Political Bloviation

I’m in line to vote. I stopped by the north Tampa location 3 times. It was always 1:30 wait there each time. I also stopped by the West Chase library and finally ended up at the west Tampa library on Union St. So far I’ve been in line for more than an hour.
While cooking in [...]

File this under “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Why McCain is getting hosed in the press - John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei - Politico.com
…Obama had more than twice as many positive stories (36 percent) as McCain — and just half the percentage of negative (29 percent).
You call that balanced?
…There have been moments in the [...]

Glenn frets about the denial/spin from Fox News commentator/GOP strategist/party shill, Dick Morris:
Dick Morris: Obama might still have a small chance to win - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Still, it’s just staggering to ponder the amount of reality-denial (or deliberate reality-distortion) needed to urge that Obama, though a real long shot, shouldn’t be “written off,” because [...]

Trying to call Obama a socialists is a desperation move almost 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, particularly coming from our favorite pinko hockey mom:
Like, Socialism: Comment: The New Yorker
Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She [...]

I tried to vote a second time at Jimmie B. Keel Library in north Hillsborough County, FL. The first attempt was Saturday but the line was at nearly 2 hours. Today I got their a few minutes too late. This time there was still an hour 1+. I have to question the competence/motives of the [...]

Alaska Senator Is Convicted of Violating Ethics Rules - NYTimes.com
Sen. Ted “tubes” Stevens is convicted on all counts of ethics violations and being a real dick.

It’s rough when the biggest daily newspaper in Alaska can’t bring itself to endorse McCain-Palin ticket:
Obama for president: Opinion | adn.com
Couple that with McCains fading performance in Arizona:
Further confirmation that It really is close in Arizona
And you realize just how god awful the GOP ticket really is.

Is you life not going as planned? Is you job gone? Is the American dream fading for you? This must be why:

Vote no on California Prop 8 and Florida Prop 2.

I’ve taken to reading Calculated Risk on a regular basis, along with Marginal Revolution and Paul Krugman to round out reading on the economy. These guys have been scaring the crap out of me lately.

Calculated Risk: New Home Sales: Annual and Through September
Deflationary expectations

The mother of all currency crises

Either they’re all wrong or we are [...]

McCain aides swipe back at Palin: “Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic.”
It’s getting ugly over at “Team McCain”. I share the hope that Palin is the future of the GOP. If it’s really true then the future is a permanent minority, religious based party with some regional appeal in parts [...]

Obama ought to make a bigger deal about this. The important take away is that the continued American presence in Iraq helps al Qaeda.
Op-Ed Columnist - The Endorsement From Hell - NYTimes.com
John McCain isn’t boasting about a new endorsement, one of the very, very few he has received from overseas. It came a few days [...]

I rarely like much that Dowd has to say. I generally find her brand of prep school nastiness unappealing, but this was some of her best work. She describes Colin Powell’s appearance on Meet the Press last weekend where he announced his endorsement of Obama:
Op-Ed Columnist - Moved by a Crescent - NYTimes.com
But what sent [...]

Here’s an excerpt, read the whole thing. They very accurately describe the candidates and the campaigns they’ve run.
Editorial - Barack Obama - Editorial Board - Endorsement - NYTimes.com
Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool [...]

Emblematic of everything that’s wrong with the GOP this election cycle:
Palin’s Makeup Stylist Fetches Highest Salary in 2-Week Period - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch?
Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy [...]

I had a hard time watching this because the baby was sleeping and it was really difficult not to laugh out loud. Wow, it must be hard to defend the profound, light bending, black hole of stupidity that is Caribou Barbie:

“I guess they didn’t have any copies of the Constitution at Sak’s or Neiman-Marcus”. Delicious [...]

The McCain-Palin Campaign continues to implode:
Overview: Growing Doubts About McCain’s Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct
Obama’s strong showing in the current poll reflects greater confidence in the Democratic candidate personally. More voters see him as “well-qualified” and “down-to-earth” than did so a month ago. Obama also is inspiring more confidence on several key issues, including Iraq [...]

Daily Kos: (Update 4) Kossacks, Thank You and Michele Bachmann, $488,127.30 raised!
Rep. Bachmann (R) went all Joe McCarthy on MSNBC’s Hardball, suggesting the media should investigate anti-Americanism in Congress.  The net result? A fund raising bonanza for her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg. If she loses, it was because of this and well deserved. Delicious schadenfreude.

Time’s Karen Tumultey sees it as a sign of campaign that’s beginning to internalize defeat and want to de-legitimize the winners:
When You Know You Are Losing - Swampland - TIME
There is now a pattern emerging from the McCain campaign and its surrogates. Instead of trying to persuade Americans who aren’t in their camp (the sign [...]

EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect
The Republican failure is so complete that it has warped the very fabric of political time-space. Conservative guys demanding we nationalize major industries like we did when Reagan was president. Pro-life women who think Obama was in a terrorist group but, screw it, at least he’ll do something about health [...]

There maybe hope for American voter yet:
Poll Says McCain Hurts His Bid by Using Attacks - NYTimes.com
The McCain campaign’s recent angry tone and sharply personal attacks on Senator Barack Obama appear to have backfired and tarnished Senator John McCain more than their intended target, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll has found.
Not only do [...]