Some things to keep in mind with just a little over two weeks to go. via TPM -- Winning By Reed Hundt - October 17, 2008, 10:41PM Elections aren't decided until after the World Series, according to the old axiom. The Series seems to last longer every year, but it's an old saw worth heeding, particularly now. The McCain camp is playing every divisive card they can find, or make up. Some Americans are pro-America, others are not. Anyone who wants to register everyone to vote could well be investigated by the incumbent government,even if the law doesn't permit the Justice Department to try to influence the outcome. And the mainstream media, at the very least eager to have a close race, especially with a come-from-behind narrative, will do all it can do to intensify the wild, cruel and crazy allegations made against the Obama campaign and its allies and supporters. The McCain plan will be to give up on the national popular vote and re-run the Bush campaign of 2000. By voter intimidation and robo-calls and litigation and outrageous allegations it will aim for victory in the states that can provide an Electoral College victory. In this case, that means McCain will focus his diminished but vigorous efforts on Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia. In each state we need hardly ask what images, stereotypes, and fears the McCain campaign will hope to evoke. Only if we win will McCain and Palin have to cope with the reputations they will have earned. If they win, they get to write the history. Democrats need to knock on every door in those key states; respond to every charge, no matter how crazy, in every media forum that can be found; stay on the air; stay on the offense. And remember the essential voters in those key states won't finally decide until the weekend before that Tuesday. ----------------- more from Josh -- Race to the Bottom If you're thinking to yourself that there's little more than two weeks before election day and Obama has a solid lead in the polls, don't be so sure. Yes, it looks good for the Democrats. But you need to play close attention to the McCain campaign's final weeks' strategy under and just above the radar. McCain's fina strategy relies on two pillars. The first is aggressively playing to voters' fears of electing a black president. Make no mistake: not just his campaign in a general sense, but McCain himself and his top handful of advisers, are banking on the residual racism in a changing America to get them over the finish line. The second is an aggressive use of innuendo to convince casual voters that Obama is in league with Islamic terrorists bent on killing Americans. Many people have asked whether enough Americans really care any more about the cultural convulsions of the 1960s. The answer? It doesn't matter. For the McCain campaign, Bill Ayers has nothing to do with 60s radicalism. Ayers is nothing more than a tool that permits McCain, Palin and all their surrogates to use the noun "terrorist" in polite company in the same sentence as "Obama," over and over and over again. It allows them to cobble together a 'respectable' version of those Obama smear emails they can push in commercials and robocalls and surrogate talking points every hour of every day. Stripped down to its components McCain's message to voters is this: "Don't forget. He's definitely black. And he may be a terrorist." That's the message. The nuts and bolts is a concerted effort to keep Democrats from voting -- through intimidation, by striking new voters from the rolls, which is going to happen to lots of them, clogging polling stations to create delays that keep late day (predominantly) Obama voters from voting altogether. Smears in the air and voter suppression on the ground. Many people say, well ... all this stuff just hasn't worked. But the truth is that the really corrupt and vicious part of McCain's effort only comes now because it's only in the last couple weeks that you can pull stuff that the press won't get to call you on before election day -- after which it doesn't matter. Will it take Obama down? So far McCain's gutter campaign has hurt him more than helped. But there's no reason to be sure it will continue that way. And many Obama supporters, sure the election is basically wrapped up, appear ready to slack in the stretch and let McCain smear and cheat his way into office. --Josh Marshall http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Obama supporters need to stay strong, vigilant and on offense! We have two weeks to go! Don't get complacent; don't assume this is won yet!
Over confidence would be a huge mistake right now. I think the Dems need to take a line from Hakeem and FINISH STRONG
The polls show that the race is still tight... Where is the McCain/Palin ticket getting this support from???... these two obviously don't belong..... http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/ Poll update: Obama lead at 6 Posted: 11:50 AM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney Obama has a 6 point lead in the latest poll of polls. (CNN) – Barack Obama continues to hold a 6-point lead over John McCain in CNN's latest poll of polls. The newly-released poll of polls, consisting of three recent surveys, shows Obama drawing 49 percent of voters nationwide while McCain stands at 43 percent. The 6 point lead represents no change from a CNN poll of polls released late last week, though it is 2 points smaller than one week ago. Meanwhile, a new CNN poll of polls out of the key battleground state of Florida suggests the race may be getting tighter there. Obama now holds a 3 point lead over McCain, 49-46 percent. That's one point narrower than a Florida poll of polls released last week.
The best thing that could have happened to America: * a hyper-ambitious young woman with no clear agenda. * a politician who makes George Bush look eloquent and analytical * a candidate with an extreme and divisive outlook * a speaker who sneers and demeans her opponents more than she offers a vision * a would-be leader who shuns real questions and genuine media appearances * a thinker who cannot engage in intelligent dialogue but has only shown the ability to recite memorized talking points instead * a person who believes some parts of the country are "pro-America," and others are "anti-America," resurrecting the long-burried specter of McCarthyism. * a person who "does not blink," and can allow herself to create answers like the following, as if she was faking her way through a junior-high geography examination. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nokTjEdaUGg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nokTjEdaUGg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
