Denver Post endorses Obama

Greg Mitchell explains the significance of the latest endorsement for Obama:

What a day. The Denver Post, which had backed George W. Bush in 2004 and is owned by Republican-leaning William Dean Singleton, this evening endorsed Barack Obama for president.

This followed this afternoon's surprises: the Chicago Tribune, which has never in 150 years endorsed a Democrat, backed Obama, as did its fellow Tribune paper, the Los Angeles -- which had endorsed no one in more than 30 years. It seems like a dam broke yesterday with the unexpectedly early choice of Obama by The Washington Post.

In E&P;'s exclusive count, Obama now leads 52-16 in editorial endorsements.

Colorado, of course, is a key swing state.

The Denver paper simply posted on its site this evening: "The Denver Post's editorial board today has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president."

Not sure how much these endorsements matter to voters, but they do create a sense of momentum -- and, the unexpected ones, like the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Denver Post, reinforce the ideas that this election really is different. The Denver Post announcement is here.

As I mentioned last week, there have been four general themes in the editorials supporting Obama -- and, those themes continue this week: 1) The country is a mess; 2) John McCain is a disappointment; 3) The biggest disappointment from McCain is Sarah Palin, who is a blithering idiot; and 4) Obama is the president the country needs. Read More......

JPMorgan Chase bonuses to be cut 30% to 50%

Oh boo hoo. Wall Street went crazy and paid bonus money based on pie-in-the-sky dreams for years and everything was just fine. Taxpayers around the world are now funding the mistakes of casino bankers by way of higher taxes or fewer services and yet they are still getting bonuses that are quite healthy compared to even the income of most regular people. Nice work, when you can get it.

In a sign of what is expected to be a dismal year for Wall Street bonuses, CNBC has learned this year's bonuses at JPMorgan Chase will be down 30 percent to 50 percent. The news was relayed to the managing directors of the firm's investment bank in a call to review the company's third quarter earnings.

The news is hardly surprising. Investment banking activity has dried up this year. According to Thomson Reuters, through October 10th, mergers and acquisition activity was down 29 pecent from the same time last year, IPOs were down 24 percent, and debt underwriting was down 27 percent. Add to that the S&P; 500 is down 35.5 percent year to date and it doesn't bode well for Wall Street's bonus pool.

The co-heads of the JPMorgan's investment bank Steve Black and Bill Winters relayed the news to senior management after thanking them for the hard work they have done in the past year.

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Peggy Noonan eviscerates Sarah Palin

Peggy Noonan was probably Reagan's most famous speechwriter. She's also the woman who was caught on tape a while back bashing McCain's choice of Sarah Palin on MSNBC after she thought the mic was off. She unloads on Palin in the Wall Street Journal. As Joe has noted before, lead Republicans know the race is over. That's why they're going public, weighing in, trying to mark the territory with their best explanation for what went wrong. It isn't a good sign at all for McCain. And even worse for Palin. At some point, the talk is going to begin, if it hasn't already, as to whether the choice of Sarah Palin was the beginning of the end of John McCain's quest for the presidency. Bring her back in 2012, and the party may split in two. God, this is fun. It's been a long time since we could say that. Here's Noonan:

She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things.

Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.

No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don't, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.

In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

I gather this week from conservative publications that those whose thoughts lead them to criticism in this area are to be shunned, and accused of the lowest motives. In one now-famous case, Christopher Buckley was shooed from the great magazine his father invented. In all this, the conservative intelligentsia are doing what they have done for five years. They bitterly attacked those who came to stand against the Bush administration. This was destructive. If they had stood for conservative principle and the full expression of views, instead of attempting to silence those who opposed mere party, their movement, and the party, would be in a better, and healthier, position.

At any rate, come and get me, copper.

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Cindy McCain made $4.2m last year. How much did John McCain say you have to make to be "rich"? $5m. Coincidence?

He's such a weasel. That's why McCain said recently that you had to make $5m to be "rich." Because he knew his wife made $4.2m last year. It's hell of a coincidence. Read More......

