Election Protection

The Protect the Vote Coalition will have live blogging all day long on their site http://601vote.wordpress.com/.

They are posting election issues that have come into the call center. If you have any issues voting, or if you hear of anyone with any issues, tell them to call 1-888-601-VOTE!!!

CBS and CNN snap polls says Biden is the winner

CBS polled 473 uncommitted voters after the debate. CNN ran a poll of all voters committed or not. Let's cut to the chase...

CBS
Palin ---- 21
Biden ----46

CNN
Palin ---- 36
Biden --- 51

Live blogging the Palin Biden debate at Hal and Mal's

8:18 It took a while to pull an IP address because the wireless reception is terrible here. Palin looks as bad as I thought she would. Biden is on fire, dissecting every Palin answer for its hollowness. As I write he blowing away her gibberish on taxes. The ultimate bridge to nowhere remark brought the loudest ovation from the packed partisan crowd here in the Red Room at Hal and Mals. There are at least 75-100 people here, even a few Palin impersonators dressed like the governor of Alaska.

8:29 My god, she is even worse than I imagined. Joe Biden gives a factual, on the point answer, and then Palin comes sounding like a Valley Girl. Now she is talking about climate change, which she has previously denied. She just tried to cover her tracks on climate change to get in line with McCain. "we gotta become energy independent also, you know...."

8:42 The crowd here is having a blast laughing at Sarah Palin. They are playing Palin bingo, too funny.

8:47 She is regurgitating the neocon line word for word. Listening to her on Israel and Pakistan is embarrassing.

8:57 Sarah Palin thinks we are doing great in Afghanistan and wants to use the surge. Biden says what we have spent in Iraq in 3 weeks is more than we have spent in Afghanistan since 2003, boom.

9:02 First Biden gaffe, Bosniacs.

9:03 Palin draws blood with Iraq war vote comment

9:07 Palin sounds dumb again, who would have thunk it. "John McCain knows how to win a war..." What war has he won? Please can you name one. How does a person win a war?

9:09 Palin: "A team of mavericks... we need a team from Wasilla..." This is better than a stand up comedy show... The crowd at Hal and Mal's is heehawing every dumb Palin comment, which means it is loud in here.

9:12 Palin fires a personal barb at Biden saying his wifes reward for 30 years of teaching is awaiting in heaven. She is now is trying to lure Joe into a street-fight, don't take the bait Joe.

9:14 A patron gets Palin bingo.

9:24 I went to get a beer and Joe Biden lands a couple of left-hooks. Palin responds with the maverick bit. Biden then destroys her argument.

9:30 Debate over, Biden wins. Time to talk to few of the nice looking Obama backers. Wow, this might be a landslide.

Offensive Poll

Does anyone else see something awful about the poll at WJTV.com?

http://www.wjtv.com/gulfcoastwest/jtv/home.html

Which statement best describes your vote for President?

-I’m voting for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because of Palin
-I’m voting against the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because of Palin
-I’m voting for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because of their positions on issues
-I’m voting against the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because of their positions on
issues
-I’m voting for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because they are Republicans
-I’m voting against the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket because they are Republicans

Which statement best describes your vote for President?

-I’m voting for Barack Obama because he is black
-I’m voting against Barack Obama because he is black
-I’m voting for Barack Obama because of his position on issues
-I’m voting against Barack Obama because of his position on issues
-I’m voting for Barack Obama because he is a Democrat
-I’m voting against Barack Obama because he is a Democrat

Fact Checking Palin's Speech

The Associated Press wrote a piece fact-checking Palin's speech. Enjoy!

Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

There's plenty more fact-checking on other quotes about Palin in the article.

VP Speculation

The vice-presidential speculation for Barack Obama's nominee is almost over! Rumors are flying that he will let everyone know via text tomorrow.

There is a lot of speculation online among the blogs and news media, but as Jeff's favorite blog fivethirtyeight.com reports, no one knows nothing.

Regardless, in politics, it's always fun to speculate. Who's it going to be?

Joe Biden? Evan Bayh? Kathleen Sebelius? Joe Biden? Bill Richardson? Wes Clark? Tim Kaine? Mark Warner? Hillary Clinton? Colin Powell?

