"Wasilla Hillbillies"

Newsweek has another interesting story

From Newsweek:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost.

An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

This is a really odd story, but I have a feeling we will be hearing more. Republican recriminations are going to really start this weekend, and will help fuel and be fueled by the 24 hour cable news channels. Personnally I am quite interested in watching the Republican civil war that is about to start.

This fight started almost two weeks ago with a McCain aides calling her Sarah Palin a "diva," and progressed to at least one aide calling her a "whack job." Now Sarah Palin's being called a "Wasilla hillbilly."I also saw that Steve Schmidt refused to say that adding Palin to the ticket was a good idea. Now someone in the campaign dishes to Newsweek that McCain "rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign."

This is an opening salvo.

Soon those who are pro-Palin will start hitting back.

as I have said, a Republican Civil War is coming.

John McCain Just Gave His Concession Speech

John McCain just gave a pretty good speech, and he showed a lot of class. He tamped down some of the boos, and he was very complimentary of President Elect Obama.

I will try to get the video.

Update - Here is the video of John McCain's speech tonight:

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McCain expected to concede at 11 ET

Reporters have been called out to the lawn in anticipation of McCain's concession.
The AP is reporting that John McCain has called Obama to congratulate him.

I am interested to see what his concession speech is like.

Why McCain Is Losing

Dixville Notch, N.H. nation's first Election goes to Obama

Barack Obama was the big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch, N.H., where the nation's first Election Day votes were cast and counted early Tuesday.

Barack Obama defeated John McCain 15-6. Following tradition established in 1948 the first voter was picked ahead of the midnight voting and the rest of the town's 19 registered voters followed suit in Tuesday's first minutes. Town Clerk Rick Erwin says the northern New Hampshire town is proud of its tradition, but says the most important thing is that the turnout represents 100 percent vote.

President Bush won the vote in Dixville Notch in 2004 on the way to his re-election.

The Next Generation Writes a Letter to McCain

This is a cute video.
Yes we can.


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Comparing the Ground Games

The most unreported story of this campaign has been the ground games of the Barack Obama and John McCain. I think that if Barack Obama is fortunate to win, there will be a lot of stories about the incredible operation that Barack Obama has put together.

If you are a political junkie, you are probably already aware of a little site that has posted and analyzed much of the competing polling data that has abounded this campaign season - - FiveThirtyEight.com.

While FiveThirtyEight.com has been busy crunching all the numbers from multiple polls, they have also had a reporting team of reporter Sean Quinn and photographer Brett Marty travelling the country to look at the ground games of the two campaigns. In their pursuit of the ground game story, they've been dropping by field offices for both candidates to take pictures and chronicle the activity. And if there's one thing that's been revealed, nearly consistently, in comparing the two operations, is that there seems to be no comparison. Here is some of what Sean and Brett have reported in a blog post called "The Big Empty":

The busiest McCain office we saw was in Arlington, at the national HQ, but tight security prevented us from getting any pictures. Ironically, that was our first full office, in our 11th battleground state.

Offices in Troy, Ohio were closed on Saturday October 11. With perfect coincidental timing, two elderly women dropped by to volunteer but found the office shut. At Republican state headquarters in Columbus later the same day, one lonely dialer sat in a sea of unoccupied chairs. In Des Moines on September 25, another empty office. In Santa Fe on September 17, one dialer made calls while six chatted amongst themselves about how they didn't like Obama. In Raleigh this past Saturday, ten days before the election with early voting already open, two women dialed and a male staffer watched the Georgia-LSU game. In Durango, Colorado on September 20, the
Republican office was locked and closed. Indiana didn't have McCain Victory offices when we were there in early October.

When the offices are open, they have reduced hours. We can confidently plan to get evening good-light photographs of a town after we visit the local McCain office, because we know it will be closing by 5 pm, as the office in Wilmington, North Carolina was this past Sunday. The plan is, get to inevitably closed/closing McCain office, get an hour of photos near sunset, then visit the bustling local Obama office.

In Cortez, CO, we had Republican volunteers pose for action-shot photos. The same in Española, New Mexico. Posed. For some time at the outset, we were willing to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt. They convinced us they were really working, and that we had just had unfortunate timing. It wasn't until the pattern of "just missed it" started to sound like a drumbeat in our ears that we began to grow skeptical. We never "just missed" any of the Obama volunteer work, because it goes on nonstop, every day, in every office, in every corner of America.

