The World is Talking. Global Politics

If you’re heading out for summer vacation, you might like to bring along one of these political books most frequently ordered through Amazon.com by fellow Political Wire readers over the last six months.

1. The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution
2. The Assault on Reason
3. No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner
4. What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals
5. Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear
6. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina
7. FDR
8. The Reagan Diaries
9. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
10. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power

The Politicker: “Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been flirting with the idea of an independent run for president, just changed his party registration to ‘blank,’ a spokesperson at the city Board of Elections told me.”

“The paperwork was received by the board’s Manhattan office and will take effect one week after the November general election, the spokesperson said.”

Bloomberg’s statement: “I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party. Although my plans for the future haven’t changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our City.”

In Iowa, a new Mason-Dixon poll shows the three Democratic frontrunners deadlocked in a statistical tie for first. Sen. Hillary Clinton leads with 22%, followed by John Edwards at 21%, Sen. Barack Obama at 18% and Gov. Bill Richardson at 6%.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney leads with 25%, followed by Fred Thompson at 17%, Rudy Giuliani at 15%, Mike Huckabee at 7%, Sam Brownback at 6% and Sen. John McCain way back at just 6%.

Based on his reporting, Marc Ambinder makes predictions for second quarter presidential campaign fundraising.

The Democrats

• Sen. Barack Obama: $28M-$35M
• Sen. Hillary Clinton: $26M-28M
• John Edwards: $8.5M-11M
• Gov. BIll Richardson: $3-7M
• Sen. Joe Biden: $3-5M
• Sen. Chris Dodd: $2-M

The Republicans:

• Gov. Mitt Romney: $17M-20M
• Rudy Giuliani: $14M-17M
• Sen. John McCain: $13M-15M
• Gov. Mike Huckabee: $2M-4M

“Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles… He saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”

– Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, quoted by Globe and Mail, sticking up for the fictional federal agent in the television series 24 while arguing that interrogators “require latitude in times of great crisis.”

The first Democracy Corps battleground poll of 70 key congressional districts — half Democratic and half Republican — shows named Democratic congressional candidates “hold on average a 9-point lead in these districts that actually supported the Republican candidate by 1 point in 2006 and President Bush by 8 points in 2004. That means the center of the battlefield has shifted as much since 2006 as it did in the lead up to it.”

Key finding: “Democrats enter the 2008 race in a strong position to readily defend their own seats while expanding their 2006 electoral gains. Democratic incumbents hold a significant lead in the battleground districts, winning the congressional vote by 20 points — 56 to 36 percent. Obviously, there are some special cases, but the consistency across all types of Democratic seats makes it difficult for the Republicans to find many Democratic targets. Indeed, Democratic incumbents’ electoral advantage is as strong in their most vulnerable districts — those held by freshmen who picked up new seats in 2006, as it is in the least competitive districts.”

Complete survey results are available.

So Wilford Brimley is going to raise anchor and chug across the Atlantic to pay political respects to Margaret Thatcher and bask in the aura of her majestic, rain-resistant coif. Why is this rootin’ tootin’ straight shootin’ presidential cocktease darkening…

“Certainly not. Obviously, I’m not a fan.”

– Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS), quoted by Roll Call, on whether Karl Rove “still holds the same stature among Republicans that he once enjoyed.”

Abeni weighs in on the re-sentencing hearing for those convicted of murdering Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and others in 1983.

Even as members of the European Union seek “to forge a fresh relationship with the government in Havana”, the United Nations announced that it has dropped independent expert monitors of alleged human rights abuses in Cuba. Uncommon Sense shares his perspective.