From the Blogosphere

The Obama campaign has promised to contest all 50 states. Does that mean he plans to visit all 50? No, Obama has wisely chosen to say “contest” not “visit.” That is because he has learned an important lesson from the last President to try a 50-state campaign — Richard Nixon.

In 1960, Richard Nixon made even a better promise.

Nixon promised to visit all 50 states. He made that vow during his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention.

With leaners
Obama - 48%
McCain - 46%

Without leaners
Obama - 45%
McCain - 42%

The numbers jump a bit for Obama today, but we haven’t seen impact of the Biden announcement yet.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple days before the convention.

Key quotes, “A lot of Democrats in Washington are sort of breathing a collective sigh of ‘Phew’,” “Joe Biden’s nobody’s #2″ and “This guy ran for President when Barack Obama was in law school.”

Barack Obama has sent his message to the world:

(CNN) — Sen.

Barack Obama has selected Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters on Saturday.

“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee,” the text message, sent at around 3 a.m.

ET, said.

Since it leaked hours in advance, this was inevitable.

At 3:44 a.m., the text message reads as such…

Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee.

Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3PM ET on www.BarackObama.com.

Spread the word!

And now I can go to bed…

And so it begins…

I can understand the news organizations getting their hands on the info, but One.org? This is supposed to be a non-partisan organization devoted to fighting AIDS?

Here are a couple of screenshots from an email they just sent me…

First, the one that talks about Biden explicitly:

Then the non-committal postcard:

So much for that text message…

The title of their article is this, “Official: Obama picks Biden for veep.”

Well, it doesn’t get more “official” than that.

Ambinder lays them out…

PLUSES:

I gather that Obama realizes that he needed a pick that would demonstrate some level of intellectual seriousness about the condition of the world.

One of his sons heads for Iraq soon. Obama knows that, for Biden, getting Iraq right is much more than just about proving a point.

What must be running through his head right now?

I mean, this is it. This is his shot. What does one think about at a time like this?

The AP is reporting that the pick is less than 24 hours away…

Late Friday, several officials said the text message announcement would be distributed Saturday morning, a few hours before a scheduled rally at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where the Democratic ticket would appear for the first time.