Weekend Update

Palin abused her power (sooprize, sooprize) in trooper-gate, but consequences are unclear.

McCain is trying to control his unruly crowds (or is he?), but then a surrogate goes after Michelle for a very tenuous connection to Bill Ayers wife. The former is the best article I've seen today on McCain's attempts to deal with the angry crowds he and Palin have been inciting.

Republicans need a new tactic cuz insulting the people you want to vote for you ain't working.

More good news for Obama:

From Newsweek:

Obama appears to have broadened his coalition of support and made inroads with groups that have not reliably embraced him over the course of the long presidential campaign. He now leads McCain among both men (54 percent to 40 percent) and women (50 percent to 41 percent). He now wins every age group of voters—including those over 65 years of age, who back him over McCain 49 to 43 percent. Supporters of Hillary Clinton, as many as a fifth of whom had at one point told pollsters they'd support McCain over Obama, now back the Democratic nominee 88 percent to 7 percent.

From Fox:

"Obama has also improved his standing with his party faithful. A month ago, 79 percent of Democrats were backing Obama. Today it is 86 percent. McCain has consistently received the backing of over 80 percent of Republicans and is backed by 83 percent today.

Independents split their vote 34 percent Obama and 32 percent McCain, with 24 percent unsure. That's little changed from two weeks ago when Obama was up by 36 percent to 31 percent and 29 percent undecided.

A 61 percent majority of voters believes Obama is going to win the election - more than three times as many as believe McCain will (18 percent). A month ago it was evenly divided: 41 percent Obama and 40 percent McCain (Sept. 8-9). This summer, voters were more likely to say Obama would win: 51 percent Obama and 27 percent McCain (July 22-23). "

And from loverboy Nate:

"With 25 days to go until the election, Barack Obama is presently at his all-time highs in four of the six national tracking polls (Research 2000, Battleground, Hotline and Zogby) and is just one point off his high in Gallup. He has emerged with clear leads in both Florida and Ohio, where there are several polls out today. He is blowing McCain out in most polls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and is making states like West Virgina and Georgia competitive."

Are things so bad that the GOP is going to completely bail on McCain? That's what Andrew Sullivan is hearing:

"So I hear (via a prominent member of the sane Republican faction) that the word on the right side of the street is that the Republican National Committee is about to pull the plug on its joint ads with the McCain campaign, and devote its resources instead to trying to save a couple of the senators who are at serious risk of losing their seats. Now this is gossip, albeit of the high class variety; take it with the requisite pinch of salt."

Finally, if you live in Chicago, Sassy recommends a very cool play we saw last night at the Cultural Center (thanks to Bridget!): Produced by The Incurable Theater and written by one of our favorite local authors, Jill Summers, "In the Curious Hold of the Demeter: Count Orlock at Sea" is only around for two more weekends. It's creepy, funny, weird, and dark. Just what Sassy likes.

Morning Roundup

McCain continues to draw mobs of angry people. This can't end anywhere good. As Andrew Sullivan says today:

"To some, a president Obama is simply unimaginable. From a McCain supporter in Wisconsin yesterday:

"We're all wondering why Obama is where he's at. How he got here. Everybody in this room is stunned we're in this position."

There was always going to be a point of revolt and panic for a core group of Americans who believe that Obama simply cannot be president - because he's black or liberal or young or relatively new. This is that point. As the polls suggest a strong victory, the Hannity-Limbaugh-Steyn-O'Reilly base are going into shock and extreme rage. McCain and Palin have decided to stoke this rage, to foment it, to encourage paranoid notions that somehow Obama is a "secret" terrorist or Islamist or foreigner. These are base emotions in both sense of the word.

But they are also very very dangerous. This is a moment of maximal physical danger for the young Democratic nominee. And McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies - not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.

For God's sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first."

And wouldn't you know, O'Reilly showed his true colors last night (also from Sullivan):

A pretty staggering exchange on O'Reilly just now. O'Reilly had African-American Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill on the show. O'Reilly went into Colbert mode at one point, saying that when he thinks about a metaphorical "Joe Six-Pack", he has no race in mind: "The immediate image that comes to my mind is a guy of no color," O'Reilly said. Try that for a second: imagine a man of no color. Then this staggering quote from O'Reilly to a black professor:

"Man, I'm glad I didn't have you in school, boy. I would have gotten a D."

Boy? Did O'Reilly just call a black professor a "boy" on cable television?

Nate thinks Obama hasn't peaked yet. This would be cool if it wasn't starting to be scary.

Repbug poll shows Obama gains:
A new pair of polls from Strategic Vision (R) gives Barack Obama the lead in both Florida and Ohio. In Florida: Obama 52%, McCain 44%, outside of the ±3% margin of error. In Ohio: Obama 48%, McCain 46%, within the ±3% margin of error.


also, don't forget, alaska publishes a report on trooper-gate today. something to look forward to while the dow plummets! (oh, but wait, palin's already been exonerated. by mccain!)

Thursday Morning: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

A couple things before I get back to actually doing my job on this Thursday morning.

The Good: Krugman likes the direction in which Treasury appears to be headed. I guess Paulson's considering pumping capital directly into banks with the bailout money to hopefully grease the credit wheels again.

The Bad: In an earlier post, Krugman wrote about how Fed funds interest rate cuts don't appear to be having an impact on the actual interest rates we all deal with. That can't be good.

As an aside, yes, I'm completely dependent on Krugman for my economic information. If he's wrong, I'm in trouble. If only we had a business professor in our group who could help the rest of us understand what the crap's going on...

The Ugly: The Repugs have completely thrown their weight behind stirring up hate. We all know that Palin's been rousing hateful/racist crowds at her rallies. Now, Cindy McCain's ramping up her specious attacks. And, the right wing nut jobs who write for the National Review's blog, the Corner are openly calling Obama a Maoist bent on infiltrating legitimate institutions to subvert them. Desperation is an ugly, ugly thing.

And I thought Bush/Cheney was bad

they ain't got nothin' on these guys.

the mccain camp is turning their daily rallies into what i imagine a day at a white supremacist training camp might look like. seriously, they are implicitly condoning hate, racism and violence. dangerous stuff. they're giving people a license (and venue) to vent rage, helplessness, fear, etc. this is so toxic and they're completely responsible for whatever the consequences may be. hopefully, the election will be over before anything tragic happens.

"In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy." " from kos