The best candidates deliver votes that the nominee might not otherwise receive without convincing others to flee. Not too many safe choices fit the bill, and anyone who does would probably be considered a dark horse.

One name that hasn't received much attention — yet — is that of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

In a move that’s sure to delight some people, shock others, and confuse the rest, NBC has booked none other than Sarah Palin to guest-host Tuesday’s edition of the TODAY Show. The network’s decision comes on the heels of ABC’s announcement that Katie Couric will be guest-hosting Good Morning America

Cable news pundits might have the largest gap of anyone in the world between “think they’re funny” and “actually funny.”

Usually it’s easy enough to roll your eyes when Lawrence O’Donnell — as he did last night on MSNBC — grabs onto a “three-way” reference to describe the Republican campaign, and then makes the joke again and again and again (hey, three times!), like a very naughty child who is very pleased with himself.

Attack messaging is a “double-edged sword” says Dan Schnur, the communications director for John McCain’s 2000 campaign. Negative messaging often “causes a pretty significant backlash,” but the lack of counterattack by Santorum has kept it from bringing Romney’s numbers down so far. Still, the ads have “come at a long-term cost” for Romney, says Schnur, as the Republican frontrunner’s overall favorability numbers have been significantly reduced among the electorate as a whole, which leaves him a pretty sizable hole to climb out of if he does claim the nomination.

The jury decision followed a six-week trial and came three years after Mr. Stanford was accused of defrauding nearly 30,000 investors in 113 countries in a Ponzi scheme involving $7 billion in fraudulent high-interest certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank, which was based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

...completely ignored is the more fundamental problem: this mandate is not only about the bedroom, it’s about the boardroom. You’ve heard of crony capitalism? Well this is America’s first example of crony contraceptives.

Forget for a minute the religious question and look at who wins big here: Big Pharma. This mandate is not really about condoms or generic versions of “the pill,” which are available free or cheap in lots of places.

"How often has the state of Washington had the ability to reset a presidential race?" he asked in a speech to several hundred supporters at a Pentecostal church in Spokane. "I know you feel like you've been railroaded and bulldozed. Well now you have a chance to speak to the country."

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is expected to raise the issue at a White House meeting on Monday after weeks of intense diplomacy in which Obama has dispatched senior officials – including his intelligence, national security and military chiefs – to Jerusalem to try and dampen down talk of an attack.
Diplomats say that Israel is angered by the Obama administration's public disparaging of early military action against Iran, saying that it weakens the prospect of Tehran taking the warnings from Israel seriously.

"The week actually has been very trying," Babeu, 43, said after the Thursday evening meeting. "Yet I am stronger for it. I never thought of quitting. And I've been overwhelmed by the measure of support we've received.... Did you see all the hugs I received here tonight?" The affection was hard to miss; at least three women whispered "I love you" in his ear.

Gingrich vowed to complete a border fence by Jan. 1, 2014, and said if reformers could “modernize the federal government so it’s competent,” the project probably would cost only about a tenth of the $3 million per mile that it is now estimated to cost.

Romney praised Arizona’s employer-sanctions law as a model for the nation and promised to drop the Obama administration’s immigration lawsuits against the state on the first day of his presidency.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which cleared a procedural hurdle this week on a 93-2 vote, has become a magnet for amendments that could have significant impact on the power and perks lawmakers have enjoyed for decades. ~~~ Specifically, some senior senators are bristling at the prospect of losing pensions or future jobs on K Street.

Underneath tonight’s big win for Mitt Romney in the Florida Republican primary, is a statistic that might suggest enthusiasm is flagging among GOP voters in this large and crucial swing state: turnout was actually down significantly from 2008.

In the 2008 Republican primary in Florida, in which John McCain beat Romney by a margin of 36%-31%, a total of nearly 1.95 million votes were cast.

