AURORA, Colo. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton asked her supporters to get out and campaign for former rival Barack Obama with the same fervor they showed for her campaign, telling them Friday that electing GOP presidential candidate John McCain was unacceptable.

"We need to do everything necessary to make sure Barack Obama is the next president of the United States of America. ...Work as hard for Barack as you worked for me," Clinton said at an evening outdoor rally.

Clinton said the goal now is for Democrats to get the nation back on the right track after the party picked Obama to be their candidate in August at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"We left Denver united as a party, determined we would do all we could to make the case for change," she said.

Clinton said if Obama is elected, he will face major challenges including a major economic crisis, echoing statements made by his running mate, Joe Biden.

"This is not going to be easy. We're asking the next president of the United States entering the Oval Office to face difficult challenges we haven't had in a generation, at least," she said.

"America will rise from the ashes of the Bushes if we have the leadership Barack Obama will provide," she said.

Obama himself plans campaign stops in Denver and Fort Collins on Sunday.

Clinton's visit came just hours after McCain campaigned in Denver, telling supporters if Obama is elected along with a Democratic Congress, the middle class is "going to be put through the wringer."

Clinton said Obama is offering a tax cut to 95 percent of working families. She said Obama will also stabilize the financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and put the country on the path to energy independence.

Peg Young, a retired nurse from Boulder, said she supported Obama from the beginning of the campaign, but she believes Clinton is sincere in throwing her support to Obama because she believes the alternative is unacceptable.

"It's just so apparent that she's for Obama," Young said.

By STEVEN K. PAULSON Associated Press, October 24, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has returned to electoral politics with full force. The last step in her reengagement -- after her disappointing second-place finish to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the presidential nomination sweepstakes -- was jump-starting her political action committee, Hill PAC.

Clinton did that late last month when she issued the first campaign contributions to congressional Democratic candidates since 2006, cutting $75,000 worth of checks to 14 campaigns for the House and Senate and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to reports filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

Yesterday, Clinton wrote an e-mail pitch for the DSCC that asks donors to help Democrats capture nine seats currently held by the GOP to reach the magic number of 60 seats in the Senate.

"We're throwing everything we've got into making sure [Obama] stands before the nation as a President with the political strength to break the gridlock, get things done, and start progress going in America again. And with a filibuster-proof Senate, we'll be able to bring the change this country so desperately needs," Clinton wrote.

The first recipients of Clinton's PAC donations included several incumbents who are cruising to reelection but were prominent Clinton supporters during the primary campaign, including Reps. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Tex.) and Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.).

Clinton's generosity also extended to several challengers: state Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who is trying to oust Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who is running against Sen. Ted Stevens, and former Hialeah, Fla., mayor Raul Martinez, who is up against Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Hill PAC had been essentially dormant for 2007 and the first half of 2008, while Clinton focused on her own effort to win the presidential nomination. Before then, she used Hill PAC to make donations to key politicians in critical primary states and fund her political travels from 2004 to 2006, when she laid the groundwork for the 2008 campaign.

For those wondering, yes, Clinton did make some donations to candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first battlegrounds in every primary contest. Jeanne Shaheen, the former New Hampshire governor running against Sen. John E. Sununu, and Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) received $5,000 each in late September.

Clinton has now raised more than $1.1 million for Hill PAC since early July, when her longtime friends and supporters started writing checks to reignite her PAC. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who gave $5,000 from her campaign committee, and Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty III, former president Bill Clinton's first White House chief of staff, who personally gave $5,000, were the first new contributors to Hill PAC.

Ideology Aside, This Election Year Has Been Transformative For All Women

Two months after Sarah Palin joined the GOP ticket, and four months after Hillary Clinton ended her quest for the presidency, 2008 is turning out to be a transformative year for women in politics, according to women leaders across the political spectrum.

As Election Day nears, it's clear that gender was not a disqualifying factor for either Clinton or Palin. Voters who turned against them did so for other reasons, just as they do with male candidates. Women from both parties also perceive with satisfaction a heightened emphasis on their issues in this year's race.

Palin's candidacy has sent a jolt through traditional liberal women's organizations as she tries to redefine feminism, suggesting that the old movement has become detached from the hockey moms Palin champions. The mother of five and former beauty queen is the antithesis of the bra-burning militant libbers of the '60s, and she is adamantly antiabortion. Yet Palin has grabbed the feminist label vigorously and has been hailed as one by the thousands of supportive women who wave their lipstick tubes at her rallies.

"She is a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America," John McCain declared last weekend.

While liberal groups have strong ideological differences with Palin, some nonetheless rallied to her defense when she was accused of neglecting her family for the campaign trail ."Would they be asking whether a man with five children should be running for high office?" wrote Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, in an online column. ". . . I feel for Palin, and for all women struggling to be taken seriously in a man's realm."

Although she finds the Alaska governor's views on issues critical to women "a disappointment," Gandy said in an interview that she believes it's important for her own teenage daughters "to see women competing at the highest levels of American politics."

All in all, when the votes are cast and the country moves on, the women's movement will have lots of reasons to feel good about the 2008 election year ."I never thought I'd see another woman on a national ticket in this cycle after Hillary lost," said Geraldine Ferraro, who 24 years ago became the first women to run on a major party's national ticket. "But it's like a ripple effect. Hillary's candidacy, my candidacy -- they have a ripple effect far beyond the immediate results."

The unexpected recognition of a conservative as a role model for women has forced some traditional feminists to reconsider the movement's mission. "It's going to take us a while to find our bearings," said Sarah Stoesz, who runs the Planned Parenthood office that oversees Minnesota and the Dakotas. "As feminists, we've always thought that a core aspect of women's equality is about being in control of our reproductive lives. But Sarah Palin is throwing the calculus out the window and demonstrating a view that some people would call feminism: I can be governor, I can have five children, I can shoot and field-dress a moose, and I don't need access to abortion.

"There's a big debate inside the leadership of the women's movement about how much abortion should be a key political issue."

Even if Palin's star fades, many women think that her impact on the definition of a feminist will be lasting. April Ponnuru, 30, said that though she wishes Palin had more policy experience, "at the end of the day, she is a conservative woman who has strong convictions on life and other conservative issues -- and she made it."

"There are really a lot of us out there," said Ponnuru, the executive director of the National Review Institute and the mother of a 3-year-old. "We are vastly underrepresented in politics, and she's the first truly national politician to make a strong statement about being a pro-life woman -- and that's very appealing."

Conservative activist and lawyer Cleta Mitchell started her career as a liberal women's rights politician in Okalahoma, fighting for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the '70s. "We never said equal rights was just for some of you girls depending on your political philosophy -- that was never part of the deal," Mitchell said. "It was about having options and choices."

One option women have today is that they don't have to dress like a man to make it in politics -- although the frenzy about Palin's $150,000 designer shopping spree shows there are limits to what the public will accept.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes no bones about favoring Armani suits and Chanel shoes -- and has been criticized for it; Clinton has developed a consistent fashionable look with regular hairstyling and St. John suits. Palin, with her long hair, slim skirts and red high heels, is surely the first national female candidate to be called "hot," as Alec Baldwin did last weekend on "Saturday Night Live."

"Back in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro could not have dressed like Sarah Palin and been on the ticket with Walter Mondale," said Michelle D. Bernard, president of the conservative Independent Women's Forum. "She is feminine and she is fashionable, and that is okay now." Further, Mondale and Ferraro barely touched in public; McCain and Palin routinely greet each other with a hug.

The next big issue for women, Bernard surmised, is to determine whether both sides of the ideological spectrum can find common ground. "Is there a big enough tent -- can we all find the common ground in the push for women's rights regardless of women's position on abortion?" she asks.

In recent years, vocal groups such as IWF and Feminists for Life have stepped forward to fight the perception that only liberal women can be in favor of equality and independence. By calling herself a feminist -- once considered a dirty word by the religious right -- Palin proclaimed that feminism is no longer synonymous with liberalism but something that could be shared and celebrated by all women.

Palin is not only antiabortion; her position is even more restrictive than McCain's (although she has never pushed to legislate on it as governor). She favors banning abortion unless the life of the woman is in jeopardy, whereas McCain would make exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

"It's just nonsense to say you can't be a feminist and be against abortion," says former Clinton fundraiser and supporter Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who now backs McCain. "Democrats use [abortion] as a noose around your neck," says de Rothschild, who is in favor of abortion rights. "Sarah Palin," she says, "rocks all the stereotypes of feminism and can only enhance progress for women."

Karen O'Connor, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University, argues that while Palin "has had extraordinary accomplishments . . . to be a feminist, you have to believe women deserve equal pay for equal work." (McCain announced his opposition to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was blocked in April by other GOP senators; Palin has said the bill would encourage too much litigation.)

While family and economic issues have long been the focus of politicians, leading voices for women's rights maintain that this year is the first time women have been so aggressively targeted as a must demographic for victory. Many of these voters found their voice through Clinton's campaign, and since the senator from New York left the race in June, both Barack Obama and McCain have been fighting for her supporters. Obama has made significant ad buys targeting women, including one during "SNL" last weekend. A few days later, Palin surrounded herself with women leaders in Nevada -- including two defectors from Clinton's campaign -- to loudly castigate Obama for not choosing Clinton as his running mate. "Our opponents think they have the women's vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous," she thundered.

Voters have responded to all the attention. Cindy Curry is a 43-year-old mother of two from North Carolina and a registered independent who says she has closely followed the race. A CPA, Curry supported Clinton and was initially "very excited" when McCain selected Palin as his running mate but has since cooled on her. Still, what has moved Curry the most is the mere fact that there were two accomplished, attractive women to consider. "I like to see strong women, and I like to see women succeed," said Curry, who will likely vote for McCain.

Independent Julia Lynch, 53, a professional federal supervisor from Georgia, will vote for Obama, but despite her philosophical differences from Palin, she stated: "You go, girl! These women have moved the process along for us. . . . It's just a matter of time before gender will not matter at all as people choose leaders."

Palin has not been universally embraced by her party. The Republican Majority for Choice, an organization that supports abortion rights, last month announced that it would not endorse the ticket. "She is not pro anything we support," says Jennifer Blei Stockman, co-chairman of the group.

And some GOP women, along with their Democratic counterparts, have openly questioned Palin's qualifications. Mitchell has an answer to that. "Even if Sarah Palin is as 'unqualified' as the left would have us believe," she wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, ". . . then former congresswoman Bella Abzug's lifelong goal has been achieved. She used to say that she was 'working for the day when a mediocre woman could get as far as a mediocre man.' "

By Lois Romano, The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2008

Hawaii's favorite son had taken the long flight in from mainland, leaving a rally in downtown Indianapolis to arrive at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Honolulu time. Back east, in his second hometown of Chicago, it was already past midnight - and an hour later in Washington where he hopes to take up a famous residence next year. Sen. Barack Obama immediately drove to see his ailing grandmother, the woman he affectionately calls "Toot," at her apartment on Beretania Street, before retiring to a hotel on the city's touristy Waikiki strip. By daylight, he was again at the Beretania Street apartment, emerging at one point, dressed in a black polo shirt, dark-glasses and flip-flops, walking pensively and unsmiling along the unsteady and overgrown the sidewalk on nearby Young Street before the crowding press forced him back into the privacy of his grandmother's home. He did not issue any statement and did not speak to journalists hungry for any kind of word.

Despite the silence, the locals feel that, by itself, Obama's brief 22-hour visit spoke volumes - and more importantly reflected the islands' ethos and culture. Take the nickname he uses for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. It's short for tutu, the Hawaiian term for grandmother. And, to the islanders, it means that even though Obama may be the U.S. senator from Illinois, he really is at heart a Honolulu-born, son of Hawai'i who will drop anything to care for his family, says another Hawaii-born politician, Democratic state Sen. Clayton Hee. "It is all at once a message to the world," says Hee, a Native Hawaiian who has served as the chairman of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. "It is an identity to the Islands. From the first time I heard that he referred to his grandmother as 'Toot,' I felt a profound linkage to this man. As a Native Son of Hawaii, it suggests very strong in my mind that there is a connection to Hawaii that remains at the core of this man who seeks to be president."

"You can hear it in his voice when he says it, 'Toot,'" says Alice Dewey, a University of Hawaii professor emeritus of anthropology, who is a family friend and was the graduate studies advisor to Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham. "They are very close. [His grandmother] has always been a small, slight woman, but tough. She held his nose to the grindstone, but also lavished him with love."

In early October, Madelyn Dunham, her mobility already limited by osteoporosis, slipped in her apartment and broke her hip. She has since suffered from undisclosed, serious medical problems. Obama made the decision to temporarily postpone his campaign on Thursday night and Friday because he did not want to live through the same experience in 1995 when he arrived too late to say farewell to his mother who died of cancer at the age of 53, says U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie. "Those of us who live here in the Islands are used to how long it takes to get here," Abercrombie says. "If the physicians say it's a serious situation, you don't hesitate to come, particularly if it's his grandmother and the last link to his mom. It's the Hawaiian style, the way we deal with things in Hawai'i. Its all family. It's all ohana. We all come together."

Obama's family in Hawaii has kept a relatively low profile through his campaign. But his grandmother was anything but low key during her career. Dunham was a trailblazer in her day in the 1960s and 1970s, a Caucasian female who rose in 1970 to become one of the first two female vice presidents at Bank of Hawaii, the islands' largest bank at the time. After she retired in the mid-1980s, she has mainly kept to herself in the Beretania apartment, cared for mostly by Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. Soetoro-Ng does appear on her brother's campaign; she and her husband are prized guests at dinner parties in Honolulu social circles. But she tends to keep the press at arms length, trying to lead the life of a teacher at one of Honolulu's private schools, La-Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls on the slopes of Diamond Head.

Some acquaintances say that Soetoro-Ng has the independent spirit of her mother, Stanley Ann, who took young Maya along when she went to Indonesia and Africa to pursue her master's and doctoral degrees studying and helping village craftsmen (Barack was left behind to be raised by Madelyn Dunham and her late husband Stanley in the 10th story Beretania duplex in the Makiki area of Honolulu). Nevertheless, cautioned by her brother's campaign advisers, Soetoro-Ng always watches her words, knowing how easily the words of a relative can reflect in unintended ways on the candidate.

Although Honolulu is the 14th largest city in America, the chain of islands in the most isolated, populated spot on the planet makes Hawaii a small-town kind of place to live. The place reacts with a kind of star-struck energy whenever an islander makes it big. Friends and families, for example, organized call-in centers to flood votes for Hawaii-born contestants on "American Idol." This year's Little League World Series champions from the Oahu community of Waipio were given a parade by the city that ran straight through Waikiki. But Obama's candidacy for the U.S. presidency "transcends them all," Sen. Hee said. "Maybe it's because we're isolated from the other 49 states that we feel so strongly about those who bring out the best in these Islands," Hee says. "But can you imagine a son of Hawaii is going to be the next president of the United States of America? People better wear zippered shirts because their buttons are going to be pop off from the tremendous pride."

Already, local anticipation is brimming over. It wasn't just the press crowding to see the candidate outside his grandmother's apartment. "I appreciate him visiting his grandmother," says Arthur Witherspoon of Honolulu, who stood outside Dunham's apartment on Friday within the crowd of about 100 people. "It shows character," says Norma Parado, who lives half of each year in Honolulu, "I'm so glad he's here doing this. He's paused his campaigning for family. That's the kind of person you want leading our country."

By DAN NAKASO, Time, October 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Joe Biden's performance as Barack Obama's running mate has been pretty predictable - even when unpredictable.

The biggest knock against Biden during discussions on whether he would make a good vice presidential nominee was that his mouth tends to get him in trouble. And it has, with Biden recently raising the expectation that Obama would be tested by an international crisis soon after taking office - a comment that Obama said showed Biden's penchant for "rhetorical flourish."

Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin have used that comment to suggest that Obama is not prepared to deal with such a problem. That's not what Biden said - he argued Obama would persevere because he's "got steel in his spine." But McCain is using a recording of Biden's comments in a new ad against Obama.

"We're going to have an international crisis ... to test the mettle of this guy," Biden says in a recording replayed in the ad over grainy images of a woman crying and people rioting in the streets of a foreign land. "I guarantee you it's going to happen."

An announcer interjects: "It doesn't have to happen. Vote McCain."

But despite the occasional gaffe that's been highlighted, the Obama team says Biden has been a steady asset.

"Yes, there are those moments when you say, 'Wow, I wonder why he said that,'" said Obama adviser David Axelrod, but he added, "Even in the cold hard world of politics, you just look at his numbers. The American people have really embraced him and he's got a very favorable standing.

"So I don't care if every once in a while there's one of those cases where you sort of say, 'Geez, I'm not sure I would have said it just that way.' I don't care about that because at the end of the day, I think the upside is so great," Axelrod said in a telephone interview.

Since the party conventions, Biden's favorable ratings have steadily gone up. An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted earlier this month found both Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were viewed favorably by 48 percent of respondents, but his figure was up from 37 percent the previous month, while hers remained about the same as her earlier 47 percent. And her unfavorables were rising, from 28 percent to 39 percent, while his went from 30 percent to 33 percent.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll of voters in the swing state of Ohio this month found nearly four in 10 moderates were less apt to vote for McCain because of the Palin pick, double the proportion drawn to him as a result of her nomination. Biden attracted three times as many moderates to Obama as he pushed away.

Biden completed his 170th interview Friday night in the two months since becoming a vice presidential candidate, according to a tally by his staff. He's been a constant McCain critic and has been on television at critical moments, such as going on all the networks after every presidential debate while Palin was declining to do interviews.

Biden has been the least covered by the national media of any of the four nominees, but he's generating steady local coverage in key markets. The campaign has dispatched him to areas filled with working-class voters and his fellow Catholics, hoping he can make a connection where maybe Obama can't.

"He's going to a lot of places where Barack certainly didn't do as well in the primaries and talking to folks and bringing them over," said 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who is close to both men on the ticket. He said he encouraged Obama to pick Biden because of his experience in legislation, foreign affairs and politics.

Axelrod said Biden is deeply involved in campaign discussions, and often will share what he's seeing on the trail and how issues are playing. Unlike the Republican ticket that campaigns together frequently, Biden and Obama have mostly kept separate schedules. One aide said they send e-mail messages frequently on the BlackBerrys they carry on their hips, and talk on the phone about once a day on average.

Biden has said if the Democratic ticket is elected, he would like to use his 36 years of experience in the Senate to carry out a President Obama's agenda on Capitol Hill.

He's respected by lawmakers in both parties for a breadth of knowledge developed over decades of service that have included leadership of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees.

It's an insider experience that Obama lacks, and a role that has not been Vice President Dick Cheney's focus. Cheney has been a forceful hand helping guide the Bush administration from the confines of the White House, while venturing to Capitol Hill occasionally to cast a tie-breaking vote or meet with lawmakers from his own party.

"The advantage you have here is you've got in Joe Biden somebody who's seen a lot of mistakes made in Washington and who himself has led major committees," Kerry said. "That is an enormous help to any president."

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press, October 25, 2008

McCain hopes to rebuild the coalition of rural conservatives, evangelicals and others who helped deliver the state twice to President Bush.

Reported from St. Charles, Mo. -- Two days after Barack Obama drew 100,000 supporters to a rally in St. Louis, John McCain attracted about 2,500 people to a field in this nearby suburb Monday, a visible symbol of the challenge the Republican nominee faces in this crucial state.

McCain barnstormed Missouri, hammering his opponent on taxes, healthcare and foreign policy in hopes of rebuilding the coalition of rural conservatives, evangelicals and others who helped deliver the state twice to President Bush.

The Arizona senator gave his standard campaign speech here in a key Republican stronghold and later flew to Columbia to have lunch with a dozen or so supporters. He ended with a sparsely attended, late-afternoon rally in Belton, outside Kansas City, one of the Republican-held suburbs where McCain needs a huge turnout.

Carol Wessel, GOP chairman in Lincoln County, insisted McCain would win the state despite losing his lead in polls. She dismissed the low turnout at his morning rally.

"It's Monday," she said. "Most people are working."

