Dayton International Airport:

On the day when Barack Obama is to make his historic speech accepting the democratic nomination for president, the media descended on the small Dayton International Airport to wait the arrival of John McCain.  The speculation was running fast and furious on who the pick might be after Carl broke the news that Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager, confirmed that John McCain had made his decision….

No leaking of who…just that the decision was made……The Vice Presidential pick will join John McCain at a rally at noon Friday at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Oh.

Sen. McCain responds to Obama’s red state strategy, hits the Democrat as a hypocrite and continues his assault on Obama as a “liberal, doctrinaire Democrat” in today’s interview with Carl Cameron.

PART II

SEE PART I HERE…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an interview with Carl Cameron today, Sen. McCain introduced some new pushback to Sen. Obama’s assertion that the GOPer represents a Bush third term. The presumptive Republican nominee instead argues that the Illinois Democrat is promoting policies that would mean a second term for President Carter.

“You know one of his favorite phrases is that I would be a Bush third term. Well I think maybe his proposals could be a Carter second term,” McCain told Fox.

WATCH PART I OF THE INTERVIEW:

SEE ALSO PART II

Miami, Fl:

“…just keeping my word.”

Mark McKinnon, staffer, advisor and a well-known fixture on the McCain campaign trail, last year said he would leave the McCain campaign if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination. He said at the time he did not want to work on a campaign against Obama. McKinnon, today, sent out an email saying he would be stepping down.

McKinnon, and most everyone else in the McCain camp, concluded Clinton lost more than a month ago.

The long time Austin, Texas based Democratic ad man, media strategist and campaign consultant rose to national prominence as an original Bush 2000 insider with then Governor George W. Bush’s start-up team.

In announcing his decision, he tossed out all the one-liners you would expect from a committed McCain supporter in an email this afternoon.

He is still a “1,000 percent McCain man. Just Going off the ad team.”

McKinnon says he is going from linebacker to head cheerleader and he’ll “still be showing up occasionally in my lucky hat.”

The campaign let it be known about a month ago that a top notch team of about half dozen people had been assembled to steer McCain’s media message.

McKinnon’s a Democrat, and will remain loyal to McCain from the sidelines…but will not work against Obama. It’s just that simple.

While Sen. Barack Obama sought to improve his relationship with the Jewish community today by meeting with leaders in Philadelphia, comments by a Hamas political adviser this weekend could potentially hurt the Democratic presidential candidate.

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

(Full interview)

For his part, Obama criticized former President Jimmy Carter’s decision to meet with Hamas, telling Jewish leaders Wednesday that “Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

“We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction,” Obama said. “We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.”

While the IL Democrat has condemned Hamas, an endorsement from a top leader in the group is probably the last thing Obama needs right now.

Sen Clinton has personally apologized to Sen Obama for remarks by her New Hampshire campaign chairman Billy Shaheen, the husband of Gov Jeanne Shaheen, who said yesterday that Obama’s past drug use could be used against him by Republicans in a general election. Shaheen  apologized for bringing up the drug issue, and the campaign immediately disavowed his comments.

Now, New Hampshire spokeswoman Kathleen Strand says “Sen. Clinton personally apologized to Sen. Obama this morning, and reiterated that this was not anything that came from the campaign or that we condone.” She confirmed that the apology took place at Washington’s Reagan National Airport as the two left the nation’s capital for a Des Moines, IA presidential debate.

After the AP reported that the Clinton campaign was preparing for a possible loss in Iowa by building a firewall in New Hampshire, two new polls show Obama pulling into a dead heat. A new WMUR poll has Hillary leading Barack Obama by a single point, 31-30. She once led the same poll by 20 points. And Rasmussen Reports actually has Obama ahead in the Granite State, 31-28.

Meanwhile, a new survey from Republican polling outfit Strategic Vision shows Obama ahead by 8 in Iowa, 33-25.  But a Rasmussen poll shows Hillary leading 29-26, confirming what everyone already knows about Iowa — it’s just too close to call.

