Esquire endorses Obama

Very nice article in Esquire in their endorsement of Obama

Late Night Thought......

The Cleveland Browns looked like a real football team tonight.

Random Thought

Is not allowing Palin to do media interviews the worst strategic decision in history? I know she is horrible and possibly the dumbest person in America, but The Right could claim media bias and sexism and use it politically every bad interview she does. But now, because she is shunning the press, and the McCain campaign has actively gone to war with the press, the drive by media can't be as hard on Obama as they would be if McCain was fully playing the game.

Evening Quickie....

1. McCain to unveil economic policies tomorrow.....
2. McCain campaign says Rep Lewis' comment about McCain/Palin stirring up hate pretty much rocked the campaign.....good. Lewis called out their BS, and their concerted strategy of tying Obama to Osama
3. Nightline tonight......Biden says McCain/Palin should stop encouraging fringe people
4. White voters fueling Obama's strength in the South....yes, you read that correctly
5. MUST WATCH: Matthews sits down with Biden....8 minutes....Biden just destroys McCain....

Dow Jumps 900+ points

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P500 all jumped over 11% today. Hopefully Friday was the bottom.

Early Afternooners.....

The Dow is up 550 and is back over 9000 at the moment.....is this the bottom?

1. Once you go Barack you never go back...

• Gallup(Drudge was wrong): 53O 43M.....Drudge is pimping the McCain comeback meme and teased Gallup's numbers coming in tighter..
• Hotline: 48O 42M
  
• Research 2000: 52O 40M
  
• Rasmussen: 50O 45M
  

2. Obama with a huge lead in Missouri.....51O 43M
3. Obama seems to have put Pennsylvania out of play.....53O 41M
4. Obama today in Toledo, OH giving the specifics on how he'll fix the economy and the middle class: "J-O-B-S"
5. WSJ: Obama's campaign has done twice the events that McCain's has in battlegrounds
6. McCain refuses to condemn people comparing Obama and Osama on his own campaign....need any more evidence this is a concerted strategy?
7. You'll hear a lot about ACORN and Obama's ties to it.....but McCain's got ties too
8. Hillary: Obama is closing the deal..........I bet it has been a long time since Hillary talked about anyone 'closing the deal'.
9. Barack Obama endorsed by UNC's Dean Smith.....Barack Obama just won North Carolina
10. First MUST Read........Obama expands his lead
11. Obama ahead, again, in North Dakota?
12. Obama supporters....Taps says it isn't in the bag yet....
13. McCain hits Obama on the Iowa floods.....if you remember, McCain used the floods as a political stunt and Obama called him out on it way back when. Obama also sent volunteers. Apparently McCain feels that using the floods again as a political stunt will help him flip back Iowa.
14. Christopher Hitchens endorses Obama...a true MUST READ
15. Bill Introducing Hillary....9 minutes................MUST WATCH Joe Biden today...(9 mins)

Quick Hitters...

1. McCain to appear on Letterman after all.
2. Kristol: McCain Campaign "Stupid....pathetic.....flailing"
3. Daily Kos: A surprising conversation: Why smart Republicans are pissed at their party
4. Pakistani tribesmen are beginning to rise up against extremist militants with the help of their government. (I hear echos of Mujahideen fighting the Soviets)
5. Energy News of Interest: European Union bans Incandescent light bulbs. My 2¢--> When the package of these wonder-bulbs says 100 watt equivalent, its closer to 75. GE, work on this please.
6. Lehman approved $100M packages for its big wigs only days before it went broke.
7. Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's baby-daddy has dropped out of high school before his senior year to become an electrician. Baby isn't due until December. They couldn't help him out for a few months?

Stocks

From my Uncle Frank.....

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, had drunk all the beer,
then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle.
It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.
Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.
That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American.

Morning Whiskey - 10/13/2008 - 22 Days Left

The Asian markets are up and the U.S. futures are up as well.....