We found scattered nuggets of activity. Colorado Springs, Colorado held eight dialers and two front office volunteers. Albemarle County, Virginia had a busy office of 15 volunteers, and we reported that. Last night in Tampa, nine phonebankers were busy dialing at the Republican Party of Florida Hillsborough County HQ when we arrived at 8:00 pm. Seven dialers sat in McCain's Hickory, North Carolina office this past Saturday afternoon.

Those offices seemed busy to us, naturally, because they were explosively full relative to other offices we've stopped in on. But even the Colorado Springs office was dwarfed by the Obama Colorado Springs operation.

These ground campaigns do not bear any relationship to one another. One side has something in the neighborhood of five million volunteers all assigned to very clear and specific pieces of the operation, and the other seems to have something like a thousand volunteers scattered throughout the country. Jon Tester's 2006 Senate race in Montana had more volunteers -- by a mile -- than John McCain's 2006 presidential campaign.

This post, "The Big Empty," is accompanyed by a photo essay which has the sorts of pictures that haunt the McCain campaign in a few days. See some of the photos below.

Of course, even with all this specific reporting, attesting to the fact that the balance of response, activity and enthusiasm appears to be on the Democratic side, the big unknown is whether it will all end up being remembered as a spirited, failed attempt or the ingredients of bona fide electoral success. Still, I'm terribly impressed by the way FiveThirtyEight.com is working this balance between raw data and anecdotal reportage, doing each as fully and as fairly as possible, and putting themselves out there by making predictions with conviction. Silver's taken the site to acclaim behind the strength of his statistical analysis, but the site deserves kudoes to their commitment to following the election on the road. Both on the balance sheet and on the trail, FiveThirtyEight.com has done a superlative job at making sense of this election, in ways that have far surpassed the traditional media.

The Final Stretch

Today Barack Obama and John McCain unleashed massive get-out-the-vote operations in more than a dozen battleground states. They are making millions of telephone calls, sending out last minute mailings and have thousands of volunteers out in the neighborhoods going door-to-door, in a frenzied, fitting climax to a record-shattering $1 billion campaign.

Together, both campaigns will spend about $8 per presidential vote.

With just two days to go, most national polls show Barack Obama out ahead of John McCain. Individual state surveys suggest that the Democrat's path to the requisite 270 electoral votes — and perhaps far beyond — is much easier to navigate than McCain's. The polls show that the six closest states are Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio. All of these states were won by George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and have been considered red states. They have been made competitive by Barack Obama and his campaign's impressive organization. Senator Obama has also been helped by a record-shattering fundraising.

The Obama campaign is also running very aggressive ground games elsewhere, including Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.

Will it be enough? That is the question.

In resonse the RNC is rolling out battleground robo-calls that include Hillary Clinton's criticism of Obama from the primary. Clinton is heard saying: "In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002."

The McCain campaign and the Republican Party have now launched their much vaunted "72-hour program", a strategy that many political observers credit for giving Bush victories in 2000 and 2004.

The question is will it be enough? I have to say, I am worried. The Obama campaign has been disciplined and well run, but there is a lot of history they are trying to overcome. With this background the McCain campaign and the RNC have dramatically increased their spending in the campaign's final days and now are matching the Obama campaign ad for ad, in key battleground markets in states such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The thing about the American election is you don't have to win everywhere, you just have to win in key places.

The Obama campaign has been preparing for this ever since they won the nomination, and have built an impressive ground game. I just hope it's enough.

McCain on Saturday Night Live: Weekend Edition

Seriously, what did the McCain Campaign hope to get out of last night's visit to Saturday Night Live? McCain's performance was fun, but I'm not sure John McCain isn't actually using the strategies that were spoofed in this skit.

I'm pretty sure they are using the "Double Maverick."

Watch it here:

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Barack Obama TV Ad: Cheney's Endorsement of McCain

You have to give the Obama Campaign credit for the speed with which they turn things around. The Obama campaign is already out with a new ad touting Dick Cheney's endorsement of John McCain. Cheney said he was "delighted" to endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin. And, the Obama campaign is delighted to spread the word about Cheney's endorsement, yesterday in Obama's speech, today in an ad.

Watch it here:

LibertyAir Blog

McCain on Saturday Night Live

John McCain did a guest appearence on Saturday Night Live last night, and while it was very funny, I have to wonder what the McCain campaign is thinking. Is this a last grasp at trying to remind people of the old McCain? Are they hoping for some of the young voters? Has McCain given up and he is now just having fun?

Who knows.

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Dick Cheney's Endorsement cheers some

Today the McCain Campaign got some much needed help, in the form of an endorsement from Vice President Dick Cheney. Oh wait...

