Today’s edition of quick hits.
* This afternoon, the Obama Campaign announced a series of pledged Edwards delegates have now committed to vote for Obama, bringing Obama just 16.5 delegates shy of the magic number of 2,118.
* Jimmy Carter will formally endorse Barack Obama later today or tomorrow.
* As for the two very last primaries, turnout is reportedly strong in Montana and South Dakota.
* While Sen. Ted Kennedy’s outlook remains bleak, he was up and walking around today, just one day after he underwent brain surgery at Duke University Medical Center.
* On a related note, Sen. Robert Byrd was admitted to a hospital yesterday because of a high temperature. He will reportedly stay in the hospital for the next few days.
* Raise your hand if you’re surprised: “An investigation by the NASA inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency’s public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers’ findings about climate change for at least two years, the inspector general’s office said yesterday…. From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA’s public affairs office ‘managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public.’ It noted elsewhere that ‘news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution.'”
* He doesn’t sound optimistic: “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painted a gloomy picture of the economy on Tuesday but hinted that the central bank was prepared to hold steady on interest rate cuts.”
* Give ’em hell, Henry: “Today Chairman Henry Waxman of the Oversight Committee urged Attorney General Mukasey to turn over the FBI interviews of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, citing new information from the FBI interview of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and the recent disclosures by Scott McClellan.”
* Sam Nunn, who was chiefly responsible for creating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is beginning to wonder if it’s time to drop the policy. It’s about damn time.
* Telecommunications companies sure are investing quite a bit of money in retroactive immunity. At last count, they’ve hired 37 lobbying firms and spent more than $14 million.
* “An Iraqi government official today said that a ‘July target for negotiating an agreement on future relations between Iraq and the United States is likely to be missed.'”
* I wonder if the Abramoff scandal will ever stop being the gift that keeps on giving: “Taxpayers for Common Sense released a list on Tuesday of possible earmarks that were referenced in the charging documents filed against the former chief of staff to retired Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) on Monday as the most recent guilty plea in the ongoing investigation of jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.”
* I’ve been negligent in reading up on the details of the Lieberman-Warner global-warming legislation pending in the Senate. Kate Sheppard explains how the bill works.
* Hey look, Jonah Goldberg is confused about McCain and Iraq. Who could have imagined?
* In Russia right now, critics of the Kremlin are not featured on the constantly-under-pressure Russian media because they’ve been deemed “not newsworthy.”
* Based on the latest polls, Obama has 173 electoral votes, McCain has 144, and 221 are up in the air. This will likely change dramatically over the next five months, but that’s where we’re starting.
* And Dick Cheney got into a little trouble yesterday, talking about his family history and the fact that he had Cheneys on both sides of his family. “And we don’t even live in West Virginia,” Cheney quipped. Not surprisingly, this didn’t go over well: “This is exactly the type of stereotyping that we don’t need from our elected officials,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “It’s disrespectful, and it’s certainly not funny…. As a proud state, I can say we are disappointed.”
Anything to add? I’ll be back later, but for now, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.