I never figured Florida for Obama. North and South Dakota, most of the south I always figured for McCain.

Unless the economy makes an unexpected turn, it is going to continue to reflect bad numbers. Until people start borrowing and lenders start lending again, it will get worse. That will be reflected on the Electoral College map.

Also, it's about time to let go of the national polls. National figures will only be indicative if the separation between candidates is quite large.

CNN says it's all tied up.

September 15, 2008
CNN POLL OF POLLS: McCain's convention bounce gone
Posted: 04:36 PM ET
McCain is dead even with Obama in CNN's poll of polls.

(CNN) – The bounce John McCain received in national opinion polls following his party's convention and the selection of Sarah Palin to the GOP presidential ticket appears to have evaporated, a new CNN poll of polls suggests.

In the latest CNN survey of several recent national polls, Obama and McCain are locked in a dead heat at 45 percent each with 10 percent who remain undecided with 50 days remaining until Election Day.

“When we average the latest national polls, it is increasingly clear that neither candidate has any serious momentum at the moment,” said CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib. “The convention bounces have faded and left us with a dead heat. Even though we are now in the final stretch of this historic marathon campaign for the presidency, the White House is still genuinely up for grabs.”

CNN's latest poll of polls consists of three recent surveys: Newsweek (September 10-11), Gallup (September 12-14), and Diageo/Hotline (September 12-14). It does not have a sampling error.

TODAY: Lehman Bros. goes bankrupt. AIG has to be bailed out by New York State. Merrill Lynch sees the writing on the walls and QUICKLY sells itself to Bank of America (before facing bankruptcy).

John McCain this morning said the U.S. economy was sound.

His staffers rush up to him and tell him otrherwise.

John McCain this afternoon changes his mind about the state of the economy but says we should talk about Barack Obama instead.

Smoke and mirrors. He and Palin are gonna be schooled on the economy over the next few days. Maybe then they'll sound like they know what they're talking about.

When you're the Republican Candidate, and Karl Rove says your campaign ads have gone "too far", then your campaign is in trouble. Now tonight, Palin announces she won't cooperate with the investigation against her because "it's being manipulated by Obama supporters". Last week she told Charlie Gibson: "she welcomed the investigation." The wheels may be about to fall off the McCain/Palin bus.

I hate 527 group ads, but this one that came out today against McCain is going to sting.

Thats gonna hurt him

McCain/Palin are coming to the Ohio Valley today.

For whatever reason this smoke and mirrors tactic is working. McCain-Palin are up in all the polls, and in the most telling one Ohio Voters were asked which candidate do they relate to the most. The result? Palin was first, Obama second, McCain third and Biden fourth.

You're right, Don T.

MAC MAKES MOVE ON DEM 'EMPIRE'
CUTS BAM'S BIG NY LEAD TO 5 PTS.

By BRENDAN SCOTT, New York Post Correspondent

September 16, 2008

ALBANY - Surging Republican John McCain has moved to within 5 percentage points of Democrat Barack Obama in the true-blue Empire State, a stunning new Siena poll has found.

The Arizona senator trails Obama 46 percent to 41 percent, slashing his deficit from June, when he trailed 51-33. Last month, McCain lagged 47-39.

The close race is particularly dramatic for New York.

Democrats outnumber Republicans five to three in the state, and Democrat John Kerry beat Republican President Bush here by an 18-point margin in 2004.

"These numbers indicate that at the moment, seven weeks out, New York is in play," Siena Research Institute spokesman Steven Greenberg said. "If New York's in play in a presidential election, that is never good news for the Democrats."

The result follows both parties' conventions and a jam-packed month of campaigning during which McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate and Obama passed over primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in favor of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

McCain gained significantly among women and Jews in the poll of 626 likely voters.

He made up all but 2 percentage points (45-43) of his 12-point gap among women last month (48-36), suggesting previously undecided women are breaking for McCain.

Obama has had a reversal of fortunes among Jewish voters. His support has plummeted 35 points, from a lead of 50-37 to a 54-32 deficit in the new poll.

"The momentum is heading our way," said McCain's New York campaign chairman, Edward Cox. "We're within striking distance."

It's unclear how much of McCain's newfound female support has come from former Clinton supporters.

The poll found most white women (55-36) support McCain, as do one in five of those who have a favorable view of Clinton.

A spokesman for New York for Obama cited its success recruiting 400 volunteers to campaign in nearby swing states, like Pennsylvania, as proof of Obama's grass-roots strength in New York.

"New York is a strong blue state that has rejected the disastrous policies of George Bush and John McCain for seven years and will do it again in November," Obama spokesman Blake Zeff said in a statement.


Meanwhile, a poll released yesterday in Ohio found McCain leading, Obama, 46-42, there.

New York isn't going Red. The poll is misleading.

Steven Greenberg, spokesman for the Siena New York Poll says: “The conventions are over. The running mates are set. And as voters begin to focus on the race, New York’s overwhelming Democratic enrollment advantage is not reflected in how voters tell Siena they plan to vote.”

Does anyone else think that keith Olbermann from MSNBC is an ass? He is so left wing it makes me sick! How can they have someone on that channel who is such a mental case? He wants Obama to win so bad its sick.

ds

He's an ass, but no worse than O'Reilly.

In lighter campaign news, did McCain invent the "Blackberry"?

