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Barack Obama's campaign is organizing the world's largest phone bank for voter registration among early arrivals for his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.

The move to the Invesco Field at Mile High stadium for the convention's final night next month - at an additional cost of $5 million - will capture a huge crowd the Obama campaign plans to put to work. They'll be armed with data gleaned through "microtargeting" unregistered voters the campaign believes are ripe to back Obama if pressed to get on board.

"If we do this right, we'll be unbeatable," said Steve Hildebrand, the Obama adviser overseeing the effort.

The record-breaking heat is not just an excuse to put another bikini picture in the newspaper and on the Web site. This is a serious weather news story. The temperature is predicted to top out at 102 today.

Bill Scanlon reports:

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for northeast Colorado and a red-flag warning for tinder-dry southeast Colorado.

The old record of 18 consecutive 90-plus-degree days set in 1874 and 1901 was broken Thursday as the temperature reached 96.

It looks like the record will reach at least 23 days because NWS metrologists are expecting 99 on Saturday, 97 on Sunday and 94 on Monday.

And, more's the pity, that's the temperature in the shade.

The expected three-digit high this afternoon is a warning to people to try to stay indoors and around air conditioning.

The highs will still be in the 90s through midevening along the Front Range and on the eastern plains.

Steve Ward and Wil Armstrong, two of the four candidates for the Republican nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Tancredo, participated in online discussions at RockyTalk Live.

The transcript from Ward's session is here.

Armstrong's session is here.

So much for Sen. Barack Obama's recent barnstorming through the Old Country.

He lost to Sen. John McCain in our simulated, head-to-head campaign for prime minister of "The Nations of Europa."

The fictional battle was waged by "Back Roads to the White House" using Ubisoft's "The Political Machine 2008" game -- a must-have for any political junkie who wants a little break from the real-life gamesmanship.

Sure, the game allows players to pick their favorite Democrats and Republicans (modern day or historic) to simulate the current U.S. presidential election.

You can even time travel back to the Civil War era to see how, say, Jimmy Carter might have fared against Rudy Giuliani. (Hint: be careful where you tout your support for higher tariffs.)

But with the real life Obama campaigning in places like Berlin and Paris, we thought we'd see how he'd fare against McCain in the game's politically-incorrect "Europa" mode.

The game starts with a clear red-nation, blue-nation divide. Anyone care to guess which way France leans?

The computer-aided McCain built a big lead by traveling from country to country bashing France.

Obama was forced to respond by also bashing France and questioning McCain's commitment to bashing France.

Obama placed ads "picking on France" and "America bashing."

That helped helped him regain the lead in Spain and make progress elsewhere in western Europe.

Oddly, the French-bashing went unnoticed in France.

Obama had built a headquarters in Paris and had a 3-1 lead in the polls there from start to finish.

Both candidates built up political capital to begin hiring sneaky operatives to fan out across the continent, undermining their opponent's credibility, boosting their own name identity, helping them with the all-important fundraising, etc.

By favoring a 10 hour work week, Obama picked up the endorsement of the "Lethargic Workers Union of Europa."

This was helpful in most of the continent, although it was an unpopular position in Poland and in another nation on the Europa map: Japan. (Apparently, the map was drawn by an American high school student.)

Obama made one gratuitous attack on McCain, claiming that he supported "cartoons of Mohamed." However, this actually helped McCain in some places.

Obama managed to win Sweden by favoring "pillaging," and he won Ireland by supporting "partying." But he couldn't make a dent in McCain's support in Germany, Italy and elsewhere.

As the campaign went on, it became a pure referendum on which candidate hated France more. In the end, Obama gained a slight edge on that issue. But it came at a price. All the attention took away from other topics that McCain dominated.

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, lost by a mere 17 electoral votes.

They might have won if they had made a couple more speeches in "Little Spain" (aka Portugal), and if they had taken a more forceful position on "getting offended," "surrendering" or supporting consumption of "chocolate."

Goofy features aside, the standard U.S.-map version of the game is a great way to learn about the Electoral College, the power of various states and the ways strategists must direct their messages and money to those places where they are truly the most competitive.

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UPDATE: On the second try, a new strategy helped Obama beat McCain in Europa. But later, Republican Ron Paul was able to defeat Obama in Europa by employing a quite loud "America bashing" strategy.

Congratulations Prime Minister Paul.