Says it all

Julie Nixon Eisenhower supports Obama.

Well, if nothing else can make up your mind, how about this?

The ‘I have a dream’ vote

A story of early voting from a medical student in Evansville, Indiana, as told to Ben Smith - Politico.com:

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn’t think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

Oh, it’s a miracle all right

Dobson says that he and other pastors have been praying to God for his intervention in the election: “We were just asking for, rather boldly asking, for a miracle with regard to the election this year.”

Beliefnet

The most troubling question this election

… is what is the over/under on how many days it will take New Mexico to count the votes.

Early voting

According to at least one report, after just four days, 19.4% of New Mexico’s REGISTERED voters have ALREADY voted.

As for NewMexiKen, as soon as I make up my mind about the presidential contest I’ll probably go vote early too.

Truest line of the day, so far

“What we have here is an election that won’t be decided on the worst smears, but on substance. And in such an environment, the GOP is ill-equipped to compete.”

kos

Just thinkin’

You know, maverick is just another term for attention-deficit-disorder.

Jeez, let’s just keep Bush, we’ve learned how to translate him.

The Hockey Mom from Saks and Nieman’s

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Politico.com

Reformer, yeah right

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

AP via Yahoo! News

Just another thing this election is about

A picture that says a 1,000 words.

Click image for larger version.

Looks like his Grandpa, doesn’t he?

Click image for larger version.

About time someone said this

Now, I understand what politics is all about.  I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good.  But I think this goes too far.  . . . And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian.  He’s always been a Christian.  But the really right answer is, what if he is?  Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.  Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?  Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) on Meet the Press

More from Powell:

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.

Amen.

Get your aprons ladies

[CHRIS WALLACE:] Senator, as a cold political calculation, hasn’t Governor Palin become a drag on your ticket?

MCCAIN: As a cold political calculation, I could not be more pleased. She has excited and energized our base. She is a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America.

FOXNews.com - Transcript

Strong words from historically Republican voices

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation’s most powerful office, he will prove it wasn’t so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama’s name to Lincoln’s in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

Chicago Tribune

We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama’s critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.

Los Angeles Times

For Sarah Palin’s benefit

These are the pro-American parts of the United States.

Idea and map from Daily Kos.

I wonder what this is like

NewMexiKen has spoken before an audience of a few hundred from time-to-time — for me at least, it was always a rush.

I wonder what this is like.

Plenty of blame to go around

Award-winning reporter Charles Duhigg of The New York Times on This American Life, October 11, 2008:

The blame for this is absolutely bipartisan. Both parties deserve a great deal of blame for what happened with the subprime mess. And to try and pin the blame on one party or the other really muddies the issue. A crisis like what’s going on right now, can’t develop without everyone fueling it. I mean we’re looking at the biggest crisis in a century. That only happens when basically everyone drops the ball. So there’s enough blame to give to both parties here.

Fannie and Freddie were part of the problem, but not the cause of the problem.

Neither McCain nor Obama have any particular claim to doing either right or wrong.

(We know Duhigg is good because he’s a native New Mexican.)

As chairman of the welcoming committee, it’s a pleasure to present a laurel and hearty handshake to our new …

Reputedly a true story via FiveThirtyEight.com:

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

America gets more like Rock Ridge every day.

Best line of the day, so far

“The Democrats are terrified. They’re convinced something terrible is going to happen because something terrible always happens. . . .

“It’s like the curse of the Bambino. The Democrats fear they’re under a jinx because they committed some sin, the political equivalent of trading away Babe Ruth. If so, it probably started with nominating Joe Lieberman for vice president.”

Gail Collins

Endorsements

The Chicago Tribune endorses a Democrat for president for the first time ever.

The Los Angeles Times endorses Obama “without hesitation.”

As does The Washington Post “without ambivalence.”

ABC News: McCain Acorn Fears Overblown

Citing a Republican former Department of Justice lawyer, ABC concludes the voter fraud charges are meaningless.

But McCain’s voter fraud worries – about Acorn or anyone else – are unsupported by the facts, said experts on election fraud, who recall similar concerns being raised in several previous elections, despite a near-total absence of cases.

“There’s no evidence that any of these invalid registrations lead to any invalid votes,” said David Becker, project director of the “Make Voting Work” initiative for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Becker should know: he was a lawyer for the Bush administration until 2005, in the Justice Department’s voting rights section, which was part of the administration’s aggressive anti-vote-fraud effort.

“The Justice Department really made prosecution of voter fraud of this sort a big priority in the first half of this decade, and they really didn’t come up with anything,” he said.

ABC News

Other Republicans have made similar remarks — Florida Governor Crist among them.

In NewMexiKen’s opinion, trying to take away a person’s vote is about as low as politicians can go.

Best self-realization line of the day

“There’s a lot I’ve got to learn.”

Joe the Plumber

Who is actually Sam the unlicensed plumber.

