Category Archive

His real name is Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher. He's NOT an unaffiliated voter.  He's always been for McCain, and he's a registered Republican. [UPDATE:  He was originally registered with the Natural Law Party, which supported (before it became defunct) a flat tax.] He "hates" Social Security.  Why invading Iraq was good for Iraqis: "It’s like someone coming to Jesus and becoming saved" … Read More

Ambinder: Tonight, we saw a McXplosion. Every single attack that Sen. McCain has ever wanted to make, he took the opportunity tonight to make. Around 30 minutes in, McCain seemed to surrender the debate to his frustrations, making it seem as if he just wanted the free television. Ezra Klein: McCain looks angrier and more petulant than any participant in … Read More

… but I understand it was mostly about a plumber named Joe.  Is Joe the plumber a buddy of Joe Sixpack? One thing is for sure.  This guy is going to get a LOT of business. That said, the CBS flash poll of uncommitted voters said: Fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the … Read More

Rehearsal will prevent me from live-blogging the debate tonight, but if these McCain debate prep videos (obtained exclusively by The Seventh Sense) are any indication, McCain is going to come out hard against Obama.

Wow.  This is how bad the GOP brand has gotten.  Ben Smith at Politico reports: I just got an astounding e-mail from a Republican consultant I know well. He's a guy who's always thought Obama had a "glass jaw," and was always among those agitating for hitting Obama harder. Recently, he conducted a focus group in an upper-Midwestern state, showing … Read More

Two weeks ago, comedian Sarah Silverman and The Jewish Council for Education and Research launched The Great Schelp.  The purpose was to encourage youth to visit their grandparents in Florida (or, alternatively, to threaten NEVER to visit, I suppose) in order to convince them (the grandparents) to vote for Obama.  Here's the video: CNN did a follow-up, and it appears to … Read More

I'm hearing it all the time on the 24 hour network stations, and not just Fox.  They keep calling the ACORN thing "voter fraud". This is the meme coming from the right-wing blogs, and it could be nothing further from the truth.  And you know why this is happening?  So that when Obama wins the election, the conservatives can claim, … Read More

Not Michael, but Sarah…

Nate Silver is a statistics geek. As his Wikipedia entry notes, he gained minor notoriety with baseball, co-authoring several books and articles on baseball statistics, coming up with his own types of statistics, like PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm), a statistical system that projects the future performance of hitters and pitchers. In March of this year, he turned … Read More

Lee Terry is a Republican congressman, running for re-election from a fairly Republican distrtct in the largely Republican state of Nebraska.  And yet, he's cozying up to Obama. What does this say about McCain's coattails?

He's sure to win NC now…. Dean Smith has endorsed Barack Obama. The legendary UNC-Chapel Hill basketball coach, who previouslycampaigned for John Edwards, announced in an e-mail to Obama supporters today that he was backing the Democratic presidential candidate. "I have written that when coaching a team, you must be prepared to make changes to meet new challenges and obstacles," he said. "We must … Read More

Look, I understand that political campaigns stretch the truth about their opponents.  McCain says, for example, that Obama will "raise taxes".  Now, technically, that's not a lie, because Obama will raise taxes…. if you make over $125,000. But some things are either TRUE or FALSE. Palin, sadly, is simply outright lying here: Sarah Palin told Alaska reporters Saturday that she had … Read More

There's an Obama extra-marital smear a'comin'…. You heard it hear first. UPDATE:   Told ya….

From Politico: As part of a plan to reinvigorate his flagging campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is considering additional economic measures aimed directly at the middle class that are likely to be rolled out this week, campaign officials said.  Among the measures being considered are tax cuts – perhaps temporary – for capital gains and dividends, the officials said.  Headcount, … Read More

The full report, by a Republican-dominated panel, is here (PDF)  Key page is 67.