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Mitt Romney's bittersweet return to Colorado

CONTENTS:

Romney joined Hollywood stars Jon Voight and John Ratzenberger for the afternoon rally intended to motivate McCain's supporters in the final push to get Republicans to the polls on Election Day. (More...)
During a campaign event, Joe Wurzelbacher told Obama than the senator's plans to tax folks earning $250,000 a year troubled him. (More...)
Republican Mitt Romney was forced to readjust his stances on social issues in order to fall into line with the mainstream of the GOP, something that turned into a tough sell for primary voters. (More...)
Obama's selection of Biden as his vice presidential nominee was said to have been sent to 2.9 million text message subscribers. (More...)

Romney joined Hollywood stars Jon Voight and John Ratzenberger for the afternoon rally intended to motivate McCain's supporters in the final push to get Republicans to the polls on Election Day. Borrowing a line from his own stump speech in the Jan. 19 Republican caucus that he won in Nevada, Romney argued this election is an important turning point. "We're either going to make a sharp left turn, or we're going to hold true to the principles that have made this country such a great nation," Romney said. He touted McCain as the candidate that knows that "to create jobs you hold down taxes" and painted Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama of Illinois as an inexperienced politician who lacks the skills to keep the country safe. [1] Obama spokesman Jeff Giertz accused the McCain campaign of trying to distract from the issues. "While Barack Obama has focused the closing days of this campaign on his positive plans to bring the change we need to our country, John McCain and his Republican friends want to 'turn the page' from the economy to focus on more-of-the-same attacks," Giertz said. In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal after the rally, Romney said he believes McCain is rising in the polls and has captured momentum. "I hope the Democrats look at the polls and say they should stay home, they're not needed," Romney said.[1]

"But I think Republicans realize you fight to the end." He called Obama's recent 30-minute campaign commercial "way over the top." "It almost sounded like he's explaining how with a few fishes and a few loaves he could feed the multitude," Romney said.[1]

During a campaign event, Joe Wurzelbacher told Obama than the senator's plans to tax folks earning $250,000 a year troubled him. A desperate McCain campaign leaped at the exchange, which included the senator saying, "When you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody." At the third president debate, Joe the Plumber became an irresistible reference for both candidates. For Joe, it turned out the attention exposed the fact that he was unlicensed as a plumber, has tax problems and doesn't come close to earning $250,000 annually. [2] McCain, a longtime supporter of tighter campaign finance rules, has been significantly out-raised by Obama, who opted not to participate in the presidential matching funds system that sets limits on a candidate's ability to raise cash.[2]

The McCain campaign's attempt to ridicule the large crowds attending Obama rallies at home and abroad fell flat.[2]

' 6. In the summer of 2007, McCain's campaign coffers were down to $2 million, far less than his Republican rivals at that point.[2] ' 8. Not long after Sarah Palin was announced as the Republican vice presidential candidate, GOP handlers went on a shopping spree for her and her family, ringing up a $150,000 bill for clothing and other accessories.[2] In a December Republican presidential debate, the moderator asked for a show of hands of who believes climate change is a threat. Candidate Fred Thompson drew the line, declaring he wouldn't be "doing hand shows today."[2]

Republican Mitt Romney was forced to readjust his stances on social issues in order to fall into line with the mainstream of the GOP, something that turned into a tough sell for primary voters. His exit from the race essentially ceded the contest to McCain. [2] Romney said if elected McCain would be a "more faithful adherent to traditional Republican principles than we've seen in the last eight years."[1]

Obama's selection of Biden as his vice presidential nominee was said to have been sent to 2.9 million text message subscribers. [2]

REFERENCES

1. Romney campaigns for McCain in Reno | www.rgj.com | Reno Gazette-Journal
2. Race to the White House | AnnistonStar.com

Obama, McCain visit red states in final stretch

CONTENTS:

It is the final push to the ballot box, and both candidates continue a mad dash over the last weekend trying to win over voters in key swing states before next Tuesday'''s election. (More...)
"A lot of us hope that the internet will open up the political process, make it more accessible for ordinary people to run for office. (More...)
Joining up with the Obama campaign are the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. (More...)
What marked the day for me was when he folded under the pressure and did exactly what he said we as americans should not do: "They (AQ) only win if we live in fear and change our ways out of that fear." (More...)
Upset and angry, remaining rank-and-file members may turn to more conservative members, like Virginia's Eric Cantor, to lead rebuilding efforts. (More...)
"The internet is now firmly embedded in the U.S. electoral process and it isn't going to go away," says Chadwick. (More...)

It is the final push to the ballot box, and both candidates continue a mad dash over the last weekend trying to win over voters in key swing states before next Tuesday'''s election. John McCain rallyied his troops in Ohio. Behind in the polls, the Republican presidential hopeful will spend his second day in the state looking to gather momentum and ultimately the 20 electoral votes crucial to a win next Tuesday. "It's Halloween, so what do the Democrats do? Every four years they run out and they try to scare seniors by saying that republicans are going to take away their social security or we're gonna take away Medicare," said McCain. The economic crisis continues to be the driving theme for both voters and the candidates. Evidence of that, McCain'''s second extended interview on CNBC this week. Making sure there are no "tricks" in the final days of this campaign the front runner, Barack Obama will continue to blitz the Midwest. He was in Missouri Thursday night again promising a better fiscal future if elected. "I will put in place common sense regulations that i've been calling for throughout this campaign so that Wall Street can never cause this crisis again,''' said Obama. [1] YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama cranked up his campaigning Friday for a ferocious final weekend before the historic U.S. elections, as Republican rival John McCain vowed an all-out comeback effort. Front-runner Obama, bidding to become the first black U.S. president, returned to the midwestern state of Iowa promising an end to the Republican politics of divide and rule, while McCain wrapped up a bus tour of Ohio with his team saying it was "jazzed up" about a last-gasp comeback. "Iowa, at this moment, in this election, we have the chance to do more than just beat back this kind of politics -- we have the chance to end it once and for all," Obama told an Iowa rally of 25,000 people. "That's how we'll steer ourselves out of this (economic) crisis -- with a new politics for a new time."[2] BARACK Obama could be involved in crucial economic decisions before his inauguration if he wins next week's U.S. election, with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson flagging a greater role for the new administration ahead of January's swearing-in. With the latest polls showing Senator Obama maintaining a big lead over his Republican rival John McCain, the Democrats have drawn up plans to lower the high expectations of what the first black president would be able to achieve. Senator Obama will potentially inherit a $US700billion ($1trillion) rescue program that he neither created nor fully embraced, and a slowing economy that will limit his capacity for sweeping change.[3]

Don't believe for a moment that power concedes anything. It's going to get nasty in the next four days. They will throw everything at it." Despite his healthy lead in the polls, he implored a crowd of more than 20,000 in Columbia on Friday not to forget to vote and asked them to take five friends along and "dig deep and make history". Addressing the most recent attacks from the campaign of his rival Senator John McCain, he adopted a mocking tone. "They can't even decide what to call me. They are calling me every name in the book but they can't decide on a single angle," he said. His campaign is convinced that in the final, frantic four days of his historic bid to become the first black U.S. president more slurs will be thrown his way, by Mr McCain, the Republican Party and outside groups. In the past week Mr McCain has tried to tarnish his opponent for his association with Rashid Khalidi, who once spoke for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and is now a professor at Columbia University in New York. He has continued to raise questions about Mr Obama's relations with William Ayers, a domestic bomber in the 1960s, also now a professor, and label Mr Obama's plans to raise taxes for the rich as "socialism".[4]

The largest U.S. business lobby wants voters to elect enough Republicans to block legislation, through a legislative technique known as a filibuster, which would make it easier for workers to form unions. It takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Many independent groups this year are focusing their advertising on congressional races instead of the campaign between John McCain and Barack Obama. While the 2004 presidential race saw the growth of such groups as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which opposed Democratic nominee John Kerry, both major nominees this year discouraged their donors from funding independent ads. "There is a sense from the top of the ticket that their participation was not wanted nor desired'' in the presidential race, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks campaign finance. "Clearly, there's been a shift away from these organizations.''[5] "We cannot spend the next four years as we have much of the last eight, hoping for our luck to change at home and abroad." Quick: Which presidential candidate has added this line to his speeches? Barack Obama, right? No, that would be Republican candidate John McCain, hoping to change his luck at home in the final stretch of Campaign '08.[6]

McCain supporters are taking some last-minute encouragement from recent polls that suggest the race is tightening in key states like Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The Obama campaign is broadening its television advertising campaign in the final days to include the states of North Dakota and Georgia, states that have reliably supported Republican presidential candidates in recent years.[7] The McCain camp argued that a sheaf of polls nationally and in battleground states misread likely levels of Republican turnout in the election, and that the race against Obama was much closer than it appeared. The Democrat, in a clear sign of his intent to reach historic numbers of voters before they head to the polls, has mobilized a gargantuan team of some 1.5 million volunteers in 770 offices nationwide. "We really feel that, in a number of these states. this election is going to come down to our ground organization and what happens in the final days of the campaign," said Obama's national battleground state chief Jennifer O'Malley.[2] Obama is making an especially concerted push; young voters support the Democrat by a 2-1 ratio, according to an AP-Yahoo News Poll conducted last month. Pollsters believe Obama's support may be stronger than indicated in national polls because they exclude the cell-only voters the campaign has targeted. Some Republican strategists worry their young supporters may not be among the groups that flood the polls because the GOP hasn't kept pace with Democrats' use of text messaging. "In America, it's just weird to think that the Republican Party would be ceding an entire medium to the Democratic party," said David All, a consultant in Washington to GOP candidates on technology issues. McCain's campaign referred questions about texting to its Missouri headquarters, which didn't return calls for comment. Young McCain backers in the state say they're making an effort even if the national campaign is mum. Jeremy Hagen, chairman of the Missouri College Republicans, said he had not received messages from the McCain campaign or the Republican National Committee. He said, the College Republicans have employed the tactic to mobilize McCain supporters.[8]

Caroline Adelman, spokesperson for the Obama campaign in Georgia, finds that money matters weigh heavily on the electorate. She agreed when I suggested that the president isn't far from voters' minds on this issue or any other: "They realize now that they need to vote against everything that Bush and McCain stand for," she told me. Do Bush and McCain stand for the same things? One of the most frequently quoted statistics in this campaign would seem to indicate "yes." "If you voted with Bush over 90 percent of the time, you can't proclaim you're a maverick," Westen explains, echoing an assertion that resonates strongly with those heading to the polls. Near the end of our conversation, Weston paused in his thoughts on voters to consider how this incriminating branding affects the candidate himself. "I think McCain's an angry man anyway," Westen declares, "but provided there isn't a terrorist attack that throws him the election on Nov. 5, he's going to end up enraged that Bush got him again."[6] In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Senator Obama appeared to be lowering expectations. Asked about his goals for the first 100 days, he said he would need more time than that to tackle such big and costly issues as healthcare reform, global warming and Iraq. Senator McCain spent yesterday campaigning in Ohio - a critical swing state he must win to take the presidency - as his campaign insisted the race was tightening in the final days. He told supporters in the appropriately named town of Defiance: "We're a few points down, but we're coming back." It was in Ohio that President George W. Bush pulled out a narrow victory in 2004, drawing thousands more voters to the polls than outside experts thought possible, and ultimately clinching the race. The latest polls yesterday showed Senator Obama with a solid lead nationally, and across the electoral map, and even pushing Senator McCain in his home state of Arizona.[3] Highly organized and massive volunteer efforts by Republicans ground forces in the final days of 2000 and 2004 campaigns are widely credited with George W. Bush's two victories in Florida. Republican Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, has said he thought Bush was sure to lose Florida until the GOP's get-out-the-vote operation swung into full gear in the final 72 hours of 2000. That is when Republicans first used Victory Suite -- a computer software program that was able to flag likely voters and align it with other key demographics such as memberships to clubs or magazines. That allowed campaigns not just to knock on doors, but efficiently target voters they had the best chance of getting to the polls, said Tramm Hudson, the Sarasota County Republican Party chairman in 2000. Obama supporters are adamant that they are up to the task this time and armed with rival technology that will help them win the get-out-the-vote battle. "At this point we're not interested in converting people," said Linda Niblock, who drives a VW bus pained with "Obama" on the side and leads a canvassing team covering the district stretching from Bee Ridge to Newtown.[9]

I'm afraid some of the people who listen to that kind of stuff don't even understand what socialism is." Sherry McBride, an African-American librarian, said: "We just have to accept some people are just not up for this. It's like a sports game. It could turn around at the last minute." It is standard election politics not to look cocky, not least because voters hate being taken for granted. The tone of Mr Obama's argument suggests he is going beyond playing it safe. For a range of reasons - the slippery nature of polls, the narrowness of the Democrats' losses to George W Bush, the unknown effect of a biracial candidate, the desire not to jinx himself - Mr Obama will make a determined effort in the last days of a nearly two year campaign to make sure his lead in the polls is translated into victory. David Axelrod, his chief strategist, said: "The great thing about having run for 21 months is we know from hard experience that you shouldn't take anything for granted." "We've been ahead and we've been behind," he said.[4]

Four years ago, Bush won the county by less than 6 percentage points; in 2006, Democrats took over the county commission for the first time in 44 years. In 2000, the last time both parties had a competitive primary, 115,300 voters participated on the GOP side, while only 54,600 cast votes for Democrats. This year the numbers are flipped: 83,400 voted for Republican candidates, and nearly 165,000 participated in the Democratic primary. Although Hillary Clinton won Ohio easily, Obama's best showing statewide came in Hamilton, where he won 63% of the vote.[10] Hamilton County, which includes and surrounds Cincinnati, was never in anyone's battle plan. Over the past 100 years, its voters have backed the Democratic presidential candidate only four times. The county has been such unfriendly territory for Democrats that former Ohio governor John Gilligan, a Cincinnati native, once famously remarked that, "they hunt Democrats with dogs for sport in Hamilton County." This year, however, Hamilton is up for grabs. Nestled in the southwestern corner of Ohio, where table-flat corn and wheat fields abruptly give way to hilltops, Cincinnati overlooks Kentucky from its perch above the Ohio River. "It's really two cities," says Dorothy Weil, 78, whose husband chaired the local Democratic Party two decades ago, "the East and the West." Culturally and politically, the West Side closely resembles its Kentucky neighbors and is dotted with working-class Catholic towns where people still place one another by asking which parochial high school they attended.[10]

Obama campaigned Friday in the Midwest state of Iowa. Obama's victory in the Iowa party caucuses in January set him on a course to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. "And what you started here in Iowa has swept the nation! We are seeing the same turnout, we are seeing the same people going and getting in line, volunteers and people participating," he said. "A whole new way of doing democracy started right here in Iowa, and it's all across the country now!" In the final days of the campaign, high profile politicians from both parties are out trying to help the two candidates.[11] Better organized than in previous presidential campaigns, with much better technological tools, with way more offices and staff in most states than the McCain campaign, the Obama campaign has rewritten the rules for staffing, GOTV, computerized organization, new voter registration, and providing ways for volunteers to join, donate, and take action. Even though Obama is not a left-wing candidate, such a landslide would forever change the political life of our country, would open the doors to millions of workers joining unions, and would help enact aspects of Obama's program (health care, ending the Iraq War, cutting taxes for the vast majority, raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, improving and expanding social programs) which will benefit the lives of hundreds of millions.[12]

The Obama campaign has 44 field offices and more than 200 paid organizers in Indiana. The McCain campaign is working out of the state Republican Party's county offices, and is relying heavily on dedicated volunteers, said Republican state party chairman Murray Clark, citing nearly 150,000 calls made by volunteers this week. "It's quite competitive,'' Clark said. Obama "has been here since March, he's developed an independent campaign structure, and he has unlimited resources. Comparing their visits is a legitimate way to look at it.'' By today, Obama will have visited Indiana nine times in the general election, and 48 times this year, including the primary.[13] The study showed that the rate of voter fraud was.00004 percent, or about 3 instances. This is roughly equal to an individual's chance of being struck and killed by a bolt of lightning. Sen. McCain has claimed that A.C.O.R.N., an organizing group in minority and low-income communities, was "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." It turns out that of the approximate 1.3 million registrations that this organization turned in, only 5,000 were fraudulent, including one for Mickey Mouse. This, of course, only causes a problem if Mickey Mouse actually appears to vote, which has not been the case for any of these registrations. Therefore, Republican claims of widespread voter fraud are overblown. For the most part these attempts have been thwarted. In Michigan and Colorado where 15,000 voters registration were unlawfully purged within 90 days of the election, federal courts have allowed these individuals to vote. Both federal and state courts have dismissed a Republican Party law suit to question 200,000 of the 600,000 new voter registration in Ohio. Even with these failures, there have been successful efforts to reduce the vote.[14] Arizona Senator McCain, meanwhile, was mum on the latest economic news showing the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent pace from July to September. Those latest figures are "the final nail in McCain's coffin,'' said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. To be sure, surprise events in the final days of the last two elections swayed those races. In 2000, a drunk-driving report on Republican George W. Bush, who had been leading in polls by a few points, may have cost him the popular vote.[13]

McCain's vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, defended the Republican attacks on Obama at a rally in Pennsylvania. 'There is nothing mean-spirited or negative at all about calling someone out on their record, their plans and their associations,' she said. For his part, Senator Obama urged his supporters not to let up in the final days of the campaign, even though Obama leads McCain by an average of six points in national public opinion polls.[7]

Democrats now outnumber Republicans by 500,000 statewide, thanks to huge new voter-registration drives by Obama's campaign and liberal activist groups like ACORN. McCain's national political director, Mike DuHaime, dismissed the second-guessing as a typical campaign hazard. Ballard, the Florida fundraiser, said this is all a function of the fact that it's a tough year for Republicans and that McCain has agreed to campaign spending limits and federal matching funds while Obama has not.[15] Coral Gables, Florida-- A group of approximately fifty anti-abortion protestors, with Spanish-language press in tow, descended upon the Obama for America campaign offices in Coral Gables, Florida yesterday, October 30. Escorted by their activist priest, the group was armed with printed signs depicting aborted fetuses. Their hand-printed signs read, "A Vote for Obama is a Vote for Dead Babies", and other slogans equating support for the Democratic candidate with a pro-abortion stance. Obama, like others on the Democratic Party slate, is pro-choice, not pro-abortion, and supports a woman's right to choose, this event was clearly organized in concert with McCain campaign supporters, as cars and vans decorated with McCain paraphernalia were seen driving around the rally, honking horns.[16]

The Obama campaign will also begin airing ads in McCain's home state of Arizona in the wake of recent polls that show an unexpectedly close race there. Both candidates will maintain an exhausting travel schedule through Monday as they look to lock up votes in the state-by-state electoral tally that determines who wins the presidency.[7] With just four days left before Tuesday's polls, front-runner Obama, bidding to become the first black U.S. president, was to hold campaign rallies in the midwestern states of Iowa and Indiana while McCain wraps up a bus tour of Ohio.[17] Obama has kept the focus on the economy as grim new figures showed the world's largest economy is moving towards recession. The U.S. government said the economy had shrunk by 0.3 percent in the third quarter through September, its worst contraction since 2001. The Obama campaign has doubled up his attack with a new commercial showing the faces of President George Bush and Senator McCain together in a car's rear view mirror with the announcer saying, "Look behind you.[18] The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter as fearful consumers cut back on spending. The new numbers, the steepest decline since 2001, provided fresh fodder for both campaigns. "If you want to know where John McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rearview mirror," Obama said.[19] While casting McCain as a champion of tax cuts for the rich and lax regulation of Wall Street, Obama renewed pledges to cut taxes for the middle class and crack down on corporate greed. McCain's campaign released a statement saying that Obama "would drive this sputtering economy off a cliff." "If voters looked into Barack Obama's rearview, they'd see that he supported every one of Washington's wasteful spending bills and has voted for higher taxes 94 times in just three years," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "His economic proposals are driven by job-killing tax increases and out-of-control spending."[19]

Young voter turnout tripled in the Iowa caucus, says Andrew Chadwick, a professor at the University of London. If this is the case and a successful online campaign tips the balance in a close election, then which party is proving most effective online? The popular perception is that it's the Democrats, with Barack Obama a more natural poster boy for the digital generation. Armed with his own social network (mybarackobama.com), Obama has the endorsement of Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt; is advised by Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist; and has hired a co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes, as his campaign's online co-ordinator.[20] WASHINGTON -- Barring a dramatic change in the political landscape over the next three weeks, Democrats appear headed toward a decisive victory on Election Day that would give them broad power over the federal government. The victory would send Barack Obama to the White House and give him larger Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate -- and perhaps a filibuster-proof margin there. That could mark a historic realignment of the country's politics on a scale with 1932 or 1980, when the out party was given power it held for a generation, and used it to transform government's role in American society.[21] Democrats already had a political advantage heading into the fall campaign, with just 9 percent of Americans thinking the country's on the right track, the lowest ever recorded. President Bush's approval rating this week was only a point higher than Richard Nixon's on the day he was forced to resign from office, reflecting voter anger at Republicans as the party controlling the White House.[21] In Indiana, voters must produce a valid photo identification before being permitted to vote. This type of law, while seemingly facially neutral, has a disproportional effect of turning away minority and the poor groups that generally vote in greater numbers for Democrat candidates. Thankfully, we have seen few of these election day problems in Galesburg. As a monitor of these issues for the local Democrat party, the greatest concern on election day has been inadvertent, improper electioneering. Electioneering is the act of urging a vote for or against a party, candidate, or issue or engaging in political discussion within 100 feet of a polling place taking the form of either verbal communication or nonverbal communication such as displaying signs, wearing campaign buttons, or distributing campaign literature.[14] "I never have a sign on my lawn, and on and on." He gave to Mr. Shays and previously to Senator Dodd the Connecticut Democrat because the two former Peace Corps volunteers have been "champions" for Save the Children. Mr. MacCormack says he makes his donations in between election races, so he does not have to pick one candidate over another. About half a dozen other charity or foundation employees contacted by The Chronicle about their campaign contributions also declined to be interviewed or failed to return telephone calls or e-mail messages. While philanthropic organizations are nervous about violating the restrictions on political activity, many charities also rely heavily on government money and depend on the good will of both parties to achieve their public-policy goals. Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, a coalition of charities and foundations in Washington, says that "many nonprofit executives of major national organizations, particularly those who have some public-interest activity that is a part of their work where they have to deal with Congress, do indeed feel constrained to talk about their political affiliation and do feel constrained to give donations." These executives believe, she says, "that should they do that, that it is possible that if the party that wins is not the party that they supported, that their organization could be adversely affected or could be jeopardized in some way," she says. "That's not my personal opinion," Ms. Aviv adds.[22] Charities with employees who gave the most money were at the headquarters and affiliates of the Nature Conservancy (more than $67,000, 93 percent to Democrats); the YMCA (almost $62,000, 74 percent to Democrats), the American Red Cross (almost $52,000, 73 percent to Democrats), and the American Cancer Society (more than $50,000, 88 percent to Democrats). Greg Donaldson, the cancer society's national vice president for corporate communications, cautions against reading much into the finding, which covered 40 of its employees. "Keep in mind that the society has more than 6,000 employees nationwide," he says. Sheffield Hale, the cancer society's chief counsel, says it would be wrong to draw conclusions about the leanings of the nonprofit work force on the basis of who gives to political candidates, particularly those who give enough to meet the $200 threshold for public disclosure. Some employees give less than $200; others support candidates by volunteering or simply voting; and other factors come into play as well, he says. "You can't extrapolate and say that because 'x' number of people gave 'x' amount to Democrats and 'y' amount to Republicans, that's the ratio of the support within an organization," he says. Mr. Hale, who said he was speaking as an individual and not for the cancer society, has given to several Democratic candidates during this election cycle and has donated to Republicans in the past. "There is no correlation, but people like the anecdotal evidence: Oh, see, they give money, so therefore a whole organization is full of these people."[22]

The most notable was Colin Powell, but others include former Republican Governors, as well as Charles Fried, who was Ronald Reagan's Solicitor General. Despite some policy differences with Obama, they have seen him as more stable, better informed, better qualified, and less impulsive on critical issues, including the nation's economic crisis. Possibly more important, as the election nears, some conservatives have grown terrified at the thought that Sarah Palin might become president in a complicated and dangerous world where her incompetence would put the nation at unprecedented risk. Even with the hope that a Palin presidency would never occur, that same alarm has impelled them to lose faith in the judgment of Senator McCain, based on his selection of an unqualified candidate for the second place on the ticket. It would be a mistake to confuse their preference for Obama with a permanent shift in political allegiance. At this point, their overriding concern appears to be the nation's safety, but their support for Obama in this election may not be a good predictor of how they will vote in the future.[6] The poll of 611 Ohioans was designed and completed by Ohio University political communication students as part of a class assignment. They found a majority of registered Democrats plan to vote for Obama (96 percent) and a majority of registered Republicans plan to vote for McCain (89 percent).[23] The election isn't simply a social networking popularity poll. "Both parties have the same tricks up their sleeves," says Germany. "The Democrats get points for style and flash, but the Republicans get points for ?using the internet to enhance their." And, while McCain is laughed at for his supposed technological illiteracy, MySpace political director Lee Brenner points out that "McCain was the first and only major Republican candidate to participate in our series of Presidential Dialogues before the primaries began", arguing that he realises the importance of reaching "independent-minded voters that spend so much of their time online". In what ways are these independent-minded voters being influenced? If you look at where the election and internet intersect, it's viral videos that attract the most attention.[20] The 2008 presidential election cycle is different only in the wide-spread effort on the part of the Republican Party to prevent access to the polls or void registrations in the face of the Obama campaign's enormous push to register new voters.[14]

A greater Latino turnout can be enough to change the results in important swing states like Colorado and Nevada, and have a positive impact nationwide. 4. The Youth Turnout Factor: The same applies to younger voters, who likely will vote for Obama in numbers that this year may surpass other demographics, and who will likely vote in much higher percentages than previously. 5. The New Registrants Turnout Possibility: Newly registered voters tend to vote in higher percentages than the population at large, and with new registrations breaking records in most states and many new registrants motivated to vote Democratic, this too will improve Obama's vote. If they turnout in higher percentages than in previous elections, this can improve his vote significantly. 6.[12] The Obama camp said Democratic voters were already registering imposing early voting totals in battleground states, warning McCain must win big on election day to catch up.[2] Internet and email traffic in rumours about Mr Obama that have been circulating for a year appear to have risen as the election nears. These include claims that he is a Muslim, does not have a U.S. birth certificate and resembles the anti-Christ. The latter and most outlandish slander is based on Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation presaging the end of the world. A poll for the Houston Chronicle meanwhile found that 23 per cent of Texans thought Mr Obama follows Islam, when his late Kenyan father was a non-practising Muslim. Among his supporters in Missouri, and elsewhere, there is, amid excitement, worry that something go wrong on election day. They fear the scare tactics and latent racism could give voters cold feet at the last minute.[4] Mr Obama spent more than ''2 million to become the first presidential candidate in 16 years to air a 30-minute "infomercial" on U.S. TV networks. Mr McCain's dwindling finances meant he was forced to send an email to supporters saying: "I'm asking for your financial support today to help us respond to attacks against our entire ticket. "My friends, I'm telling you today, this election is not over and we need everyone's hard work in the coming days to be victorious."[24] I would like to see a big push into recycling, myself. You know I have not heard much this election year about family values. Lets see, I wonder if its because McCain has skelletons in his closet (meaning) an ex-wife, and kids who he left, after she was seriously injured, and disfigured in an auto accident, and married his mistress, oh by the way, they met in a bar while on a trip. Or is it because Palin's 16 year old daughter has showed what kind of upbringing she has given her kids, and it took Palin several years to get a college degree. Or is it because, (maybe, just maybe) you good old Boys & Girls cant get an ounce of dirt of Obama & his wife. Its still a sad day, in this world, that people are so full of hate just because a person is another color, race, or religious background.[6] I strongly believe that raising taxes will extend the recession we are now in. And, as a side note, now you are talking out of both sides of your mouth, no? You are against him because he will (incorrectly) raise your taxes, and is also wrong for lowering some taxes. I, like most people in the U.S. do not mind taxes as long as they go to people and projects that need it and is well spent. They only people that are against new tax codes are those that are mistaken on Obama's plan (you and many others that buy the propaganda) and those that are currently benefiting from the tax code (the selfishly rich). Just looking at two of his area of expertise, a community org and teaching constitutional law for ten years, is enough real experience to understand what is constitutional and how to gather/spend money in a way that reaches the people. It is clear that you have only read/listened to the 10sec sound bites, or you would have concrete, non-scare tactic, basis to vote McCain. You have never cited any real numbers (those youtube vids are cut right after he explains the minor criteria that applies to a person that makes 150k and 200k that results in their taxes going up).[6] The war in Iraq is coming to a close, no thanks to Obama. Foreign affairs and terrorism is always going to be a constant threat and to have a candidate think that Russia and Iran "are no threat to the U.S." is scarier than a vice-President that "can see Russia from her State". Of Course Obama was corrected by his advisors and now admits Iran and Russia maybe more of a threat than he thought. How many other lame ideas are in his head. The fact is, he has avoided any interviews that would ask him the hard questions on foreign policy and other things he knows little about. His propaganda machine is in full force and now he tosses any reporter than is associated with a media outlet supporting McCain. I guess censorship will be one of his first courses of action (actually the Dems have a Bill ready to cut off right wing radio shows) of the Obama Presidency. Then we will get "redistribution of wealth" as the upper middle class (last projection is $150,000 or more) and businesses right checks to those watching Oprah. Next will be a National Health Care sytem replacing private practice except for those still holding on to enough of their pay to afford it (this works great in Canada and Europe.not!!!). Of course I'm a "racist" and "hater" since I see this as Socialist and I'm willing to put it in writing. Fact is, it doesn't matter if this was Hillary Clinton or Jimmy Carter or any other left wing liberal. This is not right for our country and will be the beginning of the end. Oh well, at least I can hang on to my Bible and gun (wait Obama wants those to).[6] Maybe it's the way I been brought up hence the fundamental instilment of my beliefs, but I cannot understand that if an individual does not exercise their right to vote, they then have an assumption that they then have a right to protest/disagree with policy. in other words I believe, if you dont vote you lose your right to complain or disagree. I'm aware that some might take the view that they don't approve of either candidate. ie. Obama or McCain. so they wont vote so I guess they take the attitude of "get what your given" perhaps. I could then argue we have somewhat similar conditions here in Oz when/if you vote for an Independant (actually it doesn't even need to be an independant. re nationals in WA recently) because you don't like the mainstream choices, and their preferences are directed to a major party you didn't want in the first place. at least you'ld have the genuine right to complain.[25]

I spent a half hour chatting with another member of the wedding party, "Kelly," who went to the J School (Journalism) at Mizzou and lives in Kansas City. She is an independent but has drunk the kool aid (sorry Kelly) and is voting for McCain. She's well read, is home schooling her young children, and has made up her mind that John McCain and Sarah Palin are better for the country than Barack Obama. Her big issue seemed to be feeling that Obama hadn't voted enough and she has also bought into the "socialism" diatribe. I urged her to read "Factcheck.org" before she voted and she agreed she might, but she seemed pretty convinced. After many more minutes of waiting and watching the Secret Service, the hotel staff went out for a photo op and we thought we had missed our chance, but two minutes later, Senator Obama came strolling back into the lobby, shook hands and asked three young children their names, told them he wished he could get back in his pj's, waved to the rest of us and left. He looked tired but when he greeted those kids, his face lit up. I can't imagine what it's like to be Barack Obama, but being on just a portion of his road trip this week makes me amazed at his dedication and stamina and even more importantly, thrilled, that someone who will take that extra moment for a child is going to be our next President.[26] Senator Obama says Senator McCain is engaging in a "slash and burn, say anything, do anything" campaign in a last ditch effort to get elected. "He said 'I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land'. Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent, John McCain," he said. "But the high road didn't lead him to the White House then so this time he decided to take a different route."[25] The ads are running in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, but are expected to get a much bigger exposure in the next five days. The advertisement shows extracts from Mr Wright's now infamous sermons and intones that Senator Obama "never complained" about Mr Wright "until he ran for president", adding that Senator Obama is "too radical, too risky". A similar smear campaign run by a PAC, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, raised damaging and unfounded allegations about the Democrat John Kerry's war record in the closing days of the 2004 campaign, with devastating results. This time, however, the attack ads are being run in the wake of an unprecedented half-hour infomercial from the Obama campaign, which told real-life stories of economic hardship and showed Senator Obama speaking from an Oval Office-esque setting - and drew more than 33.55 million viewers.[27]

Discovered is this chilling video showing Obama caught saying ACORN and friends will shape his presidential agenda. ACORN endorsed Obama and, as part of a nation-wide voter scam, Obama recently spent $832,000 of his campaign money to subsidize ACORN activities. These shocking video clips are from ACORN meetings proving the close relationship between Obama and ACORN, the radical group that pushes a 1960's-bred agenda of anti-capitalism, victimology and dependency on government handouts in poor black communities. Nuts! How ACORN got me into vote scam by Jean MacIntosh provides a report on two Ohio voters, including Domino's Pizza worker Christopher Barkley, who claimed that they were hounded by ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they'd already signed up.[6] The group has active get-out-the-vote efforts on campuses in 21 states, including Missouri and Illinois. Despite the recent spike in turnout, young voters still are widely considered difficult to get to the polls, which is why groups such as the New Voters Project and the Obama campaign are embracing texts. On some campuses, the New Voters Project has set up text-out-the-vote tables, where prospective voters send a message to 41411 and then receive a vote reminder via text message that they are asked to forward to everyone in their phone's contact list.[8] While the polls indicate a big lead for Senator Obama in the battleground states, the national polls show a more confusing picture. The Fox News poll shows that Senator Obama leads by only 3 points nationally, suggesting Senator McCain is still in contention if the undecided voters break strongly in his favour.[27]

National campaign officials said McCain is within striking distance of Obama in the polls, has ample time to turn things around, and had a winning strategy until Wall Street's crash. ''It's a little early for Monday-morning quarterbacking.'' said McCain's southeast regional director, Buzz Jacobs. Asked about Republican complaints that the campaign doesn't even have enough T-shirts or bumper stickers for supporters, Jacobs had another interpretation: "It's a sign of a healthy campaign whenever the demand is greater than the supply.''[15] The organization ran ads in four Senate and seven House races, all in seats held by Republicans. It spent about $9 million, the Campaign Finance Institute said. Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based watchdog group, said the record $600 million raised by Obama for his campaign might have drowned out 527 ads in any case, and some Republicans may not have wanted to open their checkbooks for McCain. "It may well be that there's not a whole lot of enthusiasm for McCain among the folks who would make those type of ads,'' Allison said.[5]

BARACK OBAMA'S controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is set to make a last-minute resurgence in the U.S. presidential campaign as the centrepiece of attack ads paid for by a political fund-raising group aligned with the Republican Party.[27] Personally, Sunshine, I try to look at a candidate's past actions and associations for clues as to how they will behave once in office. Campaign rhetoric is only important to me if a candidate frequently changes their pledges in order to suit whatever audience they are speaking to. In the case of Barack Obama, he fails on both accounts, IMO. He has seemingly spent his adult life working for and associating himself with people who think the USA is the most horrible, racist, unfair country in the entire world. His own wife stated that for the "first time in her adult life" she was proud of the U.S. because her husband was nominated. She also has groused about how "unfair" it was that she and her husband had to pay back their student loans.[6] Most of my family and friends are Obama supports so I think that they feel that encouraging me and letting be me a bit of a bad friend/relative for the past year was like helping the campaign in a round about way. (At least this is how I hope they think about it!) If I ever felt like it was becoming hard for any of my family/friends I made a point of reiterating my reasons for working so hard for Barack Obama so that they wouldn't take my lack of time for them personally.[28]

First of all, you would no longer own property, … read more there would no longer be any private companies, all of the money made in the country would go to the government, and then they would hand it out. Do you actually believe this is going to happen? Oh yeah, I forgot when your party told you to go buy duct tape and tarps to protect yourself against terrorist attacks you did. When they raised the terror threat multiple times before the 2004 elections you bought into the threat, even though in the four years since it has only changed a couple of times. Of course you think if Obama gets elected they are going to come to your house and take everything away from you. There was another party that was able to convince their followers with fear based tactics, and it was in Germany in the 1930's, with a certain short mustached leader. Do you know yet? Yep, your just like them being led around by talking heads scaring you of how evil and bad people that aren't like you are.[19]

A local t-shirt shop was selling $5 t-shirts with "Missouri for Obama" logos, and during the afternoon, campaign volunteers were out with clipboards signing up people to work on Election Day. One of the many impressive things about this campaign is their emphasis on grassroots work and commitment-even now, just a few days away from the election.[26] Even with the election just days away, there still are voters unsure of who they will cast their ballots for. While the amount of undecided voters is unclear, both sides are actively trying to sway this key group. "The McCain campaign believes that universe of undecided voters could be as high as 10 percent," ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said, "and that they are disproportionately white, women, elderly Bush voters who could break towards McCain."[29] Poll results showed 68 percent of respondents are paying attention or a lot of attention to media coverage of the election, with 60 percent watching television news, 15 percent reading newspapers, and 11 percent going online for information. For those who use the Internet, 73 percent have not received an e-mail from either candidate, 29 percent have visited Obama's Web site, and 16 percent have visited McCain's Web site. Twenty percent of those who visited McCain's Web site were influenced in visiting the site by the choice of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.[23] Obama is leading by nearly every poll going into the final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday's election, but McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis insisted McCain was positioning himself for a comeback. "We are pretty jazzed up about what we are seeing in the movement of this election," Davis told reporters on a conference call.[2]

Greer predicted McCain would squeak out a win in the state, despite polls showing Obama 3.5 percentage points up on average. "At McCain events, although smaller -- there's no doubt about it -- there seems to be a stronger commitment,'' he said. That won't be enough, Rothenberg said. For all the talk "in Republican circles about McCain on the march, McCain making a comeback, there's precious little evidence he can get to 270 electoral votes,'' he said.[13] For the first time in more than a decade, Florida Republicans are considering the almost unthinkable: Their presidential nominee could lose the state. The economy, an unpopular president, a strong opponent, and the inability of John McCain to reverse poll numbers despite repeatedly revising his strategy has top state Republicans looking for someone to blame.[15] Republican John McCain is shown chortling about a comeback, outraged people on the street complain about the voter who didn't make it to the polls, and President Bush is shown praising the no-show.[30]

Hellon is a former state Republican Party chairman and a veteran of numerous campaigns. The first step, he said, is to get voter rolls and cull them for likely McCain supporters. Find them and make sure they vote.[31] The technology caught on, but not with Kromko's Democratic Party. He said the Republicans ran with it and targeted voters much better than Democrats. The high-water mark for this kind of operation came in George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. His strategists used any bit of information they could find, from voting rolls to magazine subscriptions, to tailor a message to likely voters. Then they contacted those voters and formed social networks among the supporters to get out the vote.[31] I actually watched the Florida case personally, and remember the lame Democratic arguments that "more people intended to vote for Gore" than the actual votes showed. They tried to bring in some statistical "expert" to prove that point, but it backfired when the lawyer for the Republicans showed him how the Democrats actually changed his findings without his knowledge or approval. Any reason you keep dodging this issue? Tell me again how supportive the Dems were for Bush, despite the fact that he won the election fair and square.[6]

Just as the fat lady prepared to sing to bring down the curtain on the 2008 election, Georgia became a battleground state -- not for the presidency but for unchallenged control of the U.S. Senate. Democratic challenger Jim Martin could become the 60th Democratic member of the Senate, providing his party with a filibuster-proof upper chamber -- if he can unseat GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss. In the closing weeks of Georgia's Senate battle, national Democrats and Republicans pumped fresh cash into their respective candidates' races. The TV commercials for both sides turned meaner and ran more frequently.[32] "We have not had the resources to do as much of that as we might want," Hellon said. Gathering information matters even in races that aren't national and even if it's not in a database. Matt Heinz learned in his first run for the state House of Representatives in 2006, which he lost, how important identifying voters could be. In 2008, unlike his opponents in a crowded Legislative District 29 Democratic primary, Heinz didn't run television ads. He walked neighborhoods. He mapped out the district, which covers much of the south part of Tucson, and looked for the only voters who mattered to him. He knew who voted in the 2006 primary and especially targeted the voters who asked for early ballots in the 2008 primary election. "That was my whole universe for a while," Heinz said. "That was my walk list." After that, the information that mattered was the information he collected.[31]

Fifty-nine percent of voters surveyed thought the Palin was not prepared for the job of vice president and 41 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of her, compared with 36 percent who had a favorable opinion. On Thursday McCain wheeled out Ohio tradesman Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, better known as " Joe the Plumber," to buttress his case in a state that he must win if he is to take the White House.[17]

Throughout, the focus was on the economy, the issue that has dominated the last weeks of the campaign, and on the importance of voting. Speaking in Defiance, Ohio, McCain told his backers that they faced an uphill fight against the Democrats, but that they should battle on despite polls showing the GOP trailing nationally and in key states.[19] Since the FEC doesn't require campaigns to itemize donations of less than $200, a donor whose total contributions don't reach that threshold isn't included in the figures. Nationally, both 2008 major presidential campaigns have raised significant sums of money from donors who've given less than $200. Those federal campaign records are not broken down by state or city, but nationwide they've added up to more than $280 million for Obama and more than $61million for McCain.[33] Obama's campaign is outspending McCain's in many swing states (and reserving a half-hour for a political broadcast on October 29th on many networks).[12]

"And to suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven't covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are it sort of feels unfair." He said the newspaper protested but was turned down again by the campaign. "I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn't have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign," Solomon said, noting that the Obama campaign's decision came just two days after the paper endorsed McCain.[6] Greed is a human trait, greed is exactlty why communism and socialism don't work as well, I think you will find that any political ideology adopted ends up with elites, any equity gained is usually equity in poverty. At least with capitalism the facts are that people on average are better off. What America needs is someone who understands how business and the economy works, not someone who makes them feel warm and fuzzy, or someone with no real experience. Both candidates in my view are lacking; Obama is not much more then good at delivering speeches and his proposed tax plan will increase cost on small business that is the heart of the American economy. McCain has issues with his running mate. she's a plain nutter.[25] Obama seized on the latest figures yesterday before a crowd estimated at 13,000 in Sarasota, Florida, long a Republican stronghold. "Our failing GDP is a direct result of a failed economic theory, of eight years of the trickle-down, Wall-Street-first, Main-Street-last policies that have driven our economy into a ditch,'' he said. "If you want to know where Senator McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rearview mirror.''[13]