Uh oh

It appears the McCain campaign didn’t vet Joe the Plumber any more than they did Sarah the Hockey Mom.

• It appears he’s not a licensed plumber
• It appears he owed Ohio back income taxes
• It appears he is related to Charles Keating’s son-in-law Robert Wurzelbacher, a prominent Republican donor, who served 40 months in federal prison for his role in the Keating 5 scandal

Update: Last item found to be incorrect. Same name, no relation.

John McSame

The same as Bush, only older.

Best question of the day

“How does any decent person remain a Republican with this kind of crap?”

Andrew Sullivan is referring to an envelope from the Virginia Republican Party. He has a photo of the offending matter.

I get emails

Kenneth –

I just finished the last debate before the election.

Now the outcome of this campaign is up to you. I need your help to get our message out — and to get out the vote.

I wouldn’t ask for your support if this campaign didn’t urgently need it.

Your donation of $5 or more today is essential to our unprecedented get out the vote operation in these final days.

The most dangerous thing you can do right now is nothing. Your support and hard work are exactly what we need between now and Election Day.

While he didn’t mention the middle class, John McCain chose to repeat the false, negative attacks that make up 100% of his advertising these days.

The truth is that his choices say more about his campaign than they do about me.

But John McCain and his allies are not going to stop fighting — or attacking — until the very end.

We’re doing this a different way. Tonight I talked about the real problems ordinary people face during this economic crisis and concrete ways that I will create jobs, cut health care costs, build a new energy policy, and get our economy moving.

But time is running out. Our strength and our success in these last 20 days depends on you:

https://donate.barackobama.com/finaldebate

Thank you for all you do,

Barack

Best line of the day, so far

“Ronald Reagan used to say that the most frightening nine words in the English language were ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ That is no longer true. This year, the most frightening eight words are ‘I’m John McCain and I approved this message.’

Joe Klein

Klein’s whole blog post is worth reading.

Joe the Plumber

Here’s the exchange between Obama and Joe the Plumber referenced so much in tonight’s debate.

Make-Believe Maverick

In its broad strokes, McCain’s life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives’ evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

From Tim Dickinson’s terrific profile of McCain in Rolling Stone.

Obama’s Moment

Rolling Stone has an interview with Senator Obama. Nothing new, but a good look at his personality in the context of issues if you’re interested.

Best line on the other channel

“Did you hear what happened at a rally yesterday? Sarah Palin mistook some of her supporters for hecklers. You know, confusion happens in all walks of life. For example, a few weeks ago, John McCain mistook her for a legitimate candidate.”

David Letterman

Best late night line

“And yesterday, at a rally in Virginia, they played the theme to ‘Rocky’ as John McCain walked out on stage. Does John McCain look like Rocky to you? Doesn’t he look more like the Burgess Meredith character?”

Jay Leno

Leno continued:

“Why would McCain want to be like Rocky? Didn’t Rocky get the hell kicked out of him by the black guy? Hello?”

The Republican voter fraud hoax

Barack Obama and the Democrats are stealing the election. Massive voter fraud is being carried out, even as we speak, by their henchmen, known by the innocuous sounding Association for Community Organisations for Reform Now, or Acorn. Clever bastards.

The only problem? Despite the screaming wall-to-wall coverage of “Democratic voter fraud in 11 swing states” as seen on Fox News and even the once-respectable CNN, none of it’s true. None of it.

. . .

You’ll hear that Donald Duck, Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Mickey Mouse and (new this year) the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team have all had fraudulent registrations submitted in their names. That’s true. And we know this, why? Because Acorn told officials about it when they followed the law and turned in those registrations, flagged as fraudulent.

What you won’t hear is that federal law requires anybody who does not register to vote in person at the county office to show an ID when they go to vote the first time. So, unless Donald Duck shows up with his ID, he won’t be voting this November. You needn’t worry, no matter how much even John McCain himself cynically and dishonourably tries to mislead you.

If it quacks like a duck, in this case, it’s likely another Republican Acorn voter fraud lie. They haul it out every two years.

Brad Friedman - guardian.co.uk. There’s more.

Alaskans Get It

Via Andrew Sullivan, two women in Anchorage talk sense about Palin. 5:13 minute video.

After seeing this a correspondent wrote:

We’re so used to seeing complete idiots doing these “man on the street” interviews…it’s completely disconcerting to see these women.

I want to be friends with them.

Why does Sarah Palin wear a polar bear pin?

A1: She wants to help people remember what they looked like before her policies render them extinct.

A2: She likes sticking it to the bears.

A3. She couldn’t find a wolf-cub pin.

Climate Progress, with a photo and how you can order a pin just like Sarah’s. Only $14.99 plus $3.50 shipping.

Obama Wins

It’s official. At least for the kids! The Scholastic Presidential Election Poll results are in: Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama won with 57 percent of the vote, to 39 percent for Republican nominee Senator John McCain.