Last summer, Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world's largest advertising and lobbying corporation, the WPP Group, told investors that he is bullish for this year. Political spending in the United States, Sorrell said confidently, "has already kicked off" and will rise to $4 billion -- "as best as we can anticipate." "The Supreme Court decision recently," he said referencing Citizens United, "on lobbying and funding of lobbying, pushes it further." 

Here’s what I wanted for Christmas: something that would make us both healthier and richer. And since I was just making a wish, why not ask that Americans get smarter, too?

Surprise: I got my wish, in the form of new Environmental Protection Agency standards on mercury and air toxics for power plants.

"The greatest threat to that security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as President, I won't. We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO to secure the border, to take out terrorist camps, and to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights."

Then in an October 2008 presidential debate with John McCain, Obama declared simply. "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority."

But from the beginning, candidate Romney like the GOP's eventual nominee John McCain not only opposed but mocked Obama's approach. While McCain blasted Obama's hard line on Al Qaeda's safe havens in the tribal areas ("Will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested invading our ally, Pakistan?"), Romney protested:

The thesis is that, even after Party apparatchiks lost their ability to pick candidates in smoke-filled rooms, they learned to maintain control of the process by influencing voters. The classic example would be the 2000 Republican primary, which George W. Bush wrapped up behind closed doors long before a single vote was cast, though he did have to hold off an outsider challenge from John McCain. If the Party is deciding, they’re going to decide to nominate Romney, a vastly stronger choice than Gingrich.

*Xtian = Heretical Christianity

The relationship between Perry and Parsley began in 2005, when Perry held a special signing ceremony for two new measures of importance to religious conservatives: a law that required parental consent for teenage girls to obtain abortions, and a constitutional amendment, which was up for a vote that November, to ban gay marriage. Perry booked a Fort Worth Christian school for the occasion and invited social conservative leaders—including Parsley—to attend the event.

In the near-absence of any sign that Sarah Palin is actively considering a GOP primary campaign, the good folks at Conservatives4Palin come up with this alternative scenario to keep hope alive:

[T]he possibility of an independent run does make sense and to delay the anouncement of her candidacy may simply be part of a bigger plan. Sarah Palin promised this to be a very unconventional election cycle.

Creating a third party fits that narrative. ...

Gingrich told a crowd of about 100 people at Iowa State University ...

“I don’t have the kind of money that Perry and Romney have,” Gingrich said. “I’m not going to be able to go out and campaign in a state the size of California right now. But if I come in first or second in Iowa and can go on to New Hampshire and come in first or second and then get to South Carolina, I think I will be the nominee.”

They don't want Herman Cain getting the nomination; they don't want Perry getting the nomination; they don't want Bachmann getting the nomination. The Republican establishment does not want a conservative getting the nomination. If Chris Christie can come along, catch fire, see to it that Palin, Bachmann -- Palin not in, she might get in, who knows, doubt it, but still too soon to say -- if they can co-opt any conservative getting the nomination, they will do it

A Republican Party that prides itself on order is looking chaotic. That unsettling observation comes after seeing another GOP Presidential frontrunner fall from grace, as Rick Perry plummets from 41% support among primary voters a month ago to 18% in this past weekend’s IBOPE Zogby interactive survey.

... at some point we will see some conservative's head explode from all the cognitive dissonance they hold.  [No, not Cheney's fault.] I'm putting my money on Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham is such an interesting paradox, since he was the one Republican to break from his party and refuse to vote to convict Bill Clinton during the impeachment, is often part of these bipartisan gangs in Congress that actually get legislation passed and has occasionally been fairly reasonable on the issues of immigration, climate change and economic issues.

United in their cause to bring down President Obama, Republicans of both camps now must choose a side in order to try and defeat him. The awkward marriage of Tea Party purists and establishment Republicans faces its first Dr. Phil moment as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney battle it out for the GOP presidential nomination for the next six months or longer.

Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ~~~ Trying to figure out what this whole "Tea Party" phenomenon is all about is a lot like trying to peer into the bottom of a muddy pool. The "mainstream" news media has accepted them as a legitimate, powerful force in American politics, as evidenced by CNN's so-called "Tea Party Debate" for the Republican presidential candidates on Monday night

Unsurprisingly, the same conservative echo chamber which cheered as the United States spent over $1 trillion, losing 4,500 American soldiers and wounding 30,000 in Iraq is furious over the $900 million price tag for the operation in Libya.

• President Obama needs to denounce Keynesian and adopt those of Milton Friedman instead.
• President Obama needs to let everyone know he's a one term president.
• President Obama needs to "embrace and endorse the Republican nominee because that's the free market, freedom, and liberty party."

... [The Palins] arriving in Iowa the same day as Democratic President Barack Obama.

“We are very excited to visit historic Pella and its opera house and look forward to seeing the finished film for the first time with fellow Americans from the heartland,” Palin said in a news release this morning.

"It's flippin unbelievable that the ADN allows lies like this to be posted. I'm calling."

She deployed another variation on July 3, 2008: "And flippin' a... do they need an explanation for Trig being there also, in his snugglie," she wrote, expressing disdain for a reporter's inquiries about Palin's use of state funds to ferry her children to official events.

... progressives held unrealistic expectations for his boss, President Barack Obama. Progressives are retarded because they had those expectations for Obama to begin with, and poured so many of their hopes and aspirations—not to mention dollars—into electing him.

Just being alive and conscious from the 1980s to the present day had subjected me to more feckless Trumpitude than any sane man should be expected to endure. I saw no reason to willingly seek out even more.

Three things President Obama didn't do in his speech to the nation on Libya: He didn't predict the future, he didn't put Col. Moammar Gadhafi on a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" poster, and he didn't pronounce an "Obama Doctrine" for redeeming a fallen world through bombing.

Here's the problem, I mean, Hillary disagrees with Mullen and Gates disagrees with Hillary. And Obama shifted his opinion. Gadhafi has got to go, not got to go. I don't have confidence in him. This policy is incoherent. He seems to be too little, too late, ill advised and doesn't have the political or moral courage to do this right. Tell me where I'm wrong! ~~~ GOP for "dither, dither, dither, dither ..."

Mark Zandi released a report for Moody's Analytics detailing the likely negative economic consequences of proposed GOP budget cuts.

The House Republicans' proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.

Yesterday, AOL's Andrea Stone reports that Amos is further distancing himself from his past criticisms, telling reporters that repeal has not created the kind of disruptions that he (and many Republicans) had predicted

"If she wanted the Republican nomination she'd be working on the inside," one influential Republican told me a few days ago. "She'd be building relationships with Republican Senators and representatives, governors, and state party officials. She'd be smoothing the feathers she ruffled by backing Tea Party candidates. She'd be huddled with GOP kingmakers."

October 25, 2010, Gates explained that the review was not a "referendum" on the policy, stressing, "I do not believe that military policy decisions — on this or any other subject — should be made through a referendum of Servicemembers."

Over a year before the GOP "Pledge to America" demanded permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans costing $700 billion over the next decade, >>>>>Rep. Michele Bachmann

The Republicans nominated a relative moderate, Richard Nixon, in 1960, and lost a squeaker; four years later, they nominated the arch-conservative Barry Goldwater. In 1980, the voters turned out a moderate Democrat, President Jimmy Carter, and four years later, Democrats nominated his more liberal vice president, Walter Mondale. And most significant of all, for the purposes of analogy, is what happened between 1968 and 1972, when a centrist, Hubert Humphrey, lost a close race, and Democrats responded by nominating McGovern, the most left-leaning candidate ever to seek the presidency.

There's a civil war brewing in the Republican Party—the most recent battlefield was the GOP Senate primary in Delaware where Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party candidate endorsed by DeMint, triumphed over Rep. Mike Castle, who was backed by Graham. And nowhere is the battle being fought in closer quarters than in the South Carolina Senate delegation where conservative DeMint, driving to purify the party, and Graham, often an island of moderation, exist in an uneasy peace.

