There's shelf-life on the amount of time the McCain-Palin battles will provide amusement, but I'm still getting a kick out of it. NYT:

ANCHORAGE -- Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska fired back Friday at the unnamed McCain campaign aides who have been maligning her in recent days, saying that their criticism was "cruel and it's mean-spirited, it's immature, it's unprofessional, and those guys are jerks."

Pew takes a look at the exit polls from 2008, comparing them to 2004. Obama did better than Kerry across the board, but the most important shift was the Democratic Party's advantage in party ID.

I arrived in San Diego yesterday evening around 7:30PM (a trip delayed somewhat by a missed exit off the 215 around Riverside).

I'm staying at a friend's house, and I've barely followed anything going on in the political world at all, other than listening to the radio on the drive drown.

The first thing that occurs to me is how much I needed to take a break, even if only for a short period of time. (I return to Vegas on Monday, and will be back up to full speed by the evening.)

So it was great spending time just relaxing. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner last night, and today took a walk around the Hillcrest neighborhood with my friend's dogs. (She's got two of them, they are gorgeous, and have a great temperament.)

We saw a "No on 8" parade/protest; it's really terrible that bigotry still finds a way to express itself through government power.

After the walk, we went to Balboa Park, where we strolled around. Highlights included a stop in the botanical gardens there, which included a very cool "touch and sniff" display where you rub your fingertips on plant leaves and whiff away. My favorites were the apple and basil plants. We also went to the Museum of Natural History which had an incredible exhibit on water usage.

Now I'm in my friend's backyard, writing this post on my laptop. Tomorrow we're going to do some more stuff around San Diego, and then meet up with Barath Raghavan, who has worked with me on a number of projects, including the Republican Ship Jumpers thing.

I mentioned that on the drive down I listened to a fair bit of talk radio. It was quite amazing how much rightwing talk there is. I put the radio on scan, and invariably found another wingnut talker within a couple of minutes. I only ran across one left of center show.

I don't know all the talkers, but I recognized Lars Larson (sp?), Lou Dobbs, and Andrew Breitbart (Matt Drudge's colleague).

They were all unhinged, but in different ways. Lou Dobbs claimed that he and Paul Krugman agree on everything on economics, which struck me as laughable. Just part of his "independent" schtick to cover up his wingnuttiness.

I couldn't keep everything straight with who said what on the other talk shows, but the common theme was trying to figure out why the Republicans lost the election so badly, and what they could do to fix it. One of the proposals was they should focus on getting candidate's who look good on television. They defended this proposition by using the example of Sarah Palin. Um, if the GOP wants to replicate Palin in 2012, go right ahead.

Another guy (I think it was Larson) said that Obama couldn't complete a sentence without a teleprompter. I'm thinking: fine, go ahead paint an easily disprovable portrait of Obama. I mean, it won't take long for people to realize that claim is wrong. If they are going to make stuff up, they might as well stick with things that are harder to prove one way or the other.

I think it was Breitbart who was rambling on about how Hollywood people were like SS officers from Hitler's Germany, and argued that they had "made" Obama's candidacy, and that they needed to be defeated.

The other details are escaping me now, but it was really mostly a load deranged nonsense.

The thing I was left wondering is the extent to which people get their news from these nutjobs. If it's a substantial number, I think it might help explain why so many people end up voting Republican where in years past (1932), they did not.

Anyway, I realize that isn't a fully developed thought, but one of the things that I'm really interested in exploring more is the conservative media apparatus, and how it shapes the views of a segment of American voters, almost to the extent where on a political level, they inhabitate a different reality than a majority of the country.

My gut is that breaking the grip that the conservative media holds on these people is going to be a key part of expanding the progressive coalition.

Again, don't take these as fully formed thoughts or as an argument. They are just things that I'm mulling over and are worth discussing in the coming weeks and months.

I recently saw this in a YouTube comment:

Sarah Palin: I can see a landslide from my house.

This is a very short post, but it gets at what I think is an important part of understanding what makes Barack Obama special as a political leader.

I think one of the most important things to realize about Obama is that above all else, he is a practioner of power.

