For those that have ever watched Columbo. Columbo still scratching his head.

Ah . Sorry to bother you Mr. Obama, Sir.


Excuse me Mr. Obama, I mean Senator Obama, sir.

Um . . know you are busy and important and stuff. I mean running for president is very important and . . . ah . . . I hate to bother you. I will only take a minute ok, sir?

See, I have these missing pieces that are holding me up, and I was wondering sir, if you could take time out of your busy schedule and help me out. You know, no big deal, just some loose ends and things.

Hey, you have a nice place here! The wife sees houses like this on TV all the time and says boy she wishes she had digs like this you know? Is that painting real? Really? Wow. I saw something like that in a museum once!

Oh, sorry sir. I didn't mean to get off the track. So if you could just help me out a minute and give me some details, I will get right out of your way. I want to close this case and maybe take the wife to Coney Island or something. Ever been to Coney Island ? No, I didn't think so. .

Well, listen, anyways, I can't seem to get some information I need to wrap this up. These things seem to either be "locked" or "not available'. I'm sure it's just some oversight or glitch or something, so if you could you tell me where these things are . . . I . . . I . . have them written down here somewhere . . . oh wait. Sorry about the smears. It was raining out. I'll just read it to you.

Could you help me please find these things, sir?

1. Occidental College records -- Not released

2. Columbia College records -- Not released

3. Columbia Thesis paper -- "not available"

4. Harvard College records -- Not released

5. Selective Service Registration -- Not released

6. Medical records -- Not released

7. Illinois State Senate schedule -- "not available"

8. Law practice client list -- Not released

9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate -- Not released

10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth -- Not release

11. Harvard Law Review articles published -- None

12. University of Chicago scholarly articles -- None

13. Your Record of baptism-- Not released or "not available"

14. Your Illinois State Senate records--"not available"

15. How were your college tuitions paid for ... grandparents, student loans, minority grants based on race, not academic acheivements ?

Oh hey listen! I know you are busy! Is this too much for you now? I mean tell you what. I will come back tomorrow. Give you some time to get these things together, you know? I mean, I know you are busy, so I will just let myself out. I will be back tomorrow.

"Who wants to know these things?" asked Senator Obama.

Columbo answered: THE PEOPLE

Why is that then? I'm curious to know.

What's so bad about Bill Clinton? I was too young to follow American politics during his presidency, and I still don't know a lot about his policies; but for some strange reason I remember him being a rather good president.


In the country I live in we have a multiple party system (right now there are 7 major parties: 23 %, 18 %, 15%, 15%, 10%, 7%, 6%) and this works pretty fine normally. Or at least, the multiple party system on itself isn't the cause of government problems. The parties that either are the biggest or the winners of the election usually form a coalition in a system like this. The upside is that there are seldom extremes, the downside is that a party can never really have it's way all the way.


I believe in something like a natural rate of racism. In the long-run, a certain number of people will continue to be extreme-right, racist and intolerant. All other racism can be explained by historic and cultural factors, like the racism in the US South. Over a certain period of time, race won't be such an issue anymore as it still is today in my opinion.



A fucking shame.

I really liked Hillary's pov on Social Security, and I hoped Obama would eventually have taken it in his program.

Ditto. Thank god more and more people in the center and from the right are beginning to realize this.


I agree. My opinion on this is the following: Am I gay? No. So should I fucking care what gays can do and can't do? No! They should decide for themselves what they want to do in life. I have no right to judge over another one's rights. It is a complete idiocracy to deny gays matters that only affect themselves (eg: marriage, ...)
Obama disapoints me in this one, although from a political point of view it is understandable.

This is just silly. Or do you really think Bin Laden paid for his school clothes? Obama graduates Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law, serves as the editor of Harvard Law Review, and is a professor of Constitutional law at the most prestigious law school in the country, and you want to review his transcripts to fully discern if the man is intelligent and has excelled in his pursuits?

Just a few I can get quickly -

3.Columbia thesis? He wrote that in 1983. I highly doubt that he ever had an electronic copy of it and that is easy to lose 25 years ago. A former professor remembers though.

6. He did release concise document with all the information you need to determine his health. Detailed medical records relate to him personally, and are irrelevant to him being a president, provided he has a current clean bill of health (which he does according to his GP). If he was holding back documents that are in the public interest then you might have a point.

