Rally Caps!

Off to tonight's Obama rally in Cincy.

Catch you later.

McSame Shows His Hand

Today on FOX News, McSame campaign manager Rick Davis revealed his strategy for winning on Wednesday: Taking Obama to court in every state that Mcsame doesn't win.

If the McCain campaign believes voter fraud from groups like ACORN tainted the result of Tuesday's election, it will resort to "legal remedies," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said.

Fox's Chris Wallace asked Davis the following: "But I just want to make it clear. You reserve the right, if you feel that something has gone down wrong in any state in the country, that you'll go to court."

Davis responded: "Absolutely. There's no question that we're going to monitor this election. We have the largest election day operation in the history of our party's activities to ensure that we have a fair and honest election."

Alluding to past election fraud, Wallace asked Davis if allegations of Republicans suppressing voters could create a "blizzard of lawsuits" that would prevent a decisive tally for weeks after Tuesday.

"I think on Wednesday morning you'll wake up and John McCain will be president elect," Davis said.

When Wallace questioned Davis about recent allegations that Republicans are preventing thousands of eligible voters from casting their vote, Davis said the fault lies with "liberal activist groups."

"What's happened is a bunch of liberal activist groups like ACORN and others... have taken it upon themselves to try and frame this election as anything but honest," Davis said.

The GOP has denounced the accusations of voter suppression as a "reckless strategy" of the Obama campaign, which has released fliers warning of the issue.

Davis pointed to the federal investigation underway against ACORN as an example of liberals, and not Republicans, being guilty of fraudulent election practices.

"In fact, if there's anything to look at, it's the manipulation of these voter rolls before the election that's caused so many problems," Davis said. "We're not going to stand for it."

Pay attention folks. The real battle for the Presidency will only partially be fought on Tuesday. The GOP still controls the courts.

The election will not be over on Wednesday. Should Obama actually come out ahead by anything less than a massive landslide, the GOP will sue, sue, sue.

They will try to paint Obama as illegitimate as possible. What Democrats SHOULD have done to Bush in 2000 will instead be done to Obama in 2008.

Stay tuned. This is just beginning. Should Obama win Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, I predict McSame lawsuits in all three states as well as Virginia, NC, and Colorado if they go blue.

These lawsuits will seek to disenfranchise millions upon millions of voters. I guarantee it. McSame will not roll over like Gore did in 2000. No way. No how. Obama must have cheated and we'll sue and sue and sue until the Supremes step in and decide this election again. Watch. It's coming.

I hope I'm wrong. I really, honestly hope to God, Goddess, Allah, Buddha, Sikkar the Lightbringer and the Flying Spaghetti Monster that I'm wrong and Obama's margin of victory just crushes McSame across the board in battleground state after battleground state.

So vote Tuesday by all means. We have to run up the scoreboard. Vote Monday if you can. But keep in mind Rick Davis has revealed his campaign's hand: John McSame's temperament will not allow him to lose without a violent and ugly fight, the result of which at the minimum will be to make Obama look as illegitimate as Bush 43 should have looked to the nation in January 2001. The wingnuts will not allow him to give up. And the whole rotten stinking kettle of fish may end up in front of the ultimate activist judge panel.

What does John McSame know that we don't know? What gives him that preternatural calmness and confidence? He knows the true battle begins Wednesday.

Does anyone here honestly believe the GOP will accept the complete and utter repudiation of their party without scorching the earth beneath the feet of America's political system into blackened glass?

Me either.

So vote. Get your friends to vote. Drive people to the polls. Do whatever you can. I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off to do just that, knock, hit the call centers for Ohio across the river, the 72 hour bombardment, whatever it takes. I'm reporting bright and early Monday morning here in Cincy.

Run up the scoreboard. Prove the mandate of the people beyond any shadow of a doubt. Pray that BooMan's predictions of the Great Realignment are true, and that everything breaks Obama's way in a blue tsunami that utterly crushes and drowns the GOP.

Because the alternative is going to be five of nine old people deciding that everything we did in the last twelve months didn't matter and that millions of our votes didn't count.

Once more into the breach, dear friends. We have a job to do. We have to fight over the next two days to make sure this is won Tuesday.

Because the GOP is planning to start the real fight on Wednesday.

VOTE.

Poll-nographic Images

Much has been made by the Right of the Gallup "traditional estimate" poll, made using past esitmates of turnout models (the so called "likely voters") as opposed to the other polls using current turnout models ("registered voters").

Gallup in fact has two polls, one likely voters, one registered voters. The McSame camp was giddy as a schoolgirl when the likely voter poll showed Obama's lead had narrowed from 7 points to just two points in three days, from October 24 (51-44%) to October 27th (49-47%).