Philly conservative talk show host backs Obama

From Tapper

On his talk show on WPHT today, conservative Philadelphian Michael Smerconish endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill....

"I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia," says the Republican.

Smerconish has given us some more from his op-ed:

"Terrorism. The candidates disagree as to where to prosecute the war against Islamic fundamentalists. Barack Obama is correct in saying the front line in that battle is not Iraq, it’s the Afghan-Pakistan border. Osama bin Laden crossed that border from Tora Bora in December 2001, and we stopped pursuit. The Bush administration outsourced the hunt for bin Laden and, instead, invaded Iraq.

"No one in Iraq caused the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Our invasion was based on a false predicate, so we have no business being there, regardless of whether the surge is working. Our focus must be the tribal-ruled FATA region in Pakistan. Only recently has our military engaged al-Qaeda there in operations that mirror those Obama was ridiculed for recommending in August 2007.

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During a period of just 60 seconds, McCain blinked 104 times

That's just weird. And the blinking - which oddly comes and goes, depending on the day - seems to coincide with the weird eye spasm/convulsion that we noted a few weeks ago - it happened twice in the one minute tape I post below. I took one minute of the third debate, slowed it down, and counted the number of times McCain blinked. I counted 104 times, and listed each one on the tape. Watch for yourself. Also feel free to check out more that we've written on this story, of John McCain's strange facial convulsions, here and here.

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Rep. Michelle Bachmann oozes hatred for Obama, accuses members of Congress of being un-American

Rep. Michelle Bachmann was just on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews channeling Sarah Palin. She was ranting, just ranting, about Obama -- accusing him being un-American because of his associations. She oozed hatred for Obama. But the end of the interview was just stunning. Matthews challenged her to name members of Congress who are un-American. Watch her:



Michelle Bachmann is a disgrace. This was one of the most disturbing hate-mongering things I've seen on t.v. Even Matthews seem stunned by her diatribe.

Her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, just got named to the DCCC's Red to Blue. We need to help him defeat her. Bachmann is way under 50% -- only up by 4 points in a poll reported yesterday by Politico:

POLL OF THE DAY: Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann leads Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg by a slim 42-percent-to-38-percent margin, according to a Grove Insight poll conducted for the DCCC.

Seriously, Bachmann is deranged. Read More......

Blithering Idiot Watch

Possible future president Sarah Palin said today that she likes visiting "pro-America" parts of the country.

She really is an idiot. She's also starting to sound like quite a hateful idiot at that. And John McCain wants to put her in the presidency, during this time of crisis. That makes him an even bigger idiot.

Biden responded today:

"I, like your senators and governor have been all over this great land," Biden said. "I’ve never been to a state, I’ve never been to a state that hasn’t sent its sons and daughters to serve and die for this country."

"Folks, it doesn’t matter where you live, we all love this country and I hope it gets through. We all love this country," he also said.

Sam at Huff Post notes that the McCain campaign has expanded on Palin's remarks to say that she meant that small towns are pro-America, but apparently big cites and surburbs are not, nor are the residents of Washington, DC.

Worst. Vice Presidential Candidate. Ever.

The media needs to demand that Palin detail for us what parts of America aren't pro-America. She still hasn't done a press conference, and she's done only a handful of interview with real media. Do your job, folks - why are you letting the story, of Palin's refusal to do interviews, simply slip away? Read More......

Chicago Trib endorses first Democratic presidential candidate, ever, in 161 years: Obama

The paper was founded in 1847. Wow. I'm from Chicago. The Trib editorial board is conservative, and they admit it up front in this piece. Yet they endorsed Obama. The first Democratic presidential candidate they have ever endorsed in the paper's entire history.

This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president....

The Republican Party, the party of limited government, has lost its way. The government ran a $237 billion surplus in 2000, the year before Bush took office -- and recorded a $455 billion deficit in 2008. The Republicans lost control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2006 because, as we said at the time, they gave the nation rampant spending and Capitol Hill corruption. They abandoned their principles. They paid the price.

