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With bated breath …

There are so many things that have happened in our recent history – things that have changed the world, things that change the definition of destiny, things that change who we think we can be, what we think we can achieve, things that change the boundaries of what is and is not. The West Wing gave us a glimpse of what it could be like. Season 7 took us though the Primaries with Matt Santos the minority candidate and into the general election under the guiding hand of Josh Lyman as they set the stage for Barack Obama and David Axelrod.

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Reality kicked in on the 10th February 2007 when Obama announced his national campaign at the place where just some 149 years earlier, Abraham Lincoln delivered his “House Divided” speech. A primary campaign sometimes referred to as the ‘Never Ending Story’ took us through to the 3rd. June when Obama was nominated as the presumptive candidate therein setting the stage for the national campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Today is Sunday the 2nd. November 2008, just a couple of days away from the most important political moment in my life. Within 72 hours we will be watching the numbers rolling in. But unlike every other election – the substance and the implications of this election are tectonic in nature.

Today we wait with bated breath.

1,146 replies on “With bated breath …”

Indeed we are waiting with baited breath Catrina, but quietly confident that the abysmal Bush and his party will be swept away along with the last remaining vestiges of Reaganism and the appalling neoconservatives and their fundamentalist camp followers.
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Off topic, but pertaining to being online, and especially Wednesday, I’ve just put a wireless PC in the toy room for son No#1 who quickly discovered Lego games, and also for Mrs K can finally trash her old laptop which even with extra memory I whacked in to run XP runs like a month of wet Sundays (it was a great machine way back, and hey, it was a company freebe!).

But suddenly household bandwidth just exceeded our monthly limit and won’t reset until…Wednesday! Phew!

So I’m drinking through the proverbial straw at the moment as Telstra throttles back the data to 64kbps once over the limit.

But come Wednesday, I’ll be back up to speed and enjoying every second of it with all you bloggers wherever you may be.

Sorry you won’t be able to make it to Brisbane Kirri.
But glad to hear it’s only logistics. 🙂
Alas, without the benifit of your calming presence………….
I fear for the sanity and livers of all those lucky ticsters as they gambol and carouse around the Jubilee Hotel.
Looking forward to your rapier wit via teh tubes on election day

And for goodness sake man.
Get a different ISP to the evil empire!! :mrgreen:

4 paddy Just gotta wait till Kevin give things a hurry up. Along with what happens in the US, the Internet will blow our minds soon!

Multi-millionaires also back Obama ahead of election.

Barack Obama has promised to increase taxes if he becomes president of the United States. But the really rich want change and many of them have said they are voting for the senator from Illinois.

Despite the tradition that says the country’s wealthy tend to favour the Republican Party, there has been an unexpected swing ahead of Tuesday’s election that favours the black Democratic candidate.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/usa/features/article_1440504.php/Multi-millionaires_also_back_Obama_ahead_of_election

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Frank Rich’s usual Sunday treat is right on the money as usual.

A few snippets from his brilliant essay.

Our political and news media establishments — fixated for months on tracking down every unreconstructed bigot in blue-collar America — have their own conspicuous racial myopia, with its own set of stereotypes and clichés. They consistently underestimated Obama’s candidacy because they often saw him as a stand-in for the two-dimensional character Poitier had to shoulder in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” It’s why so many got this election wrong so often.

There were countless ruminations, in print and on television, asking the same two rhetorical questions: “Is He Black Enough?” and “Is He Tough Enough?” The implied answer to both was usually, “No.” The brown-skinned child of biracial parents wasn’t really “black” and wouldn’t appeal to black voters who were overwhelmingly loyal to the wife of America’s first “black” president. And as a former constitutional law professor, Obama was undoubtedly too lofty an intellectual to be a political street fighter, too much of a wuss to land a punch in a debate, too ethereal to connect to “real” Americans. He was Adlai Stevenson, Michael Dukakis or Bill Bradley in dark face — no populist pugilist like John Edwards.

And this little gem.

Once Obama wrested the nomination from Clinton by surpassing her in organization, cash and black votes, he was still often seen as too wimpy to take on the Republicans. This prognosis was codified by Karl Rove, whose punditry for The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek has been second only to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as a reliable source of laughs this year.

Then finally this.