9/10. Someone already posted snopes or something similar on this above I believe.

11. Harvard Law Review articles published -- none, is false. (I'm sure we're going to see all those scholarly articles published by John McCain soon).

12. He never published any scholarly articles at UC by his own admission, so it really can not be released.

14. Illinois state record

What difference does it make if he wasn't baptised anyway?

I did post above in this thread about the fake birth certificate issue. As has been pointed out over and over, in Hawaii at the time of Obama's birth the seal is on the back side of the certificate, not the front.

As Michelle and Barack have pointed out over and over and over they just recently paid off Barack's student loan debt from his book royalties. That is how he paid for Harvard.

As far as affirmative action I am not familiar with nor do I particularly care about the AA policies of Harvard Law School during Obama's time there. Supposedly Obama did not mention his race on his application. What I do know is that he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review.

So that means that not only did he compete against some of the finest minds in the world and win, he also had the respect of his peers.

It's incredible to me that someone with that pedigree is thought to be somehow unqualified.

There are reasons to vote against Obama, but his educational background is definitely not one of them. He really is that smart.

This is what I mean by misdirection. Focus on the issues. Focus on the war, the economy, healthcare, whatever is important. But seeing a candidate's baptismal certificate?? I have photographs of me being baptized, but damn if I know where my certificate is. Does that mean my parents posed me at that church with those people and just "said" that they were my godparents??

svsg, thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. I would like to read them over more carefully and then see if I have questions.

How can anyone trust Obama on any military issue? He knows nothing about military strategy. Does anyone (besides Colin Powell) actually think Obama is better prepared than McCain to win the two wars we are in right now? He doesn't have the experience nor the judgment.

Remember how he was so adamantly opposed to the surge?

Veterans give McCain a D to Obama's B grade rating, I consider that somewhat an endorsement.

I've seen no really compelling evidence SURGE is or has done what was promised; The country is seething with violence and political fissures that are very deep. I think the surge was applied very strategically and that it worked in a very small geographic area and that some people, especially Bush/McCain, saw its marginal success as reason enough to say, "See, I told you so." And I question the idea of paying Sunni soldiers (though I guess better than ours) -- does anyone really believe that the Sunnis would behave themselves and serve in a Shiite dominated government after we start arming Sunni militias in a stupid attempt to put down the insurgency? (Which seques to a study of the surge -- [or simply explained here] that suggests that ethnic violence — not the Bush administration’s surge — was the primary factor in reducing violence in Iraq. I could go on, but dammit I'm sick of Iraq, why do we continue pumping unbelievable amounts of money into that money sucking black hole when we are experiencing unheard of numbers of people losing their homes, jobs, hope, and self-esteem right here at home?)

And no, I'm not happy that Obama at the debate just went with the status quo of the surge. Meh, he isn't perfect.

I don't think anyone can win the two wars we are in right now. General Patton or fucking Napoleon or Augustus Caesar wouldn't know what the hell to do. It's been said over and over again, but it's hard to win a war against an idea. Terrorism will be around forever, cuz human nature sez so.

I'd still like the answer to this, and I'd assume more than a few people would like to hear it as well.

I really don't know why it happens.

OCTOBER 31, 2008

Over 33 Million Watched Obama's Half-Hour Ad
By REBECCA DANA

More than 33.5 million people watched Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's half-hour prime-time political ad Wednesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That number includes viewers who watched the ad, which aired at 8 p.m., on CBS, Fox, NBC, Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV One. The Obama special out-rated those networks' regularly scheduled programs, which have drawn a combined average audience of 30.3 million in the 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot this fall. By comparison, the first -- and lowest-rated -- debate between Sen. Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain attracted 52.4 million viewers.

The special wove together stories of struggling families with Sen. Obama's policy proposals and personal history, and included a live appearance by the candidate at a rally in Florida. The audience was ethnically diverse, comprising around 23.97 million white viewers, 5.65 million black viewers and 4.91 million Hispanic viewers.

Of all the networks, NBC drew the largest audience, with 9.78 million viewers tuning in. That is 43% higher than NBC's typical rating in that time period, where it airs episodes of "Knight Rider," a remake of the 1980s hit. CBS, which broadcasts the sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine" in that time period, improved 10% over a typical week.

In 1992, third-party candidate Ross Perot purchased 15 separate blocks of television air time. In 1996, he bought different time periods on the top three broadcast networks on the night before the presidential election, drawing a combined audience of 22.68 million people.

I saw something on TV the other day. A teacher asked the class why there was war in the Middle East. And one of the students raised her hand and said that it was an ages-old religious conflict over land, etc., etc. The teacher said, "No, it's because it's terribly hot and they have no water." In other words, it's not something that can ever be solved.

It was not our place to be there. It wasn't our job. We were lied to, as was the President, as was the Senate, as was Congress. Osama Bin Laden, 7 years later, is dancing around in a cave right now instead of facing war crimes. It needs to end. Our soldiers need to come home.

End our dependence on foreign oil, and you take all the wind out of their sails.

That's what Senator Obama has pledged to do within 10 years.

McCain just released what has to be the weakest ad I've ever seen. In fact, IMO it helps Obama more than McCain. The ad shows some file footage of Obama praising John McCain and Joe Lieberman on their "Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act" which was a bill to lower greenhouse emissions. If anything, the ad shows Obama reaching across the aisle to support McCain's bill. McCain has spent the entire election painting himself as the one to reach across the aisle and work with the other party, and now he releases an ad showing Obama doing it?
Very strange.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) Askes Networks
Not To Call Election Until 10pm EST

According to Cynthia Cynopsis, Variety reported the following today:

"Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), sent a letter yesterday to the heads of seven television networks, asking them to not name the new president-elect next Tuesday until all voting polls have closed at 10p ET for the benefit of West Coast voters, reports Variety."

"Dingell's letter went to Jeff Zucker, President/CEO, NBC Universal; Leslie Moonves, President, CBS Corporation; Anne Sweeney, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks and President,Disney-ABC Television Group; Peter Chernin, President, News Corp.; Jim Walton, President, CNN Worldwide; Roger Ailes, Chairman/CEO, Fox News; and Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC."

Dingell is one of the most powerful members of Congress and his committe has oversight of the television networks. In 2001, the committee held high profile hearings interrogating network heads on why the election was called for Al Gore before all of the polls were closed.

Poltico.com

Best lines, worst gaffes of campaign

By: Daniel Libit
October 31, 2008 04:56 AM EST

When it comes to one-liners in this campaign, John McCain has taken the cake. The problem for him is that he’s eaten it too.

While the Republican has arguably delivered the best lines of the last few months, he's inarguably stumbled upon the worst. Though rival Barack Obama has been more disciplined and deliberate in his public rhetoric, the Democrat has mustered his share of tongue trips and rips, as well.

So as the campaign winds down, Politico goes back through its notebooks in search of the best lines and worst gaffes of the general election.

BEST LINES

Barack Obama:

The line: “John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell — but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.”
The occasion: Aug. 28 Democratic National Convention speech
The significance: After weeks of enduring McCain campaign ridicule for his position on hunting down terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal area, Obama countered with the sharpest barb of his nomination speech, staking a claim on McCain’s war-on-terror turf.

The line: “The old boys' network? In the McCain campaign, that’s called a staff meeting.”
The occasion: Sep. 17 campaign rally in Elko, Nev.
The significance: Team Obama didn’t have to work particularly hard to think up a rejoinder when McCain, a 72-year-old, three-term senator, tried to draw a nexus between “the old-boy network and the corruption in Washington.” This was kind of a gimmie. Still, Obama struck just the right note with this crowd-pleasing yet cool-headed stump salvo.

The line: “The record’s clear: John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to take a 10 percent chance on change.”
The occasion: Democratic National Convention speech
The significance: The “90 percent” line has bestrided the campaign conversation ever since, and this topper mixed in both the c-word and a little snark.

The line: “I think it's a pretty clear that Sen. McCain is a little panicked right now. At this point, he seems to be willing to say anything or do anything or change any position or violate any principle to try and win this election, and I've got to say it's kind of sad to see. That's not the politics we need.”
The occasion: Sep. 19 campaign rally in Coral Gables, Fla.
The significance: Obama framed the race: Subsequent polls and news stories suggested voters and the media concurred with his assessment.

