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- The RNC's independent expenditure arm has started running ads in Montana of all places. I suppose this is part of McCain's grand plan to eke out a win by carrying MT, WV and Maine's second congressional district.
- I knew McCain didn't really care about the substance of his policy proposals so long as they made for good Republican sound bites, but I did expect more from McCain's policy advisers, from whom we get an admission that the GOP contender's health care plan isn't all that great. What do you know -- straight talk is pretty refreshing.
- Speaking of policy, McCain is jumping on some goalpost-shifting vis-a-vis Obama's tax cut proposal. This would be great news for McCain ... if the change actually amounted to anything.
- Voting shenanigans forever: An official-looking flyer telling Democrats to vote on November 5 in order to "ease the load" on local precincts has been found in Virginia. Meanwhile in North Carolina, ballot vagaries are expected to ensure that a large number of people won't actually cast a ballot for president. Now this is not disenfranchisement, obviously, but a case of poorly-designed ballots exacerbating the carelessness with which many voters participate in the political process. Finally, perennial favorite Ohio might not be capable of aggregating Election Day and early ballots until the following morning because of electronic voting machines.
- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to extend early voting hours on Election Night means the Sunshine State is ready to repair its rep this year.
- Mmm, that's some good hyperbole. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), speaking at a Sarah Palin rally (tell me again why the McCain campaign thinks it can win here?), describes life under an Obama administration: "when you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship. There is no freedom to the left. It’s always to our side of the aisle." I assume at this point the crowd began reciting, from memory, passages from The Road to Serfdom.
- Apropos of Ezra's contribution to our cover story on why the President doesn't matter, this Politico story on Harry Reid's Robert Byrd problem provides a good overview of the Senate chairmanship changes likely to occur in the 111th Congress. On a related note, John Ensign says Senate Republicans would accept Joe Lieberman into their caucus "with open arms."
- Nearly 40 workers at a call center walked off the job rather than read some robocall garbage about Obama being "soft on crime" and "coddling criminals." Greg Sargent reports that the workers weren't fired, but were not compensated for the day.
--Mori Dinauer