After some 20 months, we’re all still getting used to Obama and still, for that matter, trying to read his sometimes ambiguous takes on both economic and foreign affairs. What we have learned definitively about him so far — and what may most account for his victory, should he achieve it — is that he had both the brains and the muscle to outsmart, outmaneuver and outlast some of the smartest people in the country, starting with the Clintons. We know that he ran a brilliant campaign that remained sane and kept to its initial plan even when his Republican opponent and his own allies were panicking all around him. We know that that plan was based on the premise that Americans actually are sick of the divisive wedge issues that have defined the past couple of decades, of which race is the most divisive of all.

Well worth subscribing (free)

4 Paddy
I promise to be unrestrained and rampant in my gamboling and carousing.

Too bloody right!

Who can’t make it to Brisbane on Wednesday?
Myself
Kirribilli Removals
Chris
Who else?
We’ll be the sober, responsible ones keeping the intelligent commentary going on the board, while the rest of you get shit faced drunk LOL

Dems hold big edge in Florida in early and absentee voting.

A huge increase in early voting has given Democrats a decided advantage over Republicans in Florida — a major departure from statewide voting trends four years ago, according to a Miami Herald analysis of early and absentee ballots cast so far this year.

Through Thursday, Democrats cast 46 percent of the 3.4 million early and absentee votes in Florida, while Republicans cast 38 percent.

That’s a big shift since 2004, when Democrats were outvoted 44 percent to 41 percent by Republicans in early and absentee ballots, according to a study of Florida voting data.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/752380.html

If it wasn’t mentioned earlier:
Zogby in the space of one day went from a 1 point McCain lead to a 10 point Obama lead
Guess which poll Matt Drudge was trumpeting on his crap website?

10
Prog
Alas, I’ll be one of the deprived as well.
But sod it when it comes to being sober and responsible.
I fully expect to be so bad, that even Ferny’s ears will turn pink and (hopefully) Steven Conroy’s head will explode! :)l

Zogby has been shown up as the partisan pro Republican hack he really is. When you leak favourable McCain polls to Matt Drudge, that’s a sure sign!

Obama leads McCain by 6 points.

Democrat Barack Obama’s lead over Republican rival John McCain firmed marginally to 6 points with support for both candidates steady before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.

Obama leads McCain by 50 percent to 44 percent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, up from a 5-point advantage on Saturday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN3134134020081102

AP Analysis: Fla. Dems gain from Hispanic growth.

According to the latest voter registration numbers, Flagler County, just north of Daytona Beach, switched from a GOP lead of 1,239 registered voters in 2004 to a Democratic lead of 684 registered voters this year. Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, went from a Republican lead of 8,108 registered voters in 2004 to Democratic lead of 11,705 registered voters in 2008.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/751466.html

15 – Cat

I actually quite liked the SNL skit. But mostly because of Tina Fey and Palin 2012 😛

Kirri
I am one of those in the same boat as you and “no more Alchohol” and i have really taken to the water. Has been nearly five years now and i do not even care for a beer anymore.
The two worst things about is that i only save about $4 a week as i used to home brew and i have these horendous nightmares. Last night was really bad, i dreamt my arse was an orange and John McCain was suckin on it. :mrgreen:
The best thing about it is i now get to hear others troughing shit and reflect by saying i never used to do that when i was on the piss.
I was a happy drunk and not a violent one thank F.

I will also be joining the home bloggers on E day.
Would have enjoyed Brisvegas though!

Looks like Oprah has voted early and her presidential vote may have gone down the shitter!

Oprah’s Vote Lost & How You Can Fight to Assure It Doesn’t Happen to You!

Share Print Comments Last night, HuffPo posted a video showing Oprah Winfrey reacting to the fact that the touch-screen voting machine she voted on failed to properly register her vote on the screen.

video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/oprahs-vote-lost-how-you_b_140026.html

Karl rove IT fixer hopefully in a fix! Hopefully mr Spoonamore may be able to do a job on him under oath!

Mike Connell, Rove’s IT fixer, ordered to testify on Monday
At the end of the day yesterday at the Carl Stokes Federal Court Building in Cleveland, US District Judge Solomon Oliver denied Michael Connell’s motion to quash the subpoena issued for his deposition testimony ordered the deposition to take place at Noon on Monday Nov. 3, 2008, in Cleveland.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mike-Connell-Rove-s-IT-fi-by-Press-Release-081101-733.html

15
Cat
True story. Some years ago in southern India,
I was traveling around and came upon temple with a resident elephant.
The poor creature was dying, slowly and obviously in pain.
The priests at the temple, being hindu brahmins, would no more think of euthanizing the elephant than, they would of flying to the moon.
Naturally, as a foreign tourist, I simply had to turn away and walk on.
That sad encounter still retains a vivid place in my memory today.