We might have counted on John McCain to correct his party's course. We like McCain. We endorsed him in the Republican primary in Illinois. In part because of his persuasion and resolve, the U.S. stands to win an unconditional victory in Iraq.

It is, though, hard to figure John McCain these days. He argued that President Bush's tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, but he now supports them. He promises a balanced budget by the end of his first term, but his tax cut plan would add an estimated $4.2 trillion in debt over 10 years. He has responded to the economic crisis with an angry, populist message and a misguided, $300 billion proposal to buy up bad mortgages.

McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin's exposure to the public. But it's clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment's notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country....

Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has had the character and the will to achieve great things despite the obstacles that he faced as an unprivileged black man in the U.S.

He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions.

When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

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Bloomberg: Joe the Plumber's new business won't see higher taxes under Obama's plan

So that would mean McCain is highlighting someone who isnt' hurt by Obama's plan. That's kind of erratic, don't you think? More from Bloomberg:

The company McCain said the plumber wants to buy has annual sales of $510,000, according to an analysis by Dun & Bradstreet. That makes it unlikely that Wurzelbacher's purchase would give him a taxable income of more than $200,000 -- leaving him unaffected by Obama's proposal to roll back tax breaks for those earning more than $250,000, said Steven Bankler, a certified public accountant in San Antonio, who counts plumbers and other trade professionals as his clients....

If Wurzelbacher managed to earn $280,000, ``he's not an average Joe Six-Pack,'' said Gerald Prante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation.

``Rather than a game-changing blow for the McCain campaign, `Joe the plumber' is turning into a bad case of blowback,'' said Rogan Kersh, a public service professor at New York University.

The underlying problem here is two-fold. First, Joe is a conservative Republican who tried to pull a fast-one. He doesn't currently earn anywhere near the $250,000 adjusted gross income necessary to see a tax increase under Obama's plan. And what's worse, Joe's excuse - that he might buy his boss's plumbing business, and THEN he'd face higher taxes - is also now proven untrue. You see, the limit in Obama's plan under which you aren't taxed isn't $250,000, as the Obama campaign keeps incorrectly telling people. The limit is much higher. That's because the $250,000 isn't based on your total income, it's based on your TAXABLE income AFTER deductions. That means, in Joe's case, he can make the $510,000 his future business is currently earning, but after deductions, he's only making $200,000 - and that would exempt him from a tax increase under Obama's plan.

As for Joe's final excuse, that Obama might change his mind and start taxing people making $100,000 a year - uh, well, McCain might change his mind and start taxing people making $20,000 a year. It's an idiotic point. Joe is pretty much a fraud. And McCain, kind of an idiot. Read More......

CBS News Exec. on election night: "We can't be in the business of pretending to be stupid.” And, Democrats can't be in the business of complacency

Following up on John's post below, news organizations are starting to think about election night and how to cover what will unfold. I was, of course, struck by this line from a CBS executive, "We can't be in the business of pretending to be stupid.” You don't have to pretend.

Network news and the cable channels have perfected the art of being stupid with the incessant coverage of non-news worthy events during this campaign. The Republicans have mastered that are to making the news organizations cover the stupid -- and more often than not, the news people fall for it.

But, the bigger point here is not election night, it's what the possible election results mean for both sides.

Just think about election night. Indiana closes its polls at 6 PM Eastern. Virginia closes at 7 PM Eastern. We could know the actual results early. But, throughout the day, the news organizations will be getting exit polls. We'll all see them, too. But, therein lies the danger. Remember 2004. All day long the exit polls looked great. In the middle of the afternoon, Zogby proclaimed a victory for Kerry.

I was doing get-out-the-vote in Portland, Maine. Several of my fellow campaigners decided we'd drive to Boston for the celebration. When we got in the van to start the drive, Kerry was going to be president. One hour and forty-five minutes later, when we got to Boston, it was over.

