Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama and John McCain have plenty of advisers working on vice presidential candidate lists. The opposition is ready to help, too.

Republican Scott Reed, who managed Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, handicaps three of the names being mentioned as possible choices for Democrat Obama: Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana and Joseph Biden of Delaware and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

``Bayh is a solid and sound pick -- safe,'' Reed said. ``Biden brings foreign affairs and gravitas, but is risky'' because of his tendency to wander off message.

``Kaine is 100 percent raw politics,'' Reed said, ``and puts Virginia and the 13 electoral votes in play.''

Other Republicans say Kaine would make it easier for McCain to paint the Democratic ticket as inexperienced. The former Richmond mayor, 50, has been governor for just three years.

Another Virginian, Republican Representative Tom Davis, said Obama would do the most damage to McCain by reaching across the aisle to tap Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Obama would send a clear signal to Republican and independent voters that ``I will be different,'' Davis said.

For McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 61, is ``the one who looks most presidential and who will inject into the campaign a sense of economic credentials and vitality,'' Democratic strategist Julian Epstein said. Another potential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, ``comes across to me as someone who seems a bit meek. Romney looks much more able to take a punch.''

Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, views it differently.

``Romney is attractive but McCain would do better picking someone younger and closer to the center of the political spectrum,'' he said. ``McCain's got to appeal to working families; You don't do that with Romney.''

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The end of July brought a push by McCain and Obama to fatten their campaign coffers before reporting their monthly figures to the Federal Election Commission.

``We need to show the strength of our grassroots movement,'' Illinois Senator Obama wrote in an e-mail solicitation. His online and small-donor fundraising has far eclipsed McCain's.

McCain took the more traditional route this week.

He raised millions of dollars in California, Colorado, Missouri and Bermuda (via video). The Colorado event alone brought in $3.2 million. He took in at least $1 million in California.

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Democrats bidding for Republican-held House seats had more money at the beginning of July than their opponents in 12 competitive districts, bolstering the Democratic Party's chances of increasing its 236-199 majority.

Regardless of the incumbent's party, Democratic candidates had the edge in 29 of the 44 most-competitive House contests, as rated by Congressional Quarterly, the Rothenberg Political Report and the Cook Political Report. Of 15 districts where Republicans had the fundraising advantage, only one is represented by a Democrat.

``The Republicans have a very steep hill to climb,'' said Michael Malbin, director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a Washington research group.

Another sign of Democratic fundraising dominance: a dozen of the party's challengers have raised at least $1 million.

In New Jersey, for example, Democratic state Senator John Adler, running to succeed retiring Republican Jim Saxton, took in $1.7 million and had $1.5 million in the bank.

The disparity also is showing up in donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Through June 30, the NRCC had $8.5 million to spend; the DCCC, $54.7 million.

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Somebody's got to be in charge of fun in the campaign circus. For McCain, that man is Steve Duprey.

When the staff landed in Wisconsin, they were equipped with yellow caps reading, ``McCain Cheesehead Team.'' When hungry, they can grab a candy bar with the slogan, ``The food was better when you were governor,'' the punch line of one of McCain's standard jokes, about two inmates in the prison mess hall.

Duprey, 55, a lawyer and real estate developer, is the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. He's been McCain's traveling companion since the Arizona Republican won the primary there in January.

``Campaigns are really hard work,'' said Duprey, who is paying his own way on the trail. ``But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a little fun now and then.''

Duprey, married with three children, started doling out chapeaus and shirts to help identify McCain volunteers in New Hampshire. He did the same in Michigan and the idea took.

``It's a little creative outlet,'' he said.

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President George W. Bush soon will be winging his way to China for the Olympics. He recalled in an interview with Asian journalists this week that during his first visit, in 1975 when his father was the U.S. ambassador, he rode a bicycle around Beijing. He wants to reprise that experience next week.

``I'm going to mountain bike again on the Olympic -- hopefully -- on the Olympic course, just to get some exercise,'' Bush, 62, said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Sobczyk in Washington at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 1, 2008 16:48 EDT