Barack Obama

U.S. Sen. John McCain: Getty Images PhotoU.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) sure wants to push his presidential opponent to the limit in Pennsylvania. He rolled through the state this week with dual stops in Harrisburg and the Philadelphia suburbs, determined to compete in a state that many are forecasting will go to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Now he's planning on appearing in Wilkes-Barre on July 23, The Times Leader reports.

Details are still being finalized, but it looks like he'll depart from the requisite town hall meeting in favor of a luncheon, though a second event in this town 100 miles north of Philadelphia could also be in the works.

The luncheon is being coordinated by Dan Meuser, who lost a close primary race this year to Chris Hackett to be the GOP nominee for the 10th Congressional District.

Pennsylvania is one of four states that will see the Republican National Committee's first ad of the general election campaign this weekend, The AP reports.

The $3-million RNC ad campaign will put the same ad, which reportedly focuses on energy security issus, on stations in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio

The effort is being coordinated by a media firm that worked on Mitt Romney's primary campaign, The AP reports. 

The presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was able to bring in $1.5 million during a cocktail reception and fundraiser in suburban Philadelphia on Monday night, The Inquirer reports.

The fundraiser took place in the wealthy Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, which is in the battleground of Montgomery County. As McCain looks to boost his campaign coffers and catch up with opponent U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) record fundraising, many analysts have identified winning the Philadelphia suburbs as key to winning the state.

Monday's fundraiser was attended by U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), as well as Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.

When the clock strikes midnight, donations for the current federal campaign finance quarter end and candidates will have to report whatever cash they have managed to raise. Candidates on all levels made last-ditch pitches for some extra dough in the final hours.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) kicked off the requests at 9:16 this morning, telling supporters in an email that "right now is the time to step up and own a piece of this campaign."

After the presidential candidate made his appeal, the congressional candidates jumped in.

PIPERSVILLE -- As his town-hall style meeting here today came to a close, U.S. Sen. John McCain made it plainly clear where he considers himself in the battle for president.

"I’m the underdog," he said. "Have no doubt about it."

McCain and other Republicans have previously spoken of the large fundraising advantage his opponent, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, is likely to have leading up to November's general election. But McCain has been increasingly blunt about his chances, with most polls showing him trailing.

Still, he sought to dispel any notion that Pennsylvania is out of the Republicans' hands, and said he would be the underdog until the polls closed and he was elected president

"Have no doubt that Pennsylvania will be a battleground state," he said.

Gov. Ed Rendell: Getty Images PhotoNobody ever said Gov. Ed Rendell took things sitting down.

The governor has formed a grassroots group for Democrats who, while disappointed by U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) defeat, plan to support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Called Hillary-Obama-United-Not-Divided, or HOUND, it was created in response to a group called PUMA, short for Party unity, my ass. That group seeks to dissuade former Clinton supporters from voting for Obama.

The governor, who was one of Clinton's most high-profile supporters, wrote the group's credo, which appears on the state Democrats' Web site. Rendell wrote that former Clinton supporters should vote for Obama not because of party loyalty, but because his policies are nearly identical to hers.

On a day when his opponent was campaigning in the state, the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama released its second ad of the general election. The advertisement, titled "Dignity," will air in Pennsylvania, among 18 other states, the campaign said today.

The brief spot reflects the campaign's continued efforts to introduce Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and his life story to voters.  It opens by telling voters that after working his way through Harvard Law School, he "turned down big money offers, and helped lift neighborhoods stung by job loss."

Seeking to win over voters right of center, it emphasizes his accomplishments in moving people off welfare and into work, and his tax cuts for workers.

As president, the ad's narrator says, Obama will "never forget the dignity that comes with work."

Gov. Ed Rendell said today that while he has no intention of cutting his second term short, he would be interested in a cabinet post later if U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) were president.

Speaking on a TV talk-show on Harrisburg's public access station Thursday night, Rendell spotlighted Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Transportation as two posts he would be particularly interested in filling, The Associated Press reports.

Those positions, he said, would "absolutely" be his first choices if Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, wins the White House in November.

Rendell's name has frequently been floated as a possible running mate for Obama, speculation Rendell has always dismissed. He has always maintained that he wants to finish out his term in Harrisburg, which expires in 2011.

"Would I love to go down to Washington in January of 2011 and serve President Obama in some capacity -- secretary of energy, secretary of transportation? Sure," he said on WITF-TV's "Smart Talk" program.

"But I'm not leaving" the governor's office early, he said. "I know that probably disappoints some people over in the Capitol."

Barack Obama during a Pittsburgh campaign stop in April: Getty Images PhotoU.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Thursday during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh that the city's renaissance after the steel industry's collapse could be a model for changes to America's economy, the Pittsburgh Business Times reports.

"This American city has found new opportunity through health care, and IT; through finance and universities," Obama said. "Now, we must connect that local innovation and ingenuity to a national strategy."

Obama was speaking at Carnegie Mellon University in front of a group of invited guests and business leaders as part of what he called an "economic competitiveness summit."

A national civic-engagement group is pushing hard to register Latino voters before the November election, and nearly 9,800 new Latino voters have been registered in the state since January, The Inquirer reports.

"Hispanics currently represent approximately 4 percent of the overall Pennsylvania electorate," public opinion researcher Fernand Amandi told The Inquirer. "Going back eight years, two presidential cycles, they were just 1 percent."

As the push continues, many are expected to register as Democrats, which is likely to exacerbate GOP losses in the state. Latino voters went heavily for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in April's Democratic primary, but recent polling suggests the surge in Latino registration could bode well for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee.