A cow that doesnt have a brand

Interesting you should say that: Real Maverick on Maverick

Meh, there is only one REAL Maverick...

You forgot about this Maverick DJ.

When referring to McCain it means that John has opposed his party's positions on some issues and bills on several occasions. For example, his recent proposal to have the federal government purchase foreclosure-bound mortgages is considered abhorrent by most Republicans. He is sort of the George Will of elected politicians.

I just saw that story too RR. I also read that the polls are showing that most people don't like McCain's negative attacks (well they think they are too negative) by recent polls.

Anyway, in spite of that, I'm reading that McCain "may" go after Obama on the Ayers issue tomorrow at the debate. I think McCain's kind of lost really. He wants to please those who want him to attack and he's had poor campaign management (it seems) that nobody is guiding him. Either that or Mr. Maverick thinks he's doing it right and is doing it his way.


TIS

Buckley Leaves Magazine His Father Founded After Backing Obama

By Christopher Stern

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Author and humorist Christopher Buckley resigned from the National Review, a conservative magazine his father founded, after readers complained about his endorsement in another publication of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Buckley, son of the late William F. Buckley, wrote today in theDailyBeast.com, an online publication in which he endorsed Obama, that he resigned from the National Review after it was deluged with critical responses to his column at the rate of 700- 1.

``The only thing the right can't quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot,'' Buckley wrote.

Buckley, who has worked as a speechwriter for Republican presidential nominee John McCain and former President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Obama in a column titled, ``Sorry Dad, I'm Voting for Obama.'' Buckley is a trustee of the National Review, a position he was given in 2004 when his father gave up control of the magazine.

Calls to Buckley's book publisher and to the Daily Beast seeking his comment weren't immediately returned.

National Review Editor Rich Lowry responded to Buckley today, writing that messages were actually running 100-1 against him, not 700-1.

Lowry also wrote that Buckley was writing the column in the National Review on a ``trial basis'' while another columnist was on leave. ``We continue to have the highest regard for Chris's talent and wit, and extend to him warmest regards and understanding,'' Lowry wrote in his online response.

Calls to the National Review were referred to Lowry's online comments on the matter.

An antiwar Libertarian take on the GOP and the election.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13592

Do or die for Señor Yankee Bean tonight.

I hope tonight's debate is a bit livelier than last week's snoozefest. And I would implore BOTH candidates to remember that many people right now are frightened about their future, and that they need to show some leadership instead of scoring points off of one another.

NYT poll: Attacks by McCain turn off voters

NYT/CBS poll finds that if the election were held today, Obama would win

By MICHAEL COOPER and MEGAN THEE

The New York Times

The McCain campaign’s recent angry tone and sharply personal attacks on Senator Barack Obama appear to have backfired and tarnished Senator John McCain more than their intended target, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll has found.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign unleashed a series of strong political attacks on Mr. Obama, trying to tie him to a former 1960s radical, among other things, the poll found that more voters see Mr. McCain as waging a negative campaign than Mr. Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that Mr. McCain had spent more time attacking Mr. Obama than explaining what he would do as president; by about the same number, voters said Mr. Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

Over all, the poll found that if the election were held today, 53 percent of those determined to be probable voters said that they would vote for Mr. Obama and 39 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain.

Opinions of McCain getting worse
The findings come as the race enters its final three weeks, with the two candidates scheduled to hold their third and last debate on Wednesday night, and as separate polls in critical swing states that could decide the election giving Mr. Obama a growing edge. But wide gaps in polls have historically tended to narrow in the closing weeks of the race as the election nears.

Voters who said that their opinions of Mr. Obama had changed recently were twice as likely to say that they had gotten better as to say they had gotten worse. And voters who said that their views of Mr. McCain had changed were three times more likely to say that they had gotten worse than to say they had improved.

The top reasons cited by those who said that they thought less of Mr. McCain were his recent attacks and his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. (The vast majority said that their opinions of Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, and Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee, had remained unchanged in recent weeks.) But in recent days, Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin have scaled back their attacks on Mr. Obama, although Mr. McCain suggested he might aggressively take on Mr. Obama in Wednesday’s debate.

With the election unfolding against the backdrop an extraordinary economic crisis, a lack of confidence in government, and two wars, the survey described a very inhospitable environment for any Republican to run for office. More than 8 in 10 Americans do not trust the government to do what is right, the highest ever recorded in a Times/CBS News poll. And Mr. McCain is trying to keep the White House in Republican hands at a time that President Bush’s job approval rating is at 24 percent, hovering near its historic low.

