In a sharp break from the last couple of days, today was both busy and rewarding from front to back. First and foremost, I was privelaged to sit in on a conference call with Fred Thompson discussing the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to grant terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay habeas corpus rights. Fred was speaking on behalf of John McCain and provided a legal analysis of the ruling's flaws, while at the same time explaining Senator McCain's perspective on the issue. In case you've forgotten, Fred was my choice in the Republican primary, and was the candidate I felt most ideologically in sink with, even if he ran a somewhat lackluster campaign. His answers to reporters' questions were rambling but informative, and he was relaxed and (dare I say) folksy throughout. His best quote: when asked by Erick Erickson (great name) at RedState about how the McCain campaign will get out their message on the issue, Fred responded that if he knew how to do that, "I would be the McCain campaign." It's amazing to me that these sorts of calls are an everyday occurrence for many of the people I work with, and they're becoming more and more common for me.

After the call, I worked for about an hour before joining seven other interns for lunch with Charles Rousseaux, the RNC speechwriter. It was a fascinating experience, hearing Charles's perspective on his job and getting an insider's view of the speechwriting process. I returned just in time to catch the tail end of a live press conference at the office held by House Deputy Whip Eric Cantor and Minority Whip Roy Blunt on energy policy. I followed that up by working this afternoon reaching out to bloggers on particular issues and working on a couple of side projects. After work, I went out for a couple of drinks with about eight other interns.

The big news of the day was Barack Obama's decision to opt out of public financing for the general election. John McCain promised several months ago to accept public financing. As a matter of fact, so did Barack Obama. Obama proposed that he and the Republican nominee accept public financing so as to keep special interest money out of the election. It seems that a few months and tens of millions of dollars changed the Illinois Senator's perspective on the issue. I can't blame Obama for making his decision - he'll surely raise far more than the federally mandated $85 million. The issue that I take with his decision is that he pushed hard for and sang the praises of public financing, promised to take it, and then reversed course when it became politically convenient. As little as too months ago, he promised to take public funding. But as of today, that promise is broken. I'd just like to see a little consistency from the Senator, that's all. But I guess his swapping on positions is just one more change we can believe in.

Tomorrow should be another busy day, so I'd better get some rest. 再见.