Cafferty: If Palin "Doesn't Scare The Hell Out Of You, It Should"

"If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should," CNN's Jack Cafferty said.

National Review's Kathleen Parker writes that the hockey mom / Governor Palin actually might not be ready to be a heartbeat from the presidency.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

In her column on the conservative magazine's Web site Friday, Parker notes Palin's life story sets her apart from traditional feminists, but she realizes that those superficialities alone aren't enough to prepare her for the White House. Unfortunately, as Palin's recent appearances reveal, she doesn't have much else to offer.

Indeed, no presidential nominee of either party in the last century has seemed so willing to endanger the country's security as McCain in his reckless choice of such an unqualified running mate. McCain is 72 years old; has had four melanomas, a particularly voracious form of cancer; and he refuses to release his complete medical records.

Bush Risks Wrath of Main Street To Save Banks

The Independent UK
Friday, 26 September 2008

A fictional scenario of financial collapse could not improve on the perfect storm that is battering the US economy. The crisis has been a decade or more in the making, but the hurricane has struck with its full fury at the worst imaginable moment.

The least trusted and most unpopular president in the country's modern history is serving his final months, his credibility and moral authority close to zero as he tackles a disaster partly, at least, of his own making. In the partisan heat of the campaign to replace him, politics cannot but intrude on the most sober judgment.

Proof of that came last night when, after a bailout deal seemed close, Republican Congressmen rebelled – against a measure urged by a Republican president. Suspicions were rife that their resistance was largely aimed at giving cover to John McCain, who had rushed back to Washington only for an outline agreement to be reached without him.

Read the rest of the story

Votes Are Lost As Homes Are Lost In Foreclosure

As homes are lost in U.S., fears that votes will be, too
International Herald Tribune
By Ian Urbina
September 25, 2008

More than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure in the last two years, and many of them are still registered to vote at the address of the home they lost. Now election officials and voting rights groups are struggling to prevent thousands of them from losing their vote when they go to the polls in November.

Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that low-income voters will be singled out. That could add confusion and stretch out lines that are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout.

Federal election officials say they are concerned that voters are not being properly informed of how to update their addresses.

"Our biggest concern is that many of these voters will stay home or that poll workers will give misinformation," said Rosemary Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting.

Todd Haupt, a home builder, lost his home in Josephville, Missouri, to foreclosure last year, and said he had since become much more interested in politics. But asked whether he had remembered to update his voter registration information when he moved into his parents' home in St. Charles, Missouri, Haupt, 33, paused silently. "Is that required?" he said. "I had no idea."

Read the full story

Bush Administration’s Fuzzy Bailout Proposal

Peter Orszag, the Congressional Budget Office director, tells Congress that the proposed $700 billion bailout may worsen the current financial crisis. Orszag says, “. . . intervention on a massive scale is not without risks to taxpayers and to the economy. Almost by definition, the intervention cannot solve insolvency problems without shifting costs to the taxpayers. Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled [junk] assets on their books at inflated values. Establishing clearer prices [through the proposed bailout process] might reveal those institutions to be insolvent.”

Forbes writes that the Bush administration’s bailout proposal was thrown together in a rush without thinking it through:

The more Congress examines the Bush administration's bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation.

"The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable," says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

Barack's Press Conference

In this time of economic crisis, Barack approached John McCain to suggest a joint statement of principles to guide a recovery plan. McCain then announced he would suspend his campaign and requested a postponement of Friday’s debate. In his press conference, Barack made it clear that a debate is needed now more than ever. Watch the video

Washington Helped Drag Europe into the Credit Crisis

Spiegel Online

Response to Washington's multi-billion dollar Wall Street bailout has involved a lot of skeptical grumbling in Germany and the UK. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Bush administration has mishandled Wall Street, and that its refusal to adopt stricter rules led to the current crisis.

The United States government is campaigning around the world for support for its multi-billion dollar Wall Street rescue package. The reaction has been skeptical at best -- and in Europe the plan has been met with bare-knuckled criticism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused the US government of serious failures which she believes contributed to the current credit crisis. In particular she blamed Washington for resisting stricter regulation.

On Monday she also said the crisis could hurt the German economy. "The whole thing is going to set the pace for the economy in the coming months and perhaps years," Merkel said at a meeting of her party, the conservative Christian Democrats.

Read the full story

Americans Abroad Rushing to Fill Out Ballots

Spiegel Online
By Ira Porter in Berlin

In countries outside the US, teams of volunteers and organizers are working long hours to make sure Americans living abroad can vote if they want to. The traditionally low number of overseas voters may skyrocket this year. There are no reliable statistics for the number of expatriated Americans hoping to participate in this November's election. An estimated 5 to 7 million Americans live abroad, including military personnel.

