Rise and shine!
This morning we have more bad economic news from here in Asia, which does not bode well for McCain's attempt to "turn the page" on the economy in the next few weeks. Obama's new emphasis on the Keating 5 scandal doesn't bode well for McCain either, now that you mention it!
Also, news on the Wisconsin ground game and internal Republican poll numbers from Florida.
And, I have a personal confession to make.
The big buzz this morning is the news that the Obama campaign is hitting McCain on the Keating 5 scandal. It could hardly be more relevant given the current financial crisis. There are many diaries about this already - here and here so I won't spend a lot of time on it. I'm curious about your reaction though? This is getting big media play already this morning, so I expect this to be big news this week. Should set things up for an interesting debate tomorrow!
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If anyone thought the economy wouldn't continue to be center stage - even after the bailout passed - think again. The stock markets in my part of the world tanked today, indicating the international markets were not comforted by the bailout. CBS is reporting that investors are increasingly concerned about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
If John McCain thinks he can "turn the page" on this issue, he is sorely mistaken.
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Salon's Walter Shapiro takes a look at the candidates' ground game in Wisconsin in Obama's grass-roots battalion vs. McCain's ragtag platoon:
Mid-morning Saturday, the Republican headquarters here in the fiercely contested northeast corner of Wisconsin reflected the somnolent air of the half-empty indoor mall in which it was located. A few Republican stalwarts wandered by to pick up McCain-Palin lawn signs and other GOP campaign paraphernalia. A signboard on the wall announced the target of "878 Doors" on which to knock, but it was evident that most of the canvassing -- the lifeblood of grass-roots organizing and get-out-the-vote drives -- would be done by pairs of high-school students too young to vote.
Two hours later, in contrast, the pulse rate was racing at the local Democratic headquarters as more than 70 political foot soldiers (most of them middle-aged) readied themselves for an afternoon of canvassing, phone calling and scrawling vote-for-Obama postcards to neighbors.
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Internal polling from the National Republican Congressional Committee is painting a stark portrait for John McCain in Florida's 13th Congressional District, as the Sarasota Harold Tribune reports:
Republicans are growing increasingly worried that Barack Obama could become the first Democrat to win Sarasota County since Franklin Roosevelt.
And for good reason. The National Republican Congressional Committee says its most recent internal polling shows the presidential race between Obama and John McCain has narrowed dramatically and is in a dead heat in the 13th Congressional District. That district includes Sarasota, Hardee and DeSoto counties, most of Manatee and part of Charlotte.
"The presidential ballot is a statistical tie (45 percent McCain / 43 percent Obama) in the district," said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster, in a memo to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In 2004, George Bush beat Kerry by 13 points in this area. And now a Republican pollster is finding the race in a statistical tie.
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A conservative columnist at Forbes.com, Reihan Salam, is pretty much writing off GOP presidential hopes until 2012. His choice for the GOP nomination in 2012?
Petraeus has reportedly described himself as a "Rockefeller Republican," which tells us virtually nothing. It could mean that he is a social liberal or that he is fanatical about balanced budgets or both. He is attractive to Republicans because he is, like Colin Powell in 1996 and Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, an unknown quantity, a vessel in which we can invest our ideological hopes. At the same time, he is intimately familiar with the limits of American power and the nature of the strategic challenges we face. There is every reason to believe that we are about to enter an era of renewed geopolitical competition. This will require deft handling of rising powers, but also close attention to the economic source of our strength. Who better to lead us through it than our most celebrated military leader? It helps that Petraeus, like McCain and to a lesser extent Obama, has no real regional or sectarian identity. He is a national figure with the prestige and the experience to drag Republicans into the post-Obama era.
So do you think Petraeus would run in 2012? And if so, would he be the GOP front runner?
On a related note, Jackson Diehl at the Washington Post points out that McCain mentioned Petraeus seven times during the last debate, but did not mention Sarah Palin by name once.
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If anyone cares, Bloomberg has decided not to endorse either McCain or Obama, says the New York Daily News.
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Paul Krugman takes a look at McCain's health care plan in today's New York Times and finds it terrifying:
In short, the McCain plan makes no sense at all, unless you have faith that the magic of the marketplace can solve all problems. And Mr. McCain does: a much-quoted article published under his name declares that “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”
I agree: the McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking. And I’m terrified.
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I nominate Sarah Palin for quote of the morning:
“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.
And you really expect me to believe this woman reads the friggin' Economist?
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And finally, I have a confession to make... my husband is a Republican. Eeek, I know! Luckily for our marriage, he is not into politics and we hardly ever discuss politics at all, really. Along with motorcycle racing, his big hobby is target shooting so he is big into gun rights.
My husband is John McCain's dream voter - white male, member of the military, huge proponent of gun rights, etc. Still, I've been working on him since March to persuade him over to Obama. I won't lie - it has been difficult. He has great distrust for any Democratic candidate because of the gun issue, but otherwise he is very moderate. So, I've been sending him articles about Obama and he has listened to quite a number of my rants about McCain and Palin.
When my absentee ballot came in the mail last weekend, he said he was going to do some research about the issues. He went to the website of both candidates and I gave him some internet sites to check out. While he was researching, he came across the NRA's anti-Obama campaign. Argh. I figured it was over and I was feeling pretty down because of all the people I've been trying to convince to vote for Obama, I couldn't even convince my own husband!
Well, his absentee ballot arrived yesterday. And he said, "you know what? I'm going to vote for Obama." My jaw dropped open. "Whaaat?" He said he is still leery about Obama's record on guns, but he said he agreed with many of Obama's positions - especially on Afghanistan where he was deployed a few years ago - and felt this election was too important to vote for McCain.
So today, my husband - the type of voter McCain thinks he has in the bag - filled out his absentee ballot for Barack Obama. I am so proud!