John McCain’s appearance on LNL just brought back that memory.
Ironic, considering the GOP’s symbol. But mostly just sad and maybe just a little obscene.

Let it be over soon. So the US and the rest of the world can begin the healing.
RIP

Ted Stevens looks like he could have a cellmate before long.
Norm Coleman (R) has been harrassing Al Franken with law suits has now been given a please explain of his own as to how heaps of money AKA Stevens has come his way.

In a very close election between Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken the Democratic leadership pounced on the unexpected developments. Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the new allegations come “on top of the questions that have already been raised about Senator Coleman’s relationship with Nasser Kazeminy. It’s now incumbent on Coleman to prove why the facts contained in this lawsuit aren’t true.”

Could Republican Norm Coleman be the Next Indicted U.S. Senator?

Brian Melendez, chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party, issued this statement late Thursday after the first McKim v. Kaseminy lawsuit surfaced, “These allegations of criminal behavior are serious and deeply troubling. The plaintiff has verified those allegations, meaning that he will go to jail if he is lying.” “Sen. Coleman has a duty to the people of Minnesota to explain why those allegations aren’t true before the voters go to the polls on Tuesday, ” Melendez also stated.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Could-Republican-Norm-Cole-by-E-Nelson-081101-771.html

Earlier in the week, Dateline aired a programme about the US election, and one section had Negus with a few Washington commentators and the Republican woman said she was voting for Obama…didn’t David Frum look sad! LOL

All agreed Obama would win with a range from close to landslide. Not even Frum thought Macca had a chance and he was appalled by Palin.

All bar the shouting when even David Frum turns glum.

Obama riding ‘righteous wind’ in election lead up.

Democrat Barack Obama has promised a “new politics for a new time” and said he had a “righteous wind” at his back as he basked in hefty poll leads just three days before Tuesday’s historic election.

But on the electrifying campaign’s final weekend, Senator Obama’s Republican White House rival Senator John McCain attacked Senator Obama’s patriotism after the Democrat said his faith in the American people had been “vindicated.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/02/2407976.htm

Time to go to the election.
CNN 2 Days 14 hours 04 mins.
ABC 1 Day 04 hours 02 mins.

ABC would be the start of polls CNN the close of polls, I think.

off thread but…
they are about to execute the Bali bombers so isn’t that great. That will fix everything.
Meanwhile we are all on a travel alert because the Indonesians may want to retaliate.

Shoot’Dang – dontcha just love capital punishment?! Works a treat.

Paddy, I had a look at that Thomas Rowell article you cited in the last thread. I was fascinated with this:

“After this man has wrecked the economy and destroyed constitutional law with his judicial appointments, what can he do for an encore? He can cripple the military and gamble America’s future on his ability to sit down with enemy nations and talk them out of causing trouble.”

I thought for a minute he’d mixed up his copy and was referring to Dubya.

What a pompous git. Hasn’t he been paying any attention over the last two years? Maybe he’s the US version of the Devines or Greg Sheridan.

Yeah, jen, the cold-blooded, State sanctioned taking of human lives by other humans is barbaric.
———————————————————
Worry-wart Comfort:
“The CBS (NYSE:CPV)/Times poll found 54 percent of those surveyed supporting Obama, compared to 41 percent for McCain. That’s a 2 percent swing to the Democrat since Thursday.
The ABC/Post poll surveyed 1,896 likely voters between Oct. 28 and Oct. 31 and has a 2.5 percentage point margin of error. The CBS/Times poll sampled 1,120 adults, including 989 registered voters, between the same dates and has a 3 percentage point margin of error.”

