Was I the only one that did this? That really was funny

I guess so

October 29, 2008

Fact check: Is Columbia professor Khalidi a 'political ally' of Barack Obama?


The Statement: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking on Oct. 29 in Bowling Green, Ohio, said Barack Obama "spent a lot of time with" Rashid Khalidi. "Rashid Khalidi, he, in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization," she said.

Get the facts!

The Facts: Rashid Khalidi is a scholar at Columbia University in New York, where he is director of the Middle East Institute.

His university profile says he specializes in the "history of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt; the growth of nation-state; nationalism in the Arab World; problems of modern Middle East historiography and and an expert on Palestinian issues."

He has authored scholarly works on Palestinian issues, has been an activist for Palestinian causes, and has been a critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.

In a 2004 Washington Times story, he denied ever being a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Sen. Obama, on his Web site, described Khalidi as "a former neighbor and university colleague." But their relationship has sparked questions about Obama's stance on Israel and what Obama calls "ugly insinuations." Obama has said he has been a "clear and consistent" supporter of Israel and doesn't share Khalidi's views.

ABC News on May 22 aired comments Obama made at a Boca Raton, Florida, synagogue, where Obama faced questions from Jewish voters and addressed the issue. He said he knew Khalidi and had conversations with him in Chicago, where both men taught at the University of Chicago. And, he said, their children went to the same school.

"He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people," Obama said. "He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."

"To pluck out one person who I know and who I've had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," Obama said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association."

An April 10 Los Angeles Times story that explored the Khalidi-Obama relationship said Khalidi and his wife lived near the Obamas in Chicago and "the families became friends and dinner companions."

"In 2000, the Khalidis held a fund-raiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid. The next year, a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi (Khalidi's wife), received a $40,000 grant from a local charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama served on the fund's board of directors. At Khalidi's going-away party in 2003, the scholar lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian-American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat," the Times reported.

When asked about these details, the Obama campaign pointed to the May 22 comments aired by ABC News. Khalidi, asked by CNN to respond to Palin's assertions, declined to comment.

In a New York Daily News story published March 6, 2007, Khalidi said he hosted the fund-raiser because he had been friends with Obama in Chicago. "He never came to us and said he would do anything in terms of Palestinians," Khalidi is quoted as saying.

The Los Angeles Times report said, "though Khalidi has seen little of Sen. Obama in recent years, Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis' daughter."

The Verdict: Misleading. While Khalidi eight years ago hosted a political fund-raiser for Obama, the two men strongly disagree over the Israeli-Palestinian issue and there's no evidence of a continuing political relationship.

Fact checking is evil and liberal. Oops, I was a little redundant there.

I just got back from class, so I missed Obama's PSA. How was it?

I just read today that Rashid Khalidi recently funded the McCain camp (don't know if it's true nor do I know the details). It was on Huffington Post, so FWIW. I'm sure it could be spun by the left if need be.

But anyway, just like the Tony Reztko story. A spin that stuck with some people. I remember "Jeralyn" from "Talk Left" who was an avid Hillary supporter (and lawyer). She was at the Retzko trial everyday doing "liveblogging". She was itching for Obama's name to come up.Itching to implicate him. Well, it never did happen because there was nothing there. The way I understand it, when they purcashed their Chicago home they bought an adjoinin lot from either Retzko or his wife....anyway, nothing illegal.


TIS

Thanks for the info TIS.

McCain does have his own connections to Khalidi.



http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/the-khalidi-gam.html

LATIMES.COM
10/29/08

Conservatives say Bush and McCain destroyed Republican Party

They are starting to eat their own.

Polls show that Democrat Barack Obama is leading in battleground states, including some -- such as Ohio -- carried by George W. Bush not once but twice.

But 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.

But conservatives are also angry at McCain and Bush, for mucking up governance so much that a Barack Obama is even possible. Dave Gibson, a 41-year-old independent from Norfolk, Va., summed it up in one word: debt.

In a post on American Chronicle, he wrote:

Under Bush's leadership, the national debt went from $5 trillion in 2001 to $10.5 trillion today. The doubling of our debt has had a devastating effect on our economy and our currency is quickly becoming worthless. 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.

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 [clear] that there would actually be two liberals running for president in 2008."

Gibson is an iconoclast, a blogger. But more famous Republicans have also weighed in.

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, wrote in the Washington Post recently that McCain's selection of Sarah Palin energized the base but turned off women and independents. In an article called "Sorry, Senator. Let's Salvage What We Can," he wrote that in picking Palin, McCain lost "the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won."

-- Johanna Neuman

The beginning of the end.

Just my opinion of course, and I can't say I am even a fan of the guy's BUT, if a Republican were going to win this election, and with the economy the way it is; AND getting to know (and be disappointed in) McCain, I think Mitt Romney would have been a better candidate to run against Obama than McCain.

They are showing Obama and Clinton in FLA right now.

Oh, and JL, thanks for posting that Khalidi link. I had it a little backwards, but knew I read about a connection.


TIS

I dunno, TIS, BUT if Romney was on the ticket instead of Palin, this thing would be a LOT closer. So thank God for small favors.

So true. So, let's see how it turns out, and like you say, thank God for small favors hu?


TIS

I gotta say Clinton is really "sounding" sincere building Obama up. With the election so close, I think the speech and this Clinton rally will cover at least tomorrow's news cycle. Gee, I'm even learning the political media lingo. What a geek I am!!!!


TIS

Obama Infomercial a Virtuoso Performance

October 29, 2008 10:02 PM
George Stephanopoulos

This was a very highly produced, technically incredibly competent half hour of television.

It was all designed to get voters comfortable with the idea of Barack Obama in the Oval Office, that he is embedded in the lives of average Americans, and knows exactly what they're going through.

Obama even appeared in a facsimile of the White House Oval Office during the infomercial. Every single line during that 30 minutes was something that the campaign knows works and appeals to those undecided voters.

There was one point during those 30 minutes where he talked about education. Over images of Obama in a classroom with children, they rolled a tape of Obama's Sept. 9, 2008 speech in Dayton, Ohio:

"Responsibility for our children's' success doesn't start in Washington," Obama said. "It starts in our homes. No education policy can replace a parent who's involved in their child's education from day one, who makes sure their children are in school on time, helps them with their homework, and attends those parent-teacher conferences. No government program can turn off the TV set, or put away the video games, or read to your children."

