Colombia’s Museo de Oro, the Gold Musuem, in Bogotá is set to re-open in two weeks after undergoing major renovations. The Museo de Oro houses tens of thousands of artifacts created by the various indigenous cultures in Colombia that were expert goldsmiths. Their work, of course, gave rise to the legend of El Dorado, the Gilded One.

La Balsa Muisca

La Balsa Muisca, above, is the representation of the El Dorado legend. Every year during a full moon, the cacique of the Muisca tribe would be covered in gold dust and taken out to the middle of the Laguna de Guatavita with gold offerings made to the Muisca gods. Once in the middle of the lake, he would submerge into the cold waters to wash off the gold dust.

The Museo de Oro will re-open on November 2, 2008. For more information in English, please visit their website at Museo de Oro.

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Polls in Minnesota (link is to US Census demographic data) have been pointing to a growing margin for Senator Obama. The last poll I reported on for Minnesota back on October 08 gave Obama a seven point margin over Senator McCain. Today’s poll from the Minneapolis Star Tribune points to an eleven point lead for Obama in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. Obama leads McCain, 52% to 41%.

Democrat Barack Obama continues to hold a wide lead over Republican John McCain in Minnesota, largely because most likely voters believe Obama would do a better job with the economy, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

The poll, conducted Thursday and Friday, found that Obama is supported by 52 percent of likely voters, while 41 percent are backing McCain. The results show that while McCain has cut into Obama’s 18-point lead from two weeks ago, it’s not enough to move Minnesota back into the toss-up column, as it was immediately after the Republican National Convention was held in St. Paul in early September.

Obama’s consistent lead in Minnesota in recent weeks mirrors his sustained edge nationwide and in several battleground states.

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Riding in like the calvary to save a flawed candidate from defeat, Senator Clinton’s supporters are coming around to support Senator Obama just as some DNC stalwarts predicted though perhaps not fully for the reasons they then gave. I’ve noticed the trend and I’ve noted it in some of the polling data. It’s most prevalent in states like New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Pennsylvania. Except for the latter, Obama trailed in the polls at some point in each of those states. And Obama’s rise in the polls was in part due to disaffected Clinton voters coming back around. In New Hampshire back in August Obama was winning only 78% of Democrats, now he’s at 91%. In New Mexico, Obama has in the last six weeks gone from 75% support among Democrats to 87%.

Today the Boston Globe provides some andectodal evidence:

THE BRADLEY EFFECT is fading into the Hillary Effect.

The former is the phenomenon that the polls overestimate how much white voters will support a black candidate. The latter was in full force Thursday at Barack Obama’s first rally of the homestretch of the presidential campaign. Huge numbers of women from New Hampshire and Massachusetts who breathed fire into Hillary Clinton’s campaign after Clinton was stunned in Iowa by Obama cheered jubilantly with the original Obama believers.

Until recently, polls indicated that a quarter of Clinton voters were so steamed over her elimination that they threatened to vote for Republican John McCain. A month ago, McCain had a slight lead in two polls in New Hampshire. Obama now leads by 10 percentage points in Real Clear Politics averaging of the last state polls. From listening to former Clinton voters, you know why.

“It took two to three weeks for it to all settle down,” said Sue Martin, 68, social studies textbook editor from Atkinson, N.H. She was a Clinton volunteer in the Salem office. “Back then, I thought he was way too young. But he’s grown a lot.”

“Up until the last month, I was going to write in Hillary,” said Janice Keene, a 58-year-old retired elementary school teacher from Londonderry. “I was quite disappointed. But our country needs change, especially the middle class.”

“I still feel Hillary was robbed,” said Geraldine Sanders, 68, of Candia, who assists Alzheimer’s patients at a residential treatment center. “You might say that, politically, I grew up with Hillary. She is a very strong woman. But my mother was a great Democrat and I can’t forget that.”

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Here are six 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.

Gallup Poll — Obama Still Leads
From Gallup.

The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking report from Wednesday through Friday, including two days of interviewing after Wednesday night’s final presidential debate, shows Barack Obama with a 50%to 42% lead over John McCain among registered voters.

Obama’s eight-point lead among registered voters is similar to his margin among this group over the last several days. Gallup’s likely voter scenarios show a closer race. Gallup’s expanded likely voter model, based on respondents’ answers to questions about current interest in the election and intention to vote, shows a 50% to 46% race, which is a more narrow lead for Obama among this group than in previous days. If turnout in this year’s election follows traditional patterns by which the voting electorate skews towards those who usually vote as well as those who are interested in this year’s election, the race shows Obama leading at 49% to 47%, where it has been among this group for three days.

100,000 People
By Ben Smith writing for Politico.

Lt. Samuel Dotson of the St. Louis Police Department placed the crowd count at 100,000 people, according to the campaign.

“All I can say is, ‘Wow,’” Obama said just after taking the stage underneath the Gatway Arch. Politico called Dotson to confirm the crowd figure but has not yet heard back.

If the number is verified, it would be Obama’s largest American crowd, second only to the 200,000 people who turned out for his speech in Berlin, Germany, and more than the 80,000 people who attended his Democratic National Convention speech.

Missouri is a bellwether state with 11 critical Electoral College votes. The latest polls give Senator Obama the edge. Those who think Obama unelectable dismiss the polls but I wonder if they’ll dismiss a photograph. Obama may lose but unelectable he is not. Few people care about William Ayers or the Reverend Wright at this point, what matters are kitchen table issues.

A wow moment.

‘Joe the Plumbers’ Are Coming Out of Woodwork
By Sally Kalson in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Joseph Bruni had a stack of black and gold T-shirts printed up yesterday. But instead of touting the Steelers, they say “Joe the Plumber, Pittsburgh, PA.”

Now in his 70s, Mr. Bruni employs six other plumbers. None of them is named Joe, but this week, they’ll all be wearing Joe the Plumber T-shirts in honor of their boss.

A registered Democrat, Mr. Bruni said he watched the debate and intends to vote for Mr. McCain. “Honesty and integrity, background and experience are my top issues,” he said. “I feel when John McCain is speaking, he’s telling you what he’ll do, and he’ll do it. I can relate to him more than any other politician through the years.”

Mr. Bruni has crossed party lines before — he voted for Ronald Reagan.

“It depends how I’m thinking at the time of the election,” he said. “I’m concerned right now that employment goes up. To have a good economy, you need people working.”

Mr. McCain’s argument clearly hit home with another plumber named Joe — Joe Scarfone, a partner in Stahl Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, which employs 50 plumbers in five locations.

“I don’t like the fact that someone who works hard is going to get taxed more,” he said of Mr. Obama’s plan. “I’m on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I shouldn’t be penalized for that.”

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The Obama campaign released this ad yesterday focused on issues relating to women. The ad is a 30 second spot. In just about every poll, Senator Obama leads among women by large margins.

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