Gallup's daily poll today:

Barack Obama leading the race for president with his highest share of support to date. Fully half of national registered voters now favor Obama for president, while 42% back John McCain.

Toby Harshaw, co-author of the New York Times Opinionator blog, writes up my post suggesting John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate will turn out to be another George McGovern-Thomas Eagleton scenario. He notes Ann Althouse's disagreement with me, calling it a "blogspat." Toby writes:

The Opinionator is enjoying an enlightening little blogspat between two of his favorites, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft and Ann Althouse.

Merritt is taking bets on when Sarah Palin will drop out, Thomas Eagleton-style, saying of the historical parallel that: “It had nothing to do with Eagleton’s particular problems, but how [George] McGovern came to choose him, failed to adequately vet him, and then waffled when the problems arose, effectively costing him the election.”

“John McCain picked Sarah Palin to get the enthusiastic support of the evangelical, radical right,” she argues. He didn’t think it would matter that she has no national experience because he perceived he could argue Obama didn’t either.”

On Ann, he writes, in part:

Another NFL player -- the third in 18 months -- has been shot.

Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier was shot and critically wounded outside an apartment building early Tuesday as he and a former Jacksonville teammate waited for two women they had met at a nightclub, police said.

Collier was waiting in a Cadillac Escalade with former Jaguars defensive end Kenneth Pettway when someone fired shots through the window for reasons that are as yet unknown. At last report, Collier was in critical condition.

Open threads are filling up quickly today. Here's another. Please remember the rules.

Alberto Gonzales' memory lapses are well documented, particularly when he testifies before Congress. It may therefore be unsurprising that

Gonzales told investigators he did not remember whether he took home notes regarding the government's most sensitive national security programs and did not know they contained classified information despite notations on the papers that they were "eyes only -- top secret," according to a report released this morning.

Here's what Gonzales did that he couldn't remember: [more ...]

It's lunchtime on the East coast. I'm back at work. Here's an open thread for you, with the caveat below still in effect.

This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.

Our comment policy is here.

Bumped 10:45 am Monday: The ban remains in effect. Zero tolerance.

Bump 9:35 pm Sunday: Some of you aren't getting the message:

11:15 a.m. Sunday: This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.

There are no comments to this thread. (Despite the comment box still appearing, they won't post.) More...

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters rips the Mainstream Media for its coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

How 15,000 credentialed journalists could descend on Denver and produce such unvaryingly weak and shoddy coverage of a staged news event -- and do it with coverage that celebrated sameness and shallowness -- was a sad spectacle that newsrooms nationwide ought to ponder.

The police were busy in St. Paul yesterday.

Police arrested 284 people Monday after firing projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse a crowd demonstrating near the convention site.

So much for freedom of assembly. Exercising that right in St. Paul apparently results in an arrest for conspiracy to riot.

Some of the arrests were probably legitimate (there have been scattered reports of vandalism), but the pattern at political conventions has been to arrest first, ask questions later. It will be interesting to see how many of the arrestees are never charged, and how many charges are ultimately dismissed.

Those of you who rely on sleeping pills or a shot of bourbon to help you fall asleep will not need your sleeping aids tonight. Simply tune in the Republican National Convention, where the prime time speaking agenda will include the sleep-talking Sen. Fred Thompson and the equally snooze-inducing Sen Joe Lieberman. George Bush, rumored to still be the President of the United States, will appear by satellite.

Thompson is pinch hitting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger, who suddenly found himself with better things to do.

A personal note --I am not comfortable with writing about this election right now. I am not comfortable with the behavior of some Democrats and Left blogs regarding Sarah Palin. Of course everyone is entitled to their own views on this and I respect that. But I am entitled to mine as well. I am going to take a break and see how I feel next week.

I want to add that I believe the Obama/Biden campaign has handled the Palin matter with considerable decency and political aplomb. I applaud their behavior.

One last thing, I recommend Bob Herbert's column today.

I speak for me only of course.

This is an Open Thread.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, with the caveat I stated below. Please read it before commenting.

(This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.)