If Joe Biden is Obama's Veep pick, I am going to have a really hard time voting for Obama.* Biden is a special-interest laden millstone eaten up with huge dollops of corporate influence peddling topped with an unabashed love of consumer credit card lobbyist money. If you want to know why your credit cards can go from 5.9%APR to 29.9%APR overnight because you didn't return a letter confirming that you wanted to keep the 5.9%APR or something medieval like that, thank Joe Biden.

*And I am already holding my nose....

McCain's new ad - it's got everything but "call me."

I also want to give a shoutout to CNN, a fine example of the excellent American media.

I just saw a CNN panel discussing whether Obama would be hurt because he appeared "too presidential."

Just kill me now.

P.S. Looking for video but haven't found it yet.

Read Katie Couric's interview today with Obama; then read her interview with McCain.

Compare and contrast. Who spends his time talking about his foreign policy vision and goals? Who spends his time bashing his opponent?

And BTW, the comment about "would rather lose a war..." - that's the second time today McCain said it.

Do you suppose everyone who supports Obama also wants to "lose a war"? Are we all traitors?

Local attorney and friend of KnoxViews Chuck Young went up to Bristol for the Obama town hall rally and phoned in this report on his way back...

If you conduct a google search for the phrase “university twit,” what pops up is a photo of me in a T-shirt and mortarboard. It’s a long story involving a fellow Knox County commissioner and the day he called me a university twit, but the incident gives me some “street cred” to write about the difficult task of using one’s intelligence without being dismissed as a wonk (Michael Dukakis), nerd (Al Gore), or elitist (John Kerry).

Thanks to the mythologies built up around Ronald Reagan, Republicans get a pass on these things. All they have to do is munch on some pork rinds, don a cowboy hat, or raise a beer and the matter is settled. If your first reaction is a retort about their prep schools, Ivy League legacy admissions, wealthy contributors, or millionaire-coddling policies, you’ve disqualified yourself from this debate.

More after the break.