To understand what I mean, contrast Obama with Bill Clinton, who along with Obama is the most talented politician I have seen operate in my lifetime. Where Clinton's success was in surviving treacherous waters while managing to advance, Barack Obama's success has come from identifying and leveraging new sources of power, be it millions of donors and activists, or Wall Street types who realize that McCain and Bush have been horrible for the economy.

Obama isn't always the greatest seller in the world. If I had to win just one election, he might not be the guy I picked to be the candidate.

But time and time again, he has demonstrated that he understands power. And for those of us who have felt so powerless -- indeed, who have been powerless -- in the face of the the rightwing assault on our ideals, we finally have someone who is capable of fighting back.

When I hear him talking about moving past partisanship, I don't hear him saying Democrats must do what the GOP wants, which is what bipartisanship has come to mean.

I hear him saying that he fully expects the GOP to get on board with the program -- and if they don't, screw 'em.

This is truly an exciting time.

I'm currently on the road to San Diego, where I'll be spending the weekend visiting a friend, and attempting to rediscover what it means to have a life!

I'll still be posting over the weekend, though not as heavily as normal. I'm looking forward to the change in scenery!

Final update (mid press-conference): I am about to leave hit the road (heading to San Diego for the weekend). But a few things are jumping out me, in no particular order. Axelrod was in attendance, which was good to see. He and Plouffe and others on the campaign staff should, I hope, continue to help Obama as President. Also, Obama was asked about what would happen when he and Bush disagreed on policy. To some, his answer might have sounded like the typical bipartisanship line, which is to say that he was saying Dems will work with the GOP and follow the GOP's lead. But to my ears, he we was saying: "I assume they will be bipartisan enough to do what I want, but if not, screw 'em." That gets to a theme that I've got a post in the queue on that will appear while I'm on the road, but my basic take on it is quite positive.

Third update: Turns out it is live on MSNBC. (Live video now deleted...because it is no longer live, but it was up during the presser.)

Original post: You can watch live on CNN.com. It is scheduled for 2:30ET/11:30PT.

Original update: It is delayed for about 10 to 15 minutes. Update 2: Funny how much things change once someone becomes Pres.-elect. I just noticed Jake Tapper walk across the screen (before the start). Tapper frequently wears jeans at events. Today, he was in a full suit with a power red tie.

Here's a new montage of that magical night, including video of each major network calling the election for Barack Obama and of highlights from his victory speech:

YouTube Link

::: :::

Notes:

• I'm embedding this using a special code to force the video to play at high quality. For most users, this will make the quality of the video much higher, but for some users, it will make playback difficult. If you have any problems playing the video, just go straight to the video's YouTube page and play it from there.
• Update (3:47AM): YouTube has sent me e-mail saying that the copyright claim I discussed earlier has now been removed, and the video is in the clear. Phew! If for some reason YouTube does yank it, however, I've posted a copy on Veoh.

I've been working all day on this election night video. I really like it, and I think you will too. I'm uploading it now and hope it will be ready within the hour

It's title is simple enough: "A Night To Remember." It comes in at 10 minutes on the dot.

Update (12:48AM, 11/7): YouTube is auto-rejecting the video, claiming that it violates a copyright of some entity called "ITN." I have nothing from anything called ITN in the video, so I'm disputing it. I'm going to try and figure out a way to get this resolved quickly.

First: I've haven't been posting much this morning because I'm editing together a video on election night...I think you'll enjoy it.

Second, my question: Why can't Barack Obama close the deal? Muahahahaha.

Rahm accepts.

Now that Barack Obama has won, Republicans have settled on a weird new talking point: the election results, they say, demonstrate that America is a "center right" nation. But as is typical with the GOP, their claim isn't reality-based. Consider:

1. Democrats have won the popular vote in 4 of the last 5 presidential elections.
2. Democrats have won the presidency in 3 of the last 5 presidential elections.
3. Democrats have increased their popular vote total in 7 of the last 7 presidential elections (see the chart below), while Republicans have done so in just 3 elections, staying flat once, and dropping 3 times.

