In other news from the Barr campaign, he is suing seeking to remove the names of the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees because he said they missed the official filing deadline to be on the November 4 general election ballot in Texas. The story from the Dallas Morning News:
Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr is trying to get the names of John McCain and Barack Obama removed from the election ballot in Texas.
Barr said Tuesday he had filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the names of the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees because he said they missed the official filing deadline to be on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
Barr’s campaign is arguing that because neither of the candidates had been officially nominated by their parties by the official filing deadline then it was impossible for the candidates to file under state law.
Here is a short clip from today’s McCain-Palin campaign rally in Vienna, Ohio. I have been of the opinion that McCain is a better more effective campaigner when he and Governor Palin make joint appearances. This clip shows a very emphatic and energetic McCain. He spoke after Palin warmed up the crowd. His remarks:
“We’ve seen a telling moment in this campaign today. Senator Obama saw an economic crisis, and he’s found a political opportunity. My friends, this is not a time for political opportunism; this is a time for leadership.
“Too often, we hear people say America’s in decline. I reject that. I believe America’s best days are ahead of us. Governor Palin and I are going to reform Wall Street. We’re going to reform Washington. I’m going to fight for you, and I’m going to lead our nation forward in the greatest periods of prosperity in its history.
“And let’s have some straight talk. Senator Obama is not interested in the politics of hope, he’s interested in his political future and that’s why he is hurling in insults and making up facts about his record.
“Today, he claimed that the Congressional stimulus package was his idea. That’s news to those of us in Congress who supported it. Senator Obama didn’t even show up to vote.
“He talks a tough game on the financial crisis, but the facts tell a different story. Senator Obama took more money from Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac than anyone but the chairman of the committee they answer to, and he put Fannie Mae’s CEO, who helped create this problem in charge of finding his Vice President. That’s not change, that’s what’s broken in Washington.
“He talked about siding with the people, siding with the people, just before he flew off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbara Streisand and his celebrity friends. Let me tell you, my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than here, with the working men and women of Ohio. I’m going to fight for you and together we’re going to win in November.”
According to recent polls in Ohio, Senator McCain leads by three to four percentage points depending on the poll. Today’s rally was standing room only with about 7,000 people in attendance.
Suggesting that yesterday’s Siena College poll may be an outlier, today’s Rasmussen Reports in the Empire state showing Senator Obama with a 13 point lead, 55% to 42%, over Senator McCain.
The race for New York is the closest it’s been in six months, but Barack Obama still leads John McCain by 13 points, 55% to 42%, in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state.
Obama has the support of 79% of Democrats and 21% of Republicans, while McCain is backed by 77% of GOP voters and 19% of Democrats. Unaffiliated voters favor McCain 50% to 44% (see crosstabs).
Last month, Obama led by 20, and in late June, he held a 31-point lead on his Republican opponent.
This 60 second radio spot in Spanish is running in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida. It is produced and paid for by the Republican National Committee on behalf of the McCain campaign. The ad calls Senator McCain “un amigo” for standing with Hispanics over the length of his career on immigration issues and in particular highlights how McCain stood up to his own party over the most recent immigration debate. The ad also hit Senator Obama for introducing a “poisin pill” during the Senate debate that cut off the debate.
The McCain campaign has released a new ad entitled Enough is Enough broaching the subject of the crisis on Wall Street with the failure of the venerable investment bank Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the uncertainty over AIG, the insurance giant. The ad is a 30 second spot.
McCain is clearly in a difficult spot and his poll numbers have slid over the past few days as the Obama campaign has pounced on statements from McCain that the economy is “fundamentally sound.” That the economy is or is not fundamentally sound is largely irrelevant because the perception is that it is not and the leading economic indicators are a mixed bag (exports are up, the dollar is recovering but unemployment has been growing and there are both inflationary pressures in commodities with deflationary pressures in asset prices). The US economy did grow by 3.3% in the second quarter but gas prices and other key commodities remain high thus eating into the disposal income that most Americans have.
When a Wall Street analyst notes that the economy is “fundamentally sound,” it means that the underlying factors of the economy remain strong. However, for a politician to say it is a far different thing particularly at a time when many Americans are having to tighten their belts. McCain has handed Obama a gift and one I must presume that the Obama campaign will continue to hammer away with over the coming weeks.
McCain does have an out in this. The demise of Lehman Brothers is tied to the subprime mortgage crisis generally and to the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in particular. Those two mortgage lenders have given heavily to Senator Obama. In the past four years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have given Obama a $126,000 in campaign contributions making him the number two recipient of contributions in the Senate from these recently bailed out corporations behind only Senator Dodd of Connecticut. I would expect McCain to highlight this connection in upcoming attack ads on Obama.