We all have our election day stories, but this is a classic about Tip O'Neill from 1980:

Though he had been begged not to, the president [Carter] gave his concession speech before the polls had closed on the West coast, hurting several Congressional Democrats in tight races. "You guys came in like a bunch of pricks, and you're going out the same way," a furious Tip told a Carter operative.

In other words, it doesn't matter what the exit polls say or what the news organizations are reporting. Everyone has to be in overdrive til the very end. We can't just win, we have to vanquish the Republicans and their allies. That's the flip side of this election night story. Our supporters need to stay focused to win big. But, the GOP's base is realizing the loss is coming. It can't be fun to slog it out for 18 more days knowing disaster is looming.

Obama is on a roll through traditionally red states. Senate candidates are picking up steam. This is shaping up to be a very good year. But, as Obama keeps saying, no one can be complacent.

Instead, when we see articles like the one in Politico.com about election night, use it to demoralize the other side -- and energize our supporters. Read More......

Networks are stymied over how to cover election night, since many are expecting McCain to lose early

It's not a guarantee that McCain will lose at all. Let's face it, my friends, if anyone can steal an election after we've won it, it's the Republicans. Obama needs enough of a margin of victory that the Republicans can't steal it. And Lord knows they're trying (what do you think the entire ACORN discussion is about? It's about delegitimizing Obama's victory before hit happens). And don't forget, if we get too cocky about already having won this election, our side may not turn out to vote, and then the Republicans will win not only the presidential, but congressional races as well. We need a massive voter turn out to take our country back from these weasels. Still, articles like this, that basically predict doom and gloom for McCain, are nothing but good news for our side. It's a crappy time to be a Republican in America. Read More......

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Reader JM sent this in. It's from The Onion, circa 2001 from George Bush's inauguration. Could they have been more prophetic about what Republican rule would bring to America? Seriously - read this - it's creepy:

Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

President-elect Bush vows that "together, we can put the triumphs of the recent past behind us."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

Wall Street responded strongly to the Bush speech, with the Dow Jones industrial fluctuating wildly before closing at an 18-month low. The NASDAQ composite index, rattled by a gloomy outlook for tech stocks in 2001, also fell sharply, losing 4.4 percent of its total value between 3 p.m. and the closing bell.

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BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court throws out largest GOP "voter fraud" case involving ACORN, others

Well, isn't that interesting. The biggest Republican "voter fraud" cause, involving ACORN among others, just got thrown out by George Bush's conservative Republican US Supreme Court. And make no mistake - as one of the leading conservative publications, Human Events, pointed out yesterday, this case was all about ACORN:

The full 6th Circuit Court on Tuesday night decided in favor of the Ohio Republican Party in their suit requiring the use of government records to verify the identities and validity of the thousands of newly-registered voters by outside groups such as ACORN. Ohio’s Secretary of State, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, had previously refused that standard stating that she didn’t believe it was required by Ohio law. Brunner was also recently required by a federal court to turn over new voter registration data from county boards of elections for identity verification.

The Ohio GOP tried to take away the voting rights of 200,000 voters in that state, after ACORN and others registered voters with misspelled names. George Bush's conservative Republican U.S. Supreme Court just took the side of Democrats in Ohio, and ACORN, and overturned a lower court's decision which took the side of the GOP. Ohio's Secretary of State appealed that earlier ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court -- and won:

The Supreme Court is siding with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.

Nice work by the Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The GOP does everything possible to suppress the vote. Today, the George Bush's conservative Republican U.S. Supreme Court suppressed the GOP and told the nation, the only fraud is the Republican party. Read More......

Colin Powell may endorse Obama on Sunday

From Mike Allen at Politico:

Retired Gen. Colin Powell, once considered a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), now may endorse his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), according to Republican sources. But an air of mystery surrounds Powell's planned live appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," and no one is sure what he will say.

Powell’s unassailable national security credentials could sway voters who are vacillating about whether Obama is ready to be commander in chief, and his endorsement of the Illinois senator would make a national security emphasis by McCain in the election's closing days extremely difficult.

Powell, 71, a professional soldier for 35 years, has advised the last three Republican presidents.