Oh, and may I mention one more thing? President-elect Barack Obama has won more votes than any other presidential candidate in history:

So says Mike Allen at Politico44.

Letterman was on fire in his monologue tonight. Here's a paraphrase of some of his jokes:

To John McCain: "Don't show up for me, America won't show for you!"
On Obama's victory margin: "By the end of the evening, the electoral score was 349 to 163, or as FOX News says it, 'too close to call.'"
On Plumber Joe: "Right about now Joe the Plumber is meeting with his transition team. They are preparing to guide him back from obscurity into oblivion."
On the moosehunting maverick: "How about that Sarah Palin? [scattered reluctant applause] I hear she's going back to Alaska. How'd you like to be a moose right about now?"

Update (November 6, 12:32AM): Here's a hilarious segment from the show on John McCain's farewell message, and Sarah Palin's announcement of her post-election plans:

YouTube link

Carl Cameron admits he knew it all along, but continued to pretend that Sarah Palin was a qualified candidate. What a hack.

YouTube link

The magnitude of the history America made by electing Barack Obama as our next president far outweighs the words one can use to describe it, or at least the words I am capable of writing.

Without doubt, Barack Obama's race makes his election one of the most profound chapters in our nation's history. But Obama was not elected because of his race; he was elected because he understood the change America needs better than any of his rivals, and that goes beyond race or ethnicity.

The thing that set him apart at the start of the campaign was the content of his character. It was his opposition to the war in Iraq. It was his temperament. It was what he proposed to do as President.

You hear a lot of talk about the pride African-Americans take in his election, and there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes that talk morphs into the suggestion that blacks only supported Obama because of his race, and that is just absurd.

Cohen and Obama

Let us remember when this election is in the history books that it wasn't just that majorities of white voters in states like Iowa and Wisconsin and Oregon supported Barack Obama for President, but it was also black voters in Tennessee who overwhelmingly stood up for Stephen Cohen, a white Jewish congressman who was challenged by Nikki Tinker, a black woman who ran a Jew-baiting primary campaign against him.

Tinker thought that black voters wouldn't support a white Jewish candidate, but they did. She ended up winning only 19% of the vote.

The elections of Barack Obama and Stephen Cohen (who supported each other in their primaries) may not mean that we have overcome. But they do show that we can. And eventually we will.

He thinks Rahm Emmanuel is just too darn partisan. Ha!

YouTube link

When I went to sleep this morning, the scoreboard read 62.5 million. Now it reads 63.7 million.

I was about to open up a spreadsheet to figure out how many votes are left to be counted, but I decided to stop by Nate's place first to see if he'd already done the work.

He didn't disappoint. According to his analysis, there are another 1.8 million votes left to be tallied for Obama, which would bring his final total to 65.5 million or so. (Which would still be the most a president had ever received.)

McCain, for his part, has about 1.3 million votes left to be tallied, which would bring his total up to about 57.6 million.

Overall, that means turnout will be up by about 2% over 2004 levels. But the real story is that while the Democratic vote will have increased by a bit over 10% from 2004, the Republican turnout will have dropped by about 7%.

Meanwhile, on a percentage basis, 78% of the nation's counties voted more Democratic than they did in 2004.

The Onion nailed it -- eight years ago.

WASHINGTON, DC-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."

It's nearly impossible to fathom the damage that we inflicted on ourselves over the past eight years.

President-elect Obama's (isn't it great saying that?) challenge is incredible.

But we can meet it.

Good morning/afternoon.

FOX still sucks. We must destroy them.

CNN takes us on a stroll down memory lane:

YouTube link

For more front pages, visit Newseum.

^:::

^{(A friend of mine made the above image for me to use on this great day.)}

Not only did Barack Obama win more votes than any other presidential candidate in history, he also won with a higher percentage of the popular than any candidate since 1988, and with a higher percentage than any Democrat since 1964.

The raw numbers are still being counted, but Barack Obama won at least 6% more total votes than John Kerry in 2004, and 22% more than Al Gore in 2000.

(Bumped. 4:15AM.)