To add insult to injury, the NY Daily News reports that Bill Clinton is so worried about the campaign’s recent performance that he’s taking a much more active role, and there are rumors of an impending staff shake-up — rumblings that were denied by Sen Clinton herself yesterday.

Our own Major Garrett reports that the Clinton campaign “exhibits increasing annoyance at what it regards as a ‘free ride’ for Obama from the political press corps and feels beseiged as it has to bat away incessant questions about declining poll numbers in early battleground states and accounts of deepening turmoil at the highest levels of the Clinton campaign.”

The Clinton folks are trying to end that free ride, pushing newly-surfaced voter questionnaires filled out by Obama that they believe underscore their contention that Obama is either too liberal, too inconsistent, or too unelectable — or all three.

Barack Obama’s campaign had a big New Hampshire endorsement to announce today; they won the support of Carol Shea-Porter, a freshman congresswoman, and the second  of two from the Granite State to back Obama. To roll out the endorsement, the campaign announced a 2pm conference call with the congresswoman — giving reporters about an hour’s notice.

Just about a half hour later, Hillary’s campaign announced their own 2pm conference call on electability — giving us less than 2o minutes warning.  On that call, Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) took a shot at Obama for changing some of his  liberal positions laid out in a 1996 questionnaire obtained by the Politico, just because he’s running for national office. “I don’t frankly understand a candidate that seems to think he can offer one position in the early stages of his career, and then as he reaches the level of a national election, he can change from one position to the next,” she said.

But other than that direct response to the Politico piece, participants didn’t have much news to offer — leading reporters like yours truly to wonder why they held the hastily assembled call in the first place. Sen Evan Bayh (D-IN) talked about Hillary’s electability among moderate Republicans and Independents in the heartland, while Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) stressed her appeal to women all over the country, who she said would come out in force in a general election.

Asked whether a new poll showing John Edwards performing best against Republican candidates meant he, not Hillary, was most electable, spokesman Phil Singer pointed to another poll in which most respondents called Hillary the most electable Democrat. But Edwards’ camp shot back with a memo with Democrats (mostly Edwards supporters) from red states cringing at a possible Clinton nomination’s effect on their reelection efforts, and praising Edwards as someone who could help down ticket Dems across the country.

After spending about a week on the campaign trail attacking Barack Obama over Health Care, Social Security, and his commitment to women’s rights, Hillary Clinton has gone back to emphasizing what she would do as president.

Gone are the frequent mentions of Obama by name, or even the veiled slaps at “some of my opponents” who have health care plans that won’t cover everyone. She’s even gone back to a line her husband used when he campaigned for her in July, saying it’s great to be a Democrat because there are so many fantastic candidates that “you don’t have to be against anyone.”

It could be because she’s been more focused on organizing Iowans to get to the caucuses — campaigning with her mother and daughter last week to ask experienced supporters to “buddy up” with first time caucus goers and make sure they get to their precincts on January 3rd. Or it could be because the attacks earned her a lot of negative press and some negative feeling among Iowans — and didn’t reverse a general downward trend in the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, and nationally.

Asked whether she’d given up the attacks because of sinking poll numbers, Sen Clinton told reporters that she would continue to draw distinctions with her opponents throughout the rest of the primary season. Watch what she had to say.done

As ABC’s Jake Tapper reports, even if those “contrasts” have stopped coming from Hillary’s mouth, they’re still flying through the mail.

Chelsea Clinton and her grandmother Dorothy Rodham are on the trail in Iowa with Sen Clinton today. They started the day at Palmer’s Deli in Des Moines, shaking hands in the middle of a media scrum before sitting down and ordering breakfast. Chelsea hasn’t been too visible this election cycle; the last we saw her was at her mom’s 60th birthday party in New York in October.

The other prominent member of the family, former President Bill Clinton, is campaigning in South Carolina today.

Why bring the whole family out this weekend? It may have SOMETHING to do with one Oprah Gail Winfrey hitting the stump with Senator Clinton’s chief Democratic rival, Barack Obama. Hillary was asked whether she was concerned about Oprah drawing big crowds tonight, here’s what she said.