The general’s camp is being coy about what he might or might not say on Sunday. But some McCain advisers suspect, without being sure, that Powell will endorse Obama.

“It’s going to make a lot of news, and certainly be personally embarrassing for McCain," a McCain official said. "It comes at a time when we need momentum, and it would create momentum against us.”

Regardless of our issues with Powell over his stance on DADT, this would be big for Obama and bad for McCain. America trusts Colin Powell. And for Powell, it would be a chance to clear his name. Not to mention, the last thing McCain wants the media talking about for the next three days is whether Powell will endorse Obama - just keeps the news focused on Obama in a good way, and that doesn't help the guy who's losing and trying to shake things up. Read More......

McCain/Palin supporter kicks reporter to the ground at Palin event

From the News Record:

We're big boys and girls who put ourselves out there and part of the job is tacking flack from both sides. Certainly I have heard complaints from Democrats about "the media" and have been accused of being too conservative. But I have never had the sense that a Democrat was going to get physical in that kind of way. Even though McCain and Palin have taken a kinder gentler tone in their speeches, there was still a real undercurrent of anger at the rallies I covered this week.

After today I'm wondering - and this is just wondering at this point - whether Republicans aren't in some respect giving their supporters license for this sort of crap. If the story you pedal is that your guys are the good guys and all those who stand against them are the bad guys, and the "liberal media" is in that second column, might there be a message there – even if it is one that is misconstrued and carried to a stupid extreme in some cases?

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Strategy for the final 18 days: Obama expanding into more red states. McCain's possible states are "dwindling"'

Today, the New York Times takes a look at the final campaign strategies for the presidential candidates. Obama is expanding the map. John McCain is scrambling to find states where he can win. In plain terms, Obama is on the offense. McCain is playing defense in some states where Republicans haven't lost in decades:

Confronting an increasingly bleak electoral map, top aides to Senator John McCain said Thursday that they were searching for a “narrow-victory scenario” and would focus in the final weeks on a dwindling number of states, using mailings, telephone calls and television advertisements to try to tear away support from Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Obama’s advisers said they would use the remaining 19 days of the campaign to focus mainly on capturing states that President Bush won in 2004; he is going to Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia, over the next three days and spending two days in Florida next week.

In a sign of the differing fortunes of the candidates, advisers to Mr. Obama said he was escalating his effort in West Virginia, which Mr. Bush won by 13 points in 2004, with a surge in advertising spending and a campaign swing there in the coming days by Mr. Obama or his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“West Virginia is real,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. “We have been watching it for a long time.”

By contrast, Mr. McCain is spending the next three days campaigning in states that Mr. Bush won in 2004 and that earlier this year Republicans had considered relatively safe: he will visit Florida on Friday, followed by North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio. Republicans said their hopes of capturing any state the Democrats won in 2004 appeared to be dwindling, though they said they held out hope for Pennsylvania, where Mr. McCain campaigned on Thursday but where he has recently slipped far behind Mr. Obama in some polls.

"West Virginia is real." Wow.

I have to say, I like playing offense a lot better. The McCain campaign is determined to spend money and campaign in Pennsylvania. That's good for us. Obama is up in PA by almost 15 points.

Keep an eye out for more Republicans jumping off the sinking McCain ship. Read More......

Washington Post endorsement: Obama "is the right man for a perilous moment;" McCain "has seemed rash and impulsive."

The Washington Post is technically my hometown paper. But, I don't think its editorial endorsement matters too much to real voters. It does, however, have an influence on the talking heads and pundits. Today, the Post has only one editorial: An endorsement of Barack Obama. The second paragraph is one of the best:

The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.

The Post's editorial writers seem genuinely pained by McCain's behavior during this election. I think a lot of the pundits had high hopes for their old pal from the bus. They liked McCain -- and thought he liked them. The Washington Post is the epicenter of inside-the-beltway punditry. By his own behavior and choices, McCain has lost them:

But the stress of a campaign can reveal some essential truths, and the picture of Mr. McCain that emerged this year is far from reassuring. To pass his party's tax-cut litmus test, he jettisoned his commitment to balanced budgets. He hasn't come up with a coherent agenda, and at times he has seemed rash and impulsive. And we find no way to square his professed passion for America's national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief.