The poll was open to kids from grades 1 to 12 in Scholastic News and Junior Scholastic magazines. Almost 250,000 (a quarter of a million) kids voted by paper ballot or online at www.scholastic.com/news. The poll closed on October 10.

Since 1940, the results of the student vote have mirrored the outcome of the general election all but twice: In 1948, kids voted for Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman. In 1960, more students voted for Richard M. Nixon than for John F. Kennedy.

Scholastic.com

The Obama Effect?

At another panel at the Time Warner Summit, TechPresident co-founder Andrew Rasiej, talking with his fellow panelists about the recent coverage given to the Bradley Effect, made a prediction. “What we’re going to see is the Obama Effect,” he said: Obama over-performing because of people who secretly wanted to vote for him, but were afraid to say so.

CJR

Best line of the day, so far

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

New York Times/CBS News poll

Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants

“As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* [in 1929] would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.”

Several graphics comprise this article from The New York Times. Since the 1929 Crash, Republicans and Democrats have each been in the White House almost 40 years.

No wonder the economy is screwed. The Republicans can’t even do the math to figure out how much better off they are under Democrats.

• 15% (the Bush capital gains tax) of $51,211 (the Republican return) is $7,682 for a net of $43,529
• 20% (the pre-Bush capital gains tax) of $300,671 (the Democratic return) is $60,134 for a net of $240,537

From little ACORNs wingnuts grow

The list of conservative conspiracy theories is long and ever-growing. Conservatism, as currently constructed, is utterly dependent on the existence of nefarious, dark forces working secretly against Real Americans. ACORN is the bogeyman of the moment.

Functional Ambivalent explains — In Which We Intrude On the Conservative Pity Party By Injecting a Little Reality.

If The Bradley Effect is Gone, What Happened To It?

FiveThirtyEight.com takes a look at the Bradley Effect.¹

With that said, the evidence is pretty strong that the Bradley Effect in fact used to exist in the 1980s and probably through some point in the 1990s. …

The evidence is perhaps equally strong, however, that the Bradley Effect does not exist any longer.

It’s a good, brief look at racism and polling.

¹ The Bradley effect: Telling pollsters you voted for an African-American candidate when you did not in order to disguise racial bias. Named for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who lost the California gubernatorial election in 1982 when some polls, including exit polls, showed him winning handily.

Best headline of the day, so far

“Fact-Checking the Ayers Allegations: So Wrong, It’s ‘Pants on Fire’ Wrong”

CQ Politics has the facts. Their summary:

In short, this was a mainstream foundation funded by a mainstream, Republican business leader and led by an overwhelmingly mainstream, civic-minded group of individuals. Ayers’ involvement in its inception and on an advisory committee do not make it radical – nor does the funding of programs involving the United Nations and African-American studies.

This attack is false, but it’s more than that – it’s malicious. It unfairly tars not just Obama, but all the other prominent, well-respected Chicagoans who also volunteered their time to the foundation. They came from all walks of life and all political backgrounds, and there’s ample evidence their mission was nothing more than improving ailing public schools in Chicago. Yet in the heat of a political campaign they have been accused of financing radicalism. That’s Pants on Fire wrong.

Congressional Quarterly (CQ) has been considered one of the best, most objective sources on Washington and politics for more than 60 years.

Line of the day

“For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

Stephen Branchflower, Report to the Legislative Council

Most descriptive line of the day, so far

“Even the most hardened cynics find themselves continually surprised by the ability of Rove and his minions to always hit that evasive new low, coming up with things that would shock a 60-year-old Greyhound-station hooker.”

Matt Taibbi

And the best analysis of the day, also from Taibbi:

Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He’s totally and completely immoral. It doesn’t take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn’t take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker.

The reason Rove continues to survive is the same reason that Johnnie Cochran was called a genius for keeping a double-murderer on the golf course — because this generation of Americans has become so steeped in greed and social Darwinism that it can no longer distinguish between cheating and achieving, between enterprise and crime, and can’t bring itself to criticize winners any more than it knows how to be nice to losers. He survives because an increasing number of Americans secretly agree with Rove’s vision of rules, laws and “the truth” as quaint, faintly embarrassing rituals that only a sucker would let hold him back.

Best line of the day

OK, NewMexiKen has decided to cut back on the political stuff somewhat, but I can’t pass on Gail Collins, from her terrific column today:

Remember how we used to joke about John McCain looking like an old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn? It’s only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign’s golden era. Now, he’s beginning to act like one of those movie characters who steals the wrong ring and turns into a troll.

During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.”

Best line of the day, so far

The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

David Brooks (of all people)

Observation

You all do recognize that McCain is insane demented, don’t you?

Yes, I am serious.

You know

John McCain and his running mate talking about some one-time terrorist guy while the world economy is collapsing around us puts Nero into a whole new light.

A best line of the day

“Ralph Nader attracted only 8 people to a campaign appearance at Dartmouth College.”

Functional Ambivalent