1. Once you go Barack you never go back ABC national poll:

• 53O 43M

2. Mike Allen's Playbook........McCain unveiling fighter speech designed to get everyone to take another look at him......Obama unveiling new economic proposals in Toledo, OH at 1:30...LIVE LINK....One thing that lets you know the state of the race? McCain is campaigning in Virginia for the first time since June and North Carolina for the first time since May.
3. Krugman(just awarded the Nobel prize this morning for economics): Did the Brits save the world financial system?
4. Barack Obama wants you to have "The Talk" with your parents
5. McCain vows to whip Obama's 'you know what' at the final debate on Wednesday
6. Private sector loans, not Fannie/Freddie, caused the financial crisis
7. The economy makes Ohio less predictable
8. Harwood: McCain's uphill battle
9. Is McCain taking advice from Bill Kristol?
10. McCain was expected to make new proposals today about the economy....that is not going to happen. He is instead going to do this fighter speech recapping the state of the race
11. WSJ: The crash heard round the world
12. Bill Clinton stumping for Obama in Virginia
13. Taps calls out Palin lies on Troopergate
14. Obama's September fundraising is going to be 'big'
15. The guy behind the Obama smears is revealed
16. The Field: Will Obama win North Carolina?
17. MUST WATCH: Obama/McCain campaign managers battle
18. Man with a monkey doll dressed up to look like Obama spotted at a Palin rally
19. 538.com takes on Drudge's new narrative......McCain is coming back
20. McCain burned by his own fire......

Good Read On Obama's Cool

Andrew Sullivan writes a good article on Obama's ability to move like a great boxer.

Sunday Night Potpourri

1. Beats you need.....

• Green Day - Time of your life
• Blues Traveler - Hook
• Seal - A change is gonna come
• Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment
• T.O.K. - Footprints
• Jonny McGovern - Don't fall in love with a homo
• AC/DC - Hells Bells
• Jay-Z - I just wanna love you
• Offspring - The kids aren't all right
• Korn & Amy Lee - Freak on a leash

2. Wedding Crashers Scene - Ouch you're on my hair
3. Morning Joe had it correct....Vladimir Putin has become a Bond villain
4. One step closer to Minority Report
5. One clever criminal
6. The scientists in Europe trying to blow up the world hit a snag.....
7. I don't think he is dead.....
8. Mutant catfish in India develops taste for flesh and starts killing people
9. Interview with theoretical physicist Michio Kaku is a must read.......here is his wiki
10. Why Randy Moss is awesome
11. Save hundreds at the tank
12. How do bloggers make money and how much can they make?
13. Household incomes in the United States. It goes to show you how tight things are for people and why John McCain would be so bad for the average American
14. Black man in the elevator
15. This post on cars does more to help you understand why liberals and democrats continue to lose elections than anything else I can think of. He's right on the merits, but only for high density urban centers. Elections are decided by people and the ideas that expressly try to get as far away from big cities as possible. We want our own car. We want easy access. We view public transport as something used by people who made bad decisions in their lives. Al Gore can eat a dick with his energy solutions because we'll pay $4 a gallon to keep our cars. The solution isn't less cars, because we'll never give them up. It is a losing argument and a waste of time to try. The solution is more efficient cars. I want a car that gets 300 miles per gallon. Let's see the Saudis fund terror with 100 million of those bad boys on the American streets.

Don't tell me McCain is trying to tone it down.......Barack Obama compared to Osama bin Laden

By a high ranking Virginia Republican while readying volunteers to go canvass............Looks like McCain's calming of the crowds is all for show. By the by, this guy said this as he was distributing talking points at a McCain campaign office to his canvassers about to go talk to voters in the neighborhood.....they were to say "Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden both have friends who bombed the Pentagon." McCain is saying one thing in public....rebuking his supporters at rallies....but then he is pushing his ground troops to basically go out and read the viral anti-Obama smear emails to voters when they canvass. It is not about Obama being black....they are trying to make him into a radical Muslim terrorist.

UPDATE: More evidence this is a concerted, behind the scenes strategy of the McCain campaign using it's canvassers to spread misinformation about Barack Obama and tie him to terrorists. This means the rallies were just the public face of what the McCain campaign is still pursuing behind the scenes. Also, pay attention to how Drudge and the Republicans are trying to make it out like the Democrats are doing this stuff too....Sorry, it isn't a strategy implemented at the highest and lowest levels of the campaign like it is on The Right.