Gen. James Amos' confirmation hearings to become the Marine Corps' 35th Commandant, to pepper Amos about repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Amos admitted that he personally opposes repealing DADT, but stressed that the Pentagon's review of the policy would inform the military about how best to implement a repeal and allow the Marines Corp to change the policy "smartly."

NBC's Meet the Press, CBS's Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, CNN's State of the Union, and ABC's This Week are the five major Sunday talk shows that aim to bring "a diverse group of voices" that "reflect the cultural, economic, and political landscape" of the U.S. However, according to a new study published by George Mason University School of Law this month, the Congressional guests featured in 2009 were anything but diverse, failing not only to represent the demographics of the American population but also the diversity of Congress. In fact, according to the study, the congressional voice was disproportionately represented by one type of guest in 2009: "white, male, senior, and Republican":

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported last night that he asked top GOPers — including President Bush, House Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), Sens. John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), Jeff Sessions (AL), and Susan Collins (ME), Rep. Eric Cantor (VA), Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Liz Cheney — if they would condemn Jones' Quran burning in light of Petraeus' remarks but none would offer any comment

Oh look, a poll revealing the shocking fact that 20% of Americans are delusional about Imam Barack Obama's religious fealty. Let's see how long it takes for the Washington Post to blame the dastardly Internet ...

The American Spectator's Phil Klein argues that while repealing all or portions of the health care law remains a longshot, many conservatives are now focusing on defunding some of the most unpopular provisions. The idea has been batted around by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and John McCain (R-AZ) almost immediately after the law passed, but as Klein describes, the idea is picking up some serious traction.

Sometimes I take right-wing Obama critics a little bit too seriously. But today they gave me a laugh: In his latest "Obamateurism of the day" (Get it? The president is an "amateur." Yeah, it's only clever if you pronounce "Obama" like "Alabama," but play along), Ed Morrissey announces: "Obama says he doesn't know who Snooki is, but three months ago he did!" Here's the scandal: Asked by "The View's" Joy Behar whether Snooki of MTV's "Jersey Shore" should run for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (where a recent mayor is now as famous as Snooki, and shares her fondness for tanning beds), the president told the ladies of "The View" last week he couldn't answer, because "I don't know who Snooki is!"

Republican appeared in McCain ad, has Reagan poster on the wall, Palin book on coffee table; Apologized last month for interview on 'pro-white' radio show

"You've probably seen him by now, in one of numerous TV interviews or walking with Sen. John McCain along the U.S.-Mexico border fence in the senator's latest television ad," Tim Steller reported for the Arizona Daily Star in May.

"My view is you can't separate white supremacists from what is going on with Arizona immigration," Professor Doty says. "Even if politicians say they aren't associated with white supremacists, the ideas behind SB 1070 are very attractive to white supremacists… The new face of the white supremacist isn't the guy with a sheet and a burning cross, it is the more highly educated person with a professed focus on family values, national identity, and border security."

Ms. Palin : "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

The one thing Rand has right: Surely a "Buy American" campaign for marijuana and amphetamines would be a smashing, patriotic success. There is, I admit, not much we can do about cocaine and heroin.

The left and right are coming to consensus from two different angles. "...perverse maldistribution of power in the country..." means not only government but finance, rich and armament producers. We the people means US.

McCain and Hayworth will duke it out in the Arizona primary. Hayworth's a bizarre Bagger and McCain is well McCain. Palin backs McCain. Baggers for reasons unknown Hayworth.

McCain a non-maveric Sen. running against wingnut JD Hayworth gets ballsy. Watch out Iran.

Another GOP odddity tries to outdo Murdock. Mr. Nutting lives up to his name.

A short piece that helps us remember some other horrible Vice Presidental choices beside Palin.

THE rambunctious extended family of Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska who ran for US vice-president, produced a fresh scandal this weekend when the mother of her daughter's fiancé was arrested on drug charges.