ANY PRESIDENTIAL vote is a gamble, and Mr. Obama's résumé is undoubtedly thin. We had hoped, throughout this long campaign, to see more evidence that Mr. Obama might stand up to Democratic orthodoxy and end, as he said in his announcement speech, "our chronic avoidance of tough decisions."

But Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment.

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AP fact checks the raging GOP "vitriol" over ACORN as fired US Attorney calls the issue a "scare tactic"

The GOP is using every trick its in worn out book to win this election. One of their usual gambits is to accuse our side of stealing elections. That especially rich since the Republicans are masters at voter suppression. But as John always says, they accuse us of doing what they do.

The Associated Press notes in its fact check titled, "GOP vitriol rages over community group," that while McCain is leading the charge, "in alleging voter fraud, McCain goes too far." The GOP's vitriol is completely over-the-top. They're trying desperately to turn this into something bigger. This "scandal" is about problems with voter registrations, not actual votes. There are systems in place in each state to prevent fraudulent votes. But, yesterday, we learned the FBI is playing along.

That's why one of the most important voices in this debate did an interview with Talking Points Memo -- former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. He's actually a former U.S. Attorney because he was fired in the scandal that engulfed the Department of Justice last year (a story broken by the crew at TPM.) Iglesias was fired after intervention by U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. The reason is that he wouldn't investigate bogus voter fraud charges.

Iglesias sees the GOP using the same playbook this year:

David Iglesias says he's shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted -- one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.

Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.

Strong words from someone who knows.

Let's review: McCain's claims go to far. A former GOP U.S. Attorney calls this a "scare tactic."

Bogus voter fraud accusations are standard operating procedure from the Republican party because those Republicans know the traditional media types can be easily played. As if on cue, the FBI investigation of ACORN was the lead story in the news segment of the TODAY Show this morning.

The traditional media completely missed the story on the fired U.S. Attorneys last year. This year, they are falling for the GOP's bogus voter fraud accusations that precipitated much of that scandal. The GOP's misplaced "vitriol" should be one clue. But, if any of the crack reporters on this story took a second to do some research, they'd see they've been wrongly led down this path before. Ask David Iglesias. Talking Points Memo did. Iglesias lived it -- and lost his job because of it. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

18 days.

So, I keep thinking about all the times I've called Verizon for one thing or another over the years. It's never easy. Cindy McCain obviously figured out the way to get good service from the notoriously unhelpful telecom industry: Be married to one of the most powerful Senators dealing with telecom issues. This story isn't about the Secret Service. That's a smokescreen. This story is about Cindy McCain telling Verizon to jump and Verizon responding "How high, Mrs. McCain (and please let your husband know how helpful we're being.") Oh, this story isn't over.

One sports-related thing: I'm a little tired today, because, yes, I did stay up late to watch the Red Sox come from seven runs down to win game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Wow.

So, 18 days to change the world. We've all got to give it everything we've got...the Republicans have never been so desperate. The next 18 days will be uglier and nastier than anything we've seen in American politics. The Republicans must be crushed and humiliated. Just crushed and humiliated.

Start threading the news... Read More......

AIG reviewing bonuses after Cuomo takes legal action

Imagine that. AIG suddenly is interested in reviewing lavish corporate spending on boondoggles and bonuses now that someone in authority stands up to them. Perhaps someone in Congress can take notes and step up since Congress has much more authority and re-written the books to keep Wall Street afloat. I can't wait to hear who else Cuomo is pursuing but am incredibly disappointed that he's the only one taking action.

American International Group, the insurance giant that drew fire for executive "golden parachutes" and an ill-timed junket even as it receives a massive taxpayer bailout, has agreed to mend its ways.

AIG promised to recover executive payments and other compensation, cancel perks and institute reforms one day after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo threatened legal action over its controversial spending.