The effort has gotten more sophisticated in recent years. "It's fundamentally the same but the technology and the ability to isolate and further define your targets has dramatically improved," Hellon said. What does a likely supporter of a candidate look like? For McCain, it's a Republican voter with a history of taking the time to cast a ballot. It also could well be an independent voter who lives in a Republican precinct. "Independent voters tend to vote like their neighbors," Hellon said.[31] For years, the social conservatism of the western part of the county and the fiscal conservatism of the eastern part formed an unbreakable Republican lock in Hamilton. Democrats like Weil focused their efforts on urban neighborhoods and only occasionally picked up support from surrounding townships and cities. This year the Obama campaign sees a chance to pick the lock.[10] Senator Obama's popularity in the charitable world is not surprising to many observers. The Democratic candidate often speaks of his work as a community organizer in Chicago early in his career. "That resonates with many charities that's our community, he may think a little like us," says Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a government-watchdog group in Washington, who says he has made small donations to the Obama campaign.[22] The man spent 20 years attending a race-based church which praised Farrakhan. While many of you here seem to think his years spent as a "community organizer" were noble, I don't see how his get-out-the-vote efforts for the Dailey political machine in Chicago qualify him for anything other than an investigation into voter fraud. As a U.S. Senator, he has compiled the most liberal voting record of any Senator, bar none. As for his campaign pledges, he has changed his proposed tax plan more than once, and still hasn't presented a clear number as to what he thinks the capital gains tax should be. When it was pointed out to him that raising the capital gains tax would likely result in LOWER tax collections, he stated that he didn't care, that it was more a matter of "fairness". On at least two occasions, he has openly supported the idea of "income redistribution", whereby money is taken from one group of people and given to another, plain and simple. This goes way beyond changing the tax code so that the "rich" pay a higher percentage than they are already paying. As for tailoring his speeches to fit his audiences, his comments to the San Fran crowd in which he insulted small-town residents in PA speaks volumes to me.[6] Obama was the attorney for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a radical, left-wing group that is under investigation for voter registration fraud in several states and is at the center of our nation's financial crisis because ACORN, using the Community Reinvestment Act passed by Democrats in Congress, forced banks and mortgage companies to make risky loans to people who could not pay the money back.[6]

The Republicans are fighting something of a last stand as the polls predict not only an Obama victory but big wins for Democrats running for seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, possibly repeating Ronald Reagan's dramatic sweep to power in 1980. The economic crisis and the prospect of a deep recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters have unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.[3] Either that or the democrats are making more sense, god knows how much of a contrast that is compared with the bush administration. Hey how many right wingers out there have the decency / honesty / common sense to admit that the repubs have completely lost it over their term (rather than sticking with their old conservative football team just for the sake of it?) The polls suggest many people with right wing views must now being going for Obama, please tell me some out there in the right base their views on ACTUAL PERFORMANCE. I would like to believe that a right view can be a valid one.[25]

I have seen several comments from Australians saying voting should be mandatory for all citizens. Citizens are fined if they fail to vote. They manage to vote on a single day nationwide. It should not be the circus we make it. JokesOn'It is a FACT that Obama stated that he didn't care if raising the capital gains tax would result in lower tax collections. Is that what I friggen posted? Or was it: Right now, the most important issue to most voters is the economy.[6] Obama does not have the experience needed to be president. Of the almost two years he has been in the Senate, he has been campaigning 19 months and many of his votes have been "present." He wants to take our money and spread it around to others, he approves of abortion, and that is taking a life! He will reinstate the "death tax," he wants to tax the "rich" and give to the middle class. He is planning dozens of new programs that will control more and more of our lives. There are other countries that people can live in if they want the government to take care of them.[34] One percent of respondents associated Obama with 'terrorist' or 'Arab.' Respondents polled ranged in age from 18 to 99 years of age. Of those 65 and older, 54 percent plan to vote for Obama, and 46 percent plan will vote McCain.[23] McCain has ruled out any tax increase while Obama has called for more taxes for families earning more than $250,000 a year. The Democrat has also called for a tax cut for those earning less.[19] Contributions from Memphians were six times higher for Obama than McCain: $89,093 compared with $14,115. The local fundraising tale this election season has taken on a dramatically different story line compared with 2004.[33] Federal Election Commission records show Flores, who retired in 1979, wrote checks for a couple hundred dollars each to Barack Obama, reaching the maximum amount an individual citizen may contribute -- $2,300 for the primary and an additional $2,300 for the general election. Her donations have helped Obama narrow the local and state fundraising gap.[33] I've never been so inspired by someone before." Do something she did. In addition to working her full time job as a designer, Megan single-handedly started and ran the Greater Richmond for Obama campaign. Supported by a small group of Richmonders, she worked around the clock organizing fund raisers, canvassing door to door, and planning trips to support Obama, usually at her own cost. Shortly before the primaries, campaign organizers arrived to help, and noticing Megan's diligence and dedication, gave her tickets to see Barack speak at the DNC. She now volunteers at least three days a week for the campaign; she says she's been "slacking" but it's that sort of dedication and devotion to the Barack Obama campaign that make Megan Meagher one of Richmond, VA's hometown heroes.[28] I never would have imagined that I could start a group, with the help of so many others, and keep that group growing for the time when the Obama staff would finally come to VA. I've also become more confident of the idea that individual people in a society can make a difference and get things done. It was amazing to see all that could be accomplished when each person took on a bit of responsibility for accomplishing a goal (such as getting signatures to get Obama on the ballot in VA). One other amazing part of being involved in this campaign is that I now have a wonderfully diverse group of friends.[28]

"A lot of us hope that the internet will open up the political process, make it more accessible for ordinary people to run for office. This election has shown almost the opposite. It's shown that campaigns can use the guise of openness and tech-savviness to raise insane amounts of money that they re-invest in television advertising." Democratic campaign advertisements ridicule the 72-year-old McCain's admission that he is just learning to go online and has no idea how to email. Historically, it's the people who can identify with this that actually vote. [20] So far, consumers apparently aren't buying either candidate's economic plan. New numbers released Friday, show personal spending has dropped to its lowest level in 4 years. Many apparently holding on to their cash until after they spend their political capital in just 4 days. Both campaigns also plan a blitz on the airwaves. You will see a lot of the candidates on TV this weekend in commercials and John McCain will even make an appearance on Saturday Night Live.[1] I caught up with Westen 10 days before the election, as the polls continued to widen. "The ironic thing for McCain was that he was beaten in 2000 by George Bush with Bush's smear campaign and he's being beaten again by him in 2008 by the absolute poverty of Bush's policies both home and abroad."[6] With just days left until the polls close in the 2008 election, campaigns are feverishly trying to find you and get you to vote. It's not a scattershot operation; voters today are stalked.[31] The math itself is an eclectic blend of pre-calculus, probability/stats, discrete mathematics, algebra, with the emphasis on mathematical modeling of social reality." Their unit on the mathematics of fair elections -- making use of the recent book by Steve Freeman and Joel Bleifuss, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count -- has ended just as the 2008 presidential campaign is ending, and the students, some of whom will be first-time voters in this election, were concerned enough about the evidence of fraud four years ago they wanted to tell the world.[35] Eighty-one percent of respondents claimed to be 'very interested' in the presidential election, but only 37 percent have been involved with putting up a yard sign, making a monetary donation, attending a rally, walking door-to-door, or being involved in similar ways. When asked about negative advertisements in the presidential campaign, 44 percent thought this year's ads were more negative than in the past, while 47 percent considered them to be about the same. Twenty-two percent claimed the negative ads affected their thinking about the candidates, and over 50 percent suggested the negative ads have affected others' thinking about the candidates. 'Everyone I spoke with, across partisan lines, seemed to be disappointed with the campaign ads issued this election year,' said Ohio University student Becca Cochran. The Ohio University students who designed and completed the survey, in an interdisciplinary program sponsored by the Scripps College of Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences, were also interested in where Ohioans get their information.[23] No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, and the state has voted with the winning presidential candidate in the last 11 presidential elections. "There's just four days left," he said. "The pundits have written us off, just like they have done before.[11]

The Columbus urban core is decidedly Democrat, working-class, under-paid, and non-religious; the thought of a black president is making many eager to vote. In the suburbs, most are hardcore Republican, fattened by Bush tax cuts, staunchly patriotic mega-church congregants; the thought of a black president also makes them eager to vote ''' for different reasons. In 2004, John Kerry lost Ohio by 118,000 votes, and to this day activists say the Republicans rigged Ohio. Their evidence is compelling, and it could happen again.[36] I'm quite sure that in the true-believer Democrat bubble, hatred of President Bush is a huge motivator. Those people are not the average voter. No, those are people who honestly view Dick Cheney or Karl Rove as only slightly less evil than the devil incarnate; puppet masters who have malevolently pulled Bush's strings to ruin a great nation. They are the equivalent of the Republican true-believers who, in the run-up to Y2K, persisted in spreading emails IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS insisting that Bill Clinton was imminently going to impose martial law.[6]

An 87 year old man came into the office recently. He said that he was a lifelong republican, and he wanted to change his party in time for the general election. I told him that at the general election he did not have to change his party affiliation to vote for a democrat. He sat up in his chair, looked me square in the eye and said "I must do this".[37] Biography: Mike Burtch is a retired school teacher from Turlock, CA. After a life of working the campaign trails for city government officials in the Northern California city, he walked into the Stanislaus County Democratic office eight years ago with a burning desire to do more for his community, and more for the local and national democratic players. In the span of time between when he first walked in to now, he has become the county chair of the Stanislaus County Democratic Committee. As a Kennedy democrat born into a conservative military family, his unique background, and warm personality has made the local Democratic party of Stanislaus county very active in helping to achieve victory for Democratic politicians in a traditionally red county. There are several things that I would view as my greatest accomplishment during this campaign season.[37]

Joining up with the Obama campaign are the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. According to the campaign, the decision to shuffle around reporters was made because they did not want to add a second plane. "Unfortunately, demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane," Obama senior adviser Anita Dunn said in a written statement. "This means we've had to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions about limiting some news organizations and in some cases not being in a position to offer space to news organizations altogether." Campaign aides said they are assisting other news outlets with hotel rooms and buses so they can still cover the race. Dallas Morning News Editor Bob Mong told FOXNews.com that the "indication" from the Obama campaign was that they were kicked off the plane since they don't represent a national outlet and they don't represent a swing state. [6] Mr. Adams, of Cross International, says he is careful to separate his political activity from his work. When he was asked to sit on the steering committee of the National Catholics for McCain Committee, he talked over how to handle it with his boss before accepting the offer. "We both agreed not just him telling me, but both of us talking it through that as much as possible, I would disconnect my part in the from my employment at Cross International," he says. (In the news release announcing the formation of the pro-McCain committee, Mr. Adams is described as a retired Foreign Service officer.) He says he uses only his personal e-mail address and cell phone to conduct political activity. Ms. Marcotte, of YWCA Tucson, says she, too, refrains from using her organization's name in any of her campaign work and is careful not to bring her politics into the office. "You always have to stop and think, particularly if you're the leader of an organization," she says.[22]

Katie Harbath, a technology consultant in Washington and a former top aide in the aborted presidential quest of Republican Rudy Giuliani, said the technological gap between the parties was not as wide as it was often described. She said that Republican campaigns were testing the effectiveness of text messaging, but that because it was such a new technology it could be difficult to deploy. "Both sides are using many of the same tools, but it comes down to the excitement of each sides' voters as well as how much senior staff understands how use of the Internet can help the campaigns goals beyond fundraising," Harbath said. "However, I think Republican strategists are starting to get their sea legs when it comes to integrating the web into all facets of a campaign.[8] I think there needs to be a limit set for the amount anyone can spend on a presidential election. Just think of the millions of dollars being spent on this campaign that would go a long way in helping the needy. It is not right for any candidate to "buy" their way to the White House or any other office.[34] After years of being an Obama supporter and months of being a campaign volunteer, it's been a bit surreal this week to find that Barack was going to be in Columbia Missouri where I was already scheduled to do work this weekend and that he's speaking tonight down the street from my house in Highland, Indiana.[26] The Ground Game: Partly due to the Obama campaign financial advantage, partly due to the organizing philosophy of the Obama campaign, partly due to a huge volunteer gap (here is where the enthusiasm gap matters most), partly due to the grassroots nature of the Obama campaign from the start, and partly due to the Obama campaign using the long primary fight to build statewide organization in almost all states, and partly due to the organizational advantage of union GOTV efforts, Obama has a massive advantage in the ground game.[12]

Our state, with the largest population of all 50 states, is almost completely out of the loop for presidential campaigning. The reason, of course, is that a handful of states are in play for their electoral votes -- the ones that actually elect a president and vice president. California, with the most electoral votes -- 55 -- is considered a shoo-in for Obama and isn't among them.[38] I remember the jar of money my mother kept in the kitchen. She told me it was poll tax money so she could go vote for the president of the United States of America. One election night she came back home crying and upset because they had raised the poll tax fee when she got to the polls. She had no other choice than to take some of the grocery money so she could go back and cast her vote. She came back distraught and angry because they raised the poll tax again, and she did not have enough money to vote.[39] Sure, a winner will be announced late that evening or early the next morning, but electors receiving voter approval in the General Election won't cast votes for president and vice president in state meetings until Dec. 15. It won't be until Jan. 6 that the electoral votes are counted by a joint session of Congress and winners officially declared.[38]

I was there that Election Day working for the Democrats, yelling at voters to vote faster because lines were snaking into parking lots.[36] Donate, display yard signs, wear buttons, call friends and family, doorknock, hold house parties, sign-wave on Election Day, volunteer in other ways, and vote.[12] If on election day, you go to your polling place and you are told that you are not registered to vote, you must be allowed to cast a provisional ballot. This not only rectifies errors on the part of the election commission or county clerk, but also covers situations like moving within precinct or jurisdiction, or a name change within 30 days of an election.[14]

More men (47 percent) than women (39 percent) plan to vote for McCain. A majority of both men and women, 64 percent of all respondents, ranked the economy as the most important issue in the presidential election, with eight percent reporting health care and seven percent suggesting the Iraq War. Those who responded to the second most important issue reported the economy at 20 percent, health care at 19 percent, and the Iraq War at 32 percent.[23] Many on the right will vote for McCain because of the economy. From each side, they are both correct. Each are missing valuable information on many other voters who are voting for the man they feel is best fit to lead the country.[6]

McCain's campaign issued a statement that with the economy shrinking, "Obama's ideologically driven plans to redistribute income will impose higher taxes on families, small businesses, and investors.''[13] McCain's campaign insisted the bleak economic outlook would be made even worse by an Obama administration, saying the Democrat would raise taxes on small businesses and so stifle growth and kill jobs.[17] Politico in the USA responded to claims of liberal/Democrat bias by pointing out the simple truth that the McCain campaign has been terrible, and the Obama campaign has been solid.[25]

Obama leads McCain in the three-day national tracking poll 50% to 43% amongst likely voters. The 7-point lead is holding its ground and are virtually unchanged from Thursday.[40] McCain, 72, has struggled to compete with Obama on economic policy as polls show the issue remains the overwhelming concern for voters.[17]

An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters put Obama ahead, 51 to 43, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. One in seven voters, 14 percent of the total — said they were undecided or might yet change their minds. The candidates focused on winning over the undecideds and encouraging their supporters to get to the polls.[41] Indiana hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, yet the latest polls from the Indianapolis Star and a local television station show Obama either tied or slightly ahead.[13]

I don't think either candidate is suitable for the huge task confronting the next President of the USA - Obama is at present a lightweight and McCain's stamina may not be there for the arduous hours which will be required to get "the world" back on track.[25] I strongly believe that raising taxes will extend the recession we are now in. As such, I think that Obama is the wrong man for the job. Do I think that McCain has all the answers?? Heck no, but he appears to be the lesser of the two evils to me. He is proposing a more laissez-faire attitude toward the economy, which I believe will allow the "market correction" to run its course more quickly.[6] "John McCain is going to fight for you. He's going to fight to see that your taxes are low and that the economy recovers," Giuliani said, claiming Obama's policies would be "disastrous."[2]

John McCain and Barack Obama somehow ended up at the same barbershop. As they sat there, each being worked on by a different barber, not a word was spoken.[6] Sen. John McCain still rails that Obama will raise capital gain taxes, but even if Obama did, it would be of no consequence to ordinary Americans. Evidently, McCain has not heard about the market meltdown that ensures ordinary Americans will not have to?worry about capital gain taxes, but only capital gain losses and the loss of their retirements.[39]

Unlike now, polls that year ended more than a week before voting, failing to catch a final surge for Truman. "If John McCain were to win, it would be a stunning, dramatic reversal comparable to Dewey and Truman, but that would take a historic, dramatic turnaround,'' he said.[13] Four years ago, the election ran more to form. Bush won both the popular vote (60,693,281 to 57,355,978) and the electoral vote (286 to 251) to defeat John Kerry, but his 2000 win will go down in election history as a reminder of the impact of the Electoral College on the final outcome.[38] In 2000, Al Gore received 50,996,582 popular votes, and George W. Bush got 50,456,062, a difference of 540,520. Florida's 25 electoral votes went to Bush, giving him the election with 271 electoral votes, one more than required for victory. It took a disputed Supreme Court decision to ratify Florida's decision not to hold a recount of all votes, but the court's decision was final.[38]

We know that in the 2004 election, there were reports of votes flipping from Kerry to Bush, "undervotes" (where people did not vote for president but voted for other positions), polling stations with more votes counted than people registered, and many other very strange things with the electronic voting machines.[35] At what point do people get it, that the very point of business is to make as much money as possible, which in itself is fine, but without control greed takes over and the wheels soon fall off and society suffers. The U.S. election process is as exhaustive as it can possibly be and it has come down to these two men.I have watched many people run for president of the U.S. and I have never seen one with as much promise as Obama.[25]

What's more, says Mr. Bass, Senator Obama seems more open than Senator McCain to using government to help people in need. That appeals to many people who are attracted to nonprofit work, Mr. Bass says both because they believe that it promotes social justice and because their organizations often rely on government money.[22] Grim new figures on the U.S. economy, suggesting a recession may be looming, are expected to boost Senator Obama's prospects of victory.[3] Barbara went out to the parking lot and a lot more men in suits with earpieces came down into the lobby and then "whoosh"- a huddle came out of the elevator, jumped into a car and was gone. We were convinced that Senator Obama had gone out of a fire exit, but the officers told us he was in the huddle. A group of journalists and camera crew, who had been hanging out in the lobby, went out the front door and got on their bus. The next group of journalists came down, (I guess they get to sleep a few minutes later) and I recognized Richard Wolffe, Newsweek's Senior White House correspondent, who I know from his appearances on Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC. My friends the officers told me to go say "hi" so I did and told him how much we enjoy his commentary. He was incredibly gracious, I don't know how often Newsweek writers get recognized; so perhaps he isn't cynical about press groupies.[26] Having spent last night straining to see Senator Obama at the rally, I figured it was worth it to wait in the lobby-our little group drank the free coffee and watched the elevator.[26]

I figured well, no matter what I do, it will be better than nothing! Realizing that gave me the confidence to do things like leading meetings of large groups of supporters which is something I never would have imagined I'd be able to do before getting inspired by Barack Obama.[28] Curatola appears in a television ad aimed at the re- election race of Norm Coleman of Minnesota as part of the chamber's more than $35 million campaign to aid primarily Republican Senate candidates.[5] Some groups that bought ads in the 2004 presidential race have gone out of business, including the Swift Boat Veterans and America Coming Together, which supported Kerry. While money flowing to 527s is down, this election season has seen the proliferation of another type of group incorporated under Section 501(c) of the tax code. Unlike 527 organizations, 501(c) groups don't have to disclose their donors, and the Campaign Finance Institute estimates that such groups have spent at least $165 million.[5]

The telephone poll margin of error is estimated at 2.9%. Presidential campaign correspondent covering the election polls Heather L. Ryan for JusticeNewsFlash.com a easy to access, convenient medium allowing lawyers, journalists, and other professionals to have the opportunity to provide breaking news to their communities.[40]

Bee's campaign did not respond to requests for interviews but at an event last week, the Republican challenger didn't hedge about what would turn the election. It wasn't ads or money. "It's all about voter turnout right now," Bee said.[31] The Democratic candidate urged voters not to take victory for granted as he expected his opponents to launch a dirty tricks campaign to scare away voters. Referring to previous smears and insinuations about his background and associations, the Democratic candidate said: "Don't believe for a second this election over.[4] Black voters traditionally do not vote in large numbers in obscure runoff elections. Aw, the poor elephants, they may have hung themselves on their own petard. This year the Libertarians offered a surprisingly articulate and aggressive Allen Buckley as a candidate for the Senate.[32] Still, 8 years later, you are still bellyaching about it. I once held the view that all adult citizens of this country should have the right to vote. No longer do I hold this view. The comments of far too many people have led me to understand that these folks are either ignorant, bigoted, uneducated, nonthinking, stupid, greedy, or any combination of these or similar factors. ALL VOTERS should be required to demonstrate a minimum rational thought process that would lead each to vote for the best view or candidate for ALL residents of the country rather than their own totally self-centered interests.[6]

Secretary of State Debra Bowen sent guidelines to election offices recently in an attempt to clarify the rules, which require voters to remove or cover up any campaign-related attire. "As I've been around the state, I've had some people tell me they are gravely offended by the suggestion that they couldn't wear their button or hat in a polling place," Bowen said this week. "I've suggested that they imagine 50 people standing in line with the button that had the opposing candidate on it and if they would feel comfortable with that."[42] Voter registration - We've been able to increase the voter registration in Stanislaus County by three to four thousand. This has never happened before, and it is quite a success to see so many people eager to learn about the election and vote. Getting younger voters & voters with skills involved in this election and other elections. I am really happy to see such enthusiasm with the young volunteers who walk the neighborhoods, and pass out information, assist and work in the rallies, and work very hard to get out the vote.[37] The volunteers plan to target households where voters are "sporadic" or "super sporadic" -- people who are registered Democrats and have voted before, just not in the last election.[9]

As first-time voters, we cannot stress enough how important it is to be educated about the past elections and the things that went wrong. Our class is writing this to inform everyone about previous problems in the elections and to warn people to watch for similar troubles. We want to ensure that in this election, the same problems do not occur. We are already seeing problems with voting this year. In this election, it is up to all of us to question the results and to hold officials accountable for fairness.[35] Lillie Flores may not live to see another presidential election. She figured she'd try to make this year's political contributions count. Add up they did.[33] Isn't it time again to put the Electoral College in the political scrap heap? There have been attempts in the past, as recently as 1969, but none has succeeded. It will take a constitutional amendment and its ratification by the states to make the long-overdue change, but Congress has failed to act to seek that ratification. Maybe, just maybe, the focus that has been placed on those handful of "swing states" in the last few presidential elections -- and the realization that votes in those states mean more than "the others," including California -- will bust the legislative logjam loose.[38] Fundamental to democracy is the trustworthiness of the voting results. It is these type of problems, in large, close elections, like those we have seen in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, where whole groups of individuals have been denied the right to vote that we begin to question the reliability of the results.[14] If you see any election irregularities or you believe that you are improperly being denied the right to vote, you can call the Knox County Democrat Party Headquarters at (309) 509-5555 or your local election authority.[14]

Republicans outnumber Democrats in Giffords' district. Her re-election depends on her campaign finding the independent voters and the Republicans who might cross party lines.[31] The data are solid enough to make clear that charity and foundation campaign contributors favored Democrats by a large margin. "There's an overwhelmingly uniform personal ideology among this group, it seems," says Massie Ritsch, communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics. "How that translates into their work, if at all, is up for debate and hard to measure with data." Federal law bars charities and foundations, as a condition of their tax-exempt status, from endorsing, or even appearing to favor, political candidate or party. The law also requires public disclosure of the names, employers, and occupations of campaign donors even when they are giving from their own pocketbooks as part of a larger effort to reduce the influence of money on politics.[22]

The third factor is a bit less tangible. "The enthusiasm for Obama among Democrats has been higher than the enthusiasm for McCain among Republicans," he said. That enthusiasm often translates to greater participation in the political process than voting alone, he said. That may include putting out a yard sign, going door-to-door or donating money. "The fundraising numbers are a sign of intensity and depth of support," he said.[33] On average, Obama's website attracts three times as many visitors as McCain's. "This time around the Democrats do seem more effective," suggests Chadwick. "They have been much more innovative in making use of the social networking tools of web 2.0, online video and mobile content."[20] Too bad, since Democrat views on "redistribution of wealth" will hurt the economy further. As McCain put it a year ago, "Tough times can breed fearand the Democrats are using those fears to push an agenda that is tired, dangerous, and will rob us of economic freedom."[6] There is excitement about "electing progressives who for the first time in eight years will stand with workers and pass policy that begins to give workers a fair shot,'' AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman said. Chamber of Commerce spokesman J.P. Fielder said its main goal is to stop a measure requiring companies to recognize unions that obtain a majority of workers' signatures for membership, instead of holding a secret-ballot vote. The way to do that is to deny Democrats the 60 Senate seats they need to force a vote.[5] The House last year passed the measure, one of organized labor's top priorities, only to see it die in the Senate when Democrats mustered just 51 of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor.[5]

The race for the Senate has been played out mostly under the public media's radar. If it wasn't for paid commercials distorting the positions of both Republicans and Democrats, many of us would not even know a Senate fight was in progress this year.[32]

Your analysis is simplistic in my view. As someone who has voted in the U.S. since 1970, I have seen all sorts of candidates, and if one generalisation holds true, it's that generalisations fail. Take the "experience" factor, for example: Dwight David Eisenhower hadn't ever stood for any public office when he was sought after by both the Democrats and Republicans in the election of 1952. He was an army general. What economic or social experience did he offer the public as a candidate? None.[25] Private investor and McCain supporter Tom Jagodinski maxed out on contributions to McCain. He considers the donation a small investment to support a cause he believes in. Of the two candidates' economic plans, the Republican's will cost less, he said. "I just think people know what higher taxes can do and that there's no such thing as a free lunch," the Germantown resident added.[33] The people can still vote, Bowen said. Poll workers first would ask them to remove or cover any campaign-related messages. Some election officials will have smocks on hand, she said. "I think it's going to be very common-sense," Bowen said.[42] The latest polls suggest that just 127 electoral college votes, of the 270 needed to win the presidency, are considered to be in safe Republican hands, compared to 238 considered safe for the Democrats.[24] In a normal election year, the smart money would go to the Republicans to win a runoff easily. These are not normal times.[32] Just remember Tuesday night, it won't be the popular vote that actually counts. It's the candidate who hits that magic number of 270 electoral votes who will win the presidential gold ring. That won't become official until Jan. 6. "Change" has been a buzz word for both candidates this time around. That word should also apply to America's way of electing a president.[38] Here's a thought that can keep a campaign manager up nights: 269 votes cost Al Gore a presidential election.[31] As many as 1,500 campaign volunteers for the presidential campaigns are expected to flood into Sarasota and Manatee counties over the final 72 hours in an unprecedented final push for votes in the area.[9]

The Obama campaign expects to get about 1,000 volunteers for Saturday, which would be enough to cover "every street" in town, organizers say. A record 400 potential volunteers turned out to an organizational meeting earlier this week at Marina Jack. Obama campaign workers told the volunteers to come back this weekend, and each bring one or two more with them.[9] GOP 'SEA LEGS' From text-messaged announcements to Internet fundraising, Obama's campaign has used technology to attract young voters who traditionally are not engaged in the political process.[8] "So we don't spend a lot of time on the (heavily Democratic) South Side." The voter rolls lead campaigns to the person but then it's a matter of making the sale and seeing to it that the person gets to the polls.[31] The social networking generation who have almost grown up online are, as Dutton says, "notoriously poor in turning out for elections". This is a close election and there is a feeling that the edge a successful online campaign can provide - however slight - could bre vital, even if it doesn't mobilise whole armies of new voters.[20]

Roger Stone, a longtime McCain supporter, said the state party and the national campaign bear almost equal blame. ''This effort lacks coordination and a cooperative spirit and it's showing,'' Stone said. "But it's more than mechanics.[15] McCain's sloppy, ticket-dragging campaign infuriated local party leaders across the country. One of the last Northeastern Republicans in Congress told us how he was terrified of Rahm Emanuel, who maybe told him, "From one friend to another, we're going to spend a fucking three million dollars to defeat you."[43]

Paris Hilton's tongue-in-cheek response to a McCain campaign advert that featured the celebrity heiress has received more than seven million views on YouTube, while Gina Gershon's parody of Palin has a million and counting. Impressive audience figures, but it's worth thinking about whether those watching are eligible to vote.[20] "Our own polling shows that only about 2 percent of the country is truly undecided," Stephanopoulos added. "Those people are highly unlikely to vote. A bigger universe of 5 to 7 percent of the country who might go either way, we see them leaning a little bit more towards McCain, but not by as much as his team says."[29] In terms of race or age, 45 percent felt the mainstream media has placed significance or a lot of significance on McCain's age, while 43 percent felt significance or a lot of significance had been placed on Obama's race. Two percent of those polled identified themselves as Hispanic, and 90 percent as white and seven percent as black.[23]

Democrats appear to have dominated early voting across the nation, but Obama has repeatedly cautioned supporters against overconfidence. "Don't believe this election's over," he told the flag-waving crowd of more than 13,000 in Sarasota on Thursday morning.[19] Charity employees favored Democrats by 82 percent to 18 percent, and foundation employees by 98 percent to 2 percent. The study, the first to look at giving among officials and other employees of big foundations and charities, covers contributions that they make in their private lives. The data cover only contributions of $200 or more, which must be reported to the Federal Election Commission. (For more details on how the research was conducted, see this article.) The research project was complicated by the way donations are reported to the commission, so it is possible that some details such as exactly how many employees contributed are not accurate.[22] Our union has built a coalition of community groups and leaders in support of the teacher pay raise election. Teachers and school employees need and deserve this 3 percent raise, and their union is working hard to see that voters approve it.[39]

The antiwar group is targeting young voters with a viral video, 'Your Friend Lost for Obama," which it said today has been forwarded more than 10 million times since it was released last week.[30] Volunteering for Obama feels like community organizing. It feels like a group of amazing, kind and caring people who want to get together and do what they can to change the way things are for the better of everyone.[28] Kind of like the actual socialist that is mad at people calling Obama one. He is not. He is not afraid of looking at functions from other countries/cultures to replace our broken ones.[6]

Police arrived to keep the marchers from blocking streets, parking spots and entrances to retail businesses along the "Miracle Mile" district in downtown Coral Gables. Obama volunteers refused to engage the protesters and quickly responded by printing signs reading "People of Faith for Obama" and "Women for Obama", attaching the signs to their personal cars, parked on the street. If the protest's organizers had hoped to block the everyday goings-on of the busy Obama office, they were mistaken.[16]

Despite the obvious presence of many McCain-Palin supporters, Obama offices are hubs of continual activity, with new volunteers dropping in throughout the day and evening.[16] This whole "He's a socialist, he wants to spread the wealth" bad guy Obama nonsense is a joke. We "spread the wealth" every day in this country, as has already been said here, on roads, schools, police departments, fire departments, community centers, public parks, public beaches, public transportation, national monuments, the military, mayor's to president's salaries and pensions.[6] The thought of Obama being President in the first place. Biden has even confessed that there will be an international event to "test the mettles of this guy" (funny he didn't even say Obama. He has already confided to the fact that the action taken will not appear to be the correct form of action but he is asking for support none-the-less. In other words Biden still believes as he did earlier in the year that Obama does not have the experience or skills to handle foreign issues.[6] Obama proposes to grant a number of refundable tax credits to low- and middle-income workers. He would give a $500 tax credit ($1,000 for a couple) for workers, which would phase out for single workers making $75,000 or for couples making $150,000 per year. As the Journal editorial says: "You can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability." That's true enough. Whether or not that makes them "welfare" is a matter of interpretation, however. As the Journal editorial also says in its headline, "It depends on what the meaning of 'tax cut' is."[6] We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year ' $29 billion for 50 individuals. Part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That's not fair. Exactly what is unclear about his statement here? He directly states that he believes the current capital gains tax rate is, in his own words, unfair. His comparison of investors to secretaries is invalid, however. When a person invests money, they are taking a significant risk that they will lose money.[6]

Re: Oct. 25 editorial "Officials keep county running." As a constituent of Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis, I was puzzled by the American-Statesman's backhanded endorsement, in which you labeled him a "lightweight." In 2004, the Statesman endorsed Davis for having "kept his promise of building the infrastructure necessary to grow the region." You cited the expansion of Howard Lane, a state grant for water and wastewater lines, the first county swimming pool in his precinct, a new park and the eastern alignment of Texas 130 among his accomplishments. This term, Davis put together the three votes necessary to add $30 million to the county's 2005 bond package, with $15 million going to road projects needed to connect Texas 130 to the central city and $15 million going to acquire more open space. Davis continued to make a difference in the area you praised him for previously and that the editorial board is being inconsistent.[39] We joined a group in the parking lot, some standing on folding chairs which included young co-eds in Halloween costumes (cat ears with painted on whiskers, a tiara wearing student in a black raincoat, and several in short skirts and high heels); a woman in a flannel shirt smoking a cigarette, families, and lots and lots of students of every race and color, many wearing "Mizzou" T-shirts and other campus gear. There was a group of four young men with a "firefighters against socialism" poster, but they seemed as forlorn as the single McCain/Palin sign next to a Fox News Satellite truck - all off to the side as if already disappearing from the scene. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan spoke to cheers from my group as she talked about Democratic candidates.[26] On Thursday the two candidates traded body-blows after grim new figures showed the world's largest economy is staring at recession. The U.S. government said the economy had shrunk by 0.3 percent in the third quarter through September, its worst contraction since 2001.[17]

Barack Obama has correctly reminded his supporters and staff not to get cocky, to remember the lessons of his New Hampshire primary loss.[12] Obama and the law by Thomas Sowell is an article that exposes the type of courts and laws that Barack Obama wants for us. Obama: Fundamental Change? Count on It by David Limbaugh provides a scary account of how Obama's promised changes could lead to entrusting this man with unprecedented power, giving him a license to operate with minimum scrutiny and an opposition party effectively impotent to oppose his radical blueprint for America.[6] If exhortation, phone calls, and emails won't get Barack Obama supporters to the polls, MoveOn.org, one of his most important early backers, hopes possible shame will.[30]

What marked the day for me was when he folded under the pressure and did exactly what he said we as americans should not do: "They (AQ) only win if we live in fear and change our ways out of that fear." JokesOn'It is a FACT that Obama stated that he didn't care if raising the capital gains tax would result in lower tax collections. [6] For clarity's sake, I need to define "spreading the wealth" around for you. Taxes which are collected to pay for legitimate governmental expenses such as building roads is NOT spreading the wealth around, whomever said taxes are collected from. For those of you who think the "rich" aren't paying enough, on oft-quoted figure I hear is that the top 10% of wage earners are currently paying 70% of all taxes collected. "Spreading the wealth around" in an Obama world will mean "refundable tax credits for the poor", which means direct checks to the bottom wage earners, and not simply a reduction in the taxes they pay. Another tax figure I've heard quoted on talk radio is that the bottom 50% of wage earners pay less thatn 5% of the total amount of taxes collected. It's not like they are paying much anyway.[6] The statement that because he was a "community organizer" Obama "may think a little like us" is pure wishful thinking.[22]

Obama is a highly intelligent, charismatic person. He seems to think he can do much for the working-class people.[39] The Republicans lag behind, and All, a Republican consultant, finds it frustrating. "I just think it's a fundamental shift, where the people at the top who make the decisions don't text message," All said. "That's sort of the big challenge the party needs to overcome, to develop a willingness to give it a shot."[8]

Everyone has been so supportive. They gave me lots of slack when it came to returning phone calls in a timely matter and just generally having the time to keep in touch. I think one of the first things I'll do after the election is try to reconnect with the friends and family I've been in less contact with because of the amount of time I've devoted to this campaign.[28] The more relevant battle may be going on behind the scenes. "What most people don't see are the complex backend systems that both campaigns have been using to collect information about supporters, likely supporters, and undecided voters," says Germany. This sort of behavioural targeted advertising, which both parties are employing, proved significant in the last election.[20] Campaign consultants already are looking toward the future uses of cell phones in politics, perhaps to raise money in the next presidential election in 2012, Alpert said. Text messaging "is becoming more prevalent than voice," he said.[8]

Logistics. I will be here in the office, getting out the vote, poll-watching, offering rides to those who need a ride to their polling place, calling those who have not voted, answering questions, organizing rallies, watching for any voter complaints, making sure there is a lawyer in place, and at 5:45 I will go to the election office as the democratic observer.[37] Some voters are deleted from the registration rolls due to clerical error or misunderstanding by elections officials. An election official in Mississippi mistakenly purged 10,000 voters while working from her home computer. All of these problems can result in individuals potentially being denied the right to vote even though they had previously registered. It is easy to dismiss these types of errors as inconsequential in small or lopsided elections.[14]

Early voting also gives some voters a chance to correct any voter registration problems in advance of Election Day, and will decrease lines on Election Day resulting in fewer discouraged potential voters who turn away. 10.[12] All volunteers are welcome, starting at 5:00 PM-but only if you've voted and finished your election day get-out-the-vote duties by then.[44] The provisional ballots are not deposited in the ballot box on election day. They are sealed and transmitted to the election authority for review.[14]

Upset and angry, remaining rank-and-file members may turn to more conservative members, like Virginia's Eric Cantor, to lead rebuilding efforts. "Elections have consequences," said Putnam, on whether his position as conference chairman -- the No. 3 House Republican -- could be in jeopardy if the GOP conference is reduced after election losses to its most-ideologically conservative members. [45] Then, I have always suspected the "experience factor" was code for 'hire an old boy out of Washington'. It also seems to me that religion has been keyed down in this race too. The last election was frighteneing when there was such a strong neo-right Christina lobby that acted like GWB had been appointed by god to lead the country. There doesn't seem to be such a Messiah-mania about this election. It's nice to see the two candidates not 'use' god to act as though they were on a divine mission.[25] Political Writer November 1, 2008 Candidates and their supporters are going non-stop from now until the polls close on Election Night, with phone bank operations, door-to-door campaigning, and appearances by political and entertainment celebrities.[46] After all the ads, the fundraising, the debates and policy prescriptions, campaigns mean little if a candidate's supporters don't get to the polls.[31] Rumors about the rules have been circulating in e-mails, church lectures and other social circles for months, prompting fears that voters could be turned away from the polls for showing up with so much as a campaign pin.[42] True enough, there are countervailing forces as well. The blatant appeals to racism, the coded appeals to ultra-nationalism and militarism, the increased desperation of the ultra-right, the scare tactics they are using and which they will intensify between now and November 4th, the voter suppression campaign and dirty tricks like the vicious robo-calls which have already started, to mention a few. These dangers lead to the final and most important factor: 19.[12] To win, campaigns must turn out the voter base and identify reachable independent voters and the ones from the other party who might cross over.[31] The stated reason for the Republican Party's actions has been to prevent what it believes to be potential for voter fraud. This explanation doesn't pass muster in light of small actual number of such occurrences.[14] The poll found that a growing number of voters - 59 per cent, up 9 points in a month - have concluded that Mrs Palin is not qualified to be vice-president and that has weighed down the Republican ticket.[27]

The Money Gap: For the first time in many decades, the Republicans are at a financial disadvantage. It is not as big as sometimes reported when you put all the Republican campaign funds together with right-wing 527 'independent advertising groups, but it is still important.[12] The speech, which we could hear perfectly, was well received, especially when Obama talked about making college affordable. Many of the crowd we were with are too young to understand the implications of health care insurance issues, but our group cheered lustily for his pitch to make the same health care senators receive available and affordable to everyone.[26] I moved around taking photos of the crowd and then we saw the press buses pull up and knew that Senator Obama was about to speak.[26]

For me that involvement felt like "politics" whereas the volunteer work I do for Obama somehow doesn't feel like traditional politics.[28]

Grassroots volunteers are assigned the task of going up "against the Republicans' proven get out the vote push," Carson said, "which delivered victories for Bush in 2000 and 2004."[44] After the first recount by the morning of Wednesday, November 8 Bush's margin in Florida had dwindled to about 500 votes, narrow enough to trigger a mandatory recount in that state.[6] The state'''s 20 electoral votes could easily come down to the 600,000 voters who live in Columbus and its suburbs.[36] In some states for years, state legislators, not the voters, elected presidential electors. It will take a ratcheting up of public discussion to make something happen.[38] A quarter-century ago, John Kromko was a young state lawmaker with a knowledge of emerging computer technology. He figured out how to move voter information from magnetic tape to a personal computer. With a military surplus database program, he was able to cross-reference various data fields. Kromko has since been a fixture in local politics but that technological edge allowed him to slice and dice the electorate.[31]

The Austin school district is using the teacher pay raise to extort more money from taxpayers. The teachers deserve a raise, but it should not require an exorbitant raise in tax rates while the school administration uses its increased tax revenues for other purposes. The school district recently persuaded the few voters in a bond election to fund unnecessary building projects, and now they are holding the teachers hostage to pay for their extravagance. Hopefully, a large turnout of overburdened taxpayers will send the district the message that their spending habits are not supported by the majority of residents.[39] In the final week before the election, young voters are being targeted with calls and text messages, e-mail messages and notes from friends on social networking websites Facebook and MySpace.[8]

Dan Reynolds is president of the Broward AFL-CIO, which operates phone banks, provides transportation, and has volunteers at polling places. He said the close 2000 presidential election is a powerful motivating force.[46] The article brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart. The image of people entering a restaurant through the back door is heart-rending, but the realization that these same people and their descendants now have a voice in the election of our president, and that the next president might be one of those who would have had to enter at the back, is hopeful and encouraging. This was journalism at its best \-- informative, socially relevant and gracefully written by Joshunda Sanders.[39]

If we want the kind of change that will make life better for us, the middle class, then you need to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are ready to lead this country in the way it should go, they are ready to work for the people.[34] Reagan's (McCain's her) "trickle-down" economics delivered the a recession, and Bush/McCain's deregulatory friend-of-the-businessman approach delivered the present debacle. Prudent management of the world's largest economy must be driven by an individual who is also congnisant of what drives the people - their collective spirit is what is needed now.[25]

We're closing." McCain knows he's behind in the polls, and he knows his time is running out.[29] If we do the campaigning, there are good reasons to expect that our work could result in a landslide. It is likely, most experts and pundits say, that the polls will tighten, making it look like the election is getting closer.[12] I am more involved in national and international affairs and learning as much as possible, and how the vote impacts everything. It also made me care deeper than ever before, because being a part of this election has made me realize that this is the most important election of my life.[37] California is the sweetest prize in the Electoral College with 55 electoral votes, but candidates rarely campaign here because of its non-swing status.[38] Final push phone banking will concentrate on get-out-the vote efforts in key battleground states nationwide.[44] The contenders' travel plans for the final days tell a lot about the state of the race.[13] The Early Voting Factor: More states are doing early voting, offering same day registration and voting, and more people are voting by absentee ballot and by mail, all resulting in increased turnout.[12] What impressed me about the crowd was the diversity- six years ago, when one of my sons entered Mizzou as a freshman, the orientation speaker joked that there was great diversity at Mizzou, "we let people from Kansas attend." That was only a partially a joke in this state, where "show me" is the motto and my son was shocked at some of the attitudes of his classmates having grown up in a liberal integrated urban suburb on the west side of Chicago. To see a crowd where a black male student had a white female student sitting on his shoulders so she could see the stage represents a sea change.[26]

A Florida District Court of Appeals judge (a registered Democrat) correctly ruled that Gore's challenge in FL was (1) past the required deadline and (2) violated state and federal laws regarding due process since Gore asked for recounts in only a few specific counties.[6] Gore, who had privately conceded the election to Bush, now withdrew his concession and announced that he would wait for a recount in Florida before any further action.[6] "We interviewed 1,200 people and no one offered antipathy toward Bush." Green emphasized that voters' opinions on social issues have not changed, just their priorities.[6] Since the Wall Street crisis erupted in September, surveys show public anger about the $700 billion government bailout, the credit crunch, mortgage meltdown and high gas prices has pushed voters toward the Democrat.[13]

"The internet is now firmly embedded in the U.S. electoral process and it isn't going to go away," says Chadwick. "Any politician who thinks they can win an election without effective use of the internet is sorely mistaken." [20] Topics reported include 2008 presidential election coverage, government litigation, veterans''' affairs cases, FDA drug safety alert information, victims rights violations, and health and law actions.[40]

REFERENCES

1. Four days to go: Campaigning continues full blast - KJRH.com
2. AFP: McCain, Obama step up battleground blitz
3. US aides ready for Obama handover | The Australian
4. Barack Obama warns of last ditch 'dirty tricks campaign' to scare away supporters - Telegraph
5. Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
6. What is driving voters to the polls this year? | Woman to Woman | ajc.com
7. McCain in last minute bid to overtake Obama
8. STLtoday - Texting targets young voters in prez campaign
9. A long race comes down to boots on the ground | HeraldTribune.com | Southwest Florida's Information Leader
10. The Ohio Republican County That Could Tip the Election - TIME
11. VOA News - McCain Works to Close Gap in US Presidential Race
12. People's Weekly World - OPINION: The coming landslide
13. Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
14. Right to vote vital; report irregularities - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail
15. newsobserver.com | With Obama ahead in must-win Florida, GOP casts blame
16. Pamela Mays McDonald: ANTI-Abortion Protesters Storm South Florida Obama Office
17. AFP: McCain, Obama step up battleground blitz
18. The Hindu News Update Service
19. Candidates trade jabs in feverish final push
20. dlvote101.xml
21. newsobserver.com | Daring to utter the 'L' word: Obama on track to a landslide
22. The Politics of Giving: Employees of Big Nonprofit Groups Give Mostly toDemocrats - Philanthropy.com
23. Ohio University poll gives Obama win by 86 percent | lancastereaglegazette.com | Lancaster Eagle Gazette
24. Articles | McCain cash plea as poll looms - ITV News
25. Obama, McCain campaign to boost voter numbers - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
26. Susan Eleuterio: Being Barack Obama
27. More tricks than treats in final days - World News - World - General - The Canberra Times
28. Stefanie Fontanez: Starting an Obama Group Gives Supporter Confidence, Diverse Community
29. ABC News: Report Card: Is John McCain Running Out of Time?
30. A viral get-out-the-vote video - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com
31. Campaigns go all out to ID likely supporters, get them to polls
32. Fighting for 60 seats - The Times-Herald
33. McCain leads area's fundraising, but Obama slowly catching up : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal
34. Obama doesn't have needed experience | newsleader.com | The News Leader
35. Robert Koehler: Students Ask: Are Our Elections Fair?
36. I Think Ohio Could Be Rigged. Again. | Orato | True Stories, Citizen News, Eyewitness Reports, Free Notices
37. Tiffany C. Kern: Retired Teacher Uses His Background to Appeal to Voters in Red Territory
38. Tracy Press - This college isn'''t so smart
39. Final thoughts on the election
40. Democratic Senator Obama leads 7 points over Republican Senator McCain
41. The Associated Press: Obama, McCain visit red states in final stretch
42. Leave those campaign buttons, T-shirts at home when voting | Politics | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California
43. TNR.com'''s Week In Review (Oct. 26 - Nov. 1) - The Plank
44. GOTV Last Minute Local Events For Barack Obama - Brian Dennert here
45. McCain's Electoral Fate Could Impact Florida GOP | Washington Bureau
46. Both parties pushing to get Broward County out to vote in final days before election -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

POLL-Obama retains 7-point lead on McCain

CONTENTS:

Washington: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama maintains a clear lead of 11 points over his rival John McCain, with less than one week before Election Day, in a new poll conducted by CBS News/New York Times. (More...)
If you crunch the Electoral College numbers, Brownstein says, Obama needs only to win one of the traditionally "red" states to capture the presidency. (More...)
For that reason, some pollsters employ interactive technology, using a recorded voice or the Web. (More...)
"The race is closer than people think." (More...)
Barack Obama has edged further ahead of'' John McCain in''the more conservative version of the latest Gallup daily tracking po ll. (More...)
Democrats appear to have dominated early voting across the nation, but Obama has repeatedly cautioned supporters against overconfidence. (More...)