Sherry Johnston, 42, was arrested on six charges relating to the prescription drug oxycontin, which is widely known as "hillbilly heroin".

Florida has finally seen the light and in doing so has made this most historic and unique presidential election a first in one more way. For when the dust has settled after the emotional storm of the election of Barack Obama it will be revealed that the voters of Florida have authorised the new president to completely revise US policy towards Cuba and to lift the decades-old embargo.

By winning in Florida and carrying the Cuban-American stronghold of Miami-Dade county – with room to spare – Obama has broken the mould that has forged presidential election politics since the end of the cold war.

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- How fast we journalists move so as not to be left behind or be seen as sentimental.

I expect a story any minute that President-elect Barack Obama is moving too fast, or not fast enough. That his first hire, that of Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff by way of the Clinton Administration, is a sign he's just a hack.

JERUSALEM–Just 19 years old and with other, possibly more immediate issues on her mind, a woman who would identify herself only as Shiffy K. could perhaps be excused for missing some of the drama of the occasion.

"I have no clue," confessed the young sales clerk, who works in a Jerusalem souvenir shop. "But I did hear the black guy won."

As all the world knows, the "black guy" – otherwise known as Barack Obama – most definitely did win, triumphing handily in a historic presidential contest on Tuesday, thereby becoming the first African-American to win election to the highest office in the world's most powerful country.

He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent, still the primary and almost only area in which his executive abilities can be discerned, he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make. We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice.

It might appear obvious that Barack Obama's election, alongside the Democratic landslide in Congress, has offered the new Administration the clearest possible mandate to transform America's society. But conservative commentators are already hard at work to deny the existence of any such mandate.

Conservative pundits, drawing paradoxical comfort from the public's revulsion at the Bush Administration, argue that the Democratic victory was merely an inevitable, almost mechanical, swing of the political pendulum. After all, America's economy is collapsing, its military is stuck in two bloody quagmires, its government is run by an ignorant dolt, now universally recognised as a national embarrassment

"I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit, that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago, that my presence on the ticket would trump the economic crisis that America found itself in a couple of months ago and attribute John McCain's loss to me," Palin said.

CNN's Jessica Yellin in Chicago appeared in its New York election headquarters as a hologram last night. Over seven hundred miles away she stood there on Wolf Blitzer's familiar set like the media equivalent of Princess Leia and told the implacable anchor of the building ecstasy in Grant Park where American history would, in a few short hours be turned inside out.

This has been an election full of magic. White Magic that only the black man from everywhere and nowhere could perform.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has strengthened his advantage in The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll, establishing a commanding lead over Republican John McCain heading into Tuesday's election.

Obama has widened what was a solid lead in the Midwestern swing state, and has strengthened his position on key leadership traits since the Register's September poll. Meanwhile, support for McCain and perceptions of his abilities have slipped despite several campaign appearances in the state this fall

In Colorado, an estimated 56 per cent of eligible voters – some 1.5 million – have cast their ballots by post or in person at early polling locations ahead of the election while in Nevada, almost half of registered voters cast their ballots early.

Democratic Party officials say they are encouraged by early returns which show an apparent advantage for Senator Barack Obama in these and other battleground states including New Mexico, where officials said early ballots were cast in record numbers with over half of eligible voters in some counties predicted to vote before Tuesday.

On Tuesday, New Yorkers and Americans have a big decision to make. Do we continue to pursue the policies of the past eight years or do we chart a new course? I believe we can and we must chart a new course led by President Barack Obama.

How can it be any other way? We find ourselves in an economic crisis born and bred by the failed policies of Washington Republicans: gut regulations; cut taxes for billionaires and big corporations instead of the middle class; continue tax breaks for oil companies, drug companies, insurance companies, and companies that ship jobs overseas; deny the home mortgage crisis; ignore the energy crisis; and dismiss the health care crisis.

