If you missed Senator Barack Obama's speech in front of 200,000 waving American flags, and chanting "Obama!" or want to watch it again -- check out this video!

Last month, John McCain spoke in Ottawa, Canada, but this afternoon, he attacked Senator Barack Obama for delivering a speech in Berlin to 200,000 waving American flags and chanting "Obama!"

In his interview with NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, which will air on NBC's Nightly News tonight, McCain questions whether Obama should have given a speech in Berlin before becoming president.

"I would rather speak at a rally or a political gathering any place outside of the country after I am president of the United States," McCain told O'Donnell. "But that's a judgment that Sen. Obama and the American people will make."

However, on June 20, McCain himself gave a speech in Canada -- to the Economic Club of Canada -- in which he applauded NAFTA's successes. An implicit message behind that speech was that Obama had been critical of the trade accord. Also, McCain's trip to Canada was paid for by the campaign. [emphasis added]

While John McCain's press office was blasting Senator Obama's preparation for the possibility of a transition to an Obama administration, John McCain was defending the move.

BREWER: And I know the McCain campaign is also responding to the news that Barack Obama has already set up a presidential transition team, the team that would go from one president to the next. And McCain’s statement reads “Before they’ve even crossed the 50-yard line the Obama campaign already dancing in the end zone with a new White House transition team. The American people are more concerned with Barack Obama’s poor judgment and readiness to lead than his inaugural ball.” Is this a theme that the campaign is going to push, that Obama’s getting ahead of himself?

AIGNER: Well that was actually, the statement that you just read was from a spokesperson for the campaign. John McCain just sat down with NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell just an hour ago and she asked him about the transition team. And he said of course every campaign once you get to this stage, and you’re on the verge of securing your party’s nomination at the convention, you begin to think of how you transition to the presidency. McCain said that he, himself, was already of course working on policy and political proposals to they could hit the ground running. He’s spoken with his advisors about how exactly they would enact those proposals and enact the policies that are important to him. Although he said that on a specific staff level and on an organizational level, they might not be stepping up to the place where Obama’s stepping up. He said the American people will have to decide whether that’s presumptuous or not. [emphasis added]

John McCain says one thing, his campaign does another. Seems to be a pattern this election cycle.

In the now infamous interview between CBS' Katie Couric and John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee apparently believes the war in Afghanistan, where the 9/11 attacks originated, is not a "major conflict."

Couric: Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response?

McCain: The fact is we had four years of failed policy. We were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world. [emphasis added]

According to John McCain, the war in Afghanistan doesn't count as a "major conflict." That explains why the Bush/McCain policies of ignoring Afghanistan and diverting resources to Iraq have led to the major problems we currently see there after nearly seven years of war.

Senator Barack Obama, however, advocated for a stronger American commitment to Afghanistan. Additionally, in his speech in front of nearly a quarter million Berliners today, Senator Obama called on Europe to commit more to the fight in Afghanistan, the true central front in the war on terror.

Update: Here's the video:

Earlier this week, John McCain grossly misstated the timeline of the Anbar awakening as having taken place because of the surge, despite the fact that it started almost four months before the surge was even announced.

Reporters peppered John McCain with questions about his factually incorrect timeline in the cheese aisle of a Pennsylvania supermarket. McCain attempted to explain that up is down, the sky is green, and he did not jumble the timeline of events.

In the New York Times, John McCain's home state of Arizona is not in his safe column.

But a variety of factors have made Mr. McCain’s chances in Arizona less assured than they ordinarily would seem, which his campaign has acknowledged.

The number of independent voters in Arizona has risen 12 percent since 2004, and those voters have helped send a Democrat to the governor’s mansion and given the party four of the state’s eight Congressional seats — including two in 2006, one in a historically Republican district.

At the same time, Arizona Democrats, like many of their counterparts around the country, have outpaced Republicans in voter registration, adding almost 20,000 voters to the rolls since March, compared with the Republican majority’s 8,600 new voters. The second-term Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, remains wildly popular.

And Democrats are not going to cede the state to McCain, either:

“John McCain has striking vulnerabilities here,” said Emily DeRose, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. “We are going to take him to the mat. We are not giving him a pass in Arizona.”

Senator Barack Obama will deliver a speech in Berlin, Germany at the Siegessäule, or the Victory Column, in Tiergarten Park at 1pm Eastern.

In the meantime, check out these photos from Senator Obama's arrival in Berlin:

The fundamentals of our economy are strong, says John McCain. Reuters, however, has a different story:

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped 34,000 last week, government data on Thursday showed, reflecting seasonal volatility typical at this time of year.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 406,000 in the week ended July 19, from a revised 372,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest reading since late March.