The campaign knows for a fact that when Obama said those lines during the debate, it had the highest response of the entire debate from voters hooked up to dial groups.

So they repeated it again tonight and that idea was reprised again and again over these 30 minutes.

Every idea that Obama talked about is something the campaign knows appeals to those undecided voters, especially those economically distressed voters in the nation right now.

What you saw here was a highly competent, professional, virtuoso performance. The fact that they could go 28 minutes in and hit live to a campaign rally in Florida and right down to the final Obama Biden logo even showed a rising sun. One of the things the campaign knows is that the most optimistic presidential candidate always wins.

Ross Perot had some money to do a similar type of infomercial back in 1992 but he had a very, very primitive production.

I spoke with a former presidential campaign strategist who said that anyone who has worked in a presidential campaign has to be jealous of the toys that the Obama campaign cash can buy.

Obama's Republican rival John McCain has argued the ad, which is estimated to have cost more than $3 million, was bought with Obama's broken campaign promise to take public financing which would have limited the amount of money he could raise.

Tonight McCain-Palin spokesman Tucker Bounds released this statement: "As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware."

That's an implicit admission that they know that the message worked, they just hope that the messenger won't be trusted.

--George Stephanopoulos

Poll: Too much money spent on presidential campaign

By Susan Page, USA TODAY
As the most expensive presidential election in history nears its close, Americans by 3-1 think too much money is being spent on the campaign. Most back limits on how much candidates are allowed to spend.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds wide support for public financing of presidential campaigns, including a third who say the current voluntary system should be mandatory.

Even so, Barack Obama hasn't paid much of a political price for opting out of the public financing system this year, the first major-party nominee to do so since it was established after the Watergate scandal. Nearly two-thirds say they aren't sure whether Obama or John McCain are taking part in the system. McCain is.

Presidential candidates are increasingly likely to bypass public funding, says Anthony Corrado, a professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who studies campaign finance. "Candidates are no longer going to look at the public funding option unless their backs are against the wall," he says.

Democrat Obama, who initially said he would join public financing if his opponent did, displayed his financial muscle Wednesday with a 30-minute infomercial airing on NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision and elsewhere.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | CBS Corp. | John McCain | Fox | Maine | Watergate | Center for Responsive Politics | Univision | Colby College | Waterville | Anthony Corrado

Republican McCain is generally limited to the $84 million his campaign accepted in public funds for the general election. Obama raised more than $150 million in September alone.

Forty percent of Americans say the nation should maintain the voluntary system, and 32% say candidates should be required to participate. Nineteen percent say the public financing system should be eliminated.

Fewer than 10% of taxpayers now mark the $3 tax check-off box on their tax returns to underwrite the system.

Among other findings:

• Americans by 70%-24% say too much — a record $2.4 billion, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics — has been spent on presidential campaigns this year.

• Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to support mandatory public financing. That could reflect GOP unhappiness with Obama's money edge this year.

• And all those campaign ads? Two-thirds say they "serve a useful purpose," while one in three say it would be better if there were no TV ads. The survey of 1,008 adults Tuesday has a margin of error of +/—3 percentage points.

McCain works to keep Florida red

By David Jackson, USA TODAY
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — John McCain criss-crossed Florida on Wednesday, trying to keep the state in the Republican column as some supporters worried about whether he can catch the better-funded Barack Obama.

"I wish I didn't feel like it was over," said Dawn Poole, a McCain backer who saw him speak at a lumberyard in Miami. "It looks that way, but it's not going to stop me from voting.

"Maybe we'll be surprised," she said.

'FLORIDIANS OF FAITH': Brownback on tour for McCain
JOE POPULAR: 'Joe the Plumber' takes to stage, page

Greta Rodriguez, a retired administrative assistant from Miami, is "hoping and praying" for McCain to prevail. While Obama is "a little bit ahead in the poll," a "silent majority" could emerge and pull out Florida for McCain, she said. McCain needs to open the "Pandora's Box" of Obama's background to win, said John Piscola, a former New York school principal who lives in Miami Beach.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | George W. Bush | North Carolina | Barack Obama | al-Qaeda | Pennsylvania | Connecticut | New York | Osama bin Laden | Tampa | Cuban | Fidel Castro | Homeland Security | Miami Beach | Raul Castro | Larry King Live | Sen. Joe Lieberman | Democratic Congress | Tom Ridge | Sen. Mel Martinez | Plumber | Riviera Beach

A series of Florida polls released between Monday and Wednesday showed Obama with anywhere from a 2- to a 7-percentage-point lead.

"We've got to win the state of Florida, my friends, and we're going to win here," McCain said in Miami.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez, who traveled with McCain on Wednesday, echoed his optimism about Florida.

McCain continued to hammer Obama on Wednesday on the economy and national security, saying the Democrat lacked the experience to handle either.

The question is whether Obama "has what it takes to protect America from Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and other grave threats in the world," McCain said in Tampa. "And he has given you no reason to answer in the affirmative."

Retired major general J. Scott Gration, an Obama campaign spokesman, criticized McCain for supporting a Bush foreign policy that has not captured bin Laden.

While Obama prepared a 30-minute commercial, which ran during prime time Wednesday, McCain taped an interview with CNN's Larry King Live in Tampa.

At events in Miami and Riviera Beach, McCain warned that Obama and a Democratic Congress would raise taxes, slowing down the economy even more. After a brief meeting with local business owners in Riviera Beach, McCain criticized Obama's half-hour "infomercial."

"As with other infomercials, he's got a few things he wants to sell you," McCain said, blasting his plans for "government-run" health care and redistribution of income. He said Obama broke his pledge to take public financing and voters should remember that the ad "was paid for with broken promises."

Obama, during a speech in North Carolina, said McCain is distorting the details of his economic plan. "If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime," he said.

In Tampa, McCain conducted a national security roundtable featuring former military officials and supporters such as former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent.

McCain also criticized Obama for being soft on former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. McCain said he would only meet with new ruler Raul Castro "after they empty the political prisons."

Sean Hannity had a slightly different opinion of the ad. He called it "an embarrassment", and said: "he almost felt sorry for Obama".