The McSame camp and the wingnuts assured America that young people and minorities were simply not going to vote this year, that the turnout was going to follow more traditional models, and that John McCain would be able to pull out a close upset victory if not be ahead by the final weekend and go on to win. It was important because Obama had fallen below 50%, and McSame was within the margin of error. The McSame camp predicted that therefore this proved the race was in fact a tossup.

Smug and assured, they laughed at Obama's half-hour ad buy and said it would backfire, doing more harm than good. It would be Obama being "uppity and presumptuous" again, adressing the nation with a "crass infomercial".

And since October 27th, since Obama's half-hour "closing argument" ad buy on Wednesday night, they expected John McSame to be in control heading into the final weekend before Tuesday's election. The trends were clear, and they believed in the "likely voter" model.

But, there's one small detail they forgot to factor in, you see. The McSame campaign has been much been 100% WRONG about everything.

For you see, Obama is now leading the Gallup likely voter poll by ten points.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has taken the largest lead yet among likely voters against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the national Gallup poll released Saturday. Obama expanded his lead to ten percent from nine percent on Friday.

Obama's lead is a dramatic rise from the 49-47 percent margin that Gallup registered just four days ago.

Gallup added, "This is the first time since Gallup began estimating likely voters in early October that there is no difference between Gallup's two likely voter models. Obama's lead of 52% to 42% using Gallup's traditional estimate of likely voting criteria takes into account past voting as well as current intentions. Obama's identical lead using the expanded model takes into account only current voting intentions."

"Both of these likely voter estimates in turn are almost identical to Gallup's 52% to 41% registered voter estimate.

McSame had a chance if he stayed above 45 and Obama at 50. Now? Now he's in trouble. The dominoes are falling in the other direction. It greatly appears that Obama's ad buy may have in fact sealed the deal among undecided voters instead of hurting him.

We may have reached a tipping point here with less than 48 hours before polls open.

I'm Sorry, Mr. McSame Is No Longer At This Address

Et tu, Palin?

At a boisterous Sarah Palin rally in Polk City, Florida on Saturday afternoon, one name was surprisingly absent from the campaign décor — John McCain’s.

Looking around the Fantasy of Flight aircraft hangar where the rally took place, one could see all the usual reminders that it was a pro-McCain event. There were two large “Country First” banners hung on the walls along with four enormous American flags meant to conjure the campaign’s underlying patriotic theme. Many of the men and women in the audience wore McCain hats and t-shirts.

But on closer inspection, the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.

So, when will McSame be relegated to Viagra commercials like Bob Dole? McSame lost because he wasn't a hard-core wingnut like Palin, you see. That's now the official excuse.

The Sarah Palin 2012 campaign officially began today over John McSame's political corpse...three days before the 2008 election.

Citizens On Patrol

Want to serve the Peach State? Georgia's Republican Secretary of State wants YOU to help keep undesirable people from voting!

Add Georgia to the list of states where Republican officials are actively engaged in voter suppression efforts.

In the midst of a record turnout for early voting in Georgia, that has led to long lines, discouraged voters and exhausted poll workers, Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, has claimed federal law ties her hands, preventing her from extending early voting hours.

With just days to go to the election, Democratic politicians demanded yesterday that Handel step in and extend early voting hours -- as has been done in both North Carolina and Florida.

But in an opinion piece published in the AJC on Thursday, Handel blamed her inaction on the issue on federal law which requires Justice Department approval to change voting law.

Ironically, it is Georgia's history of discriminatory voting practices that puts it on a federal "pre-clearance" list, mentioned in Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965.

While the DOJ can take up to 60 days to review any change that is submitted, it has the power to grant expedited review in emergency situations -- and Georgia's situation would certainly seem to qualify, Gerry Hebert, a former acting head of DOJ's voting-rights section, told TPMmuckraker.

"Georgia has asked and been granted expedited review by the DOJ in the past, so to say because of the voting act, we can't do this -- that's not really accurate," Hebert said. "The DOJ has done this in as little as 24 hours. . . so to use Section 5 as an excuse that this isn't possible, that's someone that really doesn't want to make the change."

But here's the best part:

As first noted by the blog, Facing South, in an interview Wednesday with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Handel took pains to remind voters that any voter can challenge another's qualifications to cast a ballot by notifying a precinct poll manager. According to Handel, that voter then would be given a challenge ballot and would have to go before the election board.

How many folks will be disenfranchised in Georgia because of this, I'm wondering?

