Does McCain really want to play the guilt-by-tenuous-association game? The AP is picking up on his association with Singlaub and the Anniston Star (AL) uncovers a previously-unknown connection.
Also, we have some new poll numbers out of Minnesota and an endorsement for Obama.
And, tax experts concur that Palin should have paid income taxes on those reimbursements.
Since McCain has been talking about tenuous associations lately... well, here's another interesting one that I haven't seen covered anywhere else, as reported by The Anniston Star (AL):
Presidential hopeful John McCain has a connection to a former Alabama state trooper charged with the murder of a man at the height of the civil rights movement, according to documents obtained by The Star.
In the early 1990s, Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., wrote a letter to the State Department regarding James B. Fowler, who was at the time imprisoned in Thailand on narcotics charges. McCain's State Department letter was dated Nov. 15, 1991. It briefly explains Fowler's situation and asks Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Tamposi of the Office of Consular Affairs to look into his case.
In 2005, The Star published an interview with James B. Fowler who admitted publicly for the first time that he shot Jimmie Lee Jackson during a melee in February 1965 in the west Alabama town of Marion. Fowler insisted it was in self defense.
You should read the whole story because it is a little complicated, but basically this guy - James Fowler - was arrested in Thailand for heroin trafficking and John McCain wrote a letter to the State Department asking what they were doing about it. Why would he care about this guy? As John Fleming reports, they had at least two mutual friends. Fowler was released from Thai prison in 1996 and has since confessed to shooting Jimmie Lee Jackson.
I will say outright that I think this association is tenuous, especially since McCain wrote the letter before the guy confessed. But, don't think for one minute that if Obama had friends in common with the perpetrator of a high profile murder - and had written a letter on his behalf even before his confession - the Republicans wouldn't be all over it.
::::::
The mainstream media is also picking up on the Singlaub-McCain connection, as the AP is running this morning with the McCain link to private group in Iran-Contra case:
John McCain's campaign is criticizing Barack Obama for his ties to a former radical who engaged in violent acts four decades ago, but McCain himself was closely connected to a private group that supplied aid to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra affair.
McCain insists he resigned from the Council in 1984, but Singlaub and the group's administrative person have no memory or record of that resignation. See John, you shouldn't throw stones!
::::::
Another AP headline from this morning: McCain still haunted by role in banking scandal.
::::::
A new poll released this morning from Minnesota Public Radio shows Obama with 54% of likely voters to McCain's 40% in that state. The poll was conducted from Oct. 3-5:
"After the congressional enactment of the financial rescue plan and vice-presidential debate, Barack Obama shot out to a 14-point lead," said Larry Jacobs, from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.
Jacobs said the main reason for the dramatic shift in the race last week is the economy. Voter confidence in how Obama would handle the financial crisis went from a three-point margin over McCain to a 14-point margin.
::::::
Noam Schieber of the New Republic previews McCain's options during tonight's debate: try to reclaim his maverickiness or ruthlessly attack Obama. Either way, Schieber thinks he has to create drama:
So there should be drama aplenty. If anything, too much. What McCain doesn't realize is that his greatest enemy isn't Obama, or even the collapsing economy. It's the perception that he's an erratic old coot. That creates a deadly Catch-22: The only way you erase a 6-point deficit is by doing something dramatic. But the moment McCain does something dramatic, he reminds people he's an erratic old coot--the reason he's down in the first place.
::::::
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer endorses Obama:
If the country ever needed new direction under a fresh, steady, calm president, this is the time. Sen. Barack Obama is the country's hope, the kind of promising, intelligent leader who comes along perhaps once in a generation.
::::::
Gary Kamiya at Salon has an excellent piece out today on the parallels between McCain's campaign and that of Barry Goldwater in The GOP goes back to its ugly roots:
McCain's last-ditch smear campaign isn't surprising. The modern conservative movement came to power by playing on white racial fears, and McCain is hoping that there's one shot left in that gun.
and:
There are some uncanny parallels between Goldwater's campaign and McCain's. The American right has come full circle in 44 years, with two allegedly maverick senators from Arizona playing bookend roles, one at the beginning, one perhaps at the end. Goldwater was the prophet of modern conservatism, but he came too early. For his part, McCain may have come too late. He may be remembered as the last, failed Republican candidate to use the GOP's four-decade-old strategy of attacking big government, demonizing liberals and mobilizing white resentment of blacks.
McCain is playing dirtier than Goldwater did. But the smear game still may not work. And if McCain loses, it will be for the same reasons that Goldwater lost: because conservatism itself -- which means the GOP, since it no longer has a moderate branch -- has been discredited.
I hope there will be another parallel between McCain and Goldwater come November - two supposed "Maverick" senators from Arizona who both lost in landslides.
::::::
And for Palin, the tax issue is not going away. As it shouldn't, when you are a vice presidential candidate and neglect to pay income taxes on tens of thousands of dollars of reimbursements from the state. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning:
Several tax experts said they believe Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is required to pay federal taxes on $25,000 in reimbursements from the state of Alaska for her children's travel expenses.
and:
While several tax experts have raised serious questions about whether the payments to Gov. Palin are taxable income, they said the case was clearer cut for treating the reimbursements for the children's expenses as taxable income. "The kids are a slam dunk problem," said Robert Spierer, a partner with the accounting firm Perelson Weiner LLP in New York City.
Maybe she should hold a press conference to address this issue?
::::::
So do you think McCain's association game is backfiring? And what are your predictions for the debate tonight? Most in the media are playing up McCain's supposed strength in the town hall format, which I guess is good for us - higher expectations for McCain. But what I think they are forgetting is that in McCain's town halls he is unchallenged... tonight he'll face challenges from Obama so it won't be his typical "friendly" town hall where he can say whatever he wants with no pushback. He will also be under A LOT of pressure.