Both candidates focus on Florida

By BETH REINHARD AND LESLEY CLARK
McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI -- On the hunt for Florida's treasure trove of electoral votes, the nominees of both political parties traversed the state Wednesday, carrying a sense of urgency in the final days of a race already churning record-setting early voter turnout.

Democrat Barack Obama has been gaining ground in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and Nevada - all states won by President Bush in 2004 - forcing Republican John McCain to increasingly pin his hopes on Florida.

"On Nov. 4, we've got to win the state of Florida, my friends, and we're going to win here," McCain said Wednesday morning at Everglades Lumber in West Miami, where about 1,000 people gathered.

Across the Broward County line in Sunrise, Obama addressed about 20,000 people at the BankAtlantic Center, many of whom never took their seats. "I got two words for you. Six days," Obama said, drawing a roar from the crowd.

Obama's rally was featured on national television at the tail end of his 30-minute commercial, and an interview on Comedy Central's The Daily Show was taped at a nearby hotel.

The fierce contest has spawned ads tailor-made for Florida voters, with former Sen. Bob Graham touting Obama's tax plan on the radio and Gov. Charlie Crist expected to appear in a television spot for McCain.

A CNN/TIME poll released Wednesday found Obama ahead by four percentage points in Florida, while a Quinnipiac University poll said the race was too close to call.

That survey showed the race tightening in the last week, with pollster Peter Brown noting that "time is running out."

The Democratic Party is heading into Election Day with a big cushion of early votes. Between ballots cast at the polls and by mail, Democrats are sitting on a 166,311-vote advantage.

In a state rife with unemployment and foreclosures, the nominees focused on their remedies for reviving the economy.

McCain told a cheering crowd at the Miami lumberyard that his Democratic opponent wants to "spread the wealth."

"Sen. Obama is running to be redistributionist-in-chief. I'm running to be commander-in-chief," McCain said.

Obama countered that what McCain calls "socialism" - his plan to cut taxes for people earning less than $250,000 - he calls "opportunity." Obama also sought to turn the tables on McCain's charges that he is inexperienced and risky.

"Sen. McCain says that we can't spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but let me tell you something: The biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years," Obama said.

The nominees picked a mix of stops across Florida that they hoped would blend into a recipe for capturing the state's vast and diverse terrain.

For Obama, that meant revving up the Democratic faithful of South Florida and bringing former President Bill Clinton to Orlando to help him win independent voters.

On Thursday, he will seek to make inroads in Republican-leaning Sarasota.

McCain's formula included mobilizing voters in populous Miami-Dade, grabbing television time in Palm Beach County and standing with military brass in the Tampa Bay area, one of the most competitive regions of the state. Running mate Sarah Palin is scheduled to return to that area on Saturday.

The overlapping trips by the nominees reinforced the pivotal role that the Hispanic community will play in the 2008 election.

Obama courted the heavily Puerto-Rican community in Kissimmee, calling those votes "critical." Campaigning with Spanish-speaking former Gov. Jeb Bush, McCain sought to lock down politically influential Cuban-American voters in Miami, whom he said in a radio interview could "be vital to whether I win Florida or not."

On the radio and at the Miami lumberyard, he joked that Fidel Castro "really hurt my feelings" by expressing a "preference" for Obama. The Democratic nominee has said he would be willing to meet with hostile world leaders in the hope of sparking democratic reform.

"I'll sit down and talk with one of the Castro brothers," McCain said. "I'll sit down with them right after they empty the political prison, right after they have free elections, right after the human rights organizations are functioning." McCain tweaked his traditional stump speech remarks on oil drilling, reflecting the sensitivity of the issue in coastal Florida.

"We will drill offshore and we will drill now, with the agreement of the state of Florida," he said.

"If we're going to drill off the shore of Florida, then you deserve more of those revenues. They shouldn't be sent to Washington. They should be sent to Tallahassee."

In Tampa, McCain returned to foreign policy, questioning Obama's readiness for defending the United States and saying he wants to leave Iraq too quickly.

"Now he obstinately opposes the need to defend the young democracy of that country," McCain said. "The question is whether this is a man who has what it takes to protect America from Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and other grave threats. He has given no reason to answer in the affirmative."

(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Obama brushed off the criticism of his experience, concentrating on lofty themes of unity and hope that have inspired many voters.

"It's about a new politics," he said.

"A politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts, one that reminds us of the obligations we have to ourselves and one another."

(Miami Herald staff writers Adam H. Beasley, Evan S. Benn, Laura Figueroa, Jennifer Lebovich, Patricia Mazzei, Robert Samuels and Fred Tasker and pool reporter Janet Zink of the St. Petersburg Times contributed to this report.)

October 30, 2008
At Rallies of Faithful, Contrasts in Red and Blue
By MARK LEIBOVICH

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — Supporters of Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. often look like Benetton-colored billboards, decked out for their candidates in Obama-Biden hats, T-shirts and buttons. Supporters of Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin like logo merchandise, too, but tend more toward pompoms (yes, pompoms), homemade signs (“Pitbulls 4 Freedom”), flag pins and chest paint.

There is more dancing at Democratic rallies, more shouting out at Republican ones. They chant “Yes, we can” (or “Sí, se puede”) at Obama and Biden rallies, “U.S.A.” and “Drill, baby, drill” at McCain and Palin rallies; the D’s bounce to blaring folk-rock and Motown (Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder) and the R’s counter with country-pop (including Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”) and arena rock ( AC/DC).

Democratic rallygoers seem more worried about Ms. Palin than about Mr. McCain. They speak of feeling weary of “the politics of fear” and claim Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin are “irrelevant” — unless they win, as one supporter in Charleston, W.Va., said with a smile-cringe.

When you ask Republicans what they think of Mr. Obama, the word “socialist” comes up more often than not. They mention that he is a smooth talker, and not in a good way. A lot of them seem to have real problems with Michelle Obama, too, though they cannot pinpoint why. And they do not much care for that Joe Biden, either, or whatever his name is — many cannot immediately summon it.

What can we learn from a close-in view of Democratic and Republican events at the end of a bitter, exhilarating campaign? It has become a cliché to say that the country is “divided,” but the anthropologies displayed at 11 campaign stops in recent days offer glimpses of partisan America.

