I wish I could find where I read this article just today, BUT here in California there was something like 500,000 new voter registrations in just this past year. While some were Republican, in all Democrats were the majority (by far) of new registants. Granted, California is NOT a swing state, but if, like in other states this holds true, then we could all be surprised by the results of this election. I do know that many states have experienced a large increase in registration. Now, we'll see if all these people (who I am betting are mostly young voters) will show up to the polls.


TIS

That very fact is perhaps why Indiana/Iowa/New Mexico/Colorado/Nevada/North Carolina/Virginia are in such a great threat to flip from Bush in 2004 to Obama in 2008.

And considering that McCain has basically given up on Iowa, that strategy may be paying off.

The Calif. Secretary of State back in Feb. reported over 700k new registrations.

I would say that, nationwide, the new registrants are by far Dems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o

All though the video does endorse a candidate, I am not posting it for that. The first 6 or 7 minutes does accurately describe why the housing crises happened. Even when you take out the shots made at Obama.

Top 10 Reasons Sarah Palin Cancels the Debate

10. Suspicious Russian tourists spotted across the Bering strait in Dezhnevo

9. Wrasslin' a bear

8. Learns Tina Fey will be watching

7. When taken on tour of White House by McCain handlers, is "inadvertently" locked in Cheney's man-sized safe

6. Schedule for memorizing state capitals thrown off by need for new schedule to memorize states

5. Speechless after finally looking up what "MILF" stands for

4. On deadline to finish her book, Namin' Your Baby the Alaskan Way

3. Needs more time to really nail those hilarious hair-plug zingers

2. No matter how hard she scrubs, she can't get Kissinger's moral stank off of her

1. Stuck in traffic on the Bridge to Nowhere

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weinberger/top-10-reasons-sarah-pali_b_130008.html

South Carolina mayor ‘just curious’ if Obama is the antichrist.

South Carolina mayor ‘just curious’ if Obama is the antichrist.»
Fort Hill, SC Mayor Danny Funderburk said he forwarded a chain email suggesting Barack Obama is the antichrist because he was “just curious” if it was true:

“I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”

The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry. The Charlotte Observer reports, “There is no such scripture. And Obama is not a Muslim. But that hasn’t stopped the e-mail.” In March, CNN’s Glenn Beck wondered aloud “Is Obama the antichrist?“

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/28/obama-antichrist-nc/

Now that the Bailout Bill was voted down, will John McCain take back his comments taking credit for helping to "get it done"? Will he be 'suspending his campaign' again since he said he decided to go to the debate and resume his campaign because he was "confident enough progress was made" to get a bill passed?

I guess McCain didn't think his Party would kill the bailout bill when he gave this speech this morning.

To be fair, OK not really, 60+ Democrats voted against the Bill as well.

Either way, McCain not knowing what was bad going on before claiming that all is well? Why have I heard that before?

I can't remember, for my memory aint so Fundamentally Strong anymore.

So McCain is blaming the Bailout failure on Obama and the Democrats, and I shake my head.

If the bailout had passed, both Obama and McCain would have voted for it on wednesday. Neither could vote on it today, and to republish the roll-call I posted in the Economy thread...

Democrats backed the bailout by 140 - 95 votes, or roughly 60% - 40%. Republicans opposed it by 133 to 65, or 67% - 33%

To recap, 40% of Democrats defected, and 2/3rds of the GOP as well.

So what does this mean?

It's EVERYONE'S fault. I blame Pelosi for that speech before the vote, and for not keeping her soldiers in line as a truely effective, and not mediocre, Speaker of the House would do...I blame President Bush for having lost the leadership clout finally it seems with his own Party in the House. I blame both sides for trying to jockey today for 2012 or 2010 or even this year's elections, and try to pin the other team...

They fucked up today.

True, but it is a Republican sponsored bill, and almost 2/3's of the Democrats voted for it. 2/3's of the Republicans didn't.
Now McCain has the balls to come out and actually lay blame on Obama for not getting MORE DEMOCRATS in line.
Un-friggin-believable.


"This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country," McCain Advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said.

Jack Cafferty tells how he really feels about Sarah Palin.

(I cut down that quote but it's still in proper context)

Can't the same be said of Obama? He was only in the senate for two years before he announced his candidacy, and he's the one running for president . Palin may also be unexperienced, but at least she's on the bottom of the ticket. There is a real double standard going on here, not just from you SB but anytime Palin's lack of experience is brought up without mentioning Obama's as well.

"Saratina"

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/29/bailout-mccain/

After Taking Credit For Bailout Bill, Is McCain Campaign Willing To Share Responsibility For Its Failure?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) hasn’t been involved in the deep negotiations over details of the bailout bill. In fact, he was largely silent during a meeting with President Bush and top congressional leaders. As the AP reported, the one role that both Democrats and Republicans alike were counting on McCain to play was to “deliver GOP votes” for the bailout bill.

