This isn't new news, but here's the latest round of lefty-on-Obama criticism in Harper's magazine. The Harper's Index for the August issue begins:

Total campaign contributions Barack Obama received from BP between 2004 and 2009: $77,051

Number of politicians who accepted more in donations from BP during that period: 0

There was a minor flap about the Obama BP donations back in May. See this hilarious defense of Obama by two Media Matters spinners (summary: the money was laundered through BP employees rather than through a company PAC, so it's cool).  Sarah "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Palin even ventured that these donations may have been one reason why the president was so slow to act.

The suggestion seems improbable. Seventy-some-odd thousand dollars really was a drop in the bucket to the Obama 2008 election campaign. Still, given all the ruckus over Charlie Rangel's campaign contributions, how long do you think it will be before critics call on our president to give the money back?

From Okahoma comes a story that must have Onion writers tearing out their hair, rending their garments, and wondering if reality really will make them redundant. John Mantooth -- I did not make that name up -- is an attorney running for a judgeship in McClain County. He faces several opponents in today's primary, but a pair of critics who are not on the ballot could be the deciding factor in this election.

That's because the critics are related to him. His daughter and son-in-law, Jan and Andrew Schill -- again, their real names, I swear -- took out an ad in a local paper and set up a website to project the headline, "Do Not Vote for My Dad."

The ad explains, "John Mantooth is not a good father, not a good grandfather and in my opinion a review of his 37-year record as an attorney in Cleveland, Garvin and McClain Counties reveals that he would not be a good judge." It directs readers to the website with case citations that form a bill of particulars for why Mantooth has an injudicial temperament.

There is a further twist to this troublesome tale. Mr. Mantooth charges that the real reason his daughter and son-in-law are doing this is that they want to give an opponent a leg up. Andrew Schill was once a law partner of Greg Dixon, who is running against Mantooth.

Mantooth charges coordination and dirty tricks but both parties deny it. The Schills say that they are only doing this because voters deserve to know the truth. Dixon told the AP that he does not "want to be affiliated with that website or that ad," and one gets the sense that it's just embarrassing enough that he might mean it.

Oklahoma voters have the unenviable job of sorting this all out today at the ballot box. Expect a record number of votes for that write-in protest candidate Ron Burgundy.

Talk about going all-in. Colorado Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff sold his Denver home last week and loaned most of the proceeds to his campaign, the Denver Post and other outlets have reported.

The bungalow sold for $360,000, and Romanoff donated $325,000 to his campaign. "I'm never home anyway," Romanoff deadpanned.

Two weeks remain until his Aug. 10 primary against Sen. Michael Bennet, and Romnaoff needed extra cash after committing most of his remaining funds to TV air time. Bennet ended the second quarter with a more-than $2 million cash-on-hand advantage.

The move is certainly a gamble -- Romanoff, the former state House speaker, will be able to recoup the money he's loaned his campaign, but if he loses to the establishment-backed Bennet in the primary, it will be a lot tougher to collect donations than if he wins. But beyond the extra money the campaign will have, it will also get him plenty of free press.

On RCP, Kyle Trygstad reports on a new poll in the Maryland Governor's race that shows Gov. Martin O'Malley leading former Gov. Bob Ehrlich by three.

Also on RCP, Thomas Sowell explains why economic central planning has failed throughout history. Dr. Hal Scherz writes that the battle over health care reform and Donald Berwick is just beginning. David Paul Kuhn wonders whether or not Republicans need an agenda heading into the midterm elections.

On RCM, Josh Barro writes about how to make New York City more efficient, and John Tamny argues that decreased money supply today is a result of lower production.

Finally, RCS ranks the "Top 10 Infamous NCAA Sanctions," and Tim Joyce writes about the competitive race in the NL West.

The consensus among race-watchers is that the Republicans are poised to pick up between 25 and 35 seats this fall.  We think this underestimates the strength of the impending wave, and that the median result is more in the 50s.

The SurveyUSA polling coming in over the past week in districts like VA-05 has only re-inforced this view.   In New Mexico's First Congressional District, most watchers had assigned Martin Heinrich's district a "Leans" designation, including RCP.  Even though the Congressman has generally supported the President's agenda, the district had given Obama 60% of the vote, and had gone for John Kerry by three points.  Heinrich had won an impressive 12-point victory over a high-quality GOP opponent in2008 to pick the seat up for the Democrats.

Today, it is a different story.  SurveyUSA finds Heinrich trailing former GOP Vice-Chairman Jon Barela by a 6-point margin.  While it is never a good thing for an incumbent to trail his opponent, it is even worse when the opponent is over 50%; the SurveyUSA poll showed Heinrich trailing 51%-45%.

The Heinrich  campaign has countered with their own internal poll showing him leading 53%-41%.  As with most campaign polls, that probably represents the best-case scenario for the incumbent, and it isn't really that strong for a campaign poll.  Still, taking it into consideration, we're moving this race to a tossup.

And of course, the bigger question is what independent polling would show for the 60 or so seats that RCP thought were more competitive than this one.

O'Malley-Ehrlich Part II looks like it will be closer than the original, as a new Gonzales Research poll finds Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) ahead of former Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) by just 3 points. O'Malley takes 45% and Ehrlich 42%, with 8% undecided.

