"University of Chicago" Democrat

If Obama wins, isn't he basically our first "Moneyball" President?

Susan Collins Attacks John McCain

Ouch. Republican Senator Susan Collins slams McCain for his sleazy robo-calls.

Last Night's Debate Reaction

There was absolutely nothing unpredictable about last night's debate. In fact, it followed the essential pattern of every other debate in the General.

1. Obama came across as calm and collected.
2. McCain was disdainful, aggressive and petulant.
3. McCain started off strong, but ended up getting flustered when his attacks weren't landing. He petered out as the debate wore on.
   
4. The post-debate pundit spin was that McCain won...
5. ...which was immediately disproven by the across the board sweep of all of the focus groups and snap polls that showed Obama wiped McCain out.

Interestingly, even the VP debate followed this basic series of events.

Obama definitely won the expectations game when it came to the debates. For whatever reason, it seemed to be a universally accepted fact that Obama was not a great debater.

However, one fact got lost in murky past of the brief Republican primary season: John McCain is a horrible at debating. All of the same traits that he evinces now were on display back then as well: his choppy style, his peevishly aggressive demeanor and his lack of familiarity or understanding of the economy.

Lucky for John McCain, he seemed to go up against the only person who was worse at debating than he was: Mitt Romney. That, coupled with the McCain-Mike Huckabee double teaming pretty much guaranteed that Romney was considered the loser of most of the Republican debates. But let's be honest, the Republican crop of candidates this year was pretty weak stuff.

NBA Ponderable

Now that the Sonics no longer exist, will Gary Payton never get his number retired until Seattle is awarded a new NBA franchise?

If so, will he be the best player in NBA history to not have his number retired?

John McCain Is The Penguin

This is a pretty remarkable find:



For the record, I always thought Bill Gates was the most likely Lakeside alumni to be President, with Jamie Twiss a respectable second.

Who knew it would be Adam West?

The One Term Stunt

Several writers have been speculating that McCain may try to pull some sort of stunt tonight, including, but not limited to announcing a pledge to only serve one term. The rationale behind this is: John McCain will put country first ahead of his own political ambitions.

I want McCain to lose, but let me offer some free advice:

That may have been an intriguing tactic six months ago. And probably a much better one at the RNC in September. But now, such a move would backfire worse than suspending his campaign again.

Every time people looked at McCain they would think one thing: Sarah Palin 2012.

Biden wants West Virginia

First Read:

Biden was campaigning in Ohio, but had West Virginia on his mind late this afternoon, making a bold promise to win a state that has gone Republican in the past two elections.

“Which way is West-By-God-Virginia?” Biden asked the crowd Ohio University Eastern Campus, about 10 miles west of that state's border with Ohio. “I want to send a message to West Virginia -- we’re going to win in West Virginia! … We’re going to shock the living devil out of y’all!”

John McCain's Brother Goes Nuts

Wow. This actually includes a script for a commercial.

The commercial stars John McCain's flight jacket.

He makes Billy Carter & Roger Clinton look like Bobby Kennedy.

Palin learned it by watching you.

A new PSA from MoveOn.org, Doug Liman and the cast of Gossip Girl.

Microsoft is turning into the McCain campaign

Less than four hours before Steve Jobs introduces new laptops today, Microsoft is already circulating whiny-baby, anti-Apple Talking Points??

They offer charts comparing the feature lists of similarly priced Windows and Mac notebooks and make numerous accusations of an "Apple Tax." The email is interesting: nothing they say is incorrect, but none of it is new. Most importantly, all of it misses the point completely.

Seriously. Talking points??

Hmm, maybe after this campaign is over, Steve Schmidt can get a job after all...

Wait a second:

(Left to right: Steve Schmidt, Steve Ballmer, artists' renditions)

Senators Who Live In Seven Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw ACORNs

Footage emerges of an ACORN event in 2006...



...starring John McCain.

Ambinder has more:

Who says Latin is dead?

Apparently you bust out a little high school Latin and the Internet wakes up...

We just crossed 10,000 readers--including an amazing 7,000 since Ms.
Dowd channeled her inner Cicero on Saturday.

Still Shameless, But Enjoy

Joebi-Wan Kenobi

In Joe Biden's experience, there's no such thing as luck:

“When Barack Obama is president we’re not gonna wait for our luck to change,” he said. “We’re gonna change our luck. We’re gonna change this country. In the neighborhood I come from, you make your own luck.”

Edgar Martinez Unendorses Obama

Obama on sports:

The DH?

"I'm not really into it."

On the other hand, Nate Silver is thrilled:

Is a walk as good as a hit?

