Governor Blagojevich to speak

The governor is scheduled to give a press conference at 2PM today on the 2nd floor of the Thompson Center.

Campaign Donation Disclosure: So Easy, a Caveman can do it

Well, cavemen, er cavepersons over at Slate.

Barack Obama refuses to release the names of the 2 million-plus people who have given his campaign less than $200. According to campaign officials, it would be too difficult and time-consuming to extract this information from its database.

So how come we were able to do it in a couple hours?

Oh dear. You have challenged Obama. Watch out for the pink slip getting kicked off the campaign bus.

Another Really Smart Guy draws a blank

This time it is Jeffrey Sachs.

Don't worry though. It's not like Jeffrey Sachs is an important really smart guy. Oh shit. He is.

How to contribute as much money as you want to a single campaign

My fellow Americans. I come before you today to explain how you too can donate as much money as you want to the candidate for political office of your choice and get away with it.

Right now you are limited to giving $2,300 to candidate X of party Y in the primary. You can also donate another $2,300 to candidate X of party Y for the general election. It doesn't matter if they win their primary. You can still donate this money.

Want to donate more? OK. Are you married? Your spouse can donate. Make sure he or she approves though. If he or she opposes, just don't tell them.

Score. $4,600 in the primary and $4,600 in the general.

Got kids? How many? How old are they? Oh hell, it doesn't matter. They're 2 and 7? Fantastic. They're each donating $4,600 too.

Score. $9,200 in the primary and $9,200 in the general.

Run a business? An Internet one? Awesome. How many employees do you have? 7? Cool. They're all donating and you're paying for it. Careful though. Remember your spouse? Yea, either don't tell them or tell them as little as they need to know. Someone might call and check them out. That's another $16,100 for the primary and $16,100 for the general.

Score. $25,300 in the primary and $25,300 in the general. You're on your way to bundler status all by yourself.

Wait. Along the way you noticed that you accidentally entered the wrong name for one of your employees. But the charge still went through. That's odd. These one time use credit cards are supposed to be more secure. Could candidate X of party Y not be checking for the names on the cards?

HOLY MONTALBALL SCORE! Let's try it out.

Killer. It worked. Josef Stalin just donated to candidate X of party Y with the one time credit card you purchased with your own name. But wait, the campaign has your card number. They can trace it back to you. You're screwed. Could candidate X of party Y be deleting your name associated with your one time use credit card to protect your privacy?

Boo yah! They are. Wait again. They have the card number. They can trace that too. You're in trouble.

Boo yah too! They're purging the card numbers as well. They protected your privacy and their ass all by playing ultra stupid dumb.

Now, how many one time use credit cards can you afford?

Have fun. Be careful. I've only done this once before. Push it to the limit.

lol, ObamaStock tickets sold out, not really

The free ones are all gone. Enough people handed over their personal information for data mining purposes. Now the short supply is entering the resale market.

FS: One ObamaStock ticket. Highest bid so far, $550.

He promised me a middle class tax cut. I spent it before I received it just to see the One.

What Honest Political Reporting Looks Like: Lynn Sweet Edition

ObamaStock 2008 in Grant Park is issuing tickets for data collection purposes for future use.

Dear Republicans,

Are you paying attention?

Sincerely,

The Silent Majority

TPM funnies without Josh Marshall

Governor Charlie Crist is extending early voting hours. TPM's David Kurtz goes fishing for for mud.

That seems notably, even surprisingly, non-partisan and inclusive. Is there a catch?

There is a catch. Charlie Crist is a Republican. He just so happens to be a Republican with huge favorability ratings with a long history of building consensus in government.

However, if you are first mate on the Talking Points Memo frigate then you see Republican and presume ditch digging.

Time to relax: Karen Tumulty isn't all insanity

Marc Ambinder wonders why Sarah Palin hasn't said Senator Stevens should resign. Uh, she's the Governor that would appoint a replacement and kind of, sort of, running for Vice-President.

Good news, I guess. Karen Tumulty actually rescues Marc Ambinder from an oblivion.

If Stevens resigns, she has to appoint a temporary successor pending a special election.

Bad news: Ambinder is paid to wonder about shit.

I swear for the last time that Josh Marshall is non-partisan

Whoops

Got it "right roots" fans?

Step 1: Do the work?
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit*.

*profit may be confused for celebration and reaction to water carrying press reports.

What short term credit market trouble?

Marc Ambinder says the Democratic Party has taken out a 10 million dollar line of credit.

It's like, if the prospects are there that the debtor will be able to repay the creditor, you can open a credit line. But this is a political party. What are they selling that they will sell a lot more of with this line of credit?

