GOP nominee Bob McDonnell leads his Democratic opponent by 3 points in the race for governor of Virginia, according to the latest Rasmussen poll (July 14, 500 LV).

State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D) led by 6 points in the last Rasmussen poll, taken the day after the June 9 Democratic primary -- in which Deeds crushed his better-known opponents, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran. However, McDonnell -- who resigned as attorney general earlier this year -- has led every poll since.

McDonnell leads with 44% to 41% for Deeds, and 12% undecided, and McDonnell's favorability rating (50% favorable/27% unfavorable) is slightly better than Deeds's (49% favorable/35% unfavorable).

The candidates released their post-primary fundraising totals earlier this week, which accounted for the amount they raised from May 28 through June 30. Deeds raised $3.4 million in that time span, leaving him with $2.7 million in the bank. McDonnell raised far less, $1.8 million, but has $4.9 million cash on hand.

In November 2008, North Carolina Democrats narrowly won their fifth consecutive gubernatorial race, electing Bev Perdue to the Governor's Mansion.

In six months, Perdue has seen her popularity tank, and she now clocks in at a dismal 25% approval.  This is just a bad time to be in charge of a state.  The good news for Democrats is that she doesn't have to run for re-election for three years.

The bad news for Democrats is that Perdue's unpopularity could eventually put their control of the state house at risk.  Republicans need to pick up 5 state senate seats and 9 state house seats to take control.  This, in turn, could cause problems for the state's congressional and state house delegations, as one imagines that having Republicans in total control of redistricting would not result in districts that look like this (at least not districts that look like that and tend to elect Democrats).

We have our newest member of Congress.  Democrat Judy Chu defeated Republican Betty Chu, 62%-33% to hold the seat vacated by now-Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The 32nd District -- aka East LA -- went for President Obama 68%-30% and is two-thirds Hispanic.  J. Chu amassed 15,000 votes, while B. Chu amassed 8,000 votes.  One wonders how hard it would have been for the NRCC to run a stealth campaign to find 7,000 more voters and possibly steal the seat.  Especially if they had nominated a candidate with an Hispanic surname.

Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech today is being seen as an attempt by the Secretary of State to reassert herself, "to retake center stage as the administration's top foreign policy voice," as the AP described it.

If that's the case, the White House isn't doing her any favors by scheduling President Obama's remarks on health care in the Rose Garden at the same time as her speech. Both are set for 1 pm.

Barack Obama's campaign operation is launching TV ads for the first time since the campaign, pushing lawmakers in key states to finally act on health care reform.

Organizing For America's new spots feature direct-to-camera testimony from five Americans "who have been affected by America's broken health care system, and are now calling for reform," according to the DNC. Each individual outlines their plight and says, "It's time" for reform.

The ad will air nationwide on cable, as well as over the air in battleground states and states represented by moderate Republicans (Maine and Ohio) as well as potentially wary Democrats, including Arkansas (Lincoln and Pryor), Indiana (Bayh), Louisiana (Landrieu) and Nebraska (Nelson). It also airs in North Dakota, home to Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad.

In my Weekly Standard article before Obama's trip, I said that the most likely outcome would be "business as usual."  And, evidently, so it is.

The latest news:

Russia will not agree to tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program in exchange for a new nuclear arms cuts deal with Washington, Interfax news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying Tuesday.

...

A Kremlin source told Reuters that the exchange of remarks over START and Iran did not indicate any change in the overall atmosphere of Russia-U.S. contacts.

Pretty much the textbook definition of business as usual.

In other, little-reported news, Medvedev reiterated right after the summit that Russia still plans to deploy (not-yet-existent) missiles in Kaliningrad if the U.S. goes ahead with the missile shield installations in Poland and the Czech Republic (plans that remain intact, though still under review for effectiveness, according to a July 10 briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley; see the video here at 13:26).