Observers have noticed a change in sentiment. Jody Couser, a spokeswoman for the registration group Democrats Abroad, said, "We don't have exact statistics, but I can tell you we're signing up thousands of people every week."

Read the full story

Democrats Widen Lead In Battle For Congress

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday Sept. 23, 56 percent of those questioned are backing the Democratic candidate for Congress, while 42 percent support the Republicans. The "generic ballot" question asked voters to choose between an unnamed Democratic candidate versus an unnamed Republican in the House race in their district. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was taken Friday through sunday, with 1,020 adult Americans questioned by telephone.

Related post: Democratic Candidates Showing Strength In Southern States

Early Voting Already Underway In Some States

Voters in eleven states began early voting on Monday in an election cycle that's expected to set records this year. During the next few weeks, at least 34 states and the District of Columbia will allow early in-person voting for the November 4th general election. Early voting in Texas begins on October 20 at 7:00 AM runs through 7:00 PM October 31.

After a 2008 primary season marked by record-shattering voter turnout, election officials across the country are bracing for what might be a General Election season like no other. During the 2008 Democratic Primary more people voted in the Democratic Primary Ballot in Collin County than voted for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election. More than 20,000 people attended the Democratic Party's 2008 Precinct Conventions on March 4th all across Collin County and approximately 4,000 people attended the Democratic Party's 2008 County Convention in Collin County. These are all historic record turnouts for the Democratic Party in Collin County.

Many state and local election officials across the U.S. expect turnout for the 2008 election to exceed that of 2004, when national voter turnout hit 61 percent — which was the highest level since 1968, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Collin County voter turnout actually reached 67 percent of registered voters in the November 2004 presidential election. Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer says, “November could see the highest turnout of my lifetime, turnout could be up to as much as 80 percent.” Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner also says, "As many as 80 percent of Ohio's registered voters could turn out on Election Day."

Experts such as Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center predict nearly a third of the national electorate will vote early this year, up from 15% in 2000 and 20% in 2004. In closely contested Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, over 40 percent of the voters are expected to cast ballots during the early voting period. Early voting has been historically popular in Collin County with 25% of registered voters voting early in the 2000 presidential election and almost 42% of registered voters voting early in the 2004 presidential election.

According to data posted on the Texas Secretary of State and Collin County Elections Office websites approximately 20,000 new voters registered to vote in Collin County between March 2008 and September 2, 2008 boosting the total number of registered voters to 403,465. Voter registration drives are scheduled to continue across the county until the October 6th registration cutoff date, so the number of voters registered in the county will most likely grow from the 403,465 number. The record 2008 primary turnout combined with the high rate of new voter registrations suggests that general election voter turnout in Collin County will meet and likely exceed voter turnout in the 2004 election.

Applying voter turnout percentages from the November 2004 election to the 2008 voter registration data yields an estimation of the possible 2008 voter turnout numbers.

Lets say that 405,500 people will ultimately register to vote for this election and that 42 percent of the registered voters will vote early and 69 percent of registered voters will ultimately turn out to vote in this election. This yields a total turnout of 279,450 voters with 170,100 people voting early between October 20 and October 31. That suggests that only 109,350 will wait to vote on Election Day November 4th.

Given the very high interest in this election, the numbers might be higher all around, so lets look at another possible turnout scenario. Lets say that 410,000 people will ultimately register to vote for this election and that 47 percent of the registered voters will vote early and 80 percent of registered voters will ultimately turn out to vote in this election. This yields a total turnout of 328,000 voters with 192,700 people voting early between October 20 and October 31. That suggests that 135,300 will wait to vote on Election Day November 4th.

Using either set of possible voter turnout numbers election workers will be very busy every day of Early Voting and on Election Day too. Please help out the election workers and be sure to take your Voter Registration Card with you when you go to vote this years.