Over the past week, McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has already been to touting the senator’s success and casting his role as pivotal to bringing the parties together. His supporters have hit the airwaves, giving McCain credit for negotiating a deal:

“[T]his bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain. … But, you know, this is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain.” — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 9/29/08

“Earlier in the week, when Senator McCain came back to Washington, there had been no deal reached. … What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all the parties to the table, including the House Republicans.” — Senior adviser Steve Schmidt, 9/28/08

“But here are the facts, and I’m not overselling anything. The fact is that the House Republicans were not in the mix at all. John didn’t phone this one in. He came and actually did something. … You can’t phone something like this in. Thank God John came back.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 9/28/08

“Before John McCain suspended his campaign yesterday, the situation that we’re looking at today looked very different then. After he showed leadership and called for bipartisanship, for us to partisanship aside and tackle this solution head on, here we are.” — Spokesman Tucker Bounds, 9/25/08

However, today Republicans failed to deliver the 70-100 votes needed from conservatives for the deal to pass. On the Republican side, 133 lawmakers voted against the bill; just 65 voted for it.

If the McCain campaign was willing to take credit for the success of the bill, does McCain also deserve credit for its failure?

If you remember my bitching at the time of the Palin pick, I thought it undermined McCain's biggest/best argument against Obama, which was on the experience issue.

Now you've had GOP/McCain/Fox News lackeys whine about how Obama has no experience, but Palin does.

Sorry, but neither have the experience, if that is what you want. Even you can't argue against that Freddie C.

No, what concerns me about Palin is that from all the interviews so far, she may in fact possibly be dumber than our President.

I mean, to quote another BB.Net member, when you're wrangled by a "hard-hitting journalist" like Katie Couric, you're in troubled.

Then again, how about the fact that apparently in the same interview, Palin couldn't name one Supreme Court case besides Roe/Wade.

I hate the Law as a subject because it bores me, but look at these cases I can come up off the top of my head:

Bush/Gore
McCullum/Maryland
The Dred Scott Decision
Brown/Board of Education
Clinton vs City of New York (SC striking down Line-Item Veto)

Huckabee earlier thought McCain was wrong to have pulled that stunt last week...and really, fair ot not, his pledge has made him connected to the last few days, more ownership of the problem politically than his opponent.

I mean, when McCain takes credit BEFORE the vote for the bail-out, which fails...doesn't that undercut him this side of a punch to the jaw?

Karl Rove has his own electoral map: http://www.rove.com/uploads/0000/003...a_09_28_08.pdf

OBAMA: 259
MCCAIN: 163
TOSS-UP: 116

Wow. Rove being fair and balanced?

It’s too soon for the 29 state polls released since last Wednesday to reflect the post-debate political environment, but it’s clear that the recent economic news has been favoring Barack Obama. The Democrat continues to rise in the Electoral College, picking up 48 electoral votes from Michigan (17 EV), Pennsylvania (21 EV), and Wisconsin (10 EV) to bring him to 259 votes, his most since before the Republican convention. Both Missouri (11 EV) and North Carolina (15 EV) fell from McCain’s column to toss-up, leaving him with 163 electoral votes. 116 electoral votes remain a toss-up, but Obama now holds his largest lead over McCain since July 17th. With 36 days remaining before the election, each candidates has the time and ability to change the dynamic of the race – and I am confident that will happen several times more.

Forget about Sarah Palin for a second. She's running for vice president (a "heartbeat" away, I know ) Can one Obama supporter on here honestly say that he is ready to become president? What has he accomplished? When has he shown that he can be the leader of anything? Please educate me on this.

Either both are ready, or neither are. You can't have it both ways.

Take off your liberal/democratic hat for one second. There is obviously a big difference in the importance of experience between a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate. Obama is running against McCain, not Palin. Experience does make a difference in this case.

And please answer my previous questions. What has Obama accomplished that qualifies him to even run for the Democratic nomination, let alone as the nominee in the general election? When has he ever shown any type of leadership?

Florida PPP Poll:

Obama 49
McCain 46

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/p...ida_930354.pdf

I don't care if Obama is inexperienced. What did 'experience' get us the last 8 years? The worst President in history. 2 wars. A crumbled economy. Debt that our great grandchildren will still be paying off. The only way I wouldn't vote for Obama is if he showed signs he couldn't handle the job. I've seen nothing in the last year that makes me believe he can't. He's shown better judgment than McCain. Was McCain putting "Country First" when he chose Palin? I don't think so. It was a gamble to get women voters and satisfy the conservative base. If Obama came across as clueless and unqualified as Palin, I would not be voting for him. If you want to vote for McCain and 4 mores years of the same, then that's your right. That's what makes this country so great.

So Palin, if McCain dies, this hypothetical situation is irrelevant? Interesting argument you have there...

As to Obama, let me give you at least one.

He did what Republicans had never been able to do: Beat the Clintons!

Poll: Public Rejects McCain's Claim That Dems To Blame For Bailout Collapse

It looks like the McCain campaign's efforts to pin the failure of the bailout on Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats aren't getting any traction, according to the new ABC/Washington Post poll, the first survey to look at this issue.

The numbers: Among registered voters, 44% blame the Congressional Republicans -- that is, the ones who actually voted against the bailout -- compared to only 21% who blame Congressional Dems, and 17% who blame both equally.