The new poll gives O'Malley a small lead in the RCP Average.

"The race for governor as of late July is really close," wrote pollster Patrick Gonzales. "Incumbent Governor O'Malley has a slight lead in our poll, but it's clear that either candidate could win in November."

The two met in 2006 when Ehrlich was running for re-election, and O'Malley won by a 53%-46% margin. Now, O'Malley has a 48% job approval rating (about what it was in January) and President Obama, who won the state with 62%, has seen his approval rating here drop from 80% when he took office to 51% now.

The Gonzales survey of 807 registered voters was conducted July 13-21 with a 3.5 percentage-point margin of error, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Faced with a competitive primary challenge from political newcomer and billionaire Jeff Greene, Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek has gone negative with the first TV ad of his Senate campaign.

Greene has been on TV for weeks with an assortment of positive and negative ads. They're apparently working, as Greene has cut what was once a big primary lead for Meek down to just a few points in the most recent polling.

Awaiting either Democrat in the general election is Republican Marco Rubio and independent Charlie Crist, two formidable candidates that are currently leading both Meek and Greene by double-digits in hypothetical three-way match-ups.

There's something for everyone in the new Obamacare poll out today from Rasmussen Reports:

• Opponents of the bill have their I-told-you-so's: 58 percent of American voters surveyed support repealing the unpopular bill.
• The base turnout folks of both parties have numbers to bolster their confidence. Fully 37 percent of Americans oppose repealing the bill and it remains popular with Democrats. This pro-Dem spin might see like special pleading but for the fact that popular American repealism is tempered by fatalism.
• Only 39 percent of voters believe that repeal is "even somewhat likely," (+9 percent "very likely") against 48 percent of voters who believe that repeal is Just Not Going to Happen, Folks.
• Pessimism about the economy colors these poll results as well. Only 44 percent of voters believe that repealing health care reform would be good for the economy and, of those, only 27 percent say that it would spur job creation.
• The results could be part of an anti-Obamacare juggernaut in November. Support for repeal is up 2 percent from a week ago.
• Or maybe not. Rasmussen notes that 58 percent for repeal "is consistent with findings recorded over the past several month[s]," where support for repeal has fluctuated from 52 to 63 percent.

One thing that Rasmussen continues to spotlight is the great divide between "Mainstream" voters and members of the "Political Class:"

The Political Class...champions the health care bill much more strongly than Mainstream voters. Fifty-four percent (54%) of Mainstream voters...think repeal of the bill would be good for the economy. However, 72% of the Political Class say repeal would have a bad impact on the economy. [Seventy percent] of Mainstream voters favor repeal of the health care bill. Ninety-five percent (95%) of the Political Class are opposed.

Interesting divide, no? Maybe somebody should write a book on the subject.

The immediate cause of my suggestion is this Kevin Drum post, but I've been wanting to bust it out for a while now -- ever since David Brooks popularized the phrase, really. Will somebody out there please, please start something called a Republican Nihilist Caucus? It's even got  a ready made slogan: "At least it's not an ethos." I'd do it but I'm not a Republican.

Things were bad for Republicans in Colorado last week, but they've now gotten far worse. The gubernatorial and Senate races were once seen as golden opportunities for the GOP to take back a portion of the Mountain West, but the focus has shifted to a less favorable light.

It was so bad for Democrats that Gov. Bill Ritter announced he would not run for re-election -- four years after Democrats won the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature. However, recent trouble has hit the GOP's two top candidates: former Rep. Scott McInnis, who was discovered to have plagiarized large sections of what he once called original writings; and Dan Maes, who's been sacked with campaign finance violations and questions about his personal finances.

Enter former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who announced today he was entering the race for governor as a third-party candidate, severely hurting the party's already crippled chances of winning by potentially splitting the general election vote. Believing he would be a better candidate, Tancredo warned Maes and McInnis late last week that he would do exactly that if they did not drop out of the race.

McInnis confirmed in a released statement this afternoon that he would stay in the race at least through the Aug. 10 primary. "Colorado Republicans will speak with their votes on that day, and I will abide by their decision," he said.

Tancredo and state party Chairman Dick Wadhams engaged in a shouting match on a Denver radio show this morning. The station promotes it, rightly, as "an outstanding hour of radio."

On the Senate side, Ken Buck and Jane Norton are battling for the nomination and taking much of the headlines away from the Democratic primary, which is a competitive fight in its own right. Buck was caught telling voters that they should vote for him "because I don't wear high heels," a gaffe he said was in response to Norton questioning his manhood.

Then over the weekend Buck referred to Tea Partiers -- many of whom support his candidacy -- as "dumbasses" for bringing up President Obama's country of birth during his rallies. Buck was also heard saying, "I can't believe that guy opened his mouth," after Tancredo said at a Buck rally that Obama was a greater threat to the country than al Qaeda.

Perhaps this will help Norton, whose campaign has been actively promoting Buck's statements. "The Ken Buck 'on camera' seems to be a very different person than the Ken Buck 'caught on' camera," Norton said in a released statement this afternoon. But as of mid-June when the last public poll was released, she was trailing Buck by 16 points.