Other polls show smaller margin
While the poll showed Mr. Obama with a 14 percentage-point lead among likely voters, when Ralph Nader and Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, were included in the question, the race narrowed slightly, with 51 percent of those surveyed saying that they were supporting Mr. Obama and 39 percent supporting Mr. McCain, with Mr. Nader getting the support of 3 percent and Mr. Barr 1 percent. Other national polls have shown Mr. Obama ahead by a smaller margin.

The poll suggested that the overwhelming anxiety about the economy and distrust of government have created a potentially poisonous atmosphere for members of Congress. Only 43 percent of those surveyed said that they approved of their own representative’s job performance, considerably lower than it has been at other times of historic discontent. By way of comparison, just before the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, 56 percent of those polled said that they approved of the job their representative was doing.

And after nearly eight years of increasingly unpopular Republican rule in the White House, 52 percent of those polled said that they held a favorable view of the Democratic Party, compared with 37 percent who said they held a favorable view of the Republican Party. Voters said that they preferred Democrats to Republicans when it came to questions about who would better handle the issues that are of the greatest concern to voters — including the economy, health care and the war in Iraq.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Friday through Monday with 1,070 adults, of whom 972 were registered voters, and it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for both groups.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign sought to tie Mr. Obama to William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground terror group, 64 percent of voters said that they had either read or heard something about the subject. But a majority said they were not bothered by Mr. Obama’s background or past associations. Several people said in follow-up interviews that they felt Mr. McCain’s attacks on Mr. Obama were too rooted in the past, or too unconnected to the nation’s major problems.

“What bothers me is that McCain initially talked about running a campaign on issues and I want to hear him talk about the issues,” said Flavio Lorenzoni, a 59-year-old independent from Manalapan, N.J. “But we’re being constantly bombarded with attacks that aren’t relevant to making a decision about what direction McCain would take the country. McCain hasn’t addressed the real issues. He’s only touched on them very narrowly. This is a time when we need to address issues much more clearly than they ever have been in the past.

What's worse is, those attacks reek of desperation.

Politico

Obama drowning out McCain in TV ads
By: Jeanne Cummings
October 15, 2008 09:07 AM EST

In the first three weeks of September, Barack Obama ran 1,342 television commercials in the Washington media market that reaches heavily populated and contested Northern Virginia.

According to The Nielsen Company, in the same period and market, John McCain aired just eight commercials on broadcast stations.

Similar disparities are playing out across the country as the Illinois Democrat flexes his financial muscle to outspend McCain and the Republican National Committee on television advertisements, in some cases by ratios of as much as 8-to-1.

As of close of business last week, Obama had spent approximately $195 million on primary and general election ads compared with $99 million by the Arizona Republican and the Republican National Committee, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.

And the gap is widening in the final weeks. As McCain constricted his Virginia ad campaign to cable stations and smaller, downstate media markets, Obama doubled down on Northern Virginia.

The Democrat’s average weekly broadcast buy of about $700,000 in Washington jumped last week by nearly threefold to about $2 million, according to station public records.

The spending figures are significant because they demonstrate how Obama’s fundraising advantage has helped him drown out his opponent and maintain a longer — and more positive — presence in the living rooms of voters in critical swing states.

“Obama is spending $3.5 million a day on television ads,” said Evan Tracey, CMAG’s chief operating officer. “If he does that through Election Day, it will be more than McCain got from the government for his entire general election campaign.”


The RNC is feverishly raising cash to augment McCain’s $85 million allotment from the taxpayer-backed presidential campaign financing account.

The party headquarters is expected to spend $19 million in coordinated campaign activities with McCain and another $45 million in hybrid ads that promote McCain and other Republican candidates.

The tactic, which was introduced by the Bush-Cheney reelection committee in 2004, allows a 50-50 split on ad costs for the RNC and McCain. But the results can be messy since the candidate isn’t in full control of his own message.

McCain’s much-anticipated first ad attacking Obama’s ties to former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was widely panned because it also included an attack on congressional Democrats over federal spending, a muddling of messages deemed necessary to justify the RNC’s portion of the costs.

Even if the messaging went smoothly, though, the financial maneuvering would still only boost McCain’s spending to about $150 million for the general election.

The remaining spending gaps will have to be filled by the RNC with independent expenditures and transfers of cash to state party operations for swing-state voter turnout operations. According to Federal Election Commission disclosure forms, about $11 million has already been doled out by the RNC to seven states, most of which are in presidential battlegrounds.

But Obama’s recent purchase of two 30-minute blocks of time on two national networks — which could cost about $1 million apiece and negotiations are continuing with two other networks — has many Republicans worrying that they are up against an even bigger machine than they’d imagined.

The staggered release of fundraising disclosure reports isn’t helping their plight. Obama’s September donations totals will be released next week. Republicans won’t know how much he collects in this final month until after Election Day.