Senator Obama is poised to win California by the biggest margin in modern history, according to poll projections. Young people, Latinos and swing voters are expected to deliver a landslide victory for the Democrat.

However, despite the overwhelming weight of the 'Blue' vote, few Californians are under any illusions about the scale of the challenges facing the new incumbent.

California might have a well-deserved reputation as one of America's more laid-back, lifestyle orientated states, but it is also singly the world's seventh biggest economy and an economic powerhouse. The nation's financial health goes hand in hand with that of its most populous state.

The news is bleak for John McCain.

Under the system handed down by the wary framers of America's constitution, the president is not elected directly, but by an electoral college in which each state casts a number of votes roughly proportional to its population. With two tiny exceptions (see article), states cast their votes in a block for whichever candidate wins the most votes there.

This means the overall popular vote is much less important than the vote in a dozen or so states where the race is particularly close. That is why America's three largest states—California, New York and Texas—have been once again irrelevant to this presidential election.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Tens of thousands of lawyers are readying for Election Day, as political parties, campaigns, and nonprofit groups assemble massive legal teams to watch polls, sort out voting problems and, if necessary, head to court.

Barack Obama organized the most ambitious legal campaign ever run by a Democratic candidate, according to aides who also worked on Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 bid, with lawyers integrated into state field teams far earlier than ever before. They said their efforts led to the addition of more than 300 early voting sites in key battleground states and more than 30,000 extra voting hours.

"The very idea that Indiana is shaping up to be a nip and tuck race seems to belie the Republican argument that things are moving in McCain's direction in the final days…Even the most ardent Democratic strategists largely agree — privately — that the ideological makeup of the country probably prevents Obama from winning 55 percent of the vote or more, which would amount to an electoral vote landslide. But, a natural tightening does not equal momentum. At least not yet."

Our Manhattan offices are in a building that also houses the New York City Board of Elections. So this is the season when we hear above our heads the sounds of heavy objects rolling across the floor into freight elevators. The moving men have arrived - and what they're transporting are voting machines being carted off to polling places.

It's reassuring, the sound of those big metal boxes being rolled out so we can cast our votes, but all too often in our fair city (as no doubt where you live, too) we are confronted by an end run on the part of a political elite, many of whom don't really trust what comes out of the ballot box on Election Day unless they've fixed what goes in.

Every United States presidential election is important. Most of them provide dramatic political theatre. All of them are compulsively watched by the rest of the world. The election of 2008, however, is a record-breaker in all departments. It is important because it comes at the end of George Bush's calamitous two terms and amid such economic turmoil. It is memorable because it has involved so many ground-breaking candidates and long campaigns on both sides. And it has been watched and experienced by the world as no American election has been before. Not since the Kennedy era has such a contest resonated so potently with so many people in America and beyond, including in this country. But the circumstances of this year's contest, the character of the protagonists and the immediacy of the internet age combine to mean that the 2008 election is likely to make a defining statement about America for this global generation that may eclipse even the impact of the contest of 1960.

World interest

Though we lack the vote, this is our election too.

The party is set to lose not just the presidency, but see its representation in Congress plunge to levels not seen in decades, as votes are also being held for all 435 House of Representative seats and 35 out of 100 Senate seats.

Senior figures in the party are already picking over the bones of the George W Bush era and turning their attention to reviving a Republican brand that has been in rapid decline since control of Congress was lost in the 2006 mid-term elections.

There are warnings of blood-letting, purges and a battle for the soul of the party ahead between the religious Right and moderates.

Far from Barack Obama's battleground, a second-tier city in India's deep south witnessed, on October 26, a fervently devout mass prayer for the Democratic candidate's victory in the presidential election of November 4. The man behind the event, a P. R. Krishnakumar, identified as an astrologer, made a patriotic case for the prayer. "Obama has vouched that India will be top priority [for him]," he told the media. He also mentioned the significance of Obama's candidature as a symbol of progressive causes.

