July 2

Nice piece in the Washington Post today on the role of popular culture in influencing elections - a hot topic at the moment as "Fahrenheit 9/11" continues to play to packed and polarized audiences.

By the same token, Post syndicated columnist Richard Cohen says "whoa, not so fast..."

The Washington Times, meanwhile, reports how Vice-President Dick Cheney is ratcheting up the attacks on Democrats, including former President Clinton, on the terrorism issue.

EJ Dionne in the Post reminds us how important it is for both candidates to convince voters that they will actually be able to govern in a divided nation.

Messrs Nagourney and Halbfinger in the New York Times look at the choice facing John Kerry in what is widely expected to be the weekend before he selects his running mate. The piece looks also at who it won't be, citing Bill Richardson's "Dear John" letter to Kerry.

CNN reports that Kerry raised $34m in June.

July 1

The compulsive drama that is set to be the Saddam Hussein trial begins.

It really is anyone's guess at the moment whether what looks to be a protracted courtroom event will have on the November election, even though Saddam himself seems in no doubt, according to CNN:

"This is all a theater" designed by President Bush, whom he called a criminal, to win re-election, said Saddam, looking around the court with a half-smile during one outburst.

President Bush himself, meanwhile, marked the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act with an eye towards increasing the 9 per cent of black voters he managed to attract in 2000.

The RNC has named the 62 "super rangers" who have raised at least $300,000 for the Bush re-election effort.

On the Democratic side, according to ABC News' The Note:

Yesterday morning, top political aides to at least several candidates who are thought to be leading contenders [for Kerry's VP] were contacted by a member of Jim Johnson's vice presidential search team and asked to provide detailed contact information for their principles, as well as their schedules over the next 10 days.

Several sources close to the process tell ABC News that the campaign has plans to introduce the country to Kerry's pick by the middle of next week. Advance teams have scouted out a half dozen locations in states like Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Iowa. Tuesday, July 6 will probably not bring the official announcement speech; Kerry has two, long-planned addresses in Indiana and Washington. Wednesday, July 7 is wide open.

The Note also ponders whether the Bush team might roll out some kind of Iraq or foreign policy development in order to limit any bounce the Dems might gain from a Kerry announcement.

In the interim, you can try your hand at selecting a running mate using the Post's Veep-O-Matic engine.

Meanwhile, Howard Dean is preparing to debate Ralph Nader on the thorny topic of whether or not Nader should actually run.... hmmm.

June 28

The surprise handover of sovereignty in Iraq happened this morning at a pace matched only by the departure of Paul Bremer from the country.

The dramatic events also managed to knock off the front pages the news of the US Supreme Court's ruling that Guantanamo detainees can use the US legal process to challenge their detention.

And the Bush team get no respite from Joe Klein in Time magazine.

...George W. Bush is facing a long, hot summer of investigations and exposes that will last deep into the campaign season, and last week, for the first time, a Gallup-CNN poll indicated that a majority of Americans think that the war in Iraq was a mistake. This is a difficult trajectory to turn around....

Elsewhere in the so-called War on Terror, the Washington Post quotes a former NSC staffer under Reagan as saying that one of the key planks of the Bush Doctrine - promoting Democracy - is "hanging by a sliver" in a context of worsening terrorism.

But is the terrorist situation really "worse"? According to the President on Irish TV the other day, not necessarily.

And the Irish people are still counting the cost of having Mr Bush and his entourage breeze through their country.

Jon Stewart was brilliantly entertaining on Larry King Live the other night. Here's a sample:

KING: What advice would you give [John Kerry] on who he should select to be his runningmate?

STEWART: What advice would I give?

...

STEWART: It doesn't matter.

KING: What do you mean it doesn't matter?

STEWART: It doesn't matter. Would you vote for vice president?

KING: Should I put...

STEWART: George Bush's father won with Dan Quayle. Tell me that's not an albatross. Was he trying to just like -- you know what I almost think that was, picking Dan Quayle? That was taunting the Democrats, that was saying, I can beat you with this knucklehead. I can beat you with this guy on my back.

I like Edwards.

...

STEWART: The thing about Edwards is, the only thing I worry about for Edwards is, he seems untainted by the political process and I believe it may crush his spirit. And that's the only thing they worry about for him.


After Nightline trailed the Kerry campaign the other night (Stewart on Kerry "He went off to the heartland to talk about healthcare and that's the last anyone's seen of him for about six weeks..."), Jodi Wilgoren in the Times looks at George Butler's as-yet-untitled biopic of the Democratic candidate.

She quotes ABC's Mark Halperin thus: "Never in my career have there been any films that have come out about that year's presidential campaign that have the potential to impact the presidential race........This year there are at least two."

One of them, "Fahrenheit 9/11",is breaking box office records for a documentary.

And finally - they know how to avoid electoral mishaps in Canada...