Justin Timberlake Wants You to Vote in the Box

Justin Timberlake remixes one of the funniest SNL sketches ever (warning: crass language):

Former Michigan Governor “Backs Off” Endorsement of McCain

This is pretty telling, since McCain’s brand was all about being moderate (how many peans to his moderation did Broder write?). Former Michigan Governor William Milliken is backing off his former endorsement of John McCain:

“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.

“I’m disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues.”

Yup, pretty much.

Now We Know Why Obama Waited to Visit Ohio

No, it isn’t just his 2-day bus tour starting tomorrow, but it now turns out he’ll be spending time in Ohio next week prepping for the third debate.

It has been a long time since Obama has visited the Buckeye State, but it seems now he wants to concentrate his visits at the right time, and over the next week or so he’ll be spending a lot of time in Ohio.

And the winner is

This one wasn’t even close. Obama was fluid, specific and forceful on nearly every issues. McCain was irritable, sarcastic and dismissive of Obama. The best turn was on Pakistan, when McCain talked about “talking softly and carrying a big stick.” Obama, showing how much he has grown as a debater, immediately pounced, riffing on McCain’s “bomb bomb bomb Iran” comments. Devastating. The snap polls are universally in Obama’s favor:

The CBS News poll of undecided voters went for Obama 39%-27%. The Fox News focus group went for Obama. The CNN focus group went for Obama, but barely.

CNN national poll numbers coming soon…

And here they are: Among national voters, Obama wins 54%-30%. Yikes.

And of course, what everybody is buzzing about, McCain’s dismissive reference of Obama as “that one”:

PA GOP: Obama a Terrorist’s Best Friend

And the GOP hits absolutely rock bottom. On the heels of polling putting Obama’s PA lead at 10,

Political Wire got an advance look at a new West Chester University/NPR poll in Pennsylvania that shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 52% to 42%, in the key battleground state.

the PA GOP has put out a press release scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The stunning press release (including stunned reaction):

I’ve been writing about political campaigns for more than a quarter-century now, and it really takes a lot to surprise me, but I am absolutely stunned at the depths that the Republican Party is willing to sink to try in win this election, even as polls are beginning to suggest it may be a lost cause for John McCain and Sarah Palin. At 9:29 p.m., I received in an email the sleaziest political press release I’ve ever seen. It came from the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and it’s headlined: “PAGOP: OBAMA – A TERRORIST’S BEST FRIEND.”

The text of the release, while spewing the usual nonsense doesn’t really even address the incendiary headline:

Not Great News from Ohio: Early Voting Turnout Very Weak

While the Obama campaign has done a masterful job of registering voters, it’s clear that the turnout operations still need work.   After all the hoopla and the Springsteen and John Legend concerts, et al, comes the word that only 3,000 people voted in the one-week window for same-day registration and early voting in Ohio.

Early returns showed about 3,000 voters in Ohio’s four largest counties took advantage of the disputed policy, a surprisingly low turnout to some elections officials.

The window was expected to benefit Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, as his campaign and advocacy groups pushed Democratic-leaning groups such as college students and low-income voters to the polls.

Through Sunday, 1,152 voters had taken advantage of the policy in Franklin County, which includes Columbus. In Montgomery County, home to Dayton, roughly 250 people had used it. And in Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, about 454 voters had taken advantage of the window by midday Monday.

Another 1,000 or so were expected from Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and is the state’s most populous county.

“With all the hoopla we were anticipating a whole lot more,” said Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Steve Harsman.

Hard to know what to make of this.  Particularly since Obama hasn’t been to Ohio in a long, long time.  Having said that, he has three rallies coming up in one day on October 9th, including one in the infamous Southeast Ohio region.  What are your theories for this low turnout?

Palin Stomps Her Feet: ‘Do We Have To’ Bail on Michigan?

I’ve tried to stay away from talking **too** much about Palin recently. She is a joke, after all. And spending precious time giving her more attention and responding to her nonsense is a sure way to accelerate hair loss. But this quote from her is simply priceless. Like a spoiled 15-year old who doesn’t want her parents dragging her to church (or in her case, her parents dragging her from church), Palin is upset about McCain bailing on Michigan. And she let her feelings be known. Check out her persuasive argument.

Story:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday that she disagrees with the John McCain campaign’s decision to pull staff and resources out of Michigan.

“I want to get back to Michigan, and I want to try,” Palin said in an interview on Fox News. “Todd and I, we’d be happy to get to Michigan. We’d be so happy to speak to the people there in Michigan who are hurting.”

The McCain campaign confirmed yesterday that it will be moving resources out of Michigan to more favorable terrain in Pennsylvania and Maine.

The Alaska governor first heard the news this morning and fired off a quick e-mail to campaign officials expressing her displeasure with the move.

“Oh c’mon, do we have to?” Palin said she wrote.

Another Ohio Question

Does the Obama campaign have polling that suggests they’re just not going to win Ohio? Or suggest that they’re going to win it handily? I’m not really sure what’s going on, but as I pointed out earlier, early voting ends on October 6th. We now have Obama’s schedule through the 5th: PA, VA, and NC.

More than that, it’s been a long while since he’s visited the Buckeye State. I realize his time is limited, but one has to wonder what’s the strategy behind that.

Quick Debate Reaction

So, the political world did not come to an end tonight. Palin was her usual “folksy” self. Clearly not a trainwreck, she however showed absolutely no depth on any of the issues that were discussed. Indeed, she declined to even answer many of the questions from the moderator, and gleefully so. She demonstrated her ability to make snide and sarcastic remarks, but her timing was way off and they fell flat.

Biden I thought was a little shaky during the middle of the debate; I’m not sure he took her all that seriously early on. But I think he righted the ship and really knocked it out of the park at the end. Clearly the moment of the night was his moving comments about his first wife and children, and how he knows the struggle of raising kids alone:

McCain Bailing on Michigan

Big news on the campaign front:

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

McCain’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republicans had been bullish on Michigan, hopeful that McCain’s past success in the state in the 2000 primary combined with voter dissatisfaction with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and skepticism among blue-collar voters about Barack Obama could make it competitive.

Aside from Pennsylvania, Michigan was high on McCain’s list of blue states that they’d hoped to poach. Bailing on Michigan means that McCain will likely be playing defense for the remainder of the election. I’d expect them to move to Pennsylvania as the state they most hope to flip, but polling there has also been moving in Obama’s direction. The battleground is shrinking…for McCain.