So courtesy of the TMZ website, Larry Flynt is reportedly fast-tracking a porn to come out by election day called NAILIN' PAYLIN

From TMZ:
The faux Sarah is Lisa Ann, who "will be nailing the Russians who come knocking on her back-door." In another scene -- a flashback -- "young Paylin's creationist college professor will explain a 'big bang' theory even she can't deny!"

There's also a threeway with Hillary and Condoleezza look-alikes.

Today's GALLUP Poll:

OBAMA: 49%
MCCAIN: 42%

Biden-Palin matchup most watched VP debate?
Preliminary data shows 90-minute sparring session drew 45 rating
Reuters
updated 3:41 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 3, 2008

LOS ANGELES - The nationally televised debate between Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden appears likely to rank as the most highly rated matchup ever between U.S. vice presidential candidates, early Nielsen Media Research figures showed on Friday.

Preliminary Nielsen data shows the 90-minute sparring session on Thursday in St. Louis drew an average household rating of 45.0 — the percentage of all homes that were tuned to the debate — in the nation’s 55 largest metropolitan areas.

Nielsen said it expected to release final national ratings and a tally of individual viewers later in the day.

But the early figure far surpasses the corresponding preliminary 33.2 rating garnered by last Friday’s first debate between the two presidential nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

They ended up with a Nielsen national audience of 52.4 million U.S. viewers, so the final Palin-Biden tally is certain to easily eclipse that.

In fact, if the latest numbers hold up, Thursday’s debate will be the most highly rated ever between vice presidential candidates, eclipsing the old record held by the first woman on a major-party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro, and the Republican incumbent at the time, George H.W. Bush.

The Palin-Biden bout also appears likely to stand as the most watched of any nationally televised political debate in 16 years, going back to a three-way match in 1992 that included then-President George H.W. Bush, Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot.

A larger-than-usual TV audience was expected for Palin and Biden going into their debate given the questions raised about the Alaska governor’s readiness and the widespread lampooning of her previous appearances in the media.

Snap polls by CBS and CNN said most viewers thought Biden, who curbed his tendency to be verbose and maintained a respectful tone toward Palin, won the debate.

What If McCain Picked Romney?

While Gov. Sarah Palin didn't hurt her ticket in last night's debate, it's hard to see how she helped it. Palin has always been a favorite with the Republican base and last night's performance calmed any jitters they felt after watching a series of trainwreck interviews with Katie Couric. But with just over four weeks until the election, Palin did little to help McCain win over uncommitted voters.

Imagine if Sen. John McCain had chosen Mitt Romney as his running mate instead. While Romney would not likely have excited the Republican base as much as Palin did, he would be seen as a more steady hand with the nation's financial markets in crisis. And it's unlikely that McCain would be pulling out of Michigan if native son Romney was on the ticket.

It's just more evidence Palin will ultimately prove to be a bad pick for McCain.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/10/what-if-mccain-picked-romney.html

Bob Barr 2008

Imagine if Ron Paul had gotten his act together and actually ran a 3rd party campaign, or at least threw his lot fully behind Barr, instead of pissing away his relevancy by supporting the Constitutional Party nominee, after he had already endorsed "All 3rd party candidates" (including Nader).

Some of Paul's stuff is just wacky, I admit, and yet on some issues from legalizing marijuana to being the only GOP Presidential candidate this year who thought invading Iraq was wrong, I think there is some segments of that party who aren't down for the Religious Right, and were/are hungry to make their fustrations be heard, i.e. back somebody.

Will Paul, and his little own "Convention" during the 2008 RNC in Minnesota, make any difference for the 2012 GOP primaries if Obama wins?

New CNN Polls

NH
Obama: 48%
McCain: 42%

PA
Obama: 51%
McCain: 41%

Palin was chosen in order to attract some of the female votes that the Republicans calcualted had gone to Clinton during the Democratic Party primaries. That's it; that's the reason she was chosen.

Now keep this in mind. Both presidential candidates were selected by a large component of US voters through that competitive and arduous primary process. Palin was chosen by one person. McCain chose her strictly for political reasons. Plain and simple. That's judgement for ya.

Palin's answer reagrading he Vice-Presidency was almost bizarre. I find nothing in James Madison's notes of the Constitutional Convention that express the Founding Father's desire to give the Vice-Presidency "flexibility" regarding legislative agendas as she stated they did. In Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution the VP is designated as President of the Senate. However, that position is only empowered in the Constitution to cast a vote when the Senate is tied. That's it. What flexibility was she talking about and intending to take advantage of?

I strongly agree.

