Motley Moose – Archive

Debate Thread!

Live blogging?  Maybe a bit.

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Two rallies were held this weekend in Alaska.  One, for the McCain-Palin ticket.  The other: Obama-Biden.

Which one got more support by about a four-to-one margin?

The New York Times is reflecting what I see here on the ground:

Jim Piccillo lost his job as a bank vice president in August, applied for food stamps to support his two young daughters and swore off a life of loyalty to the Republican Party. He now volunteers here in Pasco County for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

For the first time since FDR, The Record casts its endorsement for a Democrat, Barack Obama.  The Record is a newspaper covering Calaveras and Lockeford/Clements County (home of my birthplace – Stockton, CA).

The unanimous decision was made by our editorial board, which consists of Publisher Roger W. Coover, Managing Editor Donald W. Blount, Opinion Page Editor Eric Grunder, Human Resources Director Sandi Johnson and me (Mike Klocke – Editor).

There seems to be a disconnect between the way the pundits and the politically active class saw the debate and the way the average viewer saw it.

Since I’m in the politically active class, I definitely had a different take on it than the other people who were watching it with me. McCain exceeded my expectations, given his actions of late on the campaign trail. Obama, on the other hand, came across as the man I’ve come to respect and admire over the long course of this election cycle. I fell into a trap, because of those views.

Because Obama came across the way I expected, he gained no points from me for performance, while McCain did better than expected. This boosted McCain in my view. Uncommitted voters saw it differently.

Parsing the CBS post-debate poll (pdf) of uncommitted voters shows some interesting findings.

Happy Friday, Folks!

It is less than nine hours to the first Presidential Debate as I write this, an event that will (or won’t) be watched by what has been forecast to be 100M people and will (or won’t) be the first chance for Americans and the world to hear how the two (or one) Presidential candidates handle direct questions together (or alone).  3,000 journalists are gathered in Mississippi wondering what they will reporting on.

The “Bailout” deal is (or isn’t) coming together, House Republicans are (or are not) planning their own Palace Coup and banks are (are) still going under.

Prepare to speak liberally.

Not much to say here- what are your thoughts? Was this a good move on McCain’s part? Is this the effective end of his campaign? Has the Sarah Palin farce come to a head?

I attended a foreign policy discussion this morning led by Richard Clarke (Former Counter-Terrorism Advisor to the National Security Council and Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Obama) and retired Major General Gration at the Harry Sudakoff Conference Center, New College of Florida.

The message from the speakers was clear: Senator McCain has been making dangerous decisions for our country for the past eight years and cannot be allowed to take us down the road the current administration has set us on.

The Moose is Loose, here we go again! From our national trackers:

Rasmussen

Obama 48, McCain 48

Gallup

Obama 48, McCain 44

Daily Kos/Research 2000

Obama 49, McCain 43

Diageo/Hotline

Obama 47, McCain 42

Some small movement; as you can see, McCain moved up one to tie Obama in the Rasmussen tracker, and Obama gained some ground in the Diageo tracker. All said, we can see the same trend, with the R2K and Rasmussen trackers flanking each end- Obama’s slightly ahead, nationally.

NEWSMAX – the home of Far Right Support – continues to release dim news for John McCain.

McCain’s Numbers

183 votes for Obama

+ 108 leaning Obama

=====

291 Obama