Washington: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama maintains a clear lead of 11 points over his rival John McCain, with less than one week before Election Day, in a new poll conducted by CBS News/New York Times. The Democratic nominee now leads his Republican rival by 11 percentage points, 52 per cent to 41 per cent, among likely voters nationwide. A small percentage of these voters could still switch sides: The figures include both firm supporters of each candidate and those who lean towards one or the other but have not fully committed. These so-called leaners, however, make up less than 10 percent of each candidate's support, a sign that significant movement in the campaign''s final days is not likely. [1] As part of a poll to be released in full later today, CBS News and the New York Times asked voters who have seen television ads for both Barack Obama and John McCain about the tone of those ads. Their responses suggest there is a gulf in voter perception of the candidates' efforts, with Obama widely seen as running the more positive advertising campaign. Half of those surveyed say Obama's ads are primarily focused on what the candidate stands for, while thirty percent say they have been mostly concerned with attacking his Republican rival. Fifteen percent say both. The perception is far more negative for McCain: Just 21 percent say the Arizona senator's ads are primarily focused on what he stands for, while the majority ' 64 percent ' say the ads have been largely concerned with attacking Obama. Twelve percent cite both. We'll be making further results from the poll available at 6:30 this evening, so check back with CBSNews.com and watch the Evening News for a full report.[2]

Jacobs said Obama's supporters are also more enthusiastic about the election than McCain's. "There's about two-thirds of Minnesotans who are tremendously interested and excited about this race and Obama's got about a 40-point lead among enthusiastic voters," Jacobs said. "So he's got to turn those people out and make sure they don't take this thing for granted." Jeff Blodgett, who heads Obama's Minnesota campaign, said he's not surprised that voters are responding to Obama's message on the economy. He said he's not paying attention to the poll numbers. He said the campaign is making the final push to get Obama's supporters to the polls on Election Day. "The McCain campaign is really contesting this state hard," Blodgett said. "They have been for two months and so the best thing to do for our campaign organization to do is put its head down with six days to go and run as hard as it can, finish the job and get every voter out who is going to vote for Barack Obama." Officials with both campaigns say no visits by the candidates or their running mates to Minnesota are scheduled at this point.[3] The claims are seen by some as an effort to lay the groundwork for challenging the outcome on election day. The Republican party's lawyers are heading to closely contested states and polling stations as well, aiming to ensure its candidates are getting a fair shake in an election that most polls suggest Democrat Barack Obama is going to win. Kim Fridkin, a political science professor at Arizona State University, says Republican concerns about election day are far different than those of the Democrats. While some Democrat votes, essentially, weren't counted or were spoiled in the 2000 election, Republicans seem poised to try to challenge the eligibility of voters who are showing up to cast their ballots. "Their issues surround people being signed up to vote by organizations like ACORN with names like Mickey Mouse," Fridkin says. "But no one named Mickey Mouse is ever going to be allowed to vote, so they are really several steps removed from what the Democrats are concerned about, which is that the Republicans are going to try to stop legitimate voters from casting ballots." Both parties say they have no plans to try to stop anyone from voting on election day for any reason, including home address discrepancies or whether a voter has recently been forced out of his home by a foreclosure.[4]

DEFIANCE, OHIO - Spurred by the latest statistics that confirm the rocky state of the economy, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain exhorted their supporters on Thursday to intensify their efforts as the marathon presidential race turns into a sprint to the finish line. With four days before Election Day, the candidates stepped up their schedules, adding stops and rallies as they traveled to more battleground states.[5] Barack Obama is deploying an awesome battery of firepower to blow out a faint flicker of hope in John McCain's campaign that he can yet pull off an unlikely comeback in the final days of this election. The Democratic nominee spent yesterday hopscotching through battleground states where he hammered home his message on the economy, the issue of greatest concern to voters and on which some polls suggest that McCain has begun to close the gap. He told a rally in Sarasota, Florida: "John McCain has stood with President Bush every step of the way. On Wednesday night he blanketed TV networks with a half-hour commercial designed to allay concerns about electing an inexperienced -- and black -- president.[6]

The poll has a margin of sampling error of 4.6 percentage points. Pollsters found the economy and jobs was named as the top concern by nearly two-thirds of likely voters, and among those who think the economy is the most important issue Obama holds a 25 percentage point lead. "There's really no evidence here that McCain has been able to overcome the basic hurdles that he started the campaign with which is that the economy is working for Barack Obama," Jacobs said.[3] With as many as a third of votes expected to have been cast before the election, McCain is fast losing the chance to change minds. If they need changing, of course. Today in real paper, we noted that a full two-thirds of registered voters''called by pollsters refuse to take the polls, and no one knows why that is, and whether they would break down similarly to those who agree to polling. The poll, which has been using two methods of trying to predict likely voters, shows Obama with a five point, or 50 percent to 45 percent lead over McCain among voters who both''say they''are likely to vote, and who have voted in the past. Among''what the poll calls an expanded''likely voter method,''registered voters who say they are likely to vote, Obama for the third''straight day maintained a 51 percent - 44 percent lead over McCain.[7]

McCain is preferred on handling the war on terrorism (+14 points) and Iraq (+7 points). More voters trust Obama to handle the issue of taxes (+6 points) even though nearly three times as many think their taxes will go up under an Obama administration (20 percent) as think the same about a McCain administration (7 percent). A 55 percent majority thinks their taxes will go up no matter which candidate wins. Recently Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said the next president would be "tested" by an international crisis in the first six months of his presidency. Who do voters think would better respond to that test? McCain has a 52-39 percent advantage over Obama on this measure. Among those important independent voters, McCain holds a similar edge: 53-37 percent. The candidate quality cited by voters as most important in their vote is "can bring needed change" (32 percent), followed closely by "shares my values" (26 percent).[8] Obama led in every age group and among every income group except voters who make more than $100,000. McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, trails among voters with a member of the military in their family. Mccain, an Arizona senator, also was winning only 26 percent of Hispanics, a fast-growing group that gave Republican President George W. Bush more than 40 percent of their vote in 2004. "If you are John McCain you want to see something start changing in this race, and right now it is not," Zogby said.[9] The most notable was Colin Powell, but others include former Republican Governors, as well as Charles Fried, who was Ronald Reagan's Solicitor General. Despite some policy differences with Obama, they have seen him as more stable, better informed, better qualified, and less impulsive on critical issues, including the nation's economic crisis. Possibly more important, as the election nears, some conservatives have grown terrified at the thought that Sarah Palin might become president in a complicated and dangerous world where her incompetence would put the nation at unprecedented risk. Even with the hope that a Palin presidency would never occur, that same alarm has impelled them to lose faith in the judgment of Senator McCain, based on his selection of an unqualified candidate for the second place on the ticket. It would be a mistake to confuse their preference for Obama with a permanent shift in political allegiance. At this point, their overriding concern appears to be the nation'''s safety, but their support for Obama in this election may not be a good predictor of how they will vote in the future.[7]

At the same time Republicans have launched a new TV advert, with Middle Eastern music playing in the background, highlighting Mr Obama's stated wish to hold talks with Iranian leaders. This is being seen as a possible nudge to voters who still believe false rumours that he is a Muslim. Mr McCain has told CNN that race would not decide this election and focused his attention yesterday firmly on economic issues such as Mr Obama's proposed tax increases, which the Republican has suggested are reminiscent of socialism. Mr Obama is showing signs of sensitivity on this issue, telling his rally in Florida: "I love rich people, I want all of you to be rich." He added: "I don't know what's next. By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten."[6] For Obama, 89 percent of Democrats support him, up slightly from 88 percent. New voters, those 11 percent who have registered in the last two years, support Obama by 54-38 percent. Obama also has a 52-43 percent edge over McCain among the more than one of five voters who say they have taken advantage of early voting in their state and already voted.[8] Towery's firm has polled the race in Georgia and has consistently showed it to be closer than most other firms. The Obama campaign will not discuss its advertising strategies and provides no hints as to whether it plans to return to the state's paid airwaves. The Democrat's campaign is all about the ground game: identifying voters who did not take part in early or advance voting, and letting them know what's at stake and why they should vote for Obama. "After eight years of failed Bush-McCain policies, Georgians are hungry for change," Lee Goodall, the Obama campaign's Georgia field director, wrote to volunteers this week.[10] Howard Fineman, a senior writer for Newsweek, said Obama's campaign staff believe it will remain a close race to the end because there is still a number of undecided voters who could vote for McCain on the final day. Both campaigns are geared up for the finale.[11] My good friend works for the Obama campaign. We recently met for drinks, she had 1 too many apple martini's. She shared with me that her job along with others (how many I don't know) was to browse message boards and create chaos. They are paid to not only respond to McCain posters but pose as McCain supporters to inflame others by posting racist and inflammatory remarks. She is appalled at some of the things they do but won't quit as she needs the money and only has 1 week left." Look, this stuff is unAmerican. It is Obama who is the racist in this race (he sat and listend to anti-white hatred for twenty years every Sunday at his "church". He himself has played the race card at every opportunity since the beginning of this campaign. It's just that it seems to me, some things, like pride in who you are, and respect for your race would be more important to a principled man than getting votes. What of his poor aunt who lives in a project in Boston on welfare. Obama makes four million dollars a year and never gave her a dime. He never gave a dime to his destitute little half-brother George who lives in a shack in Kenya.[12]

"Likely voters" are registered voters who are considered more likely to vote in the November presidential election. The economy continues to far outdistance all other issues as the top priority for voters this year, and while Obama maintains an advantage on the economy, McCain has chipped away at those numbers.[8] The poll finds that the Illinois senator has built a 33-point advantage over likely voters earning less than $50,000 a year, an indication that McCain's "Joe the plumber" strategy has not caught on here. A Big Ten Battleground Poll of registered voters and those likely to register released last week also found Obama up 19 points in Minnesota.[3]

Obama leads McCain by 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, virtually unchanged from Thursday.[9] A majority of financially comfortable voters whose economic concerns are more long term--the stability of retirement accounts and financial markets, for example--preferred McCain. The three presidential debates contributed to Obama's ability to pull even with McCain in terms of who voters in the five surveyed states say they believe is best prepared to lead. Obama also increased his lead as the candidate voters say best understands their problems.[13] "I think the majority of citizens would be shocked there isn't more oversight of candidates by state government," Metcalfe said. The lawmaker argues he is only trying to close a loophole that will put voters' minds at ease about the candidates on the ballot. Even with the intense scrutiny a presidential candidate must endure, the state must have a system of checks and balances, he said. "It would really be the greatest hoax in U.S. history if somebody did get past the scrutiny," he said. It's almost impossible to separate his stated intention and the questions some Republicans have about Obama's origins. Rumors have spread that Obama was actually born outside the country and that his birth certificate is a fake. That birth certificate proves he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Asked if he thinks the Democratic presidential nominee was born in the United States and is a citizen, Metcalfe didn't equivocally answer "yes."[14] The latest findings come as McCain, behind in the polls, dilutes previous ad buys at Twin Cities television stations. And, in a sign that Obama's own polls have him confident of a win in Minnesota, which has not gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, his campaign has cut $100,000 in ads that were scheduled to run on WCCO and KARE.[3] I have been honestly frightened and appalled by the cunning and the lawlessness of the Obama campaign. It goes way beyond ACORN. It includes Obama putting out a press release including a picture of him with our uniformed soldiers, stating magnanimously that he cares about the military. (Barney Frank let the cat out of the bag, The Democrats are going to cut the military budget by 25%). The dishonesty, the cynical misuse of our soldiers, to dishonestly use them to suggest that they support Obama (in fact, the Military Times just did a poll and found that members of the military, God bless them, support McCain 63% to Obama 21%.) Then there was this small item posted "I am 24 female ex worker for Hilliary Clinton campaign.[12] While casting McCain as a champion of tax cuts for the rich and lax regulation of Wall Street, Obama renewed pledges to cut taxes for the middle class and crack down on corporate greed. McCain's campaign released a statement saying that Obama "would drive this sputtering economy off a cliff." "If voters looked into Barack Obama's rearview, they'd see that he supported every one of Washington's wasteful spending bills and has voted for higher taxes 94 times in just three years," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "His economic proposals are driven by job-killing tax increases and out-of-control spending."[5] The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter as fearful consumers cut back on spending. The new numbers, the steepest decline since 2001, provided fresh fodder for both campaigns. "If you want to know where John McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rearview mirror," Obama said.[5]

One said Obama's lead was 5 points and two others said 4, meaning Sen. McCain of Arizona could actually be ahead slightly, given the margin of sampling error. There are several reasons, some having to do with the inherent nature of polling, others with factors unique to this highly unusual presidential campaign, which has given fits to even the most experienced pollsters.[15] Republicans selectively point to national polls that show Mr Obama's lead is as low as 3 per cent, although others suggest it is five times larger.[6] The 13 per cent of registered voters casting ballots for the first time favour Obama over McCain by two-to-one.[1] One based on past voting behaviour and current intention to vote shows Obama leading McCain 49 to 46 per cent, while the second based on current intention to vote shows Obama up 51 to 44 per cent.[16]

Two polls show McCain gaining, though still trailing, Obama in Florida. This polls do represent state by state looks. all still indicate an Obama electoral advantage, but they do show a lot of movement.[14] Independents back Obama by 5 percentage points today, down from a 9-point edge last week. Among white Catholics, Obama held an 11-point edge over McCain last week and today they split 46-46. "Independent voters have long been regarded as one of the keys to this race and these results may foreshadow a tightening in the battleground states where independents carry disproportionate weight," says Ernie Paicopolos, a principal of Opinion Dynamics Corporation.[8]

Even in staunchly Republican Texas, there was a sense that the country was facing a political upheaval, if not in the state itself then in the U.S. as a whole. They didn't like it, but felt powerless to stop it happening. From my own experience, and in particular my walk-on role in the 1997 election campaign, I know that the one place this feeling won't have taken a grip is within the Obama campaign team. It's not just that every politician understands that taking the electorate for granted is the quickest way to lose. It is also that the more favourable the polls, the more they will want to discount them. In 1997, during a six-week campaign - both the longest and the quickest six weeks of my life - the polls consistently gave Labour a big lead over the Tories.[17] A week after a Pennsylvania lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's right to run for president was thrown out of court, a state lawmaker has authored a bill that would force presidential candidates to prove they're a United States citizen before being placed on state ballots. "As a veteran and an elected official who takes an oath of office, just like every past and future President of the United States, to uphold and defend the Constitutional rights of the citizens I represent, it is greatly perplexing and beyond troubling that a political candidate can ascend to the White House without providing sufficient documentation verifying his or her place of birth or American citizenship," state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County) said in a statement. "This legislation is intended to send the message that even those candidates who are running for our nation's highest office are not above the law."[14] Barack Obama volunteers, meanwhile, have 175 locations around the state where teams will work in three shifts a day to go door-to-door, conduct phone banks and generally work to get out the vote.[10]

The McCain campaign's decision to spend two of the campaign's five remaining days in Ohio underscored the importance of the state's 20 electoral votes, which went Republican in 2004.[5] While the race for Georgia's 15 electoral votes is tight, neither side appears to be investing significant cash or resources to win it in the final days. Neither campaign has announced visits by the candidates or their top surrogates.[10]

The U.S. president is determined by who wins the Electoral College, which has 538 members apportioned by population in each state and the District of Columbia. Electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states, which divide them by congressional district.[9] Anyone making predictions about the election based on a national poll doesn't understand how the election works. It's all about states and the electoral votes they have.[7] "We're not limiting ourselves to three days before the election," Fry said. Ralph Reed, the former head of the national Christian Coalition and a former state party chairman, said he has not seen the typical 72-hour operation most Republicans are familiar with. "It is not on nearly the same level as 2002 or 2004, but it is operational in key counties, such as Gwinnett, Cobb, north Fulton, where I would expect 65 to 70 percent of the vote will take place," Reed said.[10] The Democratic National Committee set up a national lawyers council to examine ballot issues, established a voter protection hot line and routinely speaks to hundreds of state and local election officials in an attempt to flag potential election day problems in advance. "The 2000 election was pretty traumatic for this country, and no one wants to see that happen again, especially the Democrats," said Fridkin. "In this election especially, if something were to happen that doesn't seem quite right, it would be quite devastating for some people.[4] Democrats are suspicious of the Republicans on that front. Recently in Detroit, a court settlement was reached over allegations the Republican party was trying to purge voters who had recently lost their homes. In Montana, Republicans tried to challenge the voter registrations of 6,000 people in the state's Democratic strongholds, such as university towns like Missoula and rural counties with native American reservations.[4] A federal judge upheld the Democratic challenge to the Republican attempt. This week, Bush asked Ohio's attorney general to investigate the status of 200,000 new Ohio voters because of supposed "database discrepancies," something Democrat lawyers are fiercely protesting. All this legal activity on behalf of the Democrats is an almost direct result of the chaos of the 2000 election.[4]

The web's influence goes far beyond the official campaigns. It has provided new opportunities for voter participation at a time when the old party system has left many feeling alienated. There's no doubt that Obama has so far been the big winner from this revolution, connecting afresh with millions who had felt that politics was irrelevant to their lives. One of the questions to be answered this week is how real this new virtual army of supporters is. The number of these cyberspace enthusiasts who are willing to take part in the slightly less cool activity of visiting a polling booth might help to decide the contest.[17] The Los Angeles Times said the spot "offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential." McCain sharpened his attack on Obama, pointing out that Obama has broken a promise on campaign financing. Addressing a Florida crowd Wednesday, McCain said, "When you're watching this gauzy, feel-good commercial, just remember that it was paid for with broken promises."[11]

A survey on voters' concerns about terrorism would have undoubtedly yielded very different results depending on whether it was taken in the days leading up to or just after Sept. 11, 2001. Although no event of that magnitude has occurred this year, there have been several developments -- such as the selection of the candidates' running mates, the two major-party conventions, the presidential debates and the crisis on Wall Street -- that affected public opinion, especially in the short term. When looking at polls, it's important to compare surveys conducted over roughly the same time frame. Because they are not talking to every single voter, pollsters recognize there is a certain squishiness in their numbers. This "sampling error" is measurable, based on a standard statistical calculation. (Rule of thumb: The bigger the sample size, the smaller the margin of error.)[15] Even on election night, when the exit polls and first victories pointed to a landslide victory, the mood was still very nervous. I have no doubt that both presidential candidates, while aware of the polls, will be focused on the gruelling day-to-day task of winning and keeping the voters' trust. What is also striking when viewed from America is that, whatever the similarities between elections, the internet has made this presidential race very different from any before.[17] Every day dozens of polls on the presidential race are published, reporting voter sentiment nationally and in key states.[15]

If you crunch the Electoral College numbers, Brownstein says, Obama needs only to win one of the traditionally "red" states to capture the presidency. The poll, conducted in the five red states between October 23 and October 27, found that Obama made healthy gains with previously undecided men, Republicans, those without a college education, and "hard independents"--those who refused to say they leaned one way or another. [13] Submitted by alwaysfiredup on October 30, 2008 - 5:05pm. This article says McCain is gaining ground. The story two posts down says Obama is widening his lead. Two great reasons why the constant barrage of polls is both annoying and misleading.[14] Mr McCain declared in the city of Defiance, Ohio, yesterday: "We're a few points behind but we're coming back." One explanation for the wide disparity in surveys is that polling organisations make different assumptions about "likely voters", with those who give Mr Obama a large lead believing that there will be a surge in turnout among African-Americans and young people.[6] With Obama's lead seeming to be solid, many experts and a lot of media outlets are saying the race is effectively over. Some analysts pointed out that while he's still trailing, McCain still has a chance, although it looks very slim.[11] OF INTEREST: McCain had a 56-35 percent advantage on the question of who had the experience to lead, while Obama led 46-40 percent on who would make the better decisions about the economy. About one in five said they were undecided or could still change their mind before voting.[18] "Obama is holding firm and McCain is not making any gains." It was the second consecutive day Obama's support has hit the 50 percent mark, and the eighth day out of the last 11.[9] Only 35 percent of voters surveyed said Palin is ready for the job compared with 42 percent 24 days ago. Democrat Joe Biden's support remained steady with 74 percent of those polled saying he is ready to be vice president.[19] The poll also found Obama was doing a better job of reaching across ideological lines, earning the support of nearly 20 percent of self-described conservatives.[20]

For that reason, some pollsters employ interactive technology, using a recorded voice or the Web. Others, however, frown at the practice because there is no way to know whether the respondent is a voter or their 6-year-old child. Any and all of those factors can cause results to differ. That's where art and science come together. A pollster will attempt to determine who among those interviewed are the most likely to vote in the election. This year it's especially tough to define a "likely voter," given Obama's particular appeal to black voters and young people, two groups that typically fail to vote in numbers commensurate with their share of the population. Minorities and young people are especially hard to get ahold of, given their mobility, the fact they often work odd hours and their preference for cellphones. Different pollsters have different ways of determining whom they consider a "likely voter." That accounts for the biggest variation among samples. [15] A pollster can attain a reasonably accurate gauge of how 100 million or more Americans will behave on election day by conducting a scientific sampling of about 1,200 or so voters.[15] Besides, McCain needs too many good breaks on election day to pull it off. Voter turnout is the key. but I don't think it will be enough to make each one he needs break his way.[7] ''Some analysts said McCain still has a chance, although it looks very slim. ''As election day looms, both candidates have begun to focus on key states.[11] "The poll we're most concerned about is Election Day," Golnik told MPR News. "We're just five or six days away from that and we're focused on continuing to spread the McCain/Palin message and simply reminding people how stark the differences are between these two candidates on the key issues facing Minnesota and facing the country."[3] Some estimates say 16.4 million people have voted already. At this rate, more than a third of all voters may cast their ballot before election day, experts say.[16]

"The race is closer than people think." The latest polls show the Obama-McCain race to be neck-and-neck one poll showed McCain ahead by 1 point, another had him up by 5 but yet another had him down by 3. [10] Jill Darling, associate director of the Times Poll, explains: "If Smith has 52% of the vote and we have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, that means that if everyone voted right now, Smith would get between 55% and 49% of the vote. If my survey finds that Jones has 48% of the vote, then his actual vote would be somewhere between 45% and 51%." To say that Smith is ahead, his lead would have to be twice the margin of error, or more than 6 percentage points.[15]

Seizing on signs of tightening in some national polls, the McCain campaign gave details on how it could spring the biggest upset since Harry Truman came from behind to win the 1948 election.[21] Throughout, the focus was on the economy, the issue that has dominated the last weeks of the campaign, and on the importance of voting. Speaking in Defiance, Ohio, McCain told his backers that they faced an uphill fight against the Democrats, but that they should battle on despite polls showing the GOP trailing nationally and in key states.[5] McCain also needs the support of former Clinton voters to turn the Democratic-leaning state red. We talk with some of those voters and with county-level McCain campaign coordinators to find out if their efforts have been successful.[22] Voter turn-out is higher than expected in more than 30 states that allow early and no-excuse absentee voting, thanks to the successful voter registration drive embarked upon by the Obama campaign.[16] In 2001 we thought the Labour Party was very cool when it sent out text alerts to young Labour voters. The extraordinary use of the web and mobile technology - particularly by Obama's campaign - is as different, as one U.S. expert has put it, from these clumsy first efforts as the Wright brothers' first flight was from Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon.[17]

The Politico called it a "smoothly produced infomercial" that "weaved together American iconography -- images of amber waves of grain, pickup trucks and American flags -- with portraits of iconic voters, testimonials from politicians and one business figure, footage of Obama speeches and direct appeals from the candidate."[11] By an 8-point margin Obama is seen as the candidate who voters trust to handle the economy, down from a 15-point edge.[8]

Barack Obama has edged further ahead of'' John McCain in''the more conservative version of the latest Gallup daily tracking po ll. [7] For instance, one recent national survey that showed the race neck-and-neck included a large number of evangelical Christians -- too many, in the judgment of some pollsters -- which improved McCain's performance and narrowed the gap with Obama.[15] McCain has ruled out any tax increase while Obama has called for more taxes for families earning more than $250,000 a year. The Democrat has also called for a tax cut for those earning less.[5] The American system, at least, allows the president-elect a couple of months to prepare for what is to follow. It should also mean that Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain, unlike me, will have the time and sense to get dressed and brush her hair before opening the door - something I neglected to remember.[17] As McCain goes into the final days with a strong, traditionally Republican tax-cut message, the polls--and pollsters--say it looks like the Republicans, running up against the electorate's desire for change, will simply run out of time.[13] Another reason the numbers have tightened is that McCain has also improved his position among his party faithful, and the number of voters identifying themselves as Republicans has seen an up-tick as well.[8] McCain's camp says many polls are overstating the projected turnout of black and younger voters, to the detriment of the GOP nominee.[15] The rolling tracking poll, taken Monday through Wednesday, surveyed 1,202 likely voters in the presidential election.[20] "We had the Georgia GOP do a push for 72 hours. It goes into identifying who has not voted yet and make sure they get to the polls on Tuesday." Murphy was referring to the party's traditional 72-hour program, a method the GOP uses to mobilize its voters. It's been a key to the party's success over the past several election cycles.[10]

The Illinois senator held steady among several crucial blocs of swing voters in the Nov. 4 election, leading by 15 points among independents, 9 points among women, 5 points among men and 9 points among Catholics.[9]

Only an Obama supporter would call getting caught engaging in voter fraud then cutting a deal with the prosecuter "doing the right thing."[14] In many states, there are long lines, crowded polling stations, problems of illegal purging of the voter list, allegations of voter fraud levelled by Republicans and accusations of voter intimidation from Democrats.[16]

Our country is hanging in the balance. This man should be our president." The heavy Democratic bombardment of Florida will continue tomorrow when Al Gore campaigns in the state that, by the narrowest of margins, destroyed his presidential dream eight years ago.[6] The new poll found 48 percent giving an unfavorable rating to GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, with 45 percent favorable.[18] The most dramatic shift came in Kansas, where McCain's previous lead lengthened to 58 percent to 37 percent.[14] McCain's support has not surpassed 45 percent in more than three weeks of polling.[9]

Personally, I believe anyone voting for McCain is seriously misled. How could you possibly vote for a candidate who isn't even putting forth any definitive plans?! It honestly baffles me. Clearly, our country is going downhill under the current leadership, and McCain is very similar to Bush, spelling DISASTER for this country.[13] If you put McCain and Palin in it is going to set women back another 50 years. You might as well start burning those fancy Victoria Secret Bras of yours. Why would you want to vote for a man who DUMPED his first wife when she had a horrible car accident and was not the woman she used to be. in fact, he met Cindy when he was still married to his first wife while running the bars. they had an affair and then he got divorced and then married his billionairess Barbie, trophy wife.[12]

John McCain's campaign has had to struggle to keep up. It has led almost to two separate campaigns - one in the actual world and one in the virtual.[17]

Democrats appear to have dominated early voting across the nation, but Obama has repeatedly cautioned supporters against overconfidence. "Don't believe this election's over," he told the flag-waving crowd of more than 13,000 in Sarasota on Thursday morning. [5] By an 18-point margin more voters have a positive view of Biden than a negative view (55 percent favorable and 37 percent unfavorable).[8] I just love horse races. I remember 2004 when they talked about how important the "youth vote" was. Turns out like 17% of eligible youth voters actually showed up and did their civic duty.[7]

REFERENCES

1. Obama leads McCain by 11 points - Sify.com
2. Poll: Voters Believe McCain Running More Negative Advertising - Horserace
3. Poll: Obama maintains big lead in Minn.
4. The Canadian Press: Lawyers head for battleground states to monitor vote for Obama, McCain
5. Candidates trade jabs in feverish final push
6. Now it's swinging polls not hanging chads that scare Democrats - Times Online
7. Obama lead over McCain growing, though still tight, new poll shows | KansasCity.com Prime Buzz
8. FOXNews.com - FOX News Poll: Obama's Edge Over McCain Narrows - Polls | AP Polls | Gallup Poll | Opinion Polls
9. POLL-Obama retains 7-point lead on McCain | Reuters
10. COUNTDOWN 2008: McCain-Obama contest could be nail-biter here | ajc.com
11. U.S. presidential race tightens as candidates focus on key states_English_Xinhua
12. Thursdays Gallup Poll gives bigger edge to Obama | Midwest Voices
13. Polls Show Bad News for John McCain in Race Against Barack Obama - US News and World Report
14. Fifteen new state polls show McCain gaining ground. Is it enough to catch Obama? | KansasCity.com Prime Buzz
15. How political polls work -- and why they can differ so much - Los Angeles Times
16. THISDAY ONLINE / Nigeria news / African views on global news
17. Obama must still fear failure. we did in 1997 | Cherie Blair - Times Online
18. The Associated Press: Polls: Obama leads McCain by 13 points in NH
19. Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
20. POLL-Obama takes 7-point lead on McCain | Reuters
21. FT.com / Home UK / UK - We can still win, says McCain team
22. What McCain Needs In Pennsylvania : NPR

Broder: McCain's weak management skills have hurt his campaign

CONTENTS:

Clearly, Dr. Paul did not realize the importance of allowing conservatism to have the freedom to use the power of government to manipulate the whims of the public, consequently, he did not understand the challenges on conservative power in the new millennium. (More...)
When '''Joe the plumber''' does a better job of critiquing your opponent than you do, you probably don't have the rhetorical skills to be a good candidate. (More...)
Obama focuses on early childhood learning and addresses the dropout crisis through funding public school districts to invest in innovative intervention strategies. (More...)
Economic, social, and political matters will have become far worse. (More...)
Casey in a telephone interview afterward said McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have maintained a nearly constant presence in Pennsylvania since the nominating conventions because of the state's history of close elections. (More...)
Obama and a democratic Congress will push us closer to socialism, the American people will get angry and the democratic Congress will get obliterated in the mid term election. (More...)
The expected heavy turnout of black voters for Obama could have an impact down the ballot as well, perhaps even in some of the statewide ballot issues, particularly a Religious Right-backed effort to make adoption and foster parenting more difficult for single people. (More...)
In the past two weeks, I have heard four pastors remind me that my vote carries a religious responsibility. (More...)
For years, if not decades, the U.S. public has been hungry for reforms that will provide universal access to health care at reasonable cost, regardless of work situations or existing health conditions. (More...)
One would like to spread the wealth around (socialism), one would like to keep the U.S. a capitalist country (earn, spend, keep, give as an individual desires). (More...)
After two straight right-to-the-wire races - in 2000 and 2004 - the Democrat hopeful wants to bury Republican JohnMcCain in a landslide. (More...)
Our purpose was to offer a more constructive approach aiming at correcting the abusive traditional, so-called scientific, theories of Optics. (More...)
Personally knowing a lot of traditionally GOP supporters I think you are going to see a type of reverse Bradley effect or more like a "1990 Bob Rae" effect. (More...)
President Bush can look out the window on Pennsylvania Avenue this morning and see construction workers beginning to build the inaugural viewing stands for the next president. (More...)

Clearly, Dr. Paul did not realize the importance of allowing conservatism to have the freedom to use the power of government to manipulate the whims of the public, consequently, he did not understand the challenges on conservative power in the new millennium. To answer the question, it is reasonable to ask just what does conservative mean in today's American political lexicon? Was it conservative for the government to pass a trillion dollars to failing investment banks? Was this a redistribution of wealth? Certainly conservatives do not favor redistributionist schemes from the wealthy to those below the poverty level, but is it conservative to favor them from the poor to the wealthy? President Bush and Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain supported the bail ou'''er, um'''rescue plan, so it must be conservative. At one time conservative Republicans, such as Robert Taft, considered American involvement in wars that were not related to national defense to be anti-conservative. Are preemptive wars that drain the public revenues, devalue the dollar, and demand more taxes from the working class a conservative principle now? Conservatives disdain the welfare state and encourage people to take care of themselves through their labor, but conservatives also advocate the global economic system that puts American labor in wage competition with cheap workers in oppressed systems like China or caste systems like India. Even though President Bush presided over deficit spending that approached $500 billion per year and might approach $1 trillion this year, conservative Republicans claim that should Mr. Obama win the presidency, America's economy will crash. [1] They are starting to eat their own. Polls show that Democrat Barack Obama ]] Barack Obama is leading in battleground states, including some -- such as Ohio -- carried by George W. Bush not once but twice. Even before the election is over -- and despite the fact that some polls show a tightening race -- Republicans are piling on their own presidential candidate, John McCain, accusing him of deserting principle. Some moderate Republicans think McCain has sold his soul to the right, abandoning the bipartisan record he built on immigration and other issues. "He has lost his brand as a maverick," said Rep. Chris Shays, the last Republican congressman in New England, in a tight race in Connecticut again this year.[2] Pennsylvania is key to McCain's plan for victory next week, but Obama is leading in the polls there, as well as in some states President Bush won in 2004. Obama hopes his presence in Pennsylvania will keep that state in the democrats' column. He rallied supporters there in a cold, steady rain on Monday. Sen. Barack Obama, (D) presidential candidate: "If we see this kind of dedication on election day, there is no way that we're not going to bring change to America." In the home stretch, the democratic nominee is focusing on his original themes- hope and change, but he's also firing back at his opponent's charge that Obama will raise taxes. Barack Obama: "There is only one candidate with a plan that could eventually raise taxes on middle class families, and it isn't me, it's John McCain."[3] I am also disgusted by the way John McCain has conducted himself and his campaign. I understand why McCain strategists believe their candidate can'''t win on the merits of the issues. The catastrophic situations we are facing both at home and abroad culminate from the President Bush-John McCain worldview, ideology and policymaking. It'''s too late now for McCain to pretend he isn'''t a Republican. It doesn'''t excuse resorting to lies, manufactured controversies, phony outrage, petty distractions, risky surprises, scare tactics and smears. McCain is running a dishonest campaign that is beneath him. He grossly misrepresents Barack Obama'''s policy positions and relentlessly assaults Obama'''s character. Accusing Obama, a fellow senator, of '''palling around with terrorists''' and saying he would rather lose the war than lose the election sets a sleazy low in presidential politics. It seems McCain would rather lose his moral standing and good name than lose this election. By sticking to the same destructive Rovian tactics Republicans have used to win before, and standing by the worst of Bush'''s bad policies, McCain has not shown himself to be the maverick he thinks he is.[4]

Kommentaren er en del av Dagsavisens dekning av USA-valget og presenteres som en f'lge av samarbeidet mellom Dagsavisen og The New York Times. For weeks the two presidential candidates have been following divergent paths to the same destination, and with one week to go until Election Day, Barack Obama and his rival, John McCain, have very different challenges ahead of them before Nov. 4. Obama, who has been enjoying a lead in a number of national and battleground state polls, will have to fend off calls from Republicans that he is already 'measuring the drapes,' as they put it, in the White House. Some states may tighten in the waning days, and the McCain campaign has been relentless in its attacks on the Democratic candidate.[5] We can ill afford to continue being hostages to the Republicrats. This Democratic and Republican Party democracy is no democracy at all. It is a farce. Even the Constitution of the United States of America, with all its flaws, has been for its part deliberately subverted and shredded by both the Democratic and Republican Parties. Notwithstanding their meaningless, misleading, and often insulting 2008 campaign rhetoric, Barack Obama and John McCain serve the corporate / military elite and certainly not the people. They are the enemies of the people plain and simple. Have no illusions, the time is rapidly approaching when massive and/or regular military "police" actions may very well be employed inside the United States by the corporate government against its own citizens. People generally know that John McCain is capable of this, but are dangerously deluded into thinking that Barack Obama isn't.[6]

Berkman predicts Pennsylvania will go Democrat - noting Senator Obama has been spending less time campaigning in the state. "I believe they think they are going to win it," he said. "I am noticing they are not spending a whole lot of time here these days. They are spending most of their time in red states. I would think we would see them more if they felt they were in trouble in Pennsylvania." With 1.2 million more registered Democrats than Republicans in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama appears to be counting on victory in this reliably blue state - a victory that could dash any hope John McCain has of winning the presidency.[7] McCain has poured money and energy into the state in the final weeks, spending three critical days in mid-October here and hammering Obama as Barack the Redistributionist, an old-fashioned tax-and-spend liberal who wants to "spread the wealth around" and can't be trusted on national security. McCain was back in Pennsylvania earlier this week, while Palin arrived for a series of appearances on Tuesday. Both are likely to visit again before Election Day. "It's wonderful to fool the pundits, because we're going to win in Pennsylvania," McCain told supporters in Hershey on Tuesday. Democrats say they remain confident, but there are clear undercurrents of concern. Governor Rendell and party officials have asked Obama to spend more time in the state to counter the McCain offensive, and indeed the Democrat has made appearances in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia over the past couple of days to make his closing arguments. "John McCain's ridden shotgun as George Bush's driven this economy towards a cliff, and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas," the Illinois Senator told a wet crowd of 9,000 outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday.[8]

I gave it because I believe we need Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. We need his intelligence, his insightfulness, his thoughtfulness, his commitment and his sense of hope. As someone only a few years from retirement, I need him to help us through the economic turmoil brought on in great part by the incompetence of the Bush administration; incompetence that has been repeatedly supported by John McCain. As a father whose youngest son has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia during his business career, I need him to restore the respect for America and for Americans that has been destroyed by George Bush'''s policies and pronouncements, so that my child can safely set foot on foreign soil. As an American, I need him to find us peace with pride and bring our service men and women home from a war that should never, ever, have been fought.[4] Your comments are always welcome. It must never be forgotten that both Barack Obama and John McCain supported the over 700 billion dollar sell out of the people to the elite finance capitalists of Wall Street, despite the expressed overwhelming opposition to it from every day persons throughout the United States. This is an example of the de facto dictatorship of and by corporations in the U.S. It is seriously authoritarian and without conscience. It is in fact a 21st Century kind of fascism in this nation that continues to make an utter mockery of supposed U.S. democracy. Corporate finance capitalists, the corporate media (including its so-called progressive/ leftist collaborators), and the corporate-backed Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin U.S. Presidential tickets are enemies of the people - one and all. All of them support the continued economic and political exploitation of every day men, women, and children inside the United States and around the world. All of them support U.S. Empire and hegemony. To deny this is to deny the obvious. It should be noted that even the recent - over 700 billion dollar sell out - to the greedy, irresponsible corporate elite of Wall Street can only, at most, forestall the economic, social, and political upheaval that is nearer than many care to imagine. Those billions of dollars were tantamount to applying a mere band aid as a supposed cure to a cancer patient.[6] Unfortunately, many are desirous of simply seeing "black faces in high places" and thus support the likes of Barack Obama for U.S. President, as if that will bring about much needed systemic change. Never mind that Obama is more to the right on a number of important issues and policies, such as supporting apartheid Zionism and U.S. military adventurism, than even George W. Bush. Never mind that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are "black faces in a high places" who have brought, and continue to bring, nothing but grief to the vast majority of people, be they Black, Brown, Red, Yellow or White. Sooner or later, the people of the United States are going to have to take responsibility for the kind of government this nation has. While it is certainly accurate that the majority of Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples in this nation are continually exploited by what is, in essence, a corporate fascist dictatorship, there nonetheless comes a point when the people of this nation must reject, once and for all, the fake democracy promoted by the U.S. corporate government with the ongoing complicity of the U.S. corporate media. The corporate / military elite of this nation is intent upon neutralizing Black, other oppressed peoples, and people of good will generally in this nation - by promoting the candidacy of Barack Obama. While this tactic may be effective in the short term, it will fail miserably in the not too distant future, once people awaken to who Barack Obama really is, and experience and see first hand that a Barack Obama presidency will have substantively and systemically changed nothing.[6]