Full text after the jump.

First, Obama won the extra electoral vote in Nebraska's 2nd CD. (Update: Actually, he didn't. Apparently the seceretary of state in Nebraska mistakenly indicated that Obama had.)

Second, Al Franken just pulled ahead of Norm Coleman. I've been running the numbers, and I think he's got a decent shot at holding the lead. Update (1:25AM): I've switched the link to an updated post on the numbers, which are still holding for Al, but it's one helluva' nailbiter. Update 2 (3:04AM): Coleman has regained the lead. Bummer. It's not over, but it's not looking as good as it did a few hours ago.

President-elect Barack Obama.

President-elect Barack Obama.

Update 7:31PM: I'm bumping this thread and will leave it up top until the next major milestone.

Democratic Party:

Republican Party (won't even watch the news):

Democratic Party:

I'm planning on doing a video of tonight's victory, highlighting key moments from tonight's coverage. If you see something that you think would be good for the video, would you mind dropping a note in this thread witha very short description (a few words is fine) along with the time you saw it (including time zone) and the channel?

I'm recording the three major cable channels, and the three major networks.

Kelly O'Donnell reports on NBC that McCain is expected to address his supporters soon, possibly within the hour.

Presumably, if he's in trouble in Arizona, he'd want to make a public appearance before the state is potentially declared for Obama (not that I have any idea who is going to win).

Typical: as reality sets in, they refuse to confront it.

YouTube link

This should have been easy for McCain.

At first glance, Indiana's numbers don't look great. But when you consider that only a bit more than one-third of the numbers from Marion County (where poll hours were extended) and none of the numbers from Lake County are yet in, Obama is actually in much stronger shape than it seems.

Update (5:42PM): Chuck Todd notes that one of the reasons why things are still interesting in Indiana is that Barack Obama is winning counties like St. Joseph's County that went for Bush in 2004.

Only three EVs, but a history making three EVs.

I'm not going to do this with every state, but I thought this was an important one.

What channel are you watching returns on?

...not that we expected to win Kentucky, but it's a reminder that it's still super early.

Update (3:41PM): Joe Sudbay notes that Mitch McConnell is already pleading with the media to not call his race early. He's probably still the favorite to win, but that isn't exactly the most confident of spins.

Yes, that's 72% of new voters across the United States for Obama, per the early exit polls.

So the first polls close in an thirty minutes, but there's a quirk: they only close in the portion of Indiana within the Eastern time zone. We have to wait another sixty minutes for the portion of Indiana in the Central time zone to close.

Nate takes a look at what the initial returns will tell us, but until they come in (unless you're out phonebanking or doing other GOTV stuff) it's a bit of a waiting game. I am of course slightly antsy, and I'm certainly eager, but I've also resigned myself to the fact that we won't know what there is to know until we know it.

To give you a sneak peak inside my setup for the evening, I'm distracting myself with three televisions, currently tuned to the cable networks. They are all being recorded. Starting at 4PM Pacific, I'll also begin recording the HD broadcasts of the three major networks. (I'm not wasting HD bandwidth on FOX!) I don't know how much video I'll get up in real-time, but no matter what happens tonight, it will be history, and I want to be able to upload chunks of it in the coming days and perhaps weeks.

(By the way, could I mention just how embrassingly awful FOX has been today in its coverage. I can't wait to do a mashup of their coverage vs. the reality of what actually happens.)

Also, as a reminder, I've posted a live TV feed from MSNBC here and I've embedded the Daily Kos election returns scoreboard in the sidebar on the home page.

A friend of mine -- who has never before cast a ballot for a Democrat in the four presidential elections in which he has voted -- sends in the following pictures from Jersey City:

He stood in line for 2.5 hours before finally casting his ballot...for Barack Obama. He says he has a message for Obama: "This better be good. Don't break my heart."

Thanks man. And I don't think he will. I don't think we will.

I thought I'd post this e-mail I just received from the Obama campaign suggesting things to do while waiting for numbers to roll in:

Jed --

There are still a few hours to make a big difference in this election.