In these last shopping days before the political Christmas, the distinctions — and some similarities — were marked. Mr. Obama’s crowds were the biggest and loudest, followed by Ms. Palin’s (with Mr. McCain’s third, and Mr. Biden’s fourth).

In audience volume, age and enthusiasm, Ms. Palin’s rallies have more in common with Mr. Obama’s than with Mr. McCain’s. Fans often crush toward Mr. Obama and Ms. Palin after they are finished speaking, clicking cellphone cameras over their heads.

The rallygoers keep a more respectful distance from the tickets’ grayer eminences, Mr. McCain and Mr. Biden, whose crowds appear older, more traditional party-base types (a lot of veterans for Mr. McCain, labor guys for Mr. Biden).

You can tell that Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin are all about being “mavericks,” because they remind you about it until they are red in the face; just as you can tell Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden are all about “change,” because they do the same until they are blue in the face.

Ms. Palin is the best on the rope lines, working them with the gusto of someone who has been at this campaign racket for only two months, as opposed to two years.

Mr. Biden gets off the best one-liners, saying things like “John McCain criticizing George Bush is like Butch Cassidy going after the Sundance Kid.” He invokes his family a lot, too, including his 10-year-old granddaughter, Finnegan. (“Hull-o,” she says.)

Mr. McCain is most prone to ad-libbing, saying Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pa., that “no one will delay the World Series with an infomercial when I’m president.” (Mr. Obama bought half-hour advertisements before a World Series game Wednesday night.)

Mr. Obama has a knack for always coming off morning fresh, even at nighttime events. “Wow, look at this,” he has said, marveling at the size of his crowds.

Ms. Palin’s events could be Woodstocks, too, though Woodstocks that are attended by hollering home-schoolers, hockey moms and heavy-metal heads.

There are more children on parents’ shoulders at Democratic rallies, more large young families together at the Republican events, many wearing matching clothing (often with anti-abortion-themed messages).

There are more school groups at Democratic events, church groups at Republican gatherings; more Democratic protesters outside Republican events than vice versa, although Republicans tend to treat Democratic agitators with a greater contempt than vice versa. (“Communist, socialist, liberal, I hear that all a lot,” said Matthew Lengao, who was holding up an Obama sign outside a McCain rally in Mesilla, N.M., last weekend, which provoked several raised middle fingers by passing motorists.)

Obama and Biden rallies tend to be more transactional than those of their Republican counterparts. Warm-up speakers spend several minutes urging everyone to call or text-message a certain number in order to get into the “pipeline,” so the campaign can contact them to volunteer, or at least vote.

Republican speakers issue obligatory reminders for people to call their friends, make sure they get out and vote. Then they move on to the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of patriotic songs (“The Star-Spangled Banner,” “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful”).

Democrats can be defensive about patriotism, often protesting that they love the United States as much as their counterparts do. Can Republican rallies be heavy with implication to the contrary? You bet.

“Have you ever heard the word ‘victory’ pass Senator Obama’s lips?” Mr. McCain asked a crowd Tuesday in Hershey, Pa., drawing a chorus of “Nooo’s.” One of Ms. Palin’s biggest applause lines is that she is tired of all the apologizing for the United States of America.

After a group recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at a Palin event in Salem, N.H., this month, someone in the crowd yelled out, “Say that, Obama!”

The candidates and audiences also recite the pledge and sing the national anthem at Obama and Biden gatherings, but the crowds tend to be less vigilant about removing caps and placing their hands on their hearts.

“I love you, Barack,” is probably the most familiar cry at Obama rallies, which the candidate often obliges with a reassuring “I love you back.”

The wealthy, though, get a little less love at Mr. Obama’s rallies. “How many people here make less than $250,000 a year?” Mr. Obama says, asking for a show of hands, wanting to recognize all of those whose taxes he says would not be raised in an Obama administration. Hands shoot up, followed by big cheers — people celebrating nonwealth.

People at McCain and Palin rallies often accuse Democrats of just wanting handouts. “A lot of people on the other side just want free money,” said Susan Emrich, at a McCain-Palin rally in Hershey on Tuesday. A real-estate agent, she wears a T-shirt that says, “I’m voting for Sarah Palin and that White Haired Dude.” Ms. Emrich would like to attend another rally later that day in nearby Shippensburg, but can’t. “I have to work,” she explains. “I’m a Republican.”

Every Republican cheering Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin and every Democrat cheering Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden claim to have dear friends in the other party, even family members. But the other people in the other party can seem to be in a whole other world, especially now.

The candidates say as much. “When I hear some of those Republican ads, I think, ‘What planet are they on?’ ” Mr. Biden said at a rally in Charleston, W.Va.

Likewise, it is inconceivable to Bill Howland, a McCain supporter in New Mexico, that Barack Obama could win on Tuesday. “When I think of the other side, I think of a giant troop of lemmings,” Mr. Howland said. “I see their eyes spinning while they’re walking over a cliff together.”

Mr. Howland has lucked out: he is a plumber, and won a backstage audience with the candidate in Albuquerque. “One of the great honors of my life,” said Mr. Howland, who postponed an ankle operation so he could don his “Plumbers for McCain” T-shirt, decorate himself with McCain-Palin buttons (and a Fox News lapel pin) and get his picture snapped with Mr. McCain.

But there is an edge to Mr. Howland (the idea that Mr. Obama might prevail elicits an emphatic “God forbid”) that many in the audiences at Republican events share these days. They complain that the Republican ticket has been shortchanged by the news media, that pollsters have ignored them and that “people have been very badly educated about Obama’s socialist beliefs,” as Carol Schorr, a retired teacher from Edgewood, N.M., put it.

There is an edge at Obama rallies, but it is less of frustration, more of fear. Those supporters worry that the election may be stolen from them, that race could skew against an African-American candidate, or that something unspeakable might befall Mr. Obama — but they will speak it nonetheless, in hushed tones.

Bipartisan consensus can exist, however. A lot of people at rallies for both camps say they are ready for this campaign to be over. But you kind of sense many of them don’t mean it.

Ha ha ha!! You kidding? I guess we know it was a success than if Hannity is bashing it.




