In one of his first moves to centralize control of McCain's political organization, Steve Schmidt has tapped Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager, Mike DuHaime, to be McCain's new political director, a top campaign adviser tells CNN. Until last week, McCain had no political director at headquarters – highly unusual for a general election campaign. Mccain's campaign instead relied on 11 regional campaign managers — a structure many Republicans in and outside of the McCain campaign, including Schmidt, considered unworkable. After formally taking control of the political operation last week, Schmidt decided to put a political director in place to oversee the state and regional operations. Duhaime went to work as an adviser to McCain at headquarters not long after Giuliani dropped his primary bid.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of President Bush, is meeting up with John McCain Thursday in Mexico City to visit the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, his campaign has announced. Bush, who was governor from 1999-2007, endorsed McCain's White House bid earlier this year after it was clear the Arizona senator would win the party's nomination. Bush did not endorse a candidate during the primary campaign.

Her presidential bid may have ended two weeks ago, but Hillary Clinton is still on the hunt for campaign cash. The New York Democrat is well over $20 million in debt, nearly half of which Clinton loaned herself personally earlier in the year when her campaign was virtually broke and faced life-or-death primary contests. When it comes to recovering her personal loan, it's a race against the clock. Under campaign finance laws spearhead by current presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, Clinton must pay herself back before the party's convention in late August, or else she is only allowed to receive $250,000.

With iconoclast Ron Paul having ended his quixotic bid for the Republican presidential nomination — his platform had called for, among other things, ending the Iraq War, repealing the PATRIOT Act, returning to the gold standard and eliminating taxes on tips — his many dedicated supporters are up for grabs. Even excluding his support in caucus states, Paul received a few more than a million votes in the Republican primary, finished second in five states including Pennsylvania and Oregon and continued to draw votes well after he’d effectively withdrawn from the race. His campaign also tapped into the potent new vein of online fundraising, punctuated by the so-called “money bomb” day when his supporters, unaided by his campaign, managed to pump $5 million into his coffers in 24 hours.