Meanwhile, Obama is urging backers to pony up for the final push and to grow his already record-breaking 2 million donors by at least 100,000 by this Friday.

The consequences of such a significant financial mismatch are already becoming evident on the Electoral College playing field.

Again, look at Virginia, a state that hasn’t backed a Democratic candidate since 1964 and is now considered a tossup.

During the heated primary with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama spent $1.5 million in the Old Dominion. McCain, who was cruising to the nomination and had little money at that point in the GOP primary, spent just $330,000 on ads.

Since the Democratic primary ended in June, Obama has spent another $13 million in Virginia, compared with McCain’s $5.5 million, CMAG found.

Obama’s buying power allows him to run a mix of positive and negative ads and to spread them over a wider swath of turf. He is also able to play in all media markets, expensive or not. That’s a luxury McCain can’t afford, as evidenced by his near-blackout in Northern Virginia.

"McCain is virtually invisible in the commercial breaks,” said Bill Lord, vice president of news for WJLA-TV, the Washington ABC affiliate that is owned by Politico parent company Allbritton Communications Co.

To stay competitive in Virginia and elsewhere, McCain has made a series of ad buys in smaller markets or those that can provide a two-fer by bleeding into more than one state.

Nebraska is one of just two states that distributes its Electoral College votes based on the outcome in each of its three congressional districts, an unusual allocation that enticed the Obama campaign to fight for the Omaha-based district vote while all but conceding the rest of the traditionally Republican state to McCain.

While Obama is significantly outspending McCain in the Omaha television market, McCain has been making major buys in less expensive, nearby Sioux City, Iowa, which reaches both Omaha and Hawkeye State voters.

In the first three weeks of September, McCain ran more than 1,000 ads on those smaller stations while Obama didn’t run any.

Though Iowa voted for President Bush in 2004, it is another state that Democrats are confident they can flip from red to blue come November.

Dissatisfaction with the war and the economy are helping their effort. But Obama’s early work in the primary is also paying dividends and may have put the state out of Republican reach before the general election even began.

Since June, McCain and the RNC have spent about $4 million in Iowa, airing mostly negative ads aimed at raising doubts about his opponent.

But they appear to have had little effect on Obama, who spent $10 million on television commercials introducing himself to voters before the winter caucuses.

Since June, he’s invested another $2 million on ads in in Iowa — a paltry sum by Obama’s standards but one that may reflect confidence that a roughly 12-point lead in state polls will hold up until Election Day.

A study recently released by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, an arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, documented similar imbalances in other key states.

The report zeroed in on one week of spending, Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. It found that Obama was outspending McCain and the RNC by more than 3-to-1 in Florida, 2-to-1 in New Hampshire and 8-to-1 in North Carolina.

“Because of Obama’s fundraising advantage, his campaign is able to spend more in more states than we’ve seen in recent memory,” said Ken Goldstein, the project’s director.

McCain and the RNC are still trying to play a little offense: Pennsylvania is a rare state they hope will flip from blue to red.

Both campaigns have spent about $16.5 million on advertisements in the Keystone State since June.

But, as in Iowa, McCain’s messages are being delivered to an audience that has already had plenty of exposure to Obama.

When his primary television budget is added to the general election spending, Obama’s overall advertising in Pennsylvania — so far — comes to $27 million, compared to McCain’s $17 million.

"Obama is matching McCain’s negative ads and using the excess spending to do positive spots. He’s able to be both the good cop and the bad cop,” said Tracey.

Tonight's campaign is being held 5 miles away from me. I had to run an errand this morning and drove past Hofstra University (where the debate will be held)... it's a total traffic mess there... tv vans all over the place.

You'd think something important is going on.

When did they open a Spumoni Gardens over there?

If they did, I'd weigh 300 pounds.

There's no debate in South Jersey....the Phillies are on.

I hope they talk about other issues tonight. I would love to hear how they feel about gun control.

I would hope that they're in favor of it. If people want to legally own a gun, even though that's not my thing, they should be able to. What I will never understand is why people oppose stricter regulations, like a waiting period while they check out who you are.

I don't know if they have that much of a different opinion on it.


The real problem is getting them to answer the questions regardless of the issue.

I would like to see Bob Schieffer start the debate with thess questions:

Senator Obama, you have come under attack for your association with Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright, and you have been criticized not only for those associations but the way you seemed to diminish these relationships when they become political liabilities. Please tell us precisely when you knew of Mr. Ayers' past, what your relationship was and is, and why you felt comfortable working with him in Chicago. As for Reverend Wright, how could you have been a member of his church for so many years and been unaware of the kinds of things he was saying from the pulpit?


