×
- In yet another display of ignorance covered up by mindless bluster, John McCain surrogate Randy Sheunemann explains that McCain knows Jose Luis Zapatero is the prime minister of Spain, knows Spain is in Europe, but still insists that the would-be president refuses to "commit to a White House meeting" with the Spanish PM. Of course, there is the small detail of being legally bound in a mutual defense pact with Spain via NATO.
- At her first town hall meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, Sarah Palin challenged the crowd to ask her about "specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and you can ask me. You can even play stump the candidate if you want to!" Unfortunately for Palin the audience took her up on the offer, and McCain had to bail her out before she was asked any questions.
- Speaking of Palin fever, when John McCain spoke after her in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, crowds began filing out five minutes into his stand-alone speech.
- The Washington Post has a front-page story on the potential Election Day chaos that might befall polling places due to high turnout and eleventh-hour new registrants. I read stories like this and I'm reminded why I think Election Day should be a national holiday.
- US News has a good report on the Obama campaign's sophisticated manipulation of Google results to debunk viral rumors about the candidate. In other tech news, Bloomberg reports on Obama's use of Catalist, a likely voter database developed by Harold Ickes over four years for $15 million and modeled after the Republicans' VoterVault. "Catalist collects and stores millions of pieces of information from public records and commercial sources. In addition to voting rolls and tax information, it also has data about voters' magazine subscriptions and their cars. Campaigns also contribute e-mails, cell-phone numbers and even times when people are likely to be home."
- The GOP gets all multicultural, dispatching George "macaca" Allen to a rally in Fairfax Country, Virginia, to get minorities to vote for the Republican ticket. James Inhofe, on the other hand, sticks with the traditional GOP playbook to defend his Oklahoma Senate seat from Andrew Rice, portraying the Democrat as a homosexual. Stay Classy, Jim.
- I was on the fence on this offshore-drilling issue (the federal moratorium was lifted this week), but John McCain makes a pretty good case here: "And by the way, on that oil rig -- and I’m sure you’ve probably heard this story -- you look down, and there’s fish everywhere! There’s fish everywhere! Yeah, the fish love to be around those rigs. So not only can it be helpful for energy, it can be helpful for some pretty good meals as well." Uh, ok.
- I'll confess it: My knowledge of Brazilian politics is lacking, for I find this highly amusing: "At least six Brazilian politicians have officially renamed themselves 'Barack Obama' in a bid to get an edge over their rivals in October's municipal elections. "In truth it was an accident," says Belford Roxo's Obama, an IT consultant who is bidding to become the city's first black mayor. "I'd been on the television wearing a suit and people thought I looked a bit like him so they started calling me Barack Obama. They'd see me in the street and shout: 'Hey! Barack!" So I decided to register it.'"
--Mori Dinauer