New York Times: Obama and the War on Brains

"Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual."

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New York Times: Thinking of Good Vibrations, by Gail Collins

"Today, you can bask in the realization that there are billions of people around the planet who loathed our country last week but are now in awe of its capacity to rise above historic fears and prejudices, that once again, the United States will have a president the world wants to follow."

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New York Times: The Promise - For Many Abroad, an Ideal Renewed

"Even where the United States is held in special contempt, like here in this benighted Palestinian coastal strip, the “glorious epic of Barack Obama,” as the leftist French editor Jean Daniel calls it, makes America — the idea as much as the actual place — stand again, perhaps only fleetingly, for limitless possibility."

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New York Times Editorial: The Next President

"This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:

An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States."

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Huffington Post: The Most Accurate Election Forecast? Hardcore Gamblers

"Michael Robb, political expert for the British bookmaking site Betfair.com, lets the record speak for itself: Halfway through Election Day in 2004, when a CNN poll showed Kerry taking the lead, Betfair had Bush with a 91% chance to win.

Of course that's just one election. Probably hundreds of fifth-grade social studies students correctly predicted Bush's margin of victory to a decimal place, right?

Betfair also had all 50 states right in 2004.

As did rival site Intrade."

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Yahoo News: My wife made me canvass for Obama; here's what I learned

"I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways. My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me."

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Huffington Post: The Mandatory Rejection of Sarah Palin

"There are a lot of things to ridicule about Sarah Palin's incomprehensible speaking style, her pathological dishonesty and her backwards, simplistic views on the issues. But it's her politics of fear and division that must be wholly rejected on Tuesday because it's too terrible to imagine waking up one week from today in an America that rewards the awfulness and fear which she and her subterranean allies require in order to politically exist."

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New York Times: Obama Is Up, and Fans Fear That Jinxes It

"To talk with left-leaning Democrats in New Hope, San Francisco or Miami Beach, to drill deep into their id, is to stand at the intersection of Liberal and High Anxiety. Right now, more than a few are having a these-polls-are-too-good-to-be-true, we-still-could-lose-this-election moment. Their consuming and possibly over-caffeinated worry is that their prayers and nightly phone calls to undecided voters in Toledo, Ohio, notwithstanding, Mr. Obama might fall short on Election Day."

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Washington Post: True Believers In McCain Flock to Pa.

"During the last two weeks, thousands of volunteers such as White have flocked to Pennsylvania -- the land of last resort for McCain's campaign."

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CNN: After millions of votes, Democrats outnumber GOP

"Calculations by CNN and other news organizations indicate that many, if not most, of the early votes in more than 30 states are being cast by registered Democrats, although it's unknown who voted for which candidate."

FUll article

Jonathan Turley: Palinprudence: My First Amendment Rights are Threatened by Criticism

"Gov. Sarah Palin has reached a new low with her interpretation of the first amendment as threatened by criticism of her views in the media. Jurisprudence is a tough subject, but Palinprudence is a virtual nightmare."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: McCain's Mountain of a Problem

"PPP estimates that nearly two-thirds of Coloradans have already cast their ballots, as have 55-60 percent of New Mexicans, with large majorities of those votes going to Barack Obama. This is backed up to some extent by Michael McDonald's turnout statistics."

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Washington Post: In Final Stretch, McCain to Pour Money Into TV Ads

"The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy."

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Huffinton Post: Leah McElrath Renna: Five Reasons Why the Obama Infomercial was Worth the Cost

"Let's be honest: the Obama infomercial was about comforting white Americans -- especially middle and working class white Americans. That said, it was arguably necessary and -- for what it was -- very effective."

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Huffington Post: Eagleburger Blisters Palin: "Of Course" She's Not Ready

"A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain's most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise."

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Crooks and Liars: Neil Cavuto on John McCain: 'On economic matters, you have no convictions'

"On [Fox Business Channel]'s Cavuto show, Neil Cavuto lambasted John McCain over his economic policies, or lack thereof. It's a searing commentary on McCain's nonsensical approach and the shifting positions he has taken during his campaign."

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Huffington Post: GOP Doubts Grow: Romney, Pawlenty Sound Skeptical

"Doubts about John McCain's chances for the presidency grew louder among fellow Republicans on Tuesday as a White House race largely focused on Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania entered its final week."