Remember folks, 600 votes was the difference in Florida in 2000.

Those 600 voters disenfranchised by Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris were the difference between Bush and Gore.

The thousands of African-American voters in Ohio disenfranchised by Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in 2004 were the difference between Bush and Kerry.

The efforts this year are far more insidious, vile, and widespread.

They will stop at nothing to win. Do not take your right to vote for granted, especially if you are a minority voter in an urban area.

Bring Me His Head On Dry Ice

Wow.



(h/t Steven D at the Frog Pond)

Just think on this. We had a President who was, in effect, an unaccountable warlord, ordering the decapitation of his enemies. The "leader of the free world" was a man every bit as barbaric as the worst Islamic jihadist. And McCain would continue those same policies which Bush put in place. He jokes about bombing Iran, as if the murder of innocent Iranian civilians would be not only an instance of acceptable, "collateral damage" but the height of hilarity.

The Republicans chose George Bush. And they chose John McCain to continue what Bush started. McCain, a so-called man of "honor" who has sullied his reputation forever by running an even nastier negative ad hominem attack campaign against his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, than Bush and Karl Rove ran against John Kerry in 2004. I cannot imagine a more disgraceful act on Tuesday than to cast your ballot for John McCain, the nominee of a party who, while they controlled Congress, enabled the most corrupt, the most power mad, and the most barbaric President in our history.

As he says, this illustrates nicely why the current batch of neocons can never be allowed near the reins of power again. Ever.

Really Early November Surprise

The gang at TPM Muckracker have the goods on how the story on Obama's aunt came out a convenient three days before the election.

The leaking of information about the immigration status of Barack Obama's aunt appears to directly violate guidelines for confidentiality laid out in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by TPMmuckraker.

As we reported earlier, ICE has begun an internal probe into the leak to the Associated Press, which revealed early this morning that Obama's aunt "is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago."

Surprise surprise! Somebody in a Bush-controlled Federal agency most likely leaked the story to help McSame in the last weekend before the election.

Still, from the available evidence, it appears ICE is the most likely source. And Dan Kowalski, a leading immigration law expert, told TPMmuckraker that there's "no question" the leak violated ICE's guidelines as laid out in the memo.

And he identified for TPMmuckraker some additional, pertinent questions, asking:

1. Did the leaker know it was a violation? 2. Was the leak politically motivated? 3. A solo action, or conspiracy of 2 or more? If the latter, who is the boss?

We'll be working to bring you answers...

Schmucks to the end.

How To Know When You're A Right Wing Douchebag:

You think a check into Joe The Plumber's background is a "chilling glimpse into the future" of an Obama administration, despite the fact you have no problem with President Bush wiretapping millions of Americans illegally.

You then think the same kind of check into Obama's Kenyan aunt living in Boston, revealing she's appealing her denial of asylum request, is perfectly fine and you see no problem with it.

This makes you a complete douchebag, Malkinvania.

That is all.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition

• Oprah's early vote cast on an electronic touch screen system may not have been counted.
• It's the end of the road for "King of the Hill".
• Liddy Dole unleashes a second "Godless Americans" attack ad in North Carolina.
• Even "Madden" video game maker Electronic Arts is having to cut jobs in this economy.
• Gas prices are approaching the $2.50 a gallon mark and falling.

And If You Think I Worry Too Much About This Election...

I've got nothing on author Erica Jong.

It seems that the final days of the presidential campaign have made Erica Jong and her friends more than a little anxious.

A few days ago, Jong, the author and self-described feminist, gave an interview to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the choicest bits of which were brought to my attention by the reliably sharp-eyed Christian Rocca, the U.S. correspondent of Il Foglio, who published excerpts on his Camillo blog. Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night." She also says that her friends Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf are extremely worried that Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks, and that if an Obama loss indeed comes to pass, the result will be a second American Civil War.

Gosh I hope not.

Of course, I took Monday through Wednesday off work for a reason...

Here's A Scary Halloween Treat For You

Atrios sez:

Digby:

I think we're about to get schooled. Again. The torture loving right is dusting off its completely hypocritical "government is full of jack-booted thugs" playbook --- and it's going to drive us all completely crazy.

Indeed. They'll try to bring Obama down on some abuse of power scandal. Should be fun!

I'll go one step further.

If Obama tries to clean up Bush's "unitary Executive" abuses of power by way of signing statement and Executive Order, he'll be accused of being soft on terrorism, and we'll hear William Ayers and Rashid Khalidi and cries of him being SECRET MUSLIM TRAITOR WEAKENING AMERICA FROM THE INSIDE, and the calls will be long and loud for his impeachment.