It is clear that John McCain is desperate and is willing to do anything to be elected. First he selected an unqualified vice president to try to shore up his right-wing base. When even his base recognized that she was a mistake, he tried name calling. He said or implied that Barack Obama was a terrorist or a socialist, and who knows what else. He also tried lies, like saying Obama's plan would increase our taxes when it would only correct the Bush gifts to the very wealthy and lower taxes on everyone who earns less than $250,000. He took these actions even though he said he would run a positive campaign. Now, when even these low tactics are not changing the poles, he is attacking Bush. While his criticisms are valid, it seems likely he is making these charges from desperation, not conviction. He feels he must jettison even the Republican regulars to save his campaign. He must feel that his campaign is like a plane. It is losing altitude so, to keep it from crashing, he throws out even the parachutes. Imagine what he would do if he was elected and was faced with a real crisis.[9] Volunteer Traci Dallas-Opdahl, an independent, is just the kind of voter John McCain wants to attract. "I really like John McCain and what he stands for, which is really actually independence, he said. "He is his own man, he thinks for himself and he really puts his country before politics." Montgomery is an affluent county, rich in Republican votes, and the McCain campaign hopes for a big win to offset Senator Obama's large expected victory margins elsewhere in the state, especially in Philadelphia with its large African-American population.[7] As we near the end of another presidential campaign, it is useful to ask ourselves what we have learned about the candidates that we did not know before. What insights have we gained about their goals, their methods, their characters? I will turn to Barack Obama next, but today's subject is John McCain. We knew that he was a product of the military elite, the son and grandson of admirals, imbued with the patriotic impulses and the sense of duty to country that is his family tradition. We also knew that he had the capacity and willpower to endure and resist the terrible abuse he suffered in a North Vietnamese prison camp. We knew that he had the backbone to set his own course and that he carried that trait into politics, often challenging his fellow Republicans. We also knew that he had a temper, redeemed by a self-mocking sense of humor, and we knew that he had a capacity for building genuine friendships across party lines. We suspected, and soon confirmed, that he had limited capacity for organization and management of large enterprises. His first effort at building a structure for the 2008 presidential race collapsed in near-bankruptcy. From beginning to end, the campaign that followed has been plagued by internal feuds and by McCain's inability to resolve them.[10] Independents and freethinking Republicans will weigh the Republican nominees' words against Barack Obama's deeds, leadership, judgment and cool demeanor in the face of controversy. This election is far too important not to evaluate John McCain's motive to be president. He is not a maverick. He is a staunch Republican who has proved that he will say or do anything to keep his party in power.[11]

Polls show the Democratic nominee with a commanding lead of anywhere from 7 to 14 points in the state, up from a near tie in mid-September. It's clear to observers on both sides of the political aisle that much of Barack Obama's support may be soft, leaving him potentially vulnerable here. He lost the April primary contest to Hillary Clinton by 10 points, and even the state's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, has said there are many culturally conservative voters who would have a hard time embracing a black man as President. McCain's campaign says its internal polling shows the gap between the two nominees to be 3 or 4 percentage points closer than the polls, putting McCain theoretically within striking distance in the past week. "It's do or die - this is his last stand, because he's got no other place to go. This is a forced choice. This is not an option," said pollster and political analyst G. Terry Madonna of Franklin & Marshall College.[8] In Nevada, a state that once had a narrow Republican registration advantage, Democrats have registered 100,000 more voters than Republicans since 2004. Now, Obama is focused on getting those voters to the polls. His campaign stops this week have all been in states where early voting is underway, and his campaign message in those states is to urge supporters to vote early. We have used some "fuzzy math" to try to illustrate how important those voters are to the Obama campaign, and how his success in getting new voters to the polls may ultimately determine the next President of the United States. To compute these models, we've used turn-out figures from 2004. We took the total votes for Sen. John Kerry, and computed them as a percentage of the total Democratic and decline-to-state registration.[12] We do, though, think Obama would govern as much more of a pragmatic centrist than many people expect. We know first-hand that Obama seeks out and listens carefully and respectfully to people who disagree with him. He builds consensus. He was most effective in the Illinois legislature when he worked with Republicans on welfare, ethics and criminal justice reform. He worked to expand the number of charter schools in Illinois --not popular with some Democratic constituencies. He took up ethics reform in the U.S. Senate--not popular with Washington politicians. His economic policy team is peppered with advisers who support free trade. He has been called a " University of Chicago Democrat "--a reference to the famed free-market Chicago school of economics, which puts faith in markets. Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions. When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did. It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all.[13] "The past eight years we can't take another four." Republican activist Steve Neuhaus of Chester sees the disparity in donations as a reflection of Obama's success in energizing his base and the growing sense among voters that he's poised for victory. "People want to put their money on a winner," he said. He also suspects that Republican donors are disheartened by media coverage of the campaign, which he sees as unremittingly slanted in favor of Obama. Nor does it help, he added, that people are feeling the economic pinch. "We didn't donate money to McCain this year because, frankly, we didn't have any," he said. Neuhaus attended a McCain fundraiser in Manhattan on Oct. 14 and said he was surprised to find the crowd sparse enough for him "the only person in the room wearing a J.C. Penney suit" to chat with both McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin. That turned out to be a successful fundraiser for the Republican ticket. Even though McCain can no longer collect direct donations for his campaign, he reportedly raised $10.6 million that night for the Republican National Committee and several state GOP parties money that will be used in support of his campaign.[14] The most notable was Colin Powell, but others include former Republican Governors, as well as Charles Fried, who was Ronald Reagan's Solicitor General. Despite some policy differences with Obama, they have seen him as more stable, better informed, better qualified, and less impulsive on critical issues, including the nation's economic crisis. Possibly more important, as the election nears, some conservatives have grown terrified at the thought that Sarah Palin might become president in a complicated and dangerous world where her incompetence would put the nation at unprecedented risk. Even with the hope that a Palin presidency would never occur, that same alarm has impelled them to lose faith in the judgment of Senator McCain, based on his selection of an unqualified candidate for the second place on the ticket. It would be a mistake to confuse their preference for Obama with a permanent shift in political allegiance. At this point, their overriding concern appears to be the nation'''s safety, but their support for Obama in this election may not be a good predictor of how they will vote in the future[15] Barack Obama has fired a shot at GOP presidential candidate John McCain'''s lack of economic expertise that also indirectly nails his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin ''' with a wink. The ad, titled "His Choice," begins with McCain's admission more than once that he lacks economic know-how and declaring, "I might have to rely on a vice president that I select" for expertise on economic issues.[16] On the economy, Obama is superior Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain has demonstrated a troubling lack of understanding of economic issues and the complex strategies needed to fix economic challenges. For years, McCain readily acknowledged his limited understanding of the U.S. economy, at least until it became a campaign problem. Perhaps this is one reason McCain said he thought "the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are very strong" in a Fortune magazine interview in June.[17]

Talking Points Memo reports that the calls hit Obama for being inexperienced and soft on terrorists. The script: I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone. If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror.[18] I have no idea what will happen in the voting booth, but I can tell you I am distraught. The poll on the right indicates that I am not alone in thinking neither of these candidates should be the one for the job. 30% of our readers indicate they are either voting for a third party, or just hate their choices. Barack Obama will help everybody out, which is probably my problem with him. John McCain knows nothing about the economy, and will continue these wars which is my problem with him.[19] Undecided voters get a bad rap these days. With less than a week before the final votes are cast, those who haven't riveted themselves to a candidate are looked upon as uninformed or indecisive. It's easy for me to see why voters who look beyond the "R" and "D" might have a tough decision to make. They're scared John McCain won't do what he says he will. They are equally worried that Barack Obama will.[20]

In modern elections, absent some dramatic game-changing event, polls just don't get it wrong enough for McCain to bridge that difference. This reminds me a lot of the 2007 election here in Australia where incumbent PM John Howard (a close international ally of Bush's, and very tied up with much of the same baggage) was against a younger, relatively unknown, but appealing candidate in Kevin Rudd (though Rudd lacks the superstar appeal Obama has). Howard, like the Republicans, had a history of sneaking home, so when poll after poll showed he was doomed commentators refused to believe it and came up with various theories about how the election would be narrower than polling showed. Come along election day he lost exactly as the polls predicted.[21] We like McCain. We endorsed him in the Republican primary in Illinois. In part because of his persuasion and resolve, the U.S. stands to win an unconditional victory in Iraq. It is, though, hard to figure John McCain these days. He argued that President Bush's tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, but he now supports them. He promises a balanced budget by the end of his first term, but his tax cut plan would add an estimated $4.2 trillion in debt over 10 years. He has responded to the economic crisis with an angry, populist message and a misguided, $300 billion proposal to buy up bad mortgages. McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served.[13] I used to vote R or D, depending on the candidate. After 8 years of Bush and now this McCain/Palin fiasco, I vote D across the board and hope for the best. What the current President Bush has been doing and Sen. McCain has been advocating for are very contradictory to the core of the Republican's fiscal principles such as fiscal disciplinary conservatism. They are both belong to the camp of the fiscally liberalized spreespending as much as fast as you can do with no restraint. Looking at when Democratic Party President Clinton left an office, how much money in surplus multibillions he had left for the country? Looking at today national debt has increased from $5 trillion in 2001 to $10.5 trillion under the Republican leadership of the President Bush unequivocally tell ordinary people, which presidential candidates will be better prepared, if not the best prepared, to handle the fiscal policies and which presidential candidates will be able to move the country with better visions and directions.[2] We can only believe people who speak in short, folksy sound bites that are easy to understand. John McCain puts his country before politics. That'''s why he chose the most qualified, mentally stable person available to be his vice presidential running mate, even though there were other, less-experienced candidates who could have helped him energize the base of the Republican Party and pick off votes from women. Beep! Mr. McKay, this is your local tax assessor calling.[22]

McCain was handed a terrible political environment by the outgoing Bush administration, a legacy of war, debt and scandal. Because McCain could not create a coherent philosophy or vision of his own, he allowed Obama and the Democrats to convince voters of a falsehood: that electing McCain would in effect reward Bush with a third term. A similar ambivalence clouded his relationship with the Republican Party. Neither rebel nor defender of the party's doctrines, he won its nomination by smart tactics and lucky circumstances in three primaries - New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida - without ever establishing himself as its legitimate spokesman. His vice presidential choice, his best opportunity to put his stamp on the future, was made, typically, more on instinct than careful appraisal. McCain saw Sarah Palin as reinforcing his own reformer credentials.[10] The other senator from Alaska Don Young who has worked closely with Palin is also under investigation. If Palin is the future of the Republican party then its future definitely a dark one. For months now I have been reading the political comments posted by readers online and I have noticed that the extreme conservative Republicans are especially hateful, and most of them fill their comments with Rush Limbaugh sound bites. Rush Limbaugh has had way too much "freedom of speech" during these last 8 years, encouraged and allowed to do so by the Republican administration. Limbaugh has poisoned a large bloc of Republican citizens, keeping them trapped in an attitude 25 years out of date. He stokes their fears and amplifies their worst characteristics, driving them to see an enemy in everything out of the conservative box. This prevents these people from accepting the changes and advances of 21st century America, isolating them and making it harder and harder for them to live productive and happy lives. It is my hope that the Obama administration will rein in the poison conservative talk show faction, and the people who follow it and live by it can be healed of their unwarranted hate and bigotry. To these people I say: there is no reason to be so hateful and fearful! Rush has it all wrong! This is a great country, full of good people, patriots all, and great possibilites for a happy and prosperous life. That neighbor whose views differ from yours is not a terrorist or a socialist or a communist, he's just the fellow American next door.[2] I am a proud Progressive, who holds a range of opinions from very Liberal to fairly Conservative, and I am definitely NOT `afraid to `find out who Obama really is'. He is the candidate who has not soiled decades of supposedly "honorable" service by repeatedly stooping to fear-mogering attacks which appeal to the worst paranoid instincts of his political base. He is not the one who was stupid enough to think he could attract disaffected Clinton supporters to his side by naming an untested, spectacularly unqualified "chick" to be his running-mate. For eight agonizing years, we, the American People have had to suffer under the misrule of a president who was a "Texas Politician". after he was a serial-failure of a business man. after he was a draft-dodging chicken-hawk who made a mockery of his National Guard service. after he was an under-achieving frat-boy. yet he was somehow a "good candidate" for two terms as president. As his disastrous administrations drew to a close, all the Republican party could offer the country were a range of shallow, blustering, petty Primary candidates who tripped over each other in their self-acclamation as the "true" standard-bearer of Reagan Republicanism - the man who sold us - no, YOU - the myths of deregulation and "trickle-down economics" which sowed the seeds for our current mortgage melt-down and lending company failures. The Republican party got the unsalable candidate they clearly deserved - and they will get the electoral drubbing they so richly deserve on November 4. despite their efforts to steal it.[2]

The funny thing is people like the Libertarian guy quoted in the article who really just don't get it. The Republican Party has never truly been about so-called "fiscal conservatism" (which actually means economic liberalism), but if he thinks that such policy would actually be better he can't see the writing on the wall. The only reason that the American economy appeared to be doing well for the past 30 years, the whole time since the "Reagan Revolution", has been the very borrowing that he now decries. Yes it ruined us in the long run, but it is that same borrowing and the same outsourcing that occurred under Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton (the most economically Republican Democrat of the modern era) that made it look like our economy was doing well these past 30 years. The whole past 30 years have been a delusion built on debt and underpaid foreign labor, while American families only were able to do better by having more workers per household, borrowing more, and getting the advantages of underpaid Chinese, Mexican, and Indian workers making everything for them while the top 1% has been stealing the nation and the world blind.[2] The Republican party of old is dead and gone. When McCain loses, the RNC will have a choice - return to their traditional conservative, small government roots or continue the drive to the neocon right and their big government, deficit funded single issue policies that have created the problems we now face. If they follow the latter route (and, sadly, I think they will) it will leave a huge hole in the center for the Democrats to move into supported by the more moderate wing of the Republican party. If the Democrats use their new control of Congress and the Administration to drive further to the left (which I see as a possibility) it will leave the mass of U.S. citizens adrift and create (in addition to economic chaos) the ideal conditions for a third party. Both the RNC and DNC have to understand that in their collossal battles they have lost sight of the electorate and their needs. It is just like the big three car makers slugging it out while the imports quietly eat their lunch.[2] Last night I went into two stores and in both of them, the clerks were talking to each other about the U.S. election. That's all anybody can think about, including me. I admit that for various reasons, I really don't want McCain to win (which is different from wanting Obama to win; I'm still not all that impressed by him, and haven't been ever since his deservedly-infamous CYA vote on an important issue ). That's nothing new. That's hard, of course, which is why Obama is more likely to win than McCain but it's not impossible. A good comparison for this election is 1976, Gerald Ford vs. Jimmy Carter; all the fundamentals favoured the Democrats that year, but the election wound up being quite close.[21] AFP CD News - 29.10.2008. Obama and McCain held their rallies in the key state of Pennsylvania as the U.S. Presidential elections enters its last leg. The last week of campaigning saw the candidates doing their final bid to sway the polls and hopefully the votes their way.[23] In the modern media environment, polls can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the 24-hour news cycle, there just isn't enough real news to fill the campaign coverage (especially since the candidates make the same speeches over and over), so polls, and speculation on what they mean, take up a lot of the coverage. A "McCain pulls closer" or (if a poll comes out showing that) "McCain pulls ahead" narrative would be very helpful to him at this point, if only because it would reduce the risk that undecided voters would decide to break toward the person they think is the sure winner. It's not news that TV news coverage relies too heavily on prognostication, polling, etc. It's an unavoidable part of campaign coverage; you're covering something that hasn't happened yet, so what can you do but predict? But the coverage seems to be creating a note of certainty that worries me. Not because I don't want McCain to win, though I don't (but if he does, the coverage will be a minor influence on that one way or the other), but because if the race winds up being very close, the anger and recriminations could be like 2000 only worse. The best counter-argument to this, of course, is that McCain doesn't actually seem to be acting like he expects to hold onto the Bush 2004 states, and is instead trying to win Pennsylvania, where he's way behind. He sure seems to be acting like he's Gerald Ford circa 1976. The point is, he's certainly not Mondale circa 1984 either or Bob Dole circa 1996, either; it's closer than that.[21] Obama continues to hold the lead in the opinion polls. The economics of the country remains the hot topic to show the crowd why they ought to be in the Obama camp as the charismatic Democrat told his Pennysylvanian audience that McCain supported four of the five Bush budgets that have taken the U.S. from the surpluses of the Clinton years to the largest deficits in history. McCain on the other hand has been targeting the middle class voters in the state who voted for Hilary Clinton over Obama in the primary battle earlier this year.[23]

Here was an opportunity for McCain to play the role of comforting adult to Obama's suspect status as political rookie. Unaccountably, McCain's response has been so erratic that polls show undecided voters breaking toward Obama specifically because they feel he is more trustworthy to deal with the biggest economic crisis the nation has faced since the great depression. Despite his earlier blunders, McCain was still competitive until the economic crisis exploded. He had struck out his first four times at baton the war, on immigration, on health care and on energy. When he swung wildly on the economic crisis, if the polls are right, the public finally called him '''out.''' '''Can we try that again,''' McCain no doubt would like to ask us allas he asked that night so long ago on the Letterman show. The problem is, with all the chances McCain has had to make his case, and all of the wild swings he's taken, there's little reason to believe the result would be any different no matter how many times he came to bat.[24]

"Oh yeah, Buffett's great," Joe acknowledged. "So who is McCain going to get to fix the mess like he says? I looked a bit, but maybe you've seen something at one of the Republican websites or on some news that I missed." Joe thought, and realized that he didn't know. "For what it's worth," I said, "You might want to take a look and see, because right now, the economy is job one, and I think that Obama on the rest of the stuff that you might be worried about isn't so bad. He's got good people behind him who can help get the economy back on its feet." Joe promised that he would check it out, and, even though it is likely that he's still going to draw the line between the arrows (our system) for McCain, at the very least I got him thinking about it.[25] The vitriol. When you see how low McCain is swinging, it's just like, "Pal, you look really bad." I've done a lot of research on this, that Rolling Stone piece was pretty eye-opening;the more you learn about McCain, the less there is to like. He was a guy who didn't ruffle my feathers years ago. Like Joe Biden probably has a lot of Republican friends, because he seems like a good guy. Even if they disagree with him, they probably like him. He's a Jimmy Stewart character. He's pretty solid. I think John McCain occurs to a lot of people like that, hence his longevity with the Jon Stewarts and Jay Lenos of the world. The more you read, the more he seems like a petty, average political insider with a lot of friends. The press is sort of his biggest fan base. He's losing a little bit of that. His veneer is coming off. He doesn't take a whuppin' too well. He gets angry very quickly. He's got a mean streak and isn't a guy you want in any kind of position of power, and when you see who his No. 2 is, it becomes all the more alarming.[26]

The government ran a $237 billion surplus in 2000, the year before Bush took office -- and recorded a $455 billion deficit in 2008. The Republicans lost control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2006 because, as we said at the time, they gave the nation rampant spending and Capitol Hill corruption. They abandoned their principles. They paid the price. We might have counted on John McCain to correct his party's course.[13] Our future, economy, health and security are not some fun game. Do not vote for this very foolish, careless, ignorant woman unless you really hate America. A vote for Palin is a vote for going backwards to the Bush years once again, don't do it, don't let this failed, diseased thinking back into our White House. It wasn't Bush and McCain. It was Reagan. He recruited the super-far-right social conservatives to the party, with an in-your-face "we'll legislate our morality" attitude that drove out the most conservative core--libertarians--from the Republican party. These people care about telling Adam and Steve they can't get married, not about fiscal conservatism, limited government. They care about using power to achieve their religious goals by any means necessary.[2] The Republican party has become a caricature of itself- a racist fear mongering elitist club of the most toxic kind. It has now become, thanks in large part to Bush and McCain, a banner under which the lowest common denominator now proudly gather. It is the party of the uneducated moron who cannot (as of yet) appreciate how their highest and best aspirations, along with their base emotions - fear and greed, are manipulated and used by the ruling elite. Now the party is seriously considering Sarah Palin to become their next and brightest hope. That would be akin to tossing a drowning man an anchor. It is a sort of divine justice to witness these people do themselves in without any help from anyone else. This election is proving that we as nation have evolved. It is encouraging to see that we are outgrowing the Lee Atwater Karl Rove hate slandering and race baiting.[2]

Good riddance. Concerning John McCain, I too am extremely disappointed that he sold his soul to the devil to select Sarah Palin. I would much rather have seen him lose like a winner than lose like a loser. If the Republican party would have had their heads somewhere other than where the sun doesn't shine in the 2000 primaries and picked John McCain instead of Dubya, we wouldn't be in the cesspool we are in right now - more so militarily and most probably in economic terms.[2] "One of the reasons why they seem to focus solely on Pennsylvania is they haven't made the case in other states," Casey said about the McCain campaign. "I don't think they're here because they're making progress. They're here because history shows it will be close." Casey said Thompson's comments during the GOP luncheon represent the same economic strategy as President Bush's and predicted they would ultimately fail to sway undecided voters. "It's going to be very hard for Fred Thompson or any surrogate for John McCain to say we should stay on this path of deficit and debt and partisan positions and everything their party has led us to," Casey said.[27]

The campaign has been costly in terms of McCain's reputation. He has been condemned for small-minded partisanship, not praised for his generous and important suggestion that the major party candidates stump the country together, conducting weekly joint town hall meetings, an innovation Obama turned down. The frustration for McCain and his closest associates is their belief that he is ready to practice the kind of post-partisan politics the country wants, which they believe Obama only talks about. Should McCain still win the election, it will demonstrate the survival instincts and capacity for overcoming the odds of this remarkably engaging man. If he becomes president, the country would have to hope this campaign has honed his leadership skills.[10] Obama is offering a different way and, frankly, the only one I can see succeeding. If he thinks that the primaries and the general election were tough he has an even bigger battle looming with his own party. The only way he can succeed is if he retains the involvement and support of the huge number of people in this country that put country before themselves (and party) and demand that we change the current rules of engagement. A huge win on November 4 will set the scene and give him the tools to do the job. I truly believe he is capable of great things but only with our continued support in chopping off party driven Congressional excesses at the knees can he succeed in the medium and long term. On November 5 we need to unite behind him and take back our country and every two, four and six years continue to vote down those idealogues that put party and self before the needs of the country. It was Ronald Reagan who said, "deficits don't matter."[2] I'm an Independent. I truly have to believe that every conservative republican voter, those who belonged to the historically defined republican party, have to find themselves betrayed and undermined by the neocons; a small group of insiders who waved the party flag and called themselves republicans, only to carry out their own agenda of gutting the treasury, make billions off of a war, and cover their tracks on the way out. It's truly too bad. I believe there are millions of well intended republicans who eight years ago never would have believed we would still be in this war, 10 trillion in debt, with an education system 52nd in the world, and over 4,000 fallen heros. I just don't think that's what they voted for. I sincerely hope they will take back their party when this election is over with, and put it back on track with its inherent ideals. I don't think the Republican party should get its fiscal conservatives back. nor can it (they have already defected). They need to start a new party, the American Conservative party.[2]

Obama envisions a change in the way we deal with one another in politics and government. His opponents may say this is empty, abstract rhetoric. It is hard to imagine how we are going to deal with the grave domestic and foreign crises we face without an end to the savagery and a return to civility in politics. This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president. The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause--the Republican Party.[13] The party has been hijacked by "the base". The problem with the base is that it only represents a small party of the voting public, but the far right is too uncompromising and rigid in their view to make any accommodation for a discussion of thoughts and ideals. Or change. They dug their own grave. It wasn't Obama, or the "media elite" or other cop outs. Until they admit to their own failings, they will remain in a marginalized state that they themselves created. "Even if he was not a McCain plant, he surely planted himself-- he recently registered as a Republican BEFORE he asked Obama the question. He clearly planted himself, in the least, was very dishonest all the way around, and then played "aw sucks, i'm just a fake plumber." I love the attacks on this guy.[2]

We need a leader with experience and good judgment and truthfulness. We need someone that talks about the wars that America is fighting and isn't afraid to use the word 'victory'', she said. Palin also reminded supporters of McCain's military background and the fact that she now has a son serving in Iraq. McCain also traded jabs with Obama again on the subject of taxes, with both accusing the other of plans to raise taxes if elected president. McCain has pledged to,' make government live on a budget just like you do,' he said. 'My friends I have a plan that your home value doesn't go down when your neighbor defaults, so that people in danger of default have a path to pay off their loans. It's hard-hitting messages like these that McCain will need in order to win the state.[28] MS. MADDOW: The game is being played on John McCain's end of the field. Even if Barack Obama doesn't win all those red states, even if he doesn't score a touchdown, he is in field goal range and he is nowhere near having to defend his own goal line.[29] Among the remaining unknowns in this election, of course, are the intertwined issues of class and race. In this regard, few places have been more closely examined than parts of Pennsylvania, a battleground state in which polls show John McCain significantly behind, but which he must capture if he hopes to win this election, and a place where working-class, as well as possibly racist, "Hillary voters" were supposed to be especially strong. Ever since the primaries, reporters have been tromping the state in search of them. Today, TomDispatch has an interesting twist on such articles.[30]

"When you look at a meltdown of the economy, people sort of suspend the question of whether there is a lock on a gun or something and really focus on what's happening here," said Clifford B. Levine, a Pittsburgh attorney and chairman of Obama's Western Pennsylvania steering committee. For all the polls and conventional political activity, there is a factor in this campaign and this state that is unlike any before it - race. During the seemingly endless primary campaign here last spring, Rendell, a Clinton supporter, drew criticism when he said "some whites are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate." Congressman John Murtha, who represents a rural swath of Western Pennsylvania, put it even more bluntly earlier this month when he called his region "racist" in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.[8] 'Obama castigated McCain for 'embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years' and for wanting to 'give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.'' 'McCain offered the other side of that historic divide, accusing Obama of wanting to take money from those who have it and give it to those who do not. The Times's Mark Leibovich notes that as they make their closing arguments to voters over the next few days, both candidates are being careful not to count their chickens before they hatch, as the saying goes. On the Trail : McCain and Obama both start the day in Pennsylvania and then move on to other states.[5] Not to mention, with several states leaning towards the Democrat, McCain will have to punch harder in the last days of the campaign. McCain quoted Obama's comments from a recent radio interview that he said Obama expressed that, 'one of the tragedies of the Civil Rights Movement is that it didn't bring about redistributed change'you see, Senator Obama believes that redistributing wealth not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs. He said that 'even though lower taxes help our economy, he favors higher taxes on investments for quote, 'fairness',' he said.[28] William Ayers bombed the Pentagon. This is a widely known, irrefutable fact. He has admitted it, never repented, and has even bragged that he wished he could have done more. That Obama had to have known about Ayers''' violent past, yet still chose to launch his state Senate campaign from Ayers''' living room makes his ties to Ayers even more disturbing. If McCain had this kind of relationship to, just for example, an abortion clinic bomber, he would be vilified by the media and the Democrats, and rightly so, and would never have gotten his party'''s nomination.[4]

McCain was the most experienced and arguably the most centrist candidate the Republican Party could have nominated. Given that making Obama unacceptable was the best path to victory, McCain ran a rather tame negative campaign ''' despite howls of protest from the mainstream media about how over the top he's been. (Again, not that anyone really cares what reporters and pundits say.)[31] After the final presidential debate, I labeled McCain a "politically dead man walking." McCain failed to make the case for McCain during that showdown and for most of his campaign. He told the country why Obama should not be president. It's difficult to see how this negative message, layered upon the negative feelings voters already have about the economy and the general direction of the country, add up to a positive outcome for the Republican ticket.[32] The McCain campaign, however, has issued two statements in the past few months that included four other UF economists who favor the Republican's positions. Charles Britt Moss, a professor in food and resource economics, said he backed McCain because of his support for free-market policies. He said both McCain and Obama, in voting for the massive economic bailout plan, have shown they're more comfortable with government intervention than he favors. "I'm still behind my original idea but at this stage of the campaign the issue has been so thoroughly muddied," he said.[33]

Even the normally Republican state of North Carolina has become a battleground state. It has not voted for a Democratic White House hopeful since 1976. Obama plans to hold a unprecedented television campaign to push his economic rescue plan and even Fox network is willing to push its all important World Series baseball championships by 15 minutes to give the Democrat air time.[23] "Income inequality stays about the same under Democratic administrations but grows consistently under Republicans." This isn't saying much about Democrats, but it says even less about Republicans who's campaigns, you should remember, are funded by the companies that determine your salary. "although Republicans on average are worse for the economy than Democrats, there's one specific period when they're better: during election years…we've known that voters don't respond to average economic conditions. They respond almost exclusively to economic conditions during election years." Color me skeptical, but how can anyone be sure how voters "respond" during non-election years? Voters have very few tools to fight these trends, but one tool they do have IS their vote. It's not that voters aren't responding during non-election years; it's that no one is asking in non-election years.[34]

McCain was relaxed and comfortable. The polls showed him the favorite to win the nomination, and likely to defeat Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic nominee. He was one of the most popular political figures in the U.S., second among Republicans only to Giuliani. His persona as a pragmatic, bi-partisan, non-ideologic, fearless public servant had been secured over the years by fighting popular battles for campaign finance reform, a humane immigration policy, tougher anti-corruption laws, and against the early Bush tax cuts.[24] Consider, instead, three recent polls in the context of the Bush years. Obama and McCain are now in a "statistical dead heat" among born-again evangelicals, those Rovian foot soldiers of two successful Bush elections, according to a recent survey; and the same seems to be true in Sarah Palin's "real America," those rural and small town areas she's praised to the skies. According to a poll commissioned by the Center for Rural Strategies, in those areas which Bush won in 2004 by 53%-41%, Obama now holds a statistically insignificant one point lead. To complete this little trifecta, Gallup has just released a poll showing that Jews are now likely to vote for Obama by a more than 3 to 1 majority (74% to 22%).[30] Bush's favorability ratings continue to sit in the mid 20s. That alone should have informed us of the chances of any Republican who sought to succeed him. McCain managed to keep the race close until September, when the dam of the credit crisis broke and reminded many voters why they dislike Bush, and by extension, the GOP. This year, a Republican's only real chance was to hope the electorate would find Obama unacceptable ''' and that wasn't an idle desire.[31]

Obama leads in four states that President Bush won in 2004 and is essentially tied in two other Republican states, according to new AP-GfK battleground poll.[16] We computed President Bush's vote total as a percentage of the combined Republican and DTS registration. Making lots of mathematical and political assumptions, we plugged those numbers in to the 2008 registration numbers to show how new voter registration could impact the state of Nevada, if the new voters turn out in the same number as Silver State voters in 2004.[12]

Why that's wrong: McCain doesn't oppose stem-cell research. He supports it. He's voted to lift President Bush's restrictions on federal financing and to expand federal financing of stem-cell research. At some political peril, he stood by that stand during the Republican presidential primaries, when it threatened to cost him support from social conservatives. "Stem-cell research has the potential to give us a better understanding of deadly diseases and spinal cord injuries affecting millions of Americans," McCain said in April 2007 as he voted to support federal financing. In 2004, he was one of 14 Republicans who signed a letter to Bush urging him to lift restrictions on the research, which they said had the potential "to treat and better understand deadly and disabling diseases and conditions that affect more than 100 million Americans, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and many others."[35] I think the majority of American people can no longer afford to have an extension of the 4 more years of the same President Bush and Sen. McCain's economic policies and fiscally liberalized spree policies.[2]

Sonia Ayala, a Democratic activist and Obama supporter from Blooming Grove, attributes the tide of local donations to frustration with events of the last eight years under President Bush and the sense that Obama can change the course of the country. "It was the right candidate at the right time," she said.[14] We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president. We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready. The change that Obama talks about so much is not simply a change in this policy or that one. It is not fundamentally about lobbyists or Washington insiders.[13]

Sokol said Obama was a great professor who presented complex issues in a "fair and balanced" way. The then-Illinois state senator did "academic gymnastics" to be evenhanded to a class of students across the political spectrum, he said. "Everyone thought he was an impressive person," he said. "I don't think anyone would have believed in eight years that he would be a week away from being president of the United States."[33] Young people, who accounted for about 17 percent of the electorate in 2004, do not always turn out on Election Day. Penn State political scientist Michael Berkman says this year turnout might reach 19 percent because of the excitement generated by Obama.[7] Thompson said an Obama presidency and Democratic majorities in Congress risked shifting the country's tax burden largely to the wealthy. The election would determine "whether or not we want a growing government where a majority of people don't pay any taxes at all, and (the government is) thereby in a position to say to a small minority: 'You're going to pay all of them, and if we want to, we've got the votes, and we can raise them every year if we want to,' " Thompson said. "Is that the kind of country that people risked their lives to come over here and form? I don't think so. That's not us."[27] Speaking of the state's newly registered votes, Walsh said, "We've been the fastest growing state in the country for a couple of decades. Combine that with the excitement around this election, and that's what's going to happen.It's realistic to expect that the turn out will be equally dramatic in its increase," Walsh said. The real question will be, will the new voters registered by the Obama campaign come to the polls? Some quick computations show just how important those new voters are to Obama in Nevada, and across the country.[12] Assuming that turnout is a similar 77 percent, and using the percentage of the party registration to predict a candidate's vote total, we can guess at what the Nevada vote totals may be for Obama and McCain. This category includes new registrants who have provided all critical eligibility criteria but are missing additional non-critical information from their applications, as well as existing registered voters whose records are being updated or changed." There are another 230,000 registered voters who may be eligible to vote in this race.)[12] The veteran Democrat later backed off just a bit, noting that the district used to be "really redneck." Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Baer set off a storm of angry letters last week when he wrote about the "Cracker Factor" in the campaign, saying McCain was angling to attract white voters who wouldn't vote for a black candidate.[8]

With less than a week to go before the election, the Obama fundraising juggernaut has now collected more than a half million dollars from donors in four local counties, far surpassing the combined totals of the 2004 candidates for president and leaving John McCain deep in the dust.[14] There are going to be differing opinions on which way to go. There are those who are going to be afraid of John McCain's wild behavior and hyperbolic rhetoric, and there are those who think that Obama is a black Muslim socialist communist reverend Wright Christian vote-fraud endorsing baby killer.[25] John Oliver's brilliant "Obama and Palin Rallies of Fear" on "The Daily Show" was a funny bit that showed how strong opinions become in the heated final days. There was Joe, who told me that he was a McCain supporter, but that he was happy to help my son canvassing for Obama find his way around the apartment complex where we were working. His five week old golden retriever doesn't have any political affiliation, apparently, because it was more than happy to run over to me and jump all over me and enjoy a good head scratch.[25]

If one wants to consider the quality of conservative thought within the GOP consider the quality of leaders it has brought to the country for the past 20 years; two George Bushes, Bob Dole and John McCain. These are not thoughtful or principled men, they are just diligent enough to hang around seats of power for a sufficient amount of time to be considered leaders by lessor political hangers-on. In the case of the current George Bush, he just happened benefit from a father who did enough hanging for two people.[1] Make it stand for what the fiscal conservatives used to stand for. It would attract back some of those who've gravitated to fringe parties and be a new start, free of religious zealotry. No, actually the mainstream media says Bush and McCain have destroyed the Republican party and all their little followers say BaaaBaaaaBaaa. The conservative ideology is going through its own revolution.[2] When the republican party alienates fiscal republicans, it is making a huge mistake. The recent McCain embodies this mistake completely. When the republican party also alienates the conservative academics in favor of joe the plumber, this is a big mistake. Palin embodies this completely. These two aspects of the current republican party are going to tear it apart. In all honesty, the Republican party has absolutely nothing to offer Americans this round. Proof is in the pudding that these types of extremist right wingers are now voicing discontent with them and breaking from the Republican party.[2] McCain did not destroy the Republican Party. The far-right ideologues have ruined their own party. If the Republicans lose badly in this election, instead of using it as a time for reflection on what to do next, the atmosphere will likely be rife with what has characterized the far right's mode of operationbluster, intimidation, innuendo and lies--all the while denying they played any part in the utter failure of their party along with their skewed and dead-wrong view of what the electorate wants.[2] The inside is filled with more of the same. This innuendo-filled pamphlet is not sponsored by a third-party organization; indeed, this pamphlet clearly states that it is '''paid for and authorized by the Maine Republican Party.''' I hope the good voters of Maine have the sense to see this for what it is ''' a Rove-like effort to smear an outstanding human being and citizen as well as a desperate attempt to distract the public from the real issues in this election.[4]

If, like me, you believe the United States of America is a great country, you might consider that the Democrats have had a lot to do with making it what it is today. I believe the Republicans may play a more constructive role as a minority party focused on ideology, and being the spoiler, rather than as a majority party that needs to be able to compromise for effective governance of such a large, diverse country as this one.[2] Let the Reps be led by Gov. Palin for the next 4 years. She should be the next Rep contender in 2012. We can ensure the Dems to be in charge, and the best hope to bring back the good old USA to its greatness. The Republicans rule their own out of fear. Those who have flown the stupid chicken coop that is their failed party have felt their wrath. I hope they keep turning on all the 'reasonable' conservatives until there's no one left but the Palin devotees who all move up ot Alaska and split from our Great United States of America. They could shoot their guns and have no taxes and be safe for their end times.[2]

McCain's response was '''drill, baby, drill.''' During his Senate years, McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, had accepted the reality that alternatives are needed to our dependence on oil. He had a clear path to respond to $4 gas with a serious, well-considered alternative energy program. Instead he wound up sounding like a shill for the big oil companies and losing support in Florida, North Carolina, California and other coastal states concerned about the impact of offshore drilling.[24] The race is not "tightening" - what's happening is that McCain is making up some ground in non-battleground states. Good for him - instead of losing California by 25 points, he's now being projected to lose it by 20. I don't think people realize what a crushing defeat for the Republicans this will be. This is the bill for 8 years of Bushism and Roveism coming due.[21] Some state tuitions went up by as much as a WHOPPING! 30% in one year. The reason the Bush McCain administration did this was to force struggling working class kids into the military to pay for the sudden jump in tuition. Which was forced on them by the corrupt Bush McCain administration, and their corrupt Republican Governors, and republican controlled state legislatures. They could use these wars to seize power, and later to get reelected. For their evil plan to work they needed more volunteer soldiers struggling to pay for an education whose blood they could spill to help them seize more power.[21]

In between, though, are me, and Joe with the golden retriever puppy. When the dust settles next Tuesday, the lunatic fringe of both sides will crawl back into their burrows for another three years of winter, and the rest of us will have to repair the damage that the Bush Administration has done to this country. This is one thing that McCain, reluctantly, and Obama are now in agreement upon.[25] By contrast, Obama cited global competiveness and energy policy. McCain's record has clearly aligned him with the failed economic policies of the Bush administration. While McCain has tried to cast himself as an outsider and change agent, his words and voting record say otherwise.[17]

While no poll can predict next week's results, the AP-GfK surveys explain why Obama is hoping not just for a win but a transcendent victory that remakes the nation's political map. McCain is scrambling to defend states where he wouldn't even be campaigning if the race were closer.[36] As we move toward the final days of the election, many Barack Obama supporters are feeling confident. Based on recent numbers, which suggest that Obama holds a comfortable lead in both national and key state polls, it is seductive to imagine Obama as a front-runner rather than an underdog.[37] Your statements remind me of a letter from a couple of weeks ago regarding the Second Amendment. The writer said "the Second Amendment would be OK under Barack Obama's administration because Barack Obama says he will defend your right to own guns." My question to that writer is "why don't you look at his voting record instead of just listening to him and the news media?" The news media won't mention how he has voted for all of the gun control laws aimed at prosecuting people who use guns for self-defense in the home or that he voted to ban the sale of almost all hunting ammunition as well as increase taxes on firearms and ammunition by 500 percent. Speaking of the news media, they fail to tell you the financial collapse was started because of changes made during Pres.[38] Being a Democrat, you'll argue against that knowledge until the cows come home. When you see another letter with the McCammon name, spewing the hate for conservatives, just know that it's not me or my immediate family, for thankfully, we've learned to see the light, through educating ourselves on how our U.S. government really works not for you or me, but for their own pockets, i.e. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, Franklin Raines, and their ilk. Unfortunately, many of my cousins have not, or apparently, never will admit that the Dems aren't always right, nor do they work in our best interest.[38] A number of pundits, mostly of the conservative variety, would like you to believe that if Barack Obama wins on Tuesday, it's the mainstream media'''s fault.[31]

Local campaign contributions picked up in January when Barack Obama emerged as a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination and continued through the spring as he fought a bruising primary fight with Hillary Clinton. Then they just kept on coming.[14] Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden pushed early voting in Florida on Wednesday and urged supporters to come onstage for a training session in how to go door to door for presidential candidate Barack Obama.[39]

When '''Joe the plumber''' does a better job of critiquing your opponent than you do, you probably don't have the rhetorical skills to be a good candidate. Could another candidate who wasn't a lifelong Capitol Hiller ''' that is, obsessed with earmarks ''' and knew how to run against a Democrat have done better? Well, perhaps, but no candidate who fit that bill was available this time around. Some of the candidates who lost to McCain ''' say, Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney ''' might have made better arguments against Obama, but they weren't as centrist or as experienced as him, which would have granted Obama the advantage anyway. [31] When you have an obviously superior candidate who is also a frontrunner with a lot more ad $behind him, you have to figure 'what's holding back the undecideds?' If they aren't voting for Obama yet, it's unlikely they'll change their minds yet. if the undecideds vote at all, i expect they will go to McCain by a wide margin.[21] McCain calls Obama a typical liberal politician. Granted, it's disappointing that Obama's mix of tax cuts for most people and increases for the wealthy would create an estimated $2.9 trillion in federal debt. He has made more promises on spending than McCain has. We wish one of these candidates had given good, hard specific information on how he would bring the federal budget into line.[13] Modern democracy developed in large part to substitute for civil war ''' read about the "dams and dykes" of Thomas Hobbs' The Leviathan for reference. It comes as no surprise, then, that tempers become heated and cooler heads often do not prevail at political rallies. When I talked with Bobby Clark of ProgressNow Action about their video, he said the McCain campaign had people going up and down the line telling folks not to respond to the protesters. The Obama campaign, as far as I could tell, focused their energy elsewhere. At least no fist fights broke out, though that one McCain guy in the video did punch a cardboard cutout of Obama.[40] McCain'''s problem is that Obama has come off as the more temperate figure in the general election to date. Beginning with McCain's selection of Sarah Palin ''' the Hannah Montana of American politics ''' the GOP fall campaign has been a roller coaster, punctuated by three debates in which the standard bearer somehow couldn't articulate a coherent argument as to why his opponent was unqualified for the presidency.[31] Look at all the forums that are packed with Obama supporters, look at all the media outlets that have been subsidized by the Obama campaing headquarters, look at all the registering of yound people. The RNC better get some smarts and start working on the next election because it looks as if they may have flubbed this one away royally. They did, and Palin is putting the last nails on the Republicans' coffin. I have never seen our country in such turmoil and devastation.[2]

