When I went to the County Clerk's office to early-vote today, we were told no one would be allowed inside with any campaign advertising (pins/tee shirts, etc.). Someone pointed out a flyer on the window there advertising for a Republican picnic. I asked the County Clerk about it, and she said it is not campaign related. When I pressed, she got defensive and ordered the flyer removed. Does anyone know whether the Hatch Act applies only to Federal buildings?

attack Obama on Hollywood

I find this a bit bizarre. Republicans are now trying to portray the Presidential race as East vs West, and anti-Palin sentiment as a geographical prejudice. But at the same time they are trying to link Obama to Hollywood?

ACORN's purpose of registering voters is to empower those voters, not help Obama. Obama may not need ACORN's help, but those people do.

Those Ohio ads are funny!

"What's wrong with John McCain?"

" Authorities are trying to find out who sent a threatening letter containing a suspicious substance to one of Barack Obama's South Philadelphia campaign offices.

The office at 15th and Christian streets was evacuated for less than an hour after the discovery about 5 p.m. yesterday."

If Obama had agreed to dozens of townhalls across the country this never would have happened.

* Republicans must be getting really nervous about North Carolina, where McCain and the RNC are using robo-calls to attack Obama on Hollywood and taxes.

I've gotten that robocall here in MN. I've joked with my friends that Hollywood apparently is no longer part of the United States.

I made the mistake of walking past the tube a few minutes ago and some guy was talking about the straight-talkin' John McCain. Really? After everything that's gone on in the past couple of months if not years? Are these people a different species or something?

Anyone want to guess where McCain's advertising is being done?

That's right. Hollywood.

scum of the earth Fred Davis;

http://www.strategicperceptioninc.com/fred.php

"Davis was drawn into the world of politics in 1994 when, after having moved his business to Los Angeles in the mid 80's and rechristening it as Strategic Perception Inc., he received a call from his uncle, then Oklahoma Congressman James M. Inhofe, to help rescue his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Hired three months prior to the election, when polls showed Inhofe as a 15-point underdog to Congressman Dave McCurdy, Inhofe won the election by 15 points, a 30-point swing in 90 days."

Danp,

That's disheartening. No one made me take off my 'You Forgot Poland' t-shirt in 2004.

I guess I'll have to leave the spandex Obama jumpsuit I was making at home. I was just finishing up the cape, too.

:)

Fairly scummy of Obama to repudiate ACORN in that manner. An foretaste of things to come, I fear.

Pretty scummy of Obama to disparage ACORN in that manner. A foretaste of things to come from him, I fear.

Am I missing something or did Obama just throw ACORN under the bus? He articulated the reasoning against the GOP "voter fraud" argument, but it seems that by trying to distance himself from ACORN, he sort of validates the GOP demonization of the organization.

I understand he needs to emphasize the fact that ACORN has no influence on him, but he should acknowledge that the organization is sucessfully registering many voters and strengthening the democratic process.

Also, someone needs to make the point that this "controversy" was artificially created as a front to conduct real election fraud through the elimination of honest citizens from voter rolls. You hear it in the blogs, but it needs to get real national exposure.

"When I went to the County Clerk's office to early-vote today, we were told no one would be allowed inside with any campaign advertising (pins/tee shirts, etc.)." --danp--

OK, I can kind of understand not allowing someone to wander around the Clerk's building handing out campaign stickers and pins. That would not be cool. But wouldn't it be a violation of one's constitutional rights to deny someone access because they were wearing an Obama or McCain T-shirt. That just seems wrong to me.

Danp, can you clarify your statement? Are you saying they were denying access to people wearing campaign shirts and/or buttons etc, or denying access to people carrying shirts and/or buttons etc. for the purpose of campaigning? There is a HUGE difference. I would not have a problem with the former, but would be flaming mad about the latter.

I live in Wake Forest, NC. Yesterday robocalls seemed practically non-stop (maybe 8 calls) at my house from 3:30pm-8pm 80% McCain Related.

So off topic - I will take any shots...but hey, lookie here. Cheney DOES have a heart! Ir-regular that it be...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/10/cheney_experiences_abnormal_he_1.php

...groan...snark...