Average Joe's private records accessed; by an Obama supporter

Average Joe had his private records accessed in Ohio because he made a public appearance.

Ohio's inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on "Joe the Plumber."

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK'd the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

Republicans in Ohio and the Barack Obama Campaign have both apparently asked for a formal investigation of these searches for Joe Wurzelbacher's confidential state records.

Diehard Hillary Supporters still fighting the good fight

Barack Obama and his supporters have never played slow pitch softball when it comes to campaigning. They are calculating professionals that will bite, scratch, and claw their way to victory by any means necessary.

They are damn good at it too.

Hillbuzz, a blog run by supporters of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary, are churning out reports that attempt to hold state Democratic primaries that hold caucuses to the letter of the law.

They have a new report on the effort in Nevada.

ACORN: We Registered 1.3 million new voters; NY Times: ACORN registered 450,000 new voters

Frank James of the Chicago Tribune says...

ACORN is an organization definitely in need of a brand makeover.

Americans United files IRS complaint against Catholic Bishop

Americans United previously was known as Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Prior to AUSCS, it was known as a project of the American Civil Liberties Union. They just filed a complaint with the IRS in regards to a column written by the Bishop of Paterson of the New Jersey Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.

USA Today published the story.

In a letter sent to the IRS on Wednesday (Oct. 22), Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli of illegal partisanship for lambasting Obama's support of abortion rights.

What did Serratelli write?

Serratelli wrote that Obama has pledged, if elected president, to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, abortion-rights legislation the Catholic Church vehemently opposes.

Seratelli is right. Obama did pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. He told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund - which has subsequently endorsed him in the Democratic Primary and the General Presidential Election - that his first act as President would be "to sign the Freedom of Choice Act."

Bishop Seratelli violated no laws whatsoever. The Catholic Church is free to take positions in favor of, or opposing to, any specific legislation that conflicts with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Americans United is grasping for straws. Expect to see them use this non-issue complaint to raise money for their organization. The IRS will deny their complaint. Americans United will then claim all is not well in the United States and your money must contribute to their mission.

JOM Reacts to the NY Times' endorsement of Obama

The NY Times takes another head first dive into bilge water. Tom Maguire reacts.

There was time when the charge of racism carried some weight. As the Times demonstrates, it now comes so casually from the left as to not require justification or evidence.

AP Report on decline in Obama fundraising doesn't mention Address Verification System

Obama fundraising drops as McCain's cash dwindles

I have written to AP reporter Jim Kuhnhenn, AP DC bureau chief Ron Fournier, and AP Managing editor Michael Oreskas asking them if they had any information about the use of or lack thereof of the Address Verification System(AVS) that apparently is not being used by the Obama camp to validate online credit card contributions.

Joe Klein is back, better than ever

Josh Marshall this morning..."Max Boot says stupid things and oh yeah, he's now a McCain adviser."

Joe Klein an hour later..."Josh Marshall is my hero and Max Boot is crazy so McCain is crazy. Time Warner still signs my checks. Why aren't they just paying Josh Marshall?"

I can make some shit up, but Joe Klein really does take marching orders from Josh "More on that later" Marshall.

Anecdotal Crap

Page 107, paragraph 4, of Liar's Poker.

Ranieri & Co. intended to transform the "whole loans" into bonds as soon as possible by taking them for stamping to the U.S. Government. Then they could sell bonds to Salomon's institutional investors as, in effect, U.S. government bonds. For that purpose, partly as the result of Ranieri's persistent lobbying, two new facilities had sprung up in the federal government alongside Ginnie Mae. They guaranteed the mortgages that did not qualify for the Ginnie Mae stamp. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation(called Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association(called Fannie Mae) between them, by giving their guarantees, were able to transform most home mortgages into government backed bonds. The thrifts paid a fee to have their mortgages guaranteed. The shakier the loans, the larger the fee a thrift had to pay to get its mortgages stamped by one of the agencies. Once they were stamped, however, nobody cared about the quality of the loans. Defaulting homeowners became the government's problem. The principle underlying the programs was that these agencies could better assess and charge for credit quality than individual investors.

Reported by the Wall Street Journal on August 30, 2008: "The Fannie and Freddie Question".

In mid-2007, with defaults up and the market for mortgage securities faltering, Mr. Paulson's concerns about housing grew. He asked Robert Steel, then a Treasury undersecretary (and now Wachovia Corp.'s CEO), to canvass experts. Among those called was Lewis Ranieri, who years ago helped pioneer the repackaging of home loans into securities. Treasury officials gathered around a speakerphone as Mr. Ranieri told them the mortgage situation was "a bit more troubling" than most people realized, says a person familiar with the call.

