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- Over the weekend, both The New York Times and The Washington Post ran hard hitting profiles of Sarah Palin's tenure as mayor of Wasilla, AK. Interviews of Wasilla residents, city council members and civic officials, paint a picture of Brownie-levels of cronyism, government secrecy, and abuse of power to fulfill petty personal vendettas. I imagine this sort of thing happens in small towns across America, but only one former small town mayor is running for vice president.
- Speaking of Palin, The Boston Globe ran a piece on Saturday on Palin's penchant for increasing government spending in Juneau, using massive oil profits.
- The Obama campaign is definitely trying to get the press to hound John McCain more aggressively on his serial lying, as this fact-checking campaign memo attests. Meanwhile, Paul Kiel learns that the Palin administration in Alaska is still pursuing the Bridge to Nowhere.
- Despite the continuing meltdown of U.S. financial markets, John McCain believes the economy is still "fundamentally" strong -- which he says is equivalent to saying the American worker is strong. As Adam says, McCain is now suggesting that criticizing the economy is the equivalent of criticizing the American worker. Hey, a similar strategy worked for the Iraq war and American soldiers, right? Meanwhile, Tim looks at the real fundamentals of the U.S. economy and concludes things are looking pretty bleak.
- Barack Obama raised $66 million in August, surpassing his previous-best February haul by $11 million. This gives the Obama campaign $77 million cash-on-hand and, combined with the DNC's $17 million August, ought to allay concerns that Obama has overextended himself.
- Karl Rove claims that "you can’t trust the fact-check organizations," but also that McCain has "gone too far" in his ads.
- Polls: In Ohio, Survey USA has McCain leading Obama 49-45, while Suffolk has McCain leading by the same margin, 46-42. In Minnesota, the race appears to be tightening, with Survey USA showing a narrow Obama lead, 49-47, and the Star Tribune showing a tie, 45-45. Better news for Obama in Virginia, with Obama holding a four-point lead, 50-46, according to Survey USA. McCain and Obama lost and gained, respectively, three points since this poll was last conducted. Meanwhile Elway gives Obama a comfortable nine-point lead in Washington, 46-37, and Selzer has Obama leading by double digits in Iowa, 52-40. Finally, Siena has strange results from the Empire State, showing Obama leading by only five points, 46-41.
--Mori Dinauer
