Al Gore’s thrown his political weight behind the Obama campaign — and it looks like Obama’s hiring of a former Clinton campaign manager spells the end for Hillary’s VP hopes.

Does this mean no Hillary for VP? The Obama campaign has hired ex-Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle as “chief of staff to the (as yet unnamed) vice pesidential candidate”. Doyle was fired from the Clinton campaign about five months ago, so the hire is seen as signalling that Hillary won’t get the nod. The Huffington Post describes it as “a bad omen for VP Hillary”. While MyDD points to a Washington Post report that the appointment of Doyle was taken by Clinton insiders as “a signal that HRC is not being considered for VP position”.

The Washington Monthly put it even more bluntly: “Far from her hiring being a conciliatory gesture, the developing conventional wisdom is that Team Obama is sending the same kind of message to Team Clinton that the Tattaglia family sent to the Corleones in The Godfather.” Perhaps we’ll know more after Clinton’s private phone conference with top campaign donors – the Huffington Post said it should be a barometer of how strongly she presses donors to support Obama.

Al Gore endorses Obama. It wasn’t unexpected, but it’s still big news. Sadly it seems to put paid to any remaining hopes that Gore would join the Democratic ticket himself. We rounded up the best of the blog reactions to Gore’s announcement in Blogwatch today (and, having seen Gore’s speech, we’d like to ask, yet again, where was that passion when he was running for President himself?)

The candidates trade blows over Iraq. The NYT political blog reports that Obama has spoken with the Iraqi foreign minister and is planning a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan before the election.

“Mr Obama, who spoke to the Iraqi foreign minister by telephone this morning, said he was ‘encouraged’ by the reductions in violence in Iraq. But he said the United States still must begin gradually withdrawing troops, at a pace of one to two brigades a month, with a goal of removing most combat troops in 16 months.”

The MyDD blog crunches some polling numbers and says the red states are more in synch with Obama on Iraq:

John McCain likes to distinguish his own position on Iraq from Barack Obama’s as “victory” versus “surrender.” You see, pulling the troops out of Iraq is losing unless it’s on John McCain’s terms in which case it’s winning. It’s all very Bushian, actually and, like Bush, the American people just aren’t buying it, even, it would appear, our red state brethren.

While Think Progress points to a a new interactive timeline on McCain’s website which attempts to prove how and when John McCain was right about Iraq.

McCain still pushing for “Town Hall” debates. The Obama and McCain camps still haven’t agreed on the terms, but McCain is still pushing for a series of “Town Hall” debates. Obama missed the first one, but McCain’s proposed a joint town hall meeting when both candidates speak next month to the Latino advocacy group La Raza.

The Atlantic blog says “John McCain’s campaign sees an opportunity in Barack Obama’s refusal to accept multiple joint town hall meetings before the party conventions.”