Motley Moose – Archive

Josh Orton over at MyDD pointed me in the direction of these stunning numbers from Marc Ambinder.

In the ABC News / Washington Post poll of Ohio, 37% of those who made it through the likely voter screen said they had been contacted by the Obama campaign in some way or another. That’s ten points higher than the number who say they’ve been contacted by the McCain campaign.

And adding in e-mails or texts, the Obama figure rises to 43% of voters — probably a record for a presidential campaign.

Damn. Almost half of all likely voters in Ohio has been contacted by the Obama campaign. I’m starting to wonder what the dividends the ground game Obama has been building are going to pay off. Maybe it already has, considering the impact of this statement…

Here’s some interesting and varied articles making the rounds you might not have caught otherwise:

The Sarah Palin Report. 83 isn’t just the year she dropped out of University of Idaho, it’s apparently also her IQ. Not sure if this is on the level- even if it is, it’s not going to convince anyone who wasn’t already convinced about Sarah Palin.

Hillary in the primaries: “Sadly, Republicans will bring up Ayers.” McCain: “Hillary said we should all be talking about Ayers.”

File it under “Do you think we’re idiots?”– Sarah Palin says she’s been ‘an open book’ and have had to answer questions ‘every day.’

Sappy, but cute: Yes We Can Hold Babies, a blog dedicated entirely to Obama hanging out with adorable babies. That ka-PROW noise is from millions of ovaries exploding.

Some of the PUMAs are actually still at it, thinking they are relevant. I won’t link ’em here, since I don’t want to drive any more traffic this way, but they assure us that “SoeterObama” is about to be indicted by the Federal Government in a RICO case involving ACORN- alongside Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Donna Brazile, et cetera- a laundry list of people they don’t like. Maybe McCain/Palin have been taking their strategery sessions in campaigning from these folks- what d’ya think?

Despite pledges by President Bush to the contrary, the NSA eavesdrops, records and shares US officers’ pillow-talk and phone sex calls with their spouses back home. To protect our freedoms, of course.

Glenn Beck says there are still a lot of excuses you can use to cover up your racist vote against Obama. I’m still waiting for him to come up with a list of reasons why he shouldn’t be considered a blow hard by anyone withing ear shot.

What’s on your mind tonight, guys? Bill Ayers or Reverend Wright? Maybe Tony Rezko? Y’know. Just the important issues.

I wondered how the right-wing bloggers were taking the debate aftermath tonight, so I wandered over to RedState to see Erick Erickson demonstrate rather succinctly what a tool he is. For instance, he noted this without any irony:

Second, John McCain gave the most substantive answers to the questions. Obama patently refused to answer some of the questions, including the last question. He couldn’t bring himself to admit there are things he does not know.

Funny. He doesn’t seem to mind when Sarah Palin does it. I guess that’s because she’s mavericky- what d’you think, guys?

I always wonder how this sort of intellectual dishonesty affects people- how they can’t figure it out. I mean, Good God, admitting fault or that you’re wrong once and awhile isn’t the end all and be all, folks! It’s the sign of a strong character! Too bad Erick hasn’t taken a look at the snap-polls that are starting to come out- CNN’s had Obama trouncing McCain.

We’ll post the other ones as we get ’em.

From Dana Milbank at the Washington Post comes a disturbing, if not unsurprising, report:

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of “Palin Power” and “Sarahcuda” T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. “One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” she said. (“Boooo!” said the crowd.) “And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’ ” she continued. (“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.)

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Oh ho, and it gets even better!

I’ll beat Spiffster to the punch, and share the Rich Lowry Orgasm Memorial Map for tonight’s open thread- I call it “The Road to 399”, courtesy of our friends at 270 To Win. Take a gander:

And tell me if you think it’s beautiful. Certainly highly unlikely… but if this keeps up until election day…

I almost choked on my coffee this morning when I saw this. With now an entire polling cycle under his belt post-debate, Obama has gained significant ground. Rasmussen was the result I was most interested in:

Rasmussen Reports

Obama 52, McCain 44

Research 2000/Daily Kos

Obama 52, McCain 40

Gallup

Obama 50, McCain 42

Holy cow! Up again from yesterday! Now, I understand that Rasmussen re-weighted their polls to reflect a .6 net increase in party affiliation in the Democrats’ favor, but they had previously been the most conservative polling firm in terms of these numbers. Even more fun is that Barack Obama is winning more Republicans than McCain is Democrats- and has pulled to an eleven point lead over McCain in independents.

Of course, you know what that means, don’t you?

From one of our friends in Europe, Ivan Krastev. comes this intriguing story.

Being someone who lives in Europe and who writes professionally on Russia’s politics and foreign policy I cannot stop being amazed how Russia plays in this presidential campaign.

Reading America’s mainstream press one gets the impression that both Republicans and security-minded Democrats agree that Senator McCain is the candidate who can stand up against Russia’s revisionism and who is better prepared to handle Putin’s challenge. McCain was the one who unconditionally supported Georgia in the first hours of Russian aggression; McCain asked for expelling Russia from G-8; McCain advocated the creation of a League of Democracies that should “give hell” to all the autocrats around the world.

In short, reading the American press you would be inclined to believe that Moscow is terrified by the idea that McCain can be elected and that it prays for Obama’s victory.

“Obama is soft, he’s inexperienced and he’s… ready to talk to any and all autocrats in the world.”  

The reality is quite different.  

Have you ever sat down to do your finances, and come up with a negative number?

It’s not a fun experience. And certainly not one I’m used to.

It’s been a very hectic and exciting year for me. Two days before the close of 2007, I was blessed with the presence of a beautiful baby girl. I had never imagined being a single parent before- hell, I’d never even held a baby before I picked my daughter up, writhing and screaming and covered in gunk- but here I was.

And I never gave it a second thought. Here’s why:

Brought to you by your friends Sricki and Ragekage, we’ve got the offical liveblog thread for the evening.

NEW OPEN THREAD POSTED, MOVE OVER THERE!

9:53 PM– McCain talking about how Obama wants to “attack Pakistan”. Talking about attaining the trust of the people in Pakistan; again, mentions General Petreus- he really likes that guy.

9:50 PM– Obama is noting how he wanted to send more troops to Afghanistan; we have four times the number of troops in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11, no Al Qaeda before we went there. Talking about how even Secretary Gates noted the central front against Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan. McCain is talking about him making a mistake, a la Charlie Wilson’s War, leaving Afghanistan to be after the Soviets left.

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