TIS

To beat Election Day rush, throngs waiting to vote early

By Larry Copeland and Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
ATLANTA — By 10 a.m. Wednesday, Margaret Jones and her sister, Ann Simmons, had waited 90 minutes to vote early at the Adamsville Recreation Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Sitting with hundreds of others in the center's gymnasium, they had perhaps another hour left — but they didn't mind.

"If it takes longer, it takes longer," said Jones, 63, planning to vote for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. "As long as it takes, I'll be here until I vote. This is a very historic moment in this country's history, and it's important to be part of what's going on."

Added Simmons, a retired high school teacher: "After 40 years, I can finally vote for an African American for president who has a legitimate chance of winning. I always told my students voting is a privilege for us. It's not a responsibility or a duty or a burden. It's a privilege, and never more so than this year."

Georgians are turning out by the hundreds of thousands to vote early, ahead of Tuesday's anticipated crush at the polls. In some counties, they waited four and five hours Monday — and up to nine hours in one Atlanta suburb. By Wednesday, waits averaged two to three hours.

About 25% of Georgia's 5.8 million registered voters — 1.5 million — had cast advance ballots by Wednesday, said Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel.

Nationally, early and absentee voting has increased dramatically since starting in late September. Early-voting hours have been extended in Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Tennessee. The heaviest such voting has been in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

Early-bird voters have lined up even in states that saw little of Obama or Republican nominee John McCain, such as heavily Democratic Illinois and heavily Republican Texas.

Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon predicts that up to one-third of voters will vote early, up from 20% in 2004.

Voters at two Atlanta precincts — one predominantly black, the other mostly white — talked Wednesday about braving the season's coldest temperatures. Many said they wanted to eliminate the risk of last-minute snags on Election Day.

For many at the recreation center in a mostly black community in southwest Atlanta, this election is a long-awaited moment that feels like a burden being lifted. "I'm just so happy and proud to be in this era, to see history being made like it's never been made before," said Lillian Wardley, 73. "Oh, I just thank the Lord for this opportunity."

Christopher Robinson, 19, waited 90 minutes to vote in his first presidential election. "It's a great feeling to know that my vote counts, because it's a very historic election," said the part-time student and security guard.

Across town at a precinct serving mostly white voters in downtown Decatur, people waited outside shivering. Debby Pollack, a pediatrician, stood in line about 50 minutes. "I work on Election Day, and my schedule doesn't allow me to wait in line," said Pollack, 39, who didn't say for whom she was voting.

Precinct manager Renata Fleming said she's never seen such enthusiasm for early voting. "People start lining up at 5:30 (a.m.)," she said. "At 7 p.m., when we close, we still have 200-300 people in line. People are on a mission."

I think there's a good chance McCain wins Florida, and he still has a shot at Ohio. But in the end, Obama is still going to hit at the least 300 electoral votes. McCain isn't going to win PA, and several former red states.

'Joe the Plumber' takes to stage, page


By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
"Joe the Plumber" is soon to become "Joe the Author" and perhaps — though he's skeptical — "Joe the Singer."

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, the "Joe the Plumber" who Republican presidential nominee John McCain says is a symbol of "real" America, now has a team of advisers that includes country singer Aaron Tippin.

BATTLEGROUND: McCain works to keep Florida red

Wurzelbacher said by phone Wednesday after an Ohio campaign event with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin that he plans to "keep speaking for middle-class America."

He'll do that with a book he said will be published "in a couple of weeks." He's working with a writer and said it will be a "dignified" story of how his campaign-trail encounter with Democratic nominee Barack Obama brought Wurzelbacher national attention. He'll also expound on what he thinks about the world today.

Why should anyone listen? "I speak straight."

"There's something magnetic about Joe the Plumber," Tippin said by phone, also from Ohio. Tippin introduced Wurzelbacher to his manager and publicist, Bobby Roberts and Jim Della Croce. The three are now advising Wurzelbacher; for now at no charge. They've also suggested Wurzelbacher might want to get into the music business. "He actually can sing," said Della Croce.

Wurzelbacher isn't sure: "They talked about throwing me into the studio. I think we're going to have a good laugh, and that will be it."

Obama uses his TV time well
It pays to buy airtime only if you know what to do with it — and Barack Obama clearly does.

Voters will make the final judgment on the content and effectiveness of last night's cross-network infomercial, a half-hour block purchased by the Obama campaign from CBS, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, Univision, BET and TV One. But as a piece of political theater, the program was a low-key triumph, a message perfectly attuned to the cool side of the medium.

Unusual but not unique, Obama's 30-minute ad was the first such presidential campaign pitch since Ross Perot's series of extended TV talks in 1992. But where Perot's were notoriously (at times humorously) low-tech — just Perot and some pie charts — Obama's was a more elaborate mix of live TV and tape that came across as well-produced without seeming slick and overproduced.

The show presented Obama as both candidate and host, making his points by introducing representative Americans and their stories. Each segment was bracketed by Obama speaking in a wood-paneled office, a flag prominent in the background, as he calmly laid out his plans.

In part, the show was designed to prove Obama understands us, that he can connect with the problems of workers and retirees. But it was also designed to help us understand him, to become comfortable with the idea of him as president. Reassurance was not just the point of the biographical tidbits and the recorded testimonials; it was the point of the entire broadcast.

There was talk about tough issues but no harsh attacks on the other side and no flashes of anger. It was if the campaign had adopted a new political mantra: Speak softly and carry a big ad.

The only break in tone came at the end, as the ad cut to Obama's live speech in Florida, and the candidate was forced to raise his voice above the recorded whisper. But even that shift was caused more by the venue than by any change in message.

Some parts, perhaps, were hokey: the soft piano music, the rapt faces of the adoring crowd. But if these are political film clichés, they're clichés because they work. They were well-used here to convey the ad's underlying message: "I am one of you."

Did it amount to Obama Overload? In the old three-network universe, it might have. But we live in a multimedia world where anyone who lost interest had hundreds of other available choices. At any rate, Obama's team chose his time slot well: Only someone who's ready to be offended could be sorely chafed at being denied Knight Rider, Gary Unmarried and a baseball pregame show.

You can, of course, complain about the money spent. But it's hard not to think it was well-spent.

And if the format catches on, doesn't it at least stand a chance of being more informative than the 60 30-second spots it replaced?