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/01/2_polls_give_McCain_little_good_news/UPI-98861225591770/

Since early September this race has shifted rather dramatically in Obama’s favor. As long as the focus is almost exclusively on the economy, this race is almost unwinnable for McCain. It would take a major external event, the proverbial October Surprise, to shift the spotlight to national security or some other subject that would allow McCain to highlight his strengths. At this stage, the most relevant question would seem to be: “How big will the train wreck be for the Republican Party up and down the ballot in November.” Obama currently has a 286 to 139 Electoral vote edge, with 113 Electoral votes in the Toss Up column. 270 are needed to win.

http://www.cookpolitical.com/

Jen, I am with you on the Bali Bombers. I am distressed that the lead story on ABC is their execution. I abhor capital punishment, it’s just wrong.

I am blown away by the people who post at Daily Kos. It’s great because they don’t just complain – they mobilise – they collect funds. They direct their money to small wars they can impact. I think it’s fantastic. Horrible as it is, this is just an example. I just love how they fight back, with money, or in other cases, with volunteers. The movement for change is incredible.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/1/165630/516/739/649118

40
Don Says:

What a pompous git. Hasn’t he been paying any attention over the last two years? Maybe he’s the US version of the Devines or Greg Sheridan.

I think you’re correct Don. 🙂
He’s actually quite a sad case. Or he would be if he weren’t so downright repellent and toxic in his rantings.
Check out the links on that page to his other rants.
He’s one of the people who I’ve found hardest to read throughout the election.

Dear old RCP. What a huge pile of rubbish they love to link to.
Speak of the devil….Greg Sheridan is now being featured there as I type. 🙂
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24582660-7583,00.html

Dear me, when right leaning US blogs have to resort to Sheridan,
they are clearly getting desperate.

EC, Jen and HL, agreed on the Bali bombers. If youre against capital punishment, you should be against it, Remember Robert McClelland being chatisied for this last year even though his opinion reflected Labor and Liberal party policy

Capital Punishment is institutionalised revenge and it debases all of those involved. I am always amazed that those in the US and here who are heavily in favour of CP always seem to be the most staunch opponents of abortion, which I believe (as a bloke) I shouldn’t get a vote on deciding whether society allows them.

Also, assinating the Bali Bombers enlarges their status as martyrs – as Homer Simpson would sat “Doh!”

53 – cardster

Interestingly enough, I am for capital punishment in certain circumstances, whereas I am for abortion.

Although given Obama is about to sweep the US, I’m happy to leave the discussion for another time 🙂

Personally, I believe that women are the best ones to decide whether an abortion is their only option. Whatever decision each individual makes on this matter has my support. What I find unhinged is the right-wing nutters (usually men), especially the senior RC clergy. who want to impose their views on this matter on society.

At least with Obama’s election, Roe v Wade will stand.

On Capital Punishment – there are those who I might want to put to death (for example, kiddy rapers – paedophiles is too nice a name for them) but in the end doing so would lower me to their standards; instead I want them locked up in mental institutions until they die. You can’t cure those fuckers.

38

“GWV
Do the polls open at 6.00am?”

I couldn’t find a website with all of the opening times, but it appears that most states open at 7am, with a few exceptions such as Texas at 8am while New York does indeed open at 6am.

Prog 18, in defence of Zogby (and I dont REALLY want to defend them!!), Drudge tried to isolate one day of their three day polling in the desparate search for a poll that showed McCain with a chance. The question is, how did he get that day’s results??

As the presidential race enters its final weekend after two years of battle, John McCain’s best chance for a history-defying comeback rests in the greatest of electoral unknowns: voter turnout.

To win on Tuesday, analysts and polls suggest, the Republican nominee must win nearly all the remaining undecided voters in key swing states and peel a large chunk of “soft” supporters from Democratic rival Barack Obama. Then he must hope that his supporters vote in overwhelming numbers, and that more Obama supporters than expected stay home.

It would be a daunting task in any election, but it’s particularly the case this year, when analysts predict the largest voter turnout ever, perhaps 130 million, and the biggest percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in a century.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-turnout1nov02,0,2192902.story

This is a “feel good” column from Mark Shields

http://www.creators.com/opinion/mark-shields.html

I believe he is right and wrong. Obama’s presidency will see certainly more involvement from young African Americans. But, as we have seen from Obama’s brilliant mobilisation of all sorts of Americans and non-Americans to the cause of change, I believe we will see many more people taking an interest in maters politic.

Poll Opening and Closing Times

I have made a complete list of the opening/closing times for the polls in all states. Note that some states have variable times for the polls to open or close, where that is the case I have put the times in brackets.