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Huffington Post: Amb. Peter Bridges: We Know the World and We Support Obama

"A friend and former colleague of mine in the Foreign Service, Kevin McGuire, some time ago drafted a short statement of support for Obama and began to ask retired Foreign Service officers if they would sign it. So far 334 of us have done so, including by my count 66 former American ambassadors."

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Washington Post: Sorry, Senator. Let's Salvage What We Can.

"There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him."

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Huffington Post: Biden Tells Fifth Grade Reporter What VP Actually Does (VIDEO)

"When Joe Biden campaigned in Palm Beach County, Florida in September he was interviewed by one Damon Weaver, a remarkably poised and charming 5th grader. Weaver's news segment on Biden's visit is highly entertaining and worth checking out, And make sure to watch to the end, when Weaver pronounces Biden his 'homeboy.'"

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AP: Lieberman On Palin: "Thank God She's Not Gonna Have To Be President From Day One"

"Lieberman added that if Democrat Barack Obama wins the White House, he would support his presidency."

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Politico.com: Palin allies report rising campaign tension

"Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign's already-tense internal dynamics. Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline."

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Washington Times: McCain supporters heckle early voters

"Photographer Joe Eddins and I headed over to the closest one and found a steady line of voters hoping to cast ballots early. Most seemed to be Obama supporters and several had come from the rally. Nearly all the voters were black. Also at the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in. Nearly all were white."

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Huffington Post: Waiting for Nov. 4th, by Larry David

"I can't take much more of this. Two weeks to go, and I'm at the end of my rope. I can't work. I can eat, but mostly standing up. I'm anxious all the time and taking it out on my ex-wife, which, ironically, I'm finding enjoyable. This is like waiting for the results of a biopsy. Actually, it's worse. Biopsies only take a few days, maybe a week at the most, and if the biopsy comes back positive, there's still a potential cure. With this, there's no cure. The result is final. Like death."

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McClatchy Washington Bureau: Enough Joe the Plumber; here's to Kareem the Soldier

"Obama 'is a Christian,' Powell said. 'He has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That is not America.' He added: 'I am troubled that within the (Republican) Party we have these kinds of expressions' suggesting that Obama is a Muslim, and that if he is, he likely associates with terrorists."

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New York Times: McCain Fights to Keep Crucial Blue State in Play

"Mr. Obama, who was in Florida on Tuesday, had no immediate plans to return to Pennsylvania in coming days, perhaps the most telling sign that his strategists were comfortable with his position there. But Democratic officials in the state said they had been urging the Obama campaign to send the senator back there at least once more before Election Day to shore up support."

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Think Progress: Palin Claims The Vice President Is ‘In Charge Of The U.S. Senate’

"Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“."

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Chicago Tribune: Political signs bring threats in Villa Park

"Two supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found handwritten death threats in their mailboxes Thursday and reported them to Villa Park police."

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Slate.com: Stop covering Palin until she gives a press conference, by Christopher Hitchens

"...continued media coverage of her appearances is no better than lending a megaphone to a demagogue, the better to amplify her propaganda."

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Rep. Michele Bachmann Calls for Investigation of Anti-American Members of Congress and Suggests Obama is Anti-American — Then Denies the Statements

From Jonathan Turley:

"Bachmann’s comments are unfortunately an example of how, once unleashed by a campaign, these attacks quickly de-evolve into a form of fascistic rhetoric. From Palin’s reference to “pro-American” parts of the country to Bachmann’s call for the investigation of anti-American views, the all citizens should be equally concerned. At best, Bachmann’s comments were irresponsible and worthy of condemnation. At worse, it is a reflection of how politicians have unleashed the scourge of McCarthyism again in this country."

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Los Angeles Times: Ontario police arrest man in voter fraud case

"The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud."

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Reuters: McCain compares Obama to European socialists

"'At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are up-front about their objectives. They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Senator Obama,' McCain said."

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AP: Obama raises stunning $150 million in September

"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage over rival John McCain."

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Think Progress: Bachmann Calls For McCarthyite Investigation Into Anti-American Activities Of Liberals

"[Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)] called on the media to conduct investigations into the anti-American activities of members of Congress, similar to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s discredited House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s. “I think people would love to see an expose like that,” she claimed."