The line: “I sure wish he felt the same outrage about CEO pay when his top economic adviser — who he calls a ‘role model’ — walked away with a $42 million package after being fired from Hewlett-Packard.”
The occasion: Sep. 24 rally in Dunedin, Fla.
The significance: Obama squeezed the last bit of juice out of McCain’s off-message economic adviser, Carly Fiorina, who nine days prior had told a St. Louis radio station that Sarah Palin wouldn't be up to the job of running the company.

John McCain:

The line: "Sen. Obama, I'm not President Bush. ... If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."
The occasion: Oct. 15 presidential debate at Hofstra University
The significance: Hands down, the most memorable line from the final presidential debate. Republican operatives could barely contain their excitement afterward — or their wish that this had been said in the first debate and not the final one.

The line: "We had a good debate this week, and I thought I did pretty well, but let's have some straight talk: The real winner this week was Joe the Plumber. Joe won, because he's the only person to get a real answer out of Sen. Obama about his plans for our country.”
The occasion: Oct. 18 campaign rally in Concord, N.C.
The significance: With this, McCain began to make up some ground in the tracking polls, and Joe Wurzelbacher became a potential 2010 congressional candidate.

The line: “I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”
The occasion: Sep. 4 Republican National Convention speech
The significance: Struggling at times through the first half of his remarks, McCain caught stride in the autobiographical summation. This was one of the defter (and subtler) ways he invoked his prisoner of war story and enhanced his campaign’s “Country First” sloganeering.

The line: “I don’t need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn’t seek advice from a Chicago politician.”
The occasion: Oct. 6 Campaign rally in Albuquerque, N.M.
The significance: Beating up on the Windy City political machine is always good for scoring a political point or two. In the coming weeks, McCain would get much more specific about what (and who) he found so unsavory about Chicago.

WORST GAFFES

Barack Obama:

The gaffe: Obama introduces Sen. Joe Biden as “the next president of the United States.”
The occasion: Aug. 23 rally in Springfield, Ill.
The significance: With inexperience the salient knock against Obama, some deemed this slip Freudian, and the McCain campaign made quick work of it. “Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor,” mocked McCain spokesman Ben Porritt.

The gaffe: Obama refers to “my Muslim faith.”
The occasion: Sept. 7 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos
The significance: For the voters dead set on believing that Obama is a secret practitioner of Islam, this miscue probably was enough to confirm suspicions. Elsewhere, nobody thought much of it.

The gaffe: Obama says “lipstick on a pig.”
The occasion: Sep. 9 rally in Lebanon, Va.
The significance: The phrase stole a couple of news cycles, with McCain campaign decrying it as a sexist jab at Gov. Sarah Palin. Obama pushed back, explaining that it was a common expression he'd used in reference to the McCain campaign’s stab at the "change" mantle.

The gaffe: Obama says he wants to “spread the wealth around.”
The occasion: Oct. 13 conversation with Wurzelbacher at a campaign stop in Ohio
The significance: If Obama had simply omitted these four words in explaining his economic philosophy, we might never have heard of Joe the Plumber, and McCain would have had a far more difficult time lambasting Obama as a “socialist.”

The gaffe: Obama says he’s “showing some love” for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The occasion: Oct. 20 campaign rally in Tampa, Fla.
The significance: Nine days earlier, Obama had told supporters in Philadelphia that he was backing the Phillies. McCain, noting that he was not “dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states,” lampooned Obama for this clear act of sports pandering.

John McCain:

The gaffe: McCain sets the bar for “rich” at $5 million.
The occasion: Aug. 16 Saddleback Church Presidential Forum
The significance: Although he said it jokingly, McCain seemed instantly aware that he had just gift-wrapped a present for Obama’s opposition ad-makers. And indeed he had: The "out of touch" narrative was afoot.

The gaffe: McCain can’t remember how many homes he owns.
The occasion: Aug. 21 interview with Politico reporters Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin in Las Cruces, N.M.
The significance: Just a week after the $5 million goof, McCain further undermined his entire line of attack on Obama’s “elitism.”

The gaffe: McCain says “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
The occasion: Sept. 15 campaign rally in Jacksonville, Fla.
The significance: McCain had made this same statement on numerous occasions in the months leading up the Wall Street collapse, so there was a good chance these words would come back to bite him one way or another. But to offer them up once more, mid-bank meltdown, was one time too many.