Before the polls close in your state -- a crucial battleground state -- here's what you can do:

1.     Call or email everyone you know and make sure they've voted.

2.     Help turn out voters at a volunteer event near you: Find the closest event

3.     Go to your polling location and encourage everyone to stay in line until they vote. Anyone who is in line before the polls close can cast their ballot, no matter how long the line.

4.     If you can't leave your house, get out the vote by calling voters: Choose the state you'd like to call

The election in your state is going to be close -- and you can help bring the change we need.

Make history right now by helping others vote.

Thanks for everything you're doing,

Obama for America

McCain still isn't ready to spell from day one.

I must be a sick puppy because for much of the past three hours I've been watching FOX & Friends which is endlessly entertaining. Maybe I shouldn't be laughing at at them, but their entire show consisted of (a) Barack Obama is going to bankrupt the goal industry; (b) Barack Obama is going to tax low-income workers to fund the tax cut to middle-class families; (c) Barack Obama is a scary liberal extremist who will cause the stock market to tank; and (d) the polls are closing and John McCain has never been more optimistic about his chances for victory.

Just take a listen to this clip from the show -- it's absolutely hilarious. Gretchen, the host, deduces that John McCain's internal poll numbers must be skyrocketing because he's got a new "pep in his step." M'kay.

I just love these guys. In fact, I love them so much I can't wait to keep on mocking them once they lose this election!

YouTube link

Well, here we are, at the end of a campaign that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I think we will win tomorrow, but whatever happens, this all will have just been a prelude.

It will be a prelude because we didn't get involved in this campaign simply to win an election. We got involved in this campaign to change the direction of our country, and after the celebration of election night is over, the hard part begins.

Starting Wednesday, the manic pace of the campaign will be replaced with the slightly more sedate rhythm of governing. That will be a welcome relief, but governing is no less important than campaigning, and our voices are just as essential to effective governance as they were to effective politics.

Among the many mistakes of the Republican Party over the past eight years was an overreliance on a network of propaganda organs to maintain their political power. One of the disastrous consequences of that overreliance on propaganda was that the reality of Bush's policy decisions became less important than the spin his political people could put on them.

In a sense, FOX News, Matt Drudge, and Karl Rove acted as a massive bandage, covering up the festering sores inflicted upon America by the Bush Administration. Many of us knew those sores existed, but not until 2008 have they been fully exposed to a majority of American voters.

Imagine for a moment if Bush had somehow managed to win election in 2000 without the GOP propaganda network. If that had happened, he would have been forced to lead a more reality-based presidency -- and that means he would almost cerainly have been a more succesful president.

In the end, Bush's ability to cover up bad governance with good politics allowed him to continue bad governance without fear of being held accountable. We cannot afford to allow that to happen again.

Fortunately, the risk of that happening is pretty low. There is no analog of FOX News on the left, and we shouldn't strive to create one. That doesn't mean we don't want progressive voices in the media -- it just means that we don't want liars and propagandists to take over the airwaves, even if they are making the case for us.

For Barack Obama to be the extraordinary president that we all believe he can be, we must recognize that part of supporting him and his agenda will mean maintaining the willingness to offer up criticism when and if it is warranted. We'll be there, fighting for his agenda, but we'll also be keeping him honest, and keeping things real.

That's our obligation as citizens. That's what we must do if we we want to live in a functioning democracy.

We've seen what it's like when a President's supporters don't live up to their end of the bargain. We saw how things turned out. We won't make that mistake again.

Instead, starting on Wednesday, we will turn things around. We will change this country.

A couple of things to note before opening the thread:

• John McCain made no mention of Barack Obama in his final speech of the night, in Prescott, Arizona. It's hard to imagine him "going positive" if he really felt he had a chance of winning tomorrow.
• File this one under the WTF department: Joe The Plumber got pulled over for speeding a few days ago, but the Toledo police let him go. They were afraid of bad publicity if they ticketed him.
• Update: And now Joe says he's broke. And he's starting a charity. He wants to be a community organizer. Ha!
• I've embedded the Daily Kos electoral scoreboard on the homepage. I'm pretty sure the embed will track election returns as they come in, but if you click on it and visit the full scoreboard, you can get some really cool maps and looks at the data, along with live election returns. Update: For now, I've set it to display my (admittedly agressive) electoral prediction map.

