from the Washington Post’s Pat Oliphant.

That was Friday. Over the weekend, he took in a ballgame with Rudy Giuliani, of course prompting speculation about his veep choice:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Which of the top presidential candidates would you prefer having at your summer cookout?
An Associated Press-Yahoo News Poll finds that people who were surveyed would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than John McCain, by a 52 percent to 45 percent margin.
Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.
Party label means a lot, with three-quarters of Democrats picking Obama and the same number of Republicans picking McCain. Independents are about evenly split.
The AP-Yahoo News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted online by Knowledge Networks from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for subgroups was larger.

Fooey! Vote08 doesn’t believe in false choices! I love that the premise of this quadrennial poll is that you actually have to make a choice among these candidates, as if they’re knocking on your door & you can only let one of them in. Let’s have a 4th-of-July-Eve-Eve fantasy in which ALL of the recent presidential candidates stop by for a bite, shall we?

Okay, fellow barbecue lovers! Let’s hear from you! Which candidate(s) would you like to see at your 4th-of-July barbecue, & what specific dish would you ask them to bring? We eagerly await your comments!

ADDENDUM: (from the Wall Street Journal, March 2nd)

“McCain, dressed in a sweatshirt with a family photo embossed and jeans, spent much of the afternoon turning ribs and chicken over the grill on the wraparound deck of his cabin. He happily disclosed his recipe: a dry rub made up of one-third black pepper, one-third garlic powder and one-third salt. Fresh lemon juice is squeezed over the ribs during a slow cook. The slow cook, he assured observers, allows all the fat to drip away. He promised skeptical eaters that the ribs were practically fat free.”

UPDATE: I asked the entire newsroom to give their responses. Here’s what I have so far:

“You can imagine that I’d love to have Senator Clinton at my next backyard BBQ. I feel confident she shouldn’t be asked to contribute to the meal… but I’m equally confident that the conversation would fill my constant hunger for stimulating conversation. How ’bout seeing what you can arrange?”

“Most elected politicians could supply/bring their own “pork” at your expense of course.”

What say you?

Start your week off with some funniness from the satirical online magazine “the Onion.”

Well, that’s certainly one way.

No, we’re not making this up.

More on McCain’s Abba fixation here.

Full disclosure: for the record, this happened to be my favorite song in 1977, when I was in 2nd grade. Yeah, I know. Don’t worry - I’m over it. [no, that’s not an iPod in the pic .. believe it or not, it’s an actual transistor radio…]

Yes, this is mean. But frankly, we think it’s funny.

We apologize in advance to Hillary fans who might be offended.

If you are, we’d love to hear from you .. we haven’t had a single Hillary fan comment on this blog since its inception. Maybe this’ll do the trick.

& for the rest of you, enjoy. 

WASHINGTON—Presidential hopefuls John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) announced Monday their plans to form what many Beltway observers have already dubbed the “2008 Nightmare Ticket,” a calculated move that political analysts say offers voters the worst of both worlds.

[Not really.]

Plus, more humor with some analysis from the [Tennessee-based] guys at Red State Update. I’ve been wanting to post them for a long time but their rants are sometimes too profanity-laden for a family blog like this one. Thankfully, in their analysis of last night’s Kentucky & Oregon primaries, the pair limit themselves to just a few “hells” & “damns:”

We’re certainly in no position to give fashion criticism (trust me on that one). But seriously.. what the huh?

And will the driver of this car keep this paint job in place after she officially bows out, I wonder?

Summary: John McCain has a terrible memory, & his mother is quick to remind him that he was awarded 27 bottles of scotch on the day of his birth. The end.

In all seriousness, here’s hoping you treat your mother right this Mothers’ Day.

Whom does the Fonz (well, Henry Winkler) endorse?

After the jump, we’ve got the answer… PLUS! We’ll speculate on whom the rest of the cast of Happy Days would endorse for President in 2008.

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How long has it been, do you think, since Hillary’s been inside of a gas station, pumped her own gas, or driven a car?

Just as this previous campaign episode demonstrates, if you’re a candidate who wants to connect with “regular folks,” it pays to know what you’re doing before the cameras are on you.

..or at least for some of my colleagues in the media.

The above graphic was on the screen recently at Fox News, when they were talking about Hillary Clinton’s proposal that she & Obama have a “Lincoln-Douglas” style debate.

Wrong Douglas, guys.

Don’t believe me? Watch:

If pointing this out makes me an “elitist,” then guilty as charged.

(….sigh….)

Put on your protective gear & tread lightly after the jump to see some negative advertising hitting the airwaves!

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