DAY’S END ROUNDUP

Barack Obama creates a splash by announcing a campaign event Saturday that most bloggers are interpreting as the day Obama will unveil his running mate. Reports that former vice president Al Gore will speak shortly before Obama on Thursday night at the Democratic convention have some wondering if he is Obama’s pick. And John McCain’s reported trial balloon sent up last week about a pro-choice candidate points right at former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), not former Gov. Tom Ridge (R-Pa.) or Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), conservative bloggers predict.

The Obama campaign has reserved the old Illinois state capitol, where the Illinois Democrat announced his campaign, for an event at noon on Saturday that many expect will be the first public appearance Obama makes with his running mate, Lynn Sweet reports. Marc Ambinder doesn’t believe the announcement will come much earlier than Saturday, writing that the best hint of who the pick will be is whoever has the lowest public profile in the coming days.

Gore will join Obama and 70,000 supporters at Invesco Field on the last night of the Democratic Convention, Political Ticker reports. The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein writes that this will surely put Gore in focus for the veepstakes, but points out Gore has stuck firmly to not wanting to be the second name on the ticket again.

And many conservatives are starting to think the McCain camp is leaning toward Giuliani, writes The Corner’s Kathryn Jean Lopez. The conservative blogger points out Giuliani staffers are already installed on the undeclared veep’s communications team. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey agrees that the trial balloon may have been for Giuliani, but thinks the former mayor would not add anything that valuable to the McCain campaign that the candidate himself doesn’t possess.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Schooling Goldfarb – DarkSyde, Daily Kos
McCain’s Website Needs Calculator – RedState
Saturday in Springfield – Marc Ambinder
Obama Echoes Biden – Big Tent Democrat, TalkLeft
Was Rudy the Trial Balloon? – Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
Gore – Sam Stein, The Huffington Post
VP Timing Critical – Patrick Ruffini, Red State
Gore to Speak Thursday – Political Ticker

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Obama Responds to McCain at VFW – New York Times
Obama Returns Home to Launch Pre-Convention Tour – The Hill
Rice: Russia Isolating Itself – AFP