McCain adviser: BlackBerry a 'miracle' he 'helped create'
Posted: 12:19 PM ET

(CNN) – McCain senior domestic policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said Tuesday the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device was a “miracle that John McCain helped create.”

Addressing the nation’s economic crisis, Holtz-Eakin told reporters traveling with the campaign “there’s no magic solution. And I don’t think that it’s at this moment imperative to write down exactly what the plan has to be.” He also said a president isn’t someone who needs to be heavily involved in policy specifics, which should be handled by “quality” advisers, and echoed McCain’s assessment that there might be a need for a “9/11-style commission” to determine what went wrong with the nation's economy, and to issue recommendations.

He added, though, that McCain — who has struggled to stress his economic credentials this cycle — did have experience dealing with the economy, pointing to his time on the Senate Commerce Committee. Pressed to provide an example of what McCain had accomplished on that committee, Holtz-Eakin said the senator did not have jurisdiction over financial markets — then held up his Blackberry, telling reporters: “He did this.”

“Telecommunications of the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” said Holtz-Eakin. “And that’s what he did. He both regulated and de-regulated the industry.”

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore drew controversy when he said that during his time in Congress, he “took the initiative in creating the Internet” – based on his work promoting funding and early research in that area.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign responded to the comments minutes after they were reported. “If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Meanwhile, McCain senior aide Matt McDonald said that the senator "laughed" when he heard the comment.

"He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," McDonald said.

He is a moron, DS. I loathe the far left every bit as much as I loathe the far right. They're opposite sides of the same dangerous coin. If we, as a nation, haven't learned the danger of extreme thinking in the last seven years, we'll never get it.

House approves offshore drilling

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_go_co/offshore_drilling;_ylt=Ahqwikgn1wKx87o6AqX2kEdh24cA

Read that article, and you might agree with me that whole move by the Democratic Majority was brilliant.

I mean its such a dickheaded political power play, and it works because if the GOP have been hammering about drilling, then if Bush vetoes (which looks likely) then the Dems can run ads of basically "Hey, we wanted offshore drilling too, but the Republicans tried to stop us!"

Yeah you can argue their measure was useless, but that's the point...the point is the direct political implications to the public, who'll read this possible headline in the future: Bush/GOP veto Off-Shore Drilling

Imagine McCain having to dance and tried to explain on that incident. The GOP may or may not have a good reason for trying to stop the bill, but that is irrelevant. The point is the short stick and the glance impression that most people will get from reading briefly that whole story.

I don't mind Olbermann. Chris Matthews has been pretty annoying lately though. I find I just don't like to hear him anymore.

I'll tell you though. I'd never want to be a politician. Too much bullshit and smearing.

I think the Obama Waffle thing is real slimey. I don't even want to link it, but those who are following will know what I mean. It's just plain awful IMHO.

I feel like a yo yo though. This election is so close that my head is spinning. I'm dizzy. I can't wait til election day.



TIS

66% of American Economists support Obama

A new poll of economists finds Sen. Barack Obama is overwhelmingly preferred over Sen. John McCain by a 66% to 28% margin.

The survey consisted of 523 economists who are both U.S. citizens and members of the American Economic Association.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/09/16/economists_favor_obama.html

EDIT - Though I must admit, that website aint exactly "free of bias" if you get my drift.

Good ad. At least the Obama camp this time was very quick to pick up on this gaffe. Of course you must have heard by now that McCain invented the Blackberry too, right? He's a regular "Mr. Technology".



TIS

Powerful ad. Straight and to the point.

I still remember back in 2000 making fun of Gore for inventing the Internet.

Anyway, why not if you're bullshitting in taking credit, claim you invented the Ipod? I mean be a relevant inventor you know?

Notice how that ad:

(1) Brings up in random statistics of how shitty our economy is right now.
(2) Ties into perception that McCain aint just old, but "senile" old
(3) Ties into "3rd Bush Term" theme with that shot at the end.

Good propaganda.

I wonder how much longer Carly Fiorina will be McCain's chief financial adviser?

McCain has a shitty track record with financial advisors, don't he?

Remember months back when his former advisor claimed that America was a "Nation of Whiners"?

And that guy in that TYT spot makes a point: Fiorina is the same person who ran a good company like HP into the damn ground, and she may or may not become McCain's Treasury Secretary?

Oh FUCK.

I look at the doom and gloom that is the news each and every day. People's homes - gone. Companies that were once the backbone of this nation - gone. Our men and women in the armed forces - gone, sometimes for four or five times!

And I see the polls and I don't understand how it's possible that I'm reading the numbers I'm reading. To me (and yes, this is a personal opinion), voting Republican this time is the equivalent of that frat hazing, where a frat brother repeatedly spanks a pledge with a wooden paddle while the pledge is forced to say, "Thank you, sir. May I have another?"

I know, it really is scary.

The American people appear to be like a person who continuously bangs his head against a wall and things if he does it again the headache will go away.

One thing the polls don't take into consideration is 'voter turnout'. Supposedly Obama has an unprecedented army of volunteers around the country to "get out the vote". Only time will tell how effective it really is.

We recently went to a local craft fair. There was a very nice group of people from Obama's local office. They were asking people to vote, and also registering voters. It was perfect timing, since my daughter turned 18 this year and just kept forgetting to mail in her form.

I think that if he continues to get those that probably aren't even IN the polls, that's a strategy that may work for him.

What kind of soccer mom are you to allow Miss Babe to forget?