It is fear of change, or the lack of change, that are polarizing our electorate. In an odd way, my brief meeting with Joe the golden retriever owner, while doing some canvassing for the Obama campaign yesterday evening here in Boca Raton, FLA., was probably a pretty good way to help me regain some sense of balance in these final days leading up to the election. It is easy, reading everything you can find on the web, to get caught up in the waves of the news cycle, and the high-amp that happens when shows try to find extreme points of view, which, sadly, this year, are plentiful.[25] The Obama campaign has spent months attracting new voters to register in key battleground states. Now, the fate of the presidency may depend on his campaign's success in getting those voters to the polls.[12] The Obama campaign senses opportunity in the county, and has opened six field offices there. In the town of Ambler, the field office is packed with volunteers, most using their own cell phones to contact voters. Volunteer coordinator Doreen Davis, who has worked in several prior presidential campaigns, says she has never seen anything like the level of commitment of these volunteers. "There are people in this room, school teachers who have recently retired in the area, union workers who are not going in until the night shift tonight," she said. "So yes, I think it is surprising - both the breadth and the depth."[7] Jonathan is right - Joe (Sam) the plumber was scripted by the McCain campaign, so as to use Obama's words to scare little weak minds like yours with chants of "socialist" and "Marxist". McCarthyism is dead for one reason, it was insanity.[2] Bush's presidency, where McCain voted almost always with the white house, will seem like some mad dream of the past, that must never be allowed to happen again. That is part of what Sen Obama wants to reclaim for America.[2]

Ouch. As for McCain, Gibson notes his and the president's support for a comprehensive immigration bill that would grandfather in an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. In an e-mail, he said he plans to vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. "Many of us have grown weary of the politics of appeasement practiced by both Bush and McCain," he said. "As a result, we've stopped caring about this election long ago, when it became that there would actually be two liberals running for president in 2008."[2] There is no problem with people disagreeing with President Bush. Vocal disagreement with politicians is what reminds them of to whom they must answer, but this is over the line. It's not a matter of party affiliation. Even-handed parody, whether focusing on former President Clinton, whoever wins this election, or any other politician should be the goal.[41]

The next dominating issue was immigration. McCain had courageously backed President Bush in offering a comprehensive plan that included a path to permanent residency for the 12 million undocumented foreign citizens already in the U.S. But when the heat was turned up by a seeming deluge of opposition from the extreme right wing, McCain folded and actually voted against the bill that he had co-sponsored.[24] McCain, meanwhile, has a steeper climb ahead. Behind in several key states and forced to defend turf that President Bush held onto in 2004, he has fewer routes to victory, but could still pull it off.[5]

Obama focuses on early childhood learning and addresses the dropout crisis through funding public school districts to invest in innovative intervention strategies. McCain states his intent to limit the role of government in public education, with no clear indication of what those limitations entail. [17] Even if he was not a McCain plant, he surely planted himself-- he recently registered as a Republican BEFORE he asked Obama the question. He clearly planted himself, in the least, was very dishonest all the way around, and then played "aw sucks, i'm just a fake plumber."[2] Many liberals don't get it. It doesn't matter who Joe is, whether he is a real plumber or if he was a "plant." Obama revealed in one of the VERY FEW unscripted moments some of his ideaology THAT is what matters. Up until the point of this Obama supporters tried denying the "spread the wealth" type mentality and I think they're mad because it made them change strategies. Now its "republicans are socialist, bush is socialist, tax laws are already socialist, etc" because it is MUCH harder to deny the FACT of what obama said.[2]

After hearing about some of Bob's more interesting theories (did you know the economy was just as bad under Clinton as under Bush?), I talked with a very nice group of young men who created the Web site BadChange.com. I have to admit, it's very a catchy name for an anti-Obama site. The group fights "for the protection of the sanctity of all human life, especially those who have no voice we believe in upholding the sanctity of human life in all circumstances." Scott Fisher, one of the creators of the site and their "main media guy," told me some Obama supporters had accused him that day of being "racist, which I don't understand. I'd vote for a black president if he stood for what I stood for."[40] We certainly would have remained holding the trust and respect we had in the world community before we elected the worst president in the history of our country. It's not only the national debt. It's the crazy energy price bubble for the past three years that Bush did nothing about. It's the high price of food. it's the stupid Iraq war that will cost this country over two trillion dollars by the time it is over. It's the financial and mortgage meltdown that saw millions of peoples savings and home equity wiped out while hedge fund and wall street guys walked away with millions. The GOP will have it's day again.[2]

The fundamentalist and conservative churches are full of hatred for anyone and anything gay. It is just another example of how their beliefs are twisted into hatreds by their ministers, because the ignorant people need someone to hate, to make up for their own hatred of themselves, for how ignorant they are. These religions should legally be considered cults, and should legally be required to register as hate groups. Their people will be free only when their ministers, and those who feed off these churches, stand in the unemployment line. God will surely deal with them later. The republican party as it is now controlled is all about power and money, regardless of how they hurt the nations people. They deserve to be sent to the hinterlands for a generation, until they wake up and clean house big time And then there can be reborn again, pardon the pun, a real republican party where the good of the nation comes first, and cooperation in our government between the parties become the norm.[2] The Fox News watching, intolerant, socially conservative evangelical "base" that Rove and Co. have pandered to, and who noisily support the war in Iraq, torture of "enemy combatants" and the government spying on citizens are the ones who ruined the Republican party. Ruining the republican party is one thing, but will the electorate allow these criminals to ruin what's left of our country? Let's hope not.[2]

The housing bubble did not begin to start until Bush got in office, and it increased greatly after the bankruptcy bill was passed. Now I could go on and on, about how Bush ruined the economy and how he cut taxes but increased spending. The real problem for the Republican party is, they put up a candidate that was a '''conservative''' that turned out to be someone who just didn't care and never did the dirty work conservatives have to do.[19] "They are like reeds shaking in the wind." As far as Republican conservatism goes I have noticed that most conservatives that I know are happy as long as no one touches their pocketbooks. When Bush proposed his tax cuts and increased military spending for an unnecessary war the conservatives were praising him. Now, eight years later, when Wall Street is falling apart and their money is at risk they are crucifying him. They gladly accepted the profits born of corporate tax breaks, sub-prime mortgages, defense contracts and oil deals with foreign nationals.[2]

Democrats tend to focus on employment and middle-class wage growth, which is reflected in things like job creation programs, increases in the minimum wage, more generous EITC benefits, worker-friendly appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, pro-unionization policies, and so forth. The result is a spike in economic activity, but it's a spike that has mostly worn off by the fourth year of their term. Republicans, by contrast, tend to focus their honeymoon period on tax cuts for high earners and inflation-fighting measures. This may produce poor economic results on average, but it turns out to be timed to briefly produce a spike in activity three years in the future.[34] Enough of the whining and lets get on with it. The republican party has no one else to blame but itself for its destruction. It has for 40 + years aligned itself with the old south, many of whom, with ignorance and prejudice filling their hearts, harbor dislike, disdain etc for the People who were it's victims for a hundred years after the civil war, via segregation. Really, the other people they hurt were themselves. It is so interesting to notice how in some areas, where high tech companies have established themselves, their educated employees are overwhelmingly democrats. Because the old south is so full of what are really religious/racial and economic based hatreds, that they have hurt themselves as well, terribly so.[2] What is happening to the republican party will happen to the democratic party in four. People are fed up with these two parties. It doesn't matter what is said by both candidates, we won't see it.[2]

My only hope is that if Obama gets elected, and by all electoral polls it is not even close, that perhaps a Barry Goldwater will come up from the Republican party, and reform the current mess of a party. I do not call myself a republican because they left me, I did not leave them.[19] Take Palin as a perfect examply of what has gone wrong with the Republican party. The media has said relatively little about some of her far out ideology but Palin is way way out there. She personally has been involved in anti witchcraft rituals, she has given speaches as Governor to the Alaska separatist movement, her church is scary, etc. But the Republican party wanted Palin because they felt she would appeal to their base? So what does that say about the Republican base, that they are very very far from mainstream America. Even Palin's comments to rural, white evangelicals, that they are the true Americans, the true patriots, says a lot about where the Republican party has gone.[2] I've got nothing to say to the social conservatives who want to tell me that my kid has to pray aloud in school, or learn religious dogma dressed up as pseudoscience, or that I'm not allowed to marry who I love. They don't want to find a way forward in a spirit of bipartisan negotiation and tolerance, they want to remake America in their own bigoted image. It's the social conservatives and the rabid evangelicals who have destroyed the Republican party.[2]

I was beginning to wonder whether there were still any other people who fit the "old" Republican mold - fiscally conservative, limiting Federal government to the things that can be done more efficiently or make more sense to aggregate at the federal level (i.e. Defense, NASA, etc.) without it getting so small that there's anarchy, and delegating decisions about social issues to state or local government. As a "hawkish" fiscal conservative who has his own views on gay marriage and abortion (none of which involve the Federal Government getting a say), picking between the Republicans and the Democrats is an exercise in trying to find the lesser of two evils.[2] I'm a democrat, probably always will be. I can respect fiscal republicans, because I understand there are two approaches to government. (I just don't think that people are generous enough to help those who really do need help, without the government stepping in.)[2]

The conservative republican base is stuck in stone age. They have no respect for women or their rights. Surprisingly even some women like Palin dont respect their own sex. If these people come to power I can't imagine the fate of this nation. I'm happy to see the end of the GOP. Maybe the'll be replaced by something that isn't so consumed by hate.[2] The gap between Obama's speeches and his actual view is so large its a joke. In 2004 he presented himself as a centrist to the right of Bill Clinton - who govered like a moderate republican (nafta, welfare reform etc.).[13]

Today, the McCain team is out with a new television ad called 'Compare' that touts McCain as a 'proven' leader and calls Obama 'risky.' On Monday a 7-year-old interview Obama gave on the courts and civil rights became additional fodder for McCain's contention that the Illinois senator has extreme views on the economy.[5] McCain has been using the fear that voters have about taxation and stated '''Obama believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs.[23]

What happened: Obama is accusing John McCain of blocking stem-cell research, using a charged appeal from the mother of a diabetic child to slam McCain falsely as someone who's blocking a cure.[35] John McCain is a typical Republican who promises change, which means less change in your pocket.[42]

If you can afford the time and expense to serve the final days of the campaign through the election on November 4th, please apply on line at JohnMcCain.com/deployment and pack your bags!" McCain campaign Atlantic County coordinator John Zarych, meanwhile, was more circumspect.[43] Now, 20 months later, on the eve of the 2008 presidential election, McCain no doubt would like to turn back the clock, and once again ask band leader Paul Shaffer '''Can we try that again.''' McCain would likely jump at the chance to trade in the past 20 months for a very different campaign model, one where he plays all the aces he once held in his hand much differently.[24] The people have had enough lessons in terrible politics. Like a rotting fish, they can smell it in McCains campaign, thanks to the terrible lessons from Bush and his gang.[2]

Instead of inferring that the U.S. could and should stay in Iraq indefinitely, suppose McCain acknowledged there needed to be an end date. That would have put him in alignment with the current Iraqi leadership which has been trying to get a recalcitrant Bush administration to agree to a specific phase out timetable. McCain had the opportunity to justify his support for the surge as a successful tactic to give Iraqis more time to get their own political house in order. McCain has shown no flexibility and has lost the public's confidence that he is better able to phase out U.S. involvement in the warwhich remains a high priority among U.S. voters.[24] "John McCain bucked the majority of our party in standing strong with me in urging the Bush administration to lift restrictions on stem-cell research, and last year voted to overturn the Bush policy."[35] Where perhaps you can write a book on how the republican party went so terribly terribly wrong. That would also be so wonderfully Patriotic, Senator. As well as helping to begin healing the terrible results of the republican Bush years, given to us by a party so terribly corrupted by greed and lies that they currently don't even appear to know the difference between those failings and the truth.[2] The Democratic and Republican Party Republicrats have, for countless years, wreaked enormous pain, suffering, and havoc upon the masses of women, men, and children around the globe.[6]

If so, the Republican Party, only recently besotted by dreams of a generational Pax Republicana, might find itself driven back into the deep South and deep West for who knows how long, " an extremist rump, reduced to a few stronghold states and obsessed with causes that seem not to matter to the general public."[30] Always happy to spend more money, rather than raising taxes Bush simply goes to China or Japan and borrows more. That kind of irresponsible behavior has brought this nation to the brink of a depression and destroys any notion of fiscal conservatism, once a trademark of the Republican Party.[2]

You see, starting back in 2000, and before 911, it was mostly the Republican governors, Republican legislatures, and county elected Republican officials that conspired with the corrupt Bush McCain administration to raise college, and university tuitions by the fastest, and highest rate increases in American history.[21]

Rudy Giuliani might have mounted an effective challenge, but we've learned that the Republicans will never nominate someone that liberal on social issues. McCain might have been his party'''s best option under these very difficult circumstances.[31] My time as a prosecutor has led me to believe that McCain's approach would be more effective. Since crime is largely influenced by local and state initiatives, no matter who wins, progress on this issue can and must be made.[17] A cloud of doubt appears to be forming in Europe over an Obama Presidency. "Rest assured that, should he win, Mr Obama is bound to disappoint," wrote the FT(The Financial Times in London). "He is expected to heal the country's racial divisions, reverse the trend of rising inequality, improve middle-class living standards, cut almost everybody's taxes, transform the image of the United States abroad, end the losses in Iraq, deal with the mess in Afghanistan and much more besides.[2] A republican win will doom the United States forever. McCain/Palin will ruin what's left of this country by pandering to the religious extremists who wish to take over the United States and force us all to follow their religion.[2]

Economic, social, and political matters will have become far worse. As civil rights attorney P. Jerome correctly concludes in the article titled, No Dog in this Fight, which states in relevant part: "If McCain wins, more war and more austerity. [6] The poor state of the economy may outweigh any vestiges of racial prejudice. "Some might vote for McCain as a way of resisting for what to them would not be a brave new world, but a world turned upside down," said Professor Randall Miller. "And others are going to overcome it because there are other concerns besides that and they are going to say 'what is in my best interest.'"[7] We've had a lot of success, and we've recruited a number of people." Volunteers carpool across the river to Pennsylvania, he said, where they join with a canvas team to pound the pavement in Philadelphia neighborhoods, reminding supporters to vote on Nov. 4. Another program, called Last Call for Change asks volunteers to make phone calls from within New Jersey out to the battleground states.[43]

Hood said the robot is an attention-grabber that fits Obama's message of change. Nearly all students have greeted the machine with positive attention, he said. "I might have heard two people say, 'That should be a McCain robot,' " he said.[33] Your reasoning is not without merit, but far more detailed analyses at a range of websites have convinced me it is indeed all over. That page includes the likelihood that McCain's vote is being underestimated, but still concludes Obama will be in the order of 375 electoral college votes to McCain's 163.[21] Palin and her husband are still very much an item. McCain married into millions thanks to his wife's ownership of an alcohol distribution company. Obama made his fortune writing books and working as a professor. In one of his autobiographies, Obama tells of his use of illicit drugs as a young man dealing with issues he blamed on the absence of his father for most of his life.[20] Shows Obama getting practical expereince by interning with Spain's president, making "actual executive decisions" and getting tepid endorsements from Spanish cabinet ministers who have trouble remembering which intern Obama is. Answer: "No Senator McCain is old so he is already qualified to be president."[21] Economics department chairman Jon Hamilton has also publicly endorsed Obama. He spoke at a press conference last month where he said he supported Obama's tax plan and thought it was being distorted by McCain.[33] Obama, not so much. He and his running mate are openly pro-choice. They readily point out that fewer abortions is always better. These pastors also extolled the benefits of the traditional marriage and how homosexual marriage is an affront to Biblical principles. I agree on this point, but I don't think the path to McCain is quite as clear as those in the pulpit seem to.[20]

Casey in a telephone interview afterward said McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have maintained a nearly constant presence in Pennsylvania since the nominating conventions because of the state's history of close elections. [27] Asked about an e-mail sent to McCain supporters titled "Can you invest a few days of your life to make history?" and asking for "volunteers who are willing to spend the final days of the campaign helping in a nearby state," Feldman insisted that the e-mail was "not from the campaign.[43] "We're trying to respond to the automated robocalls," Poag said, referring to one of the McCain campaign's tactics in several states.[43]

Labor unions have deployed hundreds of members - many from out of state - to work on behalf of the Obama campaign.[7] Was much of the mainstream media tilted toward Obama this election cycle? Undoubtedly ''' sometimes embarrassingly so. The support of the mainstream media ''' while irritating to those whose sympathies lie elsewhere ''' doesn't count for much. Way back in the early 1980s, in his brilliant book The Real Campaign, Jeff Greenfield convincingly argued that the media "made almost no difference''' in the outcome of the 1980 Reagan-Carter-Anderson election. (Reagan won big, of course, even though the press disliked him.) That was in the era when the mainstream media really did dominate ''' pre-cable, pre-Internet, and pre-You Tube. Now, "the mainstream media" finds its numbers of readers and viewers dwindling.[31] Barack Obama and the democrats are your best hope of doing that now. Tell your family, friends, and everyone you know to support them as best they can.[21] REMEMBER, no matter which of us may stumble or fall, the rest of you must continue to surge forward for Barack Obama, and the democrats, and for your-selves most of all.[21]

Beep! We'''re offering a low introductory rate of just 2.999999 per cent to qualified ''' Beep! Barack Obama may be a smooth talker, but as everyone in '''real America''' understands, articulate people can'''t be trusted.[22] We'''ve driven by your address three times, but we couldn'''t find your house, only a giant pile of leaves. If you could please call ''' Beep! Christmas is under attack! Barack Obama and the liberal elite would have it stricken from our vocabulary! This is why it is not good enough for stores to start playing Christmas music in mid-October.[22] I am encouraged that Barack Obama's plan provides for small- and home-based business owners to get coverage similar to that of federal employees, and that there would be no dropping or denial of coverage because of prior illness.[17] Barack Obama's Web site exemplifies the use of Web technology to produce a community, solicit suggestions and feedback, facilitate the formation of interest groups and garner significant funds from ordinary citizens.[17]

Obama and a democratic Congress will push us closer to socialism, the American people will get angry and the democratic Congress will get obliterated in the mid term election. [2] The history of revolutions for democracy over empire has always been that the most oppressive, tyrannical, and deceitful empires against peoples' own interests are the ripest for revolution, eg. British Empire oppressing American colonists causing the American Revolution; Louis XVI oppression and looting of French masses causing the French Revolution; Batista's pawn fascism for American corporate and gambling oppression of peasants causing the Cuban Revolution; and most recently the Soviet Empire's political economic oppression of their own people causing the 2nd Russian Revolution. Therefore, the good news today in America is that the ruling-elite 'corporatist Empire' controlling our country through the façade of its two-part, 'Vichy' sham of faux-democracy is clearly the most extreme example of non-democratic oppression and tyranny on its own people in the world today and thus a cleansing democratic revolution is absolutely certain for the American people to overthrow this hidden 'corporatist Empire' that has grown like a cancer in our midst, and to RE-establish American democracy over an Empire just like we did in 1776.[6]

" -- Joseph Goebbels. "The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."[25] Job security for local state and national party leaders. If they get their people elected they have a job in the next two years. If they fail they can look at the option (thought not certainty) of being an unemployed political operative. It's one thing to be an unemployed laborer or teacher or executive, there are many organizations to apply to work for.[2]

The expected heavy turnout of black voters for Obama could have an impact down the ballot as well, perhaps even in some of the statewide ballot issues, particularly a Religious Right-backed effort to make adoption and foster parenting more difficult for single people. The measure is aimed at punishing gay people and, in this, the usual liberal-black coalition falters because of a lack of enthusiasm for gay rights among many influential black church leaders. [44] The stakes are too high for voters to get it wrong this election. I will be voting for the Obama-Biden ticket because I believe this team is on the right side of the issues and has the right leadership qualities for this time.[4]

On economic issues, Obama is far more progressive and expensive. Don't look down on those still making up their minds. There is no clear answer to the question these candidates pose. Those who make black and white decisions in an election shaded in gray are fooling themselves and trying to fool you. Find out all you can about both candidates.[20] Out of the 50 states, Illinois ranks 48th in economic performance, 47th in employment growth, 7th highest in median property taxes paid and first in sales tax burden. These statistics just scratch the surface of where Chicago and Illinois is now, as a result of the changes Sen. Obama worked hard on for us. From looking at Senator Obama's past history, he is not capable of bringing any good changes to his constituency in the future.[45] Mr Obama also wants as many states in the bag as possible to insulate against shock results that go against what the polls predict.[46] 'Recent polls show Obama leading by double digits in the fight for Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes.[5] Vote for Obama, and the democrats like your life, and the lives of your loved ones depends on it.[21] Just like there is nothing new with the Democrats, there's nothing new with the Republicans either. They like big business, they believe in the trickle-down theory, that we are supposedly going to eat the crumbs that fall from Caesar's mouth at the big feast. I would argue that they have very good crumb catchers to make sure you get less and less.[26]

Republicans do not win by genius. 'They win by suppression. They win by the margin of Democrats’ inability to organize, and mobilize, and galvanize their base. They win by the margin of Democrats’ failure to pick up their rocks and hurl them toward the enemy. This time around, Obama supporters are faced with unusually favorable circumstances.[37] Carter won, just as Obama will likely win, but the outcome was in doubt right up until the end.[21] Whoever said, "There ain't no free lunch" had it right, and the adage of "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it" is so appropriate right now. Obama is already saying that he "might have to cut some of those programs" he's espousing like health care and tax cuts.[38]

Even Obama was impressed on how the weather didn't deter supporters. 'This is an unbelievable crowd for this kind of weather,' he said. After thanking election officials, he began by reminding people how close Election Day was.[28] Obama chose a more experienced and more thoughtful running mate--he put governing before politicking. Sen. Joe Biden doesn't bring many votes to Obama, but he would help him from day one to lead the country.[13]

In the past two weeks, I have heard four pastors remind me that my vote carries a religious responsibility. It is difficult when you sense that spiritual advisers haven't read the whole script. They tell me that abortion is wrong and thus I should support the candidates who are pro-life. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that McCain has a long record of pro-life voting and his running mate certainly did nothing to dissuade voters from believing he stands firm there. [20] Because the Bush McCain vote fraud, vote cheating, vote buying, vote manipulation machine is already hard at work to cheat you again.[21]

On crime-fighting, John McCain focuses on issues such as pursuing Internet predators, strengthening sex offender registries, naming judges who will not "engage in judicial activism," increasing penalties on repeat offenders and gang members, and prosecuting and deporting illegal aliens who commit crimes. His is a tough, law-and-order approach.[17] John McCain doesn't understand that medical research benefiting millions shouldn't be held hostage by the political views of a few."[35] John McCain's education policies begin with extending No Child Left Behind. He plans to give parents greater choice through vouchers. While vouchers may allow a few families to send their children to private schools, the program siphons funding from schools in low-income neighborhoods.[17]

For years, if not decades, the U.S. public has been hungry for reforms that will provide universal access to health care at reasonable cost, regardless of work situations or existing health conditions. Of all the many options open to him, McCain decided to follow the most ideologically '''pure''' free market pathone that puts even more stress on those who most need the security of health insurance and promotes the failed notion that health care is merely another marketplace for individual consumer choice, not an essential need for a civilized society. [24] When asked to name the biggest threat to U.S. economic viability, McCain believed it to be radical Islamic fundamentalism, an amazing statement given the myriad threats to U.S. economic supremacy.[17]

One would like to spread the wealth around (socialism), one would like to keep the U.S. a capitalist country (earn, spend, keep, give as an individual desires). One party wanted women to have equal opportunity even to become president, now they don't think one should become vice president, since she is of the other party. [38] Of course, there are a lot of people who would disagree with me on that, fair enough. I think it's going to take America's middle class hitting the ground very hard to snap out of what they've been voting for for the last eight years. Then there are other days when I just think, Screw it, you're that stupid, you like having these kids come home with their legs blown off. Well, why don't you just fuck more and send more bodies into this thing? Like Sarah. Send all five of your kids into the maw of this beast.[26] Obama thinks that spreading the wealth is a fair idea and so, last but not least, Americans can look forward to socialism for the next four years.[4] Now, the American dream under Obama will be. don't work hard, buy a home with someone else's money, support your family with someone else's money. rely on the government.[2] Obama has also taken a position on gay marriage, "I'm a Christian. So, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman." Both men and their running mates oppose same-sex marriage, but all support civil unions and have voted almost identically on the subject.[20] On moral issues, McCain may win, but it is a split decision at best certainly not the knockout the GOP would have you believe.[20] The messsage hasn't sunk in with the McCain campaign, which is dredging up the old politics of the McCarthy era, etc, trying to use character assasination to win the presidency.[2] At the McCain field office in Montgomery county outside Philadelphia, campaign volunteers show no sign of giving up. They fill the office, the only one in the county, as they make calls and stuff envelopes with campaign literature in the effort to attract support.[7] Over the past 20 months, at least five major issues have, at one point or another, dominated the campaign environment. McCain has bungled each and every one of them.[24]

Yeah, really, damn that mainstream media for calling out McCain on his lies, his deceptions and his incompetence. No offense Weinman, but you obviously haven't followed this election closely enough.[21] According to the final numbers of active voters from the Nevada Secretary of State's office, there are 1,207,423 registered voters in the state. If turn-out is identical to 2004, there would be 935, 753 Nevadans casting ballots in this year's election.[12] The numbers are meant to illustrate a more important fact that will determine the electoral outcome in Nevada and a handful of other states on Election Day.[12]

After two straight right-to-the-wire races - in 2000 and 2004 - the Democrat hopeful wants to bury Republican JohnMcCain in a landslide. To that end, he has discarded the conventional strategy of holding on to safe states ("Blue" states for Democrat and "Red" for Republican) and fighting it out in traditional "toss-up" states. [46] With the economy in meltdown, everything Ron Paul has predicted has come true. Every reason for the meltdown he pointed out. The Republicans have blamed Fannie and Freddie Mac and the failed Carter principles and why shouldn't they! The Democrats have blamed Bush's failed economic policies and why shouldn't they! Bush and his sponsored bankruptcy bill, made creditors feel safe offering stupid loans.[19] While we can't endorse a candidate in every race across the country, we strongly encourage you to pull the Democrat's lever over the Republican's.[47]

Voters do remain somewhat concerned about Obama's experience level. He holds a 15-point advantage among voters regarding which candidate is best able to handle the economy.[27] Obama was far more liberal and far less experienced than the average Democratic candidate.[31]

Even if the polls showed a dead heat, I think Obama's massive resource investment in (and enthusiasm of) a ground organization will lock him the victory.[21] In an odd way, my brief meeting with Joe the golden retriever owner, while doing some canvassing for the Obama campaig. It is fear of change, or the lack of change, that are polarizing our electorate.[25] Empower the American people. I think the best way to do that is to get them involved in their government through direct democracy.[6] I'm hopeful to get the person I want into office, but if it doesn't happen, I'm not taking a day off. So I can't be one of those people cheering when Bush steps down, because he's basically stepping away from a crime scene. He's stepping away from thousands of dead marines and dead Iraqis and disenfranchised Americans.[26]

The press likes to focus on the day-to-day campaign. That's what sells papers (or at least used to, in the days when people actually bought papers).[31] Palin/s selection was a complete sellout by the republcians to the extreme religious right take no prisoners crownd, a group that would fit in so well in places like Saudi Arabia and Iran, if you only replaced "Jesus and the bible" with "Allah and the Quoran". The same mindset, the same absolutism, the same total we are right, you are wrong about God gang. Their only goal is to control your mind, for their power rush, ego and money. The same mentality that gave some Islamic religious people total control over the legal and social life of their countries. That laid the foundations for 9/11, etc. For their leaders are all so corrupt that only pure religious hatred can succeed in hiding who they are from their people, and creating hatred so vile that they would drive airplanes into buildings. And, though not as violent, the similarity between southern fundamentalist churches and others of their ilk to how these other societies have been corrupted is frightening. We can drive them out of the political process, and as their people come to understand what they really stand for, their leaders will preach only to the dust in the pews, and the dust of their departed, who never realized how they were used.[2]

Our purpose was to offer a more constructive approach aiming at correcting the abusive traditional, so-called scientific, theories of Optics. It's like to say that in the exceptional circumstances in which we live today - in the point of view of FINANCE and ENERGY - no exploration in the mid or long term, by the american expertise, of an additional source of energy, at the same time safe and economically profitable, should not be ruled out. That is why, we wrote to that authentic witness to the signs of this age, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, the prophet of the new era. [5] Americans are focused on the greatest threat to the world economic system in 80 years. They feel a personal vulnerability the likes of which they haven't experienced since Sept. 11, 2001. It's a different kind of vulnerability. Unlike Sept. 11, the economic threat hasn't forged a common bond in this nation. It has fed anger, fear and mistrust.[13]

Personally knowing a lot of traditionally GOP supporters I think you are going to see a type of reverse Bradley effect or more like a "1990 Bob Rae" effect. Voters who would never think of, and who will never admit to voting for, a leftist anti-gun, pro-abortion, wealth re-distributor will actually in the solitude of the voting booth, vote for him and then never speak of it. [21] Lacking an alternative like that, the people have no choice but to vote for Massa.[41]

In the politcal world there are really two, and if you piss one off. well, let's just say good luck finding work. They will say anything and do anything to get people of their party elected regardless of the candidate, the issues or the race in question.[2] The Democratic party is progressive and more powerful than ever before. The Republicans are doing every thing they can to suppress the gay community and stop same sex marriage.[47] If it were truly a fair election, it probably wouldn't be, but I think the Republicans, truth be known, cheat.[26] No one is buying the Ayers thing. I do think that they'll have to resort to cheating to try and win, or at least make it a close election, because I think Barack is pulling away. Well, for me, it's not one of those "ding-dong, the witch is dead" situations.[26]

President Bush can look out the window on Pennsylvania Avenue this morning and see construction workers beginning to build the inaugural viewing stands for the next president. For those who are superstitious, the weather at Bush's first inaugural was dark, cold and wet. [48]

REFERENCES

1. Do You Remember the Conservative Revolution? I Wonder Where it Went? | Best Syndication
2. Conservatives say Bush and McCain destroyed Republican Party | Countdown to Crawford | Los Angeles Times
3. WLNS TV 6 Lansing Jackson Michigan News and Weather - WLNS.COM | Candidate Campaign Update
4. 'The stakes are too high' - Bangor Daily News
5. Uken som gjenst'r : Dagsavisen
6. OpEdNews ' Enough is Enough ! WHAT IS NEEDED IS AN END TO CORPORATE FASCISM, CORPORATE GOVERNMENT
7. VOA News - McCain Fights for Pennsylvania, but Obama Ahead in Polls
8. How McCain Thinks He Can Win Pennsylvania - TIME
9. McCain willing to do anything to be elected
10. Broder: McCain's weak management skills have hurt his campaign - Salt Lake Tribune
11. Bush cleanup -- dailypress.com
12. Capitol Weekly: The Newspaper of California State Government and Politics
13. Chicago Tribune Endorses Obama: Their First Endorsement of a Democrat by Carla G. - politics, chicago tribune endorsement for obama, election | Gather
14. Region's donors favor Obama - RecordOnline.com - The Times Herald Record
15. Buffalo Reflex - Buffalo, Missouri - Neighbor Newspapers > News > Every vote counts in Missouri,
16. TheImproper.com | Arts | Entertainment | Culture
17. Readers write and comment on election issues | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
18. McCain Robocalls Running In Arizona - Horserace
19. For Those Not Happy With The Candidates. | Political Lore .com
20. Kent Bush: Candidates are the leading men in nationwide morality tale - Norwich, CT - Norwich Bulletin
21. My First And Last Directly U.S. Election-Related Comment : TV Guidance : Macleans.ca Blog Central
22. keepMEcurrent.com - Guest Columns News - Current Publishing, LLC
23. CD-News | Daily News Articles
24. U.S. Politics Today - News Media Monitoring
25. Brian Ross: Channel This Election Fervor Into Helping the Country
26. Henry Rollins - Time Out New York
27. LancasterOnline.com:News:Thompson blasts Obama
28. Obama & McCain battle in Pennsylvania
29. Federal News Service - Transcript
30. Evangelicals and Rural Americans Are Breaking Big for Obama | Election 2008 | AlterNet
31. The Phoenix > News Features > Maverick in a mess
32. Which way will the secret Bush voter go? - The Boston Globe
33. UF faculty divide support between Obama, McCain | GatorSports.com | The Gainesville Sun | Gainesville, FL
34. D.C. Progressive Examiner: Worker rights : Are Republicans or Democrats better for your salary?
35. Out of bounds! Obama falsely accuses McCain of blocking stem-cell research - National Elections - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington
36. The Associated Press: AP Top News at 1:34 p.m. EDT
37. Metro - Hill: Barack Obama rocks
38. Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com - Readers' Forum: Oct. 30, 2008
39. USA Today Editoweb 29 october 2008
40. Colorado Independent » Throwdown: Obama crowd vs. McCain crowd
41. Area readers comment on various issues | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
42. Concord Monitor - Support Democrats
43. Campaigns recruit N.J. residents to work battleground Pa.
44. Arkansas Times
45. Windy City Times - Sounding off on the election
46. Obama makes inroads into Republican states
47. News | Entertainment | Politics | Nightclubs - GaySocialites.com
48. SFGate: Politics Blog : Inaugural stands going up

How John McCain ran against himself

CONTENTS:

The timing of the piece, coming as it did on the same morning that Mitt Romney was appearing (yet again) with John McCain (this time in Ohio) just adds to the offense. (More...)
With the failing McCain campaign (though not out by any stretch), a high GOP turnout is in serious jeopardy, especially against an expected record turnout by registered Democrats. (More...)
Since Romney suspended his campaign and subsequently formed the Free and Strong America political action committee in April, he has donated approximately $202,000 to 75 GOP candidates, according to numbers made available to NRO from the PAC. Romney has also made an additional $173,000 in donations through flexible spending accounts to five affiliated state PACS, including $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage, which is working to pass Proposition 8 in California, and $5,000 to stop a ballot initiative in Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana. (More...)
As far as declaring war on the New York Times and shunning the reporters who once lionized him, that tactic only makes political sense if McCain's ultimate goal is to win an anchor job on Fox News when the campaign is over. (More...)
"And as we face the very real possibility of an Obama presidency, that's the last thing we need," writes Romney. (More...)
Had McCain taken on the social conservatives in a convention floor fight, voters would still be talking about the GOP nominee's maverick moxie. (More...)
Romney told reporters at a breakfast for Utah Republicans during their party's national convention that he wasn't interested in a 2012 run. (More...)

The timing of the piece, coming as it did on the same morning that Mitt Romney was appearing (yet again) with John McCain (this time in Ohio) just adds to the offense. The truth is I can't think of another Republican leader who has spent more time this election year than Mitt Romney in helping GOP candidates and conservative causes, starting at the top of the ticket with McCain-Palin but also involving dozens of other federal and state races and some important ballot campaigns. Aside from the work he's done for the McCain-Palin ticket, he has personally campaigned for 32 candidates running for House and Senate seats, as well as for two gubernatorial candidates. Plus, the financial support he has extended goes beyond what he has been able to effect through his personal appearances. [1] Giuliani's plan came up way short, way early. His plan was to not contest in the smaller states in the primaries. He was counting on the big states like, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and California, where he was supposed to have a big advantage over everybody else. In the smaller states candidates like Mike Huckabee, an Evangelical preacher as well as former Governor of Arkansas, Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts and newly minted rightish wing conservative, and John McCain, Senator from Arizona, big time war hero, the Democrat's favorite Republican, and a bit of a dark horse, would have an advantage over the big eastern city mayor, but the theory went, they would also split the vote.[2] McCain presumably believed that these sharp policy reversals were necessary to win the GOP nomination. In truth, McCain triumphed because fortune looked his way with a broad grin. (Never underestimate luck in politics -- think where Obama might be if, say, Hillary Clinton had aggressively contested the caucus states after Iowa.) McCain narrowly edged Mitt Romney in the 2008 New Hampshire primary because, according to exit polls, he was strongly favored by Republicans and independents who felt "dissatisfied" or "angry" with Bush. Where South Carolina had been McCain's primary of broken dreams, it became in 2008 his political land of enchantment: Fred Thompson lured just enough social conservative votes away from Mike Huckabee that McCain squeaked to victory. While alternative history is inherently speculative, a reasonable case can be made that McCain could have won the 2008 Republican nomination even if he had not pandered to Falwell and had not abandoned his fiscal conservatism to compete with Romney on taxes. The victory formula would have been built around McCain's biography, his unorthodox style, his unstinting support for the surge in Iraq and the general feeling that eight years earlier the GOP made a tragic mistake with Bush.[3] Given the stark differences between McCain and Obama and the looming prospect of a Democratic sweep in Washington, some Republicans wonder whether conservatives really would have sat out the election just because McCain's running mate was a moderate on social issues. McCain might have been able to portray such a choice as a sign of political independence, and Ridge's views on abortion might have won McCain the hearing from Clinton supporters that the Palin pick once promised. McCain also passed over Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who has strong family ties to Michigan, where his father was a long-serving governor. Republicans in Michigan believe that McCain would not have had to concede Michigan, another Democratic state he once hoped to carry, had the ticket been McCain-Romney.[4]

Sarah either does not understand, or perhaps does not wish to comprehend, that a presidential and vice presidential duo is supposed to function as an integrated team. The resulting flap prompted Sarah to be referred to by an operative from the McCain team calling her a "diva" while another negative comment erupted during that same rocky period that "Palin is a lightweight" and that Mitt Romney will become the Republican party's chief spokesman "on November 5." Mind you that all this is happening a week before Election Day. As for Sarah the free spirit, even minimal vetting from the McCain forces should have been enough to remove her from consideration for the vice presidency. Her two years as Alaska's governor have been marked by bickering and cronyism in which major positions have been frequently filled by ill-qualified long time Wasilla cronies.[5] Whomever is shooting at Palin from the McCain camp is not doing Romney's bidding. The good news for Mitt Romney is folks care what he's doing. Someone out there sees him as enough of a threat to their ambitions to try to wound him. That rarely happens to irrelevant also-rans. When longtime Romney spokesman Eric Fernstrom was asked about the former Massachusetts governor's future on Monday, the longtime aide suggested Romney's 2008 presidential ambitions weren't running his life: "Gov. Romney had his shot at the White House, and he lost fair and square." After a hostile primary season that highlighted some shameful instincts hostile to religious liberty both in the mainstream media and on the Right, you might not blame Romney if he went into retreat. He never did. Romney got on the campaign trail for John McCain, defending the free-market policies that this successful businessman could no doubt run with, if he were in the driver's seat.[6] November is almost here and the presidential campaign is winding to a close. The Democrats are planning for their tyrannical one-party rule of the White House and both houses of Congress, and the GOP is preparing to send John McCain out to pasture where he can roam free and eat as many apples as he wants. That means it's time to speculate about 2012! Jockeying in the Republican ranks has already begun, with several candidates trying to position themselves as the frontrunner to take on President Obama in the next election.[7] We never quit," McCain declares. A week before Election Day, the Republican is an enthusiastic underdog with what advisers say is a deep personal belief that he still has a chance to stage an upset next week. He has come back from the brink politically and personally before, and they say, he's resolved to do so again despite steep challenges. In the homestretch, he tells people to ignore the pundits who project an Obama triumph and the polls that favor the Democrat. He scorns Obama's confident air in the waning days as a premature "victory lap." He says the country deserves "someone who will fight 'til the end." And, he says a GOP victory is within reach. Some GOP pessimists have suggested he follow the example of Bob Dole, who, once he fell well behind Democrat Bill Clinton in 1996, shifted his campaign from states with the tightest presidential races to those where his appearance could most help Republican candidates for lesser offices.[8]

'Things are so at risk right now, you have to put your party affiliation behind you, you have to put your country first.' Arthurhultz said. He said if they're supporting McCain because they've always voted Republican, he said he'd ask them to think about their vote, noting the nation must move beyond categories and labels. 'I can only make up my own mind,' he said. He cautioned voters that there is risk in blind allegiance, noting a party or a candidate can take that vote for granted and the person or region then loses political leverage. Part of the reason he came forward to support Obama, he said, is because he used to ask people who said they supported him to'stand up' and show that support and they often would, sometimes at risk to their business. 'I have the same responsibility,' he said. 'That's what got me to endorse the first Democrat ever in my life. One message he is sharing with Obama campaign workers is he believes the race is a lot closer than the polls are showing. 'This is not a 60-40 country,' he said.[9] Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, says Romney's "only ambition" right now is working to get Republicans elected next week. "He's been raising money for candidates and campaigning in their districts," Fehrnstrom says. "Some of these people supported Mitt Romney in his campaign for president, and he's returning the favor. Others are good Republicans who find themselves in challenging races." As for the future, Fehrnstrom says, Romney plans to stay active "as a leader of the party" and continue to talk about the three prongs of his conservative views: a strong economy, strong families and a strong military. With a few years until the start of the 2012 chase, Romney could prep himself for another bid by burnishing his conservative credentials and working to ease fears that some voters have over his Mormon faith. Romney this year faced an electorate uneasy about his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which some evangelical Christian groups view as heretical or cultic. Political pundits say the more exposure Romney has with Americans, the more accepting they might be of his faith.[10]

When the McCain campaign famously withdrew from Michigan, Romney contributed $50,000 to the demoralized GOP there. According to his PAC, "The total amount of financial support to GOP candidates and conservative causes through Romney-controlled state and federal PACs is $375,000." The web piece further blamed former Romney aides for being the source of the Sarah-Palin-is-a-diva complaints coming out of the McCain camp, presumably meant to damage her post-election prospects should the Republican ticket lose next week. The problem with that is: Most of Romney's inner circle is still his inner circle ' some having come from the business world, others being Massachusetts people now running his PAC. Others returned to Washington, and are doing McCain surrogate work, but are far from campaign insiders.[6]

