Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* The post-primary “bounce” is modest but noticeable for Barack Obama. Gallup now has Obama leading John McCain by six, 48% to 42%, while Rasmussen also has Obama leading by the same margin, 50% to 44%.
* Given that Elizabeth Edwards has been underwhelmed by Obama’s healthcare plan, I found this encouraging: “Thirty minutes into his speech, Obama interrupted his prepared remarks and pointed to the wife of his former Democratic rival to declare his intention of her role. ‘I’m going to be partnering up with Elizabeth Edwards — we’re going to be figuring all this out,’ Obama said when addressing his proposed reform to the health care system.”
* More intra-party reconciliation talk: “The reconciliation process between the upper echelons of the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns has already begun, as advisers and fundraisers look for areas of commonalty in a somewhat disjointed party.”
* On a related note, Obama strategist David Axelrod was asked whether Clinton would hit the campaign trail for the Democratic nominee. “We hope so,” Axelrod said. “We expect so, based on what she said publicly. But this has been an unbelievably grueling process and she deserves some time to chill out.”
* The Clinton campaign’s debts are not just burdensome, they’re record-breaking.
* Yesterday, McCain screwed up and called Vladimir Putin the “president of Germany.” First, it’s Russia. Second, Putin is prime minister, not president.
* A trend to watch: “For years, Republican candidates have counted on mainline Protestants for support, but a poll conducted for Calvin College shows that religious group shifting more toward the Democratic Party. For the first time since the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, a larger percentage of mainline Protestants call themselves Democrats than Republicans, the national survey commissioned by the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College found.”
* E. J. Dionne Jr. talks up Joe Biden for VP.
* The Obama campaign is poised to unveil the “Joshua Generation Project,” which reportedly is intended to “attract younger Evangelicals and Catholics to their campaign.”
* Good news in Alaska, Part I: Rep. Don Young (R) “trails former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, his likely Democratic opponent, by a 20-point margin – 58 to 38 percent. A 52 percent majority of voters said they held a negative opinion of Young, while Berkowitz holds strong favorable ratings.”
* Good news in Alaska, Part II: “A recent poll shows Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich leading incumbent Ted Stevens in the U.S. Senate race. The survey found 51 percent of those responding would vote for Begich in November’s general election, compared to 44 percent who said they would back Stevens.”
* I didn’t really expect fist-bumping to become the signature greeting of the presidential campaign, but here we are.
* State Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) looks to be in very good shape in Missouri’s gubernatorial race.
* And NRSC Chair John Ensign is setting very low expectations for his party this year, setting the bar for “success” at losing “only” eight seats: “Ensign pointed out that if the Dems win nine seats they’ll get to the filibuster-proof magic number of 60 — at which point, Ensign warned, ‘they will be able to do pretty much whatever they want.’ So if the Dems can’t get to a 60-seat super-majority, the GOP will have won.”