Also, the Democratic arguments over who is to blame for the crisis appear to be winning the day. George W. Bush is seen as the single most important cause of the crisis by 25% of voters, followed by financial institutions with 18%. Congress is blamed by only eight percent.

http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1074a1Economy.pdf

EDIT - To be rather fair, I was part of the 17% that blamed both parties in Congress.

Funny how we get the rolling eyes for a "heartbeat" away. It *is* a heartbeat away. McCain is a 72 year old man diagnosed with malignant melanoma requiring 4 surgeries (one surgery taking 5 hours to remove lymphnodes, so this isn't just surface skin removal), and a slough of other ailments including dizziness that was diagnosed as vertigo; blood in the urine, which was diagnosed as caused by an enlarge prostate and bladder/kidney stones; high cholesterol, degenerative arthritis; evidence of polyps and diverticulosis in th colon, and those are what we know since he won't release medical records.

I lost a good friend to his type of melanoma a few years back, he was only 45.

Palin should be seriously considered as more than a heartbeat and more scrutinized than any other vp in history. You can point fingers about Obama's lack of experience {3 years as a successful community organizer, over a decade as a Constitutional Law professor, 8 years in the Illinois State Senate (including chairmanship of their Health & Human Services Committee and where he fostered a compromise between law enforcement and the ACLU, something no one else had been able to do. Thus, the first laws in the US to mandate videotaping of police interrogations and the recording of race during stops and arrests to keep an eye on racial profiling became Illinois law. All other states to mandate this come from Obama's effort), and 4 years in the U.S. Senate, where he has sponsored almost a gross of bills}, but he's a very smart man. Mrs. Palin in her ABC interview revealed herself to be abysmally unqualified, and only last year got a passport, belongs a church which believes dinosaurs were around 4000 years ago, doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is, and has less than two years experience governing a state with a population less than that of Wichita, Kansas or Raleigh, North Carolina and no one is allowed to TALK to because they fear of what she might say.

McCain takes hit from bailout collapse


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House's failure to pass a $700 billion bailout package Monday not only held back billions for Wall Street, but also was a major blow to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

The Republican presidential nominee raised the stakes for himself last week when he suspended his campaign and returned to Washington for negotiations over a solution to the financial crisis.

"Even before the House vote, voters blamed Republicans more than Democrats for the crisis. Then McCain suspended his campaign to come back to Washington to rally support for a rescue plan," said Bill Schneider, a CNN political analyst. "He failed, so he gets blamed by both supporters and opponents of the rescue plan."

During a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, McCain appeared to distance himself from Monday's House vote, saying the congressional inaction had "every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk."

"Yesterday, the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed," he said.

But over the weekend, McCain had involved himself in the efforts to get the bailout package to the president's desk.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the top Republican in the House, said that McCain was actively involved in lobbying Republican House members Sunday to line up behind the bailout.

"He has been making calls to members in support of this bill ... and I'm grateful for his support," Boehner said.

But it was a majority of McCain's own Republicans in the House who voted against the bailout by a 2-1 ratio Monday afternoon, leaving the outcome of the bailout in doubt and sending the stock market diving 778 points. Despite McCain's lobbying efforts, 133 House Republicans voted against the bill.

After the vote, McCain was defensive, accusing his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, of just wanting to "phone it in" when it came to the bailout and introducing partisanship into the process.

"Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame. It's time to fix the problem," the Arizona Republican said after the vote.

But on Tuesday morning, McCain said the bill failed "because we haven't convinced people that this is a rescue effort, not just for Wall Street, but for Main Street America, for working families, for small businesses, for the heartland of America.

"I may fail a first or second or third time, but we have to get this job done for America. And I have a plan to restore our economy," McCain added.

Before the House vote, McCain was losing ground to Obama because of the increasingly bad economic news. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted September 19-21 found that Obama was leading McCain 51 percent to 46 percent. Earlier, after the Republican convention, the two had been tied in the polls.

And the CNN poll found that Obama leads McCain 49 percent to 43 percent among those surveyed when asked who had showed better judgment in the economic crisis.

Terry Jeffries, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, also said McCain may have hurt himself among conservatives by losing sight of his party's free-market principles.

"I think that John McCain failed to lead," Jeffries said. "He should be right there pushing the principles, and the conservatives in the House are doing that right now."

While Obama and McCain have mostly agreed on the principles of the bailout, Obama has mostly stayed out of negotiations and has used the financial crisis to attack the economic policies of the Bush administration and tie McCain to the unpopular President Bush. VideoWatch Obama call for calm »

"He didn't put himself in that process. He was smart enough to realize he couldn't control the House Republicans or Democrats," said Ed Rollins, another Republican strategist and CNN contributor.

But McCain's allies still said McCain made the right move when he inserted himself into the talks.

"He wanted to come back to Washington and to help with the crisis. And the fact it didn't work out, it's not on his shoulders," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist. "Frankly, it's on the Democrats' shoulders, they're the ones who run Congress."

Andrew Sullivan, a Conservative ideologue, at ATLANTIC Magazine has probed both McCain and Biden to release their medical records, ESPECIALLY McCain.



Wow, did not know that about that whole ACLU/Cops story. Thanks for letting me know.