So quickly and without much fanfare, Rudy was gone. He was soon to be followed by Romney, Fred Thompson, actor, and former Senator from Tennessee, whose campaign never really got started, along with all the other Republican also-rans except Huckabee. Huckabee hung around and showed he had real potential as a stand-up comic, which eventually got him a show on FOX News. That left the old (oldest) last candidate standing as one John McCain, who had moved from a moderate populist Republican to a more center/right position. He did this to get on better terms with the Christian right wing of the Republicans, but they didn't quite warm up to him until he name Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate and that did seal the deal with the Republican right.[2] A recent EPIC-MRA telephone poll of 400 likely voters showed Obama with a 51 percent to 37 percent lead over the Republican. Many in McCain's party -- including his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- felt he should have fought it out. "It's a tidal wave," Ballenger said, describing the pullout effects on others on the GOP ballot. "When your standard bearer" jumps ship that really says something, he said. "It's going to be a great Democratic year," Ballenger said. Another area that bodes well for Democratic is that they've displayed some pretty innovative fundraising methods -- led by Obama's Internet campaign that reportedly has resulted in $160 million in contributions from donors of $200 or less.[11] Early indications point to ruthless purges of the Republican Party by my colleagues in the VRWC (vast right-wing conspiracy) if the present polling numbers prove consistent and the GOP is swept away by a tsunami from East to West. First to be arrested in their rooms will be McCain aides Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt, and Rick Davis, the trio responsible for the defeatist decision to send the candidate rushing to Washington at the end of September, calling off the first incoherent debate for a few hours, and then ignoring the will of his own party in the House and the passionate voices of the Republican voters online and siding with the Democrats on the reckless, opaque, dictatorial Paulson bailout plan. Schmidt and flack Nicolle Wallace have already been notified they will be sent to the Sarah Palin camp for special tortures before they are thrown down the steps. Soon after the McCain camp will come the liquidation of the Republican National Committee the inert Mike Duncan, Jo Ann Davidson, Frank Donatelli, Carly Fiorina, and their slow-footed aides. This deletion is well advanced. There are no signs the RNC flacks will attempt to flee when the Praetorian guards knock, but if they do, it will only drag out the inevitable. All Republican members of the Senate will be sent arrest warrants, and only those shrewd enough to send them back with the names of the conspirators will be spared.[12]

Mitt could very easily tilt things more Beatty's way with a little effort. Before McCain was nominated, I liked Mitt from an issues perspective -- but always thought he was a little stiff/phony in the personality department. I now believe he does lack the "realness" of Palin -- and without much effort in the name of the party, he doesn't seem to get the "neighbors help one another" quality that would endear him to a greater percentage of Republicans. One of the paths to getting a conservative back in the White House is to highlight the "libs will do or say anything to win" selfish personalities of their leaders, and that their policies are marred with trying to please every voting group under the sun without any serious analysis on their effects. Mitt may believe in conservative policy, but he sure acts like he only cares about his personal political future -- to the detriment of the party.[1] All that would have been required to achieve electoral parity and a plausible road map to the White House would have been for the Republican nominee to have transformed himself into. (Warning: Mind-bending content ahead). the John McCain of the 2000 primaries. That was the fabled McCain who wooed reporters with nonstop rolling press conferences about the Straight Talk Express, who electrified independent voters in the New Hampshire primary with his clarion call for political reform and who late in the campaign denounced Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." Make no mistake, McCain 2000 was an unabashed hawk ("rogue-state rollback" was his bellicose mantra) who never deviated from conservative orthodoxy on abortion (though he did give off the impression that rolling back Roe v. Wade was about 993rd on his list of life ambitions).[3]

Since dropping out of the 2008 race in February, Romney has stayed visible in the media spotlight and has crisscrossed the nation to help boost McCain and down-ticket Republicans running for Congress or local races. He launched a political-action committee, the Free and Strong America PAC, to raise money and distribute it to GOP contenders in tough races. His supporters are casting Romney - who oversaw Salt Lake City's successful 2002 Winter Olympics - as someone who, if McCain fails to grab the White House this year, could become a signature Republican figure and return in a few years to take on a President Obama. "He's known for kind of coming in and taking a challenge, taking a crisis and turning it around, and I think that's something we may be facing at least three months from now if not four years from now," says Justin Hart, one of the co-founders of the site MymanMitt.com, who supports McCain now but is eyeing Romney for a future bid.[10]

McCain strategists say private polls show the race tightening since McCain used the story of "Joe the Plumber" to criticize Obama's tax plans and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden's comment that Obama will be tested with an international crisis to again label the Illinois senator inexperienced. They note that national polls over the past week have ranged from a one-point Obama edge to a double-digit lead. And, they say a large segment of white working-class voters has been vacillating between McCain and Obama for months. They hope many persuadable voters break their way. This week, McCain's events generated energy in conservative parts of Pennsylvania. On Tuesday morning, McCain and Palin climbed out of their campaign bus in the home of the Hershey Bears hockey team and drew thunderous cheers although the arena wasn't filled. McCain drew applause when he said, "I've been tested. Sen. Obama hasn't" and a standing ovation when he said, "I will bring our troops home with honor and victory and not in defeat."[8] Last week, Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor, said that John McCain might now be on the verge of winning Pennsylvania the mainly Democratic state where McCain is investing considerable time and energy in these final days of his presidential campaign had he chosen Ridge as his running mate. Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina and one of McCain's closest friends and advisers, has in recent days been quite direct in saying that he counseled McCain to choose Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut for the second spot. Lieberman, he said, would have been a breakthrough choice, winning McCain plaudits and support from independent voters who are weary of partisanship.[4]

There are three important reasons why Palin will have rendered serious damage to McCain once the final tabulations are in for election 2008. The first is that John McCain took the number one gut argument he could make to the electorate in these economically troubled times, whether one accepts it or not, and removed that piece from the electoral chessboard. The argument was that he has far more political experience than Barack Obama and is a better choice during a period of turbulent uncertainty both at home and abroad. Once that Palin, an ill-equipped running mate who screamed foul over an easy question such as what newspapers she read, was selected, McCain was no longer in a position to play his experience card without the specter of his frequently lampooned running mate slapping him metaphorically in the face. The second reason, that also resulted in a metaphorical slap in McCain's face, was the hope that a Palin candidacy would resonate with women, particularly former supporters of Hillary Clinton. That hopeful expectancy on the part of McCain and Republican forces demonstrates how out of touch they are with the kind of pragmatic feminism Clinton and her supporters embrace.[5] Just over the horizon lies an alternate universe in which John McCain is locked in a tense nail-biter of a presidential race with Barack Obama, one in which the polls gyrate daily and "too close to call" describes most of the contested political landscape. To create this what-if Republican fantasy, only one thing needs to be changed -- and that mystery element has nothing to do with a mythical Barack Obama scandal or an inexplicable surge in George W. Bush's approval ratings.[3]

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — John McCain repeatedly implores backers to "stand up and fight" these days, showing gritty determination even as many indicators point to a Barack Obama victory and Republicans engage in fingerpointing typical of losing campaigns.[8]

Michigan Republicans also are saddled with the effects of John McCain's decision to pull money and staff from the state in early October. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis said the McCain pullout badly dampened volunteer enthusiasm immediately after it was announced, and that volunteer staffing at its campaign offices is just now close to the party's targets.[13]

State GOP hampered by fewer volunteers, less funding after McCain pullout. Democrats in the final days of the 2008 campaign have substantially more manpower and money to get their Michigan voters to the polls -- an edge that could help not just Barack Obama but Democratic candidates in key races lower on the ballot.[13] "Our ultimate challenge is how we keep up the level of intensity among folks who are, 'Isn't it over?' which it is clearly not, and carrying that excitement to candidates up and down the ticket," said Amy Chapman, the director of Obama's Michigan campaign. Campaign officials said they hope to contact 1.4 million Michigan voters in the final four days of the campaign as part of their get-out-the-vote drive. Those efforts could help Democrats in close races, which in Michigan include two high-profile congressional races, a dozen or more state House contests and a contentious Supreme Court battle.[13]

With the failing McCain campaign (though not out by any stretch), a high GOP turnout is in serious jeopardy, especially against an expected record turnout by registered Democrats. This move, which we're seeing in other states and districts, is a smart one for the GOP. By acknowledging the obvious about their candidate, they can use it to leverage the expected loss to re-energize an otherwise lackluster base to stop the congressional hemorrhaging and prevent a Democratic hegemony. [14] Behind-the-scenes reports hint that McCain picked Palin in pique over warnings that the GOP delegates would rebel over the selection of apostate Democrat Joe Lieberman or even pro-choice Pennsylvania Republican Tom Ridge. Campaign strategists are so afraid of televised controversy that they never considered that the best way to demonstrate political independence is to actually do something bold when the entire nation is watching.[3] Buckley's way past unrepentant. Responding to the torrent of abuse coming his way he reports 12,000 outraged e-mails from GOP loyalists he writes that eight years of Bushism have given us "a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance." Defending him in her own syndicated column, Buckley's friend and colleague, Kathleen Parker, takes it a step beyond: "Republicans are not short on brainpower or pride but they have strayed off course. They do not, in fact, deserve to win this time, and someone had to remind them why." For her part, Noonan realizes that the conservative movement's vaunted message discipline has become a crippling weakness. In purging Buckley, the "conservative intelligentsia are doing what they have done for five years. They bitterly attacked those who came to stand against the Bush administration. This was destructive. If they had stood for conservative principle and the full expression of views, instead of attempting to silence those who opposed mere party, their movement, and the party, would be in a better and healthier position." Although McCain and Palin are taking much of the abuse, it's really Bushism (or Rove-ism, if you like), that's discredited principled conservatism and threatens to tear the Republican Party apart. Brooks notices that to solidify the party's hold on its electoral "base," the party of Lincoln has become the party of George Wallace envisioning the country "divided between the wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and the oversophisticated, overeducated, oversecularized denizens of the coasts."[15] There is a current stir in the direction of asking if Sarah Palin should McCain lose emerge as the logical Republican frontrunner for the 2012 presidential nomination. This reflection is occurring at a time when Palin's negative rating, meaning numbers believing she is unqualified to currently serve as president, have reached 55 percent. Considering the often stated current political reality that under existing American political divisions it is hard for any nominee of either political party to dip below, at least to any appreciable extent, the 40 percent support mark, that 55 percent figure has probably peaked for this election season.[5]

Whether that candidate was the authentic McCain or an impromptu confection whipped up for a gullible press corps, the result was one of the most beguiling losing campaigns in modern political history. This time around, the septuagenarian Arizona senator shrewdly (or cynically) decided from the outset that he would get right -- very right-wing -- with the Republican base. In mid-2006, when he still dreamed of replicating the front-runner juggernaut of the Bush campaigns, McCain paid homage to Falwell himself by giving the commencement address at Liberty University. Even though McCain was one of only two Republican senators to oppose the Bush tax cuts (liberal Lincoln Chafee was the other), he implausibly championed the cause of making them permanent.[3] As we face the very real possibility of an Obama presidency, that's the last thing we need. It's more critical than ever that we have a strong Republican leader to act as a "firewall" against bad legislation, tax increases, and increased spending. Mitch McConnell has proven he will stand up for us. Although it's objectively accurate, a losing campaign never wants that fact publicly acknowledged by their own side for fear it will demoralize the troops and further become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe Romney thinks the campaign would have gone differently if he had been tapped as McCain's running mate? Maybe, but he's certainly glad not to be in Palin's shoes right now. Romney needs to be careful about how he sets himself up for 2012.[16] Rep. Steve King (R-IA), speaking at a Sarah Palin rally (tell me again why the McCain campaign thinks it can win here?), describes life under an Obama administration : "when you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship.[17]

Valget av Sarah Palin som visepresidentkandidat ser i etterp'klokskapens lys ikke ut til ' ha v'rt John McCains smarteste trekk.[4]

Recent reports of infighting between the McCain and Palin camps -- and particularly harsh statements made against Palin -- have been attributed to (anonymous) Romney loyalists within the McCain campaign. Optics are important, and he may not want to appear to be backing up the bus over his own party before the votes are even counted.''[16] Romney is pissed that Palin is being handed the keys to the party by some insiders and is pushing back. His supporters were being the "diva" and "whackjob" descriptions for Palin. If Palin and Huck run in 2012, they could split the evangelical vote, and in the winner take all format that could doom both campaigns.[14]

Since Romney suspended his campaign and subsequently formed the Free and Strong America political action committee in April, he has donated approximately $202,000 to 75 GOP candidates, according to numbers made available to NRO from the PAC. Romney has also made an additional $173,000 in donations through flexible spending accounts to five affiliated state PACS, including $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage, which is working to pass Proposition 8 in California, and $5,000 to stop a ballot initiative in Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana. [6] Anybody masochistic enough to have seen all three presidential debates would, I'm sure, agree that the Obama McCain battle lacked what one might call pizzazz, excitement, creativity or any information that wasn't part of an already heard, boring stump speech. So a miscalculation by both of last year's front runners, as to just how important the small states and a good early start would be, wound up depriving us of one of the most looked forward to big time political contests of all time.[2] Pennsylvania, which offers 21 electoral votes and hasn't backed a Republican presidential nominee since 1988, is the only traditionally Democratic state McCain now is going after in earnest.[8] With just two weeks to go before the opening bell, presumptive nominee Barack Obama is still grappling with how to handle the biggest power couple of the Democratic Party '' Hillary and Bill Clinton. Both have now secured prime-time speaking slots during the convention, she on Tuesday night, Aug. 26, as keynote speaker, he the next night, right before the still-unnamed vice presidential candidate.[18] At the 1948 Democratic convention Harry Truman (aka McCain's patron saint) stared down a Dixiecrat walkout over the party's civil rights plank. At a time when Palin's picture will soon appear next to the metaphorical definition of albatross, it is clear that McCain should have taken his lumps with Lieberman or risked a ruckus over Ridge.[3]

The blame game has emerged in GOP circles. Some Republicans have pointed the finger at McCain's chief strategist Steve Schmidt; others are rushing to his defense. And, frustrations by Palin's allies over her rocky introduction to the public and by McCain's backers over the Alaska governor's unscripted moments spilled into the open through anonymous quotes in news stories.[8] Makes me want to run screaming. The author of the article, in a subsequent comment, observed That McCain and Palin and the RNC are whipping up such innuendo and misinformation that people are extrapolating all kinds of things, and yes, just such claims have been circulating about Obama all OVER the web and all OVER Fox News and Rush and so forth. At a Palin rally the guy who introduced her made it a point to use Obama's middle name and emphasize it and there are bumper stickers all over with Obama/Osama on them. I don't doubt for a moment that such accusations make many people "want to run screaming."[19]

McCain's belated criticisms are akin to Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence in 1815. As McCain knows well, there is a persuasive conservative case to be made against Bush for his free-spending big-government fiscal recklessness, for his trampling of constitutional norms (from vice-presidential sanctioned torture to White House signing statements) and for his record of incompetence from New Orleans to Baghdad.[3] According to a February 2008 Harris Poll, television news has a sixteen percent approval rating, only double that of the Congress, at eight percent, and merely one point above that of the White House, at fifteen percent. An ABC News op-ed piece (labeled as such, which is refreshing), the author, Michael Malone, notes that there has been very substantial media favoritism during the campaign and, indeed, previously. The article does bear the caveat that This is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News. At a luncheon in Hollywood sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors on 27 October, hardly a rabidly conservative group, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC. for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.[19]

As far as declaring war on the New York Times and shunning the reporters who once lionized him, that tactic only makes political sense if McCain's ultimate goal is to win an anchor job on Fox News when the campaign is over. [3] In fact that sort of happened. Huckabee won some delegates early, McCain bounced back in New Hampshire with his patented big smile/big handshake, diner to diner, press the flesh and show how much fight he still had in him style. Then came the big state of Florida, where there were lots of ex-New Yorkers and where Rudy felt his message of "remember me from 9/11" national security speech, which had made him the pre-primary favorite, would kick in and kick start his, until then, all but invisible campaign. It didn't.[2]

In the first two weeks of October, the Republican National Committee transferred just $210,000 to the state party for home-stretch efforts. That's far less than provided to state parties in contested states such as Florida, which got $3.2 million, or Pennsylvania, at $1.5 million, according to campaign finance disclosures.[13] The total amount of financial support provided to Republican candidates and causes through Romney-controlled state and federal PACs is an eye-popping $375,000.[1]

Donald Green, a Yale University professor and one of the nation's leading experts on motivating voters to get to the polls, expects Obama's teams across the country to be "very, very effective." "They are the beneficiaries of an unprecedented allocation of financial resources, coupled with an immense reservoir of activism and enthusiasm," Green said. Republicans in Michigan, he said, may well suffer from the opposite: reduced money and less energy. "Once you say, 'I'm leaving that state for dead,' you do run the risk of creating an effect that's even worse than the financial resources you lose," he said.[13] Once again plans played out in an unanticipated manner and Super Tuesday was closer to a draw then a sweep and Clinton was suddenly and unexpectedly behind in delegates. Well the formidable Ms. Clinton is made of pretty tough stuff and she was not about to let the Chicago Kid take the nomination she had worked a chunk of her life for from her without a fight. Fight she did. In fact she tried to clobber him with the "kitchen sink", everything from Obama's ties to Chicago slumlords, racist preachers, unrepentant terrorist, to his lack of experience, to his international naivet, to his almost total lack of specifics on almost any aspect of his plans. She was doing a very good job of it and making progress in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other big eastern states, but alas she ran out of real estate. Obama's early build up of delegates doomed Clinton's valiant effort and he won the nomination. He quickly pick Joe Biden (of foreign relations fame and banking committee, where he was know as the Senator from Bank of America, infamy) to shore up his national security credentials.[2]

I do. I think she is pretty comfortable in her own skin, and it does not hurt that she looks good. I think in 8 years she would take good care of herself and really still look great, but hey, we all get a little older and a little heavier and she will, in fact, be a grandmother. She will revel in that, mind you! I think she'll be really proud of it - her age, her family, all of it. Nature will have its way, and I don't think that will bother her. I think she is secure enough to live with it, enjoy it, deal with it, whatever. It will bother a lot of people, guys mostly, who really have the hots for her looks, now. Women can be pretty harsh about other women's appearances, too, BTW. Hillary Clinton has taken a ton of shit for her aging appearance. It's total bullshit, but there it is. I think she looks fine, but shallow people will use age against women. That's where my point about Romney comes in.[7] Needless to say, the Salt Lake Tribune is talking up Mitt Romney as the frontrunner. Romney is a likely bet, as he has many key attributes that would enable him to take on Obama -- good looks, solid conservative policies, and strong economic credentials stemming from his past career as a job-killing machine.[7] We were blindsided by an anonymous hit piece from the Prowler today suggesting Mitt Romney was sitting on his hands this election season. The not-for-attribution quotes, factual misrepresentations and fanciful imaginings of its author makes for a psychedelic bit of reading.[1]

"And as we face the very real possibility of an Obama presidency, that's the last thing we need," writes Romney. "It's more critical than ever that we have a strong Republican leader to act as a "firewall" against bad legislation, tax increases, and increased spending. Mitch McConnell has proven he will stand up for us." It's the "very real possibility" language that has people talking. [18] McCain could have come out of the GOP primaries prepared to run against Obama as a true maverick rather than a generic Republican railing against socialism. All it probably would have taken are these four steps. A major reason why McCain has appeared so inept in the face of the financial meltdown is that he lacks a coherent economic philosophy. It defies logic that McCain could simultaneously be so outraged by congressional earmarks and so cavalier about giveaways in the tax code.[3] The RNC's independent expenditure arm has started running ads in Montana of all places. I suppose this is part of McCain's grand plan to eke out a win by carrying MT, WV and Maine's second congressional district. I knew McCain didn't really care about the substance of his policy proposals so long as they made for good Republican sound bites, but I did expect more from McCain's policy advisers, from whom we get an admission that the GOP contender's health care plan isn't all that great.[17]

Maybe the usual sad-sack Libertarian nominee would do slightly better in a Jindal-Obama race than in, say, a Pawlenty-Obama race because of some sort of racist peel-off. but I'm pretty doubtful on that score as well. If Bobby Jindal can win the Republican nomination and then the governorship in Louisiana, he isn't going to have any race-based trouble as a GOP candidate on the national stage.[20] Remember McCain was a candidate who said during the 2000 Republican primaries, "I won't take every dime of the surplus and spend it on tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy."[3] Democrats are doubtful. McCain also is hearing an increasing number of prominent Republicans indicate they expect he will lose.[8]

Repeat and repeat: "I am not George Bush." McCain finally uttered those magic words during the final debate. He ripped into Bush for his initial blundering conduct of the Iraq occupation, his doubling of the national debt and his neglect of climate change in an off-message post-debate interview with the conservative Washington Times. This is pretty late in the game to break with a president whose performance in office is given a thumbs-down rating by three-quarters of the voters.[3] "You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us." Other GOP-leaning pundits argue that the sheer opportunism of picking Palin showed McCain temperamentally unsuited for the presidency.[15]

The saying then was "let Reagan be Reagan" while in the case of the Alaskan it has lately become "I'm Palin and I'll stick to being Palin." When a message was sent to her by McCain forces on points to make in a Florida appearance Palin was said to have shunned the instruction and followed instead the rhetorical course established by her warm-up act, right wing talk show star Elizabeth Hasselbeck. She later denied having departed from the McCain central command's message and made a reference to "our teams" which is not the way it is supposed to work.[5]

The Arizona senator also opposed the Medicare prescription drug bill because there was no way to finance it. A McCain tough on tax cuts and frugal about unfunded domestic programs might have had the credibility to turn his crusade against pork-barrel spending into a true test of political character.[3] Ballenger, a Flint native and former state representative and state senator, said McCain basically waved the "white flag" by abandoning Michigan to focus on other states.[11] Senior campaign advisers deny a rift and attribute the griping of a few junior aides. The Arizona senator's top advisers acknowledge the difficulties in pulling off a comeback, yet they insist McCain still has a shot and adamantly deny McCain is going through the motions. "He'll close strong," said senior adviser Charlie Black. "He really believes he's going to win."[8] Anyone who took money from the McCain camp or the national party, anyone who bundled for McCain, anyone at all involved in a losing congressional campaign will be put on the exile list.[12]

The answer should have been obvious -- the evangelicals and home-schoolers prefer McCain to Obama, if unenthusiastically. Rather than trying to arouse the base with ominous references to Bill Ayers, McCain should have realized early on that such shrill tactics do not play well with independents and moderates who were his original presidential constituency.[3] Speaking of policy, McCain is jumping on some goalpost-shifting vis-a-vis Obama's tax cut proposal. This would be great news for McCain. if the change actually amounted to anything.[17] Lets stop the nit picking and get to work. JFK once said "Life isn't fair", further proof how far his Democrat party has strayed. When ABC News reporter Gibson asked Sen Obama why he'd raise the capital gains rate when it produces less revenue, the reply was that it's "fair".[1] The worst joke in all of this is how the GOP and their dupes were so gung-ho over one party control in 00 and 04 but now when faced with that same prospect under the Dems, they're all like, "The Horror." The punchline won't come until 2012 when they'll argue that in these difficult times we must change horses in mid-stream. Obama had his chance and look at how he screwed everything up (then they'll list everything bad that happened regardless of how Obama was involved). We need someone else to clean up his mess.[14] Det er egentlig ingen vits ' kommentere New York Times (eller Obama sin kampanjeavis som noen ville sagt. ) Enkelte medier utspiller sin samfunnsrolle i disse dager.[4]

The Obama campaign has kept roughly 200 paid staffers in Michigan to coordinate thousands of volunteers, who began shifting last week from contacting and persuading voters to encouraging absentee voting and laying the ground work for Election Day efforts.[13] As you said, it is really not at all counterintuitive when you think about it. It only makes sense that there would be a certain percentage of white voters (especially down south) who would feel comfortable voting for Obama but uncomfortable about how their (white) peers would react to such a choice. It requires no real stretch of imagination to suppose that there are more than a few lawns in Atlanta sporting a McCain/Palin sign that belong, nonetheless, to an Obama voter.[14]

Had McCain taken on the social conservatives in a convention floor fight, voters would still be talking about the GOP nominee's maverick moxie. [3] McCain has steadfastly focused on the closest presidential battleground states.[8] The disparity meant that, as of Oct. 15, the state GOP fund for assisting federal candidates had just $860,000 to spend.[13] Jowers said Palin has not "distinguished herself as a competent vice presidential candidate, and that is going to be a heavy anchor to drag into 2012."[21]

Romney told reporters at a breakfast for Utah Republicans during their party's national convention that he wasn't interested in a 2012 run. [10] As one Dem joked to us recently : "Republicans launch new campaign theme: All the rest of us are gonna lose, so elect me."[14] "Republicans have nominated the second-place finisher in every election since 1976, with the exception of our current president."[21] There are easier jobs that taking over a massive bureacracy with limited freedom. Is it because he wants to be president? Ask him, but I don't think that's it either ' and only time will tell, anyway, who will be Right prospects in a few years.[6]

REFERENCES

1. The American Spectator: Thinking Ahead
2. Winners & Losers | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin
3. How John McCain ran against himself | Salon News
4. Etterp'klokskap i valget av Sarah Palin : Dagsavisen
5. Political Cortex: How Much has Palin Damaged McCain?
6. 'Where's Mitt?' by Kathryn Jean Lopez on National Review Online
7. Let the 2012 Jockeying Begin | Indecision2008 | Comedy Central
8. The Associated Press: McCain shows gritty determination in final week
9. Ludington Daily News - News
10. If Obama wins, Romney could be 'repackaged' for 2012 GOP challenge - Salt Lake Tribune
11. Analyst says McCain's decision to not campaign in Michigan hurts other GOP hopefuls - The Saginaw News Online - Michigan Newspaper - MLive.com
12. Whose Heads Will Roll on Nov. 5? - The Daily Beast
13. War chest bolsters Mich. Dems get-out-vote drive | The Detroit News | detnews.com
14. TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Top McCain Surrogate Romney: Obama Win Likely
15. Leader Call - GOP backbiting starts early
16. Romney practically predicts an Obama presidency | Politicker MA
17. TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect
18. Romney: Giving up on McCain or just trying to raise money? | csmonitor.com
19. Who is Senator Obama?
20. Jindal, Obama and the GOP - Ross Douthat
21. Romney said to be angling for 2012 run - UPI.com

McCain targets rural Pennsylvania

CONTENTS:

I'll never forget watching Senator Barack Obama give his Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech in front of 80,000 screaming fans at Mile High Stadium in Denver. (More...)
Pray that we don't regret electing such a "risky" candidate. (More...)
And, as an American, you are entitled to have that prerogative. (More...)
Why then Ms. Palin wants to come to Washington if all the best of America is not there? Does she think that by virtue of spending her life in Wasilla (except for wandering around colleges for 6 years to get a degree) she is actually better? If her ideas are so good why does she need to stir up the divisive us - them politics? Flattery in the face of the crowd is a very dishonest political move. (More...)
Our opponent's plan is just for more, bigger government. (More...)
The McCain campaign intends, I gather, to return to the commander in chief theme with an event in Florida Wednesday showcasing former secretaries of state and retired senior military officers. (More...)

I'll never forget watching Senator Barack Obama give his Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech in front of 80,000 screaming fans at Mile High Stadium in Denver. "This is an historic moment in American history," I told my wife. She was still disgusted that Hillary Clinton didn't get the nomination, but understood exactly what I meant. Regardless of politics, the fact that an African American had received a major Party nomination to be President of the United States speaks volumes about how far this country has come since the days of the Civil Rights Movement. No one could argue this wasn't a proud moment for our country. As America witnesses the closing of the racial divide, some people refuse to believe that the attitudes that gave us the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow are taking their final breath. This refusal doesn't stem from those who long for the days of segregation, it comes from the political left. In other words the people who claim to be the champions of diversity are doing everything they can to make sure the appearance of racism is still alive and well. Instead of embracing this obvious progress, they are making unsubstantiated accusations of racism against those that disagree with them and do not support the candidacy of Barack Obama. Unfortunately for GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain and his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin, they have the misfortune of being the Caucasian opposition to the first serious Black presidential hopeful. Simply put, it's not a good time to be the white guy. As McCain and Palin campaign throughout the country it seems impossible for them to open their mouths without somebody accusing them of being racists. [1] The issue is one of electoral context and demeanor. The contrast between the moods of both campaigns is remarkable. Increasingly confident of a decisive victory, Barack Obama and Joe Biden focus their speeches on what they will do in office, specifically concentrating on the immediate challenges of providing remedies for the national economic crisis and addressing the disarrayed state of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of the W. Bush years. The Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin focus their energies on issuing dire warnings as to what will happen should Obama become president. The language used by Republicans is provocative: Obama is a socialist (because he believes in using tax policy to redistribute wealth), he is a friend of terrorists, black separatists and criminals (because he worked with a community activist who once was a anti-Vietnam War militant, worshipped in a church led by a strident preacher and had a professional relationship with a convicted influence-peddling property developer), he is not a “normal” American (because of his name, mixed race and background), he is elitist (because of his education), he will steal the election (because of his ties to grassroots voter registration efforts), he will cut and run in Iraq and will make the U.S. more vulnerable to attack by Islamicists (either because he is sympathetic to them or because he is soft-spined). He is painted as the enemy within. The reason for this is clear.[2] Editor's note: Much recent coverage of the presidential race has focused on reports of conflict and backbiting inside the McCain campaign as the Republican presidential candidate struggles to make up ground on Barack Obama. Is McCain to blame? Is Sarah Palin to blame? Are McCain's top advisers to blame? Who mishandled whom? What's missing is a sense of perspective about the enormity of McCain's task and the determined ' some would say heroic ' way in which he keeps going against tremendous odds. In many respects, it's a wonder McCain is standing at all, much less within striking distance eight days before the election. Byron York's cover story in the current issue of National Review is about the obstacles McCain faces, and what they mean for this race. J ohn McCain sewed up the Republican nomination last February, but his cash-strapped campaign didn't conduct its first serious poll until April. At that time, McCain still enjoyed the luxury of planning for the general election while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were busy slugging it out. When pollster Bill McInturff briefed McCain's inner circle, he had some sobering news to deliver. "He said, 'This is going to be the worst environment since 1992 for a Republican, and it could get even worse,'" top McCain aide Charlie Black told me recently. Black paused a moment before adding, "And now, it's gotten worse."[3]

Image is one thing; intimate fears another. In a small former steel town in Pennsylvania this weekend a 71-year old woman, a Democrat who considers McCain a grouchy old man and Sarah Palin a joke, paused when a New York Times reporter asked her about Obama. 'He scares me,' she said finally. No one mentions that Obama's biracial provenance and childhood brush with Islam launched him on struggles that have prepared him unusually well to address one of his country's most daunting challenges: youthful alienation in inner cities where, at least until 9/11, the Nation of Islam held a certain appeal. Nor have I heard anyone tell Palin that there is no more 'real' America than the one Obama embodied last week off the campaign trail in his grandmother's apartment. John McCain, adoptive father of a Bangladeshi daughter, does understand this, and he hasn't let Palin make an issue of race'or even to use the outcries of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Obama's unsought endorsement from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.[4] If you really analyze Senator Obama'''s record and plans for the country, you will clearly see it represents more of the same. Obama plans to raise taxes on businesses and therefore stunt job growth, discriminate against people based on income levels, cut and run in the war on Iraq, increase federal spending and waste taxpayer dollars on failed programs and refuse to take a stance on critical issues such as life. He has a record of being the most partisan, liberal member of the Senate and has selected a partisan Washington insider as his running mate. To me, all of this represents more of the same and not the change we need to see in Washington. Senator McCain has a reputation of being a maverick who has broken from his party to do what is right for the American people. He is a war hero with immense foreign policy experience and knows how to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and give our troops the resources they need to win. He has a record of fiscal responsibility and will cut wasteful spending, decrease the size of government and cut taxes for all American individuals and businesses in order to provide relief and create jobs. His running mate, Sarah Palin, brings a record of standing up to party bosses and union bosses, cutting taxes and making Alaska'''s economy one of the most successful in the nation. Both also value energy independence, the sanctity of life, and the importance of individual freedom. On Nov. 4, please join with me in voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin, the true agents of reform and change this country desperately needs.[5] The unwitting incitement to murder is one-sided. The Democrats engage in personal attacks on Senator McCain and Governor Palin, but none of these reach the level of calling them “treasonous” or anti-American. No mainstream Democrat feverishly predicts the end of the American way of life should McCain and Palin win, and most of their criticism of McCain and Palin comes in the form of ridicule. The Democratic rallies are love fests when compared to those of the Republicans, with less energy put into critiquing the opponents than of offering hope for a better future under Obama’s leadership. John McCain and Sarah Palin consequently have little to fear from Obama supporters when it comes to their personal safety, win or lose. The same is not true the other way around.[2] "George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights," Lewis added. "Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." What specifically did John McCain or Sarah Palin do to deserve being compared to an icon of segregation? Lewis was right when he said that Wallace "created the climate and the conditions" that led to the murder of four children in a church bombing. Can any fair-minded person legitimately argue that McCain or Palin has said anything remotely as horrific as Wallace did in his career? No. Unfortunately Congressman Lewis has created an image in his head that a few bad apples at political rallies, which McCain has disavowed countless times, somehow make up the majority of his supporters and the Arizona Senator is at fault. I don't recall the former civil rights leader or Sen. Obama, for that matter, condemning their supporters who showed up at Palin events wearing T-shirts calling the mother of five a C-word.[1]

Sarah Palin and her running mate John McCain (or do I have that backwards?) have made a big deal about a comment made by Barack Obama regarding "spreading the wealth around." They jumped on this comment like it was the only issue they had of substance to talk about. They should have checked their facts. Perhaps they were counting on potential voters either being gullible or too lazy to check it out themselves.[6] THE simplest explanation for the widening gap in the polls between Barack Obama and John McCain may well be that, for most Americans, in a time of economic upheaval and uncertainty, the colour of their money is more important to them than the colour of his skin. Despite his success in the debates, despite Joe the Plumber having joined Paddy the Plasterer in the cast of off-stage political bit-players, the young senator from Illinois knows better than most that the race is by no means over. Despite the best efforts of some in the McCain camp to play the race card, this issue seems to be receding, but, to coin a phrase, it has not gone away, you know. The efforts of the increasingly unfortunate Ms Palin, in this regard, were not only shameful, but rather pathetic as she attempted to damn him by association for sitting on the boards of charities with a 1970s Chicago radical, for having a granny in Kenya, a father who had been a Muslim and a name which is non- American. These are emotive buttons to press in some circles, but at least they let you know where she is coming from.[7] Yesterday the Gallup daily tracking poll showed a 10-point spread with Obama in the lead, the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking poll shows the race steadily tightening from an Obama 12-point lead Oct. 23 down to a 4.8-point lead yesterday. During the rally, Palin referred to Obama as "Barack the Wealth Spreader" in reference to an exchange between the Democratic presidential hopeful and Joe Wurzelbacher, the now-famed "Joe the Plumber," during which the senator said, "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." In the final days of campaigning, both McCain and Palin are banking on this issue to resonate with voters. Kyle Conrad, has owned Conrad's Precision Plumbing in Hartville for 16 years and thinks McCain should keep hammering Obama on this matter. As a small business owner and a plumber, he said he understands Wurzelbacher's concerns. "This'spread the wealth' issue is not something that this country is built on," Conrad said. "It's built on hard work and determination and the chance for opportunity." Worried an Obama presidency might hurt his plans to expand the business and hire more employees, Conrad said he's taking a "wait-and-see" attitude.[8]

As I wrote previously, Palin will use the national stage to distance herself from the debacle of the McCain campaign while embodying the voice of the loyal opposition to the rise of Senator Barack Obama. If Palin has any intention to returning to presidential campaigning as a legitimate candidate to win the nomination, today’s verdict of Senator Ted Stevens is the vehicle to take her from a backwoods Governor to become the standard bearer for the party out of power in Washington, D.C.[9] The Secret Service recognized the problem early when it assigned the largest security detail ever for a party candidate to Senator Obama early in the primary season. That detail has been reinforced since his nomination, with the Secret Service concerned about the vulnerabilities inherent in the mass gatherings and “press the flesh” opportunities staged by his campaign. In recent weeks law enforcement agencies in the localities in which Obama appears have expanded their intelligence and surveillance gathering efforts as well as security around campaign sites. The FBI has increased its scrutiny of right wing extremists, and both the CIA and FBI are on alert for foreign-originated threats (which the Department of Homeland Security has been obsessively focused on to the exclusion of domestic terrorism). Senator McCain and Governor Palin have their own Secret Service details and have the protection of both federal and local security agencies when out on the campaign trail, but none of this comes close to that accorded to Senator Obama.[2]

The $150,000 in clothes from the Republican National Committee don't fit a Joe Six-pack image. Polls have the McCain-Palin ticket so far down in Iowa that Republican strategists have said they were wasting time here. How did people in the crowd square all that with their support? Kathy Krafka Harkema, who was volunteering Saturday, blamed politics and media "because she's different and because she's an accomplished woman." Harkema, 48, of Montezuma, likes Palin because "she's taken on the party and the government. She's real, and she's honest, and she speaks from the heart, and she's got guts." Obama? "I can't trust him. I don't believe you can cut taxes for 95 percent of the people and do all the things he's talking about." The more Obama inspires people, the more the McCain-Palin campaign has tried to instill fear and distrust about him, characterizing him as dishonest - even though more fabrications come from its own camp - or outside the mainstream. It's no wonder the woman parodied on "Saturday Night Live" as "that crazy lady" told McCain she was afraid Obama was Arab and Muslim.[10] With only one week left until the national election, the John McCain campaign might be regretting putting the governor of Alaska on the Republican ticket. And, while Sarah Palin seems to be headstrong and unaware of the inner strife, many analysts believe she is already starting her Palin 2012 campaign. All I can hope is that the $150,000 worth of clothes for her and her family, purchased at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, are enough. Palin, the regular Josephine Six-pack, has not done a marvelous job this election season on the campaign trail. With vital swing states like Missouri still in the balance, she cannot go around injuring goalies on the only pro hockey team in the state.[11] Hope that we can regain our standing in the world, reattaining lost favor with our allies and lost respect from our foes. Obama is more than just an ideal; he offers practical, well-thought-out solutions to the myriad of immensely complex problems facing our country. This is one of many reasons why John McCain did not receive The Pacer's endorsement. Obama made a humble, thoughtful choice in choosing Joe Biden as his running mate. He avoided choosing Hillary Clinton (an easy choice given her popularity) and instead went for the experienced, hard-working and foreign relations versed Biden. McCain chose Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla, a town of a smaller population than UTM. Not only is she inexperienced, her stance on global climate change alone, that it is unclear if it is caused by human activities, is enough to discount her.[12]

Sarah Palin's name might as well be hypocrisy. Brought in to be the working, typical hockey mom, yet she's wearing clothes that are overpriced for even the golden-parachute executives of the Wall Street mess, paid for by a campaign that is by all accounts strapped for cash. It was just reported by McCain that Palin had yet to wear a third of the outfits. Palin is a member of a ticket claiming that Obama is inexperienced, yet she, running to be a main ambassador to the world, did not have a passport until last year. Mind you, she claims she could deal with Putin because of her proximity to Russia. It was also reported this week that Palin's makeup artist is the highest paid "adviser" in the campaign. What is the campaign all about? Trotting out a hot chick from Alaska who loves guns and then making her say the opponent is a "socialist" and that he "pals around with terrorists." This is the lowest level of reactionary politics, which only makes our citizens dumber and leaves our nation stuck in the McCarthy era.[11]

"We will bring tax relief to every American and every business," Palin said. "We need someone with a bold and free and fair plan of action to get this country moving in the right direction Our economic plan is a pro-growth, pro-private sector agenda." Palin said Obama is "not being candid with you" about his tax plans, and said it's fair game to criticize him for it. "It is not mean-spirited and it is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their plans, and on their record, and their associations," Palin said. She echoed a recent talking point of the McCain campaign by pointing out that if Obama is elected, Democrats will control both Congress and the White House. "They will have that monopoly of power," Palin said. She said McCain will also create new jobs by focusing on domestic energy sources, and said she herself will prioritize helping families with special-needs children. Palin's youngest child, born earlier this year, has Down Syndrome.[13] In some ways, the situation is similar to 1980, when Jimmy Carter's failed presidency faced the candidacy of Ronald Reagan. The nation's eventual recovery and the enduring popularity of Reagan were not so much due to the specific policies he adopted, but in how he inspired the nation and brought out the best in its people. Obama has the chance to be such a transformational figure at a time when the nation desperately needs one. There is no doubt that Sen. John McCain is an American hero who has served his country admirably. The McCain of today bears little resemblance to the McCain of 2000 when he was at the peak of his "maverick" status. At a time when the nation needs inspirational leadership and a new direction, McCain is offering less of a vision for America than he is offering reasons why his opponent should be disqualified by the voters.[14] Keating is ancient history- nobody under 42 even remembers it. When people realize McCain's culpability in this mess, it will expose the virulent hypocrisy and dishonesty of his charges against Obama. Obama's hopes for a different campaign were always naive- Repubs always go for the slime, but you can tie this economic disaster so tightly around their neck they can't escape the reckoning. Others also don't understand why you weren't clubbing McCain with this nonstop. My heart fell when McCain challenged Obama's judgment and Obama did his Roots speech- people want to see a liar slapped down; and Obama has to stop McCain when he gets on a rant- "Enough!", trying 8 times unsuccessfully looks weak. You want to connect to Joe Sixpack, punch your way out of clinches- there were times last debate that Obama looked like a jr high schooler unhappy that his opponent wasn't following the rules. Elections are won and lost on perceived toughness, black or white, if you can't face down an American liar, how can you do that with Putin or Kim or Ahmadinejad? Don't praise his record on torture when he rolled over and gave away the store- this flip flop business is potent. No candidate has ever been handed a more perfect tool than McCain's responsibility in this financial wipeout.[15] Students played surrogate for the hopefuls in a morning debate that the school televised into every classroom in an effort to get the adolescents more attuned to the presidential election. "It's sort of like our lives depend upon it this time," explained seventh-grader Mikhaela Dieudonne, a member of Team Obama. "It's going to decide if I'm going to go to college, or if people are going to keep their jobs. That's why I'm really interested in it." She and other debaters three each were chosen to represent Obama and McCain out of nearly 200 who applied hoped their schoolmates would listen carefully to the words they spent two months researching. They worried that many wouldn't care. "I think they tune it out because they can't vote," said eighth-grader Kayleigh Bentley, another Team Obama member. As moderator Josh Arnold, a geography teacher, intoned his welcome, students across the school hushed to listen to the candidates' views on energy, education, health care and other key issues.[16] Khalid Faraj joined in the conversation. He noted that many voters have said they don't support Obama because they think he is Muslim, or because he is African-American. "That doesn't even make sense," Khalid said, as his friends picked up on the string. Each said the morning debate helped them to shape their views and though they couldn't vote themselves, "I'm telling my parents about this so they can," Tajuan said. Students in Arnold's first period class said they also learned new things about the candidates. They liked the format. "It was more interesting seeing kids involved than news reporters saying, 'Oh, Barack Obama did this or that,' " seventh-grader Amanda Runyan said, adding that the information presented swayed her view from McCain to Obama. "They were very convincing." The teachers who organized the event considered the debate a successful civics lesson in that they could engage students in the process beyond the news sound bites and negative ads they see on television. "It's huge," said language arts teacher Jamie Fromm. "Some of these kids will be able to vote in the next election. We wanted to make sure they understand how important it is to vote and to know each candidate."[16] Usually, it is over some sordid scandal or gross misuse of power. Sometimes, rarely, it is for all the right reasons: their ability to unite us, to inspire us and to give us hope that the country we all love can live up to the high ideals that we have for it. This election, that candidate is Barack Obama. The Pacer has followed this election closely, something we hope our readers have appreciated. From this, we have come to know the two candidates and it is clear that Obama is the best choice for students. As Colin Powell said in his endorsement of Obama, "I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage[12]

