True

On the heels of yesterday's Ron Howard nostalgia, a little memory lane for something a little more recent.

NY Times Endorsements

The New York Times's Presidential Endorsements through the years.

Abraham Lincoln, 1860:

Things will go on very much as they have hitherto—except that we shall have honesty and manliness instead of meanness and corruption in the Executive departments, and a decent regard for the opinions of mankind in the tone and talk of the Government on the subject of Slavery.

Good For Apple

From their start page:

No on Prop 8
Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

Republicans Endorsing Obama

Now that Colin Powell has sounded the call, there has seemed to be a constant drip-drip-dripping of moderate (and not-so-moderate) Republicans coming forth to endorse Obama.

It seems to be me that this trickle of GOP endorsements is being as effectively stage managed as the the stream of Democratic endorsements in the primaries.

Powell, of course, is by far the biggest, but the less prominent Republicans seem to be getting more and more prominent by the day.

A few days ago, it was a Wisconsin state senator.

Now, Republican former governors William Weld and Arne Carlson both endorsed Obama.

If I had to make a prediction, I think that the prominence of the Republicans coming out for Obama are going to get bigger and bigger.

Culminating with election eve endorsements from a pair of sitting Republican Senators in a very competitive state and district perhaps?

I also wouldn't be surprised about endorsements from Ross Perot and possibly Bloomberg in the next few days either.

UPDATE:
Slightly more obscure to the layperson, but symbolically powerful. Legal scholar Charles Fried just announced that he's voting for Obama. Besides being Reagan's Solicitor General, Fried was (until this morning) one of John McCain's legal advisors!

Ouch.

Little Opie Cunningham Endorses Obama

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Joe the Plumb Crazy

Hoo-boy:

We have the tape of a 911 call made by John McCain's brother earlier this week.

He called the police emergency line because he was angry he was stuck in traffic.

The 911 call came into the City of Alexandria on Oct. 21st That's creating some buzz because it appears to come from Joe McCain, John McCain's brother.

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It's not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic's coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: "(Expletive) you." (caller hangs up)

John McCain's response: "Say it ain't so, Joe."

For Sarah

Now that she thinks she's going to run the Senate:

McCain goes full Bush

Brutal. Oof.

McCain Takes 8 Point Lead in the Wrong Georgia

Who says that lobbying doesn't pay?

In Gallup's latest poll of Presidential preferences around the world, the only European country that McCain leads in is his campaign's favorite little breakaway republic that could, Georgia: 23-15.

For the rest of the world, Obama leads comfortably by a nearly 4-1 margin.

Meanwhile, in American Georgia, McCain's lead seems to have slipped to about five points.

Also, early voting numbers in Georgia appear to be hugely favoring Obama.

Even the internets are against him

Eric Schmidt endorses Obama.

McCain probably should "do a google" and find out who he is.

(His campaign knows, and is pissed:

According to a well-placed source, the McCain folks are absolutely livid.

)

Filibuster Proof Senate

According to Nate Silver, we are approximately one Ichiro hit away from getting sixty seats in the Senate.

A political analogy

For independents (and some Democrats):

McCain 2000 : McCain 2008 :: Raiders of the Lost Ark :: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Colin Powell's Endorsement

Seems to me that Barack Obama just turned in his Commander-in-Chief test and Colin Powell turned out to be his grader.

A+.

"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!”