Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Miracle Whip
Hillary Clinton's staff is trying to avoid an embarrassing anti-Obama demonstration by her supporters during the floor vote at next week's Democratic convention in Denver. The Politico newspaper reports Hillary's staff has created a 40-member "whip team." Members will coordinate with Obama's floor organizers to help present a unified front during the roll call.
One person involved in the planning says, "If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs." They continued, "Is it typical for a losing candidate to have their own whip team? No. But it's also not usual for a losing candidate to get 18 million votes either."
A Clinton spokeswoman emphasized the whips will not attempt to convince delegates to vote for the New York senator, but will hand out Clinton signs to supporters who request them.
Taxing Ticket
Last week we told you about some Obama supporters being informed they must volunteer in order to receive a ticket for the senator's nomination acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field. Now, a Denver TV station reports some Democratic supporters are furious because they have been solicited to buy tickets for the speech.
One source directed the station to an unpublicized section of Obama's campaign Web site where Democratic supporters with deep pockets could spend $1,000 for a single ticket. The source says he was asked three times to buy tickets through the Web site. Another source said it was unethical and being kept secret from the public.
Most seats were distributed free to the general public and an Obama spokeswoman says only a small percentage of the 75,000 tickets were sold to raise money for the campaign.
The Democratic supporter who contacted the station called the selling of tickets an "underground fundraising operation."
Funny Math
It appears the joke is on John McCain rather than Barack Obama, at least according to late night comics. A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found network comedians were much more likely to pile on jokes about President Bush and Senator McCain rather than the Democratic candidate. The study covered all jokes between January 1 and July 31 in late-night monologues by Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.
The center found there were 428 jokes about President Bush, 328 jokes for John McCain and just 169 jokes about Obama. Hillary Clinton, despite dropping out of the race in June, was the target of more than twice as many jokes as Obama with 382.
Inconvenient Truth
The World Meteorological Organization says the first half of 2008 was the coolest in at least five years. It expects 2008 will almost certainly be cooler than recent years, although temperatures remain above the historical average. The United Kingdom Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Change says data shows worldwide temperatures have declined since 1998.
A scientist with the WMO says, "We can expect with high probability this year will be cooler than the previous five years."
Climate scientists differ about whether the cooling temperatures undermine the case for man-made global warming.
— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.
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