Read Liar's Poker.

Swingers: Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania

Ambinder reports on some ad buys by the political arm of the NRA.

Below, television and radio ads airing in Pennsylvania. An NRA official says that the group has purchased ad time in Colorado and New Mexico, and more states will come online soon.

Astroturfing gone wild

Kind of like investigative journalism, but on a blog.

lol, sketch

Funny slide show.

Tee Hee

Michael Goldfarb reacts to Karen Tumulty's postulation.

Tumulty did not correct her post, she simply responded “I grew up in Texas. I know what this stuff looks like.” Well, now we all know what hysterical liberal bias looks like as well.

McCain pressing Raines ties to Obama

A brief review of the events that unfolded yesterday.

McCain camp ad tying Franklin Raines to Barack Obama hits airwaves the evening of 9/18. The ad is accurate based on reporting in the Washington Post.

Karen Tumulty insinuates the ad is racist because the voice of a white woman speaks in between photos of Barack Obama and Franklin Raines. Both men are black in case you didn't know. Tumulty further states that the lack of Jim Johnson, another disgraced executive at Fannie Mae that was chairing the Obama VP search committee, in the ad is further evidence of racism. On the morning of 9/19 the McCain ad citing Jim Johnson's connections to the Obama campaign hits the airwaves.

The ad is depicted as a lie. These claims are false.

McCain on the stump exaggerates Franklin Raines' connections to the Obama campaign.

This statement is accurately depicted as a lie. McCain extended the veracity of his campaign ad to say Raines is advising Obama on "housing policy matters". This claim is inaccurate.

One of the big problems I have with flinging lie, lies, and liar accusations at bloggers, reporters, pundits or politicians is the fact that a lot of comments made do extend or retract the accuracy of the original information. McCain's statement is something I would classify as a mistatement, but certainly one that he should correct. If that mistatement is made again, that's when we get into lie territory. At that point he's knowingly forwarding a point that is refuted as untrue.

Week in Review

Amir Taheri's account of Obama's meeting with Iraqis about a strategic forces move turns out to be different than that of other attendees at the meeting.

Shot Fired: Miss

Macomb County GOP chair John Carabelli allegedly says the gop will challenge voters at the polls with home forclosures. Carabelli back peddled on his denial. Obama team pounced by filing a lawsuit in Michigan.

Shot Fired: Miss

Human Events still is not correcting its "Obama Plumbers" story despite attempts by Steve Diamond.

Stupid Shot Fired: Miss

Remedy for the week: prayer or boos. A little bit of both won't hurt. Sports are good too. Go Cubs. Bear Down.

Next week: Sunday morning show economic kumbaya session. It's bipartisan so expect it to dominate media coverage.

AP: Franklin Raines' email to Carly Fiorina

AP says Frank told Carly he's not advising Obama.

Obama's campaign says Raines is not an Obama adviser and that McCain's campaign knows it because Raines said so in an e-mail earlier this week to Carly Fiorina, a top McCain adviser. Obama's campaign provided The Associated Press with a copy of the e-mail.

I really don't get these people. The Obama camp is sending copies of Frank Raines' email to the AP? Why isn't Frank Raines sending copies of his own email to the AP?

Frank Raines allegedly isn't advising Obama, but Obama still has copies of his emails?

Dodd tells you what Paulson and Bernake told him

I snoozed through the press conference, but did Paulson or Bernake say anything like this?

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”

The rally better be of the epic positive variety.

Raines story explained, Animal House referenced

Zero point zero and I couldn't be happier.

In a famous scene from “Animal House” Otter consoles Flounder after his car is ruined by telling him, “You bleeped up. You trusted us."

Yin Pelosi, Yang Pelosi

Speaker Nancy Pelosi today.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told President Bush Friday morning that she is “committed to quick, bipartisan action” on his administration’s Wall Street rescue plan.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.

What we really need now is confidence, and confidence is hard to come by at a time when there's so much bad news emerging from our financial markets.
The -- what we have now is a manmade disaster, a disaster that sprang -- comes from the Bush failed policies, the failure of the Bush administrations to steward our economy in a responsible way.

How do we get Speaker Nancy Pelosi to talk to the White House and the cabinet every day?

When Joe Klein plays a centrist

The New York Times editorial board--once again calling a lie a lie--slams both McCain and Obama for their Spanish-language ads about immigration policy. I've given up any hope of McCain running an honest campaign, but if Obama really wants to present an honorable alternative to McCain's non-stop sleaze, he should take down his immigration ad immediately.