Others aren't so sure. Missouri is the ultimate presidential bellwether: It has voted with the winning party all but once in the last century. Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee, had pulled his TV ads and essentially given up at this point four years ago.

This year, Missouri is suffering its worst unemployment in 17 years, and voters harbor a deep suspicion of the $700-billion bailout of financial institutions.

Obama's campaign also appears to be swamping McCain's effort in the state.

The Democrat has opened 40 offices, compared with 16 for McCain and the state GOP. Obama also is spending twice as much on TV ads, officials say.

More importantly, perhaps, a Democratic registration drive has added about 250,000 new voters in St. Louis and Kansas City.

Campaign aides expect McCain to run up a lead in the state's rural southwest, a strongly conservative area.

Both sides are fighting for the densely populated suburbs of St. Louis and Kansas City that will decide the state.

In his rally here, 20 miles northwest of St. Louis, McCain reached out to the conservative GOP base.

McCain blamed the "feminist left" for criticizing Sarah Palin since he announced his choice for a running mate. His surrogates portrayed the race in more apocalyptic terms.

"This election is a referendum on socialism," said Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who introduced McCain. After noting that Americans long ago cast off the chains of slavery, Akin said Obama's tax policies would impose "the golden chains of socialism."

McCain again cited Joe the Plumber, as he calls the Ohio man who confronted Obama over his proposed tax policies. His aides are convinced that Obama's comment that taxes help "spread the wealth" has helped stop McCain's slide in the polls.

"God bless Joe the Plumber," one aide said.

McCain portrays Joe Wurzelbacher as a symbol for all Americans struggling to get by. Among them, to hear McCain tell it, are Phil the Bricklayer, Wendy the Waitress and Rose the Teacher. On Monday, he added Ed the Dairyman.

Jessica Turntine, 24, a registered nurse, said McCain's approach made sense to her.

"I do not want to spread the wealth," she said after the rally. "I want to keep my money."

McCain returned to the theme after lunch with supporters in the Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Q restaurant in Columbia.

"These are Joe the Plumbers, writ large," he said, as the group stepped outside to announce their jobs. "These are the pediatricians, these are the small-business owners . . . the painters . . . and the pharmacists . . . and the cosmetic distributor and land developers. These are the backbone of America's economy."

In a rally that barely filled the corner of a high school football field in Belton, McCain derided comments by Joe Biden, Obama's running mate. Biden said, if elected, Obama would be tested by an international crisis within his first six months and would need supporters to "stand with him" as he made difficult and perhaps unpopular decisions.

McCain portrayed the remarks as a gaffe that proved Obama was too risky to send to the Oval Office.

"We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting two wars," he said.

David Wade, an Obama spokesman, accused McCain of twisting Biden's comments. "Biden referenced the simple fact that history shows presidents face challenges from Day One," he said.




By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2008

Many of those polled are leaning toward Barack Obama largely because of differences in demeanor in dealing with the financial crisis.

Julia Cavenaugh is a Republican from Texas who voted twice for President Bush, so it is no easy stretch for the second-grade teacher to cast her ballot for Barack Obama.

Fed up with Republicans over the economy, she likes Obama's tax and healthcare plans. After the economic crisis erupted last month, she found another reason to reject her party's presidential nominee: temperament.

Watching John McCain debate Obama, she found his body language hostile, and said he seemed upset by his rival's answers on the economy. "Obama is more tactful," she said.

That's part of why Cavenaugh increasingly sees Obama as the answer to her nagging question: "Who's going to represent our country better?"

Swing voters have tilted Obama's way as the economy has overwhelmed all other issues as the top priority for Americans. In interviews with Cavenaugh and a dozen others who participated in a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, demeanor emerged as a dominant theme in their explanations for why they trusted Obama more than McCain to guide the nation out of its financial crisis.

Jay Sicht, a 37-year-old independent voter who sells auto parts in Columbia, Mo., described Obama as "level-headed, calm, cool and collected under pressure" -- qualities that he wants in a president facing the prospect of a global depression.

Sicht has noticed that car owners have been delaying repairs to save money, so business has slowed down a bit. He works on commission, so it will hurt if customers scrimp even more.

He has qualms about Obama. The Illinois senator seems arrogant and abrasive, Sicht said, but his "gut feeling" is still to trust him.

McCain, on the other hand, comes off as a "hothead," Sicht said. During the Republican primaries, Sicht was particularly unnerved by McCain responding to a question about whether it was time to send "an airmail message to Tehran" by referring to the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann" as "Bomb Iran" and singing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb . . . " Sicht found nothing funny about it.

"I don't feel he's very stable mentally," said Sicht, who voted for Bush in 2000 and a minor-party candidate in 2004.

Obama and McCain have tried to stoke negative impressions of each other's personality. McCain has portrayed Obama as an elitist out of touch with mainstream America. He also has tried to raise suspicions about Obama's ties with 1960s radical William Ayers and others, asking, "Who is the real Barack Obama?"

For his part, in recent weeks Obama has taken to calling McCain "erratic," suggesting a steadier hand would be better-suited to leading an economic recovery.

As Sicht's remarks suggest, doubts about McCain's personal disposition could erode the edge he has long held over Obama on foreign affairs as well.

To Vandria Rainer, an independent who lives in San Luis Obispo, it looked like McCain was trying to score "fighting points" against Obama when he suspended his campaign and threatened to skip the first presidential debate until Congress passed a bailout bill.

"There seems to be a bit of fight in McCain that seems unpresidential," said Rainer, 62, a teacher who voted for Bush in 2000 and his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, in 2004.

Willie Standifer of Virginia Beach, Va., put it another way: "You can't just jump in without gathering the facts."

A 50-year-old Democrat and former postal employee who has been out of work for several months, Standifer said McCain seemed like "a decent man," but one who is less in tune with average Americans than Obama.

With the election just two weeks away, the vast majority of voters have made up their minds, but public opinion could shift back in McCain's direction.

Beyond temperament, the interviews with swing voters suggest, McCain's party affiliation also remains a major impediment to gaining support from voters who are normally open to backing a Republican.

"What has happened with the economy has pushed me over the edge to say, 'No, I don't want any more Republicans,' " said Barbara Webber, a retired Illinois pharmacist and political independent who voted for Bush.

Webber, 66, lives in Palos Hills, a Chicago suburb. She fears that recent hits to her 401(k) will soon force her to resume working. She and her siblings have been unable to sell the house they inherited last year from their mother, because "people are buying foreclosures instead," she said.

Gaylord Yost, 75, a retired forester who lives in a Milwaukee suburb, River Hills, is also disgusted with Republicans. He faults McCain for supporting Bush's economic policies, and assails the party for what he calls an "anything-goes" approach to business that has backfired.

"I'm not open to a Republican at all, because of what they've done," said Yost, an independent. "As long as their party starts with an R, that's it."

For others, the nature of McCain's campaign has proved a turnoff.

Russ Houser, 51, a carpenter who lives in Cedaredge, Colo., said McCain used to be his "favorite Republican." But Houser said that McCain had "gone overboard" in focusing on Ayers, and that the distortions in his attack ads raised doubts about his honesty.

What cemented his unfavorable view of McCain, though, was "the showmanship" of his response to the economic crisis -- "running back to Washington and suspending his campaign," said Houser, an independent.

Obama, by contrast, has "kept his cool," Houser said.

By paying attention to mannerisms, posture and vocal inflections, he added, "I think everybody gets an impression on whether they believe someone or not."

And when it comes to Obama, Houser said, "I believe him."




By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2008

Large amounts are funneled into an account he shares with the Democratic National Committee, a loophole candidates use to sidestep caps on direct donations.

Others include actors Harrison Ford and George Clooney, who gave $30,800 each; Rob Reiner, who gave $33,100; and Jennifer Aniston, Larry David, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Renee Zellweger and several other Hollywood figures, who gave $28,500.

Obama's money spigots opened wide in September, when he raised an eye-popping $150 million for his presidential account.

He and the Democratic National Committee also raised $69 million for their joint committee, he reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Donors can write a single large check to the Obama Victory Fund, and have it split among Obama, the DNC and certain state accounts for the Obama campaign's benefit.

A review of these donations shows that more than half, $35.9 million, came from people giving more than $4,600. Almost a fourth, $16.7 million, consisted of donations of $28,500 or more.

Spokesman Ben LaBolt said the large donations would not influence the Illinois senator, noting that he has attracted 3.1 million donors, more than any presidential candidate in history, who contributed an average $86.

LaBolt cited legislation Obama has pushed that was intended to "reduce the influence of money and lobbyists over the political process."

Since the Obama Victory Fund was established in July, Obama has collected $134 million. Nearly $78 million, or 62%, has come from donors giving amounts greater than $4,600.

The Victory Fund, like Obama's presidential campaign, refuses money from Washington lobbyists.

But the fund takes from partners in law firms that have a lobbying presence in the nation's capital, including $30,000 from Covington & Burling, $50,000 from Arnold & Porter, and $55,000 from Blank Rome during August and September.

Victory Fund donors also include firms that have significant interests in Washington, such as Comcast Corp., whose employees gave $59,000 in the last two months; and AT&T Inc., whose employees gave $35,000 during the same period.

In August and September, as the Wall Street crisis was nearing, the Victory Fund tapped employees from numerous banks: $130,000 from Citigroup Inc., $89,000 from Deutsche Bank and $47,000 from Credit Suisse.

The fund also received $30,800 from John M. Noel, head of Travel Guard, part of insurance giant AIG, which received a federal bailout.




By Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2008

Reporters who spend the most time with Obama can see that the candidate's staff members have a certain bounce in their step of late.

Reported from Miami -- One day a few years back, the old newspaperman who sat across from me pressed a phone to his ear and scowled. The reporter on the other end of the line was reaching for an ambitious metaphor to describe a brush fire.

"No, no, no," he barked. "Turn around. Look up the mountain. Tell me what you see. Just tell me what you see."

They saw multitudes. They read the polls. They couldn't miss the realization that Obama's Boeing 757 kept touching down in states like Florida, which the Democrats have not won since Bill Clinton. The boys and girls on the bus think they know where this is heading. They will be surprised if Obama does not win.

But they are cautious too. Some have been with Obama long enough to recall how the senator from Illinois cruised out of the Iowa caucuses, only to run into an iceberg in New Hampshire called Hillary Rodham Clinton. And they know how John McCain came back before after being declared dead.