I KNEW IT! We couldn't reach election day without the McCain and the Republicans resurrecting Jesse Jackson.

McCain is now attacking Obama for comments Jesse Jackson made in France -- about US Israel policy.

So let's see, we have the Ayers and Fonda lines of attack covering Obama's 60's ties to lefty radicals (when he was 8 years old), we've got the Saul Alinsky and Jesse Jackson lines of attack taking us up through Obama's 70s and 80s left-wing young adulthood, we've got links to Rev. Wright covering Obama's unpatriotic and profane period during the 90s and then the inevitable fall into corruption and terrorism with the ties to Rezco, Hollywood celebrities and Osama bin Laden himself since 2000.

That's quite a career trajectory. Somehow Barack "Fondayerjackwrightstreisko bin Laden" somehow fooled all the voters in Illinois these last four years. All this and he's a secret Muslim to boot!

You gotta love these Republicans -- they're so retro and paranoid at the same time. Call it "retronoia." The problem is, retro is so yesterday. And retro doesn't solve today's banking crisis, today's foreign wars, today's lack of jobs . . .

Watching the McCain campaign is like watching re-runs of the Brady Bunch, only angrier and less coherent.

I live in Wake Forest, NC. Yesterday robocalls seemed practically non-stop (maybe 8 calls) at my house from 3:30pm-8pm 80% McCain Related. Posted by: Steve_in_NC

Interesting. The Obama people need to be careful. Too many calls are going to piss-off a lot of people.

Steve_in_NC

As a North Carolinian (misplaced in CA), I so wish I could be there dancing in the streets and eating some *real* barbeque on Nov. 4th!

Sweet tea rules!

Danp, can you clarify your statement?

Obama supporters had agreed to meet at opening time to vote early. Many were wearing Obama pins or T-shirts for various local candidates. They were told they would have to take the pins off or wear a sweater over their Tees before going inside to vote. No one was giving stuff away or campaigning. In fact there was no one else there except our Obama group and the people working in the clerk's office. After voting, we all left, and returned to the Dem headquarters for some cake and coffee. This is a small town, and had there been any Republicans there to vote, they would have been treated just like any other neighbors.

I find this a bit bizarre. Republicans are now trying to portray the Presidential race as East vs West, and anti-Palin sentiment as a geographical prejudice. But at the same time they are trying to link Obama to Hollywood? Posted by: Danp

Let me get this straight, Washington and Oregon are now extensions of California (yucks!) and the three of us (and maybe Colorado and Montana and New Mexico) are all in league with the effete liberal elite of NY, NJ, Conn., and Mass. (and Vermont, Delaware, RI, Maryland and maybe Virginia, NC, and NH) to give America over to a the One World Government?

I'm cool with that. Does this mean we cut most of the Confederacy loose and give the Plains States back to the buffaloes and Indians. Let's do it!

Let me get this straight, Washington and Oregon are now extensions of California (yucks!) and the three of us (and maybe Colorado and Montana and New Mexico) are all in league with the effete liberal elite of NY, NJ, Conn., and Mass. (and Vermont, Delaware, RI, Maryland and maybe Virginia, NC, and NH) to give America over to a the One World Government?

You missed the entire upper Midwest except for Indiana. And a little bird told me she may be coming over to our side this round.

"Early voting in New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, and North Carolina at this point seems to favor Obama."

I can't tell from the link to 538 if this is based on standard polling or 'cheat peeks' derived from illegal opening of absentee ballots before the end of election day. Can anyone clarify? My husband heard a report on one of the Albuquerque news stations the day before yesterday that they were opening absentee ballots now in Bernalillo County because of an anticipated deluge of absentee ballots and concerns of not getting them opened in a timely manner. Even so, it is my understanding that doing so *before* the close of the official election day is illegal!

Can anyone clarify? -Varecia

This was just a Survey USA poll. They asked people by phone if they voted early or absentee and based their results on that.

Several people have noted over there at 538 and I don't see any clarifications or explanations up yet, but early voting in NC doesn't start until tomorrow.