The myth of the values voter

Frank Micciche

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

If Sen. John McCain pulls out a stunning upset next Tuesday, he'll have the country club, not Sam's Club, to thank for it. Conversely, if Sen. Barack Obama maintains his lead and coasts to victory, it will likely be because he was able to persuade wealthier voters to take a chance on his economic vision. That's because while wealthy states remain firmly in the blue column, wealthy voters run deep red.

In 2000, the poorest voters in Mississippi (50th in nation in per capita income), Ohio (middle of the pack) and Connecticut (first in per capita income) were equally likely to vote for George W. Bush. The richest residents of the same three states diverged sharply, with more than three-quarters of wealthy Mississippians voting Republican, 60 percent in Ohio and less than half in Connecticut. This pattern held in 2004.

It turns out the mythical lower-income "values voter," who puts "God, guns and gays" before economic concerns is just that. The Republican edge in poorer states has little to do with the cultural concerns of lower-income voters, and far more to do with the intensity of GOP support by the wealthy in these states.

In graphical terms, this is represented by a steep incline in the likelihood of voting GOP as you move up the income scale in the classic red states. Battleground states, such as Ohio, show a more moderate slope. The urbanized anchors of blue America approach a flat line.

Andrew Gelman, a statistician at Columbia University, and his colleagues have documented these trends in their book, "Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do." Their findings answer several questions about the twists and turns of the 2008 presidential election. And the path to victory for McCain or Obama becomes clearer to imagine.

For starters, how has the seemingly hapless and relatively underfunded McCain campaign kept pace, at least until recently, with a man their own ads famously call "the biggest celebrity in the world"? And why is Obama now seemingly pulling away?

Because, until recently, the patterns that Gelman identified had held. For example, in early September, Pew Research had McCain leading Obama 53 to 39 among those Americans making $75,000 or more. Their latest poll has Obama up, 52 percent to 41 percent in this category - a 12-point swing in a matter of weeks. Pew's horse-race poll has Obama gaining six points overall during this period.

Another of Gelman's observations on recent voting patterns found that those who regularly attend church, regardless of what state they live in, are more likely to vote Republican - although the pattern is that much stronger in red states than blue. According to Pew, Obama has also gained 7 points in the last month with weekly churchgoing white mainline Protestants and 9 points with Catholics who attend weekly Mass, another likely cause for his recent surge.

Returning to a familiar campaign narrative, many ask whether Obama hasn't changed the map, particularly in poorer states with relatively large minority populations? There is little evidence that this is the case. In the 10 lowest-income states, McCain leads by an average of 16 points, trailing only in New Mexico, a classic battleground state. Similarly, nine of the 10 richest states look firmly Democratic in 2008. If you discount traditionally red Wyoming, which has catapulted from 28th in per capita income in 2000 to sixth today, based on natural gas revenues, it is a clean sweep. Among these, Obama has swung Colorado and Virginia into his column from the 2004 GOP column. So, in the 10 richest and 10 poorest states, only three look to be moving away from the party they favored in previous elections. Of these, two are simply falling into line with their fellow wealthier states, and one is continuing a pattern of vacillation between parties (although looking solidly Democratic at this point). Hardly a seismic shift between red and blue.

So, then, what should we look for in trying to figure out whether Obama's momentum will lead to a Reaganesque landslide or another electoral nail-biter? RealClearPolitics.com lists 85 electoral votes not solidly in the GOP or Democratic column - Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and North Dakota. If Obama can smooth the curve in the poor toss-up states (Georgia and North Carolina), and steepen it in richer ones (as he has done in Colorado and Virginia), he may well get a landslide. On the other hand, if McCain can maintain President Bush's popularity with wealthy churchgoers, particularly in the low- to moderate-wealth states still up for grabs, we could be in for a long night.

Frank Micciche is the deputy director of the Next Social Contract Initiative of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, D.C. To comment, e-mail him at micciche@newamerica.net.

No. Him and Rudy Giuliani were trashing it earlier. What a shock.

October 30, 2008
The Decided Go in Droves to Vote Early
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

HENDERSON, Nev. — At grocery stores across Las Vegas, voters are casting their ballots, and then shopping for bananas or hitting the slot machines a few feet away.

About 100 people have voted from the windows of their cars, A.T.M. style, in Orange County, Calif. Several busloads of voters pulled up to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland on Sunday, did what they came to do, and then repaired to a church across the street for some fried chicken.

In all its forms, early voting has been an election year hit. Enormous lines in Florida led Gov. Charlie Crist to issue an executive order extending early voting hours statewide from eight hours a day to 12, while in Georgia an elderly woman in Cobb County stood in the sun so long to vote that she collapsed.

For many, an early vote has been a stab at ending, at least in their own homes and hearts, the seemingly endless loop of campaign rhetoric, cascading polls and tension, according to interviews over the past several days with dozens of early voters in six states.

“I thought I might as well do this,” said Rhonda Woolcox, 83, who came to a community center here on Monday to cast her presidential vote for Senator John McCain of Arizona. “I wasn’t about to change my mind.”

Others seemed to view early voting as a leap of faith.

“I was afraid that if I voted early our votes wouldn’t be counted,” said Glynetter Prather, 44, who nonetheless cast her ballot in Florida for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. “I mean, there’s enough time to lose these ballots. And I hate to say that, but that’s Florida’s signature.”

Among some of the 32 states that allow their residents to vote early without an excuse, either by mail or in person, the verdict is already in from a full quarter of registered voters — well into the millions. In some counties across the nation, the percentages are far higher. The early voting will continue for several days in most of the states, but in Louisiana it is already closed, and it will end on Friday or Saturday elsewhere to give time to update the books to prevent people from voting twice.

In 2004, 22 percent of voters cast an early presidential ballot, and the number is expected to climb to 30 percent to 35 percent this year. “We have predicted a third of the electorate; I expect that we will meet that,” said James Hicks, research director at the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

Although some states turn on their early voting tabulators before Election Day, none reveal the results until the polls close on Election Day itself and most do not begin counting a vote until then, said Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center in Houston, an association of elections officials.

No matter, one result is already known: Voters are drawn to the ballot boxes early.

In some places, like the three polling stations visited in the Las Vegas area on Monday, voters were rewarded with short waits and well-oiled systems designed to make them so. Several grocery stores offered electronic voting.

“We are the only state in the nation where you’ll hear, ‘Wet mop at Voting Booth 4,’ ” said Bob Walsh, a spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state.