The Obama press corps writes what it sees, but only sparingly. They know there is so much more that could upend what seems like a glide path for Obama. The ads. The robocalls. The chance of news no one anticipated.

"Fall Out Boy gets crowds this big," Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal said at the Miami rally, referring to the pop punk band. "But I don't think they are going to end up in the White House.

"You can't learn anything about the outcome based on how big the crowd is," Weisman continued. "These are the people who are already convinced."

Still, the reporters who spend the most time with Obama can see that the candidate's staff has a certain bounce in their step of late.

McCain's top aides have hunkered down, clearly embattled. Lately they've been living out their strategy of media vilification -- traveling less with the candidate and giving fewer interviews to reporters.

Obama's plane seems positively sunny in contrast. Top strategist David Axelrod, once a reporter, sat within arm's length of reporters as they filed their stories earlier Tuesday at a round table in Lake Worth, Fla. He answered questions from all comers.

"This campaign is acting like it's about to win," said one reporter who has been on the trail for months, "and the McCain campaign is acting like it isn't."

That may sound tough, but it's a pillow compared with the rocks columnists on the right have been heaving at Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. And Ed Rollins, the veteran GOP strategist and White House aide to President Reagan, minced no words nearly two weeks ago on CNN in declaring that McCain was done.

All the more reason for Obama to play it safe, to avoid giving McCain an opening, particularly when engaging his ardent following. Ever since Republicans derided him as a "celebrity" this summer after a rally in front of 200,000 people in Berlin, Obama and his team have tried to tamp down the adulation and ramp up the substance.

Several hundred Floridians inside a sweltering gym at Palm Beach Community College had to stifle their Obamamania on Tuesday as the candidate and his advisors put them through an earnest round table on economics.

Reporters also had trouble warming to the forum, with the candidate and his helpers feigning a deep dive into our most dire problems.

"Hey, we've only got 40 minutes to patch up the world's economy," one wag in the press center said. "We better get going here."

Cynicism comes easily to those who have spent months on the campaign trail. And often for good reason.

But the old reporter writing that fire story years ago offered an important reminder. Sometimes the story, or part of it, is right in front of you.

Polls this year have showed voters intensely engaged. Many have developed a deep bond with their candidate.

You could see it in the eyes of women who looked on Hillary Clinton as their No. 1 girlfriend and best hope of breaking the ultimate glass ceiling.

You can see it in the straight-backed attention, and the occasional salute, that veterans still offer John McCain, their brother in arms.

And you could see it in Miami, in row after row of white, black and brown faces, craning to catch a glimpse of their candidate. An hour after Obama left the stage, knots of his fans still gathered under the klieg lights, chanting "Obama, Obama!"

It's not enough, alone, to win an election. But it's certainly news.





By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2008

Between gigantic rallies, he hosts an unusually serious economic round table with several Democratic governors, a former head of the Federal Reserve and Google's CEO.

Reported from Miami -- Clearly, Barack Obama can draw a crowd.

About 50,000 people in Orlando, Fla.; 75,000 in Kansas City, Mo.; 100,000 in St. Louis. And on Tuesday, more than 30,000 on the Miami waterfront, where Obama used a sunset rally to target the truthfulness of Republican rival John McCain.

"Apparently, Sen. McCain's decided that if he can't beat our ideas, then he's just going to make up some ideas and run against those," Obama shouted into the balmy night air. "Well, what we need now is not straw men; we don't need misleading charges. What we need is honest leadership and real change."

But the rock-star scene has grown so familiar that it's no longer surprising -- or terribly newsworthy -- when the Democratic nominee attracts a super-sized audience. So Obama dulled things down on the second day of a Florida swing, presiding over an economic round table so academic it could have been professor Obama teaching one of his constitutional law classes.

The afternoon event in Lake Worth was grand in ambition: a round table with several Democratic governors, a former head of the Federal Reserve, the chief executive of Google. It was stately in execution, down to the 12 furled flags standing, sentry-like, against a blue-curtained backdrop.

It was also the rare Obama appearance that left his audience of 1,800 slumping into -- not leaping out of -- their seats. "It's not what I was expecting," said Victoria Pierre-Louis, 32, a Haitian immigrant and campaign volunteer, who sped up her citizenship application so she could vote Nov. 4. "I'm already a supporter, so I kind of know everything he's doing. I was just waiting for a chance to scream and holler."

But if the dozy headline from the seminar was "Obama meets economic leaders," as opposed to "Obama draws another humongous mob," that suited his strategy just fine.

Florida is suffering. As Obama pointed out, the state has lost more jobs in recent months than economically strapped Michigan and Ohio.

"We packed the schedule with rallies; we're telling people to vote early," said Jennifer Psaki, an Obama spokeswoman. "We also want people . . . to know what the [economic] solutions are and what the steps are going to be if Sen. Obama becomes president."

So after the crowd exhausted chants of "Yes, we can!" and "We will rock you!" Obama begged their forbearance for "a more serious discussion" with "some of the smartest people you ever care to meet." He outlined his economic recovery proposal, including a tax cut for working families, a tax credit for companies creating domestic jobs and a public-works plan to put people back to work.

Google's Eric Schmidt chimed in with talk of futuristic technologies. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland discussed his state's "electricity restructuring bill," aimed at promoting alternative energy. Paul Volcker, the former Fed chair, mumbled through a sometimes indiscernible discussion of market volatility and the recent upheaval on Wall Street.

Some welcomed the conversation. "I thought it was going to be a pep rally, and I see intelligent people having a discussion about lots of things. How could it be a bad thing?" asked Fred Sklar, 56, a water management scientist from West Palm Beach.

After 90-odd minutes, Strickland finally roused the audience with a political rejoinder, a poke at Joe the Plumber, the Ohioan who has become an economic totem for McCain and fellow Republicans.

Strickland said he had just visited Joe Wurzelbacher's neighborhood, where he met "Sean the Ironworker," who asked him to pass on a message to Obama: "Tell him Sean the Ironworker is building a bridge for him to the White House."

That got them cheering.




By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2008

The nation faces massive shortfalls over the next several years no matter who is elected president, experts say. A bipartisan watchdog group says both candidates' plans would add to the national debt.

Reporting from Washington -- Despite harsh scrutiny from economic analysts, Barack Obama and John McCain remain reluctant to admit what is becoming obvious -- that the nation's economic crisis will take a heavy toll on their ambitious tax and spending plans.

On his website, Obama says the nation's debt is a "hidden domestic enemy" that he pledges to combat. But in recent days, the Illinois senator and his economic advisors have begun to gingerly inch toward an acknowledgment that the rising costs of the Wall Street rescue plan and his promises of middle-class tax relief and other initiatives are likely to lead to a spike in deficit spending over the next several years.

During the final presidential debate, Obama repeated his analogy of using a "scalpel" to offset his spending initiatives with budget cuts. But the Democrat warned of the limited choices facing the next occupant of the White House.

Obama's chief economic advisor, Jason Furman, was more explicit during a conference call this week. "The top priority would be to avoid a deep recession," he said -- suggesting a strategy that could require costly efforts to jump-start the economy.

McCain has not budged from his insistence that he can balance the budget within four years. The Republican Arizona senator has said his plans for new corporate tax cuts would be offset by an across-the-board spending freeze.

But a growing number of economists, including some free-market-oriented experts, say the nation faces massive deficits over the next several years no matter who is elected president.

"Both candidates have a deficit problem that neither of them wants to admit," said J.D. Foster, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington. "They're relying on an awful lot of hand-waving to get budget-neutral, but I think it's pretty clear that either of them will be constrained at least over the next two years by pressure to fix the economy."

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated recently that the $700-billion economic rescue plan aimed at salvaging the troubled U.S. banking system would push the nation's deficit to more than $1 trillion in the coming fiscal year.

That would be a huge increase from the $482 billion that the White House projected this summer, which itself would be a record.

Facing such a steep wall of debt at the same time the economy is teetering would hamstring any immediate efforts to balance the budget, leading economists predict.

"It's highly likely we're already in a recession," said Alan J. Auerbach, director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at UC Berkeley.

"That suggests policies aimed at short-term help for the economy will have much greater importance than concern about the deficit."

Free-market advocate Alan D. Viard, a former senior Federal Reserve Bank economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed that "in either case you will have demands on government resources that will crowd out the amount of money available -- whether it's for reducing tax rates, as McCain wants, or adding programs, as Obama wants."

And even long-term prospects appear bleak that either McCain or Obama could easily regain control over the deficit -- assuming they hold fast to the tax and spending proposals they continue to defend on the campaign trail.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts a deficit of $147 billion in 2013.

That estimate does not account for the massive bank rescue package and the earlier bailouts of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. and insurance firm American International Group Inc. -- deals that could provide a healthy return to U.S. taxpayers or could worsen the nation's long-term debt.

In a recent study, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget laid out how much the presidential candidates' spending and tax-cut proposals would add to the federal deficit in 2013.

McCain's proposals for major new corporate tax cuts and other expenditures would add $211 billion to the $147-billion projected deficit, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the watchdog group.

Obama would raise the CBO's projected deficit by even more -- by $286 billion -- if the government adopted his program of middle-class tax cuts, a healthcare insurance program, and boosted energy and infrastructure funding, MacGuineas said.

Those estimates do not include the newly tweaked efforts by both candidates to provide an economic stimulus package.

Obama recently pressed a $60-billion plan of middle-class tax cuts and public works jobs, while McCain countered with a $52.5-billion proposal that included deeper capital gains tax cuts and loosened rules for withdrawing money from retirement accounts.

In the face of those projections, determination to rein in deficit spending will not be enough, said Rudolph G. Penner, who was director of the CBO in the mid-1980s.

"The promises of both candidates are in serious trouble," said Penner, who is with the centrist Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research center on social and economic policy.

"Both of them are already underwater about the deficits they would face even without the bailout," he said. "And with the bailout, it's clear they will have to adjust their promises. But we're not hearing anything close to that from either of them."




By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times, October 23, 2008

He appears with silver-haired advisors to assert his preparedness for any foreign crisis that might erupt if he becomes president -- a possibility raised last weekend by running mate Joe Biden.