Alabama 7AM – 7PM
Alaska 7AM – 8PM
Arkansas 7:30AM – 7:30PM
Arizona 6AM – 7PM
California 7AM – 8PM
Colorado 7AM – 7PM
Connecticut 6AM – 8PM
Delaware 7AM – 8PM
District of Columbia 7AM – 8PM
Florida 7AM – 7PM
Georgia 7AM – 7PM
Hawaii 7AM – 6PM
Idaho 8AM – 8PM
Illinois 6AM – 7PM
Indiana 6AM – 6PM
Iowa 7AM – 9PM
Kansas 7AM – &PM
Kentucky 6AM – 6PM
Louisiana 6AM – 8PM
Maine (6AM-9AM) – 8PM
Maryland 7AM – 8PM
Massachusetts 7AM – 8PM
Michigan 7AM – 8PM
Minnesota 7AM – 8PM
Mississippi 7AM – 7PM
Missouri 6AM – 7PM
Montana (7AM-12PM) – 8PM
Nebraska 8AM – 8PM
Nevada 7AM – 7PM
New Hampshire (6AM-11AM) – (7PM-8PM)
New Jersey 6AM – 8PM
New Mexico 7AM – 7PM
New York 6AM – 9PM
North Carolina 6:30AM – 7:30PM
North Dakota (7AM-9AM) – 7PM
Ohio 6:30AM – 7:30PM
Oklahoma 7AM – 7PM
Oregon N/A (Mail-in Voting)
Pennsylvania (7AM – 8PM)
Rhode Island 7AM – 9PM
South Carolina 7AM – 7PM
South Dakota 7AM – 7PM
Tennessee (6AM-9AM) – 7PM
Texas 7AM – 7PM
Utah 7AM – 8PM
Vermont (5AM-10AM) – 7PM
Virginia 6AM – 7PM
Washington 7AM – 8PM
West Virginia 6:30AM – 7:30PM
Wisconsin 7AM – 8PM
Wyoming 7AM – 7PM

Thanks and congratulations to all at 101,
all should be proud of your selves.
I’ve been a serial lurker since day one and loved every second.
Enjoy the great day.
“Remember, remember the 5th of November”

Through gritted teeth, I’m currently watching Geraldine Doogue introducing none other than the sun king spouting his first Boyer lecture. On ABC1 TV

Good grief I’m a masochist. Rupert’s droning on and on …and on.
40 mins to go…….Are we there yet?
This is not the Gettysburg address. 🙁

66

A couple of corrections, in Oregon you can deliver your mail-in ballot in person to the county clerk’s office on Election Day between 7AM and 8PM, and the brackets next to the Pennsylvania times are typos.

Bloody hell!
I really think Rupert’s lost it.
He’s saying Australia should join NATO???
What a tiresome old pain in the arse he is.
He sounded either very tired or maybe a little pissed. Occasional slurred words and not exactly soaring oratory. 🙂
I don’t think he’s going to be able to face down a victorious Democratic party in the US.
There are too many old scores to settle. So despite his best efforts via FOX and his print media outlets, the Dems are going to laugh in his face.
Link for the audio here.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures/

“This is not the Gettysburg address.”

NO, that’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

(old gag from Pogo comic strip)

The Republican ‘surge’ on the betting markets appears to have ended. Centrebet has McCain back out to $6.00 and the 2008.PRES.OBAMA contract on Intrade is at 87.1 and climbing.

Still trying to find a narrowing. Anyone seen it? Mr McCain is really getting anxious.

(Actually, between you and me – and I don’t have to heart to tell Mr McCain this – I don’t think there ever was a narrowing).

Oh Fuck it! HEY JOHNNY – ABOUT THAT NARROWING….

As a fine antidote to the toxic rantings of Thomas Sowell.
Here’s a fellow with a pen to match Barack Obama’s oratory.
Damn if it didn’t bring a tear to the eye.

Obama Vs. Farrakhan
by Stanley Crouch

By the time Obama ran, black Americans proved themselves what the Civil Rights Movement had always claimed: We can be just as good or just as bad as you. We are only human.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-01/how-obama-made-farrakhan-irrelevant/

82
Now then Ferny. We both know there’s only one narrowing we’re going to see over the next 72 hrs.
The cold dead hands of John McCain, tightening around Sarah Pailn’s throat. :mrgreen:

Something to keep in mind with the exit polls.

