In any other year when the top Republican candidate didn’t also support public funding of abortions, this might be a titanic Republican campaign issue. It still could be but we will see.

Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband’s health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.

Asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance, Obama said it would cover “reproductive-health services.” Contacted afterward, an Obama spokesman said that included abortions.

Since both candidates are exploring a universal health care plan that pretty much amounts to tax-payer funding of abortion.

From ZDNet Russell Shaw writes “Attention you politics-hating coders, geeks: Ron Paul is NOT a friend of the Internet”:

I think we are seeing just a bit of the reflexive legacy libertarian techie streak here. Just want to code and innovate. government and politics is clunky, bureaucratic, process-driven. I know that many of you feel you don’t live in that political world.

And of those of you who do, Internet traffic patterns document a sentiment toward Rep. Paul far out of proportion to the poll numbers he has been pulling.

I interpret this view of Rep. Paul as a widespread meme that “I hate politics, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my world, but if I have to care, might as well back the Libertarian.”

But let me tell you about Libertarians.

Because they reflexively disdain regulations, they aren’t going to be on the side of legislation restoring fair royalty scales for Internet Webcasters.

Because they reflexively disdain regulations, they aren’t going to be on the side of net neutrality legislation.

And it is not even that Ron Paul knows anything about tech. He’s a self-professed “pen and paper” guy.

From MSNBC:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards renewed his call Tuesday for smaller, more substantive candidate forums, agreeing to MSNBC’s invitation to debate Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich on live television.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina and the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 2004, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., were captured on open microphones criticizing Kucinich, D-Ohio, by name after an NAACP candidates forum last week.

From the L.A. Times:

Invitations have been sent out for what promises to be a must-attend event for much of California’s Democratic elite, particularly those in the entertainment industry: a Sept. 8 fundraiser for Barack Obama at Oprah Winfrey’s home in the Santa Barbara area.

In the best tradition of Hollywood, the e-mail touting the afternoon gathering doesn’t mince words, promoting it as no less than “the most exciting Barack Obama event of the year anywhere …” And the invite urges haste in responding, saying: “Please get back to us soon before it sells out.”

Getting in the door costs $2,300 — the maximum individual contribution for the primary season. But, as is usually the case at such high-profile shindigs, there are incentives to gain a little extra face-time with the candidate.

Those who can tap friends and relatives for contributions to Obama’s presidential campaign that total at least $25,000 gain entree to a VIP reception; those responsible for at least $50,000 in donations make the cut for a VIP dinner.

From the New York Times:

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, called to apologize to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday following reports that she had described the former first lady as leading a relatively unhappy life, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton said.

Mrs. Edwards, who is on a book tour, had been quoted as saying that she and Mrs. Clinton “are from the same generation” during a luncheon on Thursday sponsored by the Ladies’ Home Journal.

“We both went to law school and married other lawyers, but after that we made other choices,” Mrs. Edwards said, according to The Associated Press. “I think my choices have made me happier. I think I’m more joyful than she is.”

Check out the entire Elizabeth Edwards Salon interview