Mori Dinauer

John McCain appears determined to take his presidential campaign in a different direction this week, starting with a tough speech in Arlington, VA. Unfortunately this was accompanied by a decision to drop a major overhaul of his economic plan — and I hear the economy is sorta a big deal these days. Meanwhile, Barack Obama […]

As John McCain‘s prospects for becoming president fade more every day, it’s clear he’s going to go out hitting the wingnut trifecta, insinuating Obama and ACORN are committing vote fraud (actually, it’s registration fraud), using Bill Ayers to explain why Obama is responsible for the financial meltdown (seriously), and of course blaming Obama for being […]

I suspect Barack Obama‘s taunting of John McCain over the so-called controversies in Obama’s mysterious past (“he wasn’t willing to say it to my face”) are likely to get under the Arizonan’s skin. Joe Biden is getting into the act as well, telling supporters at a rally in Missouri that “In my neighborhood, when you’ve […]

Last night’s presidential debate was notable for the absence of the character attacks the McCain campaign vowed to ratchet up this week. But Politico was probably premature in claiming this morning that “going forward, the candidate wouldn’t focus on the former domestic terrorist nor invoke the name of Obama’s controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.” […]

Barack Obama and John McCain will participate in their second presidential debate tonight. It will be held under a highly constricted town hall-style format where questions from undecided voters in the audience (and the Internet) will be submitted to moderator Tom Brokaw, approved, then asked by the person who wrote them (if available). There are […]

Let the smears begin. John McCain and Sarah Palin have chosen, unsurprisingly, to go hard negative against Barack Obama by playing up the Democrat’s “otherness.” And even though McCain had previously ordered his campaign to not bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Palin apparently didn’t get the memo, bringing up the association in Florida today. For […]

Last night’s vice-presidential debate drew 45 percent of American households, a considerably larger audience than the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Think Progress has compiled a video that demonstrates how reliant Sarah Palin was on notecards to deliver her talking points. [EDIT: Marc Ambinder argues that wasn’t the case, as it […]

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 […]

We now know the following about Sarah Palin: She has voracious reading habits. She thinks being homosexual is a choice. She often gives foreign policy advice to John McCain. She is unable or unwilling to say whether rape victims should carry pregnancy to term or whether the morning after pill should be legal. She believes […]

The evidence seems pretty strong that it wasn’t just members of Congress with safe seats who voted for the bailout — supporters of the bill also received 54 percent more campaign contributions from banks and securities firms. Meanwhile, an ABC News/Washington Post poll [PDF] finds that 44 percent of Americans blame the Republicans for the […]