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CNN: Obama camp calls for special prosecutor in fraud investigation

"The Obama campaign announced Friday that it is asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over any investigations of voter fraud or voter suppression to Special Prosecutor Nora Dannehy. Dannehy is also the special prosecutor recently appointed to investigate the U.S. attorney firing scandal. It's the latest salvo in an escalating war over allegations of possible voter irregularities during the upcoming presidential election. 'What they're actually about is the unprecedented effort to essentially sap the American people of confidence in the voting process,' Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign's general counsel, said Friday on a conference call."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: On the Road: Marietta, Ohio

"When local field organizer Christian Lund took the stage just prior to Joe Biden's appearance on Tuesday night in Marietta, he asked those in the attendant crowd of about 4,000 to look at the sheets in their hands. Each sheet held four names, and each name had a phone number and a bar code for later data scanning. Lund asked the people in the crowd to make four phone calls to this targeted group, and then he demonstrated. Lund got voicemail. Over the microphone, he left a message informing his phonee about where and when to early vote, as well as where and when the Obama volunteer office was located in town and what it's hours were. After he was finished, it was the crowd's turn. 'We even got extra cell tower juice just for tonight' Lund told the crowd, so go ahead and make four quick calls on Barack Obama's behalf. They did."

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A Vote For Science: All 2008 US Nobel Laureates in Science Endorse Obama!

"From the Obama campaign: 'With one voice, 65 of the nation's greatest minds, the largest number of Nobel Laureates to ever endorse a political candidate for office, have encouraged the American public to vote Obama on November 4th.'"

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Salon.com: Sarah Palin and the Jewish vote in Florida

"The local retirement community known as Century Village is just one outpost in a statewide network of Century Villages, Florida’s largest chain of retirement complexes. It is also a time capsule of the New York Jewish gestalt, circa 1965, transplanted intact to the golf greens of Palm Beach County. If a small, unscientific sampling of the shoppers in the Hamptons Plaza mall, directly across from the complex, is any indication, John McCain’s choice of running mates may have pushed the residents of this heavily Democratic enclave back in Barack Obama’s direction."

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BBC News: 106-year-old voter chooses Obama

"A 106-year-old American nun living in a convent in Rome could well be one of the oldest voters to cast a ballot in the 2008 US Presidential election. Sister Cecilia Gaudette, who last voted for President Eisenhower in 1952, has registered to vote and says she will vote for Democrat Barack Obama."

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New York Times: Fire the Campaign, by William Kristol

"It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign. He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed."

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New York Times: The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama

"...we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise."

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CNN: New York county prints ‘Barack Osama’ on ballots

"Hundreds of absentee ballots sent to voters in New York State’s Rensselaer County, near Albany, were printed with Barack Obama’s last name spelled as “Osama,' the Albany Times Union reports.

County elections officials tell the newspaper that it was a typo that made it by three rounds of proof-readers. They also said the error affected just a few hundred voters, and that they will re-send corrected ballots on request."

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The Daily Beast: Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama, by Christopher Buckley

"Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance.

Or would they? But let’s get that part out of the way. The only reason my vote would be of any interest to anyone is that my last name happens to be Buckley—a name I inherited. So in the event anyone notices or cares, the headline will be: “William F. Buckley’s Son Says He Is Pro-Obama.” I know, I know: It lacks the throw-weight of “Ron Reagan Jr. to Address Democratic Convention,” but it’ll have to do."

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Politico.com: Palin: Obama not telling ‘total truth’

"The Alaska governor told Ingraham’s listeners that if those questions were being answered, voters would find Obama “out of the mainstream,” adding that the Illinois senator would diminish “the prestige of the United States presidency.”"

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New York Times Editorial: Politics of Attack

"It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember. They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison."

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ABC News: 'Tis the Season of Election Dirty Tricks: Scaring Student Voters

"Young voters at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Penn. have already been targeted, with students reporting that flyers have been posted around campus warning that undercover police will be at the polls on Election Day looking to make arrests."

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CBS: Poll: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Debate

"... this new poll has good news for the Democratic ticket: Just as in the first presidential debate and the vice presidential face off, more uncommitted voters say the Democratic candidate won the debate. (The exact numbers may change as more respondents complete the survey.)"

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AP: McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra case

"GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair. McCain's ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago. The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe."

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Think Progress: Top McCain Aide: ‘If We Keep Talking About The Economic Crisis, We’re Going To Lose’

"“It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice,” a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”"

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AP: Palin's Ayers Attack "Racially Tinged"

"Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as 'not like us' is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American."

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New York Times: Racism Without Racists

"...a careful survey completed last month by Stanford University, with The Associated Press and Yahoo, suggested that Mr. Obama’s support would be about six percentage points higher if he were white... Most of the lost votes aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate. Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously."