The gaffe: McCain talks about imaginary Iraq-Pakistan border.
The occasion: July 21 interview on "Good Morning America"
The significance: The junior senator from Illinois was supposed to be the at-risk candidate when he ventured across the pond. But the first gaffe of Obama’s Middle East/European bender came from the senior senator from Arizona, who got mixed up on his Middle East geography. Suddenly, McCain’s strongest suit, his foreign policy bona fides, didn’t seem so bona.

The gaffe: McCain calls crowd “my fellow prisoners”
The occasion: Oct. 8 speech in Strongsville, Ohio
The significance: As the age question was now being addressed in the press without equivocation, this slip-up only hiked the public brow higher. Then again, for the sake of elegant variation, it was a nice change of pace from his time-worn “my friends” honorific.

The gaffe: McCain “couldn’t agree more” with Rep. John P. Murtha’s “racists” comment.
The occasion: Oct. 21 rally in Moon, Pa.
The significance: Combined with several other verbal miscues around the same time, this gaffe lent the impression that exhaustion had overtaken McCain in the waning weeks of the election.

One written line in that youtube video of Appleonya is fantastic:

Fairness (Socialism)

Daniel forgot Obama's the 57 states one.

I also didn't consider the "showing some love for the Tampa Bay Rays" a gaffe. Who cares if he's 'playing the crowd'.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (CNN) — Mandatory stops on the GOP campaign trail this year: Pennsylvania. Florida. Saturday Night Live.

Two weeks after running mate Sarah Palin made an appearance on the late-night comedy show, a McCain campaign aide tells CNN that the Republican presidential nominee will appear on the NBC program tomorrow night.

The Arizona senator has appeared on the show several times over the years.

McCain's most memorable appearance on the long running show was in October 2002, when he hosted the program for a night: In a spoof commercial hawking an album called "McCain Sings
Streisand," sang several of the Democratic loyalist's songs.

McCain Set to End Campaign With Biggest Hurdles in Modern Era

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain goes into the campaign's final weekend a bigger underdog than any victorious candidate in a modern election.

With four days until Election Day, national polls show his Democratic rival Barack Obama leading by an average of 6 percentage points, and battleground polls show Obama ahead in more than enough states to win the decisive 270 Electoral College votes.

``This election is cooked and done, it's in the warming tray,'' said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

McCain ``is as desperate as a candidate can be,'' said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. ``Less than five days to go and McCain's trailing in half a dozen states of which he can't afford to lose any: Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina.''

Illinois Senator Obama yesterday highlighted new government figures showing the sharpest contraction of the economy since 2001, a harbinger of what could be the worst recession since 1981-82. Arizona Senator McCain, meanwhile, was mum on the latest economic news showing the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent pace from July to September.

`Final Nail'

Those latest figures, Sabato said, are ``the final nail in McCain's coffin.''

To be sure, surprise events in the final days of the last two elections swayed those races. In 2000, a drunk-driving report on Republican George W. Bush, who had been leading in polls by a few points, may have cost him the popular vote. A taped message from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden four years later -- when Democrat John Kerry and Bush were running about even -- likely cinched Bush's re-election.

Yet in both cases, the spread in the polls wasn't as wide as it is between McCain, 72, and Obama, 47, who also has enjoyed a threefold cash advantage.

Since the Wall Street crisis erupted in September, surveys show public anger about the $700 billion government bailout, the credit crunch, mortgage meltdown and high gas prices has pushed voters toward the Democrat. Obama seized on the latest figures yesterday before a crowd estimated at 13,000 in Sarasota, Florida, long a Republican stronghold.

`Into a Ditch'

``Our failing GDP is a direct result of a failed economic theory, of eight years of the trickle-down, Wall-Street-first, Main-Street-last policies that have driven our economy into a ditch,'' he said. ``If you want to know where Senator McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rearview mirror.''

McCain's campaign issued a statement that with the economy shrinking, ``Obama's ideologically driven plans to redistribute income will impose higher taxes on families, small businesses, and investors.''

The candidate himself didn't refer to the economic data at four rallies in Ohio, including one in Defiance, where a few thousand people braved sub-freezing temperatures.