In the last two elections even those towards the middle of their respective parties still voted strictly along their own party lines. I believe that it's much different this time around. I believe that those who are more towards the middle of their respective parties can and will be swayed to vote for the candidate that they feel this country will be better served with. This time around I do not believe that those in the middle will strictly vote for a candidate just because he is from their own respective party. In my opinion, this time around, the votes from those in the "middle" on either side will be the deciding factor for this Presidential election. There will be a lot more of crossing party lines than in the last two elections.

And didn't Obama choose Biden for political reasons?

No, not really. If he was going to pick a running mate for purely political reasons, he would have taken Clinton.

That's your personal opinion. Which of course you are entitled to. And let's be real here for a moment. Regardless of which party you are a member of, or which candidate you support, they ALL make decisions for political reasons most of the time.

I need to buy my Daughter this now that she wants to hunt with her Dad.

Biden's Lies

Listed below are 13 of JOE BIDEN’S 14 LIES during last night's debate:


1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden LIED when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden LIED when he indicated that McCain and Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden FALSELY said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage - they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is FALSE.

8. OIL TAXES: Biden FALSELY said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska - she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden FALSELY said McCain weakened regulation - he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden LIED when he said that McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy. John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

Where's #14?

Touché

SARAH PALIN’S 18 LIES

1. FANNIE MAE/FREDDIE MAC: Palin said “it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures,” but fact checkers say that’s “Quite A Stretch” And “Barely True,” and that McCain was a “latecomer” to the discussion.

2. FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRONG: Palin tried to say “John McCain saying our economy was strong” but McCain has used the phrase “The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong” At Least 16 Times This Year.

3. PARTISAN POLITICS: Palin said McCain is “known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done,” but he has voted with Bush 90% of the time in the Senate and bragged about his support for Bush on important issues.

4. TAXES ATTACK: Palin repeated the attack that Obama voted for higher taxes 94 times, which the New York Times says is “false,” CNN says is “Misleading,” and FactCheck.org says is “inflated.”

5. TOBACCO REGULATION: Palin said to “look at the tobacco industry” as an example of McCain pushing for even harder and tougher regulations. But McCain opposed expanding the SCHIP children’s health insurance program for 5.8 million children because it would increase tobacco taxes.

6. SPENDING INCREASES: Palin said Obama is is proposing “nearly a trillion dollars in new spending,” but didn’t mention that he has also proposed cuts to balance it out, an attack CNN has already debunked as “misleading” and that ignores the far larger cost of McCain’s tax cuts and spending hikes.

7. HEALTH CARE: Palin claimed Obama’s health plan is “government run” which has been widely debunked as a “canard.”

8. HEALTH CARE. Palin says taxes wouldn’t go up under the McCain health care plan, a fact even his own campaign has acknowledged isn’t true.

9. TROOPS: Palin repeated what the AP called the “highly misleading” attack that Obama opposed funding for the troops, and Factcheck.org notes that the same methodology would lead to the same conclusion for McCain.

10. GLOBAL WARMING: Palin said “I don’t want to argue about the causes” for global warming, when she has clearly taken the position that she doesn’t not believe it is man-made.

11. MCCAIN IS CONSISTENT: Palin said McCain” doesn't tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group,” when that is exactly what he has done on immigration, telling Hispanic leaders he was for comprehensive reform instead of the enforcement focused approach he has taken with conservatives.

12. MCCLELLAN NOT MCKIERNAN: Palin referred to the US commander in Afghanistan, David McKiernan as “McClellan.”

13. MCKIERNAN ON “SURGE:” Palin said that did not say a surge wouldn’t work in Afghanistan, when just yesterday he said “The word I don’t use for Afghanistan is ’surge,’ ” McKiernan stressed, saying that what is required is a “sustained commitment” to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution

14. KILLING CIVILIANS. Palin said “Obama had said that all we're doing in Afghanistan is air raiding villages and killing civilians and such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment again hurts our cause. That's not what we are doing there.” Unfortunately, the Associated Press says that Obama was right in discussing a critically important point about avoiding civilian casualties.

15. TEACHING: Palin said we need to make sure “that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line,” when McCain has repeatedly favored tax cuts for the wealthy over funds for more teachers and class size reduction.

16. PARTISAN APPOINTMENTS: Palin said “You do what I did as governor. And you appoint people regardless of party affiliation. Democrats, independents, Republicans, you walk the walk, don't just talk the talk” when she repeatedly appointed friends and supporters to positions for which they weren’t qualified.

17. FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Palin falsely claimed that she was the first governor to form a climate change subcabinet, when at least 28 states had already taken action.

18. DARFUR DIVESTMENT: Palin claimed that “when I and others” found out that the state had money invested in Sudan that “we called for divestment,” when the reality is that Palin’s appointees worked to kill a Darfur divestment plan.

Hmmmm 18-13.

Biden wins! (but the majority of America knows that already).

That must be the same math that the Republicans used when they put the economy in the crapper.

Name a politician who doesn't lie!!