Obama leads final Zogby poll...54.1% to 42.7%.

ALSO: Zogby still doesn't matter. DEVELOPING HARD...

...and it's Obama by a landslide.

DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerged victorious in the first election returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

Update (10:38PM): Markos posted the numbers from past years:

• 2004: Bush 19, Kerry 7
• 2000: Bush 21, Gore 5
• 1996: Dole 18, Clinton 8
• 1992: Bush 15, Perot 8, Clinton 2
• 1988: Bush 34, Dukakis 3

Can you say Obamacan?

Republicans may not realize it yet, but it's not just John McCain who is going down in this election. It's also propagandists like Matt Drudge and smear machines like FOX News. They may maintain their influence within the shrinking world of the conservative right wing, but the rest of America has said goodbye and good riddance to their lies and distortions. Case in point: CNN's Jeanne Moos.

YouTube link

These might be more aspirational than anything else, but here goes:

1. Popular vote: Obama 54.2%, McCain 44.5%, Third party 1.3%
2. Electoral votes: Obama 396, McCain 142
3. Senate seats: Dems 57, GOPs 41, IND 2
4. House seats: Dems 257, GOPs 178
5. Governorships: Dems 28, GOPs 22

Once again, I predict that I will be wrong on all of these. More importantly, I'll be satisfied with Democratic pickups in the House and Senate as well as an Obama victory. I'll be thrilled if Obama wins by more than 4 points in addition to the above. I'll be overjoyed if Obama wins Montana (simply to make the map look bluer) in addition to the above. And if my predictions come through, I'll be ecstatic.

What do you think is going to happen?

A friend of mine wrote me this earlier today:

The great thing about voting for Obama tomorrow is not that you will be able to tell your grandchildren that you did one day, but that they won't understand why it was so significant.

Of course, it's our obligation to explain to them why it was so important, but they won't understand it in the same visceral way that we, or our parents and grandparents, do.

The number of mentions of McCain's fraudulent coal attack ("coal" and "bankrupt") by network, since Sunday morning:

• FOX: 122
• CNN: 18
• MSNBC: 8

The only word for this is propaganda. They purport, you decide.

^{(These numbers come from my Snapstream Enterprise DVR Server.)}

This GOTV video from the Obama campaign sums things up:

YouTube link

I wish she could have seen her grandson elected president, but she must have been so proud of what he has done with his life.

I just saw McCain right now on CNN. He's leveling the thoroughly debunked "coal attack" against Barack Obama. He needs to be careful, somebody might actually cover what he and Goerge Voinovich said about his plan  that would "put coal out of business."

Update: Even funnier, the Thrillah From Wasilla is attacking Obama and Biden for "not understanding" the link between energy independence and national security.

Press play and you'll be watching MSNBC. Live. I kid you not.

How cool is this?

I think most of you know this, but I don't always say it, in large part because I've felt like much of my task has been challenging the B.S. flung by McCain et al, but I am so excited about what could happen tomorrow.

Not so popular. McCain draws about 1,000 in a venue that pulled in 15,000 for McBush in 2004. Update: Sam Stein has more.

From the BARACKY guys:

YouTube link

Update (12:28AM, Nov. 3): On Sunday, John McCain launched the final attack of his campaign, a fraudulent assault on Barack Obama that serves as a fitting reminder of the fundamental dishonesty not only of his own campaign, but also of the dishonesty of his allies in the right-wing propaganda establishment: Matt Drudge and FOX News.

All you need to know to understand the video is that the Drudge, FOX, and the McCain campaign joined forces with Newsbusters to push a story that the San Francisco Chronicle had concealed an eleven month old recording that supposedly contained devastating audio of Barack Obama proposing to bankrupt the entire coal industry.