Reporting from Richmond, Va., and Cincinnati -- Barack Obama, thrown on the defensive by his own running mate, staged a high- profile appearance with a team of silver-haired advisors Wednesday to assert his readiness for any foreign crisis that might erupt if he becomes president.

"Yes, we are going to face a number of threats and tests and challenges," the Democratic nominee told reporters. Obama blamed that prospect on "a bad set of policies" pursued by President Bush, which he said have produced "unresolved wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan and a slumping world economy.

"That's why it's going to be important for us, I think, to move with resolve in a new direction," Obama said after a closed-door session with his national security brain trust at a hotel in downtown Richmond, Va.

The question of judgment and experience -- especially on national defense and foreign policy matters -- has hung over Obama throughout the campaign, starting in the primaries. Lately, however, there have been signs that voters have grown increasingly comfortable with the idea of the Illinois senator sitting in the Oval Office.

In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published Wednesday, 48% of those surveyed said they would have "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of confidence in Obama as commander in chief. That figure was up from 39% in August and, significantly, was just two points below that of Republican rival John McCain.

But Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, gave Republicans an opening to resurrect the stature issue with comments he made over the weekend. Biden, who brings years of foreign policy experience to the Democratic ticket, said it was a certainty that the 47-year-old Obama, if elected, would be tested by a "generated crisis" early in his term. (Obama was greeted by an editorial cartoon in the morning paper that depicted Biden as a loose cannon shooting off his mouth.)

McCain returned to the attack at a Wednesday rally in Green, Ohio, a suburb of Akron. "We don't want a president who invites testing by the world," the Arizona senator said. "Americans are already fighting in two wars, my friends."

McCain noted that Biden had mentioned President Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. McCain told the crowd he "had a little personal experience with that" as a Navy pilot aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise, dispatched to the Caribbean. "I was ready to go into combat at any minute," McCain recalled. "I know how close we came to nuclear war. And I will not be a president that needs to be tested."

Obama, holding his first extended question-and-answer session with reporters in almost a month, brushed aside Biden's comment with the sort of indulgence a parent might show a precocious child. "Look, as I said before . . . I think that Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes," Obama said. "I think that his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested, regardless of who it is."

As Obama spoke, 15 of his defense and foreign policy advisors stood arrayed behind him, like members of a cabinet in exile. Many were pillars of Washington's military and foreign policy establishment, including former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross, a Middle East advisor to three presidents. On the lectern was a placard reading: "Judgment to Lead."

Obama repeated the central planks of his foreign policy, starting with "a responsible end to the war in Iraq." He called for rebuilding foreign alliances weakened over the last few years, more troops to fight the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and a coordinated global effort to address the world economic crisis.

Obama denied, in response to a question, that the meeting was an attempt to tidy up after his running mate. Biden, who was campaigning in Colorado, participated in the closed-door meeting by telephone.

"It'd be pretty hard to gather this group in two days," said Obama, who described the session as a long-planned chance "to check in" after several weeks focused on the economic crisis.

In Cincinnati on Wednesday, McCain -- with running mate Sarah Palin by his side -- drew the largest and most enthusiastic crowd he had seen in many days, as several thousand chanting, cheering supporters crammed into a hangar at the airport.

Both McCain and Palin again hailed Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, the now-storied Ohio tradesman who challenged Obama last week over his tax policy. But Wurzelbacher has yet to show up at any of McCain's rallies in the state, as aides had hoped.

Both steered clear of personal attacks on Obama, wary of recent polls showing that voters blame them more than the Democratic nominee for the harsh nature of the campaign. Instead, they hammered on Obama's "spread the wealth around" statement regarding his tax plan.

"It is not mean-spirited; it is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their tax plans," Palin said.

Obama dismissed suggestions by McCain and Palin that his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and cut them for the less well-off amounted to socialism.

When presidential candidate George W. Bush eight years ago proposed lowering taxes on the highest income earners, Obama noted, it was his Republican rival from Arizona -- McCain -- who objected. "Was he a socialist back in 2000 when he opposed the Bush tax cuts?" Obama asked.




By Mark Z. Barabak and Bob Drogin, Los Angeles, Times, October 23, 2008

The Republican's home-stretch campaign strategy is focusing on the idea of Obama as a socialist. Meanwhile, some Democrats feel Obama leans too much to the center.

Reporting from Washington -- Heading into the home stretch of the presidential campaign, John McCain has been sharpening his closing argument against his Democratic opponent, saying that Barack Obama's tax policies would produce a redistribution of wealth that borders on socialism.

That message has pervaded recent campaign events, including what McCain called a "Joe the Plumber" tour of Florida on Thursday, as the Arizona Republican has tried to portray Obama as an extreme liberal who would soak job-creating businesses and wealthier Americans in order to dole out money to those too poor to pay taxes.

But the liberal label obscures subtleties in Obama's record and campaign message: He has tacked to the center on issues such as the death penalty and government wiretapping. He has a mixed record on trade policy. His campaign fliers promise, "Barack Obama won't take away your guns."

Indeed, some liberal Democrats have been impatient with his forays to the center. "There are plenty of people on the left who are disappointed with what they see as a timidity in his policy prescriptions," said Jim Jordan, a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Kerry's.

One area where Obama's policies have been straightforwardly liberal is taxation.

For individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $250,000, Obama would raise the top tax rates on income and capital gains by allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

He also has suggested raising the Social Security payroll tax on those upper-income people.

But for less affluent workers, Obama offers a variety of tax cuts. Some proposals -- including a $1,000 credit for everyone who is employed -- would benefit people who earn too little to owe income taxes. Under such a "refundable" tax break, people who have no tax liability to reduce would receive a cash rebate.

About 40% of workers do not make enough to pay income taxes. Obama argues that they deserve relief because they pay other levies, such as payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare.

McCain says the cash payments to these earners would be tantamount to welfare. A recent campaign Internet ad charges: "Obama raises taxes on seniors, on hard-working families, to give 'welfare' to those who pay none."

"Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of a pie than he is in growing the pie," McCain said in Orlando on Thursday.

It was one stop in a bus tour across central Florida that McCain's campaign named for Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, or "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio man who complained to Obama in person about his tax policies. Wurzelbacher has yet to appear at McCain's side, but McCain has cited him every day recently as a symbol of Americans who would suffer under Obama's plan.

Obama had told Wurzelbacher during their campaign trail conversation: "It's not that I want to punish your success. . . . I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." McCain has suggested since then that "spreading the wealth" is tantamount to socialism.

"Now is no time to experiment with socialism," McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, has cautioned.

McCain himself supports using tax credits as a form of financial aid, even for those who don't pay taxes. That is a key element of his healthcare initiative, which gives a credit worth $5,000 to help families buy insurance.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said he favored the concept in that context because taxpayers can use the credit only for health insurance. "You can't spend it on a flat-screen TV," he said.

In any case, using tax credits as financial aid is a far cry from socialism, which typically involves government ownership of major industries. Obama's plan is in keeping with the concept of a progressive tax system, taxing wealthier people at higher rates than the less affluent.

"Obama is not a flaming liberal, but he will do what every liberal does: keep the needs of ordinary working Americans foremost on his agenda," said Amy Isaacs, national director of Americans for Democratic Action.

McCain's arguments about Obama's liberalism draw big cheers at his rallies, but some Republicans wonder if they will be effective with swing voters who would benefit from his tax policies.

"If you lose all the people who don't pay taxes, you'll have a hard time getting past the lead Obama has," said Eddie Mahe, a former Republican Party official.




By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2008

Roughly 51% of Vietnamese voters, many of whom were tortured in North Vietnamese prisons like McCain, say they identify with the Arizona senator and believe he'll support their causes.

Nhon Ky Phan sees John McCain as a brother, a man who -- much like him -- suffered through harrowing days as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.

"What happened to me was what happened to him," he said in Vietnamese. "John McCain is my comrade."

McCain came to Little Saigon during the Republican presidential primary for a fundraiser held by Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), whom some consider to be the dean of Vietnamese American politicians. The candidate has not returned, but in August, the campaign opened a satellite office in the Little Saigon Outreach Center -- the first presidential campaign office located in Little Saigon. There, an intern makes calls, hands out yard signs and answers questions from the visitors, most of them Vietnamese, who trickle in.

The area still echoes with memories of the war. In Westminster, there's a statue honoring American and South Vietnamese soldiers. The flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam is on display in shops. And there are regular street protests condemning people or businesses perceived to be communist sympathizers.

Phan, 73, is a former major in the South Vietnamese military who spent eight years in prison after being captured by the North Vietnamese. He's a part-time host on a Vietnamese talk radio show and devotes a big chunk of his air time to preaching the gospel of John McCain. "He is a hero," Phan said.

More than policies and party loyalties, Phan said he is drawn to McCain's personal history. As a Navy fighter pilot, McCain was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese in 1967 and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, enduring torture. Phan is reminded of the years when he suffered at the hands of the North Vietnamese, who tied his legs together and gave him barely enough rice to survive.

On his show, Phan talks passionately of McCain's allegiance when he refused an offer by the North Vietnamese to be released from prison early. "This shows that when he is president, he will sacrifice for the country more than others, that he truly has the spirit of patriotism," Phan said in an interview.

Most of McCain's support in Little Saigon occurs outside of the modest campaign office -- in grass-roots efforts run by Vietnamese Americans on radio talk shows and in discussions at local restaurants and coffee shops. Members of the Vietnamese community are organizing a rally for McCain on Saturday in front of Westminster City Hall.

That event comes on the heels of a rally last weekend in Little Saigon that drew about 120 Vietnamese American supporters of Barack Obama. Organizers said that rally aimed to show that support for McCain is not ubiquitous in their community.

Cuong Sinh Cao, 62, a captain during the Vietnam War, said that their efforts "can't make a difference in this election, but we want to send a message to politicians that we are involved and we are active." Cao, who also sounds his support for McCain on a radio show, has rounded up about 30 Vietnamese volunteers to go to Nevada next week for a get-out-the-vote effort.