Krishnakumar, however, did not stop there. According to a newspaper report from the textile center of Coimbatore, in the State of Tamilnadu, he stressed a larger South Asian issue as well. "Lauding Obama's determination to 'get' Osama [bin Laden]," Krishnakumar added that "the statement could have earned Obama several enemies ... these special poojas [prayers] will 'protect' Obama from 'evil forces.'"

The federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving plans to sell oil and gas leases in pristine wilderness areas in eastern Utah that have long been protected from development, according to a notice posted this week on the agency's Web site.

The proposed sale, which includes famous areas in the Nine Mile Canyon region, would take place Dec. 19, a month before President Bush leaves office. The targeted areas include parts of Desolation Canyon, White River, Diamond Mountain and Bourdette Draw.

As this election draws to a close, a strange and wonderful thing is happening with hardly a being word said about it: racism is losing. To celebrate this fact might feel like assuming an Obama victory, but this is about another sort of vicory.

Sen. John McCain was once considered an honorable man, a maverick even, but clearly not so upstanding as to resist mounting The Last Republican Campaign. Again. We have seen it many times — whether attributed to Richard M. Nixon, Lee Atwater or Karl Rove. It relies not just on "culture wars," "wedge issues" and "the base." It relies on racism. And it usually wins. Well, to coin a phrase, not this time.

MCCAIN: Well, no. You -- you know, you put one foot ahead of the other. But you've just got to keep your eye on the ball and know that every hour now is precious, because of the rapidity in the news cycle and you know, getting those undecided voters that I think are going to decide this election not only...

KING: Are you worried?

MCCAIN: ... Not only on your side, but out.

KING: Are you worried?

MCCAIN: Well, I don't think it's...

KING: It would be logical to...

I hate to be a spoilsport, but this election is over. In six days from now the polling stations will be opening on election day. Later that day - sometime before midnight on the east coast of the United States - Barack Obama will be declared America's 44th president.

In fact, not only is this election over, it's in danger of getting boring.

It was bad enough when John McCain severely damaged his electoral prospects, by nominating, as his vice president, somebody who knows virtually nothing about domestic and foreign policy...although, in Sarah Palin's case, one could argue that she at least has held elective office and grappled on some level with some issues. But the slippery slope to ignorance is indeed precipitous, to the point where now we have the unlicensed Samuel Wurzelbacher speaking at a McCain rally in Ohio - and agreeing with some audience simpleton that "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." So said the simpleton, to which Wurzelbacher chimed in, "I'll go ahead and agree with you on that."

The GOP circular firing squad kept blasting away on Tuesday, over the question of who's to blame for the cavalcade of bad Sarah Palin news. Come on, you know you're paying attention. It's a grotesque pileup on the political highway, and it's impossible to look away.

To recap: Palin went "rogue," and blamed the Republican National Committee for buying her $150,000 in clothing.

Massa is collecting a lot of checks in his upstate New York congressional district. He's held 250 house parties and raised $1.8 million, $500,000 more than two-term Republican Representative Randy Kuhl. That, plus an infusion of cash by the Democratic Party, has helped turn an area that last elected a Democrat in 1984 into a toss-up this year.

Massa is one of 18 Democrats who are out-raising their opponents in competitive races for 40 seats in the House of Representatives now held by Republicans.

We desperately don't want to draw comparisons to the granddaddy of them all, the stock market collapse that occurred 79 years ago this month. The implications are too grave.

The crash of '29 wasn't just a stock market bust. It was the trigger for 16 years of misery. In North America, it led to mass unemployment. In Europe and Asia, the depression it sparked laid the foundation for world war.

The lives of an entire generation were scarred.

Reporting from Springfield, Va. -- Bob Lawrence, a retired engineer, once counted on a majority of people in this state to vote just like him -- Republican. Presidential elections were rather uneventful affairs.

