by Evie Stone

Good morning.

Today's news is full of juicy bits — which are especially welcome after yesterday's barrage of charts and graphs.

The Obama campaign released their June fundraising numbers this morning — a cool $52 million that does not quite meet the campaign's $55 million high water mark from February. But it does come pretty darn close. Average donation: $68. While Obama's $52 million might make John McCain's $22 million June haul — no shabby sum in any other year — look paltry, Obama's fundraising bar is higher since he didn't take public financing. And while the DNC's financial cupboards had been looking pretty cobwebby compared to the RNC's this cycle, the Dems finally seem to be catching up. The Obama campaign later contacted reporters to correct Plouffe's email indicating a nearly $30 million GOP advantage — turns out DNC + Obama are almost neck-and-neck with RNC + McCain in terms of cash on hand.

On the oppo front, the NYT uncovers a link to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the recently-released list of McCain's bundlers; the Chicago Sun-Times lists grant recipients from Obama's IL Senate days; and the WP finds links to both campaigns from Fannie and Freddie.

Even MORE polling data shows voters are most concerned about the economy.

And all three network anchors (Williams, Gibson, and Couric) will be hopping Barack Obama's plane to the Middle East and Europe (dates/itinerary still a mystery, but the scuttlebutt is any day now), and will be hosting their broadcasts from the road...thus creating a multi-day period that John McCain could spend riding a unicycle, juggling, and eating a rubber tire to the tune of "Flight of the Bumblebee" without attracting much media attention. NPR's esteemed Don Gonyea will be along for the ride as well. We look forward to his stories from the press charter almost as much as his reports on the actual news events...

Today: Al Gore calls for major action on climate change at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, and President Bush speaks at Tony Snow's Memorial Service.

And finally: another unfortunate development in this week's Jesse Jackson dustup.