Chief Political Theorist for Time Magazine and a documented liar.

Welcome Back Larry

Short sellers are good. Stop trying to regulate them out of the market. Short sellers are check and balance on ridiculous adventures in capital growth well beyond the proportions of reasonable levels of achievement. I didn't borrow these words from Alan "Fedspeaker" Greenspan, nor from Noam "half the time I don't know what the hell I'm saying" Chomsky. They're mine.

Welcome back Larry.

Short sellers keep the market honest. I know many in the short-selling community and most of them really do their homework. They are skeptical about puff pieces on companies and they are properly cynical about corporate press releases.

There's no reason to short this opinion. I'm buying it outright.

Lobbyists money in my campaign?

Whoops. But still this campaign promise is freaking sweet.

Follow this story: TPM elevating "voter suppression" charges

lol

From a longtime reader ...

What, like a lawyer involved in the case?

Ride in the Delorian: I blogged about this story earlier this week. Macomb County GOP Chair John Carabelli continues to deny he ever made these statements about foreclosed homes and the voters that are registered as living in them.

When denials are made, Talking Points Memo is only listening when they want to hear what you're saying.

Obama delays announcement of economic plan, wants to meet with his advisers

So reports Reuters.

The Illinois senator said he would be discussing the Fed-Treasury proposal with his top economic advisers on Friday morning.

That's good news. The bad news is one of the top economic advisers is this guy.

Have you been to Vegas lately? The blackjack dealers are also counselors to assist people with addictions to gambling.

Where's Goolsbee? Hotline's report doesn't have him on the list. However, Goolsbee is still out there campaigning for Barack Obama. Has he been cut out of the discussion?

Updates: Is Frankin Raines advising Obama or not?

McCain runs a new ad quoting the Washington Post that says Raines is advising Obama on housing policy matters. Obama denies this. Who are the Post's sources?

Byron York is trying to tie up the loose ends today, but he's linking to stories I read in August where Raines is touting his access as he revives his reputation after Fannie.

It's the Washington Post vs Obama. Who is right?

Update: This post will be updated all day. This story turning very ugly, very fast.

Time Magazine's Karen Tumulty, a reporter I find to be among the most reasonable, fair minded go getters in the business, is accusing the McCain team of playing the race card. Unbelievable. Newsbusters and Patterico both have reactions to this. Tumulty has this to say.

Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial.

No Jim Johnson means the ad is racist? Whoops. The Jim Johnson ad from Team McCain is out today with plans for a national ad buy.

When mainstream reporters speculate publicly on blogs they look foolish, but lets see how they react when you remind them of their commentary. Bloggers on the other hand openly speculate about reports and rumors all the time, but when they're not sure they use a question mark.

Team Obama is vulnerable on his connections to Fannie Mae, his love of ACORN, and Fannie Mae's family embrace of Obama and ACORN. This move to push the race card into these ads is alarming.

Member of DNC Platform Committee endorses John McCain for President

This makes Republicans for Obama or Republicans for Kerry look like a game of four square at the local park in Nowhere, USA.

Junior Varsity Foolery: Team Obama intimidates WGN again

There they go again.

The Tribune-owned station was flooded with calls and e-mails about an hour before an Aug. 27 interview with Stanley Kurtz, a conservative writer who examined Obama's ties to former 1960s radical William Ayers.

Vote early, vote often. The Chicago Way is the Obama way. Help keep Chicago practices in Chicago. My city is a political cancer that is communicable through voluntary means only.

Steve Diamond is good reading today

Obama on the Economy: Putting lipstick on a pig

Warren Buffett warned years ago that the new complex financial instruments were weapons of mass destruction. Now, when we find real WMD's we try to get them disarmed, we don't just ask for better training for those who intend to use them.

Can we lease elected officials the way businesses lease workers and durable goods?

ALSO: Don't neglect Professor Diamond's post about Human Events. I'd like to maintain faith in Eagle Publishing, but Human Events is challenging my faith.

Malkin: American Issues Project in the clear

Eh, not quite. Michelle Malkin is citing a report from a confidential source that claims the DoJ's director of Election Crimes Branch in DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, Craig Donsanto, told a private forum that they would not pursue cases against individual donors. Malkin links this to American Issues Project.

This is a mistake. AIP is incorporated as a 501(c)4. It can engage in political and lobbying activity, but these expenditures cannot exceed more than 50% of its budget. Donsanto's comments are relative to 527 organizations.