Seriously, what do you think the reaction of the McCain staff was when they saw Cheney's endorsement come across the wire? Do you think they swore, or swooned? Do you think a few got physically ill?

Of course this endorsement did bring cheer to some, trouble was, they were all working for Barack Obama.

Check out Obama congratulating John McCain on the Cheney endorsement. As Obama makes clear John McCain earned it.


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Here is the prepared text of the speech Obama delivered in Colorado today:

"I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy. Senator McCain had to vote 90 percent of the time with George Bush and Dick Cheney to get it. He served as Washington's biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq, and supports economic policies that are no different from the last eight years. So Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney's support.

"But here's my question for you, Colorado: do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain's going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, and get rid of the lobbyists and the old boys club in Washington?

"Colorado, we know better. After all, it was just a few days ago that Senator McCain said that he and President Bush share a 'common philosophy.' And we know that when it comes to foreign policy, John McCain and Dick Cheney share a common philosophy that thinks that empty bluster from Washington will fix all of our problems, and a war without end in Iraq is the way to defeat Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who are in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"So George Bush may be in an undisclosed location, but Dick Cheney's out there on the campaign trail because he'd be delighted to pass the baton to John McCain. He knows that with John McCain you get a twofer: George Bush's economic policy and Dick Cheney's foreign policy -- but that's a risk we cannot afford to take."

Reagan's Chief of Staff will vote for Obama

One of today's big headlines was that another prominent Republican has turned on John McCain:

Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.

"Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

And, Duberstein was just brutally honest about John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin on MSNBC. For example, a job at McDonald's requires more interviews than Palin had:

Tucker Bounds: When Palin Shares The Wealth, It Isn’t Socialism — It’s ‘Unique’

One of the reason's why I no longer have any respect for John McCain is that he has become a raging hypocrite. The McCain campaign has spent the last couple of weeks campaigning on the accusation that Barack Obama is an advocate of “socialism.”

The New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch revealed this week that Sarah Palin said earlier this year that her state’s oil tax was a mechanism “so we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”

MSNBC’s David Schuster asked McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds whether Palin’s “share the wealth” plan had socialist undertones. Bounds denied the allegation, claiming Alaska’s sharing of natural resources is “unique” and not at all socialist:

BOUNDS:

"No, in Alaska its a unique state because all the residents there have a unique share of the natural resources, that the oil companies come in and use, so therefore they share the revenues of the resources. … Its absurd to equate sharing the oil resources that all of these Alaskans have an ownership stake in, and trying to negotiate a deal with the oil companies that use those resources that —"

What a crock. Alaska's oil program is the biggest example of a socialist program in the United States. Bounds is correct in that Alaska is “unique” in having such a vigorous wealth redistribution system. The state offers collective ownership of natural resources, which in turn generates revenue for the state. Using the Permanent Fund, the government distributes the natural resource rents to the general public. Maybe Bounds doesn't know what socialism is.

Furthermore, Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) programs helps redistribute windfall oil profits, bringing in so much money that the state needs no income or sales tax. This year ACES will provide every Alaskan with a check for an estimated $1,200. Palin boasts about giving oil money “back to the people.”

It’s unclear, however, how a state with such a strong tradition of progressive taxation that benefits “all” Alaskans — as Bounds himself stated — isn’t in any way “socialist.”

Watch the interview here:


LibertyAir Blog

The Daily Show: Rallies of Fear

The Daily Show is the best mirror for America to look at itself. In this clip the Daily Show's John Oliver went to a Barack Obama and a Sarah Palin rally and found that Americans are more unified than we're led to believe: We're all scared sh%#less.
People should look at the participants of McCain/Palin rallies, and ask, "is this really what we want for America?"

Biden Goes After RoboCalls

In Colorado yesterday, Joe Biden went on a tear blasting John McCain on his disgusting, sleazy, untrue robo-calls.

"If he's really serious when he said this morning on one of the shows, that this election is all about the economy, then I say, 'John, stop your ads. Bring down those robocalls.'"

"If it's about the economy, argue the economy.... John, stop these calls!"

Biden built his speech so that it climaxed with a chant of: "John, stop these calls!"

This is a really smart strategy for battling McCain's robo-slime. It reinforces the Obama campaign's chosen frame for the final month of the race: Anytime John McCain and his campaign surrogates steers the discussion away from real issues and towards Obama's bio or character, it's only because he's afraid to debate real issues like the economy, foriegn policy, health care, or energy. It's a great frame for the Obama Campaign and Obama, Biden, and their surrogates show no signs of losing this refrain.