In a recent national poll, more than half of Vietnamese Americans surveyed said they support McCain, diverging from other Asian American groups that mostly supported Barack Obama. Roughly 51% of Vietnamese Americans nationwide support McCain, compared to 24% who support Obama, according to the study conducted by professors at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside and USC.

Many older Vietnamese who came to the U.S. as refugees are more concerned with foreign policy than domestic policy, said Jeffrey Brody, a Cal State Fullerton professor who has studied Vietnamese American issues.

"John McCain's record and personal experiences as a prisoner in Vietnam has earned him a lot of credence with those Vietnamese who fled Vietnam or participated in the war," he said, adding that second-generation Vietnamese may not hold the same emotional ties.

Organizers at last Saturday's Obama rally were critical of McCain's support for normalized U.S. relations and trade pacts with the communist Vietnamese government, at a time when human rights abuses still occur there.

"There is misconception in our community that McCain, just because he is a veteran, will support our cause," said Phu Nguyen, 31, a local businessman and community activist. "McCain has a history of being very friendly to the government in Vietnam, which goes against the struggle of the activist movement."




By My-Thuan Tran, Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2008

Sorry, YouTube. The old-school medium has been showcase central for plenty of pivotal moments, not to mention Obama's savvy.

Colin Powell may have provided the swing-vote endorsement, but if Sen. Barack Obama should find himself delivering a victory speech on Nov. 4, he might want to include a shout-out to Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin, two of the men most commonly considered the founding fathers of television.

Not since the Kennedy-Nixon race has television played such a significant role in a presidential election. The "Saturday Night Live" skewerings, the David Letterman-John McCain feud, the politcal meltdown on "The View," the Gov. Sarah Palin interviews, the Joe the Plumber interviews, Obama's World Series lead-in (if there's a Game 6) and, of course, the debates. Even ancillary players experienced what television, augmented by 24-hour news stations and the eternal playback feature of the Internet, has become: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) found herself pleading for folks to stop sending money to her opponent after she accused Obama of being anti-American on MSNBC's "Hardball."

Of course, policy has a lot to do with it. In a time of economic crisis, McCain's fondness for deregulation and his ties to the Bush administration aren't doing him any favors. But if the main purpose of the televised debate is to allow viewers to decide who looks more presidential, there was no contest -- because Obama wins the television race in every category, every time.

He is, after all, a product of television. Few had even heard of him when he took the stage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. But by the end of his speech, he was all anyone was talking about. And not because he delivered some political oxygen to the muggy atmosphere of the convention crowd but because he reached through the cameras to what was by then an almost stupefied television audience (it was not a very energetic convention, if you will recall) and woke them up.

Unlike McCain, who is pale, stocky and stiff in his movements (in part due to his war injuries), Obama is physically suited for television. He is tall and slim, which means he looks good in a suit. He is one of the few heterosexual American men who can appear comfortable while sitting on a stool. He has the wide, bright smile we demand of our movie stars, and if his head isn't disproportionate enough to his body to guarantee him a role in the next "Ocean's Eleven" sequel, well, the ears help.

If you think this is all silly and unimportant, then you haven't been paying much attention to American culture. The Obama campaign knows its strengths enough to make the extraordinary purchase of the half-hour leading up to a World Series game. You do not do that unless you know your man owns the medium.

McCain's advisors, well, if one of them had been able to explain to him the difference between passion and pique, if one of them had been able to signal to him during that third debate to stop with the snorting and the blinking already, those poll results would probably have been a lot closer.

But the McCain campaign hasn't been very smart about television in general. In fact, you have to wonder if any staffers actually watch it at all. As Bachmann and vice presidential candidate Palin have lately discovered, the term "anti-American" doesn't play so well on TV -- the McCarthy hearings were televised too. Palin, like Obama, looks darn good on camera, and her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last month made everyone stand up and take notice. But since then the closest she has come to owning the medium was when she good-naturedly chair-danced along to a rap song satirizing her candidacy on "Saturday Night Live." Certainly her few televised interviews have been less than successful.

And you do have to wonder: Was there no YouTube-savvy advisor who, upon seeing the governor in the flesh, thought to point out her startling resemblance to that gifted and very high-profile Tina Fey? Surely the party of Swiftboaters and Willie Horton could have figured out a way to head that one off at the pass. But they seem to have been too busy shoving a big old bushel over their own light. As political reporters of every stripe have been lamenting ad nauseam, the old John McCain -- the guy who swore a bit and smiled a lot, who announced his candidacy on "Late Show With David Letterman" and hosted "Saturday Night Live," who with a grin admitted to a then-admiring Jon Stewart that by cozying up with the Rev. Jerry Falwell he was indeed going over to "the crazy base" -- is gone. And in his place is an increasingly miserable-seeming, obviously angry man who no one, apparently, is even trying to loosen up.

Except Letterman. In the last few weeks, the host rained a relentless barrage of criticism down on McCain for not only backing out of his show at the last minute with the excuse that he was suspending his campaign to fly to Washington, but also for lying about it. (McCain actually stayed in New York that night where he, among other things, gave an interview to Katie Couric.)

Admirably, McCain went back on Letterman's show (even taking a helicopter to ensure he wouldn't be late). He graciously made his apologies, hung on to his good humor as Letterman hammered him about Palin and the campaign, and if he didn't offer much but standard-issue campaign-speak in response, he didn't get up and stomp off either.

But then Letterman knows how to deliver great TV. Maybe next time around he should host the debates.




By MARY McNAMARA, Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2008

An exclusive interview: 'If people only knew how frugal we are'

PITTSBURGH -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin insisted in an interview with the Tribune on Thursday that she did not accept $150,000 worth of designer clothes from the Republican Party and "that is not who we are."

"That whole thing is just, bad!" she said. "Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.

Palin on Thursday granted one of her first newspaper interviews since becoming McCain's vice presidential nominee. She was joined by her husband, Todd, who cradled Trig, noticeably plumper since he was first introduced to the world two months ago.

Palin called the disabilities issues "a joyful challenge." Todd Palin showed off photos of people with Down syndrome who have come to campaign events, and the candidate said one advocacy group sent her a bumper sticker that said "My kid has more chromosomes than your kid."

"These children are not a problem, they are a priority," Palin said.

"We're on this journey with other families," she said. "We'll learn a lot from those other families, as they can count on us in the White House doing all that we can for them also. It's going to be a nice team effort here."

Still, much of the media attention Palin has received--on the issue of the clothes, for example--has decidedly not been about public policy issues. She points to that as evidence of a bias against women candidates.

"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race," Palin said. "Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double standard."

Palin said she would rather talk about the Republican campaign's mission to reform government, get the economy back on track and bring opportunities to families, especially those with special needs.

"I'm not going to complain about it, I'm not going to whine about it, I'm going to plow through that, because we are embarking on something greater than that, than allowing that double standard to adversely affect us," she said.

But polls suggest that McCain is in trouble, partly because of Palin, who has been criticized as lacking the experience to become president. This week's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll suggested more people now think that Palin is hurting McCain's chances of becoming president than President George W. Bush, whose national approval ratings are in the 20s.

Palin disputed such conclusions.

"I think that those reporters asking those questions should come to some of our rallies and ask some of those in the crowd why it is they are enthused," she said, adding that the crowds see her as representing "hardworking, everyday American families."

In her speech Friday, Palin will lay out the campaign's plans to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, boost funding for special-needs children from birth to age 3 and allow parents to choose whether federal money for their child is used in a public, private, religious or secular school without navigating a cumbersome administrative process.

The federal government originally committed in 1975 to paying 40 percent of the cost of educating children with special needs, with the states paying the rest. But that has never happened; full funding would require approximately $26 billion a year, and the federal government currently shells out $10.9 billion.

The McCain campaign plans to phase in that money with an extra $3 billion a year over five years. McCain has called for a domestic discretionary spending freeze, but programs for disabled people would be exempt.

"It's not all about the money, it's not all about budgets," Palin said, adding vaguely that the money could come from "re-prioritizing" the budget. "It's about that spirit of acceptance and embracing that diversity that is in the world with children who are special, a little bit different from the norm."

Palin's eyes well up as she talks about her sister's son, Karcher, who has autism.

"My sister and I have talked a lot about this. It makes me cry thinking about it," Palin said. "She asked with tears in her eyes, she says, 'What happens when Kurt and I, though, are elderly, then what happens to Karcher?' "

Palin calls that the story of millions of Americans. Her hope is to strengthen the National Institutes of Health "to make sure we're researching everything about autism and make sure we find out what causes it."




By Jill Zuckman, Chicago Tribune, October 23, 2008

He says that if Obama is elected to the White House, Democrats would have 'total control.'

Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo. -- John McCain kicked off a campaign swing in two Western states Friday with a new warning that electing Barack Obama could create unchecked Democratic control in Washington.

Republican incumbents and challengers are facing stiff battles in numerous congressional races, including in Colorado. Democrats expect to pick up seats in both the House and Senate and may reach a veto-proof majority of 60 in the Senate.

McCain's latest appeal resonated with at least one swing voter in the crowd.

Richard McMeekin, who voted for Bill Clinton twice in the 1990s, said he probably would vote for McCain because he worried about one party dominating Capitol Hill and the White House.

"Congress is out of control," said McMeekin, a 60-year-old accountant from Parker, a Denver suburb. "They need to be reined in. I'm not sure McCain can do that. But I'm sure Obama can't."

Sen. Obama of Illinois took a 36-hour break from the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother, who helped raise him, in Hawaii. McCain didn't ease his attacks on his opponent, however.

"Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling wealth than in creating it, in redistributing money instead of spreading opportunity," McCain said. "I am going to create wealth for all Americans, by creating opportunity for all Americans."

McCain again slammed Obama's plan to raise marginal income tax rates on the 5% of families who earn more than $250,000. The plan would reinstate the rates used during President Clinton's administration, but McCain called it a "massive new tax increase."

"Sen. Obama may say he's trying to soak the rich, but it's the middle class who are going to get put through the wringer, because a lot of his promised tax increase misses the target," McCain charged.

Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor responded: "Sen. McCain can continue to make these desperate and dishonest attacks, but the fact is that Sen. Obama will cut taxes for 95% of working Americans while John McCain gives no relief at all to more than 100 million Americans."

