MCCAIN VS. PALIN

He wins on global warming

John McCain lives up to his "maverick" billing when it comes to several high-profile environmental issues. ... Sarah Palin's addition to the ticket has raised questions about which of the two candidates' environmental views will prevail. Palin wants to open up ANWR and has been skeptical in the past about human contributions to climate change. But in an interview broadcast last week, she seemed to soften her climate-change position somewhat, saying essentially that she didn't disagree that humans could be contributing to global warming. Palin may have been less than adept at handling interviewer Charlie Gibson's foreign policy question about the Bush doctrine. But it sure looks like McCain's people spent some time with her on climate change policy differences. ...

JILL BURCUM

BARKLEY'S ISSUE

He's hot about the debt

Former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley celebrated his Independence Party nomination for his old seat Tuesday night with a cigar and a promise: He will take his candidacy to the paid airwaves this fall. And his ad will not feature either the talking fish employed by DFLer Al Franken, nor the "bowlers" who star in GOP U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's reelection spots.

That promise went over big with his meager audience at the Hopkins VFW, where three of the seven IP candidates for Coleman's Senate seat assembled for a unity party after Tuesday's primary. The little IP may have had seven Senate rivals, but they ended their race as allies. ... Barkley's IP primary win assures him a seat at debates between Coleman and Franken. But it will be up to him and the IP to make theirs a true three-way contest. Barkley, who served in the Senate for 62 days in 2002 to complete the late Sen. Paul Wellstone's term, said he intends to push the issue that got him angry enough in 1992 to launch what became Minnesota's Independence Party -- the rising federal debt. On that score, he'll have help from a reactivated Concord Coalition, which is popping up again after several years of dormancy to draw attention to the nation's whopping $10 trillion debt. He should also benefit from the buzz that's being generated by a new documentary film, "I.O.U.S.A." which is being called the "Inconvenient Truth" of the looming debt crisis. ...

LORI STURDEVANT