The contenders' travel plans for the final days tell a lot about the state of the race. Obama spent yesterday in Florida, Virginia and Missouri, three states that have gone Republican in the last two elections.

Battleground States

Today and tomorrow, he is scheduled to visit four more states that voted Republican last time, and where he is polling either ahead or even: Iowa, Indiana, Nevada and Colorado. On Nov. 2 and 3, he is expected to hit two battleground states, Ohio and Florida.

McCain's advisers said he would likely travel from Ohio to Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania before Election Day, and possibly a Rocky Mountain state -- all of which, save Pennsylvania, voted for Bush in 2004.

A vivid illustration of McCain's troubles is Indiana, historically the first state to go ``red'' on network maps on Election Night, because its polls are among the first to close. Indiana hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, yet the latest polls from the Indianapolis Star and a local television station show Obama either tied or slightly ahead.

Indiana is the most manufacturing-dependent state in the nation, and ``the Bush economy has not been kind to Indiana,'' said state Democratic Party chairman Dan Parker. The state lost 110,000 manufacturing jobs under Bush, and that has hurt the Republican brand, he said.

Indiana Offices

The Obama campaign has 44 field offices and more than 200 paid organizers in Indiana. The McCain campaign is working out of the state Republican Party's county offices, and is relying heavily on dedicated volunteers, said Republican state party chairman Murray Clark, citing nearly 150,000 calls made by volunteers this week.

``It's quite competitive,'' Clark said. Obama ``has been here since March, he's developed an independent campaign structure, and he has unlimited resources. Comparing their visits is a legitimate way to look at it.''

By today, Obama will have visited Indiana nine times in the general election, and 48 times this year, including the primary. McCain, who didn't have a contested primary in the state, visited twice before the general election, and hasn't returned since July. His campaign sent his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to Indiana three times in the last two weeks.

Obama's `Energy'

In Florida, the Republican Party chairman, Jim Greer, said ``Obama has really focused on a lot of things that typically in the past Democrats haven't focused on: the amount of energy, the amount of time, the places they've campaigned.''

Still, Greer predicted McCain would squeak out a win in the state, despite polls showing Obama 3.5 percentage points up on average.

``At McCain events, although smaller -- there's no doubt about it -- there seems to be a stronger commitment,'' he said.

That won't be enough, Rothenberg said. For all the talk ``in Republican circles about McCain on the march, McCain making a comeback, there's precious little evidence he can get to 270 electoral votes,'' he said.

Rothenberg said a McCain upset would be akin to the 1948 election, where President Harry S Truman was elected after trailing in polls to New York Governor Thomas Dewey. Unlike now, polls that year ended more than a week before voting, failing to catch a final surge for Truman.

``If John McCain were to win, it would be a stunning, dramatic reversal comparable to Dewey and Truman, but that would take a historic, dramatic turnaround,'' he said.

Wow. This is a must hear interview. Former Secretary of State, and McCain Advisor L. Eagleburger is asked a question about Sarah Palin being ready to be President in case of an emergency. He tries to defend her, but it goes horribly wrong.

I thought this was pretty funny (from Chocolate News):

SB, that was absolutely hilarious! Djimon Hounsou for President!

John McCain cuts his "Get Out The Vote"(GOTV) budget; Redirects to more TV Ads

Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists.

McCain has faced a severe spending imbalance during most of the fall, but the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending.

The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.

The vaunted, 72-hour plan that President Bush used to mobilize voters in 2000 and 2004 has been scaled back for McCain. He has spent half as much as Obama on staffing and has opened far fewer field offices. This week, a number of veteran GOP operatives who orchestrate door-to-door efforts to get voters to the polls were told they should not expect to receive plane tickets, rental cars or hotel rooms from the campaign.

"The desire for parity on television comes at the expense of investment in paid boots on the ground," said one top Republican strategist who has been privy to McCain's plans. "The folks who will oversee the volunteer operation have been told to get out into the field on their own nickel."

Obama has maintained a substantial financial advantage during the general election campaign, forcing McCain to make tough decisions when locking down a final spending plan about two weeks ago.

Scott Reed, an informal McCain adviser who in 1996 ran then-Sen. Robert J. Dole's presidential bid, said the campaign made the right call by dedicating more money to its media effort. Ads are the most efficient way to persuade undecided voters, and possibly convince some who are only tepidly backing Obama, he said.

