Here are eight 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. The video of the debate is below and a link to the full transcript is below the fold.
Video of the Full Debate
Palin and Biden Are Cordial but Pointed
By Patrick Healy in the New York Times.
Gov. Sarah Palin used a steady grin, folksy manner and carefully scripted talking points to punch politely and persist politically at the vice-presidential debate on Thursday night, turning in a performance that her rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., sought to undermine with cordially delivered but pointed criticism.
You Betcha Sarah Palin can Debate
By Roger Simon writing for Politico.
Sarah Palin was supposed to fall off the stage at her vice presidential debate Thursday evening. Instead, she ended up dominating it.
She not only kept Joe Biden on the defensive for much of the debate, she not only repeatedly attacked Barack Obama, but she looked like she was enjoying herself while doing it.
She smiled. She faced the camera. She was warm. She was human. Gosh and golly, she even dropped a bunch of g’s.
“John McCain doesn’t tell one thing to one group and somethin’ else to another,” she said. “Those huge tax breaks aren’t comin’ to those huge multinational corporations.”
She went out of her way to talk in everyday terms, saying things like “I betcha” and “We have a heckuva opportunity to learn” and “Darn right we need tax relief.”
Palin Defies Critics and Delivers Punchy Performance in Debate
By Ewen MacAskill in the UK Guardian.
Sarah Palin defied the critics who have been mocking her all week to deliver a punchy, down-to-earth performance in her clash with Joe Biden in the first and only vice-presidential debate of the White House campaign.
Although she frequently betrayed nerves, rattling through words and ideas at speed, the Republican vice-presidential candidate dealt with the Wall Street meltdown, climate change, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and Darfur with more conviction than she demonstrated in recent, disastrous television interviews.
She grew in confidence during the 90-minute debate at Washington University, in St Louis, Missouri, and held her own with Biden, who is one of the most knowledgeable politicians in Washington on foreign policy as chairman of the senate foreign affairs committee.
In spite of his experience, her folksy, populist tone may have given her the edge with viewers.
Aloof but a Star: British Envoy on Obama
By Ewen MacAskill in the UK Guardian.
Britain found itself thrown into the US presidential election after the leak of a letter from its ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, offering a frank assessment of Barack Obama, commenting on his inexperience and aloofness as well as his intelligence and “star quality”.
The leak of the seven-page letter to Gordon Brown undermines British efforts to abide by the convention of neutrality in US elections.
The letter is mainly complimentary about Obama but also highlights his perceived weaknesses. Sheinwald wrote that Obama “does betray a highly educated and upper middle class mindset”. He adds that accusations of elitism “are not entirely unfair” and he is “maybe aloof, insensitive” at times.
The ambassador, who was last night in Los Angeles, suggested in the letter that an Obama presidency could present problems for the UK over his plan to negotiate directly with the Iranian leadership.
The full text of the letter is above in a separate post.
October the Season for Surprises in Presidential Campaigns
By Glen Johnson for the Associated Press.
The specter of an October surprise has already factored into the 2008 campaign.
Mr. Obama’s campaign had to bat down reports that his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was releasing a book this month. Mr. Obama distanced himself from Mr. Wright this year after the preacher, among other things, suggested the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community.
Mr. McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, stopped cooperating with lawmakers investigating her firing of the state’s public safety commissioner after one joked that the findings could amount to an “October surprise.”
White House Race Turns Barack Obama Grey in Three Months
By Emily Sheridan in the UK Daily Mail.
After 19 months on the campaign trail, it comes as no surprise the stress of running for President of the United States is getting to Barack Obama.
With only five weeks to go before the U.S. election, the Democrat candidate is steadily turning grey as the pressure builds.
Despite being relatively young at 47 compared to rival Republican candidate John McCain’s 72 years, Obama admitted his hair is ageing and he is willing to embrace his ashen colour.
The Illinois junior senator said he will refrain from dyeing his greying curls because he believes the visible signs of ageing will help him appeal to older voters.
He said this month: ‘They want to see more grey hairs. I would point out that over the past 19 months, I’ve accumulated quite a few.’
Obama Launches iPhone Application to Help Recruiting Efforts
From the Associated Press.
Barack Obama’s campaign is reaching out to iPhone users through a new application that will make it easier for them to call their friends in battleground states and encourage them to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.
The application’s “Call Friends” function organizes the user’s personal phonebook by swing state, such as Virginia or Colorado. It gives each contact a status, telling the caller whom he or she has dialed.
