Sarah Palin and the Anchorage Daily News are having a very public argument over Palin’s accusation that the ADN is pushing the rumor that Palin’s youngest son is really her grandson
Senate Democrats hope to pass President-elect Obama’s stimulus package by February 13
Obama reveals that the choice of first dog has been narrowed down to two breeds
John McCain is seeming to return to the John McCain of old that the majority of the country respected. On this morning’s This Week, McCain defended President-elect Obama over the Blagojevich scandal and attacked the Republican Party for trying to attack Obama over it:
I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don’t know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama’s campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.
President-elect Obama and Senator John McCain met earlier today in Chicago and released the following joint statement:
At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family. We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation’s security.
Also attending the meeting were Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
In honor of the traditional observance of Veterans Day, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (Monday – Friday, 11:35 p.m. – 12:37 a.m. ET on NBC) welcomes U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) on Tuesday, November 11 — marking the senator’s first television appearance since the 2008 presidential election on November 4.
Randy Scheunemann, who was John McCain’s top foreign policy advisor, was fired from the McCain campaign last week for attacking other McCain aides last week. Scheunemann apparently gave the press numerous unattributed quotes criticizing top McCain aides for their treatment of Sarah Palin.
How we think the electoral map will look without swing states being factored in
At the risk of taking some of the excitement out of election night, we have worked up a list of what election night results will look like and when in order (without swing states). Below is our mock election night results:
7:00pm Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Vermont and Virginia polls close giving McCain a 31-3 lead (VA & IN are swing)
7:30pm West Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio close giving McCain a 36-3 lead over Obama (NC & OH are swing)
8:00pm Tennessee, Alabama, Washington DC, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania close giving Obama a 82-69 lead in electoral votes (swing states are PA, MO & FL)
8:30pm Arkansas polls close giving McCain six electoral votes, but Obama maintains remains in the lead 82-75
9:00pm New York, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Dakota polls close with Obama still up 159-145 (the lone swing state is CO)
10:00pm Iowa, Montana, Nevada and Utah close with Obama moving to 166 electoral votes and McCain to 153 (NV is the only swing state)
11:00pm Hawaii, Idaho, Washington, California, North Dakota and Oregon polls close (no swing states) where Obama vaults into a 243-160 lead
1:00am The last state polls close and Alaska’s three electoral votes go to McCain and the electoral vote count becomes 243-163, which gives Obama an 80 electoral vote lead without counting any of the swing states
Remaining 132 electoral votes from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Colorado
A new Research 2000 poll shows that John McCain leads Barack Obama 48-47 in McCain’s home state of Arizona. What makes this even more shocking is that a September 29 Rasmussen Reports poll showed McCain leading Obama 59-38.
A new Fox News poll shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 47% to 44%, a lead of just three points. However, as Marc Ambinder notes, Fox’s poll is somewhat flawed in that its sampling changed. Last week, the same poll consisted of 43% Democrats and 37% Republicans. This latest poll consisted of 41% Democrats and 39% Republicans, so it is to be expected that the result would show a tighter race.
Here is an even more extensive breakdown of the sampling from last week’s poll showing Obama up by 7:
After just over a day of Fox News and Drudge constantly running the story of a McCain campaign volunteer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who claimed to have been mugged, sexually assaulted, told that she would be taught a lesson for being a McCain supporter and then subsequently had a backwards B carved into her cheek, the Pittsburgh police have announced that the “victim” confessed that she made up the entire incident. She also claimed that her attacked was a “six foot four black man.” who targeted her for supporting McCain.
The common belief among the press and many veteran political observers is that the McCain campaign’s pushing of the story was designed to drum up racist tension among Pennsylvania voters in an effort to try and swing the state into the McCain column. Pennsylvania is a state that former Pennsylvania governor and McCain supporter Tom Ridge has admitted is a must-win for McCain.
It is a clear sign that the McCain campaign is desperate and is taking a very low road in the last days of the 2008 presidential election. This kind of campaign strategy is not appropriate and Peter Feldman should be fired (but, he won’t be).
In the just wondering column: has anybody seen Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN) campaigning for McCain in his home state at all this general election? He seems to be sitting this election out.
It is also one of the worst kept secrets that Senator Lugar is a fan of Senator Obama’s and has offered him warranted praise throughout the general election.
John McCain has weighed in on the revelation that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on clothes for Sarah Palin and her family. At a campaign stop in Florida McCain told a crowd, “She needed clothes at the time.”
McCain’s argument doesn’t hold water. Governor Palin seems to have had clothes before being tapped as McCain’s running mate. While it is conceivable that she did not pack enough clothing for the initial start of campaigning (in late August she was flown to McCain’s Arizona ranch, offered the vice presidency, immediately taken to Ohio for the VP announcement and did not return to Alaska until around September 10), Palin could have purchased clothes from less expensive stores, not purchased $150,000 worth of clothing, or had an aide coming from Alaska bring clothing from her home.
Posted by JAlan 
Posted by JAlan 
Posted by JAlan 