Since I know the curiosity is killing everyone, here is the alleged 14th lie:

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Thank you, Lou. I couldn't have slept without that one.

Hey, no problem. I'm here to help out both sides, if need be.

The top tax rate in Reagan's second term was 28%. I find it hard to believe that Obama intends to propose such low rates.

Curiously, what's the 14th "lie" not mentioned for some reason?

And I have to be honest here... I don't know who wrote that list... but at a quick glance (and not knowing the details myself), some sound pretty dubious at best. It's almost a desperate attempt that will fail to change anyone's mind anyway.

Lists like these are pretty worthless and single-mindedly biased. Where's the list of Palin's "lies" to compare to it? There were plenty, trust me... on BOTH sides!



Edit: Damn! I missed the next page of replies!

Me.

And watch as without supplying #14 and everyone pointing that out to you, that you'll go MIA again for the next few days.

Did Women Like Sarah?

Last night in Colorado (one of the key swing states we have our eyes on), the Democratic polling group Greenberg Quinlan Rosner brought together 40 undecided women voters to watch the vice-presidential debate. In pre-interviews before the festivities started, most of the women admitted that they didn't know much about either of the running mates. They'd heard plenty about Sarah Palin in particular, but they didn't know who she was, didn't know what she thought.

By the time the debate was over, the voters had a better sense of who the candidates were. But they still didn't know what Palin thought on any major issue other than energy. Even women who found her personally likeable and confident complained that she seemed "coached" and stuck so closely to "talking points and sound bytes" that they weren't sure what kind of vice-president (or, for that matter, president) she would be.
As with the St. Louis focus group that watched the first presidential debate, however, generally favorable reactions to the Democratic team didn't translate into a significant shift of support from undecided voters. All forty women came into the undecided and after listening to the two running mates debate for 90 minutes, 8 had moved to the Obama camp, another 8 to McCain, and the remaining 24 were still uncommitted.

In a discussion that took place after the debate, some of the women who became Obama supporters said that they had been concerned about Obama's relatively brief political career but found themselves reassured by Biden. "If I vote for Barack Obama, it will be because of Joe Biden," said one unmarried women. A handful of women thought that Biden sounded too much like a Washington insider or an old-fashioned pol, a conclusion that probably wasn't helped by his use of Senate-speak and references to legislative procedures. But several had teared up when the Delaware senator talked about losing his first wife and daughter, and felt more favorably about him as a result. "He got emotional there in the end," said another unmarried women. "I didn't know his wife and child died. That touched me."

Overall, the women warmed up to both candidates throughout the evening—both Biden and Palin's favorability ratings rose 9 points from pre- to post-debate. They liked Palin's strength and confidence, and the married women particularly responded to her "folksiness" and "down-to-earth" personality. That personal regard, however, didn't necessarily mean they wanted to see her in the White House. "I'd like to have lunch with Sarah," said one married woman, "but have Joe running my country." Another agreed: "I think Sarah Palin is cute as a button and is good in sound bytes, but she just is not ready." Before the debate, only 10 of the women believed Palin was not ready to be vice-president or president; by the end of the evening more than half of them (21) shared that concern.

The economy has been the number-one issue for women voters—particularly unmarried women—throughout the campaign season, and that held true for this focus group as well. And on that point, they were much more impressed by Biden's ability to talk about the economy and relate to the concerns of middle-class voters. Before the debate, 14 women preferred Biden over Palin on the economy, but that number climbed to 23 afterward. A similar shift took place on the question of which candidate they trusted to handle health care—9 women initially preferred Biden, but that number more than doubled to 20 over the course of the evening. Several noted that they would have liked to hear Palin offer any details about what a McCain/Palin health care plan would look like.

Biden may not have closed the deal for the majority of these undecided women, but he impressed and reassured them on the issues that they say will determine their votes in November. And while Palin presented herself as someone voters can relate to, her performance seems to have raised even more questions—at least for this small group of undecided women—about whether she is qualified to be on the Republican ticket.

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/10/did_women_like_sarah.html

Faked or Real (I can't tell), this did make me laugh:

Michigan Republicans oppose McCain pullout

In the aftermath of John McCain's decision to pull out of Michigan, Republicans in the state are expressing shock and bewilderment at his move—and aren't willing to cede the state's 17 electoral votes just yet.

“We’re blindsided, along with everybody else in Michigan,” said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. “I feel like I woke up this morning and there was a note on my pillow.”

“When the general leaves the battlefield when the fight’s still going on, it creates a lot of chaos,” he said.

Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the state party, sent out a fundraising message Friday morning that called McCain’s decision “a tough blow.”

“The McCain campaign announced they were shifting resources and staff out of Michigan to other targeted states. Other states ‘today’ offer a better opportunity for the campaign,” Anuzis wrote on his blog, paraphrasing the McCain campaign’s explanation. “We do NOT agree.”