Not only was that story false (more detail below), but it turns out that Barack Obama and John McCain have the same position on clean coal technology (update: for more on why clean coal is kind of like a healthy cigarette, see Brad Johnson's excellent post on the topic), and Ohio's Republican senator said McCain's plan to fight global warming would "put coal out of business." Here's the video:

You may have noticed that I've started posting videos from what I'm calling John McCain's Bottled Hot Water Collection. It's a series of clips highlighting some of the funniest and strangest goofs by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 election. I just built a cool new feature for the blog to allow me to automatically rotate  through the collection (which now has fifteen videos and will grow to about twenty-five) on an hourly basis.

The rotating videos will be on the homepage sidebar in one of the top 3 slots, but if you want to view 'em all right now, just click here for the full list of videos that I've posted. (It should be complete by the end of the evening, unless McCain gives us some more bottled hot water.)

Palin lies again, falsely claiming an "independent organization" estimated that Obama would destroy 6 million jobs, when the organization was actually the right-wing Heritage Foundation, and their finding was that Obama's plans would block the future creation of jobs.

Via Ben Smith:

Speaking at a rally of 1,500 people in Daytona Beach, Fla., Biden just said he wished he'd responded to Palin's jab that she was in second grade when Biden was elected to the Senate thusly:

"Governor, you were in 6th grade the last time John McCain had a good idea on the economy."

Another uplifting GOTV web ad from the Obama campaign:

YouTube link

From John McCain's Bottled Hot Water Collection, a series of videos highlighting some of the funniest and strangest goofs by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 election:

YouTube link

Now that the WaPo/ABC Poll is out, here's the latest look at the trend lines in the tracking polls. Bottom-line: Obama's stead, and there are no signs of a miracle for McCain. As long as we get out to vote, and get people out to vote, Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

So I'm not much for making public projections, but I think I'm going to go out on a limb later tonight or tomorrow morning with a specific prediction for what the final numbers will look like. Feel free to chime in with your own, either then or now.

And feel free to ignore whatever I say on Wednesday when it turns out I was way off the margin.

Speaking of Wednesday, I plan to keep on blogging at TJR after the election. Obviously, I don't expect to be spending much time on McCain at that point, but I am really excited to see how the (knock on wood) Obama Administration unfolds.

I'm also going to keep on blogging at Daily Kos and doing video under the Daily Kos flag.

As corny as it may sound, I've really loved doing this through the election, not just because it's fun to write and edit video about the election, but also because of everything I've learned from the readers of this blog, both through the comments and e-mails.

I've gotten a few "thank you" e-mails and comments and the like, but while keeping in mind that we still have to do what it takes to win, I also want to say thank you to everybody who has participated in and supported this blog. Without you, TJR would be nothing.

I wrote both of Barack Obama's books, and I also wrote the Bill Ayers memoir.

Oh, and also too, I wrote Jeremiah Wright's sermons.

Yes.

Jonathan Martin chronicles the reversal of the Palin Effect as demonstrated by the Obama campaign's new Cheney ad:

The most striking thing about Obama's quickie ad -- bound only for national cable and free news and internet replays -- is not the broken-record linkage of McCain to Bush and Cheney.

It's the degree to which the Democrat's campaign feels safe in mocking Palin.   As with their ad last week that questioned McCain's judgment by showing her winking at a debate, this spot is as much about Palin as it is the man atop the GOP ticket.

...After first being tapped and becoming an overnight sensation, Palin appeared in ads crafted by her own campaign.  "Original Mavericks" was, for a while, McCain's dominant spot on the airwaves.

Now, she's gone from McCain's closing spot -- her name never mentioned and only flashed on the screen at the end -- and is instead prominently featured in two of Obama's last ads.

Good thing we didn't listen to all those Republicans telling us to back off, eh?

And speaking of not back off, Ben Smith makes a good point about Palin's medical records. Why haven't that released them?

I can think of only two reasons. Either (a) she's hiding something or (b) the campaign felt that if she disclosed more than McCain about her health, it would look bad for McCain. I kind of suspect it's (b), but who knows?

Anyway, the fact is neither McCain nor Palin have revealed enough about their health. Honestly though, I care more about McCain's.