Date	Total Registered Voters	GOP Presidential Vote		Democratic Presidential Vote		Total Votes Cast	Early Votes Cast	Early Votes % 0f All Reg Voters	Turnout % of Total Reg Voters
Nov-00	300,426	73.1%	128,179	24.4%	42,884	177,673	75,244	25%	59%
Nov-04	369,412	71.2%	174,435	28.1%	68,935	246,617	150,001	42%	67%
Nov-06	381,821	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	138,686	61,613	16%	36%
Mar-08	380,570	41%	51,556	59%	72,518	124,614	59,033	16%	33%
Sep-08	403,465	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Nov-08	405,000*	-	-	-	-	279,450*	170,100*	42%*	69%*
Nov-08	410,000*	-	-	-	-	328,000*	192,700*	47%*	80%*
* - Projected Estimation prepared by blog author - non-official http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/index.shtml http://www.collincountytx.gov/elections/voter_registration/voter_count.pdf http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/earlyvoting/archive.shtml

Obama Has Clear Lead Over McCain in National Poll

Economic Fears Give Obama Clear Lead Over McCain in Poll
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 24, 2008; A01

Among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll. Overall, most supporters of each presidential candidate said they are enthusiastic about their choice, but 62 percent of Obama supporters said they are "very enthusiastic," compared with 34 percent of McCain's supporters.

More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support.

Fully 50 percent called the economy and jobs the single most important issue that will determine their vote, up from 37 percent two weeks ago. Just over half of the poll respondents -- 52 percent -- believe the economy has moved into a serious long-term decline. Eight in 10 are concerned about the overall direction of the economy, nearly three-quarters worry about the shocks to the stock market, and six in 10 are apprehensive about their own family finances.

Much of the movement has come among college-educated whites. Whites without college degrees favor McCain by 17 points, while those with college degrees support Obama by 9 points. No Democrat has carried white, college-educated voters in presidential elections dating back to 1980, but they were a key part of Obama's coalition in the primaries.

Read the rest of the story

Note: The education level of Collin County's 2006 workforce was almost double (47 percent) Texas and U.S. averages, with almost half of those age 25 and older possessing bachelors or advanced degrees. (The Washington Post-ABC News national poll found that whites with college degrees favor Obama by 9 points.)

McCain Campaign Demands Reporters Stop Calling Them Liars.

McCain camp criticism rife with errors
Politico.com
By BEN SMITH | 9/22/08 3:58 PM EDT

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

Read the full story

A Little Inspiration

There are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?"

Undecideds Don't Like McCain's Palin Pick

One Thought Pushes Fence-Sitters To The Left: Palin
St. Petersburg Times
Saturday, September 20, 2008
By Adam C. Smith

ST. PETERSBURG — Five weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times convened a group of Tampa Bay voters who were undecided about the presidential election. Their strong distrust of Barack Obama suggested it was a group ripe for John McCain to win over.

Not anymore. The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

"The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We've seen too many," said 80-year-old Air Force veteran Donn Spegal, a lifelong Republican from St. Petersburg, who sees McCain's new running mate as the kind of "wedge issue" social conservative that has made him disenchanted with his party.

"I'm truly offended by Palin,'' said Republican Philinia Lehr, 37, of Largo, a full-time mother with a nursing degree who voted for George Bush in 2004. Like Palin, she has five children and she doesn't buy that the Alaska governor can adequately balance her family and the vice presidency.

"You're somebody's mom and what are you going to do, say, 'Excuse me, country, hold on?' … She's preaching that she's this mom of the year and taking that poor little baby all over everywhere. And, you know, what she's doing to her 17-year-old daughter is just appalling.'' Lehr said she's bothered by the way Palin's pregnant daughter has been brought into the national spotlight.

Of the 11 undecided voters participating in the discussion one recent evening at the Times — four Republicans, five Democrats, and two registered to no party — only two Republican men applauded the selection of Palin.

Read the full article

FYI, Gallup Daily Tracking Poll for 20Sep08: Obama 50%, McCain 44% - Obama has held a margin over McCain in each of the prior four daily reports.

SNL's McCain Skit

High-Tech IT To Find And Contact Potential Voters

Ground War: Obama And The Long March
HuffingtonPost.com
By Thomas B. Edsall

The adoption of new, high-tech information technologies to locate and contact potential voters began in earnest in 2001 under the guidance of TargetPoint Consulting president Alex Gage, the Republican operative who earned a substantial share of the credit for the highly successful 2004 Bush-GOP microtargeting-GOTV drive.

Gage, whose firm continues to work for the Republican National Committee, said his impression is that the Democrats have made giant steps in the technology of voter contacts, and are well positioned to capitalize on the support Obama has generated.

Ken Strasma, president and founder of Strategic Telemetry, is performing microtargeting GOTV for the Obama campaign. He argues that, in some cases, the predictive accuracy of his firm's modeling of voter profiles is in the 99+ percent range.

In the aftermath of the 2004 Republican victory, both the Democratic National Committee and Catalist, a company created by Democratic operatives Harold Ickes and Laura Quinn, began parallel voter list development programs. Strasma has used data from both the DNC and Catalist.