"Obama still has not closed the deal," Reed said. "He's still polling under 50 [percent] in most of these battleground states. Don't forget, a lot of people make these decisions late."

Tracey said everything McCain and the RNC are doing is "basically aimed squarely at 'undecideds' and 'lean Obamas.' They've got to bring 'soft Obamas' over their way. TV is the best place to do that."

McCain also is being aided in the campaign's final weekend by several conservative groups, which are airing ads supporting him in key media markets.

Left-leaning groups are also on the air. MoveOn.org announced yesterday it has begun airing ads backing Obama in Arizona.

RNC officials said the party would be picking up the slack for a portion of the Election Day field effort, but it would not be running the entire operation as it did in 2004. The RNC will pay per diems and travel costs for 750 volunteers who fanned out to battleground states yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004167.html

Obama is now talking about this ad during his stump speech. He said: "I don't know what they were thinking. Is there something wrong with agreeing with fighting global warming"?

This is being posted "by request":


An 'Idiot Wind'
John McCain's latest attempt to link Barack Obama to extremism

Friday, October 31, 2008

WITH THE presidential campaign clock ticking down, Sen. John McCain has suddenly discovered a new boogeyman to link to Sen. Barack Obama: a sometimes controversial but widely respected Middle East scholar named Rashid Khalidi. In the past couple of days, Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have likened Mr. Khalidi, the director of a Middle East institute at Columbia University, to neo-Nazis; called him "a PLO spokesman"; and suggested that the Los Angeles Times is hiding something sinister by refusing to release a videotape of a 2003 dinner in honor of Mr. Khalidi at which Mr. Obama spoke. Mr. McCain even threw former Weatherman Bill Ayers into the mix, suggesting that the tape might reveal that Mr. Ayers -- a terrorist-turned-professor who also has been an Obama acquaintance -- was at the dinner.

For the record, Mr. Khalidi is an American born in New York who graduated from Yale a couple of years after George W. Bush. For much of his long academic career, he taught at the University of Chicago, where he and his wife became friends with Barack and Michelle Obama. In the early 1990s, he worked as an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at peace talks in Madrid and Washington sponsored by the first Bush administration. We don't agree with a lot of what Mr. Khalidi has had to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years, and Mr. Obama has made clear that he doesn't, either. But to compare the professor to neo-Nazis -- or even to Mr. Ayers -- is a vile smear.

Perhaps unsurprising for a member of academia, Mr. Khalidi holds complex views. In an article published this year in the Nation magazine, he scathingly denounced Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and U.S. Middle East policy but also condemned Palestinians for failing to embrace a nonviolent strategy. He said that the two-state solution favored by the Bush administration (and Mr. Obama) was "deeply flawed" but conceded there were also "flaws in the alternatives." Listening to Mr. Khalidi can be challenging -- as Mr. Obama put it in the dinner toast recorded on the 2003 tape and reported by the Times in a detailed account of the event last April, he "offers constant reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases."

It's fair to question why Mr. Obama felt as comfortable as he apparently did during his Chicago days in the company of men whose views diverge sharply from what the presidential candidate espouses. Our sense is that Mr. Obama is a man of considerable intellectual curiosity who can hear out a smart, if militant, advocate for the Palestinians without compromising his own position. To suggest, as Mr. McCain has, that there is something reprehensible about associating with Mr. Khalidi is itself condemnable -- especially during a campaign in which Arab ancestry has been the subject of insults. To further argue that the Times, which obtained the tape from a source in exchange for a promise not to publicly release it, is trying to hide something is simply ludicrous, as Mr. McCain surely knows.

Which reminds us: We did ask Mr. Khalidi whether he wanted to respond to the campaign charges against him. He answered, via e-mail, that "I will stick to my policy of letting this idiot wind blow over." That's good advice for anyone still listening to the McCain campaign's increasingly reckless ad hominem attacks. Sadly, that wind is likely to keep blowing for four more days.

In answer to the question someone asked above, the polls tighten as the campaign approaches its climax because many formerlly undecided voters make up their minds.

In regard to campaign gaffes, I still think that Palin's malaproprism that the vice-president is in charge of the Senate is the most profound gaffe of the entire campaign including the primaries.