The Last Campaign Weekend…

Happy Halloween, here are the points for this, the last Friday before we know the result. 

• Scary News That’s Fit to Print
The New York Times reports: the tab for the presidential campaign approaches a shocking $2 billion. Clearly, the system must be fixed.

• Most popular Halloween themes: 
Obama and McCain pumpkin carvings, Sarah Palin masks and Miss Alaska/Miss Vice President outfit

• Those damned intellectuals… 
76 Nobel Prize winners endorse Obama

• Obama hanged in effigy at University of Kentucky
Racism is still alive but do these photos show a glimmer of hope?

The second one is more obtuse – shows a confederate (southern racist) flag flying and an Obama lawn sign.

• On Being Obama Socialist:
“Socialist” The Economist endorsed Obama

Obama quote: “Lately, he’s called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.

• Governor Sarah Palin… socialist? 
The state she governs has no income or sales tax. It imposes huge levies on oil companies to lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance government activities and it issues a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. A reason Palin has been a popular governor? She added $1,200 dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269 ($22,883 to her household alone). Just before being nominated for VP, she told journalist, Philip Gourevitch, “we’re set up, unlike other states, where collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” (okaaayy…)

• Palin for President 2012 Already Begun?
What does Palin’s future hold - It’s not Election Day yet, but discussions about where the Republican Party goes from here have already been planned; Sarah Palin looms large.

• Joe the Plumber
The country stylings of Joe the Plumber by Inauguration Day? Joe may get his income over $250K: he’s looking to sign a recording contract for a country music album. “Joe” is Samuel Wurzelbacher, an Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man. He signed with a Nashville PR and management firm to handle interview and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift from plumbing to stage and studio performances.

• Vote Obama Go to Hell! Christian Right Scaremongering…
WorldNetDaily’s Janet Porter made your decision much easier. “To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger, according to the Word of God, so are you,” wrote Porter. “Those who think God’s grace gives them license to willfully disobey Him without consequences – think again: Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

That seals your eternity, so consider yourself warned!

• Obama ½ Hour Infomercial Reviews
Chris Matthews, MSNBC: “It was romance. It was realism… I thought it was fabulous.” 
Sara K. Smith, Wonkette: “Cried through the whole infomercial…
Mark Halperin, Time Magazine: “F***ing well done.” 
Mark Hemingway, National Review: “The last thing that should be driving America’s voting habits is a half-hour of Manipulative Portraits of Downtrodden Victims of Shadowy Governmental Forces… America is not one big breadline.
Ben Smith, Politico: “A dramatic gesture executed in a very safe fashion.” 
McCain campaign: “The sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware.” 
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC: “He had me at the waving wheat.” 
Tom Shales, Washington Post, via Hollywood Reporter: “An elegant combination of pictures, sounds, voices and music designed not so much to sell America on Barack Obama as to communicate… how it would feel to live in an America with Barack Obama in the White House.”
Rocky Mountain News: “This was 30-minutes of high-class production values, which told you little that you didn’t know before but which offered you 30 minutes of feeling comfortable watching Obama from your living room.” 
My take: “Felt proud to be an American for the 1st time in a long time.” (Yeah Michelle said it first and got roasted… it was amazing.)

AND… 33-million people watched that ½ hour political ad Wed. night on seven networks, delivering a bigger television audience for that time period than the usual viewership so far this season.

• Ashley Todd to Get Needed Help
Ashley Todd, a McCain College Republican field rep., tried to play the media for fools and help John McCain. She said she was robbed and beaten by a 6′4″ black male, who cut a letter B (backwards) into her face because he was incensed by her McCain bumper sticker. She didn’t count on forensic evidence showing her to be a liar, (such as the ATM camera footage). Under a plea bargain agreement she will be released from jail and required to undergo mental health treatment. If she stays out of trouble her record eventually will be expunged.”

• GOP Vote Suppression Tactics Thwarted
A Federal Appeals court agreed with a lower court ordering Michigan to add 5,500 voters back onto the rolls. Michigan “must not throw registered voters off the rolls, even if voter ID cards were returned as undeliverable.”

Tens of thousands of Coloradans removed from the state’s voter rolls will be allowed to vote in next week’s election and given extra protections their ballots are counted, under an agreement reached late Wednesday in federal court here. 

Pennsylvania must have paper ballots available if half of the machines at a polling place break down, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. “Emergency back-up paper ballots shall be used thereafter until the county board of elections is able to make the necessary repairs to the machine(s)” Judge Harvey Bartle ruled.

• How Low Can You Go? Kay Hagan Godless American 
Sen. Elizabeth Dole suggested state senator and challenger Hagan is “godless” in a telly advert. Said Hagan, “I think Elizabeth Dole has gone to the lowest of the lows. This is an attack on my Christian faith.” Hagan, is a Sunday school teacher/elder at a Presbyterian church in Greensboro, NC. In the 30-second ad, a narrator says a leader of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee recently held a “secret fundraiser” for Hagan. “She hid from cameras. Took ‘Godless’ money. What did Kay Hagan promise in return?” The ad ends with a picture of Hagan and a voice that sounds like hers declaring, “There is no God.”

• Newspaper Endorsement scorecard
Obama maintains a big lead at 234-105, a better than 2-1 margin and an even wider spread in their circulation numbers: Obama-backing papers – 21 million, compared with McCain’s 7 million. 

Obama’s lopsided margin is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George Bush in 2004 by 213 to 205. Obama, with 231, has already topped Kerry’s number with many more yet to be tallied. 

47 papers - most recently, the Cape Cod Times — have switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just 4 flipping to McCain. Also, several top papers that went for Bush in 2004 have chosen not to endorse this year… the latest the Indianapolis Star in Indiana. Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama – the first Democrat it has ever backed. 3 of top 5 dailies in Texas switched from Bush to Obama.

• Obama winning kids’ mock election
Obama is swamping McCain in a national mock election among students from Reception through 6th form. The Republican ticket was leading in only 7 states. The students have successfully called the winner in the past three elections: Bill Clinton 1996, George Bush 2000 and again in 2004. With 2.6 million votes counted, Obama had 62.1 percent of the vote, with 34.2 percent for McCain. Ind. Ralph Nader was third with 1.3 percent.

• Yes He Can (Vote)
Alaska AG’s office said while Stevens’ crimes fit the definition of “a felony involving moral turpitude,” a guilty verdict isn’t technically a “conviction” until sentenced. Stevens has not yet been sentenced, therefore is eligible to vote the election, said Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections. Stevens won’t be sentenced until early next year. He faces up to 35 years in prison, but is likely to get far less, if any, prison time. If re-elected, he could face an expulsion vote.

Maybe one more of these on Monday, depending on how the weekend goes…