Four Monday

The Los Angeles Press Club nominees are set. Some categories look surprisingly uncompetitive, but maybe that's not new. LAPC (.pdf)

2. As public media go online, the line that used to separate public and private sometimes blurs. PBS viewers, for instance, will see 15 and 30 second commercials if they watch PBS shows online. This should worry people depend on public television and public radio to avoid the pressures private companies have as they compete for ad dollars. PBS has already gotten into trouble over commercials from Goldman Sachs. Romenesko and PBS Ombudsman

3. Joe Biden goes a courtin' in the White House press room. NY Magazine

4. Turning every experience into a digital pose. NPR

The Christine O'Donnell kerfuffle

If you are a candidate for U.S. Senate who's made some misleading statements about your educational background and then someone finds more false claims in a profile posted on a popular social networking site, you probably need to craft a serious response. And if you respond that someone else created the profile to embarrass or entrap you, you need to do more than shrug it off an annoying hoax. (Especially when new evidence comes to light.)

Which basically brings us up to date with Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, and the mysterious LinkedIn profile that got yanked offline yesterday. After the Washington Post and this blog pointed out inaccuracies in the profile, she called the profile a sham. Who planted this alleged educational time bomb? No one knows, and the O'Donnell campaign doesn't seem that interested in finding out.

For those who'd rather dismiss this as a liberal media witch hunt, conservative blogger Patterico offers some wisdom:

I am amazed (and yet I’m not) by the people who want me to ignore this.  Joe Biden misrepresented his own academic record and I mocked him unmercifully for it.  Why would O’Donnell deserve different treatment?

Had she simply padded the resume and then fessed up, mockery would probably be all that O'Donnell had to contend with. If it turns out she lied about constructing the LinkedIn profile page, the political repercussions could be much worse.

Poll watch

A few good places to get election results:

Pollster.com

New York Times' customizable electoral map

CNN.com let's you pick races to watch

Newsweek election map

Washington Post's election page

Mark Halperin's The Page

Politico's election map

Get info on California's elections here, get statewide results here, and local results here

And don't forget the KCRW elections page here

The other white guy

There's another old white Senator out on the hustings pressing the flesh. Mark Leibovich takes a look at what Sen. Joe Biden has been up to in the last few days:

Mr. Biden’s venues are, in many cases, economically challenged areas of swing states. His crowds are up-and-down in number and enthusiasm — some loud and in the thousands, others sleepier and small. But his reviews are generally good from voters, some who came in unconvinced about Mr. Obama.

“Biden is a guy who I really believe, who really seems like he is going to help us out,” said Sheryl Kline, a loader for the United Parcel Service who attended a rally in Maumee, Ohio. “He sounds like someone who knows how we’re struggling.”

Despite his hard words, there is also a joy to Mr. Biden’s pursuit. On Monday, he walked into a Ford plant in Macomb County, Mich., jumped behind the wheel of a red Mustang convertible and let loose with a few satisfying vroom-vrooms of the engine.

“I know I’m not supposed to like muscle cars, but I like muscle cars,” Mr. Biden said as clusters of autoworkers whooped around him. “I tell you man, this is nice,” he said, giving a few extra revs of the engine for good measure, and his Senate cuff links clicked on the side of the car as he jumped out to more applause.

Not the bump they were looking for

As the McCain campaign tries to turn revelations that Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant into a "Juno" moment, new polls suggest Barack Obama got a bigger boost from the Democratic convention than McCain from his VP choice.

CBS News has the Obama-Biden up eight points over McCain-Palin, at 48-40. The poll also shows Obama-Biden making big gains with independent voters.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted over the weekend has Obama-Biden up 50-43 in a head-to-head race with McCain-Palin. The poll also found Obama reaching even with McCain on the question of who is the stronger, more decisive leader. The poll suggests a tough road ahead for Palin as well.

CNN/Opinion Research Corp. has the race virtually tied as of Sunday night. Obama-Biden are at 49, McCain-Palin at 48. The poll also found 50 percent of respondents don't think Palin is qualified to take over as president.

Nate Silver has a roundup of the polls on his FiveThirtyEight.com blog. His advice: Ignore the numbers for now and take another look midway through next week.

Quick thoughts on the Biden selection

OK, I think it's a smart move for two big reasons. One, he can campaign in areas that Obama can't and rally the whiter, working class troops. Second, his strengths are John McCain's strengths and his weaknesses are John McCain's weakness. McCain's long experience, Biden has it. McCain's maverick streak, Biden has it. Biden's penchant for gaffes, McCain's got it. Biden's hair-trigger temper, McCain's got it. Biden's entrenchment in Washington, McCain's got it.

This is important because even if Biden makes some mistakes over the course of the campaign, it is going to be hard for the McCain campaign to capitalize on them.

Biden is an equalizer. Politically, racially and experientially.

It's also a page book out of the Bush campaign.

Sidenote: Plenty of people have already made the gaffe of calling Obama "Osama." So I wonder what those prone to flubs - sometimes innocent, and sometimes not - will make of Obama-Biden, which has many of the same letters as Osama bin Laden.

Barack likes Biden

I was not the first to know.

Despite this pledge, "Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice," CNN was the first to confirm that Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. The text message I've been waiting for all week from Obama isn't supposed to come until tomorrow.