The 527 is a 2 year operation that soon dissolves after an election. The scene changes based on the election and thus the objectives alter with it. The 527 is then a born again political operation. The same sources of funding will be there.

A 501(c)4 isn't a fly by night operation. AIP will have to produce more expenditures so that it's political and lobbying budget does not exceed 50% of its expenditures. It's still really early. I don't have a clue as to what AIP will be spending money to do. My friends left of the center don't have any idea either. So how can they write to the DoJ to file a complaint?

Lets recognize political desperation for what it is.

More on that later: Two fronts to watch; Update: Drizzle

Two items today that actually do require a little "more on that later" insight. First is a TPM post from David Kurtz unlocking the door to discredit Amir Taheri's column published in the NY Post. Taheri alleges that Barack Obama tried to get the Iraqi government to delay their decisions on Iraq and the US presense there until after the November elections. Itself a serious charge, Taheri wrote this.

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

David Kurtz is suggesting this isn't really accurate and appears to have some sort of inside baseball quotes from Team Obama. Well, no quotes no, but hopefully more on that later. Kurtz does poor some slime in the path of, no, behind the path of Randy Scheunemann, a McCain foreign policy adviser.

If the news reports are accurate, and therein lies the rub. We'll have more on what exactly Obama has said on this issue, publicly, in a bit. But you need to know a bit more about Taheri, who runs in the same neocon circles as Scheunemann.

Taheri and Scheunemann might read the same newspapers. Uh oh.

Second story comes out of Michigan where allegedly the chair of the Macomb County GOP said that residents with homes in foreclosure will be challenged at the polls. Holy power of satan does this alleged charge have the passion and zeal to fire up the nutroots. But did the chair or didn't the chair actually make this statement that was reported and published by out and out left wing journalists.

Carabelli, however, told The Detroit News on Thursday that "I never said anything even close to that. We won't be doing voter challenges on foreclosures, and we've never had a plan to do it."

It's not the denial, but the original statement. Will it even matter if the original statement is fabricated? Project Vote is already on the scene in Michigan from a national view. Locally, the nutroots organized left of center media interest groups are pouncing.

What's in the postgame? Is Taheri a liar? Is Carabelli one too? More on both later.

UPDATE: In regards to Amir Taheri's column, has Team Obama confirmed the story? You decide.

In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office, she said.

Oh nos. More questions. Is the current Congress unable to review any statframagreement? Obama's part of that Congress. The Democrats control both chambers of the Congress. What gives? The Iraqis clearly state they're future cannot wait for Obama's clock to toll.

Sports Arena Financing Done Right: The Garden Checks into Rehab

The NY Knicks Beat has a report about the plans to renovate the world's most famous arena. The best part.

The renovation is projected to cost $500 million and will be paid for in its entirety by Madison Square Garden, and will be targeted for opening for the 2011-12 seasons.

Put up the coin, take down the profits.

Unreal: Greg Sargent tells you what he thinks

MSM reporters actually read Talking Points Memo sites. Greg Sargent tells you what he thinks.

The McCain campaign issued a new ad today that runs through the ways that Obama has supposedly lashed out at Sarah Palin. It actually concludes with a woman saying, in a tone of a matron chiding an uppity black servant, "how disrespectful."

It's going to be a fun weekend. Buy a round and toast to civility in politics. At the least, punch your friends after they buy you one since there really isn't any civility at all anymore.

Who fired the shot? Who cares.

Tech Limits of Google?

Good story in the London Times about software robots and human error creating a cluster storm that severely damaged the stock of United Airlines.

Is the SEC hiring technical investigators? They should be.

Team Obama goes back to the issues, one of which is, John McCain can't use a computer

OK. Perhaps not the best issues, but certainly "gloves off" "hard hitting" "non-trivial issues". Computers and email: change we can believe in that I sure hope doesn't push consistent voters over to McCain.

Jake Tapper is asking if this is the proper approach. He notes it is not the first time Team Obama has come out with a "gloves off" memo. In fact, he thinks it's the fourth time they've said this.

Obama also has a new "hard hitting" ad on "non-trivial issues" you have to see to believe. It's over with Tapper.

September 11th

Never forget.

Dear Democratic Party

Hire this man.

More on this later.

Why the McCain campaign is winning; Update: Does Obama read this blog?

Team Obama is trying to move forward while walking on their heels. Barack Obama's comment about lipstick on a pig wasn't directed at Sarah Palin. However, the McCain camp effectively played it up that way. The media bought it hook, line, and sinker.