Senator McCain, you have criticized Senator Obama's judgment by his associations with Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright. Can you describe your social relationship with Charles Keating when you had one? Also both your running mate and her husband have openly stated their support for an extremist political party that if for Alaska's secession from the United States. Why shouldn't the American people question your judgment for picking a running mate who has voiced support in recent years for breaking up the United States?


After they get through those two questions then we can get to the economy and forein policy.

I believe the official statement out of the Obama camp was: Enjoy your guns and religion while you can.

With only 2.5 weeks until the election, I want to commend my fellow Board members (most of them anyhow) for what I consider to be intelligent, thoughtful posts. I teach this stuff and it does my heart good to know that there are alot of Americans who take this stuff seriously and thoughtfully. Yes, some posts are funny and that's okay. We should never lose our sense of human despite the seriousness of it all. Some posts are a bit sarcastic or pejorative, but that's okay too. Keep it all up.

Well said, Olivant.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081015/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_ads

RNC out of Wisconsin, Maine; focuses on red states

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 29 minutes ago

The Republican National Committee is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.

The party's independent ad operation is doubling its budget to about $10 million and focusing on crucial states such as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia where Democrat Barack Obama has established a foothold, according to a Republican strategist familiar with presidential ad placements.

Florida and North Carolina have also been in the RNC ad mix. Pennsylvania is the only Democratic leaning swing state apparently left in the party's ad campaign.

The shift in advertising resources suggests that the RNC has decided to focus on defending reliably Republican-voting states against Obama's onslaught of advertising. Flush with money, Obama is outspending the joint efforts of the Republican Party and the McCain campaign by more than 2-1.

While a pullout from Wisconsin is a significant strategic move, it does not represent a full GOP retreat from the state. McCain's campaign has notified Wisconsin stations that it planned to continue to buy air time through Oct. 26.

Like McCain, the RNC's independent ad operation has targeted Obama with critical ads.

The Republican Party has been helping McCain through various means. It had been spending more than $5 million a week on ads independently of the campaign. It also has teamed up with the campaign to run combined ads whose costs are split by the campaign and the RNC in certain situations allowed by federal election law.

Only the independent RNC spots will be affected by Wednesday's decision to shift ad spending.

Wisconsin has been a seriously contested state in seven of the last eight presidential elections. Democrats won narrowly in six of them. Al Gore and John Kerry barely edged out George Bush in the 2000 and the 2004 elections.

A poll in Wisconsin by Quinnipiac University of New York for The Wall Street Journal and the Web site of The Washington Post, taken after last week's presidential debate, had Obama at 54 percent and McCain at 37 percent.

"Like most campaigns, we don't talk strategy and tactics," said McCain Wisconsin spokeswoman Sarah Lenti. "That said we are extremely excited by our chances in Wisconsin and will continue to run ads, period. We are up and running."

Two weeks ago, McCain halted his spending in Michigan after polls there showed Obama with a growing lead.

The RNC had record fundraising in September, collecting more than $66 million. McCain, meanwhile, is largely limited to the $84 million he agreed to accept in public financing for September and October.

Obama, however, bypassed public financing and has continued to raise money during the campaign. His extraordinary spending suggests his fundraising is at record levels. His campaign has not revealed its September fundraising but must file financial reports with the federal Election Commission by Monday night.

Obama is holding a major fundraising concert Thursday in New York to benefit his campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The concert will feature performances by Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. Tickets range from $500 to $10,000.

In a sign of his vast resources, Obama has purchased millions of dollars in national network time, airing spots during the Major League Baseball playoffs and during Sunday NFL games. On Sunday, he spent more than $5 million on ads, about half of that on national network spots, according to Evan Tracey, head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising.

According to Tracey's data and ad information from ad buyers, Obama spent about $32 million during the week ending last Sunday, McCain spent about $9 million and the RNC spent about $5 million.

Obama has made inroads in the traditional Republican strongholds Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia. The two campaigns also are fighting for supremacy in Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico — all of which Bush won in 2004. They are also battling in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, states that John Kerry won.

McCain has led Obama in ad spending only in Iowa and Minnesota. But television stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul said Wednesday that Obama is increasing his spending and is committed to run ads through Nov. 3.

___

Anyone else find the faces that McCain is making while Obama is talking "disturbing"? He's constantly smirking, and even rolled his eyes. Is it just me, or does anyone else think it isn't helping him?

Just from watching him, I'd say he's losing votes.... he IS annoying to watch.

I haven't heard too much besides the usual rhetoric and "he said - I said" crap.

I almost wonder if he doesn't know he's on camera when Obama is speaking?