Blog Buzz: Sarah Palin News, the State of John McCain's Campaign, McCain Volunteer Confesses to Making Up Assault Story

Our daily look at stories and topics that are lighting up the Internets:

Daily Dose of Sarah Palin

A Washington Post op-ed by conservative Kathleen Parker suggests that John McCain may have picked Sarah Palin as his running mate because he was "smitten" by the attractive governor. A conservative blogger says that Parker "conflates McCain and Palin to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky." President Bush's former chief of staff Andy Card says that McCain actually chose Palin because she could "introduce" women to politics, a line of reasoning that doesn't sit well with liberal bloggers. Marc Ambinder says that some McCain staff members aren't too pleased she was picked at all. A liberal blogger thinks you can't blame them—she will cost McCain the election. In other Palin news: the vice presidential candidate's loose definition of terrorism.

McCain Staffers Are Down in the Dumps

Despite an AP poll that shows a tight race, liberal bloggers say that it's not looking too good for McCain. Obama just received endorsements from Bill Weld, who stumped for Mitt Romney during the GOP primary, and Scott McClellan, former press secretary under President Bush. TPM has poll numbers that they say show that "McCain's efforts to reshape the race to his advantage have proven a complete failure." Political Animal reports that morale among McCain campaign staffers has "plummeted." Weekly Standard has a response from a campaign official on McCain's chances of winning. John B. Judis at The New Republic weighs in on what went wrong.

• Tell us if you think McCain still has a shot at winning on November 4.

McCain Volunteer's Fake Crime Story

Both liberal and conservative bloggers were skeptical of McCain campaign volunteer Ashley Todd's claim that on Wednesday night she was robbed and beaten by a large black man (who also cut the letter "B" in her face), in part because he noticed her McCain campaign bumper sticker. Even Michelle Malkin had lots of questions about the story and said that "hate crime hoaxes diminish us all." Another conservative blogger wondered if there would be so much skepticism if the victim was a black Obama volunteer. Turns out the skepticism was well-founded: Todd just confessed to making up the story. Political Animal says that it's a sad ending on several levels.

—Gretchen Hannes