Yesterday's slow news day was only made worse by the fact that Barack Obama cannot control the message of the day. The President still does that as he did yesterday.

Obama started his day with a big speech on education outlining his policies. But this was after the President made his comments about Iraq. Naturally the press had all sorts of questions for Obama at his education policy speech ABOUT IRAQ.

Did this foil the entire day for Team Obama? Later Obama makes his lipstick remark trying to be casual and humorous. I laughed when I heard the quote, but then started trying to figure out what he meant beyond the humor.

It didn't matter what the remark meant to convey. The McCain team pounced on it which led to the quote dominating the talk circuit that evening. To make matters worse, Larry King's show was devoted to featuring women in politics talking about Sarah Palin.

Whoops. But still this campaign is freaking sweet.

Barack Obama cannot set the national agenda for the day. This campaign strategy is foolish and further attempts by Team Obama to do so will have to be based on defensive positions or capitalizing on immense gaffes from Team McCain.

And there is a gaffe today from Team McCain. It's an ad about education which I posted earlier. Here Team Obama can play defense effectively to push the media to talk about what they want to talk about - Education. However, did Team McCain already consider this option? If Barack Obama starts talking about Education, Team McCain can start asking about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, something Barack Obama NEVER TALKS about.

Mr. "32 percent approval" President still sets the agenda for the day. The Obama campaign should know better.

Team Obama should be reading Mark Halperin's dispatches at The Page as well as reading his fantastic book.

Update: Barack Obama made some public statements in Norfolk, VA this morning. I promise I have no direct access to his Blackberry. Via Politico.

Obama said the McCain campaign moved to "seize an innocent remark and take it out of context because they knew it's catnip for the news media."

"See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about...Enough!" he said.

Obama called the attacks "lies, outrage and swift boat politics."

"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change."

Barack Obama just kicked this discussion from a topic that was moving to life support to a topic that will be discussed yet again for another 24 hour news cycle.

Where are the handlers? The rookie needs a visit to the mound. Coach him.

Josh Marshall insinuating falsely that new McCain ad is "race-baiting"

Josh "more on that later" Marshall reacts to the new McCain ad that tries to tell viewers about the type of education reforms that Barack Obama has authored and supported. Marshall declares the ad to be "race-baiting".

And today McCain comes out with this rancid, race-baiting ad based on another lie. Willie Horton looks mild by comparison. (And remember, President George H.W. Bush never ran the Willie Horton ad himself. It was an outside group. He wasn't willing to degrade himself that far.)

Marshall doesn't explain how the ad is "race-baiting". Does he even think it is necessary to explain it? Just watch it, I suppose, and you'll clearly see the ad has to be "race-baiting".

Watch the ad for yourself. Perhaps Marshall will explain the "race-baiting" angle when he has "more on that later". Members of the press actually read this guy.

The Campaign Tactic to Nowhere

Michael Crowley is right. The narrative that Barack Obama and Joe Biden voted for 'the bridge to nowhere' and Governor Sarah Palin killed the 'bridge to nowhere' was fun and exciting the first time we heard it. It served it's purpose, that being "Wow. What else did she do?"

Make the bet and hope it takes down the hand, but if the bet is called you better have something else in the chamber to fire. Otherwise you could be setting a trap for yourself.

I wondered about this yesterday. The claim that Sarah Palin "stopped" the bridge to nowhere is so blatantly dishonest that the McCain team had to know it would become at least a mid-sized media fixation. But I suspect they figured that a) more people will believe the advertisement than will see or believe the debunking and, perhaps more important b) it will start "a fight over earmarks with the Obama campaign"--a fight which will quickly stop being about the bridge specifically and play generally to one of McCain's few issues advantages over Obama (by pure dint of McCain's years of obsessive pork-fighting in the Senate).

Obama isn't raising money from corporate America

Don't hate the player. Hate the game. Well the players are part of corporate America. The Obamas may encourage you to avoid corporate America, but they're more than happy if it supplies funds to their campaign.

From Lynn Sweet's recent post on Team Obama's list of private events.

9/9/08 - Chicago, IL
The home of Steven Koch
6:30pm - Reception with Senator Biden

The home of Barbara Manilow

7:30pm - Dinner with Senator Biden
Dinner/Reception: $5,000, $1,000

That wouldn't be the home of investment banker Steven Koch of Credit Suisse would it?

Steven Koch is a Vice Chairman and Co-Chairman of Credit Suisse's Mergers and Acquisitions Group, based in Chicago. He is a member of the Americas Advisory Council, the Chairman's Board of the Investment Banking division, and the Investment Banking Committee.

