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- John McCain's electoral prospects are looking bleak at this point. His campaign's decision to pull resources out of Michigan essentially concedes the state to Barack Obama, which leads to the serious question of what remaining paths there are for John McCain to reach 270 electoral votes. Brian Schaffner makes the compelling case at Pollster.com that unless McCain can win over all undecideds (not likely) and steal back some votes from Obama (offset by defections in the other direction), there really isn't a viable path to 270. And according to Sean Quinn, the Obama campaign has locked up 269 electoral votes (Kerry states - NH + IA, NM, and CO) by maintaining a five percent lead or better in those states, leaving Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida and Nevada as possibilities for crossing 270.
- As Sarah Palin prepares to debate Joe Biden in St. Louis tonight, Politico reports that Palin will aggressively go after Biden on foreign policy and the Delaware Senator's liberal record. Foreign policy? Really? This comes as The New York Times reports on Biden's coziness with the powers that be in Delaware and his shameful use of Amtrak for commuting. Also, the USAF corrects Palin's vast knowledge of Russian sorties into U.S. airspace. On the plus side for Palin, she probably has sunk as low as she can go, as both Public Policy Polling and an ABC/Washington Post poll point to Palin's rapidly shrinking favorability ratings both nationally and in key swing states where Obama enjoyed a concurrent uptick approaching double digits in some states.
- The St. Petersburg Times reports that the Florida GOP, panicking over McCain's sliding poll numbers, "hastily convened a top secret meeting" to discuss their options. A little race-based vote suppression ought to do the trick, right fellas?
- Barack Obama is employing aggressive and inventive techniques to reach voters, including an iPhone app designed to allow people to "research Obama’s positions, find local events and contact voters," running his two-minute advertisement on the economy non-stop on a Dish Network channel, and employing a local bluegrass legend to cut an ad on behalf of the campaign in southern Virginia.
- Coherence is not John McCain's friend. Today on MSNBC McCain opined that the president ought to veto any spending bill that crosses his desk, including the $700 billion bailout McCain himself voted for last night. Huh? And if that wasn't enough, The Gambler remarked on Fox News that he wishes Gwen Ifill hadn't been picked as tonight's debate moderator, even after commending Ifill's professionalism yesterday. Seriously, is McCain even trying anymore?
- Oh, where would we be without that scourge of partisanship Joe "soon to be stripped of his committee chairs" Lieberman? Holy Joe tells Fox News that not only will the bailout bill be "good for the country," but "good for John McCain," claiming it will take voters' minds off the crisis so they can go back to comparing the presidential candidates. Of course, McCain's call for a veto would work against that noble goal so I have to conclude that Lieberman is a pretty terrible surrogate.
- Like me, I'm sure many of you will be watching tonight's debate at your local watering hole, which ought to cushion the impact of any Palin or Biden gaffes. While you're at it, try playing some PalinBingo!
--Mori Dinauer