The campaign launched the application Thursday. It said no contact information will be stored as a result of using the feature. “Only the total number of calls you make is uploaded anonymously,” says the feature’s description.
Among Apple iPhone users, Senator Obama enjoys a 37 point lead.
The Biden-Palin Vice Presidential Debate
Transcript of the debate from the Commission on Presidential Debates.
IFILL: You both have sons who are in Iraq or on their way to Iraq. You, Governor Palin, have said that you would like to see a real clear plan for an exit strategy. What should that be, Governor?
PALIN: I am very thankful that we do have a good plan and the surge and the counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq that has proven to work, I am thankful that that is part of the plan implemented under a great American hero, General Petraeus, and pushed hard by another great American, Senator John McCain.
I know that the other ticket opposed this surge, in fact, even opposed funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops there after promising that he would not do so.
PALIN: And Senator Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that. You said that his vote was political and you said it would cost lives. And Barack Obama at first said he would not do that. He turned around under political pressure and he voted against funding the troops. We do have a plan for withdrawal. We don’t need early withdrawal out of Iraq. We cannot afford to lose there or we’re going to be no better off in the war in Afghanistan either. We have got to win in Iraq.
And with the surge that has worked we’re now down to presurge numbers in Iraq. That’s where we can be. We can start putting more troops in Afghanistan as we also work with our NATO allies who are there strengthening us and we need to grow our military. We cannot afford to lose against al Qaeda and the Shia extremists who are still there, still fighting us, but we’re getting closer and closer to victory. And it would be a travesty if we quit now in Iraq.
IFILL: Senator?
BIDEN: Gwen, with all due respect, I didn’t hear a plan. Barack Obama offered a clear plan. Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops. Ironically the same plan that Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq and George Bush are now negotiating. The only odd man out here, only one left out is John McCain, number one. Number two, with regard to Barack Obama not quote funding the troops, John McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the troops because of an amendment he voted against had a timeline in it to draw down American troops. And John said I’m not going to fund the troops if in fact there’s a time line. Barack Obama and I agree fully and completely on one thing. You’ve got to have a time line to draw down the troops and shift responsibility to the Iraqis.
We’re spending $10 billion a month while Iraqis have an $80 billion surplus. Barack says it’s time for them to spend their own money and have the 400,000 military we trained for them begin to take their own responsibility and gradually over 16 months, withdrawal. John McCain — this is a fundamental difference between us, we’ll end this war. For John McCain, there’s no end in sight to end this war, fundamental difference. We will end this war.
IFILL: Governor?
PALIN: Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that’s for sure. And it’s not what our nation needs to be able to count on. You guys opposed the surge. The surge worked. Barack Obama still can’t admit the surge works.
We’ll know when we’re finished in Iraq when the Iraqi government can govern its people and when the Iraqi security forces can secure its people. And our commanders on the ground will tell us when those conditions have been met. And Maliki and Talabani also in working with us are knowing again that we are getting closer and closer to that point, that victory that’s within sight.
Now, you said regarding Senator McCain’s military policies there, Senator Biden, that you supported a lot of these things. In fact, you said in fact that you wanted to run, you’d be honored to run with him on the ticket. That’s an indication I think of some of the support that you had at least until you became the VP pick here.
You also said that Barack Obama was not ready to be commander in chief. And I know again that you opposed the move he made to try to cut off funding for the troops and I respect you for that. I don’t know how you can defend that position now but I know that you know especially with your son in the National Guard and I have great respect for your family also and the honor that you show our military. Barack Obama though, another story there. Anyone I think who can cut off funding for the troops after promising not to is another story.
IFILL: Senator Biden?
BIDEN: John McCain voted to cut off funding for the troops. Let me say that again. John McCain voted against an amendment containing $1 billion, $600 million that I had gotten to get MRAPS, those things that are protecting the governor’s son and pray god my son and a lot of other sons and daughters.
He voted against it. He voted against funding because he said the amendment had a time line in it to end this war. He didn’t like that. But let’s get straight who has been right and wrong. John McCain and Dick Cheney said while I was saying we would not be greeted as liberators, we would not – this war would take a decade and not a day, not a week and not six months, we would not be out of there quickly. John McCain was saying the Sunnis and Shias got along with each other without reading the history of the last 700 years. John McCain said there would be enough oil to pay for this. John McCain has been dead wrong. I love him. As my mother would say, god love him, but he’s been dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the conduct of the war. Barack Obama has been right. There are the facts.