**President Obama
*AP, on the trip today: "Venturing back to a region reeling in deep unemployment, President Barack Obama's latest mission in Indiana is to show that the costly stimulus plan he lobbied for is producing tangible help -- $2.4 billion in taxpayer grants to create electric cars and tens of thousands of jobs."

*The Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan will get a "larger slice of the federal dollars to stimulate the development and production of advanced batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles than any other state." Biden is there today to make the announcement.

*New York Times writes that Bill Clinton's overture "catapulted" him "back on to the global stage, on behalf of a president who defeated his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a bitter primary campaign last year, and who later asked her to be his secretary of state." But Secretary Clinton "was deeply involved in the case, too. She proposed sending various people to Pyongyang -- including Mr. Clinton's vice president, Al Gore -- to lobby for the release of the women, before Mr. Clinton emerged as the preferred choice of the North Koreans."

*By letting Kim Jong Il "save face" by releasing the Americans to Clinton, AP says the Obama administration may win a concession in the form of "renewed dialogue with Pyongyang about its nuclear weapons program."

*A CNN poll finds "that white and black Americans don't see eye to eye on last month's arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates." It found that 54 percent don't think Sergeant James Crowley acted stupidly when he arrested Skip Gates, while about a third did. The divide: 59 percent of black respondents saying that Crowley acted stupidly compared to 29 percent of whites questioned.

**Health Care
*In a new CNN poll, 50 percent say they support the president's health care plans, with 45 percent opposed. It is more popular with younger voters and less popular with seniors.

*The Senate Democratic Caucus met with Obama Tuesday, and upon leaving, "they gave a rosy, upbeat account of the lunch, which apparently featured a big dish of bipartisanship, along with salad and rockfish. The Senate Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, said there was "absolute unity" among members of the normally fractious Democratic conference," NYT reports.

*Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) "said he and the president agree that a deal with Republicans would be best but that the Senate needs to pass a healthcare bill in any case," The Hill reports. "He said, 'I know Max agrees with me, we may get to a point where we're going to have to make other decisions and go in a different direction,'" Baucus said

*WSJ: "Groups of all stripes are blitzing lawmakers to shape a trillion-dollar health-care overhaul that would reach into every business and every home in the country. In the lobbying frenzy, many longtime allies are divided, often pitting hospital against hospital, retailer against retailer and doctor against doctor. And, not surprisingly, the fault lines emerge where the bills' provisions would cost them money."

*The Hill reports that it's up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "working with fellow leaders and the House Rules Committee, to meld three drafts of the healthcare bill: the liberal version from the Education and Labor Committee, the centrist Blue Dog compromise from the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means plan with a tax Pelosi (D-Calif.) already wants to change or maybe even scrap. Publicly, she appears undaunted."

*DNC press release: "The Democratic National Committee today released a new web ad 'Enough of the Mob' highlighting the angry mobs of a small number of GOP and special interest backed rabid right wing extremists who are disrupting thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country." Watch the ad here.

*"Rep. Steve Kagen is a doctor, a Democrat and, as far as his office has been able to determine, the only member of Congress who does not have any kind of health insurance," Politics Daily reports.

*"The debate over health care reform has exposed divisions among Senate Democrats -- including a divide between those elected in the anti-Bush referendum of 2006 and the Obama wave of 2008," Politico reports.

**Sotomayor
*"President Obama's first nominee to the nation's highest court was hailed Tuesday by Democrats as a fair and impartial jurist who represents the ideals of equal opportunity, while Republicans warned she would be a judicial activist for liberal positions," CNN reports.

*WaPo: "Even before debate began Tuesday night, almost three-fourths of the Senate Republican Conference had already announced opposition to the first Latina ever nominated to the nation's highest court. The party's 2008 standard bearer, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), joined the chorus of opposition this week, and no likely contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has spoken in support of confirmation. ... But some senators and Republican strategists worry that efforts to shore up support from conservative voters who dominate the GOP primaries could become a missed opportunity to extend an olive branch to Latino voters, who gave just 31 percent of their ballots to McCain last fall."

*WSJ: "The Senate opened its formal debate on Judge Sotomayor's nomination Tuesday amid little doubt of her confirmation by week's end. With virtually all 60 Senate Democrats and independents expected to back the nominee, the main question was whether any additional Republicans will join the six who have bucked the party leadership to support her nomination."

**Campaign Stuff
*"At least eight former staffers who worked for George W. Bush's administration are running for office. Even though President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney left the White House with poor approval ratings, aides who cut their teeth in their administration say the experience was invaluable. Still, it is also likely to hamper their electoral bids," The Hill's Reid Wilson reports.

*VA Gov: "The president will make his first appearance in the campaign Thursday, when he headlines a fundraiser for R. Creigh Deeds (D) in McLean, in part to try to help the state senator from Bath County win over wavering Democrats such as Cleland. But Obama's entry into the race presents a challenge for Deeds: How does he continue the momentum created by Obama, the first Democratic presidential candidate in more than four decades to carry Virginia, without being saddled with the baggage the president now carries?" WaPo reports.

*PA Sen: Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) made his Senate bid official yesterday outside Philadelphia -- the second-term lawmaker will indeed challenge the converted Democratic incumbent. "Sen. Arlen Specter thought he was avoiding the primary from hell when he left the Republican Party three months ago, only to find a stiff challenge awaiting him in the Democratic contest from a former Navy admiral with a golden resume," Philly Inquirer reports.

*MN-06: Rep. Michele Bachmann lost a potential general election challenger yesterday when her 2006 opponent, El Tinklenberg, announced he was dropping out. "The former Blaine mayor and state transportation commissioner ... said he didn't want to devote the next 13 months to spending time and money trying to defeat two other Democratic candidates -- Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud and Dr. Maureen Reed of Stillwater -- in a primary contest that would undermine their chances of unseating the Republican incumbent," St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports.

**Earmark of the Day: "Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress," Roll Call's Paul Singer reports.

--Mike Memoli and Kyle Trygstad