Barack Obama

As PolitickerME and half of Maine’s political community ventured around Aroostook County today, the news kept going. Here are a few things we missed today:

Allen denounces card-check ad… Baldacci makes appointments… Real ID opponents fail to meet signature quota… Presidential campaigns come to life…

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain closed the gap in Maine on his presumptive Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, according to a Rasmussen poll released Friday.

The poll showed U.S. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) with 36 percent support in Maine to U.S. Sen. Obama's (D-Ill.) 46 percent. While still trailing, the poll shows apparent progress for McCain, who lagged behind Obama, 55 percent to 33 percent, in a similar poll conducted on month ago.

Governor Rendell was attending the National Governor's Association and was asked by Human Events magazine who he thought would make a good VP choice for Senator Obama. In addition to a few of the usual suspects,he also mentioned, George Mitchell --which would be like bringing your dad to freshman orientation.

Governor Rendell was also asked who he thought Senator McCain should pick for his running mate. Rendell said he should go with "a governor with a background in economic issues," citing Mitt Romney as the obvious choice --which would be like bringing your son to an open house at the The Villages.

Democratic National Committee Chairman  Howard Dean came to Maine this week to mobilize volunteers for the Democratic Party.

Thursday he spoke at a Portland rally, click here for the Portland Press Herald’s report. Today he helped kick off voter registration drives in Waterville and Lewiston.

Lewiston saw a small crowd of about 40 -- a third of them were elected officials and press. They crowded around the gazebo in Kennedy Park, and Dean spoke without a microphone or a podium. See below for video.

See also: McCain's state director to start Monday

Early last year, before “Obama-mania” became mainstream among Democrats, Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, got a signed copy of Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, in the mail.

It was his chief of staff, Toby McGrath, who had arranged for the book to be sent, and Cummings credits him for leading him to the candidate who would become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

McGrath started a new job last week as state director for the Obama campaign. McGrath has been volunteering for Obama since February of 2007.

(Photo: Toby McGrath (center), the new state director for Barack Obama's campaign, talks with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and state Sen. Peggy Rotundo in Lewiston Friday.)

U.S. Sen. John McCain: Getty Images PhotoThe Maine Republican Party issued a statement Wednesday dismissing a planned protest to be staged outside a Portland gas station by the liberal political organization, MoveOn.

MoveOn was scheduled to launch the protest as part of its "National Day of Action for an Oil Free President" in an effort to publicly criticize the energy record of presumptive Republican presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The state GOP, however, said the group was off-base.