From John McCain's Bottled Hot Water Collection, a series of videos highlighting some of the funniest and strangest goofs by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 election:

YouTube link

::: :::

I've only watched about half of Rick Davis' appearance on This Week with George Stephanopolous and he's already in full-on Baghdad Bob mode.

I'll do a more thorough writeup and probably post video, but he made two extraordinarily foolish claims about Colorado.

1. Baghdad Rick said that just 35% of Coloradans had already cast their ballots. That's just flat-out wrong. The actual number, according to the state of Colorado, is 56%61.9%.
2. Baghad Rick said that polling shows that Colorado is now dead-even. Wrong again. Pollster.com's composite shows Barack Obama with a 7.5% lead in the state -- and his lead is growing.

These factual errors are just bizarre. They are making a caricature of themselves.

Partial tracker update: 5 of the 6 tracking polls for the day have reported their numbers, and in those polls there was a slight uptick for McCain, though not significant -- we're talking about a 0.5% to 0.7% net marginal gain (using Gallup's traditional and expanded numbers, respectively), which is nothing to fret about and could easily be just noise. In these polls, since Wednesday, Obama is still up by 1.0% to 1.8%, even including today's numbers. Later this afternoon when we have the ABC/WaPo numbers, I'll post another update.

Today through Tuesday, I'll be posting short video clips of some of John McCain and Sarah Palin's funniest and strangest flubs and goofs. I'm calling it the Bottled Hot Water Collection, inspired by McCain's odd verbal slip in early June when he said "We should be able to deliver bottled hot water to dehydrated babies." (See the vodpod.)

I hope you enjoy these clips, but I also hope you'll be on the lookout for more "bottled hot water" from McCain, particularly tomorrow. Why tomorow? Well, because he's got a very long day ahead of him:

On Monday, McCain will embark on a single-day seven-state tour with stops in Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona--all except Pennsylvania states that Bush won in 2004.

Who knows whether McCain will have any humorous foibles tomorrow, but given how grueling the schedule is, there certainly is a decent chance of it happening. If you see anything, please e-mail me at jedreport at gmail.com.

From John McCain's Bottled Hot Water Collection, a series of videos highlighting some of the funniest and strangest goofs by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 election:

YouTube link

I don't know whether it was a function of bad staffing, a candidate who has thrown in the towel, or both, but John McCain's appearance on SNL felt more like an epitaph for McCain's campaign than it did a last-ditch effort.

McCain seemed to enjoy the many digs at Sarah Palin, and had no problem with the Palin 2012 t-shirt. (I'm assuming the entire skit was vetted by staff beforehand; if not, then they are even less competent than I had once thought.) He appeared to be as interested in being welcomed back into the Hollywood/showbiz/elite media crowd as he was in running for president.

The net impression he gave was of a candidate who wasn't planning on winning -- not exactly the best message to send in the campaign's final weekend, but par for the course for McCain. You can watch it in the vodpod.

Here's the video that started it all, the charter member of John McCain's Bottled Hot Water Collection, a series of videos highlighting some of the funniest and strangest goofs by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 election:

YouTube link

I really like this new Obama ad:

Earlier: FOX buries Cheney endorsement story.

"I will change the world."

That's the quote being falsely attributed to Barack Obama by Matt Drudge and Rupert Murdoch's Sky News. Strangely, even though both attribute the quote to Obama, neither bothers to specify when and where he is alleged to have made the comment.

There's a simple reason for that. He didn't say it. In fact, on the campaign trail, Barack Obama always makes the exact opposite point, saying that he believes that change comes from the bottom-up -- that he believes that he cannot change the world on his own.

Barack Obama doesn't say, "Yes I can." He says, "Yes we can."

Obama says "You and I together, we will change this country, and we will change the world."

Presumably, Drudge is trying to argue that Obama is too arrogant to be President, and that he cares about the world at the expense of the United States. The fact that he is forced to lie to make his point illustrates for the umpteenth time that Matt Drudge ought not be listened to by anyone.

Drudge has less credibility than the cheapest of supermarket tabloid trash.