Half a dozen protesters interrupted McCain several times with chants about rights for the disabled. Each time, the crowd drowned them out with louder chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"

When police led the group away, including two people in wheelchairs, the arena erupted in angry boos and catcalls. McCain held out his hands to try to calm the crowd.

Later in the day, McCain toured a factory in Colorado Springs, Colo. Afterward he told reporters that small-business owners need "lower taxes and less regulation."

During most of his 26 years in Congress, McCain has embraced Republican efforts to ease regulations on businesses and financial institutions. In recent weeks, after the subprime lending bubble helped create a crisis in credit markets, he has argued that he sought to impose tighter regulations on mortgage lenders and Wall Street.

His call for "less regulation" Friday suggests he has shifted back again. McCain took no questions after his brief statement.

Colorado Springs was the second of three campaign stops in Colorado on Friday, including an evening outdoor rally in Durango. His running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is scheduled to appear in the state next Friday.

Colorado voters narrowly backed President Bush in 2000 and 2004, but McCain has struggled to overcome a torrent of bad news from the state's oil and gas industry, high-tech concerns and farming.

As in other battleground states, Obama is outspending McCain by a substantial margin in local TV advertising. He also has a large advantage in organization, with 51 field offices in Colorado, compared with a dozen for McCain.

"It's tough," said Ryan Wood, 30, an attorney from Littleton who was there to hear McCain. "We've got a Democratic governor, a Democratic majority in the state House and state Senate. And the Democratic National Convention was here. Plus we're outspent."

An average of the most recent polls shows McCain trailing Obama by 5 points in the state. He will campaign Saturday morning in New Mexico, another battleground state where Obama appears to hold a sizable lead.

Also on Friday, Obama picked up another endorsement from a Republican: Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld called him "a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America's standing in the world."

Weld, who was governor from 1991 to 1997 and before that was tapped by President Reagan to be U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, praised Obama's "steady leadership" during the lengthy presidential campaign.

The announcement comes a day after Obama was endorsed by the Republican former governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson, and Scott McClellan, Bush's former press secretary. On Sunday, retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, former secretary of State in the Bush administration, endorsed the Democrat.




By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2008

Voters who weigh in before election day usually lean Republican. This time, Democrats dominate in several key states, and some GOP areas see more black voters than usual.

Reporting from Washington -- Record numbers of voters across the nation are casting ballots before election day, including high proportions of Democrats and African Americans in some of the battleground states in what appears to be a promising sign for Barack Obama.

In the 32 states that allow people to vote before Nov. 4 without a special excuse, election officials report heavy turnout as the presidential campaign reaches its frenzied last days. That's not surprising in a campaign that has received round-the-clock attention. But it also reflects the intensive efforts of campaigns competing to bank votes before election day.

In North Carolina, which hasn't gone for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976, almost a million people have voted, and Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2 to 1.

"We're going to bust every record we've ever had," Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said of the state's early-voting participation.

A surprise is the makeup of the early voters, election experts said. In past campaign seasons, Republicans have used early voting to their advantage, mobilizing a slice of the electorate that typically skews their way.

Yet a look at voters in a handful of crucial states suggests that Obama is turning out his base in numbers that surpass those of Republican John McCain.

"Historically, we've seen that early voters are older, they tend to be white, have higher incomes and are better educated," said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

"And that group of people tends to trend Republican. Now we have a mirror image in this campaign."

Lloyd and Sandra Clemons, a retired couple who voted early Friday near Pittsboro in Chatham County, N.C., said they chose Obama, whom they described as an inspirational figure.

Sandra Clemons, a former municipal worker, said she was initially a Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter because she figured Obama's candidacy would fade.

"I was afraid he wouldn't make it and I'd be disappointed. Now I think it's a major historic event -- just unbelievable, and very exciting," she said.

Early voting continues in many states, so the numbers can change. But Obama seems well-positioned in several Republican-leaning states that have the potential to broaden his path to the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

In North Carolina, early voting shows Obama's party in the lead. Of the 930,516 people who have voted early, 56% are Democrats and 27% Republican. Blacks account for 21% of North Carolina's registered voters but make up 28% of those who've voted early.

In Georgia, which hasn't chosen a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992, African Americans are voting in disproportionately high numbers. Of the 967,210 people who've voted early, 35% are black, state data show. By contrast, blacks constituted only about 25% of the total that voted for president in 2004.

Iowa voted for President Bush in 2004, but the Obama campaign hopes to win the state. Early voting figures bode well for that. About 51% of the 277,909 Iowans who've voted early are Democrats, compared with 28% Republicans .

Stewart Iverson, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, said he wasn't unnerved by the trend. He views the state as a tossup, and says McCain has a "decent shot at winning."

"We've been through this in several election cycles," he said. "On election day, what we've found is normally a greater percentage of registered Republicans vote than Democrats."

Florida, a huge prize with 27 electoral votes, offers a mixed picture. More than 1.5 million Floridians have already cast ballots. Democrats hold a tiny advantage: 42.7% to 42.6%. Republicans now hold a 16-point edge in absentee balloting, whereas Democrats have a 23-point lead among people showing up at the voting booths.

A Florida GOP official voiced worry that the gap would grow.

"We know Florida is a battleground state, and we'll just have to work that much harder to deliver these 27 electoral votes to John McCain -- and that will take every ounce of the grass-roots machine we've built up," said the official, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely.

Early voting is becoming more commonplace as states eager to relieve election day congestion offer new options to cast ballots in advance. Experts estimate that upward of 30% of all votes may be cast early this year. In comparison, 14% of the electorate voted early in the 2000 election.

A Gallup poll released Friday found that, of the people who've voted early nationwide, roughly half have supported McCain, the other half Obama.

Republicans may have been hoping for more of an edge.

In Bush's two successful campaigns for president, he won the early vote both times, according to experts on preelection-day voting. It's not clear the pattern will hold.

Examining the "demographic profile of early voters in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, we're seeing a larger percentage of Democrats than one might expect," said George Mason University's Michael McDonald, who specializes in voter turnout. "We're seeing a larger share of African Americans than we would expect. These points taken as a whole do tell us indeed that the people who've voted so far are more likely to be Obama supporters than McCain supporters."

In New Mexico -- another state that voted for Bush in 2004 -- Democrats account for 69% of the 55,743 people who've voted early; Republicans, 31%. Those figures do not include absentee ballots, which state officials said were not available.

Nevada's two largest counties, Clark and Washoe, favor the Democrats in early voting. Nearly 172,000 people have voted, and the turnout has been 56% Democratic and 28% Republican.

In a conference call Friday, Obama campaign aides said they were encouraged.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said: "We like what we're seeing in terms of the early vote." He added: "We might head into the election with some margin already in the bank, which is unusual for a Democrat."

Still, Republicans said they were confident. Election day turnout is how elections are decided, they said.

"We're not surprised by the strong showing by Democrats. We expected them to do well," said Brent Woodcox, spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party.

"The Obama campaign is spending a vast amount of resources to turn out every vote they can."

The race, he added, "will be won or lost on election day, and we'll rack up a large total on Nov. 4."




By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2008

RENO, Nev. - Democratic candidate Barack Obama began his closing argument for the presidency Saturday by asking voters to look to the future while Republican rival John McCain continued to attack Obama on taxes.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, unveiled a two-minute TV ad that asks, "Will our country be better off four years from now?"

"At this defining moment in our history, the question is not, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'" Obama says in the ad. "We all know the answer to that." Without mentioning McCain, the ad promotes Obama's economic policies while saying that Obama will work to end "mindless partisanship" and "divisiveness."

The length of the ad, which will start airing in key states Sunday, highlights Obama's fundraising superiority — most campaign commercials run 30 seconds or a minute.

McCain, a senator from Arizona, used his weekly radio address Saturday to attack Obama on taxes while again talking about Joe the Plumber, an Ohioan named Joe Wurzelbacher who has become the central thematic element in McCain's speeches.

"As he told Joe the Plumber back in Ohio, he wants to quote 'spread the wealth around,' " McCain said of Obama.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, released a TV ad Saturday questioning whether Obama has the experience to be president. The ad, featuring the image of a stormy ocean, says the nation is in "uncertain times" that could get worse and asks whether voters want a president "who's untested at the helm."

Both campaigns focused on western states Saturday. Once reliable Republican territory, much of the West has seen its politics and demographics shift over the last decade. Three states considered still in play to varying degrees - Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico - could be vital if the electoral math gets tight.

Obama was resuming his campaign in Nevada on Saturday with rallies in Reno and Las Vegas before holding one at night in Albuquerque, N.M. The Democrat put aside political events on Thursday night and Friday to spend time with his grandmother in Hawaii, whom he described as gravely ill.

McCain, pivoting from his three stops in Colorado on Friday, will also be pushing hard in New Mexico on Saturday. He is holding rallies in Albuquerque and in Mesilla, farther south.

As the collapsing economy consumes voter attention, McCain has seized a line of attack that Obama is poised to deepen the problem by raising taxes. He said in Denver that Obama won't target the rich but rather the middle class by putting it "through the wringer."

Obama counters that he would lower taxes for most wage-earners and that McCain's tax plan favors wealthy corporations. He has tagged McCain as being out of time and ideas.

Polls show the path to the winning tally of 270 electoral votes is tricky for McCain, a Republican weighed down by the economic crisis and an unpopular incumbent president.

Obama, wary of overconfidence among his backers, is charting multiple winning paths.

That's where 19 electoral votes out West factor into the equation.

Nevada, with five votes, is posing the toughest challenge for Obama; the race is a tossup. Colorado is competitive, though Obama has a slight edge in polls in the state that offers nine votes. Obama is more deeply favored to win New Mexico's five votes.

President Bush carried all three states in 2004. Obama, the front-runner nationally with 11 days until the election, is focusing his time on plucking away states Bush won four years ago.

Obama could win the White House by hanging onto all the states that Sen. John Kerry won four years ago and then sweeping the three Western states getting attention this weekend.

McCain, though, has mounted comebacks before. Political momentum can change fast.

Part of the West's demographic change includes larger numbers of Hispanics, a traditionally Democratic-leaning group that has posed a challenge for McCain. The most recent Gallup poll showed Obama leading among registered Hispanic voters, 61 percent to 29 percent.