Oh lord. I guess if you're ALREADY in corporate America you're A-OK with the Obamas.

Reaction: Jim Geraghty chimes in with a prescient take.

Governing from home: Alaska meet Illinois

The Washington Post has a front page story today about "per diem" expenses Governor Sarah Palin billed to Alaskan taxpayers.

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The Post goes on to report that these expenses are neither unusual, nor did Sarah Palin fully exercise her rights to reimbursement for expenses.

Governor Palin is naturally under the national press microscope, so expect any story about Palin to get coverage. But front page coverage? Meh. Must be a slow news day.

To help compliment a slow news day, here's a look back at some expenses claimed by the current Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. Dude, I commute in an airplane.

But after winning that election in 2002, "Blago" decided to break 150 years of precedent by choosing not to live in the governor's mansion. Instead, he and his family chose to continue living on Chicago's Northwest Side.

Senator Joe Biden concedes, life begins at conception

Senator Biden details when he thinks life begins.

“They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life — I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.”

My parents come from the same parts of Pennsylvania as Joe Biden. They didn't, and still do not, merely refer to "life begins at conception" as "a matter of faith". They call it, as do I, the truth.

Update: lol, Ace.

Apparently Obama's junior partner is above his pay grade.

Indeed.

Awesome: Bears 29 - Colts 13

There are few things better than closing your weekend watching your team go on the road against one of the best teams in the NFL and control the line of scrimmage.

This was a Bears victory that tastes oh so sweet. The defense registered a safety, forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown, the ground game was highly effective led by rookie running back Matt Forte, and the new to you quarterback Kyle Orton providing a solid effort under center.

Stat of the night. Turnovers forced: 1. Turnovers yielded: 0.

Way to spoil the opening of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Update: McCain +10 among likely voters; Can Obama get out out the youth vote? New: A telling graph

USA Today publishes a report on their recent polling with Gallup as their partner.

In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples.

McCain is +4 among registered voters. Barack Obama needs a GOTV strategy like one never seen before. Or, he needs 60 days of the best campaign ever. Probably a whole lot of both.

Here's a grandiose start.

BRAND: “Now, as a representative of the global community and a visitor from abroad, I don’t want to come across a little bit biased, but could I please ask of you people of America, to PLEASE ELECT BARACK OBAMA. Please! On behalf of the world. (Camera pans to singers Chris Brown and Britney Spears applauding and cheering.) Some people, I think they’re called racists, say that America is not ready for a black president. But I know America to be a forward-thinking country, right. Because, otherwise, you know, would you have let that retarded cowboy fellow be president for eight years?

We were very impressed. It was nice of you to let him have a go. Because in England, George Bush wouldn’t be trusted with a pair of scissors.

I am obliged by broadcasting law to show some balance in this situation, which means, uh, the Republicans might be alright. Sarah Palin. She’s a VILF! A vice president I’d like to…fumble, fondle, I dunno. I do feel a little bit sorry for her daughter, getting pregnant, poor kid. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? It’s a P.R. stunt. Come on. Be honest.

Enjoy the ride folks.

Update: A timely graph can help here. Notice the deduction from the "Other" and the addition to "McCain". Are those wily undecideds now decided? (HT: Mark Silva at "The Swamp")

A Brief Reminder: Today in America

Most of them will be watching their teams open the NFL season.

I logoff at 6PM CST tonight. Da Bearsh!

Here we go again: "My Muslim faith" Update: "The Swamp" says he meant to say Muslim Faith

A Freudian slip at perhaps the worst possible point in the race. Now it will be two months of this "Barack Obama is a Muslim and he says so himself" nonsense.



With the correction that came from George Stephanopoulos.



Update: "The Swamp" is arguing Obama meant to say "my Muslim faith."

Stephanopoulos evidently thought Obama had misspoke and corrected him. But Obama didn't misspeak. Again, the rumor mongers have been pushing the lie about his "Muslim faith" and he was using their language.

Donor that quashed access to CAC records at UIC revealed

It was Ken Rolling, former Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and current Executive Director of Parents for Public Schools.

What's the bottom line?

Thus, someone with a 20 year history with Senator Obama was tipped off in advance and in secret by a public University about the interest of a political opponent of the Senator in these public records. The CAC was a non profit corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois to serve the interests of the people of Illinois. Of course, Ken Rolling now has no legally cognizable interest that I am aware of in the long defunct CAC. Legally, the successor organization to the CAC is the Chicago Public Education Fund, on whose board sits Obama Campaign Finance Chair Penny Pritzker and Obama supporter Susan Crown.

