"I always wondered whether sometime a political protester would hit me with a pie in the face. I never thought a friendly birthday cake would attack me from the rear."

-- Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), quoted by the St. Petersburg Times, on the fallout from the crash of the Straight Talk Express.

There's still no word on when John Edwards will speak at the Democratic convention, but the Charlotte Observer reports "a number of Democrats are saying that Edwards needs to publicly address National Enquirer stories that have alleged he had an affair with a campaign worker and fathered her baby."

"If Edwards fails to clear up the story in short order, he risks party officials deciding not to have him speak or, if they do, creating a distraction from a week focused on Barack Obama accepting the nomination."

Said former DNC Chair Don Fowler: "If there is not an explanation that's satisfactory, acceptable and meets high moral standards, the answer is 'no,' he would not be a prime candidate to make a major address to the convention."

A great point by Walter Shapiro: "Deciding when you pick a vice president shapes whom you pick. By waiting until the eve of their conventions, both Obama and McCain will face nearly irresistible pressures to pick nominees who are safe, secure and a trifle soporific. There is nothing like the onset of a convention to create a groundswell for a conventional vice president."

Despite reports claiming that Vice President Dick Cheney would not attend the Republican convention in September, Cheney's office just confirmed to NBC News that he will in fact attend and will speak to the delegates.

In the mail: Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority by Bob Moser.

"In 2000 and 2004, the Democratic Party decided not to challenge George W. Bush in the South, a disastrous strategy that effectively handed Bush more than half of the electoral votes he needed to win the White House. As the 2008 election draws near, the Democrats have a historic opportunity to build a new progressive majority, but they cannot do so without the South."

It's worth noting the book got a starred review from Publishers Weekly: "Well-written, well-researched and perfectly timed with this year's election cycle, this fascinating read is highly recommended to anyone interested in unraveling political fact from fiction and detecting the myriad complicated relationships that knit a nation together."

Advisers to Sen. Hillary Clinton "are in a tizzy over an upcoming piece in the Atlantic Monthly that chronicles the inner workings of the now-defunct campaign," according to the Washington Post.

"Of particular concern are nearly 200 internal memos that the author, Josh Green, obtained -- 130 or so of which he plans to scan in and post online. When the piece is published sometime next week, readers will be able to scroll through the memos, from senior strategists such as Mark Penn, Harold Ickes and Geoff Garin, and see what exactly was going on inside the infamously fractured Clinton organization. That has some former team members in a panic."

A new study by economists at the University of Maryland finds that Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries dramatically increased the overall voter participation rate and and increased the number of contributions received by Obama.

The very interesting 59-page analysis details how geographic differences in subscriptions to Oprah's magazine and book sales related to her popular book club affected the primary outcome.

Ultimately, the authors estimate that Winfrey's endorsement was responsible for approximately 1,000,000 additional votes for Obama.

Sen. Barack Obama is expected to arrive in Honolulu today for a nine-day vacation, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

"The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is expected to be accompanied by his wife and two daughters. The vacation will also feature a campaign fundraiser at the Kahala Hotel & Resort, estimated to pick up more than $1 million."

Political Insider: The campaign enters a quiet period.

NBC News "has learned that the Obama campaign, in an effort to quiet talk of the Obama-Clinton drama, has offered Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night at the Democratic convention -- before the vice presidential running mate speaks."

"I thought the Britney Spears commercial was powerful."

-- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), quoted by Politico, saying the Obama campaign should "answer back hard."

Schumer's suggested response: "What do you mean he's not one of us? It's John McCain who wears $500 shoes, has six houses, and comes from one of the richest families in his state. It's Barack Obama who climbed up the hard way, and that's why he wants middle-class tax cuts and better schools for our kids."

A new Capital Poll in Alabama shows Sen. John McCain with a comfortable lead over Sen. Barack Obama, 47% to 34%.

A new Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 44% to 38%.

Key findings: "Obama leads the race primarily because of a combination of the most important issues on the minds of voters and the impact of President Bush and the voter's view about the direction of the country. The two issues that voters felt personally were most important to them were the economy and creating jobs (24%), and dealing with the war in Iraq (12%). On these issues Senator Obama had large leads. On the economy, Obama led Senator McCain by a 62% to 20% margin. On dealing with the war in Iraq his lead was 66% to 22%. Another issue that was frequently mentioned was improving education, where Senator Obama's lead was 73% to 10%."

Political Insider: The Straight Talk Express has an accident.

A judge ordered Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail, "shocking the city and plunging the leadership of the nation's 11th-largest city into uncertainty," the Detroit News reports.

Sen. John McCain's campaign is urging supporters to spam blogs and forums with official talking points, according to the Washington Post. If you do a good job, you can even win prizes.

"That, in essence, is the McCain campaign's pitch to supporters to join its new online effort, one that combines the features of 'AstroTurf' campaigning with the sort of customer-loyalty programs offered by airlines, hotel chains, restaurants and the occasional daily newspaper."

"People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express."

In a set of interviews on pop culture, Entertainment Weekly asks the presidential candidates, "If you could be any superhero, which superhero would you be?"

Sen. John McCain: "Batman. He does justice sometimes against insurmountable odds. And he doesn't make his good works known to a lot of people, so a lot of people think he's just a rich playboy."

Sen. Barack Obama: "I was always into the Spider-Man/Batman model. The guys who have too many powers, like Superman, that always made me think they weren't really earning their superhero status. It's a little too easy. Whereas Spider-Man and Batman, they have some inner turmoil. They get knocked around a little bit."

In a must-read piece, CQ Politics notes the voter's pulse may be harder to take than ever, as pollsters struggle to blend the young, the mobile and the uncommitted into their survey methodologies.

A new SurveyUSA poll in Oregon finds Sen. Barack Obama just ahead of Sen. John McCain, 485 to 45%, within the survey's 4 point margin of sampling error.

Key findings: "Among voters younger than Obama, Obama leads by 15 points. Among voters older than McCain, Obama leads by 9. Among voters who are inbetween the ages of the two candidates, McCain leads by 9. McCain holds 82% of the GOP base. Obama holds 80% of the Democrat base. Independents split. McCain is backed by 80% of conservatives. Obama is backed by 83% of liberals. Moderates break 5:3 for Obama. McCain leads 2:1 among those who attend religious services regularly. Obama leads 2:1 among those who almost never attend religious services. Among men, McCain leads by 5 points. Among women, Obama leads by 13."

Sen. Tom Dashle, a senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, told the Financial Times that the recent attack advertisements "comparing the Democratic presidential hopeful to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton" are to blame for his candidate's recent dip in the polls.

Said Daschle: "To a certain extent the ads are having some effect. But you can't be thrown off your game plan by a momentary dip in polls."

"I'm very sorry about it."

-- Sen. John McCain, in an interview with David Broder, on the negative turn to the presidential campaign.