Americans feel the need for new leadership, a renewal of our national spirit, and a desperate need to pull together in tough times. This election is about such needs, not individual planks in a campaign platform. That's why the Herald endorses Barack Obama for president.[14] Misstating Barack Obama'''s former acquaintances are cute, but it doesn'''t address the fundamental questions voters have. If McCain is to have a shot at winning this election, he needs to get on message and talk about what Americans want to hear.[17]

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin warned a cold but cheering crowd here yesterday that Democratic candidate Barack Obama's talk of "spreading the wealth" is socialism and that the Democrat has "an ideological commitment to higher taxes." "Senator Obama says he wants to spread the wealth," Palin said. "Today is not the time to experiment with socialism His plan to redistribute wealth punishes hard work, it will stifle creativity."[13] The ugly personal attacks began: Barack Obama's past acquaintance with William Ayers; Barack Obama's economic plan is socialism; Barack Obama will say anything to get elected. His running mate, Sarah Palin, chimed in with such gutter-level rhetoric as Obama pals around with terrorists. Wednesday found Cafferty asking "Should Sarah Palin reimburse Alaska taxpayers for her children's travel and entertainment expenses?"'' He prefaced that with, "How do you present yourself as any kind of candidate of reform when the practices you employ puts you in the very same category of every other (emphasis added) two-bit, sleazy, opportunistic politician that has come before you.[18] As vast crowds cheer Sarah Palin, the odd specter of conservative elites hissing at Alaska's governor lingers, with some plugging for Barack Obama. It's a bad case of style over substance, and feeling over fact.[19]

In Florida, Obama is outspending McCain six to one. Palin seems to be catching more than her share of the media ire. Maybe it's because she has never had the opportunity to pal-around with the media elite, being a "low information" hockey-mom from Alaska, and all that. They talk about her "lack of experience," yet she has more executive experience than McCain, Biden, and Obama combined and multiplied by 10. Poor Brian Williams NBC pundit Brian Williams was on sister network MSNBC last week whining that it took 55 days for him to get an interview with Sarah Palin, and then it was "only 10 minutes." He was harping on her medical records. He was bellyaching because his was "the last network" to be granted an interview with her. She should have made him wait forever.[20]

The Sarah Palin-bashing chattering classes are at it again, and to the delight of their openly liberal colleagues. A series of officially conservative commentators have disparaged Gov. Sarah Palin: She is a "mark against John McCain" (Peggy Noonan); she is "an embarrassment and a dangerous one at that" (Christopher Buckley); and she is incapable of "the constructive act of governance" (David Brooks). Each of these writers is an admired friend, so I write this with some trepidation. I am not angry, but rather deeply sad that these otherwise keen observers of the unattractive prejudices of others don't hear how they themselves sound. Unfortunately, perhaps without knowing it, they've bought into both a flawed Progressive Era idea: that you need experts to run things -- and a stifling European one -- that we all have our proper place, and rather than average Americans having "ownership" of the government, as Tocqueville noted, we ought to defer to our betters to run it. That's not the American idea. Here good people accomplish great things (think of the Wright brothers -- bicycle mechanics -- astonishing the incredulous French that they of all people had figured out how to fly, or Edison relying on trial and error -- he had only three years of formal schooling -- to make his inventions).[19] I do.''' As the rain started to come down harder some people started to stream out, but most stayed cheering for Palin as she continued through her remarks. She told the crowd that the '''best of America''' was right here in the cold drizzle. "We believe that the best of America is not all gathered in Washington DC. It is here in the rain! It is in the goodness of your state. It is in the courage and kindness and that hard working American people here those of you who run our factories and grow our food, teach our children and fight our wars for us.''' Palin said, '''We believe that this is where the goodness of America is and we too believe in the promise of our country in the opportunities that we wish for ourselves and each other and for our sons and daughters and folks John McCain and I believe that America is not the problem, America is the solution."[21] Palin was mayor of an Alaska town, and is now the state's governor. She was able to give a prepared speech at the Republican National Convention. Palin's bright, and she can speak in public, getting a crowd to cheer when she says things they already agree with, and boo when she's fomenting people's negative emotions. She has certainly filled her vice presidential candidate role of attack dog for GOP presidential contender John McCain.[22] Palin spoke at Hurkamp Park to a crowd of 8,000, according to estimates by city officials and the Secret Service. With a week to go before the election, Palin focused much of her speech on the economy and taxes, saying that she and presidential candidate John McCain will stimulate the economy by cutting taxes on people and businesses, especially small businesses.[13]

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain met last night for the final debate before the November 4th presidential election, sparring over the economy, tax policy, negative campaigning, trade agreements, abortion and the educational system. We knew this already, but its nice of the OECD and its Growing Unequal report to provide the concrete evidence.[2] McCain happily raises his finger in the air approving the politics that was heard from the public in Dayton, where his last Republican rally was held. Whilst John McCain is happy, Barack Obama might have to fear for his own life, as two assassinators that planned to kill the democrat, and many people with his skin colour, were arrested, according to the police.[23] A little young perhaps, and not really from anywhere convenient ' Wasilla, Alaska, not being on most people's mental maps ' but definitely 'our kind of people'. John McCain must have thought when he impulsively picked her out of a crowd of hopeful Republicans as his vice-presidential nominee. She might not know a lot about foreign, or any, policy, but she would hopefully 'energise the base' ' stir interest among the party faithful that were noticeably unenthusiastic about McCain. What McCain didn't seem to anticipate was just how much she'd enjoy it. Much is she revelling in it that last week she wound up criticising McCain for not going after Obama enough. She seems to have decided to ignore the frantic efforts to get her back 'on-message'.[24]

Pray that we don't regret electing such a "risky" candidate. Obama is a very liberal senator who would have no reason to govern from the center--why would he, if he has a large majority in the House and Senate? Govern "from the center, as the American people want"? His election and more democrats being elected will show him what the American people want--leftist policies, not centrist ones. He used to belong to a socialist party, (the "New Party" in Illinois). He will not go to the center because he thinks far left policies are best. He talks about unity but has never done anything to unite anyone. He says things like "white people's greed runs a world in need" and hangs out with radicals. If he is elected, we will all have to hope and pray. [14] There are many Americans who will find it hard to vote for a black president, and there will be many who will find it easier to vote against. It may even be harder for them to contemplate a vote which will place a black first lady in the White House. It is this substratum of inherited prejudice which Barack Obama has to overcome, and all the more difficult to do so because it is unseen and unspoken, except among the extremists. The politically correct do not speak like this, but they might think that way in conservative, rural, blue-collar, bible-thumping Middle America. In reading this the polls are more a hindrance than a help.[7] Obama wants to '''take a scalpel''' to the Federal budget, cutting ineffective, redundant programs, while continuing to fund successful ones. McCain'''s solution would be to lock nearly everything in its place regardless of circumstance. During these tough economic times, America wants a cool, collected leader with the intellectual curiosity and willingness to look outside the box to solve our problems. Barack Obama has demonstrated his ability to lead and answer tough questions on the issues. McCain'''s erratic behavior and personal attacks in the midst of the ongoing economic meltdown are doing little to sway the American public, making him seem out of touch.[17] America needs to move away from the Bush model of foreign policy marked by confrontation and aggressive use of American military power and toward a policy based on diplomacy backed by strength. America needs a government that takes seriously its role of "referee" in the free market, protecting against abuses and exploitation while at the same time not stifling entrepreneurial spirit. Barack Obama has the proper vision of America's role in the world and the role of its government at home to establish sensible policies in these areas.[14]

Despite all the facile comparisons between the current economic situation and the conditions that preceded the Great Depression, the most recent figures show GDP continuing to grow, with unemployment at a historically modest 6.1 percent. If, as widely expected, Barack Obama faces a recession when he takes office in January, many Americans will expect him to deliver on his promise to "create jobs." They probably will be disappointed, because Obama seems to view job creation not only as something the government does with taxpayers' money but as an end in itself. That's a recipe for wasteful spending that will divert resources from more productive uses and ultimately result in lower employment. Obama says he will "transform the challenge of global climate change into an opportunity to create 5 million new green jobs," which he likens to the economic activity triggered by the personal computer. This way of looking at climate change is a variation on the broken-window fallacy, according to which the loss caused by a smashed window is offset by the employment it gives the glazier.[19]

The reason is simple: the danger to Obama is imminent and real. This is a delicate moment in the U.S. presidential campaign. Unless the Republicans explicitly call on their supporters to reject the use of violence regardless of the election outcome, and unless they moderate their rhetoric so that an electoral loss is not seen as the end of the world by their most zealous supporters, then the possibility of an assassination attempt on Barack Obama cannot be discounted. More than any U.S. political figure of the last two decades, he is the one who has most inflamed desperate (as well as hopeful) passions, and he is consequently the most likely to be targeted. It is important to understand the seriousness of the threat posed by Republican demonisation of Barack Obama. An attempt on his life, especially if successful, could spell the terminal rupture of the U.S. political consensus and a descent into open social conflict. Recognising this fact is not being alarmist. It is being coldly realistic. It just takes someone outside the U.S. to say so. He was formerly an analyst and consultant to several U.S. security agencies.[2]

Questioned by Leno, the potential first lady declined to criticize GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin about revelations that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 at Neiman Marcus and other high-end retailers on clothes and accessories for Palin and her family. Obama said she and her husband have a policy of spending their own money on their clothes. She said she wanted to be "empathetic." "A VP pick, it's like being shot out of a cannon.[25] I like the way this report was worded, it did not sound bias to me and I am a concervative. Although it was not neccessary to have put in blue letters the 8 point lead of Obama, it made it seem at that point that hey he is leading by 8 points even though Sarah Palin is campaigning. Really the bottom line is that "It ain't over till it's over"!!! Anything can happen, remember President Bush 2nd time around? Thanks for the oppertunity to share my view point.[21]

An alleged white supremacy plot against Obama’s life was disrupted the week before the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Shouts of “kill him” and “traitor” greeted Sarah Palin’s invocation of his name at Midwestern campaign rallies. A uniformed police officer referred to him as Hussein Obama at a Florida rally. Although Senator McCain meekly attempts to restore some civility to his campaign, Governor Palin continues to question Obama’s patriotism and associations (at the same time refusing to label abortion clinic bombers as “terrorists” or repudiate the openly racist chants from her audiences).[2] HeIsTheOne: My eleven year old son gets into fights on the school yard playground sticking up for Obama. The kids that like McCain are his 6th grade liars, says Max. My 16 year old daughter is ambidexterous and I was told would make a good attorney discovering this when she was 3. NO I said. but she said "the first woman governor of the fine state of NY". "I love her too much to let her be a politician." After seeing Palin, she says she can be a politician, only GOOD at it! (I love her too much to let her be a politician.) Rumplestiltskin: My thirteen year old son wanted to watch the last debate with me, and he wasn't even avoiding homework. He goes to a science and technology school, and he says the interest in the election is very high there.[26] Kerry used a phrase of mine in a speech. I am amazed that Obama isn't repeating "Phil Gramm" in every speech- it's the silver bullet against McCain, but I haven't heard anybody mention him. Why talk about Keating 5 when his economic "genius" caused this economic disaster? Screw the focus groups- you educate people with your ads- it's the truth, though I know that's lost so much currency that it's easier to exaggerate some silly detail. Explain this economic disaster in a few clear sentences and lay the blame on Gramm and McCain- that should terrify people that they might elect the moron who helped cause it. Just keep running it over + over, like the Repubs do with their slanders and lies- repetition is what crams things into the heads of our moronic electorate (42% think Palin is qualified to be Prez?).[15] You can see Palin's appeal, though. She doesn't look or sound like the typical politician. She's young, charismatic, attractive, speaks like ordinary people and is balancing a family with being a governor. People can relate to her in ways some can't to Obama, with his Kenyan father and Harvard education. She appeals to people who want to feel good about America, who don't like its reputation damaged by the war, the financial crisis or bungled disaster responses. She talks about patriotism. She rarely acknowledges poverty, hunger, homelessness, prejudice, the uninsured, the underemployed or global warming, so she doesn't have to offer solutions. It's masterful strategy.[10] Cafferty though is obsessed with Gov. Palin like so many people in ways to try to degrade her. All of my work has dealt with Mr. Obama on a professional level in exposing him for the crook, chameleon and disaster his policies would be for America. I have tried various ways to ask him to come clean to give him a way out to save his reputation for his children's sake. Yes I weigh what I'm moved to do in trying to protect even his children.[18]

And, as an American, you are entitled to have that prerogative. To call such a thing socialism is belittling our nation and actual socialism itself. This is what the political candidates of the Republican Party are saying. These are fear tactics in the first-degree and unacceptable for any human being to perpetuate. Whether it is the hypocrisy McCain and Palin have shown, or the words of ignorance and fear they proliferate, there is no way I can, with a good conscience, vote for them to run my country, now or ever. [11] Perhaps that was because the story broke when the campaign was only 2/3 finished. Possibly she was planning to use the last $50,000 worth of clothes in the final two weeks of the campaign. Anyways, it is natural for McCain, who never made much money on his own, but married a woman who inherited 100 million dollars, to be concerned about his wealth being spread around. Sarah Palin, who seems to have made most of her million plus dollar fortune from government based programs is also naturally concerned. They appear to be predominantly concerned about keeping their loot than helping others without to obtain some. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said to him, One thing you lack: go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.[27] A terrifying prospect from someone who we are told thinks nothing of skinning a moose before breakfast while wearing rimless glasses. What has Sarah Palin to lose? The Republican ticket is increasingly unlikely to win, but she has been catapulted to national fame. (Also, clearly, international fame, but Palins tend to view that as a negative.) Perhaps she can convert that into a campaign four years from now, but only if she isn't held responsible for crashing-and-burning this one ' which, with her writhingly embarrassing performance in interviews and polarising speeches, she may just have.[24] Lynn Alison Williams: Don't play 'the Palin lottery' 102808 letters 4 Athens Banner-Herald If the president dies or is unable to serve, the vice president assumes the duties of the president. The Republicans have focused the public's attention away from this most important role of the vice president and delineated a role of vice president that fits vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's qualifications.[22] On another note, the Kiev American Library ran the U.S. Embassy sponsered movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, trying to ease the shock of a chorney President to virulently color-conscious Slavs. Sarah Palin tried to humanize herself o n Saturday Night Live to defang the most perfect impression ever done by Tina Fey (capturing the inarticulate half baked jn high school golly gee whiz personality to a tee), but they basically used her as a prop and savaged her with a hilarious rap. She, as I thought, has put a nail in the coffin of McCain- many Repubs are terrified of this creature becoming President and 52% think she's unqualified to be President. Apparently this grating-voiced frightening brittle woman has filled the entire AK state gov with school pals from 5000 person (when she was mayor) city she grew up in. =====As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments, those with insider credentials were now on the outs.[15]

In the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, Palin did not display a sophisticated grasp of foreign policy. While she said that as vice president she would follow McCain's policies, we really don't know what Palin would do about anything as president, because she also clearly stated that she had not made any promises to the American people. There were many questions she didn't answer, simply going into her talking points.[22] From the Katie Couric-Sarah Palin interview and "Saturday Night Live" political sketches to Sunday morning talk shows and the 5,026 presidential debates, political discourse this election season has made numerous contributions to the American lexicon. Previous campaigns have given us phrases such as, "Read my lips: no new taxes," "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," and "I did not inhale." With just a week to go before Election Day, here's a tongue-in-cheek glossary to the buzzwords, jargon, phrases and quotations that have been tripping off our lips during this epic and historic presidential campaign.[28] Palin's rally was moved from the Salem Civic Center to the much larger Salem Stadium because of the number of estimated attendees. Joking that the weather reminded her of her home state of Alaska, the Republican vice presidential candidate delivered a half hour speech to cap the rally. It was her third campaign event of the day.[29] The first order of the day for Ms Hasselbeck, who first rose to fame as a contestant on the reality show Survivor, has been to strike back at the criticism of that $150,000 wardrobe purchased for the Alaska Governor. She has said that the flap is a "deliberately sexist" diversion cooked up by the Democrats. It's a sure sign of desperation when Ralph Nader is reduced to doing stunts to get himself in the Guinness Book of Records. Nader, on the ballot in 45 states, claims he delivered some 255 minutes of speeches in 21 events in Massachusetts on Saturday - enough to get him into the record books. Guinness officials told the perennial presidential candidate he needed to give at least 150 minutes of speeches, each at least 10 minutes long and with 10 or more people (who didn't come with him) watching.[30]

CNN jumped on the wardrobe attack, of course. The Democratic candidate is collecting and spending more money than both Bush and Kerry combined - $150 million in September alone - and these "impartial" experts are complaining about Palin's wardrobe. Did the Republicans spend taxpayer money or money from ACORN's? Democrat money OK In previous election cycles, when the Republicans had more money to spend, the media pundits frequently accused them of trying to "buy" the election. Now that Democrats are ahead, these same commentators say the treasure is a tribute to the support of the people and see nothing wrong with it.[20]

Mr. Bitney was a high school classmate of the Palins and had worked for Ms. Palin. She fired Mr. Bitney after learning that he had fallen in love with another longtime friend. "I understood from the call that Todd wasn't happy with me hiring John and he'd like to see him not there," Mr. Harris said. "The Palin family gets upset at personal issues," he added. "And at our level, they want to strike back." Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor's mansion in Juneau, records show. During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing "Where's Sarah?" pins. Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives -- and vetoes -- from news releases.[15] As usual, the intrepid Anchorage Daily News offers the go-to coverage of the Stevens/Palin entanglements. At minute 1:13 you can see the last-minute 2006 campaign commercial in which Stevens passes the baton to Palin's "new generation" of leadership, asking his fellow Alaskans to "help Sarah become governor, which we all want to see." Half way through, we see Palin and Stevens joshing around together at a press conference from this past July post the FBI raid of Stevens' home, but just prior to his indictment.[31]

Demonizing the opponent is a dirty way to run a campaign. Obama has said he'd cut taxes on all but 5 percent, and raise them only on families making more than $250,000. Palin keeps trying to link his name to socialism and terrorists. She again brought up Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.[10] OBAMA's LAST DEBATE Obama's last debate ( video-trans ), as the first, was intensely frustrating. Given multiple chances to put McCain away with devastating honest counterpunches on his responsibility in this economic catastrophe, Obama instead wasted much time reacting to McCain's distracting and total bull attacks- who cares about a 3-8% tax hike if you have over $¼ mil income- compared to many tens of millions being out of work and losing their homes, who cares about William Ayres or so-called "class warfare", when McCain's primary economic advisor, pal, and campaign co-chair, Phil Gramm, wrote the bill that will wipe out the world economic system, deregulating credit default swaps !!!!!!@!! That is class warfare, enriching the obscenely moneyed class by stealing from everyone. There are $62 trillion of these things (most worthless cause they bet that housing prices would always rise), far more than all the monetary reserves in the world- so this meltdown is ju st beginning. He didn't even mention it- the wimp.[15] Obama has no Experience, and no matter how much he denies it, its a fact that he has donated to ACORN & also affiliated with Bill Ayres.a known terrorist. Plus McCain has proven that he will cross party lines, and use common sense instead of sticking to party lines. McCain stayed in a prison camp, because he would not leave without his fellow prisoners. Obama kicked his pastor to the curb as soon as the going got rough. Did you see McCain stick up for Obama when the elderly lady said some thing deragative about Obama at one of his campaigns stops? Thats integrity & respect.[14]

Senator McCain has simply refused to discuss policy in any meaningful way besides making untrue claims that Obama is an evil super villain who wants to balloon the size of government and is in bed with Bill Ayers. In the third Presidential debate when asked what he would do about government spending, McCain said that he would '''take a hatchet''' to the Federal budget and institute a government spending freeze on '''all but the most important programs,''' including defense, veterans care, social security, and healthcare.[17] If you don't like Obama's opinions, then tell us what McCain has to offer, start acting like adults and stop whining about what the other can't do. We all have opinions, but there is a right and a wrong way to get them across.[14] Suddenly the economy has trumped all other issues. Mr Obama has the great advantage of not being associated with the Cheney Presidency (for which George W Bush was such an unconvincing front-man), to have opposed the war in Iraq, and to offer the hope of a dignified withdrawal. The American voter, confused, disillusioned, uncertain, fearful about the future, worried about the mortgage, the pension, the job, just wants change, and Mr Obama, more than Mr McCain, despite his professed maverick streak, promises just that. In the argot of the bookies, some of whom have already paid out on him as a winner, he should be coming home in a hack.[7] Devoid of substantive policy options and facing the prospect of a massive defeat, the Republicans hope to scare undecided American voters into rejecting the change—or better said, the uncertainty-- which an Obama presidency represents. They pander to ignorance and fear rather than optimism and hope in order to encourage voters to turn their backs on uncertainty and embrace something that offers the appearance of familiarity and tradition. “Country First” is the rhetorical cover for this counter-reformist message, even if the Republicans appear to care less about country than they do about holding onto the presidency. In an election in which a person of colour has the possibility of becoming Commander in Chief during a time of national crisis, it remains to be seen if the majority of the electorate will want to be on the side of those who prefer to reject history rather than help make it.[2]

Apart from the tolerance for error on either side, there is the reluctance of people to admit to extreme views when polled. This was a common feature of elections in the North for years, when the DUP and Sinn Fein consistently performed 4pc or 5pc better on the day than the polls were predicting. Obama has to beware the tides of prejudice on his way to the Forum, rather than the Ides of March (although, sadly, perhaps that too). It is a sign that old habits die hard that voters in the North very rarely give a second preference across the traditional divide, even to parties which share the same range of policies.[7] Terrorists don't attack Littleville USA nor does Russia. The problems Obama will create are in the slums his voters infest. They want to cheer for him, let Cafferty cheer as it will be his Obama voters bashing him over the head for what he has in the rough times ahead. Obama's people like Buffett have told the world that this will last 2 years as they have it set up to last 2 years.[18]

Chris Mathews skewered some McCain spokesman, furiously repeating ten times, "Do you think Obama pals around with terrorists ?", until the guy was out of time. Latest Reuters/ Zogby poll has Obama up by 12 points, Pew by 14 points, meanwhile a deeply suspect AP poll has it neck in neck with a 1 point Obama lead: turns out their full sample had a 10 point BO lead, while the 70% likely voters were almost tied.[15] "I already have talked to a lot of Democrats - lifelong Democrats - and just tell people to really look and not get caught up in the charisma. That's what Obama's doing. He's very charismatic. They just need to look at the words and the meaning behind the words." With only one week to go in a close race, McCain may have finally found an issue that's helping him in the polls - unlike when he brought up his opponent's past associations.[8] Hudson resident Sherry Hoth shared similar sentiments. "People around here didn't come from money and whatever they have, they've worked hard for, and they don't want to give it to other people," Hoth said. "There's lots of people who donate and do charity work and help people, but that's their choice." Hoth said McCain should also talk up his foreign policy credentials in order to have a better shot at the presidency. Though many voters leave rallies with a renewed sense of confidence, Boots Oakes of Massillon said she didn't believe McCain has so far been forceful enough with some of the issues. "He does need to become stronger in what he says," Oakes said. "I guess he can't do it any other way.[8]

You see how far that got us! So I applaud the Herald for picking the right candidate who has great ideas to make our country the way it should be for all of us Middle Class people! As for the McCain supporters, I hope that you have money put away for a rainy day because REMEMBER he voted 90% of the time with the amazing Bush and that means the country will only be worse for the wear than it already is[14] Maggie, I think she was simply stated that she appreciated us standing out in the rain, don't be so sensitive and insecure and oh by the way Fredericksburg is NOT a safe red zone, it is a huge percentage for Obama, you should take a ride through there I am sure you would feel right at home. Her point was that all you big heads up there in DC are not the only people in this country, there are many in small towns all over this country and we are just as good as you snots up in snootyville.[21]

Do you really think doctors are going to only treat Obama ways? Black markets always start up just like the several trillion dollar economy flourishes in America under the IRS's nose. People will get over Obama'd just like they get over taxed and simply ignore the problem. Cafferty is looking for someone to hate as he can not hate himself and he chose a Lady as he is not man enough to pick on a man.[18] America had widespread sympathy and support around the world after the 9-11 attacks. That support has evaporated due to the policies it has pursued. Obama would be in a position to restore America's credibility among its allies and friends. Restoring health to the nation's economy will be even more difficult considering the mess that the nation finds itself in at this point. It will likely require patience, sacrifice and a positive attitude from the American people. That will require inspirational leadership from the nation's president, and there is every reason to believe that is Obama's greatest strength.[14]

Everybody knows that Obama embraced Wright as a young man while immersing himself indelibly in an inner-city, African-American community. No one talks about what a daunting and unusual choice this was for a son of transracial Hawaii: Southside Chicago was Obama's community only by color, not by virtue of his upbringing or childhood culture and the post-racial prospects it had opened. Inner-city blackness was something he felt he had to come to terms with because he understood that the African-American experience runs as deeply within American identity as American identity does within inner-city blackness. The unintended irony in Palin's charge that Obama is different from 'real Americans' is that he's also different enough from many black inner-city youths'yet also similar enough'to have turned their heads, big-time, even more than his supporter Colin Powell has done. Some of us envision an America where this delicate balancing of differences and similarities won't always be as necessary as it is now.[4] America's image abroad has been helped, too, by Obama's readiness to take us a step closer to Eric Lincoln's promised transracial land. The most important gain for this country would be some Americans' acknowledgment that color is not disqualifying and other Americans' acknowledgment that the most effective solvents of racism don't always march under banners that are marked 'anti-racism' or that are colored black or blue.[4]

To us it looks like something quite different: a declaration of war on capital. Obama has described his plan to hike taxes as "neighborliness," "patriotism" and "justice." It's the widest-ranging assault on capital -- and those who create it -- in at least a generation, possibly longer. Look at just a few of the things he and congressional Democrats have in mind: Higher taxes on successful entrepreneurs (anyone earning over $250,000), higher taxes on capital gains, higher taxes on dividends, a possible raid on Americans' 401(k)s, a takeover of America's private health care industry, strict new limits on what CEOs can make, and the re-imposition of the death tax.[19] What Obama plans is the higher incomes pay 98% of the taxes and the upper middle class 2% and everyone below that gets all the money that congress does not spend. 39% or $201,000.00 plus 7% for social security, plus 15% for state equals 61% of their income in taxes. $122,610.00 will go out in taxes leaving $78,390.00 they will get to keep. then take another 5% off for the new social security tax Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the dems want to add on and it shrinks even lower to $68,240.00. Now add on the fact they are ending the tax break on 401K's and ending them, another flop the dems came up with, and the only people who can honestly say the government is shafting is anyone who makes over 200,000 a year.[21] We've heard the words "communist" used in reference to Hillary Clinton, and "socialist" and "terrorist" in reference to Barack Obama. These are name-calling tactics that are childish, ignorant and regressive. Obama is not a terrorist and he is not a socialist. People who believe that do not know the correct meaning of those words. And, for those who don't believe me, Obama wants to raise taxes on those making $250,000 each year or more.[11]

The rainy Fredericksburg weather didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd, which cheered Palin's push for less bureaucracy. They were also on board for her push against Senator Barack Obama. She said she is just telling it like it is, not attacking. "It's not mean spirited either, and it's not negative campaigning to call someone out on their plans and on their record and on their associations," insisted Palin.[32] Many of my colleagues have written after-action reports on the third and final debate tonight. I agree with most of them who state that Barack Obama is clearly in the drivers seat in the presidential campaign.[9] Besides the two comments Palin did not stop or mention the rain not even grabbing an umbrella as the crowd ducked under campaign signs. All three of Palin'''s rallies today are outside as she stumps across Virginia. This state used to be reliably red, a Democrat has not won here since Lyndon Johnson won in 1964, but now Obama has close to an 8-point lead. Palin will try to close that gap today'''her next stop is a rally in Salem.[21] One of the main targets of Palin's speech -- Obama's economic plan and the possible impact on small businesses. Palin - "John and I know that it is our small businesses, it's the backbone of our economy. It's the backbone of this state our small business owners and their employees."[33]

As reported recently by Reuters, a quarter of a million students voted online and by mailing paper ballots in a mock election run by Scholastic, 57% chose Obama, 39% percent chose John McCain.[26] Republican hypocrisy and ignorance a voter turn-off With only one week left until the national election, the John McCain campaign might be regretting putting the governor of.[11]

It's difficult to imagine a more daunting set of circumstances. Inside the campaign, McCain has displayed his well-known stoicism, mixed with a dose of black humor, in the face of each new obstacle. Among his staff, it has become something of a mantra to say that whatever has to be done, no matter what it is, will have to be done the hard way. "You could think of this as trying to summit a mountain," one senior aide, who asked not to be named, told me. "Both campaigns have to summit the mountain. In most elections, one campaign has some kind of advantage over the other ' maybe they get a ten-minute or a half-hour head start ' but both sides have to climb the same face of the mountain. In this election, we're not climbing the same face of the mountain. They're climbing the side of the mountain with boardwalks and latte stands and playgrounds for the kids, and we're climbing the side of the mountain with axes and ice picks, and one slip and you're dead." Ask McCain's top aides about the obstacles and they'll remind you that before the financial crisis hit, as recently as mid-September, the race was tied.[3] Most political consultants are like accountants, only more anal and more emotional. They slice and dice voter histories to the point where they think they know how Republican- and Democratic-leaning voters respond to negative ads between 7 and 9 p.m. on the night of a full moon. Other than sweat, they don't know exactly how to deal with extremely high voter turnout fueled by voters with vague or completely nonexistent histories in the ballot box. "Typically at this point of a campaign, the average political hack can give you within a point or two what turnout is going to be," said Colin Strother, a Democratic consultant who is working on the campaigns of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and Precinct 3 Commissioners Court candidate Chip Haass. "But nothing," he said, "is typical about this election."[34]

The prospect of national collapse is held to be imminent otherwise. In their negative campaigning, in the tone of their vitriol, in the repetition of false accusations and smears that lead their followers to believe that Obama is un-American, treasonous (for which the penalty under U.S. federal statutes includes death, particularly in wartime), that he is a closet Arab, disguised Muslim, foreign born, etc., what the Republican campaign managers and their media surrogates are doing is something much more dangerous than trying to win an election.[2] Neo-Nazis, xenophobes, anti-communists, Christian fundamentalists, assorted right-wing militia groups, anti-abortionists, Klansmen and racists of various stripes—the number of potentially dangerous individuals incited by the Republican campaign discourse is large. Such people have proven records of murderous violence against those they despise. To pour fuel on the fires of their visceral hatred is to encourage someone to take matters into their own hands in order to prevent Obama from winning the presidency or, if he does, prevent him from either assuming office or serving out his term.[2] CFresident wrote on Oct 27, 2008 3:08 PM: " I agree with joel w that Obama is a know-it-all and what's wrong with that? Isn't it a good thing to have a president who is intelligent, thoughtful, and reflective? Obama has an excellent academic background as well as experience on the ground. From what I have seen, he has little or no ego problem. In the books he has authored, he does not trumpet his own accomplishments, which some people find disturbing. I have confidence that Obama will find the common ground that will unite the people of this country--this has been the entire premise of his campaign.[14] The McCain campaign had one more obstacle to surmount. The problem for the campaign was that, in the eyes of many voters, the economic crisis wasn't a totally new, discrete event but rather a continuation of some of the existing problems McCain thought he had overcome. People have been worried about the economy for quite a while, and many of them blame George W. Bush. Their new anxiety in the crisis showed up in even lower job-approval ratings for the president, and the Bush Burden ' which McCain thought he had escaped in September ' returned with a vengeance. It's something McCain has struggled with from the very beginning, when he began contemplating a second run for the presidency after the failure of his 2000 primary battle against Bush. In 2006, as McCain laid the groundwork for his present campaign, it appeared his biggest problem ' and also the best opportunity to differentiate himself from Bush ' was the war in Iraq.[3]

The McCain camp is dead set on replicating the Nixonian formula of exploiting the cultural and racial divisions in America, hoping that there'''s a '''silent majority''' of voters out there who can be scared into voting Republican. Not this time. McCain is finding himself with ever less ground to stand on as his running mate, Caribou Barbie, has seen her favorability ratings plummet in the weeks since the Republican National Convention. Her recent statements expressing happiness in visiting the '''pro-American''' parts of America combined with her blatant lack of knowledge on several key issues serve only to further scare away those with doubts on whom to support.[17] If America is to survive the coming debacle looming ahead under an ultra-left-wing Obama government drenched in the welfare-state philosophies of Karl Marx, only a reborn Republican Party will be capable of bringing America back from the brink of destruction.[19] Newsweek doesn't go on to tell you who killed the Reagan Era, so I will. It was the Republican Party that demolished the shining city on the hill my father built. It was the Republican Party that was 100 percent responsible for the end of the Reagan Revolution. They forgot who he was; and having forgotten who he was, they stopped following in his footsteps that should have led to smaller, less-intrusive government, and restrained government spending. They are the ones who began to undermine the sturdy foundation my father built. The end of the Reagan Era was brought to us by the Republican Party, which had thrived under his leadership and is now in danger of becoming a minor player in the nation's politics and a spectator at the birth of a socialist America doomed to follow the path to ruin of every failed state has embraced the Marxist creed. Can the Reagan Era be resurrected? It can, but only by the party that was responsible for its death. Republicans killed it and it's up to Republicans to revive it.[19]

Alaska has become the latest in a string of states to boost government spending transparency by posting information online. Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has announced the state has put its check register online.[21] Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored, records and interviews show. "Sarah said she didn't need to read that stuff," Ms. Chase said. "It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn't even read it." "I'm still proud of Sarah," she added, "but she scares the bejeebers out of me." Laura Chase, the campaign manager during Ms. Palin's first run for mayor in 1996, recalled the night the two women chatted about her ambitions.[15] The other morning on one of the MSNBC shows, a half-dozen or so pundits were discussing the amount of money spent on Sarah Palin's wardrobe. They were agonizing with great dismay over a story reporting that the campaign had spent a reported $150,000 on her. One of the bad-mouthers was Mika Brzezinski, who undoubtedly has her own private hairdresser at 4 o'clock every morning. The others around the table obviously didn't buy their clothes off the discount rack either, with the possible exception of Mike Barnacle.[20] You are being extremely hypocritical by attacking the inexperience of Sarah Palin but not mentioning the inexpereince of your own favored candidate.[12] Sarah Palin's comments display an attitude that is blatantly anti-science. It's lazy, ignorant and gleefully so.[35] Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it '''collectively''', but I can't see a distinction from the communist textbooks that talked about the very same thing as Sarah Palin.[21]

Why then Ms. Palin wants to come to Washington if all the best of America is not there? Does she think that by virtue of spending her life in Wasilla (except for wandering around colleges for 6 years to get a degree) she is actually better? If her ideas are so good why does she need to stir up the divisive us - them politics? Flattery in the face of the crowd is a very dishonest political move. Then she will move to Washington and start her way of small town politics, pronouncing herself the first Christian VP of the U.S. as she became the first Christian mayor of Wasilla, firing everybody who ever disagreed with her views as she did in Juneau, using her personal email account to conceal her vendetta - style politics from oversight. We already have the best of America senator convicted for that kind of politics, Mr Stevens, her godfather in politics who helped her to win, is going to jail. [21] Look what a Democrat majority has done for California for far too many years. Isn't anyone tired of it? No, we read how California is a blue state so when elections come along, we all figure, why bother? I say, not this year. Anyone who doesn't like the way this state is going, or this county for that matter, needs to get out there and vote.[36] Democrats, however, need more than the party's base to succeed, Strother said. Early vote totals from around the state suggest that most of the turnout is coming from consistent voters in both parties. A down-ballot Democrat such as Haass, for example, needs to win a sizable chunk of independent voters, who by and large have not voted yet.[34]

Add it up, and Obama will usher in a new era in America -- one where capital, the engine of our economic growth and success, is punished severely through the tax code. If Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, it'll be the only form of capital punishment their party will support.[19] As I was telling Moroccans in March when I voted in the Primary by Internet from Fes due to the great org Democrats Abroad, which with massive registration of the 12 million U.S. ex-pats around the world, may tip the scales. I was swept up in Obamamania, but quickly had second thoughts about Obama's conservatism (only #44th most liberal Senator, next to Lieberman, voted for illegal spying immunity- though McCain constantly lies, calls him the most liberal Senator)- that I had betrayed Hillary, who suffered for us- maybe the most unfairly attacked person in U.S. political history, who knows what the Repubs were and how to deal with them, and arguably was tougher and had a more concrete agenda.[15] "We're not talking about a bad jobs number, or a day of bad economic news," the aide said. "No ' this was a global financial crisis the likes of which the world has not seen since 1929." The crisis stopped McCain cold and helped Obama surge to his biggest lead of the race.[3] McCain says you don't raise taxes in a recession, but Obama isn't raising taxes. He's transferring some of the burden from those who can afford it least to those who can afford it most. The one thing Obama is that will serve him extremely well in the presidency is an intellectually curious man. After eight years of Joe Sixpack, it seems to me we're better off with a guy who made Law Review than with a guy who was fifth from the bottom in his college class.[37] Obama was to begin with a rally in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester. The event amounts to a bookend to his cross-state appearance on Monday in Pittsburgh, when he pledged to cut taxes for the middle class and help the factory worker as much as the company owner. Obama then heads again to Virginia, where he is vying to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in 44 years.[25] An Obama-Biden administration--working with a Democratic Congress--would mean a more debilitating nanny state at home and a weaker nation facing our enemies abroad. We, of course, have confidence that the nation would survive such an interlude, and we would even hope that a President Obama might adjust course from the path he's advertised, especially in foreign policy.[19]

Democratic nominee Barack Obama touts his tax plan as just a way to "spread the wealth."[19] A Republican congresswoman said Barack Obama might have "anti-American views" and suggested the media investigate members of Congress to find out who's "pro-America or anti-America." This should make shudder anyone who has studied McCarthyism or other historical episodes in which patriotism was exploited for partisan purposes.[38] The references to "real America" aren't only about whipping up angry nationalism. They're also part of an established political strategy, in which earthiness is supposed to increase likability. Politicians from all parts of the spectrum have tried this, with mixed results. Both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have been accused of adopting folksy accents when they address southern audiences.[38] The subject is ugly, unthinkable in polite society, and impolitic to mention. That is the possibility of political assassination, specifically that of Barack Obama.[2]

Our opponent's plan is just for more, bigger government. That is the problem, not the solution." Jennifer Watt of Salem said she was undecided a short time ago. She attended an Obama rally, as well as Monday's Palin rally in order to make up her mind. She said Palin's support of small businesses helped to win her over. [29] Polls are showing the race here is close, although most give Obama a slight lead. "This election is going to be close," Palin said. "Nov. 4 is going to come down to the wire, and it's going to come down to what you believe in." Palin and Virginia politicians who spoke before her told the crowd not to believe the polls, but instead to work hard in the next week to prove them wrong.[13] Why Obama has to stay above 50 per cent.'' There's an old rule in politics that an incumbent candidate is always in danger when he dips under 50 percent, even if he is leading his opponent in the polls. It's all about the undecideds. In a race with an incumbent candidate and a challenger, on Election Day the undecideds tend to break for the challenger, at rates as high as 4 to 1.[35] The issue is so fundamental that it defies reason that any patriotic American would not want to clarify a candidate's status before an election. If there were no problems in Obama's case it would not rise to significance, but he and his attorney's have maneuvered the Court to rule in their favor, albeit as a legal maneuver not as a matter of substance.[19]

Obama was much tougher on McCain + the issues and looked vibrant, young, and healthy, while McCain looked old and feeble. BO kicked back firmly and effectively and dispelled the overly cerebral nerd image he gave in the first debate.[15] While lambasting Obama's "big government" spending plan, McCain has voted to support some of the biggest government expenses ever: the $700 billion bailout and the Iraq war, which is approaching $600 billion.[12] The liberal media is screeching about polls it has taken or commissioned that show Obama ahead of McCain.[39]

Palin's speech came during a crucial stretch where the Republican ticket trails Obama in Virginia by 7 to 9 points in recent polling.[33] "Somehow, Joe succeeded where the rest of the media has failed," Palin said. "Obama calls this'spreading the wealth.' Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. Joe the Plumber -- he said to him it sounded like socialism.[29] Obama opposed it. that should tell you where Obama is headed. MORE WELFARE for those that don't want to work. I don't know about you, but we worked hard all our lives, and for our president to write out a check to those that don't want to work is just WRONG. This woman said it would amount to 60 billion a year. Like I said in some of my previous posts. please educate yourself, and watch some of the cable news channels.you can get both sides there, and make a decision based on fact.not biased political ads[14] America needs a smart president. It should be more clear now than ever, after the last eight years, that common sense is simply not enough to solve our problems. We need a logical, rational president who can use his judgment to listen to the right advice and make the right decisions and plans for our nation. and it is hard to get much smarter than the former president of the Harvard Law Review. We also urge students not to get their facts from e-mail forwards or by word of mouth, but from reputable news sources.[12]

Ukraine will have another election- the third in 3 years- as the once hero President Victor Yushchenko further damaged his legacy by suicidally dissolving the Parliament- Rada- and the ruling coalition with PM Yulia Tymoshenko, she of the infinite braid (bet she hates it now). Suicidal because his popularity is somewhere between 3 and 7%, but his party now has 15% representation, and it will likely lead to domination by ex-mugger Yanukovich's Party of the Regions. "It's the end of Our Ukraine," said the director of Fullbright scholarships in Ukraine, Myron Stachiw, flatly. The bitter junior high school rivalry between Victor Yushchenko and Yulia has become so dysfunctional that when she jetted off to Moscow to successfully charm Putin into permitting another few years of vastly subsidized gas to keep Ukraine afloat… Vic appropriated her plane, leaving her to scramble for a charter. YT for her part, has refused provide the $83 mil for the election, and while the leaders endlessly quarrel, an economic semi is coming down the pike that will smash the burgeoning young country flat. Yushchenko went ballistic about the Russian invasion of Ossetia/Georgia, castigating the Russians, flying off to Tbilisi to show support with his friend Saakashvili, and making idiotic threats that the Russian Navy wouldn't be allowed to return to Sevastapol after they had annihilated the Georgian Navy. Timoshenko was far more circumspect at alienating their mammoth neighbor, for which Vic accused her of treason, even tried to bring charges against her for plotting with Russia. This was the final straw in their relationship - she had already allied with the Regions to cut the President's power and make it easier to impeach him.[15] The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year.[15] I'm sure that all the pro-America Americans are really happy to hear that Palin believes that dinosaurs and humans coexisted only 6,000 years ago. The Los Angeles Times reported that, "She had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks." Yep, she could be in charge one day.[11] Our country is chaotic. After eight years of failed Bush policies that led to these disasters, the American people are now being called upon to decide what leaders will get our country though these chaotic times without causing further damage.[40]

A repentant Joe has now officially withdrawn from all campaign activities between now and next Tuesday. Few of us would have even noticed Joe but for his appearing at a recent McCain-Palin where he called the district he was visiting "a communist country". It is not just Republicans who drop themselves in the soup for misspeaking. The veteran Democratic Representative for Pennsylvania John Murtha, who made national headlines three years ago by opposing the Iraq war, should be cruising to re-election again this year. A few weeks ago, he insulted his own constituents when he posited: "There's no question western Pennsylvania is a racist area."[30] With that put to rest, let's look at issues of much greater importance. Perhaps we should check into the background of everyone with whom John McCain has had any type of contact since he was 8 years old.[6] In the last few weeks, John McCain has become downright nasty. It began around the time -- you'll recall this -- the time that one of his advisers said that if McCain campaigned on the economy, he would lose.[18]