Of course, this renewed crude saber-rattling actually makes it harder for Obama administration to scrap those sites if the review finds them less than effective, because then Obama will be seen as giving in to Russian blackmail.  Of course, it's entirely possible that the Kremlin junta, with its "foreign policy" of tantrums and grievances, would much rather have those missile defense installations in place and be able to scream about being threatened and disrespected by the Americans.

So much for the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

(Cross-posted to The Y Files.)

Credit Fox's Joe Buck for this observation: the last time the National League won baseball's All-Star Game, Barack Obama was just running for election to the Illinois State Senate.

The play-by-play man pointed that out to the president himself as he joined Buck and Tim McCarver in the broadcast booth tonight. Obama asked the announcers why that was, and as he gave his thoughts, Buck joked that there was "no bailout plan in place" for the senior circuit.

"No man, we're out of money," Obama quickly replied, drawing a huge laugh from McCarver.

A funny one-liner, to be sure. But perhaps not the smartest thing for a president to say in tough economic times, or on the same day he praised the House of Representatives for a health care bill that costs $1 trillion. Obama has gotten himself in trouble before for other one-liners, most recently a crack about the Special Olympics on "The Tonight Show," and an odd comment seeming to mock Nancy Reagan for astrology.

Otherwise, it was a good visit by Obama to the All-Star Game, even despite a less-than-inspired first pitch. Sporting a White Sox jacket and jeans, he tossed a looper to Albert Pujols that bounced just in front of home plate.

"I did not play organized baseball when I was a kid. And so I think some of these natural moves aren't so natural to me," Obama explained after.

Talking baseball with the announcers, he declined to pick a favorite in the World Series, saying he preferred to wait til he had more information. He singled out Dodgers for playing great ball, but otherwise said it was great to see parity, giving fans everywhere hope.

Oh, except for the lowly Washington Nationals -- they're "still young," said Obama, who has yet to visit the hometown team. Buck pointed out that they just fired their manager, Manny Acta. Just another unemployed American for Obama to worry about.

From the Department of Things You Never Thought You'd Hear, the AFP reports that Hamas is accusing Israel of dropping chewing gum laced with chemical aphrodisiacs into Gaza in an effort to "corrupt" Palestinian youth.

Kind of puts a new twist on an old Wrigley's theme:

Paul Mirengoff notes the irony:

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are making a major effort to show that empathy is no part of Sonia Sotomayor's judicial decisionmaking. Senator Schumer, in particular, made this the centerpiece of his questioning. He flagged certain cases in which sympathetic litigants did not receive a favorable ruling from Sotomayor. One set of such litigants cited by Schumer was the Ricci plaintiffs, but that assumes Sotomayor had empathy for them, which is doubtful. Schumer also noted that Sotomayor rules in favor of immigrants exactly as often as her court does, on average.

But if Schumer is right, what are we to make of President Obama's statement that empathy in decisionmaking would be an important quality in deciding his Supreme Court nominee? If we take the president at his word, he must have found some evidence of this quality in Sotomayor -- in her opinions, in her writings, and/or in their private interview -- before nominating her. Did Sotomayor con the president?

Michael Steele has said some dumb things in his brief tenure as GOP Chairman ("one armed midgets" and "slum love" spring to mind) for which he's rightly been criticized.

But this post by Bil Browning (self-described LGBT blogger and new media consultant) of the Huffington Post is just an out and out smear: Steele: GOP woos blacks with "fried chicken and potato salad."

Watch the clip and listen closely. A young gay blogger (who Browning also describes as a person of color) asks Michael Steele about his future plans for the "inclusion of diverse populations in the Republican party."

Steele responds: "My plan is to say, Y'all come. Cause a lot of you are already here."

Steele's response generates some laughter, but off camera you can hear someone (though almost certainly the blogger who asked the question) say, "I'll bring the collard greens."

This generates more laughter among the group, as well as Steele's genial response: "There you go. I got the fried chicken and the potato salad, okay?

Put in it's proper context, Steele's remarks are a far cry from Browning's headline or his assertion that "to lure African-Americans into the GOP, Steele is offering "fried chicken and potato salad."

It's just an out and out lie. And a despicably racist one at that.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall repeats the slur.