Daily Archives: Oct. 14, 2008

Obama extending lead, but don’t count McCain out

Oct. 14, 200812:26 p.m.

Barack Obama now holds a 10 percentage point lead over John McCain in both the Gallup tracking poll and the latest Washington Post/ABC News survey. Even more significant, Obama is widening his leads in several battleground states.
Still, Walter Shapiro of Salon suggests it’s premature for Democrats to start working on the Cabinet appointments. John McCain isn’t out of it yet, Shapiro writes, because of the “volatile voter,” a possible October surprise, “another McCain dice roll” (such as a pledge to serve one term or a public repudiation of the Bush administration), and the chance that he might concentrate “his efforts on the battleground 2004 Bush states that he might still hold if everything broke right: Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado and Florida.” Shapiro goes on: “As a one-time event, all that is required is for a winning candidate to get lucky, very lucky, on Election Day.”
Republican rocker Ted Nugent offers his own advice for McCain in Human Events, including: “Unleash Palin Power in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Socialists hate her with a passion. That means she’s good – real good.”

By The Editors | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (92)

Palin had power but abused it

Oct. 14, 20086:03 a.m.

For someone who is campaigning as a reformer, Sarah Palin is sure sounding like a typical politician. Palin claimed Saturday that a special counsel’s investigation into her efforts to get her former brother-in-law fired cleared her of “any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity.” Not true. Though the report concluded that she had the power to reassign Alaska’s public safety commissioner, in part for not firing her former brother-in-law, it determined that she abused her power and violated state ethics laws.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (287)

Open thread 10/14

Oct. 14, 20086:02 a.m.

By The Editors | Filed under Open thread | Comments (236)

Have obnoxious cable guy moderate last debate

Oct. 14, 20086:01 a.m.

Last week’s presidential debate was so boring, it’s tempting to second the call by Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske that Wednesday night’s moderator not be a well-behaved guy like CBS News’ Bob Schieffer but rather a “Bill O’Reilly or Chris Matthews (in photo) type. A classless, obnoxious TV windbag unafraid to step in and mix it up before 70 or 80 million people and force these guys to answer questions.” I’d personally like to see Nancy Grace unleashed on Barack Obama and John McCain, who have been too casual in both debates about turning to their talking points.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (18)

Crisis could change bad habits

Oct. 14, 20086:00 a.m.

“Amid the financial chaos and economic uncertainty that has rocked world markets, I can see one silver lining,” wrote Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International. “This crisis has forced the United States to confront the bad habits it developed over the past few decades. If we can kick those habits, today’s pain will translate into gains in the long run.”
The biggest bad habit, according to Zakaria, is how much our personal and governmental budgets are paid for with borrowed money. “If there is a lesson to be taken from this crisis, it’s an old rule: There is no free lunch.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Economy | Comments (10)