If he doesn't, as Atrios says, the calls for his impeachment will still be just as long and loud as all the other secret and highly illegal Bush programs that we don't know about are immediately leaked before Obama can do anything with them, with folks coming out of the woodwork to say "Well Obama knew about them as a Senator and didn't stop them then, and he's not stopping them now as President."

Has there ever been calls for a President-Elect to be impeached before taking office? We may set a record.

As I have said time and time again, if you thought they hated Clinton, wait until you see what they do to Obama. Twelve months from now, his approval numbers will look like Bush's, the financial meltdown will be his fault, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran will be his fault, everything will be his fault.

If the Pretty Hate Machine doesn't create the next Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph to "handle the job" the Village Bipartisans and the Palinites will take him down the Clinton way.

I just don't see how Obama makes it through his term without extrordinary luck.

As Digby says about the GOP in her post linked up there:

They leave the rest of us standing on the sidelines looking like fools for ever caring about anything but winning.

And winning means the absolute, total, and complete destruction of Obama and the Democrats by any means necessary.

Do not ever forget that. Yes, I'm assuming Obama actually wins...but assuming Obama wins is, of course, forgetting that, now isn't it?

Vote. Tuesday. And even then, there is a long hard fight ahead for all of us.

Helpful US Attorney Is Helpful

US Attorney Troy Eid is helpful, saving taxpayer money and stuff by refusing to prosecute those three fellows in Denver that allegedly threatened to kill Obama at the DNC Convention a few months ago.

Eid, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006, declined to prosecute the three men on charges of threatening to assassinate Barack Obama during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, saying that the suspects were "just a bunch of meth heads" and their words failed to meet the legal standard for "true threat."

Nope, not a serious threat. Even though they had weapons. But hey, it's not like Republicans are soft on crime or anything.

Legal experts say that Eid's definition of true threat directly conflicts with the statue covering threats to presidential candidates, 18 U.S.C. 879, which defines the threat as "whoever knowingly and willfully threatens to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon a major candidate for the office of President or Vice President, or a member of the immediate family of such candidate."

While noting the statute must be weighed against First Amendment rights, they argued that because voluntary intoxication is not a viable defense the First Amendment does not protect a speaker's threatening speech.

George Fisher, Stanford Law Professor and one of the nation's top scholars of criminal law and evidence, explained, "Certainly when there's a state of mind requirement in a crime, 'knowingly,' for example, you could say as a logical matter that somebody can't do something knowingly while under the influence. But there are these other laws, sometimes in the form of statutes and sometimes in the form of case law, that will say, 'But voluntary intoxication is no defense.' And the Supreme Court many years ago upheld those laws as not being a violation of due process."

Colorado defense attorneys agreed. They said Colorado state law does not differ from the Supreme Court's ruling on voluntary intoxication.

Thus, legal experts agreed that a verbal threat alone, intended by the speaker to be taken seriously, and said willfully and knowingly, is all that is necessary to satisfy the legal requirement for true threat. Contrary to what Eid told the press, a prosecutor in this case would not have to prove a plan existed or the viability of any such plan, only that a threat was made and understood by the speaker and receiver of the words to be said in earnest.

But a Bush appointed US Attorney from the Bush Justice Department (home of a not-too-long-ago scandal involving the mass politicization of the department and ended with former AG Alberto Gonzales resigning in shame) once again taking unusual action that can only really be explained by a refusal to embarass McSame supporters by prosecuting folks threatening to kill Obama say, a few weeks before the election.

That's not political at all.

The Grand Delusion

John McSame once famously said "The media is my base." Sarah Palin on the other hand believes the media is in fact America's number one enemy.

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

However she feels about the way her story has been told in the press, Palin told WMAL she is not discouraged.

"It's sort of perplexing to me, because I'm a practical person and plainspoken also, but just cutting to the chase and calling things like I see them, just like most Americans. But this has not left a bitter taste in my mouth, the bitter shots taken by the mainstream media and by some of the elitism there in Washington," Palin said.

"What this has left me with is a very energized and positive feeling about America, because there are enough Americans who are desiring the positive change that John McCain's gonna usher in."

Plante then suggested that in her next sit-down interview, Palin should tap the reporter on the knee and ask, "So who you votin' for?"

Palin laughed and said, "Yeah, maybe that just would say it all."

"I'm gonna try that," she said.

I bet she would in fact follow up on that idea as President. After all, Bush did. The current administration's famous "Free Speech Zones" exist to keep protesters away from the President at his events. You can just imagine the wheels turning as she pictures what she'll do to that nasty media that doesn't agree with her.