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Philadelphia Daily News: Vote-scam fliers target black neighborhoods

"An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day."

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New York Times: Palin’s Alternate Universe

"After Ms. Palin had woven one of her particularly impenetrable linguistic webs, Joe Biden turned to the debate’s moderator, Gwen Ifill, and said: “Gwen, I don’t know where to start.” Of course he didn’t know where to start because Ms. Palin’s words don’t mean anything. She’s all punctuation."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: On the Road: St. Louis County, Missouri

"You could take every McCain volunteer we’ve seen doing actual work in the entire trip, over six states, and it would add up to the same as Obama’s single Thornton, CO office. Or his single Durango, CO office. These ground campaigns bear no relationship to each other."

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Huffington Post: VP Debate: McCain's Big Gamble Comes Up Snake Eyes, by Arianna Huffington

"After watching this debate, I am convinced that if the country somehow has a collective mental meltdown and elects Sarah Palin, she will be even more dangerous than Cheney. Not only does she want more power for herself than the Constitution grants -- or than Cheney took for himself -- but she is so obviously not equipped to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, it takes your breath away that McCain picked her."

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Daily Kos: Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

"I know some folks out there might have had trouble following the Vice Presidential debate. Particularly, trying to parse meaning from the things that Sarah Palin said. With that in mind, I have compiled a handy resource for your perusal. I hope to update this chart, both graphically and grammatically, when it is no longer ten to five in the morning. For for the mean time. . . enjoy!"

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AP: Estimates show Palin assets top $1 million

"Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle. Add up the couple's 2007 income and the estimated value of their property and investments and they appear to be worth at least $1.2 million."

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Time: Poll: Palin Less Popular with Women Voters Than with Men

"Palin's unpopularity with women may prove a drag on the ticket with the very constituency she initially inspired. Obama now leads McCain by 17 points among likely female voters, 55%-38%. Just after the Republican convention, a TIME poll had the two candidates virtually tied among women, 48% for Obama and 47% for McCain."

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Pollster.com: USA Today/Gallup on Financial Crisis

"If you haven't seen it yet, this Gallup analysis of the latest USA Today/Gallup poll on the Wall Street crisis, conducted over the weekend, is a must-read. The poll...:

finds more Americans disapproving than approving of how most of the major national political players have handled the recent problems on Wall Street. Only Barack Obama squeaks by with more Americans approving than disapproving of his performance on the issue, 46% to 43%.'"

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UPI: 200 former U.S. diplomats endorse Obama

"More than 200 former U.S. diplomats have signed a statement announcing their support for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama."

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Newsweek: Palin Is Ready? Please., by Fareed Zakaria

"Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony?"

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Huffington Post: Latest Palin Gaffe: Can't Name Supreme Court Case Other Than Roe V. Wade

"Today, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported on potentially embarrassing clips of Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric that haven't yet been aired."

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The Atlantic: Sure They Vetted Her, by Andrew Sullivan

"Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.”"

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Huffington Post: Why the Debates Won't Matter (Hint: It's a Felony)

"This election won't be won or lost at the debates. Nor will it be determined by the two campaigns' 'ground games' -- their get-out-the-vote efforts. Nor, unfortunately, will its outcome even depend on how many Americans wake up on Election Day intending to vote for one candidate or the other. Instead, my fear is that the Electoral College results will hang on the swing state voting systems' vulnerability to sabotage."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: McCain Is Stuck With Palin

"McCain already runs the risk of his campaign appearing to be something of a three-ring circus, with Britney Spears in one ring, Palin in another, and the 'suspension' of his campaign in a third. To replace Palin now might make his campaign seem like a farce."

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New York Times: Palin’s Words Raise Red Flags

"If, on the other hand, it becomes clear that her performance, so far, is an accurate reflection of her qualifications, it would behoove John McCain and the Republican Party to put the country first — as Mr. McCain loves to say — and find a replacement for Ms. Palin on the ticket."

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CBS News: Early Poll Results Suggest More Uncommitted Voters Saw Obama As Debate Winner

"Forty percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Barack Obama was the winner. Twenty-two percent thought John McCain won. Thirty-eight percent saw it as a draw."

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Huffington Post: Jack Cafferty: If Sarah Palin Being One Heartbeat Away "Doesn't Scare The Hell Out Of You, It Should"

"He warned the viewers: 'If John McCain wins this woman will be one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being President of the United States. And if that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should.'"