One complication caused by early voting is that the exit polls Tuesday will sample only 60-70% of the electorate and it may well be a biased sample given the fact that so many Democrats have voted early so Tuesday voters may be disproportionately Republicans.

Obama Continues to Lead Nationally

In the national polls, Obama’s average lead is now 7.8%,

http://www.electoral-vote.com

Love to see the excitement building up. Sadly I cannot get to Brissy or even to Melbourne, but will be online for most of the day.

Actually, McCain seemed more wide-awake and with it in the Saturday Night Live clip than he has on most of his public appearances. I wonder whether there is some measure of relief that it is nearly over. I also suspect he gets on a lot better with Tina than with Sarah!

Chris: apparently exit polls have been done of early voters and these will be factored into the overall surveys.

E-Day minus two and everything’s gone blurry.

Bomb-Bomb and Yup-Yup are causualties of Electoral Twister; too many holes in the dike and not enough fund-fattened fingers to plug the leaks whichever way they contort.
For The Kid, his netroots GOTV machine is getting ready to rumble one hundred and forty three years after the last slave was sold in the market place down in New Orleans.

So while McCain and the GOPpers are history, Obi and America are about to make History.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States

Sun Nov 2:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/jeffstahler;_ylt=AlSihDdw44JhhjncoT6EvpIl6ysC

Sat Nov 1:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/edstein;_ylt=AnFtw039F1N2VkPij_Pg9dwl6ysC

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/62118

Welcome, xox, if you chime in with a few more comments people might start calling you “Cuddles”.
🙂

For Queenslanders, Don Watson will be sharing his thoughts on RN Breakfast about Obi’s live address today in Ohio.

Due to on going disputes with various factions of the community regarding the word, Google will now remove the word gullible from their search engine. This is to avoid rival factions from the gullible community forcing their versions of gullible on unsuspecting members of the gullible population. It is hoped at a later stage to bring the left and right factions together to help bring a standard version of gullible for general use.

89 Enemy Combatant I never would have suspect that, she has all those kids to be one of those. Isn’t it against her religion?

Ensign calls financial crisis a ‘body blow’ to GOP.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on Sunday likened the current financial crisis to a “body blow” that robbed the GOP of some short-live momentum late in the 2008 election cycle.

The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is facing significant losses when voters head to the polls Tuesday. He has faulted his party for how it explained the economic troubles, arguing that this allowed Democrats to grab hold of the issue.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/ensign-calls-financial-crisis-a-body-blow-to-gop-2008-11-02.html

Obama pounces on Cheney’s McCain endorsement

Barack Obama seized on Dick Cheney’s endorsement of John McCain Saturday, telling a Colorado crowd that the GOP candidate “earned” the unpopular vice president’s endorsement by voting with President Bush.

With three days left to go until Election Day, Cheney urged supporters at a Victory rally in Wyoming to vote for McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, saying the country “cannot afford the high-tax liberalism of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-pounces-on-cheneys-mccain-endorsement-2008-11-01.html

60,000+ at one Obama rally in Ohio earlier today, he’s soon doing another one with Bruce Springsteen

On the home stretch now and it couldn’t look any better for Obama. Polls are still in landslide territory. No narrowing in sight (David Gould will be disappointed!). McCain is forced to defend areas that any self-respecting Republican should never need to defend. Meanwhile, the fear and smear machine is working over-time, desperately searching for yet another derogatory adjective to apply to Obama. But the only way the Repugs can win this is to steal it. I’m sure they’re checking out their options…

Watched McCain on the stump on the weekend. Can he be any more shrill?? He’s looking pretty mean and scary these days as he rants on about everyone needing to “fight”, “fight”, “fight”, and keep on “fighting”, but it never seems clear what McCain wants us all to fight for or fight against. Ugh — really cringey. This man sure knows how to tear himself down…

Meanwhile, flicked onto Fox News late last night. Seems reality has finally begun to sunk in over in Republican land. They’re talking about McCain in the past tense and speculating about what could have been if McCain hadn’t sold his soul to the Rovian forces. Still blasting Obama with anti-facts, but softened a little compared to last week. I guess the prospect of new media laws under the Democrats will be having some effect.

Anyway… two days and we enter a whole new era!

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