation of the Republican Party of America. He has a place in the future of the country and the future of the Republican Party.”

Reactions from folks in the crowd?

Don Dame, a mechanical engineer and pilot from Woodbury, said he was uncommitted before the town hall meeting. Afterwards, despite disagreeing with McCain on global warming, he said he was backing him. Obama doesn’t have enough experience, he said.

“The more you hear about the guy, the better you like him. He is a straight talker. McCain says things that people can believe,” Dame said. “How many politicians are willing to tell the truth to people, because it’s going to cost them votes?”

Mark Swanson, a former naval officer who lives in Becker, Minn., and works as an engineer for Medtronic, asked McCain what he thought about Rep. Michele Bachmann’s plan to reduce gas prices to $2 per gallon. McCain had raised his eyebrows and said, “I eagerly look forward to seeing that. I’ll try to read it tonight.”

Said Swanson, who had been for McCain and left the meeting even more enthusiastically for him: “When you see him face-to-face, all the press reports that say he’s not conservative go by the wayside. I don’t hear him being wishy-washy or doubtful … He impresses me very much as an idealist.”

Brian Davis, the environmental attorney who said he was for McCain before the town hall, said he was even more impressed with McCain afterwards.

And daughter, Jennifer, the frustrated Hillary supporter? She’s still undecided, but she said that McCain had risen in her eyes. She said she thought he was sincere and straightforward, and she liked what he said about the environment and following through with the war.

“The intimacy of the setting allowed me to feel his energy and his passion,” she said. “I believe in his character and his integrity, and that’s huge for me.”

Determined not to be Swift-boated as John Kerry was four years ago, Barack Obama’s campaign unveiled a new website today that bluntly takes on unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo that have dogged the candidate for months. Among them: He’s a secret Muslim, he won’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance, his wife used the word “whitey.”

Obama is bucking the conventional wisdom of politics, the widely-held belief that the best (maybe the only) way to deal with rumors is to ignore them. So the campaign launched a new web page called “Fight The Smears” that airs out the rumors and then rebuts them point by point.

Campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor threw down the gauntlet thusly:

“The Obama campaign isn’t going to let dishonest smears spread across the internet unanswered. Whenever challenged with these lies we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the internet. This website is an action center that allows supporters to upload their address books and send
emails to all of their friends. It’s not enough to just know the truth, we have to be proactive and fight back.”

Unable (so far) to secure a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, still-unbowed GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is staging a counter-convention of his own across the river on the convention’s second day.

The 10-term congressman from Texas still has millions of dollars in campaign contributions to burn and a fervent following, even though he won not a single primary and has amassed only a handful of convention delegates. But he’s booked Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota for a rally on Sept. 2 in the hopes of attracting several thousand followers — and, not incidentally, attention from the 15,000 news media types who will already be in town to cover the big show at the Xcel Energy Center.

Here he is, on Fox News Tuesday, explaining his plans.

In the wake of Vice President Dick Cheney’s under-the-radar fundraising trip to Minnesota on Monday, it’s interesting to speculate about what role he may have in trying to get John McCain elected president. Well, the Politico website has published a piece wallowing in just that kind of speculation. It’s worth a read.

On the tail end of his victory lap last week, Barack Obama ended up back home in Chicago. He walked into his headquarters Friday to thank his troops for the historic upset they had just pulled off.

With a video camera rolling, he praised them, told them to get some rest and, in effect, told them that the hard work between now and Nov. 4 is just beginning. It’s a far more intimate look at the guy than can be gleaned from his mega-rallies, unscripted and up close (and just because it was undoubtedly sanctioned by the campaign, it doesn’t make it less interesting).