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The Atlantic: I've now seen much of the Katie Couric / Sarah Palin interview... by James Fallows

"... and I genuinely feel sorry for Palin. This really is pathetic. Again it's not a mass/elite matter. Anyone who has been to high school immediately recognizes the terror of facing a pop quiz or an oral exam when you just have no idea what you're talking about."

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AFP: Kenyan witch-hunter blesses Palin in new Internet video

"An Internet video showing Sarah Palin being blessed by a Kenyan witch-hunter emerged Thursday in the latest online blast from the Republican vice-presidential nominee's past."

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Christian Science Monitor: McCain cancels Letterman. Letterman rips McCain

"...when John McCain cancelled on Letterman - at the last minute - you could hardly expect that the comic would take it easy on him. He didn’t."

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New York Times: Palin’s American Exception

"Behind Palinism lies anger. It’s been growing as America’s relative decline has become more manifest in falling incomes, imploding markets, massive debt and rising new centers of wealth and power from Shanghai to Dubai."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: AM Trackers Suggest Poor Reaction to McCain Announcement

"We'll have polling data rolling in all day, of course, but the very early returns suggest that the public may not have responded in the way John McCain might have liked to his announcement yesterday that he was 'suspending' his campaign to attend to the financial crisis."

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New York Times: McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac Through August

"One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: Remains Of The Day

"Americans feel about the debates they way I felt about Bugs Bunny. The cumulative audience between the three Presidential debates will likely significantly exceed that of the Super Bowl. They like watching them, and look forward to them. If McCain denies them that pleasure, they are likely to be angry with him, perhaps in ways they have difficulty expressing."

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CNN Poll: GOP takes brunt of blame for economy, Obama gains

"A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll suggests that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks — one factor that may have contributed to an apparent increase in Barack Obama’s edge over John McCain in the race for the White House."

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Washington Post: Joe Biden, Enjoying the Campaign Trail

"Biden seems to enjoy having journalists following him around, if only to have more people listen to his running commentary on whatever springs to his mind. A CBS reporter following Biden around estimated Biden has done 80 interviews since he was named vice president, compared to two by Palin."

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Washington Post: McCain Loses His Head, by George Will

"Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."

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New York Times: The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama

"What is happening, I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice. In public at least, it’s not acceptable to express reservations about a candidate’s skin color, so discomfort about race is sublimated into concerns about whether Mr. Obama is sufficiently Christian."

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Reason Magazine: The Libertarian Case for Obama: Seven potential upsides to a hope-monger presidency

"For those who recognize that 'libertarian Democrat' is no more oxymoronic than 'libertarian Republican,' a solid case can be made for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as a Leader of the Free World who won't take that American Exceptionalism conceit as seriously as 'Country First' Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)."

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Digg: Maybe the Best Anti-McCain Ad Ever

"Perfect. It puts it all in perspective. This needs to get on the air."

Link to YouTube video

New York Times: Seeking a President Who Gives Goose Bumps? So’s Obama, by Maureen Dowd

"...the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it."

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New York Times: Lipstick Bungle

"Many of your supporters will no doubt cry sexism. Fine with me. But that defense rings hollow. I find many of them to be sexist. Fresh-faced? Delegates on the floor of the Republican National Convention wearing buttons like “Hoosiers for the hot chick”?"

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New York Times: Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar

"At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates. McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: Estimating the Cellphone Effect: 2.2 Points

"Gallup, Pew and ABC/WaPo have each found a cellphone effect of between 1-3 points when they have conducted experiments involving polling with and without a cellphone supplement."

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Time: John McCain and the Lying Game

"John McCain has raised serious questions about whether he has the character to lead the nation. He has defaced his beloved military code of honor. He has run a dirty campaign."

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CNN Political Ticker: Palin’s transparency proposal already exists in D.C.

"Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington... There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama."

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Politico.com: How John McCain lost me

"McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man. In fact, it’s not clear who he is."

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New York Times: Why Experience Matters, by David Brooks

"Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready."

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Editor and Publisher: How Fact-Checking Took Center Stage in 2008 Campaign

"'It's just not good,' [Brooks] Jackson concludes, 'when Americans go to vote that they do so with their heads full of disinformation that has gone unchecked by the only entity that has a special protection under the Constitution of the United States to investigate it. I mean, why have a First Amendment if you're not going to use it?'"

