Naturally, there is one person to blame for everything that is happening in Iran right now, and that is Barack Obama. Except whatever good comes out it. That was all Bush.

UPDATE: Exactly.

Afternoon news.

* The Rick Davis lobbying revelation is the big campaign story today as the McCain camp struggles to find some way to respond. The indispensable Steve Benen dissects their first attempt here, with this succinct summary of why this matters:

Remember, the McCain campaign walked right into this one, insisting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were largely responsible for the Wall Street crisis, and any associations between a candidate and officials at the lending companies are necessarily scandalous.

Talk about leading with one's chin....

More at HuffPo and TPM, which notes that Davis "quietly canceled" a scheduled lunch with reporters today.

* A report from the Pew Center says that cell-phone-only voters are not being properly counted in the polls. And Marist's poll of swing states has Obama sweeping the map: IA, NH, OH, PA, and MI, where he has (according to this one poll with a high margin of error) a nine-point lead.

* Kos says the Palin pick is already paying unexpected dividends, as if McCain had been more responsible he probably would have picked Romney.

But think, what if McCain had picked Mitt Romney as his veep choice, like so many of us were fervently hoping?

Sure, the rollout wouldn't have give McCain a fraction of the attention and excitement that Palin generated. The GOP ticket's (now evaporated) post-convention bump would've been smaller, and maybe Romney would've been less effective at revving up the fundy base.

But right now? Romney would be kicking ass. The media would treat him with deference as an economic expert, and let's be honest, he does looks straight out of central casting for the role of "serious businessman who we should defer to on the economy". McCain wouldn't have to hide him. Romney could make the media rounds, being taken seriously no matter what GOP gibberish he spouted. Rather than flail and cower, a McCain/Romney ticket would look sure-footed and confident, projecting gravitas in a time of uncertainty.

What's more, McCain would no longer look like a political opportunist in his VP choice. He'd be lauded for being such a "maverick", picking his greatest primary rival. The GOP and its apologists could say, with a straight face, that McCain put "country first", and actually get away with it since it's obvious McCain personally loathes Romney.

Good thing Mittens was snubbed.

* Also at Kos, Meteor Blades argues that the Congressional Democrats' myriad failures on energy this seession are not as bad as all that.

Hurrah! What a relief. This summer’s rush to remedy 27 years of bad energy policy in just a few weeks had generated a mish-mash of contradictory proposals that couldn’t possibly be fully discussed or vetted. Better to wait, as I've said from the get-go.

The Stump time travels to a scene from the 2012 Republican primary:

Gov. Palin: We are going to change America, change it from higher taxes, higher crime, and a quagmire in Afghanistan.

Fmr. Gov. Romney: I know how to make change. I'm running on 20 years of a record of change of commitment to America and conservatism, Gov. Palin is running on the strength of a speech from four years ago. Are we going to have change with results, or change with a teleprompter? We know what that has gotten us.

That's pretty much right, except my gut tells me it may be 2016.

Is it Mitt? Mark Halprin says so, which can't be making the McCain camp happy in light of yesterday's potentially game-ending gaffe.

But it sure makes john happy.

As predicted, Romney's out.

... "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Stay classy, Mitt.

While I frantically reload my usual Web sites for any scrap of information about the Democratic caucus, let's give a big congratulations to darling of the netroots Mitt Romney for winning the Nevada primary. It looks like Ron Paul came in second. Here they are together, basking in victory. In the meantime, I'm gratified by this post at Open Left that notes the polls for Nevada were wildly off the mark—though there's always the possibility that they're off the mark in the other direction...

Desperate for the vaunted Canavan "Muppet Week" bump, Stephen Colbert makes a pretty excellent Guy Smiley joke early in this segment on the Iowa Straw Poll.