SO IT ONLY TAKES 600 PHONE CALLS TO “INUNDATE” HARRY REID’S OFFICE? Well, you can call him at 202-224-3542 (or call the main Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121) if you want to do a little inundating yourself.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Cunningham emails: “Harry’s voice mailbox is full, Glenn ….. inundation successful!” That didn’t take long.

BOSTON HERALD: OBAMA’S BASE PROBLEM — IN MASSACHUSETTS? “Even here in bluest Massachusetts, some of President Obama’s stalwarts say their support for the liberal darling is slipping — as a new poll suggests the numbers are plummeting in the president’s base and a call has emerged from the left for a primary challenge.”

I guess it’s time for another thrilling Insta-Poll! You can click through and discuss other prospects in the comments.

UPDATE: Cuomo’s got a solid lead, but there’s this in the comments:

I’d like to see Obama 2007 vs. Obama 2010.

Someone should talk him into coming out of hiding- he won running against the same issues;

politics of fear, cronyism, transparency, corruption, economy in the tank, Gitmo, wars, hope, change, etc.,..

Indeed.

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Orders for durable goods drop 2.1 percent in June with weakness led by fall in aircraft demand.

Hmm. A “fall in aircraft demand?” Whenever Obama opens his mouth, jobs die . . . .

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Leading From Behind On Debt.

It’s possible that Obama thinks talking about an issue is the same as leading on it. After all, in July alone, the president has held three press conferences and a town hall, delivered three press briefings, a radio address and a prime-time speech — all devoted to the debt ceiling negotiations.

But in the real world, leadership means standing in front of the parade and directing its course. All Obama has done since the debt crisis emerged more than two years ago is posture, issue platitudes and try to score political points from the tail end of the march.

Well, nobody’s perfect.

HEY, IT’S NOT ALL GLOOMY OUT THERE: 10 High-Paying Government Jobs. “Public-sector employment is sometimes seen as the booby prize of the job market. But there some lucrative opportunities out there.” Indeed.

MILT WOLF: “Life is full of mysteries. Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Why are there no B size batteries? Who would pay good money to see a Michael Moore movie? More mysterious still, why should Republicans be scared to call Barack Obama’s bluff?”

TODAY ONLY: The Ultimate Matrix Collection, On Blu-Ray.

DESPERATION: Harry Reid: Tea Partiers Are Not Real Americans.

GUN-SMUGGLING UPDATE: FBI report at odds with ATF claim on weapons: A copy of the FBI document shows ballistics tests did not rule out the Fast and Furious guns in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.

UPDATE: CBS News: ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious Info with White House. What did the White House know, and when did it know it?

WELL, LET’S HOPE: U.S. Officials Believe Al Qaeda On Brink Of Collapse. “The assessment reflects a widespread view at the CIA and other agencies that a relatively small number of additional blows could effectively extinguish the Pakistan-based organization that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — an outcome that was seen as a distant prospect for much of the past decade.” Hmm. “Pakistan-based.”

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Looking for work? Good luck if you’re unemployed. ‘The unemployed need not apply. That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation’s employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work.”

THOUGHTS ON THE MEANING OF The Wu Resignation.

UPDATE: Reader Tom Canaday notes that he hasn’t resigned yet. “For now he is a sworn, voting member of the U.S. House of Representatives.” Dems may want him to stick around a bit longer for the budget votes.

TODAY ONLY: A sale on Internet-enabled flatscreen TVs.

MICKEY KAUS: Is The Boehner Plan Obama’s Briar Patch?

UPDATE: Obama’s Poll Numbers Crumbling In Battleground States. “The race for president isn’t a national contest. It’s a state-by-state battle to cobble an electoral vote majority. So while the national polls are useful in gauging the president’s popularity, the more instructive numbers are those from the battlegrounds. Those polls are even more ominous for the president: In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the past month, Obama’s support is weak. . . . Obama’s performance so far on the debt-ceiling debate hasn’t improved his standing, either. Pundits may have graded the president a winner in the battle, but it wasn’t long ago that the White House was demanding a clean debt-ceiling increase from congressional Republicans. Now, it appears that whatever deal ends up being struck will be much closer to the GOP’s terms, with the president looking less consequential in the whole process.”

This is making a primary challenge seem more likely.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Watch out, Mickey, or people will call you racist for that analogy. The charge of racism has lost its sting, through overuse. Once simply opposing the President on policy makes you a racist, who cares?

MICHAEL YON: Taliban Stepping Up Attacks On Children.

RAND SIMBERG: Lies, Damned Lies, and Revenue Enhancements. “In short, the Democrats’ ‘progressive’ class-warfare nostrums depress revenue as they increase government spending, while the solution is to actually increase revenue and reduce spending by moving to a flatter system in which everyone has a stake. This is the battle that the Republicans seem to be winning for the moment, but only because we are on the verge of fiscal catastrophe. If this really is their Gettysburg moment, they shouldn’t let up now.”

NICK SCHULZ: This U.N. Program Should Have Taxpayers Seeing REDD. “The REDD solution is to pay developing countries not to cut down their trees. It’s a kind of global welfare system with transfer payments from the wealthy, developed North – in particular the U.S., Europe, and Japan — to the underdeveloped South.”

Sorry, dudes. No more money.

FORTUNE COOKIE ADVICE FOR WASHINGTON: Reaffirm your faith in financial plans — Make a budget.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The 10 Best Cities For Bachelors.

IS THE EURO AN IDEA whose time has gone? Yes. Next question?

WISCONSIN UPDATE: Wisc. Assembly Democrats Would Have Added $1.7 Billion in Spending, Created $1.4 Billion Deficit. “A comprehensive analysis of Assembly Democrats’ proposed amendments to the recently passed state budget shows that had their amendments been adopted, spending would have increased by $1.7 billion.”

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): 500 Day Retail Recession Ahead, Says Analyst. Wait, how many days left until the election again?

FASTER, PLEASE: Enzyme Insights Could Lead To Better Sunburn Treatments.

NOEMIE EMERY ON the attacks on Allen West. “And indeed, the attacks upon West by Wasserman Schultz’s defenders seem out of the source book for race-baiting slanders decried by the left in times past.”