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D Magazine: A Conservative for Obama

"I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers."

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New York Times: Bering Straight Talk, by Maureen Dowd

"The really scary part of the Palin interview was how much she seemed like W. in 2000, and not just the way she pronounced nu-cue-lar. She had the same flimsy but tenacious adeptness at saying nothing, the same generalities and platitudes, the same restrained resentment at being pressed to be specific, as though specific is the province of silly eggheads, not people who clear brush at the ranch or shoot moose on the tundra."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: Dems Must Give Voters Explicit Permission To Like Palin

"To defuse the Sarah Palin Phenomenon, Democrats need to explicitly give voters permission to both like her as a person and then also not vote for her. If I were scripting the pivot, based on my conversations out in the field and away from the bubble of cable news and online analysis, I’d try something like the following (edit: in Biden's debate, in stump speeches or voter-to-voter persuasion and possibly in ads): Sarah Palin is very likable. There’s nothing wrong with liking her. But this isn’t a zany sitcom where a friendly, plucky Everywoman with dangerous ignorance on foreign policy gets to be vice president. Americans don't deserve someone too scared to do a press conference. Fun for a TV show, but running the country doesn't permit second and third takes when you mess up the scene."

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McCainpedia: Count the Lies

"John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a 'maverick' and a 'straight talker' who will tell the truth no matter the consequences, but independent, non-partisan watchdog groups aren't buying it. But, since he wrapped up his party's nomination, John McCain has offered more of the same false attacks and smears. To date, independent, nonpartisan fact checkers have published more than 50 fact checks debunking John McCain's lies and distortions. To hold John McCain accountable to his own standard, the Democratic National Committee will count and chronicle the lies here on the McCainPedia's 'Count the Lies' page."

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Politico.com: Obama: If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Alaska to sell you, by Ben Smith

"He followed up with a dig at lobbyists, saying 'if you think those lobbyists are working day and night for John McCain just to put themselves out of business, well, then, I've got a bridge to sell you up in Alaska.'"

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ProPublica: Palin Administration Still Pursuing ‘Nowhere’ Project

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has portrayed herself as a foe of pork-barrel spending, pointing in particular to her role in killing the $398 million 'Bridge to Nowhere” between Ketchikan (pop. 7,400) and its airport on Gravina Island (pop. 50). I 'told the Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,'' she said in her speech accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination. 'If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves.' But Gov. Palin’s administration acknowledges that it is still pursuing a project that would link Ketchikan to its airport -- with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original project."

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Washington Post: A Big Rally and Talk of Economy as Obama Visits N.H.

"The Obama campaign couldn't let that pass, and Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement of his own. 'We will take no lectures from John McCain who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern Presidential campaign history,' he said in an e-mail. 'His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office his is seeking.'"

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Edge: What Makes People Vote Republican? By Jonathan Haidt

"...now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer 'moral clarity'—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate."

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New York Times: Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

"As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments, those with insider credentials were now on the outs. But a new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church."

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New York Times Editorial: Gov. Palin’s Worldview

"But that is not what troubled us most about her remarks — and, remember, if they were scripted, that just means that they reflect Mr. McCain’s views all the more closely. Rather, it was the sense that thoughtfulness, knowledge and experience are handicaps for a president in a world populated by Al Qaeda terrorists, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, poverty and fratricidal war in the developing world and deep economic distress at home."

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New York Times: McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions

"“The last month, for sure, I think the predominance of liberty taken with truth and the facts has been more McCain than Obama,” said Don Sipple, a Republican advertising strategist."

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ABC News: Palin Wrong on Former VP Credentials

"ABC News' Lisa Chinn reports: During her interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson Thursday Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin attempted to deflect a question about the fact she has never met a foreign head of state by saying that 'many' other vice presidential nominees in history hadn't met a head of state either. However Palin was mistaken, at least where recent history is concerned. Every vice president over the last 30 years had met a foreign head of state before being elected."

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Huffington Post: Obama Gets Tough. Too Little, Too Late?, by John Ridley

"So, Obama making the pilgrimage to Clinton's Harlem office (I'm sorry, did somebody order a big, steaming plate of irony?) is an open acknowledgment from Team Obama that they need to bring out the BFG of Democratic politics. Though I don't think polls are the end all/be all, Obama's softening numbers indicate it's time to do...something. Especially with that crazy Hail Sarah ball McCain tossed up looking like it might just make it into the end zone. Her deer-in-headlights responses to questions about the Bush Doctrine notwithstanding."