So stop your whining.

The parade of embarrassing John McCain advisers continues. This week? Top foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is tied to the "cash for access" lobbyist, Stephen Payne. Houston Chronicle:

Over that week, more questions have been raised about the Houston lobbyist's professional and political activities. While the spotlight shined first on Payne's connections to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials -- and his attempt to raise cash for the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum -- attention has now shifted to the relationship between Payne and presumptive presidential nominee John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann.

Scheunemann lobbied in Washington on behalf of Payne's companies, Caspian Alliance, which works with Central Asian regimes on energy projects. (The London Times reported that Caspian Alliance was providing advice to the Kazakh state-owned oil and gas company, KazMunayGas.)

Think Progress:

In announcing his newfound support for offshore drilling, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) consistently touts the safety of offshore oil exploration. “[I]t’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage,” he said recently. To make his case, McCain was scheduled to helicopter tomorrow to an oil rig in the Gulf Coast.

But it seems even McCain is fearful of being caught on an offshore oil rig during rough weather.

The weather event that forced McCain to cancel his event is the category 2 storm, Hurricane Dolly that made landfall in South Texas this afternoon.

John McCain, however, is among the many Republicans who continues to push the false talking point that Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm, did not cause any oil spills in the Gulf Coast.

The truth?

As the Wonk Room has reported, the clear satellite evidence of major spills was borne out by final reports. In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter.” [...]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs. [MMS, 1/22/07]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]

Yet another case of the John McCain Campaign Playbook -- say and do anything to get elected.

Below is a helpful visual aid for John McCain on the timeline of the Anbar awakening and the troop surge that followed several months later.

MSNBC breaks down the McCain flub on the Anbar awakening.

And this is his supposed strong suit!

Big-time donor to the GOP and John McCain is in a bit of trouble:

On the day Republican Sen. John McCain surged to victory in Florida's presidential primary, a group of supporters gathered at the elegant Tampa Club for a luncheon held by Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Mingling with some of the state's business and political elite that January day was a Florida newcomer, an Oregon venture capitalist named Craig Berkman. Unbeknown to the guests, Berkman's life was crashing around him.

For two years, Berkman had been battling his investment partners after admitting that he had lent himself $5 million of their money without telling them. A civil fraud case against him was about to go to trial.

Berkman continued to raise money for McCain. He and his wife have donated $50,000 to Republican candidates and party committees this election cycle, including a $28,500 check to the Republican National Committee's Victory Fund on May 29 to support McCain's bid. Berkman's political generosity has angered his former investors, who prevailed in court but have not seen a penny of the $28 million in civil damages that a jury awarded them.

In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric last night, John McCain claimed that the surge provided the necessary space for the Anbar awakening to occur, and aided the calming of tensions in the area. Couric asked John McCain to respond to Senator Barack Obama who argued that the security increased even without the surge:

McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as-- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed.

But, as Ilan Goldenberg noted, the Anbar awakening began September 2006 -- several months before the surge was even announced the following January.

Reports the AP:

In March 2007, before the first of the additional troops began arriving in Iraq, Col. John W. Charlton, the American commander responsible for Ramadi, a city in Anbar province, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, had helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.

John McCain, the self-described foreign policy expert. Can you imagine how bad he would be on something he admits he doesn't know what he's talking about, say, the economy?

Chat away...

As Think Progress points out, this is the sixth straight month of job losses. The latest monthly jobs report, released this morning, shows payrolls falling another 62,000. And where is John McCain?

He's in Mexico promoting NAFTA.

McCain’s health care proposals could result in a dramatic increase in taxes for many Americans:

Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., health-care plan would replace the existing tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage with a refundable tax credit for all Americans. The tax change is intended to create a more equitable system that provides everyone -- including those who do not receive their health coverage from their employer -- with the same tax advantage. And since it is refundable, it would provide a cash benefit to those who earn too little to pay federal income taxes.

But if the cost of health care continues to outpace inflation in the economy at large, McCain's health credit would morph into a tax hike for those who currently receive a tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage, according to a study released Wednesday by the liberal Center for American Progress.

Chat away...

• The DLCC has a new website and blog. Check it out.
• TPM Muckraker: "House oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman says the Bush Administration knew about the September 2007 deal that Texas-based Hunt Oil struck with Kurdish officials in Iraq."
• The "shake-up" even bigger than originally reported?
• Bring 'em on... five years later.

Chat away...