From TPM Reader JS ...

I wish team Obama would drive the elitism point home by doing the math on how much of a tax break John and Cindy McCain would get from McCain's plan vs the avg American (at the US median household income). And then for good measure show what would happen with Obama's plan.

This would keep the theme of McCain's elitism and Republican elitist economics in the press for a while longer.

Another reader continues the thought ...

It might be nice to use the McCains' income to model the tax cuts, but that would require their disclosing how much they make. To get a sense of the difference, though, one need look no further than the NYTimes Magazine piece this Sunday on Obama's economic policies:

"McCain, by continuing the basic thrust of Bush's tax policies and adding a few new wrinkles, would cut taxes for the top 0.1 percent of earners -- those making an average of $9.1 million -- by another $190,000 a year, on top of the Bush reductions. Obama would raise taxes on this top 0.1 percent by an average of $800,000 a year.

It's hard not to look at that figure and be a little stunned. It would represent a huge tax increase on the wealthy families. But it's also worth putting the number in some context. The bulk of Obama's tax increases on the wealthy -- about $500,000 of that $800,000 -- would simply take away Bush's tax cuts. The remaining $300,000 wouldn't nearly
reverse their pretax income gains in recent years. Since the mid-1990s, their inflation-adjusted pretax income has roughly doubled."

That's a good ballpark estimation. Obama would raise McCain's taxes by roughly $800,000; McCain would cut them by about $200,000. That's a million dollar spread. No wonder McCain is so hostile to Obama's economic agenda.

But here's what's really interesting. Obama's proposals would raise his own taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars, in order to cut the taxes of people who are less fortunate than he is. McCain would cut his own taxes even further than they've already been reduced. And that's everything a voter needs to know about these two men.

Late Update: Our full staff doesn't work weekends. But I think the graphic we want here has John and Cindy on the right and the average American family on the left, with two bubbles next to each family -- one for the impact of each candidate's tax plan. Somehow graphically you also want to add in the middle class to rich threshold at $5 million annual income.

Biden: "Your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night after you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. That's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at."

The day's big event is underway in Springfield, Il. We have the full text of Obama's speech posted at Election Central.

Late Update: Biden sprinkled some good lines in his speech.

Later Update: Video of the afternoon's proceedings:

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) issued the following statement on the Biden selection:

"Joe Biden is the right partner for Barack Obama. His many years of distinguished service to America, his seasoned judgment and his vast experience in foreign policy and national security will match up well with the unique challenges of the 21st Century. An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team. Biden's selection is good news for Obama and America."

Ron Fournier riding hard on the tire swing.

The McCain campaign is already out with a new TV spot hitting Joe Biden with some 2005 footage of Biden saying he'd be honored to run for president with McCain.

Late Update: Our take on the choice: Biden pick has risks, but it also signals a vigorous debate with the GOP on foreign policy.

The AP is reporting that Joe Biden is the one.

CNN is carrying a similar report.

Earlier this evening, ABC reported that a Secret Service detail was on its way to Biden's Delaware home.

Late Update: It's official. The Obama campaign's email announcing the decision is here.

I can confirm that Sen. Obama has not called to tell me that I am not going to be his running mate. I can read the tea leaves as well as anyone, and I think this is pretty conclusive proof that I am not yet out of the running.

I've been nothing if not coy about my shadow campaign for veep. Instead of telling as many people as I could that I have no interest in being asked to run, I've turned the traditional campaign for No. 2 on its head and told no one that I have a very real interest in being asked. I bet Joe, Evan and Kathleen didn't see that one coming.

At first it seemed like a long shot, but as the week has dragged on and Obama still hasn't announced his choice, I realized that this leaves the door open. As long as he hasn't announced, or at least called in advance to let me down easy, I figure I'm still in the mix. And just think of the possibilities: Obama/Kurtz--OK for America.

I've gathered the children here at home and we're waiting for the call. I keep peeking out the front window to see if the news trucks are gathering or the traffic is slowing down to catch a glimpse. Nothing yet, but I heard exclusively through a friend of a friend's hairdresser that it's all but decided. Can't get any more solid a confirmation than that.

Philip Pan weighs in on China's transition to capitalism at TPMCafe, suggesting that the country would be better off if the changes were led by the communist party, which has shown exceptional resilience to violence and upheaval in its nearly 60-year old history.

Fresh back from Beijing, Jennifer 8. Lee notes that the Chinese pulled out all the stops for the Olympics: "Easy flowing traffic, lack of migrant workers (who are like the Mexicans of China), and happy shiny volunteers who speak English everywhere. Even the weather cleared up for a few days last week."

The CIA issues an official denial of the allegations in Ron Suskind's new book that the White House ordered then-Director George Tenet to forge documents intended to link al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein: "To assert, as Suskind does, that the White House would request such a document, and that the Agency would accept such a task, says something about him and nothing about us."

Robin Leach comes to John McCain's defense on luxe multi-house lifestyle.

Pundits and yakkers start rapping McCain for non-stop POW, POW, POW.

