Tag: John McCain (page 6)

Check out PalinasPresident --it's a flash so don't forget to click on all the objects in the picture. It's updated daily until November 4.

Palin's latest: G-d blessed the U.S. with oil and gas. Forget Joe the Plumber, he's a nobody. Keep your eye on Sarah Palin.

Don't miss David Letterman tonight, John McCain makes an appearance, trying to make up for his canceled appearance a few weeks ago that led to Letterman doing lots of funny jokes about him and Palin. Tonight: [More...]

Did McCain catch up? I found him incredibly unappealing. He seems like a very small man, in all respects.

He played to his radical right base. He knows that getting out their vote is the only way he can win, since he has lost with independents and all other women outside the base.

I'd bet even Joe the Plumber is voting for Obama.

Update: The CNN focus group of undecided voters in Ohio say Obama won and three decided to vote for him tonight. Ayers didn't resonate with the group.

Via Politico: In Katie Couric's post debate interview with Joe the Plumber, aka Joe Wurzelbacher, Joe said Obama has a "tap dance...almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."

"McCain was solid in his performance," he says. "I still don't know where he stands," he says of Obama. "I'm middle class. I can't have my
taxes raised any more."

He also says he actually isn't in the bracket where Obama would raise his taxes -- but he's worried that Obama will shift the bracket down.

He also said that, in his encounter with Obama, the Illinois Senator [has] "a tap dance...almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."

Bye, Joe. I think your 15 minutes are up.

Immediately after the debate, David Gergen on CNN at first waxed on about how well John McCain did in the first 30 minutes of the debate. Then he said McCain blew it with his anger and Obama did best in the last 30 minutes. The video is here:

"It then hit the personal animosity of the advertising and then I thought McCain swerved off track...He got overemotional about it. He looked angry. And it was almost an exercise in anger management up there for him to contain himself. And Obama maintained his cool, and I thought that changed the tone of the debate and Obama won the last half hour. I thought Obama really did well on education, abortion and health care." Then the polls came in.

Later, after the poll numbers came in and the focus group had weighed in, Gergen said it's clear McCain didn't do what he needed to do tonight and he should shift to figuring out how to save Republican House and Senate seats and ending the race with his dignity intact.[More...]

CNN's post debate poll (video here): Those polled all watched the debate. The breakdown:

40% D, 30% R, Rest Independents.
This tracks with voter registration.

• Obama 58%
  McCain 31%

• Obama Favorables:
  Was 63, Now 66
  Unfavorables:
  Was 35, Now 33

• McCain's Favorables:
  Was 51, Now 49
  Unfavorables:
  Was 45, now 49

Update: CBS (video here): 53 -22. Obama. [More...]

The third and final debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain begins at 9pm ET on CNN. Big Tent Democrat, TChris, the TL Kid and I will be live-blogging.

The live blog stays below the fold so that it can be a bit wider than the front page allows. Just click on the "There's More" button or bookmark the permalink to go directly to it.

You can comment same as always in the comment section below. You also can send us live messages through the software. Only comments you post below will appear on the site.

We'll add live polls so you can weigh in on how they are doing. [More...]

The final debate between Sen. Barack Obama and John McCain begins in less than two hours.

What will McCain do? Will he stay on issues or make a last minute sleaze attack on Obama?

How will Obama respond? How should he respond?

We'll all be here to live-blog the debate -- Big Tent Democrat, TChris, the TL Kid and me -- hope you will join us.

In the meantime, here's a place for your last minute debate thoughts.

Stocks fell again today as recession fear set in.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 700 points, giving back nearly all its record gain from Monday.

The Dow closed down 7.9 percent, or 733 points, at 8,578. That follows a loss of 77 points yesterday, which nearly wipes out Monday's 936-point gain. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was off 9 percent, with a 90-point decline, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 8.5 percent, losing 151 points.

More...

The CBS/New York Times poll released this afternoon has Sen. Barack Obama leading John McCain by a whopping 14 points.

Obama has increased his lead even more among independents.

The top two reasons: McCain's negative attacks on Obama and --you guessed it -- Sarah Palin.

The Obama-Biden ticket now leads the McCain-Palin ticket 53 percent to 39 percent among likely voters, a 14-point margin. One week ago, prior to the Town Hall debate that uncommitted voters saw as a win for Obama, that margin was just three points.

Among independents who are likely voters - a group that has swung back and forth between McCain and Obama over the course of the campaign - the Democratic ticket now leads by 18 points. McCain led among independents last week.

Full poll results are here (pdf.)

Sen. John McCain unveiled his new economic plan today. The chief points:

• A proposal to lower the tax rate on seniors who tap their IRAs and 401(k)'s after reaching 59-and-a-half years old. Under his proposal, which he estimated would cost the government about $36 billion, the first $50,000 of withdrawals would only be taxed at the 10 percent rate, his aides said.

• For those who sell stocks at a loss, McCain would increase the amount they can deduct from $3,000 to $15,000, making it less of a burden for those who need immediate cash to survive the economic downturn, his advisers said.

• Capital gains taxes would be cut in half, McCain said, for two years, from 15 percent to 7.5 percent. His aides said that would cost the federal government about $10 billion, but would provide an incentive to save and invest.

More below, including the Obama camp's response:

Welcome news today in the Washington Post: The U.S. Sentencing Commission is considering alternatives to prison for non-violent, low level drug offenders as well as for some supervised release (parole) violators.

The commission's consideration of alternatives to incarceration reflects its determination to persuade Congress to ease federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws that contributed to explosive growth in the prison population. The laws were enacted in the mid-1980s, principally to address a crime epidemic related to crack cocaine. But in recent years, federal judges, public defenders and probation officials have argued that mandatory sentences imprison first-time offenders unnecessarily and disproportionately affect minorities.

Drug courts and adult developmental programs for parolees have worked in the state system. They are far more cost effective than prison: [More...]

Update: Mayhill Fowler at HuffPo has much more on Colorado, including the great photo above.

Public Policy Polling released a new Colorado poll (pdf) yesterday showing Sen. Barack Obama with a ten point lead over John McCain.

Obama leads John McCain 52-42, up from a seven point advantage in a PPP Colorado survey three weeks ago. With only 6% of voters undecided and just 6% of those with a current preference open to changing their minds McCain is basically in a situation right now where he will need to take every undecided voter and also every Obama supporter willing to consider changing their mind to have any chance at winning the state.

PPP says the Latino vote has propelled Obama to his surge, and similar trends are seen in New Mexcio and Nevada: [More...]