Let's compare two commercials. The first is an RNC spot entitled "Chicago Way", which hits Barack Obama on his connections to Tony Rezko, William Ayers and (somewhat oddly) William Daley:This is a pretty standard negative ad. The message is essentially: "Obama's a little wet behind the ears, he might be corrupt, and he's made some poor judgments in his associates". The ad is straightforward and -- dare I say -- relatively fair. Nothing is taken ...

I've started giving serious thought to the high likelihood that Barack Obama is about to inherit this mess. On a separate but obviously related front it's distressing that a lot of very respectable economists think that Henry Paulson is dragging his feet -- the G7 and IMF meetings seemed to produce statements of unity and purpose, but no real action. Finally, yes, it seems to be unquestionably good news that Paulson has jettisoned his first ...

We've been having a fascinating dialog with readers in response to last night's post about those exchanges John McCain had with those rabid supporters in Minnesota. I want to post some of your emails. But before that I want to go back to this question of just what that female McCain supporter said to him before he snatched the microphone away from her. As I said there were conflicting reports about whether the woman, Gayle ...

So much for slow news days.John Lewis's comments about the McCain campaign "playing with fire" are likely to dominate the news cycle for the next 24-48 hours, including the morning panel shows.The conventional wisdom holds that, whenever the discussion turns to race, this tends to be detrimental to Obama, who for the most part has been scrupulously trying to avoid invoking racial themes into the campaign, at least through official channels. The previous time an ...

The Official Google Mobile Blog has some information about Google Maps for the critically acclaimed T-Mobile G1. Google Maps on the G1 is more robust when compared to other mobile offerings. I might even go as far to say it looks better than it’s bigger brother on the desktop. While I’m not a big fan of Streetview (or probably its because I’m not living in the US) I have to say I really dig that ...

IT DIDN’T work for Ross Perot in 1992. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has a lot more to lose when he appears later this month on NBC and CBS for the half hour of prime airtime he is buying. The massive political infomercial, we now know, will be expensive—almost a million dollars for each network. My first reaction: this is not the move of a frontrunner, who shouldn’t be seeking quite that much exposure. ...

The anger of the Republican troops is focused on Obama right now but you have to wonder, if things don't improve for them soon, if it begins to focus on McCain for letting Obama in. In Strongsville, Ohio this week I talked to some pretty angry people - almost all of them polite to the BBC because Americans tend to be polite towards guests - but really tough on Obama and on the media generally ...

Don't the producers of 90210 know that by flubbing at Photoshop they're putting at risk the hard-won sense of gritty realism that makes their inner-city drama so compelling?Thanks to everyone who has sent this in!

If you live in Rensselaer County, N.Y., and you're looking to mark your absentee ballot for Barack Obama, you may be out of luck, at least for now. Officials mailed out approximately 300 absentee ballots that list not Obama but "Barack Osama," the Albany Times Union reports. The paper also says that officials on both sides say it was just a mistake. "No question this is an honest mistake innocently done," Edward McDonough, the Democratic ...

Tecdirt asks (some days ago): Does Email Make You Lie More? Download truemails.comicdoc

LAKEVILLE, Minn. — The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States." A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped ...

Download | Play Download | Play (MSNBC's David Schuster's account of Troopergate, h/t Logan) The Alaska Legislature-commissioned investigation has found her guilty of abusing her power to fire Walt Monegan. A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely ...

From CBS: Some of the questioners said they were scared of an Obama presidency, and one woman said she couldn’t trust Obama because “he’s an Arab.” McCain shook his head. “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

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Troopergate Report: Palin "Unlawfully Abused Her Authority" [AP] Here's the operative part of the report: More on Sarah Palin

The global financial meltdown has caused a dramatic shift in the 2008 presidential race, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. With four weeks left in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama now leads John McCain by double digits, 52 percent to 41 percent among registered voters--a marked shift from the last NEWSWEEK poll, conducted one month ago, when the two candidates were tied at 46 percent. Underlying Obama's surge in support: An historic boiling over of ...

This is pretty interesting:[Norm] Coleman told reporters that he would not be appearing at a planned rally with McCain this afternoon. Could it be McCain's sliding polling numbers in Minnesota? His attacks on Obama? Coleman said he needs the time to work on suspending his own negative ads."Today," he said, "people need hope and a more positive campaign is a start."There are at least three groups of Republicans that might have an interest in distancing ...