One of the reasons the GOP base loves Sister Sarah so much is because she's bought into the notion that the "Evil Liberal Media" is out to destroy the GOP talk radio empire. You see this delusional behavior often from folks on that side, that there's a vast conspiracy by American news organizations, television networks, cable channels and newspapers to try to limit what right wing folks say. They complain that the Media is "in the tank for Obama" and

That's laughable on its face considering what the Bush administration really has done to limit free speech in this country. But the right wingers plunge on and vow that anyone who doesn't agree with them is un-American, Socialist, Communist, terrorist, or traitor, while at the same time they "defend their free speech rights" to slander millions of Americans for he crime of dissent.

GOP Rule #1: If they complain that the Democrats are doing something, it's because the GOP is already doing it. Always. What's the GOP complaining about? Socialism, vote fraud, and stifling dissent. What are the GOP currently doing? Giving banks trillions, purging millions of traditionally Democratic voters from the rolls and making voting nearly impossible for those traditionally Democratic voters who ARE still on the rolls, and now of course they are working to harm any outfit that might publish dissenting viewpoints.

Think about that on Tuesday when you vote...those of you who can. We already know what the litmus test for belonging to the GOP post-November 4th is: Where did you stand on Sarah Palin?

Are you ready for her to be your President? Do you think Obama would be a better President then Sarah Palin?

Be honest. Either way, vote.

StupidiNews, Halloween Edition!

Here's some scary news, kids. What's your Halloween costume this year?

• 10 million homeowners are going as hobos this year, breaking even or owing more on their homes than their homes are worth.."underwater" on equity.
• Nearly 1 in 4 Texans are going as Archie Bunker, they believe Obama is Muslim.
• The US military is going as the Men in Black, complete with "flashy things" to manipulate memory and amnesia.
• 12,000 Floridians are going as the Invisible Man, because state law says their IDs don't exactly match voter registration, they need to now present other forms of ID to be able to vote.
• Phillies Phans are going as Phillies Phans to today's World Series parade.

Scary stuff, huh kids? Woo!

M Night Bipartisans' The Village

They're coming.

The Village Bipartisan Idiots.

They'll never leave Obama alone until he becomes one of them.

Their attack is already underway from people like Nebraska's Bob Kerrey.

I believe this is likely because Obama will surround himself with professionals, not ideologues or acolytes. An unprecedented number of patriotic, politically savvy and centrist men and women have been part of his campaign team - and are therefore likely to make up President Obama's governing team.

I believe this is likely because of who Obama is. Republicans have tried desperately to paint the man as a secret radical. But the imagery just doesn't connect; Americans see a man who is calm, respectful, considerate and careful. That is just what the doctor ordered for our politics.

Last, I believe this is likely because Obama understands that to succeed, he must make peace with John McCain just as he has done with Hillary Clinton. When this historic election concludes, I expect the two to sit down, without precondition, and negotiate an agenda of reform.

But that will only be the beginning. To build up the political capital for the kinds of changes needed in these difficult times, Obama will need to communicate the following to Congress, in no uncertain terms: The Democrats have not won a mandate for all their policies. Rather, the American people have resoundingly registered their frustration with a failed status quo, and the next President must chart a new, less partisan course.

Bob Kerrey is only the start of the Sensible Washington Establishment douchebaggery that will start in long and loud on November 5.

Everyone in the Village Idiot club, left, right, "sensible" center, will be saying how Obama now needs to immediately do whatever the hell the GOP wants to do as a "bi-partisan effort".

There will be a good two months of pressure for Obama to:

1. Keep as much of Bush's cabinet as possible, especially Robert Gates and Michael Mukasey, if not Condi Rice.
   
2. Drop all charges/pretense of charges/hints of pretenses of charges against Bush and quash any investigations.
   
3. Drop any notions of reversing controversial Bush policy at all: PATRIOT Act, Gitmo, torture, wiretapping, etc. Kerrey's already asking for this.
   
4. Show he "reaches across the aisle" by giving into more bad GOP legislation from the wingnuts.
   
5. Abandon progressives, period. Obama will be pressured to prove he's not a liberal, and will be advised to "distance himself from Pelosi/Reid".
   
6. Enact McSame's economic, health, and military plan rather than his own.
   
7. Escalate wars in Afghanistan and start one in Iran.

In other words, Obama will be told to be McSame, because he doesn't have a "mandate like Bush did." Even if the Democrats have 60 Senate seats, 275 or even 300 in the House, and Obama in the White House, it's not a mandate for change...it's a mandate to do the same exact f'ckin stuff for the last 8 years, got it?