Morning Road Map

Obama is in Indiana, where he continues his week-long focus on energy issues at a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind. at 9:30am ET. Potential running mate Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., will introduce Obama.

McCain is in West Virginia where he will stop by the Marshall University football team practice in Huntington at 9:40am ET, before heading to Jackson, Ohio, where he'll have a tour of Merillat Industries at noon.

McCAIN vs. OBAMA: ENERGY
LA Times, "Obama pumped up over attack on his energy strategy"

NY Daily News, "McCain goes nuclear; Obama boils over"

Washington Post, "Energy Returns as Major Issue"

NY Times, "McCain and Nuclear Plant Highlights Energy Issue"

Politico, "McCain goes nuclear on gas prices"

Jon Ralston of KLAS-TV, Las Vegas, conducted a somewhat heated interview with Obama on his energy policy,

McCAIN vs. OBAMA
Washington Times, "Growing doubts weaken Obama, polls show"

Politico, "A guide to 5 key campaign flip-flops"

The Hill, "Dems nervous as McCain finds his voice": "[R]estlessness exists due to a combination of McCain's strong week and consistently close polls in a year when Republicans are worried about losing seats in the House and the Senate. That combination has left many rank-and-file Democrats complaining that Obama has not been aggressive enough in responding to McCain's attacks, an argument the Illinois Democrat heard last year before he vanquished Clinton."

Boston Herald, "Fear factor's in John McCain's favor"

Boston Globe, "On trail, a push to brand foe, self"

Washington Post's Meyerson on Obama's challenge, "How to move the election back to a referendum on the direction of our economic and security policies, while also reassuring swing voters that he's not the 'presumptuous' (this year's Republican code word for 'uppity') novice, disconnected from the travails of ordinary Americans, that McCain makes him out to be. The way to accomplish almost all these tasks would be for Obama to become a more convincing tribune for working- and middle-class Americans."

VEEPSTAKES
CBS News, "Poll: Veep Picks May Matter More This Year"

WSBT-TV, South Bend, Ind., "Obama Arrives in South Bend Amid Speculation of Bayh As VP Choice"

Wall Street Journal, "For Bayh, Shot No. 3 at No. 2 Spot"

The Hill, "Va. Gov. Kaine, possible pick for VP, shares strengths, flaws with Obama"

LA Times, "Carly Fiorina tests her political mettle as McCain advisor"

Wall Street Journal, "VP Guide: The Religion Factor"

CAMPAIGN ADS
The Obama campaign released an ad late yesterday countering McCain's ad claim that he is the "original maverick." The narrator asks while a picture of McCain and President Bush is shown, "The original maverick? Or just more of the same?"

USA Today, "McCain ad pushes his independence, reformer status"

Washington Post, "McCain One-Ups Obama With Ad Buy"

LA Times, "Paris bites back at McCain": "She announced her candidacy for president Tuesday in an online video, making her case reclining poolside in a leopard-print bathing suit and gold high heels. 'I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead,' she said, beaming. It was a spoof, of course, a response to the ad Republican candidate John McCain launched last week comparing Democratic rival Barack Obama to Hilton and Britney Spears."

Associated Press, "Vote for Paris! Hilton 'enters' election race with spoof ad"

CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING
Washington Post, "McCain Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors"

McClatchy Newspapers, "Did Queens couple really give $61,600 to McCain, GOP?"

NY Times, "In Obama Campaign, Big Donors Are a Major Force"

Boston Herald's Carr, "Barack Obama's guest list a who's who of bad omens": "First, they allowed the hoi polloi, the ones who could come up with a few grand, a glimpse of the Prophet. After a while, the plebeians were ushered out, and the greedheads who could afford the $15,000-per-plate (or $28,500 a couple) got to have their photos taken with Our Next President."

BATTLEGROUND STATES
NY Daily News, "Hillary Clinton steps out to stump for Obama in Florida & Nevada"

Associated Press, "McCain opposes farm policies popular in Midwest"

Philadelphia Inquirer, "In virtual town hall, McCain fields Pa. queries"

Bloomberg News, "Obama Incites Republicans With New North Carolina Black Voters": "Republican voter Richard Gilbert last year challenged the eligibility of several students at historically black Elizabeth City State University to vote in a municipal election. The local elections board dismissed Gilbert's complaint that students are only temporary residents in the town of about 20,000 people. Similar fights over voter qualifications will be waged this year, particularly in Southern states, as Democrat Barack Obama's drive to register hundreds of thousands of new black voters clashes with Republican suspicions that get-out-the-vote efforts recruit people who aren't eligible to cast ballots."

CONVENTIONS
LA Times, "Given the cold shoulder?": "Is it possible that Vice President Dick Cheney, whose approval ratings sank into single digits this spring, might not speak at the Republican convention?"

USA Today, "5 lobbyists assume key posts at parties' national conventions"

ALSO:
Chicago Tribune's Page, "Obama hasn't closed the deal yet": "Some of my Chicago friends who support Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) already are speaking as if his victory is a done deal. I hate to burst their bubbles, but a nagging question still haunts the Obama euphoria: Why isn't he further ahead in the polls?"

NY Times' Dowd, "McCain's Green-Eyed Monster": "Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards have all been crazed with envy over the ascendance of the new 'It' guy, Barack Obama."

San Francisco Chronicle's Navarette, "Obama accused of using race": "Race doesn't have to become the dominant narrative of this election. But it is naive to think that it wasn't going to be woven in there somewhere. If anything, it seems that Obama has tried to avoid the subject out of fear that it'll weaken his support among white voters."

Cleveland Plain Dealer, "John McCain had role in original Wilmington DHL deal"

Wall Street Journal, "Obama's Muslim-Outreach Adviser Resigns": "The Muslim-outreach coordinator to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama has resigned amid questions about his involvement in an Islamic investment fund and various Islamic groups."

Boston Globe, "Obama shows hints of his year in global finance"

Chicago Sun-Times, "Tyra poses as Michelle Obama"