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mlive.com: Barack Obama ad mocks John McCain as computer illiterate, marks aggressive new attitude

"John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain's long Washington career."

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New York Times: Blizzard of Lies

"What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse."

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Huffington Post: Enough!: Why Obama Should Release His Righteous Rage

"To fully become the transformational leader we need, Obama must demonstrate to the American people his capacity for indignation -- for the kind of ferocious passion that fueled King and Nelson Mandela. He has to fight fire with fire, and wield anger in the service of what right, true, and good. The fierce urgency of now demands nothing less."

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Washington Post: As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They're Undone

"'The more the New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there's a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she's new, she's popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent,' Feehery said. 'As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter.'" [Note: Feehery is a Republican strategist]

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FiveThirtyEight.com: Lipstick

"My first reaction upon hearing Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark was that it was deliberate. Not a deliberate attempt to smear Sarah Palin per se, but a deliberate attempt to provoke exactly the sort of fanatical reaction that they have gotten from the Republicans. The McCain campaign has spent a week campaigning on big themes and big personalities, and gotten a fair amount of mileage out of it. This takes everyone back down a notch, back down to the tedium and banality of partisan politics. It would be wishful thinking to call it a momentum-changer, but it may by default be a momentum-stopper. The convention/Palinmania phase of the news cycle -- a phase the Republicans clearly thought they were winning -- is now over."


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The Washington Independent: Obama’s Alternative Red State Universe

"While the national press and political websites go gaffe-gorging, local papers cover Obama’s working class agenda."

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Huffington Post: This Crazy Sex Ad is Obama's Dukakis Moment

"Everyone who sees this ad can see how dirty it is. And if Obama wants Americans to respect him, they must be allowed to see him react with the kind of anger - controlled, but still palpable - that they would feel if somebody did that to them."

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Washington Post: Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a 'per diem' allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business."

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CBS News: Lipstick On A Pig, By Steve Benen

"The media seems to find all of this fascinating, as if use of an old American expression, utilized by all kinds of political candidates from both parties for generations, might be some kind of sexist insult -- not when McCain used it to slam Hillary Clinton, but only when Obama used it to criticize the Republican campaign in general. It's honestly like being stuck in a 'Twilight Zone' episode in which reality has no meaning at all."

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Huffington Post: Sarah Palin: A Trojan Moose Concealing Four More Years of George Bush

"McCain's team, in an effort to distract, is going to keep doing what they're doing -- diverting voters and the media with a tantalizing combination of personal trivia and small lies. It doesn't matter if they're caught in them -- in fact, all the better. Because they know there is no way in hell they can win if this election is about the big truth of the Bush years."

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Huffington Post: Hillary Clinton: "No Palin!"

"Clinton said the nation should be proud that the Republicans have a woman on the ticket, but argued that returning Republicans to the White House 'is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic.'"

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Huffington Post: We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing, by Adam McKay

"So what is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press. There is no more fourth estate. Wait, hold on...I'm not going down some esoteric path with theories on the deregulation of the media and corporate bias and CNN versus Fox...I mean it: there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it. And that's the 51% advantage."

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Daily Kos: On Being Pentecostal Holiness

"The mere idea of having someone who believes like this in a high office is so personal and repulsive to me, that I not only donated more money to the Obama campaign, but will get involved actively in some way. I know what these people believe. I have lived it. Any one of them near the White House is not okay."

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New York Times: The Resentment Strategy

"What struck me as I watched the convention speeches, however, is how much of the anger on the right is based not on the claim that Democrats have done bad things, but on the perception — generally based on no evidence whatsoever — that Democrats look down their noses at regular people."

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FiveThirtyEight.com: Sarah Palin Is Not a Hockey Mom

"In the hockey analogy, Palin wouldn’t get within a thousand miles of an NHL All-Star Game because she’s not a scoring talent. She’s a role player, an emotion-rouser. Emotion messes with the chalkboard-drawn game plan and thus achieves a specific strategic objective. She can make game-changing agitation plays that rouse her home team and provoke the other side into counterattacks that – 100% of the time – end up punishing the team who hits back. Democrats would be smart to understand her as such, and I see a lot of reaction that doesn't seem to grasp what Palin is doing and the value she's providing. I see a lot of Democrats taking a lot of bait."

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