In other states, lines snaked for hours and tested tempers. In New Orleans, for example, voters clocked six-hour waits this week.

In Jupiter, Fla., security guards have been hired to direct traffic and oversee the mild mayhem at a county library, where the parking lot has been jammed with the over-70 crowd competing for spots so they could cast a vote.

Early voting stations in Clayton County, Ga., which includes suburbs of Atlanta, stayed open until 1 a.m. one day last week to accommodate voters who had been delayed — some by as many as nine hours — by snags with the software that confirms voter registration.

Even with the problems and delays, voters in many states said they viewed the chance to vote early — without the constraint of the past of having to provide an excuse for not voting on Election Day — as a boon.

“In New Hampshire where we came from,” said Arthur Schuetz, 62, who voted Monday at the community center here in Henderson, “it is not socially acceptable to do anything but go to the polls on Election Day and stand in the snow talking with all your neighbors. But here you can vote in five minutes and go home. It’s super.”

Mr. Schuetz said he voted for Mr. McCain, a Republican, with enthusiasm. His wife, Linda, called the choice the “lesser of two evils.”

For those who work long hours and occasionally miss the chance to vote, early casting is helpful.

“Voting is always a problem for us nurses,” said Donna J. Simmons, 59, who cast a vote in Cleveland, anticipating a 12-hour shift on Election Day. “We’re always trying to work out ways to cover for each other so one of us can go and vote. I think this event is the most wonderful thing because voting is always such a challenge for people like me.”

So far, the early voting has attracted more Democrats than Republicans. For example, in North Carolina, according to state election officials, 58 percent of early voters have been registered Democrats compared with 25 percent registered Republicans. Democrats have also turned out in higher numbers in Florida, Iowa and New Mexico.

For the last few months, volunteers for Mr. Obama, a Democrat, in California, a state sure to go Democratic, have been making telephone calls to voters in neighboring Nevada, helping to perfect the lists of likely early vote-casters for get-out-the-vote canvassers. In Nevada, a Republican stronghold in past presidential elections, 52 percent of early electors in the population centers have been Democrats, 32 percent Republicans and 16 percent unaffiliated voters.

Some of them have cast their ballots at the Galleria at Sunset Mall in Henderson, where voters lined up to use three rows of machines sandwiched between two jewelry stores, a Mervyn’s department store and a stand selling face cream.

Volunteers waved citizens, some carrying shopping bags, to the open machines with little American flags festooned to sticks. Leah Darrington, 30, came with four couples to vote, and the adults took turns entertaining the five children who were brought along.

Dee Welch gave her son DeLano an admonishing tug as he tried to drag her from the rows of voting machines to a toy store. “I’m getting in line to vote for president,” Ms. Welch said firmly. “So you behave!”

There were elderly couples who shuffled carefully along the slick mall floor, scores of parents pushing strollers, couples holding hands as they affixed the “I voted” stickers to their shirts, and several first-time voters.

“It was fun,” said Christie Kaminska, 20, who picked Mr. Obama for her first presidential vote. “I have class on Tuesday, and I heard from someone at school I could vote here. Plus, I have some things I needed to return.”

In Pittsboro, N.C., Zaw Min Thu, 36, a refugee from Myanmar who came to the United States eight years ago, cast his first vote, for Mr. Obama, this week.

“I wanted to check it out because of my work schedule,” said Mr. Thu, who works as a housekeeper at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. “Our government is a military government, and the government is not good,” he said. “That’s why I vote today.”

The Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, one of the largest black churches in Cleveland, has pulled nearly 200 churchgoers over the past few weeks to early voting polls.

“I look at this as a form of cholesterol removal from the clogged circulatory system of this nation’s election process,” said Larry Harris, the pastor there. “We know we’re looking at record-breaking turnout for this election. It’s going to be difficult to count all the votes that day. And if the weather is bad, some of these people will just stay home. So we need to get people out early, and make sure that every vote counts.”

BC-Obama-Ad

* AP foreign
* , Thursday October 30 2008

BC-Obama-Ad, 1st World News Obama takes his message to prime time TV; McCain goes after Obama MIAMI - John McCain charged that Barack Obama lacks "what it takes to protect America from terrorists" Wednesday as he sought to shift attention away from the economy in the final week of the race for the White House. Obama cast his rival as a threat to the middle class, and readied a 30-minute prime-time commercial at a cost of millions.

Obama, who has led in the polls for weeks, toughened his rhetoric as Republicans and even some Democrats said the race to pick the next president was tightening somewhat nationally and in some battleground states.

Obama takes to the prime-time airwaves to make final pitch to voters Full Story

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama took to the prime-time airwaves on Wednesday night with a costly and slickly produced infomercial aimed at convincing voters to cast their ballots for him just days before the presidential election.

"We've seen over the last eight years how decisions by a president can have a profound effect on the course of history, and on American lives," the Democratic presidential nominee said during the half-hour ad, which aired at US$1 million a pop on a series of television networks.

Strong earthquake strikes southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 Full Story

WAM, Pakistan - Desperate villagers clawed through piles of mud and timber while others dug mass graves Wednesday after an earthquake collapsed thousands of homes in Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and injuring hundreds more.

Army transport planes ferried tents, medical supplies and blankets to the quake zone in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, where some 15,000 were made homeless by the shallow, 6.4-magnitude jolt that struck as most people slept.

Congolese rebels reach edge of Goma, then declare a ceasefire Full Story

GOMA, Congo - Congolese rebels said they reached the outskirts of Goma and declared a ceasefire Wednesday to prevent panic in the city, where retreating government soldiers were commandeering cars and firing wildly as people fled in torrents of human misery.

Gunfire crackled throughout the city with occasional booms from heavy artillery, apparently from fleeing army troops who residents said were out of control.

Syria tells United States to shut down cultural centre, school in Damascus WASHINGTON - The Syrian government has officially asked the United States to close the American Cultural Center in Damascus immediately and the American school in the capital by Nov. 6, the State Department said Wednesday.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry gave formal notice of the deadlines to Maura Connelly, the top U.S. diplomat in Damascus, after the government said Tuesday it would order both institutions closed in retaliation for a weekend American attack on alleged Iraqi militants inside Syrian territory, according to the department.