That's speculation, but is it in any way linked to Daily Kos readers that claim to know the facts before they are known. That comment is from Mark Bullocks, a Ph.D student at UIC that also works as a post graduate library assistant at the Richard J. Daley library.

Barack Obama won't take away your guns, not without the votes to do so

Whoops. But still this is campaign is freaking sweet.

“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.

So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’

Those skeptics in the back of the room are just the skeptics that could FIT into the room.

The Latest Obama Gaffe: I thought about selective service before it was made a law?

A must read to believe.

Update: New information discovered. Obama did register for the selective service in September 1980. Obama tells This Week that he gradudated in 1979. Presumably, that's May or June of 1979, though I suppose it could be December 1979. Occidental claims in this LA Times story that Obama is an alumnus from 1979-1981.

What the LA Times report also tells us is,

In his 1995 autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama recounted how he was accepted into “several respectable” colleges but chose Occidental “mainly because I’d met a girl from Brentwood while she was vacationing in Hawaii.”

If you like Obama this says very little. He's still the guy running for President that has received a massive amount of support from frequent voters and new voters. Lay off him.

If you have questions about Obama, this says what you think you know about his background isn't the same way he talks about it today.

Ambinder invites the mob

Marc Ambinder has done today what the almost never does. He's opened a post for comments.

How should the Obama campaign respond to the Palin phenom?

Best behavior kids.

McCain's Closing Remarks

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. (Cheers, applause continue.)

We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. (Cheers, applause continue.) We never hide from history. We make history. (Cheers, applause continue.)

Full speech available at the Chicago Sun-Times.

Media Matters PR: Networks covered RNC more than DNC

They really are making this argument.

If you paid even a cursory amount of attention to the conventions then you'd know that the RNC's Monday schedule was tabled due to Hurricane Gustav. The networks were covering a natural disaster hitting the Gulf states.

The media was covering a 4 day RNC convention with 3 days of actual footage. The media covered all four days, uninterrupted by that partisan Mother Nature, of the DNC convention.

Perhaps the media was trying to, oh, you know, squeeze and extra day of coverage into the remaining three days.

Barack Shoots Down Accusation He Fabricates

It's fun to create opportunities for yourself to demonstrate your change platform.

At a press conference today, Barack Obama made this statement.

"Listen, I mean, if they want to work the refs, they are free to do so," he said. "I think the public can make their judgments about this. The notion that any questions about her work in Alaska is somehow not relevant to her potential to be vice president of the United States doesn't make too much sense.

Show me the money Barack. Show me the person that made the argument that you cannot scrutinize Sarah Palin's work as the Governor of Alaska.

Now is this Change I can believe in.

Seriously, the press is not in the gutter

They just HAVE to link to Q&A sessions with Girls Gone Wild and home grown pot chatter.

That's from Michael Scherer, TIME Washington bureau correspondent covering the 2008 presidential campaign.

Confirmed: Palin Speech Ratings, 37.2 million viewers

Trying to confirm this comment over at Hot Air.

Update: The Chicago Tribune's The Swamp confirms the news.

The Sarah Palin speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just 1.1 million viewers short of Barack Obama's record-breaking speech on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention. The Palin speech was carried on only six networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).

Whoa. Whoa. Astonishing numbers. This should be a huge story today.

Is the Media in the can for Obama: Survey says yes

Jack Fowler provides some useful data from a recent SurveyUSA poll of residents of the State of Washington.

When asked "Is the media rooting for Barack Obama? Rooting for John McCain? Or trying its best to be fair to both?" 52% said "for Obama," 8% said "for McCain," 35% said "being fair to both." Interesting: 28% of Democrats, 28% of liberals, and 42% of moderates chose "for Obama."

This race is difficult to win from behind if there were no media at all. I had higher expectations that the press would cover the conventions accurately, but this weekend was one of the worst spectacle's in dumpster diving history. The bar was set extremely low.

We'll have to wait and see how these numbers project nationally.

Good Commentary; Bad Commentary

The Weekly Standard's John McCormack is highlighting some bad commentary over at Powerline.

A brief note. When comparing a paper's headlines of the DNC with the RNC it would better to compare the equivalent day's headlines to the speeches from that day.

Thursday headlines after the VP nominees speech are not comparable to the Friday headlines after the Presidential nominees' speech.

Because I Can't Shut The Hell Up

I have to keep on blogging. For as many times as I start and stop, it is time to stop stopping. That is a waste of time.

What isn't a waste of time is reading Ross Douthat today. Especially right now.