Clintons, Biden, campaign in Pennsylvania for Obama

Hillary: "America will rise again from the ashes of the Bushes" (video)

When do you know McCain is on the ropes?

When he talks about being tied up. Campaign uses time as POW to justify the "kill Obama the terrorist" rhetoric McCain and Palin are stirring up at his rallies.

Once you go Barack you never go back.....National Trackers

Research 2000: 53O 40M - Obama up 1
Gallup: 50O 43M - Obama down 1, McCain up 1
Rasmussen: 51O 45M - Obama down 1
Hotline: 49O 41M - Obama down 1, McCain up 1

Obama stumps door to door in Toledo, OH

Pretty neat. Hewent door to door in a Holland, OH neighborhood, which is just west of Toledo. It is an all white area with textbook voters hostile to Obama.

Read the report here. Has McCain ever stumped door to door?

Obama is holding a rally in downtown Toledo tomorrow at 1:30.

Meet the Press

Watch the netcast below.......Jon Corzine, Rob Portman, Erin Burnett, John Harwood, Paul Gigot, Ted Koppel:

Your Sunday Best

Doomsday scenario for Democrats..........They get to 60 seats in the Senate come November and Joe Lieberman switches up and caucuses with the Republicans. 60 seats in the Senate is a filibuster proof majority and will allow Obama to do whatever he wants....I really think it would transform this nation. So when you think about this....think 61.

Read this article about McCain's vicious hate speech riling up the Republican pitchfork mobs....Stepping back from the brink

1. GOP worried McCain's campaign is a rudderless ship and he is headed for sure defeat
2. Maureen Dowd justifies Republican anti-intellectualism with an article half in Latin
3. MUST READ: Frank Rich lays it all on the table......McCain's strategy could get Obama killed
4. Thomas Friedman says the market is being the market and forcing a reevaluation of every single asset.........I think it means deflation and that my dollar will stretch farther
5. The drive by media is doing a horrible job of covering the campaign? Really? I hadn't noticed at all.....
6. How can McCain talk about cutting government waste and an all out spending freeze on one hand, but then when he needs to save his rotting campaign, become a big government liberal?
7. The Bush Administration has really blown this financial crisis.....when you think about it, they're identical to the McCain campaign: Dismissing ideas out of hand then championing them only days later, wasting valuable time and credibility in the process. Key in this article? Bush has put aside that $700 Billion rescue plan for now.....WTF?!
8. Going Obama's way, but McCain needs a national security crisis to get back in it.....I picture him at a craps table saying "Come on, Osama! Daddy needs a videotape!"
9. Democrats plan a substantial agenda in the final months of Bush's presidency to kick start an Obama administration.....this includes an additional stimulus package for us.
10. Steve Coll puts the financial crisis in perspective........everything is tanking because no one knows the remaining liabilities in the unregulated derivitives markets

Gore leads Bush 51% - 40% in October 2000

Saw this interesting bit on reddit.com. What a great reminder to keep things in perspective.

Palin booed at Philadelphia Flyers Game

Sarah Palin dropped the puck at the season opener of the Philadelphia Flyers. Let's just say she didn't get a warm welcome. And check out the Obama-Biden signs in the background! The video really drives home how resounding the boos were (more at this dkos diary).

Afternoon Whiskey - 10/11/2008 - 24 Days Out

1. MUST READ: The Obama ground game....can it flip red states?
2. Once you go Barack you never go back.......National Trackers