Each category of voter as broken down by Strasma requires different methods of contact. Within the broad category of those committed to vote for Obama are both those who can be trusted to go to cast ballots November 4 with little or no encouragement, and those who are not reliable -- who will have to be pushed, prodded, and possibly driven to the polls. The undecided, in turn, fall into a host of categories, ranging from those with specific issue agendas to be addressed (taxes, Social Security, health care) to those wondering if they can bring themselves to vote for an African American.

Read the full article

More Americans, 66%, Think Obama, Not McCain, Shares Their Values

A Closer Look at the NY Times/CBS News Poll - by Brad Jacobson of MediaBloodhound - The Truth on Independents, Moderates, White Women, Palin's Unfavorable Rating and More That the Corporate Media Hasn't Seen Fit to Cover...

Thursday's New York Times/CBS News poll paints the bleakest picture yet for the McCain/Palin ticket. The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is conducting his job, 68 percent, was as high as it has been for any sitting president in the history of New York Times polling. And 81 percent said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Plus, more Americans, 66%, Think Obama, Not McCain, Shares Their Values.

The poll found that 46 percent of voters thought Mr. McCain would continue Mr. Bush’s policies, while 22 percent said he would be more conservative than Mr. Bush.

57 percent of all voters said they viewed him as a typical Republican, compared with 40 percent who said he was a different kind of Republican.

Although nearly half of voters also described Mr. Obama as a typical Democrat, the party’s brand is not diminished as is the Republicans’; the Democratic Party had a favorability rating of 50 percent in August, compared with 37 percent for the Republicans, a fairly consistent trend in the Times/CBS News Poll since 2006, and part of the general political landscape that many analysts believe favors the Democrats.

Yes, Republicans Can Like Obama Too

Yes, Republicans Can
Mother Jones
September/October 2008 Issue

At the grassroots, the "Republicans for Obama" movement has been growing for a while.

According to Steve Robin, a land-use attorney in Leesburg, VA, who describes himself as an independent, his conservative friends have been surprisingly open to Obama's candidacy, in large part due to the senator's "distinctive personality" and "the strength of his charisma." "Dyed-in-the-wool Republicans are saying Obama is not that awfully bad," he says.

In late June, Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, told reporters that he expects to put significant effort (read: money) into the fight for states like Virginia, noting that if Obama wins Iowa in addition to the states won by John Kerry in 2004 he could reach the White House by bagging just a couple more medium-size swing states. And, Plouffe added, in purple states like Virginia the campaign will be relying on Republican and independent Obama enthusiasts to proselytize to friends and relatives as part of a "persuasion army."

Read the Full Article

Obama's Economic Blueprint for Change

Joe Biden On The Economy

Notice the CBS News interviewer push Republican/McCain negative talking points against Senator Obama in the way she phrases her questions in the following interview. Biden pushes back hard!


Notice NBC Today host Meredith Vieira push Republican/McCain negative talking points against Senator Obama in the way she also phrases her questions in the following interview. Biden pushes back hard on Vieira's questions too!

Biden: McCain pedling 'Republican garbage'

Clinton Unveils Obama GOTV Effort

"Today I am asking all of you to stand up with me, to hit the road and spread the word that we must elect Barack Obama president and send a Democratic, filibuster-proof majority to Congress," Clinton told supporters in a conference call Friday.

"This is a call to action, a must-do. We all have a role. And there is not a moment to lose." Clinton said the outreach "continues the historic journey that you have made with me."
Photo of Clinton at a rally for Obama event in Ohio on Sept 16th.
Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

Many Democratic groups and organizations in Collin County are actively working Voter Registration and Get Out The Vote activities today. All of these campaign groups and political organizations need volunteers. Please answer Hillary's call to form a large army of Democratic volunteers to help Get Out The Vote! Call one of these groups today to volunteer:

• Collin County for Obama,
• Tom Daley for U.S. House of Representatives - TX 3rd Congressional District,
• Glenn Melançon for U.S. House of Representatives - TX 4th Congressional District,
• Rick Noriega for U.S. Senate,
• The Democratic Party of Collin County,
• The Texas Democratic Women of Collin County,
• and more (look in the left hand sidebar of this blog page to find all of the Democratic candidates that will appear on Collin County ballots this fall.)

Note: The boundaries of the 3^rd Texas Congressional District and the 4^th Texas Congressional District meet in Collin County. Your U.S. House of Representatives TX Congressional District Number can be found on your 2008 Orange Voter's Registration Card within the box titled "Congress."

Please vote early this year - you'll be glad you did. The first day of early voting is Monday October 20th.