A snippet from fivethirtyeight.com

Either they're playing it straight-up -- meaining Biden, Bayh, Kaine, or Sebelius -- or it's some kind of A-lister, someone for whom the elaborate staging of it all doesn't produce an anti-climax. That list is probably limited to Hillary, Gore, Kerry and Colin Powell, though I have real trouble imagining the latter two. Somebody who had officially disqualified themselves -- Mark Warner or Jim Webb -- would presumably also produce a lot of shock value. But I think we need to start discounting some of these second-tier picks that don't have strong brands, like the Jack Reeds and the Chris Dodds.

And the Crowd Goes Crazy!

For John Edwards!

Here's the video of the endorsement. It was probably up the other day when I said I couldn't find it, but here it is nonetheless. The crowd goes crazy for about 90 seconds for Edwards.



Their "endorsement" photo is still on the front page of the website.

Haley on racial politics

Governor Haley Barbour interview with the The Washington Times, stating that he is still on "Hurricane Duty" (i.e., building ports with HUD money), and McCain should wait to pick his VP after the Democrats decide.

But what stuck out in the interview more was this portion:

Mr. Barbour, in an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, also said he disagreed with Mr. McCain´s condemnation of the North Carolina Republican Party, which is vowing to run a television commercial attacking two Democratic gubernatorial candidates who have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama´s presidential bid. The ad uses some of the inflammatory racial rhetoric from the senator´s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

"These two Democrats endorsed Obama. Everything is fair game. In a presidential election, people consider all sorts of things in a presidential candidate's background. It's the most personal office in the world," Mr. Barbour said.

I guess Davis won't be getting in trouble by Papa Haley this time around.

Dept. of Spectacularly Bad VP Suggestions

From The New Republic:

In September, Brad and Noam profiled the shady dealings of lobbyist–governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi. For some reason, Barbour's name is being bandied about quite a bit as a potential running mate for John McCain. Josh Barro, who's been keeping close tabs on some of the crazier entries in the McCain veepstakes, points out a few of the many reasons why Barbour would be a disastrous choice. Josh unearths a choice passage from a 1982 New York Times story on Barbour's failed U.S. Senate campaign that year:

The racial sensitivity at Barbour headquarters was suggested by an exchange between the candidate and an aide who complained that there would be 'coons' at a campaign stop at the state fair. Embarrassed that a reporter heard this, Mr. Barbour warned that if the aide persisted in racist remarks, he would be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks.

Stay classy, Haley.
--Josh Patashnik

Not a coincidence

Shortly after Haley shows up on Fox News (also known as Faux News), the Draft Haley website appears.

http://www.drafthaley.com/

I missed the appearance on Fox, and I can't find it online, but here is a piece of Robert Novak's commentary on it.

Gov. Haley Barbour went on Fox News Channel as primary returns came in Tuesday night and suggested the time was near to stop the contest and accept McCain as the winner.

...Barbour was following the GOP tradition of closing ranks once it becomes obvious who will be nominated.

So, who wants to draft Haley back to Washington?

Rudy/Haley Ticket?

CBS News is reporting that Haley Barbour could be Rudy Giuliani's vice-presidential nominee.

(US News) A potential presidential teaming could lead to the sharpest-ever clash in the White House: a clash of accents, that is. Political allies of former Big Apple Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour are actively pushing the two together, with the 9/11 mayor and New Yawker on top of a ticket that would feature the just re-elected drawling hero of his state's Hurricane Katrina victims as veep.

They are being dubbed the "Masters of Disasters."

Barbour Comes Out 1st In VP Poll (Look Out America)

Campaigns and Elections Magazine:

It's still three months before any votes for president are cast, but it's never too early to talk about potential vice presidential nominees.

In an unscientific Web poll asking Campaigns & Elections readers who they thought would be the Republican vice presidential pick, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour came out on top with 53 percent. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, was the runner-up with 40 percent of the votes. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee received 5 percent, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice received 2 percent and retired general Tommy Franks got no votes.

Of course, the eventual pick depends on how the caucuses and primaries play out.

"It always depends on a thousand things," said Larry Sabato, politics professor at the University of Virginia. "It won't matter until we get actual nominees to see how they finished or whether they finished with a large plurality. [The nominee] may be obliged to offer it to the second-place winner."

If you read a lot of national political coverage you'll notice that Larry Saboto is quoted more than about anyone else. His opinion counts more to Washington journalist for whatever reason.

Any thoughts on what a Barbour Vice Presidency would do to America?