Number of new U.S. troops in Afghanistan could more than double Full Story

WASHINGTON - Military planners now think they may need to send more than double the number of extra troops initially believed needed to help fight the war in Afghanistan.

The buildup in the increasingly violent campaign could amount to more than 20,000 troops rather than the originally planned 10,000, two senior defence officials said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because no new figures have been approved.

Quartet of Mideast peacemakers to meet in Egypt next month for progress report Full Story

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A senior Palestinian official said Wednesday the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers will meet Nov. 6 at Sharm el-Sheik to assess progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting's date has not been announced, said the gathering in Egypt would include U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

McCain and Palin blast Los Angeles Times for not releasing Obama tape Full Story

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin accused the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday of protecting Barack Obama by withholding a videotape of the Democrat attending a 2003 party with a Palestinian-American professor and critic of Israel.

McCain and Palin called Rashid Khalidi a former spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a characterization that Khalidi has denied in the past, and McCain said 1960s radical Bill Ayers had attended the same party. Both candidates said guests at the event made critical comments about Israel.

Obama effigy found hanging from tree on University of Kentucky campus Full Story

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A life-sized likeness of Barack Obama was found hanging from a tree with a noose around its neck Wednesday at the University of Kentucky, the second time in about a month such an effigy of the Democratic presidential nominee was reported on a college campus.

University spokesman Carl Nathe said the effigy was found Wednesday morning in a high-traffic area between a classroom building and parking garage. Police immediately took it down but released no information about their investigation.

Peru mob torches police station as anti-government protests spread Full Story

LIMA, Peru - Angry villagers in Peru's northern jungle have torched a police station a day after 71 people were hurt in a clash between police and protesters in the south.

RPP radio says a 1,000-strong mob set fire to the station and took 25 officers captive in San Martin province. They reportedly were angered when police threw tear gas near a school and several children were affected.

UN General Assembly urges U.S. to lift 47-year-old embargo against Cuba Full Story

UNITED NATIONS - The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Wednesday urging the United States to repeal its 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, which the country's foreign minister vowed would never bring the Cuban people "to their knees."

It was the 17th straight year that the General Assembly called for the embargo to be repealed "as soon as possible."

Negative campaign damages McCain's legacy as respected politician Full Story

WASHINGTON - John McCain began his bid for the White House a well-liked and well-respected politician, considered honourable by Republicans and Democrats alike and hailed for his war hero history.

But even onetime McCain boosters have turned on the Arizona senator in the course of this election campaign, with a litany of prominent Republicans maligning him for his pick of the controversial Sarah Palin as his running mate and accusing him of making an unnecessarily nasty run for the top job.

Vermont school shooter sentenced to 3 life terms for 2006 rampage Full Story

BURLINGTON, Vt. - A man who killed two people in a 2006 shooting rampage in Vermont has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms.

Twenty-nine-year-old Christopher Williams was sentenced today on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Fashion designer's sexual assault trial nears its end Full Story

LOS ANGELES - Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander sexually assaulted aspiring models after luring them to Los Angeles with promises of glamorous photo shoots and stays in a luxury hotel, a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in his trial.

Deputy District Attorney Mara McIlvain told jurors that Alexander had a "common plan" that started with finding the women on the Internet and ended with him fondling or raping them in his apartment when they visited California seeking modelling opportunities.

Palin faces new ethics complaint over children's travel costs Full Story

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A new ethics complaint against Sarah Palin accuses the Alaska governor of charging the state when her children travelled with her.

The complaint alleges that the Republican vice-presidential nominee used her official position as governor for personal gain. The Associated Press reported this month that Palin charged the state more than $21,000 for her three daughters' commercial flights since she became governor in December 2006.

Venezuelan satellite launched from China; carries TV, radio transmissions Full Story

EL SOMBRERO, Venezuela - Chinese and Venezuelan scientists hovered over radar screens, a Russian combat jet flew overhead and satellite dishes tilted toward the skies as Venezuela tracked the launch of its first satellite on Wednesday.

President Hugo Chavez has increasingly turned toward the East for help in technological development, and his latest endeavour - at a cost of some US$406 million - will help him spread his revolutionary message across Latin America.

Ukraine's parliament passes key economic bills to avoid meltdown Full Story

KYIV, Ukraine - Ukraine's parliament on Wednesday approved legislation that the International Monetary Fund set as a condition for an emergency loan, raising hopes that this ex-Soviet republic, hit hard by the global crisis, will avoid a meltdown.

But chances for a quick recovery were hit by a dramatic fall in the national currency and signs of a rapid economic slowdown, caused largely by falling global demand for steel, the country's main export.

Canadians, Taliban battle in information war for hearts, minds of Afghans Full Story

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It's a familiar routine for local Afghan journalists: within seconds of a roadside blast or bomb attack, they get a boasting text message or phone call from the local Taliban information officer.

"They call right in to the radio presenter on the air," says Khan Mohammed Khadim, manager of Kandahar's Killid group of stations. "Much faster than the ISAF (western) information."

Distributed by the Associated Press

Palin remains focused on November 4: report
Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:28pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain may be down in the polls, but running mate Sarah Palin remains focused on winning the White House, ABC News said on Wednesday after initially reporting the Alaska governor was looking beyond 2008.

Asked about 2012, whether she was discouraged by daily campaign attacks and whether she would return home to Alaska, the Republican vice presidential nominee said she was focused on defeating Democrat Barack Obama next week.

"I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken ... I'm not doing this for naught," Palin told ABC News in a taped interview airing on Thursday.

A campaign spokesperson said Palin was talking about being focused on winning the White House this year and is not going to quit despite her critics.

In its initial report on the interview, ABC said Palin was looking ahead to the 2012 election cycle, regardless of the outcome of the November 4 vote.

ABC issued a revised release after the McCain campaign clarified Palin's comment.

With less than a week before Election Day, Palin told ABC she believes in the current Republican presidential ticket and that she thinks "it's going to go our way on Tuesday, November 4."

"I truly believe that the wisdom of the people will be revealed on that day," she said.

Palin has energized the Republican base of supporters. But she has come under withering criticism on a variety of issues, including whether she is qualified to become vice president.

(Writing by Joanne Allen; Editing by Doina Chiacu)