Morning Road Map

by Michelle Levi and Steve Chaggaris

McCain and Obama will both be in Missouri this evening...

McCain is in Colorado and Missouri today and will start off his day meeting with Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput at 11:30am ET. He will then hold an event at the Wagner Equipment Company in Aurora, Colo., at 12:50pm ET. He then flies to Missouri for a 7pm ET fundraiser in Kansas City.

Obama wakes up in Missouri today where he holds a town hall meeting on the economy in Springfield at 11am ET, followed by another town hall meeting at 4pm ET in Rolla. At 7pm ET, Obama hosts a barbeque in Union (outside of St. Louis, clear across the state from McCain's 7pm event in Kansas City). Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is rumored to be on Obama's veep list but recently said she's not being vetted, will join him for all of the day's events.

McCain is skin cancer free: The Mayo Clinic, where McCain underwent a routine melanoma test Monday, said in a statement released Tuesday, "Senator McCain visited the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, yesterday for a routine check of his dermatological health. The biopsy that was performed did not show any evidence of skin cancer. No further treatment is necessary."

"We may be the first generation to pass on an America that is a little poorer than the one we inherited from our parents and grandparents," Obama lamented at a closed fundraiser in Springfield, Mo., Tuesday night.

Washington Post's Milbank, "President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour": "Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee. Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally... Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, 'This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,' adding: 'I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.'"

San Francisco Chronicle interview with McCain, "McCain extends olive branch to Pelosi, Gore"

NY Times, "Obama's Quest to Find a Running Mate Sends His Researchers on the Road": "Mr. Obama, who devoted several hours here on Monday and Tuesday to meeting with his vice-presidential vetting team, is increasingly turning his focus to selection of a running mate. The detailed vetting of possible choices like Mr. Kaine suggests that the effort is well along. Yet Mr. Obama has not conducted formal sit-down interviews with candidates, aides say, and a decision is believed to be weeks away, not days. His aides say there is no particular rush: the campaign seems to be going well for him at the moment, and so he does not need the burst of attention and energy that typically accompanies the announcement of a vice-presidential choice."

MORE VEEPSTAKES
Boston Globe, "Campaigns try to get timing right on VP choices"

Associated Press, "Candidates focus on finding running mates"

Time Magazine, "Obama's Vice Presidential Dilemma": "So, does he double down — or does he compensate?"

Wilmington News Journal, "Kaine looks strong, but Biden remains on Obama's VP list"

Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Fast rise -- with limit unknown -- for Kaine"

Washington Examiner, "Kaine strong in veepstakes"

Washington Times, "Kaine coy on his VP prospects"

Salt Lake Tribune, "McCain, Romney battle left open wounds"

Salon's Madden, "Mitt Romney just wants John McCain to love him"

McCAIN vs. OBAMA
NY Times, "McCain Goes Negative, Worrying Some in G.O.P."

NY Times editorial, "Low-Road Express"

Washington Post, "McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence": "For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true. The attacks are part of a newly aggressive McCain operation whose aim is to portray the Democratic presidential candidate as a craven politician more interested in his image than in ailing soldiers, a senior McCain adviser said. They come despite repeated pledges by the Republican that he will never question his rival's patriotism."

NY Times, "With Commercial, McCain Gets More Than His Money's Worth": "The number of times Senator John McCain's new advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cable newscasts: well into the hundreds. The number of times that spot actually, truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen."

Obama responds to a McCain ad, which blames the Democrat for rising gas prices, in a new TV ad titled "Old Politics" which began airing in Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and New Hampshire. "John McCain is blaming Barack Obama for gas prices? The same old politics," the announcer says in the ad. Watch here

USA Today, "Obama extends reach with TV ads"

STEVENS INDICTMENT
Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska Sen. Stevens indicted; 'I am innocent'"

Wall Street Journal, "Alaska's Sen. Stevens Indicted on Corruption Claims - Charges Come Amid Tough Senate Races For Republicans"

Washington Post, "For GOP, Stevens Indictment Is Latest in a String of Setbacks": "Republicans entered this election at a numerical disadvantage -- 23 seats to defend, compared with 12 for Democrats -- and have caught almost no breaks. Five Republican senators opted to retire and one resigned office last December, including incumbents in Virginia and New Mexico, where Democrats are strongly favored in the fall. Senate Republicans have fallen far behind their Democratic counterparts in fundraising."

OBAMA & WOMEN VOTERS
Chicago Sun-Times' Marin, "Women voters aren't warming to 'cool' Obama": "A few hours after leaving the "Women for Obama" luncheon, I ran into Sarah, not her real name. I've known her for a few years. A single mom, she free-lances, working as many jobs as she can to support two growing boys. She dreams of a permanent gig with benefits, but it's still just a dream. A 37-year-old Democrat, she is also a college grad and a news junkie who has watched this campaign like a hawk. She surprised me with her anger Tuesday, saying she's voting for McCain. To Sarah, Barack Obama is like the organic chicken at lunch. Sleek, elegant, beautifully prepared. Too cool."

LA Times, "Obama meets with key women": "The Democrat reaches out, bringing up sexism against Clinton in the primary."

The Hill's Morris, "Obama's women problem"

ALSO
Wall Street Journal, "Obama, Bernanke Talk Economy"

The Hill, "Obama vows to review Bush's executive orders"

Wall Street Journal, "McCain's Tax Blunder"

CBS News' Bentley, "McCain Defends His Conservative Record"

Wall Street Journal, "Russian Diplomat Criticizes McCain's Proposal for G-8"

Roll Call, "Lobbyists Give to Obama Campaign"

NY Times, "Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart"

Washington Post profiles former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, "Surviving The Free Fall - After a Spectacular Political Failure, the Former Top Aide To Clinton Makes Herself at Home in Obama's Camp"

The Hill, "Obama's $20M Hispanic outreach program reveals lasting concerns"