About four years ago I described what I called the Republicans' 'bitch slap' theory of electoral politics. Stuff like the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry and McCain's Celeb/P Diddy assault on Obama aren't really about the attacks themselves. In themselves, they're often too cartoonish to be believed in any literal sense. What they're about is smacking the other guy around and making him take it. There's no better way to demonstrate someone's lack of toughness or strength than to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves -- thus the rough slang I used above. That not only makes the other guy look weak. It also transforms him into an object of contempt, which together are politically fatal. It's this meta-message of weakness that resonates far beyond the literal claims. And it's this that Democrats so often seem to miss -- explaining the factual inaccuracies of the claims, demanding that the attacks stop, all the while reinforcing the intended message of the attacks in the first place.

You can even catch a hint of the mentality in the McCain camp's huffing and puffing Thursday afternoon. The new and somewhat improbable line from the McCain camp is that they've actually been doing their best to go easy on Obama, to hold back the stuff that would really make him suffer. But now that Obama's gone ahead and raised McCain's inability to remember how many houses, now he's really gonna get it with a super-mean Rezko ad and maybe even Reverend Wright. "He's opened the door to this," a McCain official told Marc Ambinder, in a campaign version of the wife-beater's "You brought this on yourself!" As if McCain and his Rove lieutenants paid much mind to closed doors.

In effect, the devastating Rezko ad McCain says it never wanted to have to run is pretty weak. Which is pretty much what you'd expect for an ad put together in three or four hours by a campaign shell-shocked by a media firestorm they couldn't put out by screaming POW, POW, POW.

What we'll see now is whether Obama keeps McCain on the run with a continuing line of attacks or whether they'll let up after this one reactive pick-up from McCain's mistake. The House? gaffe exposes two of McCain's biggest vulnerabilities -- 1) the contrast between his old soldier pseudo-mystique and the pampered life he's led for almost 40 years and 2) the age-related wobbliness which has his campaign aides keeping him largely off limits to the traveling press. These dovetail with his loose-cannon approach to critical foreign policy questions.

These issues -- particularly 2 and 3 -- are substantively critical issues. 1 is to the extent that it sheds light on McCain's general ignorance and indifference to bread-n-butter economic issues and his willingness to flip between progressive and Bushite tax policy over the course of a couple years. But the tempo of this election and the fall out from the 'celeb' attacks will be determined in large part not by factual particulars but by whether Obama can show that when someone hits him hard he hits back twice as hard. Not cowering, ignoring or complaining. This is about the score and not the libretto.

I get asked a lot about the relationship between old media and new media, on the editorial and publishing side. And my usual line is that I think the relationship is much more symbiotic and convergent than people often realize. But when folks ask what scrappy little outfits like TPM would do if the big papers with their cadres of reporters went under, I have to wonder, what would big papers like the Washington Post do if TPM went under and they didn't have our exclusives to steal and run as their own stories on A2 on the following day?

For today's example see Kate Klonick's Thursday exclusive at TPMMuckraker about the US Commission on Civil Rights hiring Bush administration minority voting suppression expert Hans von Spakovsky and the Post's citation/credit-free retread in today's paper.

All the veep speculation you could ever want -- and more -- in today's TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

TPM Reader TP is shocked ... not shocked, shocked, but shocked ...

OK, I've been involved in politics in PA for a decade but I was still shocked by the media love-fest at McCain's Ranch. I knew things were different in DC but this is like finding out your sister in the big city who seems to date a lot is actually a streetwalker. In response I hereby coin the term "Swinging on the Tire" to describe a reporter who has gotten way too cozy with a politician and has had their supposed objectivity affected.

Please feel free to use this term or even making it into an award like one of Sullivan's.

I think we are beginning to see some reporters start to question McCain's statements and perhaps more importantly, they are starting to question if the John McCain they knew and adored was the real John McCain. They've given him a pass on just about everything up until now but I think you will slowly start to see that change. Once the truth starts to come out, I think the polls will swing back to Obama.

Before John and Cindy McCain bought the two luxury condos in downtown Phoenix and combined them into one mega-condo for $4.6 million they lived in this Phoenix mansion. They sold it in 2006. But now it's on the market again for a cool $12 million. And here's the real estate listing at Yahoo Real Estate, with pictures and virtual tour.

The blurb ...

Former home of Sen John & Cindy McCain. Situated on over 2.5 acres. Totally remodeled in Old World style complete w/7 bedrooms in main house & 6 bedrooms in guest houses. Hardwood & travertine floors throughout. Master suite has huge walk-in w/private cantera stone patio w/spa and fplc. Gourmet kitchen has travertine floors, granite counters, comercial SS apliances w/large catering room/butlers pantry off kitchen. 2 guest houses. His/her dressing cabana. Finest entertaining backyard in the Valley - 3 ramadas (2 w/full bar set-up), BBQ, play house, cantera stone decking, pavillion, spa and large lap/play pool. 7 car detached garage...

An interesting tidbit from the end of a piece in the Politico on McCain's 8 homes. (They've decided it's eight.) From 2006 to 2007, the McCain's budget for household staff went up roughly 50% from $184,000 to $273,000 ...

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.

The additional cash supports an "increase in the number of employees," the McCain aide told Politico. The aide did not answer a question about whether the growing staff stemmed from addition of new properties to the family's real estate portfolio.

This guy's got an idea ...

Late Update: This other guy's already put together a special McSame #7 House keychain you can buy for your very own.

Later Update: Now there's a whole set -- one for each house.