In Pew Poll, Obama's Lead Widens: 52%-38%.

Today's news is that Barack Obama enjoys his widest margin yet in the Pew Poll over John McCain among registered voters, at 52% to 38%.

When the sample of voters is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 39%.

Barack Obama’s strong showing in the current poll reflects greater confidence in the Democratic candidate personally. More voters see him as “well-qualified” and “down-to-earth” than did so a month ago. Barack Obama also is inspiring more confidence on several key issues, including Iraq and terrorism, than he did before the debates. Most important, Obama now leads McCain as the candidate best able to improve economic conditions by a wider margin (53% to 32%).

Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain has steadily increased since mid-September, when the race was essentially even. Shortly after the first presidential debate in September, Obama moved to a 49% to 42% lead; that margin inched up to 50% to 40% in a poll taken just after the second debate.

Widespread loss of confidence in John McCain also appears to be a significant factor in the race at this point. Many more voters express doubts about John McCain’s judgment than about Barack Obama’s. A steadily growing number of voters say that John McCain has been too personally critical of Barack Obama, and a lot fewer voters view John McCain as inspiring than did at the beginning of this campaign. John McCain's smear tactics seem to have tarnished his image more than anything else. By contrast, 71% of voters continue to think of Obama as inspiring.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 16-19 among 2,599 registered voters interviewed on landline phones and cell phones, finds that McCain’s age also has become more of an issue for voters. Roughly a third says that John McCain is too old to be president. The numbers are slightly more than those who saw candidate Bob Dole as too old to be president in 1996.

Sarah Palin continues to to be a drag on the John McCain with 49% of voters express an unfavorable opinion of Palin. In mid-September, Sarah Palin's favorable opinions outnumbered negative ones by 54% to 32%. Women, especially women under age 50, have become increasingly critical of Sarah Palin, with 60% now expressing an unfavorable view of Sarah Palin, up from 36% in mid-September.

Report: McCain Campaign Not Counting on Colorado

CNN is reporting that heading into the final two weeks of the election, the McCain campaign is close to conceding that Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado are beyond their reach. Two top strategists for the McCain campaign told CNN that the situation in those three states is looking increasingly bleak for the Republican candidate. This means that the McCain campaign is looking at an Electoral College strategy that has virtually no room for error and depends heavily on a dramatic comeback in Pennsylvania.

One reason the McCain campaign believe Colorado is slipping away is that the Obama campaign and its allies have a far superior ground/turnout operation, that has been built up ever since the primaries.

CNN reports that McCain's strategy seems to depend on holding a handful of states that went for George Bush in 2004. However a number of these states are now rated as tossups by CNN; these include Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Nevada. This strategy also depends on keeping Virginia, which CNN now considers leaning Democratic, in the GOP column.

McCain campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker disputed the sources' accounts.
"We see the race tightening both internally and in public polling," she said. "We are within striking distance in the key battleground states we need to win."

Rick Davis: Campaign Rethinking Playing The Rev. Wright Card

Of course they are.

Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager says he is reconsidering using Barack Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue during the election's closing weeks.

Of course he is, he has nothing else. John McCain has no ideas, no plans, no strategies.

In an appearance on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio program, Davis said that circumstances had changed. Yes, he has run a terrible campaign, and is getting his ass handed to him.

Of course it's not John McCain's fault that they are going to go even slimier and are now going to bring up Jeremiah Wright, no its Representative John Lewis's fault. Yes John Lewis who McCain thinks is one of the three wisest men in Congress, spoke of his concern for the hate that has been evident at McCain and Palin rallies, is at fault for McCain going even more negative.

Rick Davis should go home and count his millions in lobbyist fees.

Why Do Conservatives Hate Americans?

This is my question that I want answered. Why do North Carolina Representatives Patrick McHenry and Robin Hayes hate half of America?

On Saturday, these two idiots warmed up the crowd at a John McCain rally by throwing red meat to the right-wing audience. Anti-American Hayes accused liberals of hating “real Americans”, not that he would know a real American if he saw one.

And when McHenry was doing his speech he said that voters had a critical choice between McCain and Barack Obama this election. Of course a total mouth breather in the audience yelled out, “It’s like black and white” to loud laughter. McHenry showing a ton of class let the remark pass.

You know I am not comfortable being this crass, but I am really sick of these assholes who think that somehow they are more authentic Americans. That somehow they are superior. They have no idea what America really is or what it stands for. They just happen to live here.