Decaturight

Developments & discussion for Tuesday, 9/30/2008

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday—the first update with results based entirely upon interviews conducted following the first Presidential Debate--shows Barack Obama attracting 51% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%. Obama opened a five-point lead heading into Friday’s debate and has retained a five or six point edge every day since (see trends).

With these new state results, the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator shows Obama leading in states with 200 Electoral College votes while McCain has the edge in states with 174 votes. When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 255-200 (see Quick Campaign Overview).

Politico (RCP) projects this:

It now shows Georgia with only a McCain lean.

Karl Rove explains the politics behind the vote

Karl Rove runs through the failure of the Financial Markets Bill.  Nancy Pelosi’s key staff members voted against the bill — in fact, the strongest supporters of both Pelosi and Obama are part of the 94 Democrats who killed this bill. And they did it to hurt Republicans in the fall elections.

Palin jabs Biden ahead of the debate

Monday marked the first time Sarah has openly engaged Joe in her stump speech.

She also challenged her vice presidential opponent on policy grounds. Speaking in a state that's among the nation's leaders in coal output, consumption and reserves, Palin tried to capitalize on Biden's recent criticism of coal production as environmentally hazardous.

"We're not supporting clean coal," Biden said last week in Maumee, Ohio. "No coal plants here in America. Build 'em, if they're gonna build 'em, over there and make 'em clean because they're killing ya."

Palin promised that a McCain administration will utilize clean coal technologies that seek to mitigate the environmental impact of coal production and use.

"Just recently, Sen. Biden made it perfectly clear that in an Obama-Biden administration, there would no use of clean coal at all," she said, drawing boos from the audience. "From Wyoming to West Virginia and especially right here in Ohio, American coal resources are greater than the oil riches of the Middle East.

"And yet Joe Biden says, 'Sorry Ohio, we're not going to use it.' As for Sen. McCain and I, we will make clean coal a reality, and to help power the American economy with clean coal technology, we're going to look to the hard working people of Ohio to help us do that."

CNN

She might surprise some people in the debate.

Financial bill voted down as stock market plummets

See this InDECATUR post.

Developments & discussion for Monday, 9/29/2008

O/B is sitting on a 5-9% lead, according to the latest daily tracking polls.

Most Americans are mad and heck about the need for spending $700B (or more) to resolve the financial mess. Most of them incorrectly blame only the Republicans, and McCain has not been all that successful in convincing people he's a maverick who will be different, as the O/B campaign tries to paint him as "McSame."

The spread could grow wider after the VP debate, unless Sarah does better than she's done in recent interviews. Many relate to her better than any of the others, but wonder if she's ready to take over if necessary.

The electoral college map is swinging back toward O/B, but still has room for M/P to win.  It comes down to 8-12 "swing" states.

Unless things swing a lot further, Georgians are just voting for the popular vote, with no impact on who moves into the White House. We have to give the O/B campaign credit for registering voters. It will also work hard to get those not especially interested to the voting booths.

Please post comments on anything, from any perspective. Just be civil. No personal attacks.

Biden takes credit for success in Iraq

Sister Toldjah compares what Joe said Friday to what he's said, done, and not done in the past.

In a comment, harping back to Biden's palgiarism is the late 80s, Trish quips:

"I thought stealing credit for other people’s work was Biden’s stock-in-trade." 

Nobody seems to get to bent out of shape about anything Joe says. He's the clown on the O/B ticket, while Barack is the jester.

Rasmussen: Obama up by 5%

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%. That’s the fourth straight day Obama has been at 50% and the fourth straight day McCain has been at either 44% or 45% (see trends).

The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator shows Obama leading in states with 200 Electoral College votes while McCain has the edge in states with 174 votes. When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 255-227 (see Quick Campaign Overview).

New state polls will be released at 6:00 p.m. Eastern for Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Rasmussen

Those state polls be very telling.

Here's NBC's take from early this AM:

A Shift Towards Obama: As the slew of recent national and state 
polls suggest, our new map reflects a shift in Obama's direction. 
Four new states have been added to our Toss-up category: three red 
states (Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina) and one blue state 
(Pennsylvania). This gives Obama a 212-174 edge, after his more 
narrow 233-227 lead last week. What's interesting about these shifts 
is that while Obama is showing an improvement in fast-growing states 
(CO, FL, NV, NC, VA), he can't seem to put away the Northern tier 
states of slow-growing states (MI, PA, WI) or make progress in what 
some believe is still the all-important state of OH. BTW, how is it 
that, nationally, Obama's numbers are going up but he's struggling in 
big states like MI, PA and OH? Is this about Obama's inability to 
make the sale with older white voters? If he can change the 
electorates in these Southern and Western states, he can afford to 
lose two of those three industrial states, but it puts more pressure 
on him to win two of the following three: FL, NC and VA.

Four questions for Mr. Obama

Lee Coursey (a local) has some questions.

Any pro-Obama people care to answer them for him?

Rasmussen: Debate didn't change the relative standings

Five percent (5%) of voters say the debate changed how they would vote, but the changes were equally divided between Obama and McCain supporters. Saturday interviews for the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll—the first post debate interviews--suggest that little has changed following the debate and Obama retains a modest lead over McCain.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday—including the first day of post-debate polling—is unchanged. Barack Obama once again attracts 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. This six-point advantage matches Obama’s biggest lead yet and marks the first time he has held such a lead for two-days running (see trends). Obama is now viewed favorably by 57% of voters, McCain by 55%.

The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator shows Obama leading in states with 200 Electoral College votes while McCain has the edge in states with 174 votes. When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 255-227 (see Quick Campaign Overview).

Rasmussen | Sun 9/28/2008

Tweeting the debate

Current & Twitter have teamed up for the very first time to integrate real-time Twitter messages (aka "tweets") over major portions of a live television broadcast.

Here's some examples of the live broadcast of the 2008 Presidential Debates featuring Twitter messages created by Current viewers.

Currrent

Here's a freeze frame:

Pretty cool. Will have to get in on this for the next one.

More at VoterWatch.com