Michigan had been seen as one of McCain’s top targets among the states Sen. John F. Kerry won in 2004, along with Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. The Republican now appears resigned to the state's electoral votes—which Kerry claimed by a little more than 3 percentage points and the RealClearPolitics polling average now shows Barack Obama leading by 7 points—going to the Democrat.

Mike Duhaime, the McCain campaign’s political director, explained the decision as a necessary tactical choice.

"It's been the worst state of all the states that are in play," he said in a conference call Thursday. "It's the obvious state, in my perspective, to come off the list."

Some Democrats were hesitant to declare victory and viewed McCain’s move with suspicion, suggesting sinister motives behind the Arizona senator’s very public departure from the state.

“Who announces with such fanfare that they’re leaving, other than to let you think that they’re gone?” asked Democratic Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry, who predicted that McCain’s announcement could be a prelude to a flurry of anti-Obama advertising by independent groups.

“I think the announcement you’re reading is an invitation for independent groups to come in and do that sort of thing,” Cherry suggested, adding that for McCain to win the state Republicans would have to engage in “some very outrageous stuff.”

In September a group called Freedom’s Defense Fund launched a small buy of independent anti-Obama ads in Macomb County, Mich., where working-class “Reagan Democrats” are a powerful voting bloc, that attempted to tie Obama to his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and indicted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Thus far, though, Michigan has yet to see any statewide or well-funded independent effort aimed at tilting the race against either candidate.

State Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker, the assistant Republican floor leader in the Michigan House of Representatives, said Cherry’s theory was not implausible.

“I don’t have any knowledge as to whether that will happen or not, but I think that’s definitely a possibility,” Schuitmaker said, explaining that she thought McCain’s pullout was ‘’the wrong decision to make.”

“Obviously he has to make it based on the financial information and the polling numbers, but I think it might’ve been a little premature,” she said. “He still has a fighting chance here.”

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, seemed to agree with that assessment Friday, expressing dismay at her own campaign’s decision in an interview with Fox News Channel.

“I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try,” she told reporter Carl Cameron. “Todd and I, we’d be happy to get back to Michigan. We’d be so happy to speak to the people there in Michigan who are hurting.”

McCain supporter Chuck Yob, a former Republican National Committeeman for Michigan, underscored Palin's sentiments in a public email Friday.

"There will still be a campaign for John McCain in Michigan whether it is sanctioned by the professionals in Washington DC or not," Yob wrote.

As much as some Republicans might want McCain-Palin back in Michigan, McCain’s poll numbers have dropped precipitously in recent state polling. And while his campaign’s decision to leave the state was abrupt, it was not completely unforeseeable.

Since the crisis on Wall Street began two weeks ago, Obama has steadily widened his advantage over McCain. In a poll taken September 14-17 by the Michigan firm EPIC-MRA, McCain trailed Obama by just one point. In a new poll taken from September 20-22, that gap had widened to 10 points.

And in an even more recent survey conducted by the Iowa firm Selzer & Co., Obama led McCain, 51-38 percent.

“Among whites, I still think he is lagging among older white men without a college education, but everyone else, including independent women, [is] moving toward Obama,” EPIC-MRA president Bernie Porn.

Porn suggested that shift could largely be explained by the reemergence of economic issues as the central focus of the general-election campaign – and McCain’s shaky response to developing events on Wall Street.

“As much as it was about any positive messages Obama might have had, I think it also involved miscues on the part of the McCain campaign, inconsistencies, contradictions,” he said. “Calling off his campaign and everything, I’m not sure people responded to that the way the McCain campaign expected them to.”

Democrat Bill Crouchman, chair of the Macomb County Commission, agreed that economic issues were driving McCain’s numbers down.

“Southeast Michigan has really been in a recession now for about three years,” he said. “What the country’s feeling now, we’ve been going through for quite a while, so the economy, around here, is the issue.”

“Of course,” Crouchman jabbed, “[McCain’s] quote that he didn’t know much about economics didn’t help things for him.”
Patterson acknowledged McCain could have had a stronger response to the economic meltdown.

“Maybe he’s not as quick on the draw as everyone would want him to be, but Obama’s given him many opportunities to respond and knock it out of the park,” he said. “I don’t know how the hell [the economic crisis] got laid off on Republicans,” he said. “McCain just wasn’t up to the task for some reason.”

Though he sounded similarly frustrated in an entry on his blog, Anuzis did his best to buck up Republican spirits, claiming the party would do its best to stay in the game.

“We will have a revised plan in effect by next week and are NOT conceding an inch to the Obama campaign or any Democrats in Michigan,” he wrote. “This is a battleground state, the numbers always tighten up and we will bring the McCain campaign back to Michigan by our own efforts statewide.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081004/pl_politico/14267