Entries tagged “Obama”
ELECTION DAY: What to Watch
By William Rabbe on 11/03/2008
By Will Rabbe After two years of non-stop campaigning, a remarkable field of candidates and a fierce battle in the home stretch, we're on the eve of election day. While Barack Obama leads in all the national polls and in most battleground polls, it isn't over until one of the candidates reaches the magic number of electoral votes: 270. Here's a summary of what to watch for as the results begin to come in: Indiana: While it's a mid-west state, its polls close early so we should see the results report at 6PM (EST), before many of the eastern states.... MORE »
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The Final Countdown
By Sarah Scully on 11/03/2008
By Sarah Scully Mere hours remain for the campaigns to make their respective cases, and Barack Obama and John McCain have not wasted a minute between them. After finding out that his grandmother had succumbed to cancer this morning, Obama soldiered through his planned swing through swing states Florida, Virginia and North Carolina. A determined John McCain (who released a statement offering his condolences to Obama) set out on an ambitious seven state marathon through Florida, Tennessee (unclear why he is going here, it is a solid red state), Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada and finally Arizona. The running mates... MORE »
The InfObamercial
By Sarah Scully on 10/29/2008
In case you missed it, Barack Obama took over several major networks tonight for a 30-minute spot (that at times looked more like a hybrid of a Ken Burns film and The West Wing than a campaign ad). Reviews are mixed as some were impressed, others were annoyed to have their regularly scheduled programming interrupted and a few people even found the the whole concept offensive. Here is Obama's 30-minute spot: Here is McCain's 30-second response: Let us know what you think...... MORE »
New Mexico: Snapshot of a Swing State
By Sarah Scully on 10/27/2008
By Sarah Scully Albuquerque, NM John McCain and Barack Obama both spent their Saturday in New Mexico. The state that went blue in 2000 and red in 2004 has become one of the key battlegrounds in the final days before the election. With the Obama campaign encroaching on old Bush territories, including Nevada, Colorado and most notably, Virginia, they now have several potential routes for winning the magic number of 270 electoral votes. McCain has fewer options at this point, as states once considered safe for the GOP are slipping away. The McCain campaign, much like Hillary Clinton's, seems to... MORE »
FUN with the Electoral Map
By William Rabbe on 10/20/2008
Take a look at the state of the race and test potential outcomes on the LA Times electoral map calculator (click create your own scenario): Hmm.... not much calculating to do with these polls, considering they've already got Obama up by 48 electoral votes. MORE »
Boxers, briefs, diapers, or nothing at all...
By William Rabbe on 10/20/2008
John Kerry with a sense of humor, albeit somewhat risque! MORE »
Home Stretch Survival Guide
By William Rabbe on 10/20/2008
By Will Rabbe Since the news is moving faster than ever in the home stretch and yes, sometimes it's hard to pay attention to everything -- here are a few stories of note: First he's an "elite," now he's a socialist. The McCain camp has been hammering away at Obama's tax policy, likening it to socialism. What would Karl Marx say? Here's a take from a real commie. Close enough... Obama raises a shit-ton of cash this month, almost three times his previous record. Small donations are the name of the game. Some republicans claim he's accepted foreign money... maybe... MORE »
Debate Drinking Games End In Sobriety
By Sarah Scully on 10/16/2008
The final debate of this election cycle was also the most interesting. Whereas previous debates seemed more like over-hyped Broadway productions, this debate felt like a boxing match between two heavy weights. The repeated catch phrases and "message statements" were much less frequent and in their place, a gamesmanship with new strategies and, at times, a surprising pugnacity. Having broken into a double digit lead in many polls over the last 48 hours, Obama came in with the title to lose. McCain was tasked with opening up as many cuts as possible. McCain made the first move, tapping into the... MORE »
Debate Drinking Game PART 2 with suggested buzzphrases...
By William Rabbe on 10/13/2008
This time around we've included a blank debate drinking game scorecard so that you can fill in your own buzz-phrases: Suggested buzzwords and buzzphrases: "Middle Class" "Out of touch" "My friends..." "Financial Crisis" "Wall Street" OR "Main Street" "Reform" OR "Change" OR "Accountability" "Raise taxes" OR "Cut taxes" "Fundamental difference..." "Pork" OR "Earmarks" "Charles Keating" OR "Bill Ayres" MORE »
Youtube Tricks
By William Rabbe on 10/09/2008
By William Rabbe John McCain's new ad criticizes Barack Obama's association with former domestic terrorist William Ayres and a campaign press release this morning distributed the Youtube link. There's only one problem: the video has somehow been flagged as inappropriate by the "Youtube Community" and requires all viewers to verify that they are over the age of 18. Anyway, here's the video: Is Ayres a true concern to voters in light of the recent economic downturn? MORE »
Obama LOVES this trading market...
