--> Reports today suggest that John McCain has given up his campaign in the great state of Michigan, and will be pulling his staff, stop the airing of his ads, and halt all mail drops. For those of you keeping score at home, that's 17 electoral votes back in Obama's pocket, for a state that was very much in doubt as much as two weeks ago. That was McCain's biggest (and best) hope for winning a Kerry state this year, and now questions have arisen as to how exactly he plans to win at all. I would say that Michigan has officially turned blue again, but I'd argue that Michigan tends to always be blue (and yellow):
Mark Halperin of Time has his own take on what this decision means for McCain. He maintains that for McCain to win, he's gotta pour his heart into winning Pennsylvania. McCain officials list Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire. You'll note that 5 of those are trending towards Obama right now, with only Nevada remaining a real squeaker as of current polling. All this means that McCain is in really bad shape, and is looking quite desperate. So long, Republican offensive strategy. The game has clearly changed - McCain can no longer beat Obama, he can only survive Obama.
The Florida GOP actually held a secret meeting yesterday to collectively freak out about McCain's chances in the state. Many Republicans are clearly quite worried about how the campaign is doing (although tonight could certainly shake things up).
Of course, with desperation comes really really angry, negative attack ads, so be on the lookout for some of the slimiest stuff you've ever seen in a presidential race.
--> McCain made it very clear last night what he thinks of Senator Obama. Upon sharing the Senate floor for the bailout vote, Obama stood chatting with his Democratic allies while McCain talked with Lieberman and Martinez (R-FL) over on the other side. Obama took it upon himself to go over and greet McCain. McCain, as is reported here, did not respond too warmly. In fact, he visibly wanted Obama to go away. I wonder if that's how he'll look on January 20th.
--> With the VP debate rapidly approaching (3 hours away now), it's important to keep in mind what's at stake here. Palin's bump to McCain's chances have vanished, and now she's actually dragging him down. Color me surprised that 61% of Americans actually figured out that she's unqualified - she must really be unqualified. Furthermore, she's actually hurting him in every key swing state, as voters realize that this moose-hunter could actually be President some day.
--> Expectations are enormous from this debate, probably the most highly-anticipated VP debate in history. Both candidates are gaffe-prone, but Biden still knows what he's doing, and is expected to be a formidable opponent. Palin's expectations are much more bizarre. Because she's turned into such a joke, she can do anything but trip and fall on her face, and she'll beat expectations. Here's her being interviewed by Katie Couric, as Palin fails to name...a Supreme Court case. Yes, any case at all, as long as she disagrees with it. Here's the video comparing her answer and Biden's:
Speaking of Joe Biden being gaffe-prone, here's a humdinger from earlier this week: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'look, here's what happened.'" Unfortunately for Senator Biden, FDR wasn't President for another 3 years, and TV wasn't invented yet.
Then again, John McCain managed to screw up his own history in attacking Biden for the mistake.
--> Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), a fantastic surrogate for the Obama campaign, managed to give an unfortunately phrased answer to an interview question yesterday. In what was either a mistakenly-candid moment, or a crafty attempt to lower expectations, McCaskill characterized her fellow senator, Joe Biden, as having "a tendency to talk forever and sometimes say things that are kind of stupid.” McCaskill caught herself later, and apologized by saying, "I was probably having a Joe Biden moment myself."
Joe Biden, pictured below having a "Joe Biden moment."
Tonight should be fun.
--> Those of you subscribing to The Dish Network, turn to channel 73 now. You'll probably be greeted with this. That's because Channel 73 is now Obama TV!!!! With round-the-clock Obama, all the time!!! In fact, it's not even varied Obama TV, it's just the same two-minute ad looping over and over again. This is a fantastic demonstration of how advertising has changed in the 21st century - true, this probably won't reach many people, but because it's not costing the Obama campaign that much to do it, it might actually get them enough bang for their buck.
Enjoy the debate. 9 PM eastern.
1 comment:
I think Sarah Palin bringing McClellan back from the dead was particularly funny. Historical accuracy, we hardly knew ye.
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