What is Ron Paul doing with his truckloads of money? Passively attacking John McCain.

h/t Texas Monthly's Poll Dancing

It isn't every day that the Secretary of Defense throws a whole branch of the military under the bus, but today was the day for Secretary Robert Gates and the Air Force to embark on that very journey.

In labor news, GM and UAW continue to have some rough days. The current ongoing struggle largely concerns local agreements on overtime and work rules. The strike at partsmaker American Axle must be also be considered as a strategic underpinning — as well as an undeniable influence — on other sets of negotiations.

What are the chances that when you see a retired officer on the news acting as a military analyst they are actually a PR flak deployed by the Pentagon?

TPMMuckraker reports that the Republican Party is in such electoral disarray that they can't even get their 527 message / swift boat-style attack groups coordinated, like Freedoms Watch. There are some dynamics at work here that I think are surprising, but indicative of the problems the GOP is having on the inside.

While I am not in the business of totally dismissing the Republican Party's chances of making waves, I don't know that I agree with the Chron's idea that Tom Craddick has been significantly buoyed by what's happened thus far in this election cycle. But there it is.

Also, here are two takes - one from the Dallas Morning News and one from the Star-Telegram - on Perry's decision to run again.

Howard Dean is trying to put The Fear into the superdelegates that remain uncommitted, saying he needs their decision as of immediately.

When I'm telling potential candidates the kind of stuff they have to do in order to get elected, I often talk about earned media. Earned media is where you do stuff and the media reports on it, getting you in the paper without having to pay for it. A felony burglary charge, however, is the wrong kind of earned media.

Republican Congressman John Culberson hit the panic button six weeks ago when it became apparent that his Democratic opponent Michael Skelly was raising money by the truckload.

This time from North Carolina, and it is pretty exciting if you're into participatory democracy (and I know I am): 52,844 people under the age of 25 signed up to cast ballots so far in 2008. I'm really starting to wonder what the final youth vote numbers will look like once November is over and done with. Will the kids turn out?