April 9

The latest AP poll has Bush and Kerry virtually neck-and-neck on 45-44, with Ralph Nader showing at 6 per cent. But the poll was taken before the situation in Iraq deteriorated this week.

A new Zogby poll shows Kerry with a clear lead among potential Hispanic voters, but with a significant number of undecideds. This will all play in to the Kerry camp's consideration of, say, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico for the VP slot.

Coverage of Condoleezza Rice's testimony in front of the 9/11 Commission ran the gamut from fawning to the simply spearing.

But the White House has now said it will declassify the August 6th, 2001 briefing paper at the centre of the National Security Adviser's evidence, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States"

And the debate is sure to continue.

April 5

The John McCain for VP story just refuses to go away. While there would be a lot of ideological hurdles to overcome, there appears to be some renewed traction within Democratic circles for the notion.

Also in the frame are understood to be former primary opponents John Edwards and Dick Gephardt - that choice seems to depend on whether the Kerry camp is looking at a midwestern or southern electoral college strategy - along with Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and New Mexico Governor and former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

A geographic strategy for the Kerry campaign is crucial. An interesting piece in the Washington Post by University of Maryland professor Thomas Schaller that suggests because of the extent to which the country is polarised, Bush could wind up winning the popular vote but losing in the electoral college.

There may be some unease among the GOP that Bush is in danger of losing the "compassionate Conservative" tag. This sort of thing won't help....

Kerry's fundraising success seems to continue apace, meanwhile, with Mary Beth Cahill saying: "We don't think we need to match Bush dollar for dollar."

Nice piece by Howard Kurtz on Fox's "Campaign Carl" Cameron.