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1.) Obama’s Wisconsin woes — Looks like the Obama campaign might have to go back to the drawing board. Long before Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan to be his running mate, and even before Mitt Romney was the presumptive GOP nominee, the Obama campaign sketched out several paths to accumulate 270 electoral votes and win re-election for President Obama. Just one problem: Most of them assumed President Obama would win Wisconsin. TheDC’s Matt Lewis reports:
“Might this old video of Obama campaign manager Jim Messina foreshadow the electoral significance of Rep. Paul Ryan’s selection as Mitt Romney’s running mate? Since Ryan’s selection, polls have tightened. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has even predicted Romney will win the state.”
Of course, you’ll have to go to Matt Lewis’ Daily Caller blog to see the picture to which he refers.
2.) The GOP puts on a show — During Tuesday’s festivities at the Republican convention, Ann Romney promised her husband would “make this country a better place to live,” former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis encouraged Democrats to leave the Democratic Party and Chris Christie discussed the lessons learned from his mother. Meanwhile, MSNBC opted to not show any of the many GOP minority speakers, TheDC Jeff Poor reports:
“In lieu of airing speeches from former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, a black American; Mia Love, a black candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah; and Texas senatorial hopeful Ted Cruz, a Latino American, MSNBC opted to show commentary anchored by Rachel Maddow from Rev. Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes and Steve Schmidt.”
3.) Paging children’s services — Tampa’s Occupy protesters, who are in town to rail against the Republican convention, are not only making asses of themselves, as per usual, they are also putting some of their children in harms away (unfortunately, as per usual as well). Zach Gorelick and Josh Peterson report for TheDC:
“The atmosphere intensified as police cordoned off entryways. Bicycle wheels lined up in a row, and the image of riot police in full gear became too much. Kids were pushed, boxed in by their group. One of their mothers flew off the handle … We lost sight of the children. We didn’t see them again. Daily Caller video editor Grae Stafford managed to grab a shot of the children being led away. One of them was sobbing as an organizer snatched him up from the fray. As the rain picked up, a lone child — seemingly without parents nearby — biked by us and shouted, ‘Fuck this shit — I’m not homeless.’ We saw so much yesterday. We spoke to Occupiers, we spoke to security forces, we understood the tension. But seeing children placed in front of conflict-seeking adults as they marched toward possible armed conflict rattled us to the core.”
4.) The RNC’s Mysterious Thursday — It appears like there may be a mystery speaker before Mitt Romney accepts the Republican nomination Thursday night. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein lists a series of people it could be, including Sen. Joe Lieberman:
“A high profile Democrat endorsing Romney on national television would obviously be seen as a boon for the Romney campaign. Yes, Lieberman is officially an ‘independent Democrat’ in the Senate now and, yes, he endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain’s presidential candidacy at the convention in 2008. But getting Lieberman to speak would still be a pretty big coup for Romney. Lieberman was, after all, a Democratic vice presidential nominee just over a decade ago.”
Check out the other four potential mystery speakers. But in addition to those, TheDC Morning has read some are suggesting it could be one of the Bush presidents, though Jeb is speaking that night and that might make it Bush-family heavy. Also, a reader suggested Herman Cain. If they can keep him to economics and not saying 9-9-9 over and over and over again, that seems like a plausible possibility. He’s very likable on a personal level.
5.) Poll of the Day: Ryan’s speech more anticipated than Romney’s — Pew Research Center asks Americans whether they are very or somewhat interested in various aspects of the GOP convention: 52% said they were interested in the GOP’s party platform, 46% said they were interested in Paul Ryan’s speech, 44% said they were interested in Mitt Romney’s speech and 43% said they were interested in the Roll Call of states.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday — Jonah Goldberg: Literally? Shouldn’t you stop him? RT @ByronTau: Some dude is butchering “My Girl” at the RNC.