Direct contributions from Lehman Brothers’ employees have exceeded $395,000 for Senator Obama. Senator Obama’s campaign also has five bundlers who have raised over $2 million for the campaign:
John Rhea – (over $500,000) Co-Head of Lehman Bros. Global Investment Banking
Mark Gilbert – (over $500,000) Lehman Brothers Senior Executive
Christine Forester – (over $500,000) Lehman Brothers Senior Executive
Theodore Janulis – Bundler (over $100,000) & Lehman Brothers Head of Global Mortgages
Nadja Fidelia – Bundler (over $50,000) & Managing Director of Lehman Brothers
In addition Lehman CEO Richard Fuld ($2,300) and Lehman President Joseph Gregory ($4,600) maxed out on their contributions to Senator Obama in the primaries with Gregory maxing out for the general election as well.
A new MoveOn.org ad on behalf of the Obama campaign hits Senator McCain over his ties to lobbyists. The issue seems to be a winning one for the Obama campaign with the race tightening in the national polls. Senator McCain still holds a narrow one point lead in both the Rasmussen Reports National Daily Tracking poll and in the Gallup poll but that’s down from a three point lead in the former and a five point in the latter.
The ad is a 30 second spot. MoveOn, with nearly 4.2 million members, is putting its expanded membership muscle behind Senator Obama with its largest ever voter and volunteer drive and with an up-to-$7 million fall advertising campaign according to its executive director Eli Pariser.
Confirming last week’s Marist College poll showed Senator Obama leading by three points among likely voters in the Garden state, a new poll from Quinnipiac Poll also gives Senator Obama a three point margin over Senator McCain among likely voters in New Jersey (link to US Census Bureau Demographic Quick Facts).
Fueled by a surge of support from white voters, Republican Sen. John McCain has narrowed a 10-point gap and now trails Democratic Sen. Barack Obama 48 – 45 percent among New Jersey likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
This compares to a 51 – 41 percent Sen. Obama lead in an August 13 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. In this latest survey, white voters back Sen. McCain 56 – 37 percent, up from 50 – 42 percent August 13. Black voters support the Democrat 93 – 7 percent, compared to 94 – 1 percent. Men back McCain 53 – 40 percent, reversing a 48 – 45 percent Obama lead, while women stay with Obama 54 – 38 percent, compared to 53 – 38 percent.
But white women back McCain 50 – 42 percent, compared to 46 – 44 percent for Obama Aug. 13. Independent voters shift from 45 – 42 percent for Obama to 47 – 43 percent for McCain.
Their disconnect continues. The Democrats wage a class cultural was to their peril. They continue to disparage the intelligence of those who do not support Senator Obama. This is not the party of FDR, HST, LBJ or even HRC. This was disgusting.
Senator Joe Biden at a rally in Flat Rock, Michigan on September 15, 2008:
The Republican party and some of the blogs and others on the far right, are trying very hard to paint a picture of this man, they’re trying the best as they can to mischaracterize who he is and what he stands for.
All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they’re not just used to somebody really smart. They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don’t know quite how to handle it. Cause if he’s as smart as Barack is he must not be from my neighborhood.
Stupidity holds no bounds. As a liberal, I find this tact simply offensive. It’s time to move beyond the culture wars and the attacks on the lifestyles and beliefs of small town America. Again this shows a serious disconnect between the rhetoric of the Democratic party and its views. It’s one more reason, I won’t be voting for Obama-Biden.
Here are a few articles from both the US and international media about the US Presidential race. Highlights of each article provided with a link to the full article.
Palin’s Appeal to White Women
No author noted in the BBC.
And since she appeared on the scene, some polls have shown white women swinging away from Democrat Barack Obama to Republican John McCain. One, an ABC/Washington Post poll conducted earlier this month, suggested Mr McCain’s standing with white women had improved by 20 points since Mrs Palin was brought on board.
“Women see themselves reflected in her image,” according to Christine Dudley, a long-time Republican campaigner, based now in Chicago.
Independent Groups Target Obama, McCain
By Jim Kuhnhenn of the Associated Press.
A sudden surge in advertising by outside groups is rapidly filling the airwaves and cable channels with unflattering portrayals of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain as their presidential contest enters its final seven weeks.
Loose Change: Why Bad Economic News Doesn’t Hurt McCain, or Help Obama, As Much As You Think
By John Dickerson in Slate.
This is the change the Obama campaign has been waiting for. After two weeks of political news dominated by Sarah Palin, bad weather, a reunified GOP, and nervous Democrats, there is suddenly real news: Wall Street banks are collapsing. Everyone is talking about the economy (a pig that can’t be improved by lipstick, or Honeybaked), and the economy is an issue with which Barack Obama has had an advantage with voters. Even better, as luck would have it, he’d already planned to devote the week to addressing the issue and showing America just how out of touch John McCain is.
Gay Republicans in Texas Say the GOP is Becoming More Open to the LGBT Community