Palin said, "Our economic plan is a pro growth, pro private sector agenda. It will get this economy back on the right track." McCain plans to do this through lowering income taxes, doubling the child tax credit and cutting capital gains taxes, essentially making government smaller and putting money in the hands of the workers.[32] Palin a "Diva", duh. NO, they only think of themselves, how they look, how perfect is the hair, are they reading the "in" books & magazines, eat in the right spot to be seen and admired, etc. This LADY certainly gains more and more respect as the days go by. Let it rain she can handle it. Admit it, jealousy of her is the main problem with the press! They wish the public did not like her.[21] Palin's unfavorable ratings are 51 percent. After a couple of interviews revealed glaring gaps in her knowledge, she's been called unqualified, even by pundits in her party. Some of her big claims, like having opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (she supported it before its prospects faded), have had holes. Recently, a report concluded she had violated Alaska state ethics by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. Despite her maverick, anti-earmarks claims, she's had her hand in the till for family travel at state expense.[10] Fredericksburg was the second of three rallies Palin held in Virginia yesterday. Virginia's status as a swing state is proven by the frequency of both campaigns' visits here as the election nears.[13] The Republican VP nominee was unfazed. 'By the way, I love this weather because it reminds me of home,' she said. As the rain came down harder, some in the crowd ducked under trees and others covered their heads using campaign signs, but Palin didn't even request an umbrella as she stood on stage, calmly reading through her prepared remarks.[41] The Republican campaign rhetoric could be the trigger. By their implicit logic it is a patriotic duty to prevent, by force if necessary, the collapse of the American way of life.[2]

Of course, the biggest issue on the American peoples' minds is the economic disaster. It affects each and every one of us. It is of my belief that democrats would do a better job of fixing this crisis than any Republican could. The Republicans keep talking about how important job creation is, and they are right.[40] People are sick and tired of the divisive politics of the Republican party. I voted for many Republicans years ago when they were moderate conservatives not the right wing dogmatic people they are today. I salute the Chippewa Herald on this endorsement[14]

Don't forget that folks named Eisenhower and Goldwater, grandchildren of two legendary Republicans, also have endorsed Obama. Well, if you're a multi-millionaire or better, it's in your financial interest. It probably helps if you hate black people too, or at least fear them.[37] Sam Greenlee's book 'The Spook Who Sat by the Door' tells the story of a young, educated, upwardly-mobile African-American in the early days of integration. The vote for a large state body depended on their demonstrating a commitment to equal opportunities, so they hire him and put him in a place of high visibility inside a glass door on the way up to the Capitol. By clever manipulation, and by playing up to all the stereotypes, he becomes personal assistant to the director. Then a charity working with alienated young people on the fringes of black militancy employs him as director in order to secure a grant from the Ford Foundation. Little did they know that he was a revolutionary sleeper, preparing the way for simultaneous uprisings in cities across America.[7] "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. Under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."[21]

We have no idea why people believe Obama can better solve the economic problems, but American voters have been sucked-in before.[20] Why haven't more people questioned where Obama's $600 million war chest has come from? C'mon, folks, even his aides only claim 3 million voters online donated an average of $80. so that explains the first $240 million.[21]

People are exhausted with Repub smear and slander tactics, and have finally, after so much sheep-like following, have turned against it. It is quite incredible- one after another media figure and voter turning against McCain for his sleazy tactics.[15] If you don't use it you are crazy, if you do you probably can't lose. Or you can sit on your hands and wait as the Muslim ads and vicious garbage activate enough unconscious racism to sway fence sitters. Specific Phrases : "That's dumb, John. We've done dumb for 8 years- that's why we're in this mess." (McCain is a screw-up who graduated in the bottom 1/2% of his class- but people don't know that.)[15]

The former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff'''s endorsement couldn'''t have come for a worse time for McCain. With only one week left until the end of our electoral debacle, McCain has to struggle to regain control of the news cycle to try to get his message across, in addition to having lost the ability to play the '''national security''' card. McCain being McCain, he will continue to stick to his guns and press on, just as the band did on the Titanic as it sank into the dark abyss.[17] A new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church. Ms. Palin chose Talis Colberg, a borough assemblyman from the Matanuska valley, as her attorney general, provoking a bewildered question from the legal community: "Who?" Mr. Colberg, who did not return calls, moved from a one-room building in the valley to one of the most powerful offices in the state, supervising some 500 people. "I called him and asked, 'Do you know how to supervise people?' " said a family friend, Kathy Wells.[15] As an aside, it is interesting that Palin did not hesitate to take the hard-earned $150,000 in new wardrobe or the $32,000 for a make-up artist for two weeks that the Republican National Committee handed her. Admittedly, she did not use 1/3 of the wardrobe.[27] With Nov. 4 looming and the Republican presidential hopeful trailing in the polls, supporters left the rally not only with a sense of urgency to beat the traffic, but also to win over undecided voters with new energy and optimism. Friends Patrick O'Hara and Andre Christian didn't hide their unease over the upcoming election.[8] The Repubs have moved to another level of criminality in their desperate attempt to purge voters, with Sen. Minority Leader Cong. (Delay's rt hand vermin) Boehner asking Bush to order AG Mukasey to order Ohio Sec State Jennifer Brunner to match voter's registrations with SS or Drivers License numbers. This was subject of a suit by the local Repubs, and some Ohio court went along with them. The SUPREME COURT voided that decision and said she did not have to do the notoriously inaccurate procedure (over 10% -200,000 unmatching for various reasons that have nothing to do with fraud). This cartoon President is now trying to jimmy a third election with the crudest of illegal partisan stunts- ignoring a applicable SC decision, and send the top cop out to disenfranchise voters. There should be riots and effigy burning all over America over this.[15] It's hard for me to believe that people are so blind that they don't see what Democrat majorities have done in the blue states, and especially in Congress the past two years. They believe the elite media that blame President Bush.[36] If we as a Nation of warri ng people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails perhaps a state or period of mutual concord would exist between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts.[21]

If you want to rein in government spending and reduce government giveaways that do nothing more than make people even more dependent, vote Republican.[36]

The attempts now to distance herself from McCain. If McCain loses, she will have already undergone the separation; she can re-introduce herself, swishing into the party as a gay divorcee, the cynosure of all eyes, given the divorce settlement gives her the Republican base. And, of course, she gets to keep the $150,000 trousseau.[24] The historically high proportion of Americans who say the country is on the wrong track ' as high as 90 percent in a recent Washington Post survey. The enthusiasm gap, with far fewer Republicans than Democrats saying they are fired up about supporting their candidate.[3]

Obama is no friend of whites or blacks or any race. He is enslaved to a liberal agenda which hopes to control our nation and ruin American values.[39] Jesse Jackson stated that Obama talks down to blacks. He owes his current position to white, pro-abortion liberals who control the Democrats.[39] In the U.S. Congress, Obama received 100 percent ratings from abortion chain Planned Parenthood and feminist pro-abortion group NARAL. Abortions kill whites and blacks, but the abortion rate for blacks is twice that of whites thus depleting the black race.[39]

Unfortunately for him, the last presidential debate has passed, and from here on in, most of the campaign coverage will be sound bytes from big rallies and television advertising. This is certain to give a further advantage to Obama, who is dramatically outspending him in nearly every major metropolitan market.[17] Change We Need: 1. current Obama campaign motto. 2. signs posted at parking garage pay booths and take-out pizza joints.[28] The nation needs more than that and Obama offers the best chance to deliver on the kind of leadership we need.[14]

Our country is in terrible shape right now and Obama has been the most forthcoming and specific on how he will improve the situation (reduce troops in Iraq and add more in Afghanistan, pursue diplomacy).[14] 'If transracial marriage is here, and biracial children are here, can transracial adoptions be far behind? It is time now to reach for the hand that is reaching for tomorrow, whatever color that hand may be. Lincoln wasn't thinking of McCain's transracial adoption, although he could have been. He was addressing black nationalists as well as white racists and even white liberals. He understood, he told me, that to watch blacks running political and military machines, municipalities, media organizations, and even money markets is to watch the angels of a romanticized blackness withdraw along with the demons of something feared and loathed. It is also to surrender an exotic white condescension along with contempt. For all of us, it is to acknowledge that this country's redemption has not'and will not'come through keeping race a central organizing principle of our polity and civic culture, let alone a wedge for partisan politics.[4] Not a way to endear yourself to voters. It seems that, after only a few weeks, we know almost nothing, yet at the same time far too much, about Palin.[11] The canvasser continued to the next house. They think that maybe someone will not like them because they are black and will try to do them harm. For better. and hopefully in fewer cases, for worse, this election is affecting our children in profound ways. Perhaps, when they're adults, it will be wholly for the better.[26] I'm only half kidding. It's obvious, though, that she's gone "off script" again; when she does that she can't seem to help putting her foot in her mouth far worse than anything Joe Biden has done. Like that issue she announced a few days ago she was going to take a special interest in, coincidentally usurping what is usually a First Lady's choice of pet projects: "special needs children" especially (another coincidence!) Down Syndrome children and autistic children (like her son, and her nephew). As Governor of Alaska she DECREASED the budget of such programs by more than half from that of her predecessor, but that was before the amniocentesis that diagnosed her own son's condition. NOW she's interested.[21] The real threat does not come from incompetent skinheads, redneck sheriffs or the intellectual midgets who shout epithets from the rafters at Palin rallies and on cable TV shows. It comes from those with some measure of acumen and skill who interiorize their rage and plot silently. They could be military, ex-military, former or active duty law enforcement personnel, with knowledge and access to the tools required to undertake a targeted assassination. They may know how to hunt, so understand basic issues of cover and position. Given the security measures in place and need for corresponding secrecy, they would likely undertake an assassination “mission” as a loan wolf or decentralized small group operation.[2]

Ms. Palin carries a tote bag emblazoned with "Real women hunt moose." Conservative bloggers praise her as a "real woman" with a "real family," as though working moms who vote Democrat are, by some strange logic, faking it. These days, politicians might also be trying to capitalize on resentment of Wall Street.[38] There's no excuse not to vote Although some professors across the nation are canceling classes on Election Day in order to give students more time to.[11]

The McCain campaign intends, I gather, to return to the commander in chief theme with an event in Florida Wednesday showcasing former secretaries of state and retired senior military officers. [35] Palin continued to warn of the potential hazards of a complete Democratic takeover of the federal government. 'Friends, if big government spenders control the House and the Senate, and heaven forbid the White House, they will have that monopoly of power in Washington, D.C.,' she said.[41] Vice presidential candidates: Senator Biden is a long-time Democrat who follows the party line. An alleged Catholic, he disagrees with the church on the pro-life issue and misrepresents its position.[39]

REFERENCES

1. American Thinker: The Left Keeps Hate Alive
2. Scoop: Campaign Rhetoric As An Invitation To Violence
3. John McCain, Against the Wind by Byron York on National Review Online
4. History News Network
5. Northern Star Online: Writer endorses McCain, Palin for presidential ticket
6. Wealth redistribution is called 'taxes' 102808 - The Augusta Chronicle
7. Obama will face spectre of prejudice in final days - Analysis - Independent.ie
8. McCain supporters remain cautiously optimistic - News
9. Politics Examiner: Sarah Palin, United States Senator
10. Basu: Palin's mixed appeal: Charisma, stirring fear | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
11. The Maneater - Republican hypocrisy and ignorance a voter turn-off
12. Endorsement: Obama the best candidate for students, nation - Viewpoints
13. Fredericksburg.com - PALIN FIRES UP CROWD ONLINE >> Go to REPUBLICAN SAYS OBAMA TAX PLAN BAD FOR BUSINESS
14. Chippewa.com
15. OpEdNews ' OBAMA's LAST DEBATE, POLLS -A NEW AMERICA, DESPERATE DISENFRANCHISEMENT, 2nd DEBATE NSHVL, MESSAGE TO BO OFFICIAL, UKRAI
16. Debate helps Pasco school understand presidential campaign - St. Petersburg Times
17. Fizzling Out - The Tech
18. CNNs Cafferty: Palin Became a National Joke to Everybody | NewsBusters.org
19. Family Security Matters » Publications » Exclusive: Tuesday, October 28
20. The Democrat
21. Palin Stumps Through the Rain « FOX Embeds « FOXNews.com
22. Lynn Alison Williams: Don't play 'the Palin lottery' | Athens Banner-Herald
23. Javno - World - Day in Photographs ' October 27, 2008
24. Repent at leisure
25. The Associated Press: Today on the presidential campaign trail
26. Christopher Fink: This Election Doesn't Leave Our Children Behind
27. OpEdNews ' McCain and Palin Attack Obama for Being a Christian.
28. Read their lips: Candidates have provided memorable quotes, phrases
29. CollegiateTimes.com - Palin, Gilmore pack Salem stadium on ice-cold night
30. US Election Diary - White House, News - The Independent
31. The Sarah and Ted Show : Rolling Stone : National Affairs Daily
32. NBC29-Palin Addresses Fredericksburg Crowd
33. Packed Crowd Cheers Palin|ABC 13
34. Heavy early voting has left political pros rather confused
35. Crikey - US media wrap: Obama assassination story a beat-up? - US media wrap: Obama assassination story a beat-up?
36. Opinion: Letters 10-27-08 | good, letters, palin: vvdailypress onSet Site - WAP
37. Why would anyone sane vote for McCain? | Capitol Hill Blue
38. The politics of division
39. Obama a threat to American values - Berkshire Eagle Online
40. We should vote Democrats into our offices - Opinions
41. Palin Soldiers On Through The Rain - From The Road

McCain , Obama to spend much of final days in red states

CONTENTS:

A day after drawing more than 150,000 supporters to monster rallies in Colorado, Obama will give a "closing argument speech" in Canton, Ohio that will urge voters to choose "hope over fear, unity over division," aides said. (More...)
The closet is a deeply destructive thing. (More...)
For eight years, we've seen this philosophy at work; it's put our economy on the wrong track, and we can't afford another four years to look like the last eight." (More...)
WP ombudsman Deborah Howell sums up a controversy-ridden week at the paper involving two glaring photo errors (one accidentally selected photo pictured Jack Valenti, who died last year) and a slew of subscriber cancellations after the Post endorsed Barack Obama. (More...)
Unaffiliated voters ''' typically about one-third of Colorado'''s electorate ''' have started to swing to Obama. (More...)
Tracey Schmitt, Palin's campaign spokeswoman, said a third of the clothing was returned after the Republican National Convention in September, and "many of the remaining clothes have never been worn." (More...)

A day after drawing more than 150,000 supporters to monster rallies in Colorado, Obama will give a "closing argument speech" in Canton, Ohio that will urge voters to choose "hope over fear, unity over division," aides said. "In his speech, Senator Obama will tell voters that after 21 months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he'd do differently from (President) George Bush when it comes to the economy," a campaign statement said. Obama, fired up by an astonishing prowess at fundraising, will follow up his Ohio speech with a 30-minute advertisement airing on national networks at huge expense on Wednesday night. Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said Obama's "closing argument" amounted to an appeal for voters to hand Washington over to one-party rule as the Democrats prepare to tighten their grip on Congress. "Obama's latest speech is more of the same empty rhetoric repackaged with the urgency of tightening polls and still-undecided voters," he said, attacking the senator as "untested and inexperienced". McCain's electoral map is shrinking as he battles to hold on to states won by Bush in 2004 such as Iowa, where yesterday he shrugged off national and pivotal state polls that suggest Obama will triumph on November 4. An ABC News-Washington Post national poll gave Obama a 52-45 per cent lead over McCain among likely voters, down from his 54-43% margin last week. "We've closed in the last week and if we continue this close in the next week you're going to be up very late on election night," McCain told NBC. Continued. [1] DENVER, Colorado (AFP) — Barack Obama took aim at John McCain before record crowds after his rival acknowledged sharing the same Republican party philosophy as unpopular President George W. Bush. Just nine days before the presidential election, Democratic candidate Obama again attempted to shackle McCain to Bush's shattered economic legacy and tried to rebut attacks on his own tax policy. More than 150,000 people flocked to two Obama rallies on the campaign trail in Colorado, with a record crowd of more than 100,000 in Denver listening as the Illinois senator tore into McCain for his support of Bush. "Just this morning, Senator McCain said that actually he and President Bush'share a common philosophy,'" Obama said. "That's right, Colorado. I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk, owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common," Obama said. Obama then listed what he saw as deficiencies of the McCain-Bush philosophy, which encapsulated his main campaign themes heading into the election on November 4 as America battles its deepest economic crisis since the 1930s. He said "the Bush-McCain philosophy" gave tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations and justified spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq "while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus and our economy is in crisis."[2] The Illinois senator was concluding a two-day campaign swing through the crucial western battlegrounds of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. He sought to hammer home his favorite theme, that Americans cannot afford four more years of failed Republican leadership. Obama has focused on states such as Colorado that allow early voting, urging supporters to cast their ballots before November 4th in the hopes of luring first-time and infrequent voters to the polls. Barack Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidate, said, "If you will organize with me and march with me and knock on doors with me and make phone calls with me for nine more days, we will not just win Denver, we will win Colorado, we will win this election and you and I together we are going to change the country and we will change world."[3] The Los Angeles Times fills its lead slot with a look at the presidential candidates' strategies for the last nine days on the campaign trail. McCain plans to spend most of his time attacking Obama's economic plan and warning of a Democratic supermajority, while the Obama campaign is concerned primarily with staving off overconfidence. The Washington Post leads with a look at the increased scrutiny of credit card donations given to the candidates through their Web sites. Barack Obama's record-shattering $150 million campaign haul has raised questions in both parties about the laxly overseen, anonymous world of Internet campaign donations. The New York Times leads with the slowing demand for American products, which means thousands of Americans are losing their jobs. Many of the United States' highest-profile corporations have announced layoffs, and economists expect unemployment numbers to exceed 200,000 when they are announced Nov. 7. Barack Obama's "message of hope" will remain the same through Nov. 4, the LAT reports, while John McCain is sharpening the points of a "three-pronged" final attack that will focus on Obama's tax plan, his limited experience, and the excessive power the Democratic Party could wield if he is elected. Both sides admit the outlook is bleak for McCain, and the LAT reports that McCain's aides privately discuss his return to the Senate. Even though Obama leads comfortably in several states that McCain cannot afford to lose, his campaign is concerned about "overconfidence."[4] Buoyed by a huge fund-raising advantage and a steady lead in national polls, Democrat Barack Obama began his closing argument for the presidency on Saturday with an optimistic message that his economic policies will bring better days for hard-pressed, middle-class Americans. Republican John McCain sought to raise doubts about his rival's tax policies and readiness to be commander in chief, as he fought desperately to stem losses in traditionally Republican-leaning states on the penultimate weekend of the testy presidential race. Both campaigns focused on western states on Saturday.[5]

U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain, says he can guarantee a win in next week's election, but that the result will be very close. Our Washington correspondent, Kim Landers reports while the opinion polls show Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama is likely to win the presidential election, his rival John McCain is not giving up. Although he trails in key states like Ohio, the Republican nominee says he can guarantee victory. "We are very competitive in those areas and we're going to have to just get out our vote and work very hard over the next nine days," he said.[6] "We can't have another four years that look like the last eight. It is time for change in Washington," Obama said. Obama spoke on the second day of a swing through vital western battleground states Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, after a short break from the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii who turned 86 on Sunday. If he can win all the states that Democrat John Kerry captured in his unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid and peel the three western states away from the Republicans, Obama will be assured of the White House. In an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press,", McCain argued that he had long had major differences with Bush on issues like climate change and government spending.[2] Inviting me into the living room of his small wooden bungalow, Leslie Johns declaims like a fiery Baptist minister - but with considerably more fiery language. "Look at Bush with his slick ass, helping out all those Wall Street bankers," he preaches - to the converted, as far as he is concerned. "You bet I'm voting Obama, but not because he's black. I'm voting because he's not Bush." "It's wonderful you're here, by the way." For all his passion, 2008 would be the first year that Mr Johns has voted. On just my second day volunteering with the Colorado Obama campaign, it is my job to make sure he fulfills his promise. Now that the time for voter registration has passed, the objective of thousands of eager Obamaites across the country is to make sure that those who are able to vote (and, of course, likely to vote Democrat), vote early, vote by post or - at the very least - know where to vote come November 4. Their worry is that Obama's narrow poll lead in states like Colorado will be negated by new voters - invariably left-leaning - failing to follow procedures: not including photocopied IDs with their postal ballot, not understanding English, or simply not knowing where to turn up.[7]

McCain's strategy relies on holding on to most of the states Bush won four years ago including hotly contested Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Ohio - all states where most polls show the race even or Obama slightly ahead. Sweeping those would give McCain 260 electoral votes, though doing so is far from certain. The Republican would need to pick up 10 more votes by triumphing in a combination of Bush-won states: Nevada (5 electoral votes) and Colorado (9), which public surveys show are close, as well as Iowa (7) and New Mexico (5), where polls show Obama comfortably ahead. POLITICO.com reported McCain losing ground in his own state of Arizona according to a poll taken by Democrats, grim news for the GOP in an election where McCain's strategy allows almost no margin for error. McCain campaign advisors believe they've found an economic argument that undercuts Obama - his own comment about wanting to "spread the wealth around," in answer to an Ohio plumber who raised questions about Obama's tax plan.[8] McCain's appearance came a week after former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell used the "Meet the Press" venue to endorse Obama. He is just one of a number of prominent GOP leaders who have turned their backs on McCain in recent weeks. The campaign is expected to heat up as it moves into its final full week before election day on November 4. Obama released a new television ad Sunday that characterized his opponent as "out of ideas, out of touch and running out of time." The ad, which will begin airing on national television stations Monday, charges that McCain has resorted to attempting to tarnish Obama's reputation to cover for the fact that he does not have a plan to revive the flagging U.S. economy. Obama will spend Sunday campaigning in Colorado, where he has a slight lead over McCain in the polls.[9]

A framed front-pager in the WP focuses on the Republican Party's well-oiled get-out-the-vote machine in Colorado (a must-win for McCain), which may be threatened by Obama's impressively organized volunteers. Colorado Republicans say their grassroots experience in the state should give them an edge. The WP's lead story reports that lawyers for both parties have asked the Federal Election Commission to examine Internet campaign donations, as the presidential campaigns have "permitted donors using false names or stolen credit cards to make contributions." Conservative bloggers first raised the issue when they reported that "test" donations to the Obama campaign under names like "Osama Bin Laden" were always accepted. The Obama campaign says it makes strenuous efforts to flag suspicious donations and points to such irregularities in both candidates' donor records.[4] The Republican presidential candidate also said: "I've stood up against my party, not just President Bush, but others; and I've got the scars to prove it." He also offered specific examples of differing with Bush, from Iraq strategy and deficit spending to campaign finance reform and climate change. McCain also has campaigned aggressively in the state, as has his running mate, Sarah Palin. More broadly, Obama is using his record-breaking fundraising advantage to buy up media time and make what he hopes is a closing argument for the presidency. McCain and his team say the race is hardly over, particularly for a candidate who's had his share of comebacks.[10] The Illinois senator was spending the next four days in GOP-held Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, with a quick stop in Pennsylvania. Vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday the $150,000 in clothes and accessories bought for her by the Republican National Committee don't belong to her, equating the high-priced wardrobe with the stagecraft at campaign rallies. Dogged for days by the brouhaha over outfits from upscale stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, Palin argued that she and her family live frugally. To emphasize her point Sunday night, she wore jeans at an event in Asheville, N.C. "This whole thing with the wardrobe, I try to just ignore it because it's so ridiculous," Palin told a Florida crowd earlier in the day. "Those clothes, they are not my property, just like the lighting and the staging and everything else the RNC purchased," she said. "I'm not taking them with me. A McCain spokesman said about a third of the clothes were returned because they were the wrong size or for other reasons, and the rest would be donated to charity. Aides say Obama will lay out his closing argument in a speech today in Canton, Ohio. Behind the scenes, advisers were preparing the 30-minute advertisement he planned to air Wednesday on national TV networks as part of that last pitch, and also were mapping the transition to the White House.[11]

Bush captured Florida to win the disputed 2000 election and carried the state again in 2004. "You kinda get the feeling that the Obama campaign thinks this whole election process is just a formality," she said, accusing the Democratic ticket of overconfidence. "They've overlooked, though, the minor detail of earning your confidence and your trust and winning your vote. She also continued criticism of the Obama economic plan that she says amounts to socialism, characterizing him as "Barack the wealth-spreader." She vowed that McCain would allow people to keep more of their money, and accused Obama of not telling the whole truth about what she said are his plans to redistribute wealth. "It is not mean-spirited and it is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record, and their plans and their associations," she said. "It is not negative campaigning. It is fairness to you, to the voters, that we talk about this." Florida, like Ohio, is critically important to both candidates because under the U.S. system, the nationwide popular vote does not decide the election.[12] Last week, Sarah Palin, Joseph Biden, and McCain all swung through on multistop visits. In an election in which McCain needs to hold onto all the states Bush won in 2004, those nine votes may prove crucial. It'''s hard to imagine a McCain victory in which he loses Colorado. Both demographic shifts ''' new, educated, younger residents pouring in from the East and West coasts ''' and strategy have helped Obama'''s prospects. His campaign targeted this state early and has established more than 40 field offices, compared with a dozen or so for McCain. It has also been wooing Hispanic voters as they'''ve never been wooed.[13] The contest is decided on a winner-take-all state-by-state basis with each candidate battling to capture electoral votes that are roughly apportioned according to population. As newspapers made their presidential endorsements, the largest daily in Palin's home state declared it was backing Obama. "The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation," the Anchorage Daily News wrote.[12]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican John McCain declared "I'm going to win it," dismissing polls showing him behind with little more than a week to go in the presidential race. A confident Democrat Barack Obama drew a jaw-dropping 100,000 people to a single rally and rolled out a new TV ad asserting his rival is "running out of time."[14] C EDAR FALLS, Iowa - John McCain, lagging behind in the polls, yesterday urged voters to elect him president to create a check on a Democratic Congress that he says is determined to increase taxes and the size of government. His Democratic rival Barack Obama urged a record crowd of 100,000 supporters in Colorado not to become complacent, despite his lead in the polls. In front of 2,000 supporters in Iowa, McCain ridiculed reports that Obama is polishing his inaugural address, instead focusing on the dangers of Democrats pushing for higher taxes and bigger government. "That's what's going to happen if the Democrats have total control of Washington," McCain told the rally yesterday.[15]

The speech, to be delivered Monday from Canton, Ohio, will emphasize the differences between Obama and Republican nominee John McCain, CNN reported. "In his speech, Senator Obama will tell voters that after 21 months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he'd do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy," the Obama campaign said in an e-mail to reporters. The statement said Obama will ask Americans "to help him change this country" and "choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up."[16] Obama's campaign is reminding Americans that McCain, as a senator, has voted with the George Bush White House 90 per cent of the time. McCain used his "Meet the Press" appearance to repeat some of the major themes of his campaign, and remind voters that on that other 10 per cent of votes where he turned against the Bush administration, those votes were on important issues related to the economy, global warming and Iraq. "I was not popular in my own party," he reminded Brokaw.[9]

"But I stood up against my party, not just President Bush but others as well and I have the scars to prove it." McCain also brushed off opinion polls indicating he is set to lose against Obama, insisting that his bid for the White House is still afloat. McCain, who has been trailing Obama by more than 10 points in some national and state polls, told NBC that his campaign was "doing fine." "We've closed in the last week and if we continue this close in the next week you're going to be up very late on election night."[2] What America needs now is someone who will finish the race before starting the victory lap." Earlier yesterday, during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," McCain opened himself up for attack when he said he and President Bush share a "common philosophy" of the Republican Party, despite disagreements on Iraq, deficit spending and campaign finance reform, among other issues. "I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk," Obama told his army of supporters in Denver, where he recorded his biggest crowd of the campaign.[15] Utah Democrats are ecstatic at Obama's fundraising totals, hoping that it will lead to electoral success for local candidates as well. They say the neck-and-neck fundraising race is remarkable considering the fundraisers hosted on behalf of McCain by President Bush, Romney and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. "In most Utahns' lifetimes, there hasn't been anything like this," said Utah Democratic Party Executive Director Todd Taylor. "The widespread enthusiasm we are seeing this year is truly unprecedented." Some have done much more than donate; both campaigns have turned to wealthy and connected supporters to act as bundlers, who solicit funds from their contacts on behalf of their favorite candidate.[17] Sen. Obama is still ahead, and leads McCain in some battleground states by double digits. He's not taking his lead for granted. He's unleashed a national campaign blitz that includes ads. The Democrat is encouraging early voting and is mobilizing his army of volunteers to translate his current advantage, into victory. "And if you all organize with me, and march with me, and knock on doors with me and make phone calls with me we will win this election," says Sen. Obama. The candidates will continue to keep up the pressure, crisscrossing battleground states this week. They will also roll out the stops - including former President Bill Clinton stumping for Obama in Florida.[18] Obama will hold a late-night rally in Orlando on Wednesday with former President Bill Clinton. Obama has built his edge in the battleground states much as he has in national polls. In the latest national tracking poll, he leads McCain by 13 points among independents and by 12 points among women. McCain leads handily in the national poll among whites by 54 percent to 41 percent, but Obama has done a better job of reaching across the partisan divide -- he attracts 19 percent of conservatives while McCain wins just 5 percent of liberals. Independent Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr both received support from 1 percent of those polled nationally. Two percent said they remain undecided in the race.[19]

Most polls show Obama comfortably ahead in all of the states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004, but the Reuters/Zogby polls show McCain in serious danger in several states won by Bush. "If Obama holds the Kerry states, he is in line now to get enough electoral votes to win the White House," Zogby said, noting McCain faces a difficult fight in a handful of states where Republicans have a long history of success. "These polls are a measure of what an uphill battle McCain faces to win," Zogby said. "These are all Republican states and McCain has a very tough challenge, but they are all close."[19] With eight days remaining for the election, polls of the 50 states show Obama either nearing or above the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, dismissed the poll numbers and said his campaign is "doing fine". The Republican, interviewed from Iowa yesterday on NBC television's 'Meet the Press', said his campaign has pulled closer to Obama's.[20]

At an unscheduled stop at a campaign office in Brighton, northeast of Denver, Obama sat down and called about a dozen unsuspecting registered voters. He shuffled from one call to the next as thrilled campaign volunteers kept placing calls and handing him cell phones. Based on what reporters could hear from Obama's end of the conservation, all of the calls went well for him. He then told volunteers to keep working through Election Day. "It'd be terrible if we just kind of let it slip away in that last few days," he said. His opponent, Republican John McCain, is needling Obama for starting his victory lap without having won anything.[10] Obama said the nation is already being "tested in a way that we haven't seen in nearly a century." That word, "tested," drew groans last week from Obama staffers because his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said at a recent fundraiser that Obama would be "tested" in his early days as president. This gave the McCain campaign fodder to poke at Obama's inexperience. McCain said in speeches last week that he has already been "tested." "Future generations will judge us by how we respond to this test," Obama said. In the last part of both speeches, he stopped talking about McCain. He beseeched the youthful voters in the Fort Collins audience to serve their country, pledging to pay college tuition for people who served in the military or took jobs in homeless shelters, in high-risk schools or in poor hospitals. He said he was going to employ 2 million people to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, "and if people ask how we're going to pay for this, you tell them that if we can spend $10 billion a month in Iraq, we can spend some money to rebuild the United States." Obama attempted to convince weary voters that after more than a year of divisive political rhetoric, his policies would help those struggling as the country faces an economic recession, a plunging stock market and ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "With the challenges and crises we face right now, we cannot be divided -- not by class, not by race, not by region, not by who we are," he said. "There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this country; we all love this country, no matter where we live, no matter where we come from."[21] Powell effectively undercut McCain's desperate campaign to paint Obama as "inexperienced" and "unstable" in military matters and foreign affairs. Prior to Powell's endorsement, Obama had already exposed McCain, through their three head-to-head presidential debates, McCain has steadfastly advocated staying in Iraq until an undefined victory even after President Bush and the Iraqi government agreed on the withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011. For some time, American voters had increasingly questioned McCain's endless use of his long years in Senate and his experience as a Vietnam prisoner of war as evidence of the character and judgment required for the president to handle the crisis at home and abroad.[22] Mr. Obama will tell voters that critical swing state after 21 months on the campaign trail and three debates, Mr. McCain still has not been able to tell the American people "a single major thing hed do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy," the Obama campaign said. According to the Obama campaign, he will tell voters that in a week "they can choose hope over fear, unity over division and the promise of change over the power of the status quo."[23] We need experience, a record of service and bipartisan leadership. With Obama, the American people have no guarantee that he will govern from the center. McCain has proven he is a centrist. McCain's record shows he is willing to regulate when necessary and deregulate when necessary. He supports banking regulations now, but he also has a record of deregulating industries that become mired in government bureaucracy. He is the right Republican for this point in American history. Obama has pledged repeatedly he will tax the rich and spread the wealth. By contrast, McCain has supported many moderate policies in his career. As he said, he is no George Bush.[24]

"There is a general reaction of 'Why would you vote for McCain,'" Jentges said. "Liberals are supposed to be open-minded and open to people's beliefs, but they tend to just judge you." Jentges, who opposes abortion and affirmative action, said she aligns more closely with both McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's social stances but is outnumbered by the majority of students; she admits only two of her friends are voting Republican. UW senior Hallie Slamowitz, who is an Obama supporter, said there are more Republicans on campus than people think but believes Republican students tend to suppress their views unless they are very outspoken and willing to get into a debate. Slamowitz said since 75 percent of people match their parents' party identification there are naturally many conservative students on campus because areas of Wisconsin are quite conservative. "It is hard for them to voice their opinion, especially when Wisconsin is such a liberal campus," Slamowitz said. Slamowitz said the main reason she is voting for Obama is because of the potential vacancy in the Supreme Court during the next presidential run, adding if McCain won he could potentially appoint conservative justices who could overturn decisions such as Roe v. Wade. Despite her alignment with Obama's social stances, Slamowitz said she admits she does not agree with all of Obama's positions. "Just because you are a Republican doesn't mean you agree with every one of McCain's stances," she said[25] The loss of Colorado would be disastrous for John McCain's chances by itself, but also because it would be a clear signal that even traditional bastions are no longer safe from the Obama onslaught. The Republicans' difficulties today in Colorado mirror those elsewhere: the party is paying a price locally for insisting on picking ever more right-wing candidates at a time when the political pendulum has begun to swing in the other direction. "Nixon came up with the strategy that people would vote for you if they could identify with you.[26]

Over 60 percent of voters, young and old, are feeling empowered and ready to repair the America that neo-conservative Republicans have wrecked. They are voluntarily using e-mail to spread Obama's messages and prevent Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, from dispersing vicious smears against Obama.[22]

The Obama camp responded that the report that transition chief John Podesta had penned an address, which has already been published in a book, were false. "While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Senator Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain who just plans on rereading George Bush's," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.[27] McCain has a history that is extremely sorted and inconsistent. His butt was saved so many times by his family (Admiral dad and grandfather) that nobody can even keep count. McCain has no real history of having ever behaved in a way that would be considered acceptable to any of his Cristian right supporters. He had a never ending series of affairs, even while he had a crippled wife who waited 5 years for him to return from Vietnam. I could go on and on, but the point is many of the McCain Palin supporters have to twist the facts into a pretzel to find a way to justify their support. I was a big fan of McCain in 2000, but ever since then he has behaved almost like a crazy man. His behavior is so inconsistent with his past beliefs, and so erratic that I no longer know what it is he does believe in. He talked about rinning a clean campaign and then was the overwhelmingly more negative of the two. He complained about Obama's relatively short political career and then picked the least qualified VP candidate in U.S. history. He says he does everything for his country but doesn't seem to care that he is a very sick old man who is unlikely to make it trough his Presidency.[13] McCain seems to have a Teflon quality because most of his Conservative base is still too hesitant to criticize a Republican War Hero. If McCain wasn't a POW, his out-of-touch perspectives like his belief that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" would have finished him a long time ago. All McCain says in his speech is angry, divisive hyperbole. Like a Gumby without integrity, he bends his words to fit what the conservative base wants to hear, prostituting his words for their unquestioning votes. Where is the "Straight Talking" McCain we used to know? The only thing we know these days is that it's "anti-American" to ask questions of Palin's qualifications to be second-in-command. Despite his heroic past, his extreme negativity and erratic behavior clearly demonstrate a divisive strategy for this country and extremely bad judgment for our future. Although the warlike aggressions of Bush may give credence to the idea of an Anti-Christ, McCain/Palin seem to be taking this idea to a whole new level. Hopefully someone else can appreciate how easy it is to be blindly-critical towards the things we disagree with, without seeing how these concepts can apply to our own perspectives and points of view. We'd probably be a stronger nation if we could avoid such intensely-polarizing terms like "Axis of Evil" "Anti-American" and "Anti-Christ" to define perspectives that we disagree with. Despite their differences in belief, I believe each of these candidates truly does care about their visions for America, and hopefully even for a united world.[13]

"For eight years, we've seen the Bush-McCain philosophy put our country on the wrong track," Obama said, "and we cannot have another four years that look just like the last eight. It's time for change in Washington, and that's why I'm running for President of the United States." He added, "We know what the Bush-McCain philosophy looks like. It's a philosophy that says we should give more and more to millionaires and billionaires and hope that it trickles down." McCain began the day in Iowa, a Midwestern state where he is looking to make up lost ground. His aides argue the state is closer than the public polling shows.[12] The well known Colorado poet Thomas Hornsby Ferill once wrote, "Here is a land where life is written in water". Barack Obama has said he will not be in favor of opening the Colorado water compact for discussion. With McCain being a Western State Senator he said, "I would not be open to open the Colorado Compact, under any circumstances, but of course we have to as a growing west we have to discuss issues, that's why there is a Western Governors Association, so the western governors can sit down and say how do we address some of the challenges we have in common, like our Native American issues, like our issues associated with public lands and our national parks, so I mean by the way I know these issues, I'm a western senator Senator Obama does not understand or has he ever been involved in any of these issues, I've been involved with them for years and years and years, and I'm proud of my record.[28] A review of 24 direct-mail advertisements sent on behalf of Obama or McCain documents a below-the-radar battle in which the message becomes something more spiteful, more exaggerated and often more ominous. Voters in Virginia received a flier from the state's Democratic Party warning that McCain "is hiding something he doesn't want us to know." The Republican National Committee sent half a dozen swing states mail adorned with the slogan "Barack Obama: Not who you think he is."[11] Unlike the more conservative Rockingham County, the city's vote in recent elections has been nearly evenly split among Democratic and Republican candidates. "What these do is mobilize the base more than anything else to get the vote out," Roberts said, explaining that Harrisonburg has seen a substantial increase in registered voters over the past year. "Once you accomplish that goal, your final goal in terms of your grassroots is to motivate your base," he said. "This type of visit can also serve the purpose of demoralizing the opposition." While Roberts acknowledged the significance of the visit - no major candidate has come through the Valley in decades - he noted that the Harrisonburg stop is a short one along Obama's campaign trail to a larger event in Norfolk. Rockingham County Democratic Committee Chairman Dan Breeden said news of the visit has reenergized him and others in the party.[29] The political environment has become increasingly favorable for Democrats and challenging for Republicans as the global economic crisis dominates the campaign. In coming days, both candidates will focus primarily on Bush-won, vote-rich battlegrounds like Ohio and Florida, which decided the last two presidential elections and could do so again. Pennsylvania is the only state that Democratic Sen. John Kerry won four years ago that both candidates are expected to visit before Election Day.[11]

"Barack Obama was in the Democratic cloakroom. It would have taken him five seconds to come out and vote," Mr. Graham said at a rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa, attended by about 2,000 people. "He does not deserve to be commander in chief." He also said Mr. McCain took taxpayer financing for the general election "because it's good for his country not to have it overrun by money," and he questioned Mr. Obama's decision to forgo public financing as a scandal in waiting. "$600 million has been raised, and God knows who from," he said. Mr. Obama heads Monday to Canton, Ohio, where he is scheduled to deliver a speech billed as a "closing argument" for his presidential bid.[23] I will be deeply disappointed if McCain wins the election. Not because he's bad, but I felt Obama is better. Obama could've gone to Wall St with his degree, but instead he chose to serve us in the community as a community organizer -helping the poor, and really bring justice and fairness, since he was young. He then became a lawyer, a professor, and a senator. He's loved and respected dearly by those around him because not only his personality but also his desire and commitment to the community. Obama is not God, and he wont do a perfect job as a president like anybody else in America, but at least, he has the basic skills, visions, and goal and the support from a lot of people. I personally don't understand people who don't vote for him.[8]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Barack Obama is trying to snag a win in Colorado, a state that twice sided with President Bush, as the race for the presidency whirls into its final days. The Democratic contender could significantly boost his chances of locking up the magic number for victory — 270 electoral votes — by securing the nine votes Colorado offers.[30] Barack Obama pushed a sanguine message to 150,000 hearty supporters in two Colorado cities Sunday, vowing that as president he'll rebuild the country's infrastructure, hoist people out of their economic hole and bridge a divided populace. Nine days before the Nov. 4 election in a state considered crucial to both parties, the hordes of devoted, sunglasses-wearing spectators at Civic Center and at Colorado State University provided a stunning statement of Obama's drawing power.[21]

DENVER (AP) — Roaring toward the finish, Barack Obama presided Sunday over two Colorado rallies that together drew about 150,000 people, a startling turnout in a key swing state. In Denver, the city where he claimed his historic presidential nomination, Obama stepped on stage and seemed surprised at his own following. He saw an estimated crowd of more than 100,000 people — the largest U.S. rally to date in an Obama campaign full of them.[10] The campaign trail images and rhetoric said perhaps more about the state of the race than any poll could. In Colorado, Obama reveled in his largest U.S. crowd to date, with local police estimating that "well over" 100,000 people packed Denver's Civic Center Park and stretched even to the distant steps of the state Capitol. The enthusiastic sea of people prompted a "goodness gracious" from Obama as he took the stage. Another enormous swarm -- an estimated 45,000 -- greeted him in Fort Collins later on the perhaps aptly named Colorado State University lawn; it's known as "The Oval."[11]

Three states considered still in play to varying degrees - Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico - could be vital if the electoral math gets tight. With polls showing him behind Obama nationally, McCain pledged a scrappy close to the campaign. "We're a few points down and the pundits, of course, as they have four or five times, have written us off," he told a rally of about 1,500 supporters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "We've got them just where we want them.[5] Obama, a first-term Illinois senator, was concluding a swing through the West with two rallies in Colorado, one of three states in the region _ including Nevada and New Mexico _ that are hotly contested even though McCain should have a natural advantage. He has represented neighboring Arizona in the Senate for nearly a quarter century. McCain was starting off Sunday in Iowa, a Midwestern state where he's looking to make up for some lost ground in a state his campaign aides argue is closer than the public polling shows.[31]

McCain says Colorado is an important state to win. When asked how his administration would handle natural and oil drilling compared to

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