• Rasmussen: 52O 45M - Obama up 2 from yesterday
  
• Gallup: 51O 42M - McCain up 1
  
• Research 2000: 52O 40M - No change
  
• Hotline: 50O 40M - Obama up 2, McCain down 1
  

3. John Lewis tells McCain/Palin they're stoking hate like George Wallace.....John McCain flips out and calls it a character attack and for Obama to condemn.....the problem for McCain is he praised Lewis back in August, and the language they're using is inciting their crowds to yell "Terrorist!", "Traitor!", "Kill him!", "Arab!", and my personal lynchmob favorite "Off with his head!". McCain can't run from that....but then there's this.....UPDATE: Marc Ambinder has a good breakdown with the Obama camp's response
4. MUST READ: At the prayer before McCain/Palin rallies, they're saying Obama is representing the non-Christian religions. The McCain campaign's incitement of hate goes right to the damn prayer. They're just warming up the crowd so Palin can whip them into a frenzy. They are playing with fire. Ben Smith has audio and text...
5. Could it be bin Laden?
6. The U.S. government is going to be buying stock in banks to help with liquidity....Obama agrees with this plan while McCain seems to disagree...even though he voted for it when he voted for the bailout bill.
7. Interesting DKos diary.....who built Sarah Palin's $550k house?
8. Largest paper in Missouri endorses Obama....Missouri has 11 electoral votes
9. Just anecdotal, but it seems to me that Obama is stepping up his schedule for the last 3 weeks. He held 4 rallies in Philly by 1PM today. McCain's age may be coming into play here....only 1 event today.
10. McCain yesterday tries to tone down the rhetoric...I said give him credit and all of you said I was nuts....you were right, and I, per usual, was wrong....Obama thanks McCain today for trying to keep things civil and the McCain campaign attacks him.
11. MAJOR: North Korea removed from state sponsor of terrorism list by Bush. Obama agrees. McCain says he wants answers before he can support. North Korea agreed to a couple of demands to get this done.
12. GM and Chrysler are holding merger talks.....50/50 chance.....The big 3 will probably go bankrupt by 2009 because of the credit freeze and no one being able to buy a car.
13. MUST READ: Cindy McCain and her family's business kept their relationship with Charles Keating alive 11 years after McCain was investigated for wrong doing....
14. Forget that Colin Powell endorsement.....he was a character witness for Ted Stevens, indicted Alaskan senator
15. Newsweek national poll.........O52 M41......I don't like their party breakdown though
16. Obama surprises Ohio volunteers
17. Palin is spending her Sunday in West Virginia(!).....which just shows how deep the economic pain is going. McCain is defending states he never planned on it 3 weeks out because people are so fed up with the last 8 years and economic policies that hurt the middle class and benefit the rich. Let me take this opportunity to pimp my article about SERPENT HANDLING in Appalachia and how Sarah Palin's screwball religion observes this insane practice. All I'm saying.....it's Sunday, she's pentacostal, and she'll be in Appalachia, possibly handling snakes and speaking in tongues. Her Alaskan sect doesn't handle snakes, but they do speak in tongues. I say this is a purely climate related choice, as poisonous snakes aren't found that close to the Arctic Circle. Matthew Yglesias says the McCain campaign is doomed if they're focusing on West Virginia.
18. "toned down version of a porn-actress look"....that's about right
19. How big of a problem is voter disenfranchisement going to be?
20. Obama videos.......new ad "Lose"............Republicans for Obama..........................Joe Biden on the economy in Missouri

"How's business?"

McCain killed the bailout.........

I forgot to post this.......but during a media call today, McCain's campaign manager let it slip that McCain 'blew up' the original bailout plan....remember how the market hadn't accelerated downward until that bailout bill failed? Yeah, McCain's directly involved because he went specifically back to Washington to kill that bipartisan bill with his 'suspend the campaign' stunt.

BREAKING: Palin Unlawfully Abused Power

Alaskan legislature finds Palin abused her power as governor for a family grudge

UPDATE: This story has been out, as of this writing, 8 hours. Drudge has yet to put it up, which goes to show you that you can't trust Drudge until after election day.

Give McCain some credit.......

He's walking back the anger and pitch fork mentality of his crowds. He has been forced to defend Obama because of how virulent the crowds are. These people are asking questions that start with "I'm scared of Barack Obama....he's an Arab terrorist." This is exactly what McCain/Palin was going for. Now, with him walking it back, it is great politics, because he gets to look like he isn't condoning it. But I think they've let the genie out of the bottle......

Quote of the day......

"You can't be a maverick when all you've been is a sidekick." - Joe Biden in Missouri yesterday

"Traitor!"

McCain and Cindy McCain smiling and looking on as one of their supporters calls Obama a traitor. They apparently are selling pitchforks, tar, and feathers at McCain/Palin rallies.