"Yes."

Meanwhile, Dean Smith endorses Obama (for real):

Linnea and I respect all that Senator McCain has done for our country. However, we feel strongly that it is Barack Obama who offers the real leadership our nation needs to tap its potential as a land of opportunity -- even as we face difficult times at home and abroad. Senator Obama is a patriotic American, a committed Christian, a good family man, and a man who shares the bedrock values that most North Carolinians have in common: fairness, hard work, respect for others, and personal responsibility.

How McCain can still win

Mark Halperin links to Adam Nagourney's piece on six ways John McCain can still win.

Short version:

Adam Nagourney: "Please still buy our newspaper."

Does Chuck Todd Not Watch NBC?

From Chuck Todd's First Read on MSNBC.com:

*** Money to burn? This past weekend, your First Read team had the luxury of watching some TV in the DC area (Northern Virginia). While enjoying college football games on Saturday, the Sunday morning news shows, NFL games, and 60 Minutes, we probably viewed 30-40 Obama TV ads. And get this -- we didn’t see a single McCain advertisement

Unless Chuck Todd is a die hard Notre Dame fan and really wanted to see them lose to #22 North Carolina, outside of possibly watching "Meet The Press," apparently none of the shows he watches over the weekend are on NBC...

Who is the Advance Wizard Who Came Up With This One?

John McCain, desperate because he is slipping in the South, is making his first campaign stop in North Carolina today. The location of his rally? "Cape Fear Community College."

Cue ten million jokes...now.

Dear Slate.com

Please publish a special RSS feed that contains all of your columns minus Mickey Kaus. Readership will quadruple.

That is all.

McCain and Palin are fighting

This was inevitable. McCain is the last Republican Presidential candidate of the 20th Century. Palin wants to think that she's the first of the 21st. With the race clearly slipping from their grasp, Palin is now throwing John McCain under the bus.

Sarah Palin is now out for herself. The next three and a half weeks should be fascinating.

From The Times of London:

With his electoral prospects fading by the day, Senator John McCain has fallen out with his vice-presidential running mate about the direction of his White House campaign.

[...]

“Sarah Palin is no fool. She sees the same thing and wants to salvage what she can. She is positioning herself for the future. Her best days could be in front of her. She wants to look as though she was the fighter, the person with the spunk who was out there taking it to the Democrats.”

The Meta-Narrative of Steve Schmidt

By many accounts, Steve Schmidt is less than a pleasant fellow.

In a new article in Newsweek, the author Holly Bailey claims that:

The man in charge of John McCain's day-to-day presidential campaign is tired of reporters saying he's Rove's "protégé"—the implication being that he is willing to do anything to win.

The article goes on to detail how "pained" Schmidt is this campaign has turned out this way--neglecting, of course, of the single-minded way that the McCain campaign, under Schmidt's direction, has injected toxic negativity at every turn.

The article also makes curious mention of one of Schmidt's prior jobs:

After Bush won in '04, Schmidt took a job at the White House working for Dick Cheney. The vice president had the worst persona in politics—his popularity was in the low 20s—and Schmidt was given the unenviable task of giving the dour, secretive vice president a personality makeover.

Hmm, a campaign consultant whose job was to make over the image of a violently unpopular Republican political figure. (A job he failed to do, by the way.)

Say... you don't suppose that Schmidt, with his client John McCain highly favored to lose--and lose big--isn't possibly trying to pull the same PR shenanigans with the press for himself, do you?

Exit Turd Blossom 2.0?

Enter the kinder, gentler Schmidt whose feelings get hurt when someone even mentions Rove in his presence?

And, bingo:

Privately, Schmidt's friends say he has expressed worry about how he will be viewed after the campaign. "He does not desire to go through life with the tag of Karl Rove disciple attached to him," says one friend who asked not to be named talking about private conversations. "He has a life to go back to that has nothing to do with politics … But he also wants to win."

Aww, poor baby.

Maybe next time, Schmidty will realize that actions have consequences.

Obama's Battlefield Widens

Interesting tidbit from the AP:

Hillary Clinton also planned return visits to Ohio and Florida in the next few days and has scheduled trips to Omaha, Neb., and Minnesota.

Obama is serious about winning Nebraska-02 if he's sending Hillary there. She also just spent Friday in West Virginia, which according to recent polls may have suddenly come into play, as well as Arkansas, which is probably a longer shot.

The ultimate scenario for Obama is 375 EVs + Georgia (15), West Virginia (5), Nebraska-02 (1), Montana (3) and North Dakota (3).

402: that has to be the ultimate ceiling...right?