So it comes as something of a surprise that in recent weeks, volunteers canvassing for Democrat Barack Obama have knocked on the front door of Lawrence's red brick home at least six times. He hasn't seen anyone from the other side.

That's not surprising. McCain calls for leaders to be held accountable for past decisions. And Bush's foreign policy has produced a sad series of failures, from Iraq's post-war agony to Iran's surging power to the rebirth of al-Qaeda.

Surely voters should hold someone accountable for eight years of judgment errors. So can the Republican candidate really shirk responsibility for the mistakes the Republican White House made?

If you judge him by his record, he cannot.

October 29th

19:57 GMT +00:00
"Not Ready...Yet"

Posted by:
The Economist | AUSTIN

Categories:
US election 2008

Here's a slightly curious new McCain-Palin ad:

Why "Not Ready...Yet?" Wouldn't "Not Ready" be a stronger indictment? The crew over at First Read notes that this is "oddly positive": "It implies to the viewer that, someday, Obama might be ready. And it reminds us of conversations we had a few months ago with various McCain partisans, who believed if they could convince voters that Obama would be president someday if he loses this year, then McCain could win."

For fans of movies made in Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin has hopped aboard the 2008 remake of 1985's Runaway Train (and she got a band new wardrobe like they wear on TV!). Academy nominee Jon Voight, the original's "crazed prison escapee", is now replaced by John McCain, the real thing. The remake is underwritten by the natural resource companies, the financial and defense industries and their lobbyist friends, already huge bipartisan beneficiaries of bailouts and other freebies, while the reformist dream schemes used to buy your votes are already scattered to the four winds by fiscal realities. Filmed in Alaska like the original but immediately released to cable and DVD.

In the coming weeks, many in Alaska won't be surprised if Palin starts to subtly allude to those "good ol' boys" who are running McCain's campaign; the ones who made her wear fancy clothes and tarnished her image by keeping her from the press. It's a familiar Palin-refrain.

As the conservative Voice of the Times columnist Paul Jenkins put it in a column about Palin: "She is an opportunist always looking for buses with lots of room underneath, lots of room for all the political bodies."

While we were out, U.S. missiles and drone planes launched attacks across the Afghanistan border into Pakistan. On Sunday, U.S. helicopters landed in Syria and fired on what may or may not have been a military target killing eight people, including what may or may not have been enemy combatants.

In other words, the Bush administration seems to be backing out of the White House with its guns blazing, and neither of the men who will inherit this apparently escalating war has said a word.

Now, Draper, to his apparent horror, has been called upon to blog the last week of the campaign for GQ. (Shades of David Duchovny in "Californication.")

Draper has a post up that looks at the "grim binary choice" presented to the McCain campaign staff regarding Sarah Palin. The choice, as Draper writes, was "whether to make Palin look like a scripted robot or an unscripted ignoramus."

"Letting Sarah be Sarah may not be such a good thing."

Musgrave, who survived a very close 2006 contest in Colorado's 4th District, appears in even more political danger in her contest this year with Democratic businesswoman Betsy Markey, a former aide to Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar . Bachmann appeared a much stronger favorite in Minnesota's strongly conservative-leaning 6th District, but her race against Democratic former state official Elwyn Tinklenberg has tightened since last week, when she made controversial remarks on national television questioning whether Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has "anti-American views."

This is just for a minute away from commenting concentration.

Olenicoff's fortunes took a dive in 1994, when the Internal Revenue Service, in the course of monitoring fund transfers, noticed large sums moving from Olenicoff's accounts to countries with a reputation as tax havens. The suspicious irs agents eventually called in the Justice Department; Olenicoff, they discovered, had stashed some $200 million in unreported assets in ubs accounts offshore. In 2007, Olenicoff agreed to pay $52 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties for tax evasion, and for lying about his accounts.

I see that Reverend Wright is resurfacing, just a bit, and I see that Obama said something on the radio seven years ago that pisses conservatives off. Boy. I don't know, I've been wrong before, but it seems to me like they'll need more than this.