Asked whether his office was investigating other firms' executive compensation, Cuomo said "Yes" but added, "I can't say at this time" which companies. He spoke on a telephone conference call with reporters.

AIG will provide a full accounting of executive compensation and help recover payments that Cuomo contends violated state law, according to a joint statement from the attorney general's office and AIG, issued after Cuomo met with AIG's new chief executive, Edward Liddy, on Thursday.

Those payments include "all forms of compensation paid to former CEO Martin Sullivan and the former head of the (AIG) Financial Products Unit, Joseph Cassano," the statement said.

Cuomo had objected to "extravagant" payments to executives who ran the company into near-collapse, including a $5 million cash bonus and $15 million "golden parachute" to Sullivan earlier this year, as well as a $34 million bonus for Cassano, whose unit generated the bulk of AIG's losses.

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Bush to give pep talk to nation today

Please, no. Retirement plans can't afford to take another hit with him talking. While I appreciate Bush helping to keep the economy front and center despite McCain's attempts to brush it aside like any other multi-millionaire with a dozen homes, the markets staged an incredible recovery yesterday as everyone kept their big mouth shut. Bush fails to inspire confidence in much of anything these days, let alone the economy that he built with friends in business and the Republican Congress. His fell into the gutter long ago so it's not clear why he wants to keep pressing on this issue other than some kind of a grudge against McCain. Read More......

Deutsche Bank execs and board to give up 2008 bonuses

Is that a pig flying? Do I see my cats cuddling up with the yappy dog next door? Why isn't this mandatory across the board as banks need governments to keep them afloat?

The top executives of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, will forego bonus payments for 2008, the first complete management board of a bank to do so in reaction to the global financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann decided to waive the extra payments for 2008, and the rest of the executive board will follow suit, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank said on Thursday.

The spokesman confirmed comments that Ackermann made in an interview with German paper Bild am Sonntag.

The money will be used to prop up wages of other bank employees whose salaries are hit harder by the effects of the finance crisis, Ackermann said in an interview in the Sunday edition of the paper that was released early.

Even though the 2008 payments for the four-member board have not yet been set, they would have been worth "millions of euros," for Ackermann alone, despite the financial crisis, the chief told the paper.

In 2007, the management board received 28.9 million euros ($38.94 million) in bonus payments, compared with fixed payments of 4.3 million euros in the period.

Imagine that. The money will be used to prop up wages of other bank employees instead of buying another mansion or car. Also, check out the numbers involved. The entire bonus pool looks more like an individual bonus from Wall Street and not necessarily at the top. Even still, Europe has been pushing back against excessive compensation for executives which is child's play compared to similar market execs in the US. Read More......

Cuomo targets AIG bonuses

This is what we should see a lot more of and it's unimaginable why Congress is not leading efforts like this. Congress can't keep pretending as if they are a weak, uninvolved player because they're not. Forget the nightly news TV clips and step up. When Congress kept Wall Street alive all former bets were off immediately. At least Andrew Cuomo isn't afraid to do what millions of Americans want to see done.

The attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, made his demand in a letter to A.I.G.’s board, citing “unwarranted and outrageous expenditures” by the company as contrary to New York law. The letter, which described a lavish golf outing and an overseas hunting trip that cost nearly $100,000, follows other recent disclosures of excess by corporate America.

The threat against A.I.G., which Mr. Cuomo announced at a news conference on the street just a block away from the New York Stock Exchange and his office, seeks to recover multimillion-dollar payments to Martin Sullivan, A.I.G.’s former chief executive, and Joseph J. Cassano, who ran the unit blamed for the losses that pushed the company to the brink of collapse.

“A.I.G.’s belief is that they had the party, and the taxpayers will have the hangover,” Mr. Cuomo said, addressing a sidewalk throng of reporters, camera crews and tourists. He added that his office could bring civil charges if A.I.G. did not work to recover big bonuses paid to executives.

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Palin charging $15 million to release her emails

And we're not supposed to believe she's dirty.

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