By William Rabbe on 10/08/2008
While the stock market is infuriating most Americans right now, there IS a market that Obama can be happy about. Really? Youbetcha! The Intrade bid for Obama following last nights debate is higher than ever -- at 74 points today. Yes, that means that people investing in the outcome of this election are betting that Obama wins... a 74% chance. MORE »
To Shake or Not To Shake...
By William Rabbe on 10/08/2008
By William Rabbe While last night's debate lacked most of my partisan buzzwords and phrases, the impression was created (for right or wrong) that McCain's disdain for Obama was so great that he could not even extend the most common of courtesies to his opponent: McCain didn't shake Obama's hand. Wolf Blitzer of CNN made much (probably too much) of the tensions between the candidates, even going as far as to repetitively question whether or not they would shake hands. In fact, his very first comment at the close of the event was, "All right. We're going to see if... MORE »
Who Won the First Debate?
By Sarah Scully on 09/30/2008
By Sarah Scully The immediate buzz in the press tent was that McCain had won but that it wouldn't have much of an impact. The numbers coming in from focus groups and straw polls of voters indicated a win for Obama. Both campaigns, of course stormed the Spin Room after the debate claiming victory. In the intervening days, the majority of press has settled on calling it a draw. There may not have been a knock-out punch from either side but polls (and Intrade) have moved in Obama's favor since Friday's debate. That said, his campaign is all too aware... MORE »
Debating Debating
By Sarah Scully on 09/24/2008
[Updated] The McCain campaign is now proposing that the Mississippi debate be canceled and instead the St. Louis VP debate be used in its place with Biden and Palin rescheduling for a later date... Hmmm. This is either a rather sensible solution or a really convenient way of giving Sarah Palin more prep time. That is not to say that she particularly needs more prep time but this is the cynical assumption made by many who, in lieu of any evidence to contradict it (or any interaction at all) assume that Palin is cramming like crazy for her first big... MORE »
McCain to suspend campaign & wants to postpone debate...
By William Rabbe on 09/24/2008
McCain takes the high ground and in the process, sets a trap for Obama: McCain says will suspend campaign to return to Washingon Thursday to help with bailout negotiations, asks that Friday debate with Obama be postponed so bailout negotiations can continue r --Reuters 2:51pm EDT If Obama agrees, he risks being out-shadowed by McCain in the Senate, who took the initiative to get back to DC. If Obama disagrees, he risks looking like a political opportunist, who would rather score points at the debate, than make a difference as a Senator. The camp is already getting pushback on the... MORE »
Guilt by Association?
By William Rabbe on 09/19/2008
By William Rabbe Barack Obama may have stretched the truth in tying Rush Limbaugh to John McCain on immigration. In truth, the two generally do not agree on the issue, but in this political climate, getting away with as much as you can seems to be the name of the game... (Limbaugh's explaination here) Maybe Obama will next link McCain and the right wing of the Republican party to Ann Coulter, who advocated to take away a woman's right to vote: If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind... MORE »
The Facts Attack Back
By Sarah Scully on 09/13/2008
By Sarah Scully Our friends at FactCheck.org are working overtime, disentangling the truth from the barrage of ruthless attack ads and caustic rumors circulating the blogosphere. So far, the McCain campaign seems to be racking up the most demerits for misleading ads, though Obama's camp has put out a couple of their own. McCain's attacks, part of a new strategy helmed by Steve Schmidt, have set a new bar for negativity. The "liberal blogosphere" is making up for Obama's dearth of deceptive ads by perpetuating (though sometimes retracting, to be fair) conspiracy theories about Palin's past. FactCheck has most recently... MORE »
FACT: The Race Is Getting Nasty
By Sarah Scully on 09/13/2008
OBAMA CAMPAIGN MEMO: Unraveling the myth of the Straight Talk Express To: Press Corps From: Obama Campaign Re: Unraveling the myth of the Straight Talk Express Since naming Governor Palin as their Vice Presidential nominee, the McCain campaign has distorted, distracted, and outright lied to the American people about her record in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that a McCain/Palin Administration would be nothing more than a continuation of the failed Bush policies of the last eight years. Indeed, today alone we learned that the McCain campaign's claim that Governor Palin traveled to Iraq is a lie. In... MORE »
