Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

• ARG: President Bush's approval rating is at 28%.  65% disapprove.
• Groups on either side of the war debate will spend a total of $30 million on ads around the time Petraeus gives the White House's speech on the troop surge.
• As an obvious slam at the Bush Administration, Pat Tillman's wife said new national leadership is needed: "Many things have changed since Pat decided to join the Army. Andunfortunately, leadership on many levels has come into question.  We are in need of authentic leadership on many levels,social, economic and political."
• In a speech on Wednesday at the VFW convention, President Bush drew parallels between Iraq and Vietnam: “Will today’s generation of Americans resist the deceptive allure ofretreat, and do in the Middle East what veterans in this room did inAsia?”  (Someone who obviously did not study their history is now lecturing us about that very subject.)
• After becoming the lowest-rated prime time show on MSNBC, Hardball's executive producer Tammy Haddad is stepping down.
• In a speech prepared for Thursday morning in New Hampshire, John Edwards will take a rhetorical stab at Hillary Clinton: "Small thinking and outdated answers aren't the only problems with a vision for the future that is rooted in nostalgia.  The trouble with nostalgia is that you tend to remember what you likedand forget what you didn't. It's not just that the answers of the pastaren't up to the job today, it's that the system that produced them wascorrupt — and still is."
• According to Robert Novak, "important supporters" of Hillary Clinton are beginning a Washington insider campaign to prevent the former First Lady from picking Barack Obama as her running-mate if she wins the nomination.  Instead, they want either former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, Senator Evan Bayh or Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
• Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert R-IL) will resign this November, instead of finishing out his term.  That will trigger a special election.  As Political Wire notes, "With Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) on the presidential primary ballot, this could draw more Democrats to the polls."
• South Carolina Democrats (Rasmussen): Clinton - 38%, Obama - 30%, Edwards - 13%.
• National Democrats (Gallup): Clinton - 48%, Obama - 25%, Edwards - 13%.  Clinton has expanded her lead by a lot since last the last Gallup poll was taken.

If we left something out, it's because we either wrote about ityesterday or are scheduled to do so in an individual post later today. Otherwise, feel free to add any stories in the commentbox.