Michelle Obama delivered the Democrats' weekly radio address Saturday. In it, she urged voters to the polls while reminiscing about tagging along with her father as a young girl while he worked to register voters.

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press, October 25, 2008

Obama Is Ahead in Polls in GOP State

DENVER, Oct. 24 -- Sen. John McCain opened up a fresh line of attack against his presidential rival in Colorado on Friday, saying Sen. Barack Obama's election would give Democrats unchecked authority over the nation's purse strings.

"The answer to a slowing economy is not higher taxes, but that's exactly what's going to happen when the Democrats have total control of Washington," he warned, while also taking a swipe at Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) for suggesting that taxes and spending may need to be increased to deal with the nation's economic crisis. "When he says that, quote, there are, quote, 'a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax,' it's safe to assume that means you," McCain said.

McCain spent the day in Denver, Colorado Springs and Durango, campaigning in a traditionally Republican state where Obama is leading in the polls and has been flooding the airwaves with advertisements. McCain was accompanied by John Elway, a former Denver Bronco quarterback legendary for fourth-quarter heroics, who told the Denver crowd that he "knows a thing or two about comebacks" and expressed confidence that McCain would defy predictions that he will go down to defeat here.

Judging from his speech Friday morning, McCain plans to keep hammering away at Obama on taxes, spending and the question of whether he is ready to become commander in chief, the subject of a McCain campaign ad released Friday.

"Senator Obama said yesterday that if you want to know how he would respond in a crisis, look what he's done during his campaign," McCain said. "But we've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign."

McCain noted that Obama "opposed the surge strategy that is bringing us victory in Iraq and will bring us victory in Afghanistan," continuing: "He said he would sit down unconditionally with the world's worst dictators. When Russia invaded Georgia, Senator Obama said the invaded country should show restraint. He's been wrong on all of these."

The GOP nominee also picked up on new reports of rising foreclosures to sharpen his critique of the administration and Congress for not moving fast enough to help struggling homeowners. McCain wants the federal government to spend up to $300 billion to buy bad mortgages and give homeowners a break, and on Friday morning he appeared to refer to reports that the federal government may start guaranteeing home mortgages.

"Finally Congress and the administration are putting together a plan to address this problem," McCain said. "Let me say: It's about time."

Obama, who was off the campaign trail on Friday visiting his ailing grandmother in Hawaii, has worked to deflect his rival's attacks, insisting that in his administration taxes would go up only for people making more than $250,000.

But in a conference call, senior aides to Obama described an electoral map that heavily favors their candidate and an organizational juggernaut aimed at sweeping the battleground states that are still up for grabs.

The best news for Obama, campaign manager David Plouffe said, is that McCain is not seriously threatening in any state that voted for Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004.

McCain is making an aggressive run at Pennsylvania, but Plouffe pointed out that Democrats hold a 1.2 million voter-registration advantage in the state, double the 2004 edge.

The "cold, hard numbers," as Plouffe put it, are this: McCain would have to win 15 percent of the Democratic vote, 95 percent of the Republican vote, and 60 percent of independents to carry Pennsylvania on Nov. 4.

By Michael Abramowitz, The Washington Post, October 25, 2008

As voters have gotten to know Senator Barack Obama, they have warmed up to him, with more than half, 53 percent, now saying they have a favorable impression of him and 33 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. But as voters have gotten to know Senator John McCain, they have not warmed, with only 36 percent of voters saying they view him favorably while 45 percent view him unfavorably.

Even voters who are planning to vote for Mr. McCain say their enthusiasm has waned. In New York Times and CBS News polls conducted with the same respondents before the first presidential debate and again after the last debate, Mr. McCain made no progress in appealing to voters on a personal level, and he and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, had alienated some voters.

Personal appeal is an intangible element in voters' decisions. Each voter has a personal reason for connecting with a candidate or not. But the percentage of those who hold a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama is up 10 points since last month. Opinion of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Obama's running mate, is also up, to 50 percent last weekend from 36 percent in September.

In contrast, favorable opinion of Mr. McCain remained stable, and unfavorable opinion rose to 45 percent now from 35 percent in September. Mrs. Palin's negatives are up, to 41 percent now from 29 percent in September.

Mr. Obama's favorability is the highest for a presidential candidate running for a first term in the last 28 years of Times/CBS polls. Mrs. Palin's negative rating is the highest for a vice-presidential candidate as measured by The Times and CBS News. Even Dan Quayle, with whom Mrs. Palin is often compared because of her age and inexperience on the national scene, was not viewed as negatively in the 1988 campaign.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Sept. 21-24, with re-interviews completed Friday through Sunday of 518 adults, 476 of whom are registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus five percentage points for all adults and voters.

Among the voters who said their opinion of Mr. Obama had improved, many cited his debate performance, saying they liked his calm demeanor and the way he had handled the attacks on him from the McCain campaign.

Of those who said their opinion of Mr. McCain had been tarnished, many cited his attacks on his opponent, the choice of Ms. Palin as his running mate and his debate performance.

"Even though I am a Democrat, there was a strong possibility I would have voted for McCain," said Yolanda Grande, 77, a Democrat from Blairstown, N.J. "What pushed me over the line was McCain's choice of vice president. I just don't think she is qualified to step in if anything happened to him."

By MEGAN THEE, The New York Times, October 20, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Lorie McCoy, 40, a flight attendant, was bustling out of a library here the other day, loaded down with books. She is worried about how an upended economy might affect the airline industry, and so she is also taking classes.

"I'm looking for a better, higher-paying job," Ms. McCoy said. For that reason, she said, she is voting for Senator Barack Obama.

"He is speaking to a lot of people's issues," she said. "With all these factory closings, he's speaking to the middle class."

It is through voters like Ms. McCoy, who moved to North Carolina eight years ago, that Mr. Obama has achieved a milestone: He is now running neck and neck with his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, in the state, and is even slightly ahead in some polls.

This once-red state is now a raging battleground, along with a few others where Mr. Obama has sought to expand his electoral map.

"For a Republican to be tied at this point in the election in North Carolina is unfathomable," said Hunter Bacot, a political scientist at Elon University, which Gov. Sarah Palin, Mr. McCain's running mate, visited last week.

No Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since Jimmy Carter did so in 1976. The state has long been a bastion of cultural conservatism; it was in Greensboro last week that Ms. Palin said she loved visiting the "pro-America" parts of the country.

But this is a new landscape, even from four years ago, when President Bush defeated Senator John Kerry (and his running mate, John Edwards, of North Carolina) by 12 percentage points in the state.

The turnabout can be traced to an influx of new voters and a change in demographics; a slowing of the state's economy and the collapse of the nation's financial system; Mr. Obama's extensive ground organization, huge financial advantage and amount spent on television (seven to one over Mr. McCain); the state's large population of blacks and students; and Mr. McCain's neglect of the state.

The relative position of the candidates was evident in their visits to the state last weekend.

Mr. McCain spoke to a few thousand people in Concord, in Cabarrus County, which is an exurb of Charlotte and which voted lopsidedly in 2004 for Mr. Bush (67 percent to 33 percent). On a sunny Saturday morning, Mr. McCain's audience seemed made up mainly of his base. They cheered loudly when he mentioned Ms. Palin and "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio man who has become a symbol of Mr. McCain's newly fashioned economic message, that Mr. Obama's statement about wanting to "spread the wealth around" revealed him to be a socialist.

Mr. McCain had spoken briefly the week before in Wilmington (also Bush country), but until then he had not visited the state since the May primaries. His plea was blunt: "We have to win the state of North Carolina, and I'm counting on you to do it."

On Sunday, in a fortuitous bit of timing, Mr. Obama spoke in Fayetteville, dense with military families, in his first appearance after being endorsed by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Mr. Obama’s visit to the area, which voted marginally for Mr. Bush in 2004, was his sixth trip to the state since the primaries, and he was reaching beyond his base.

"The men and women from Fayetteville and all across America who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag," Mr. Obama said.

The state is one of the fastest-growing in the country, becoming home to more immigrants as well as transplants from other states who tend to be more moderate than the natives. This means both a less conservative electorate and a labor force that is growing faster than the supply of jobs.

"Somewhere, former conservative icon Senator Jesse Helms must be turning over in his grave at the prospect of Obama winning North Carolina's 15 electoral votes," James Bennett, the managing editor of the local newspaper, The Independent Tribune, wrote after Mr. McCain's visit. "The Republican stronghold that elected Helms to five terms in the Senate no longer exists."

Social conservatives were never thrilled with Mr. McCain in the first place; analysts say that Ms. Palin initially gave him a boost here, but now she does not appear to be drawing support from beyond the base.

Polls show that the economy is by far the most important issue for voters.

Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster in Raleigh, said the McCain camp was "counting on the conservative view prevailing over the economy, which is why they haven't spent any money here, which is why it's gotten as difficult for them as it has."

Parts of the state, especially around the affluent Research Triangle Park area, show strong economic growth. But others are still suffering from a decline in textiles and furniture making. The state's unemployment rate hit 7 percent in September, its highest level in six years.

Even the state's banking industry is on edge. The recent merger of Wachovia, based in Charlotte, with Wells Fargo has created great uncertainty, with possible layoffs in the offing.

"The Bush years have been very tough on North Carolina, especially the trade policies," said Marc Farinella, Mr. Obama's state director here. "And that's why this race has become so competitive."

As the economy has slowed, the Obama campaign has also stuck to its game plan, building a corps of 17,000 volunteers, registering voters and now focusing on getting them out to vote.

While Mr. McCain was speaking at the arena in Concord, a small Obama field office a few miles away bustled with volunteers. They made hundreds of phone calls; others picked up computerized voter lists to canvass; others enter information collected during the day to give up-to-date print-outs to canvassers the next day.

The fruits of their labors are beginning to show. The state registered 600,000 new voters this year, 48 percent of them Democrats, 21 percent Republicans, the rest unaffiliated. In early voting, which began Thursday, more than 114,000 people had gone to the polls - 64 percent of them Democrats, 21 percent Republicans and 15 percent unaffiliated.

Among the early voters in Greensboro on Friday was Maria Adams, 46, who owns an employment agency. She stayed in line even after being told she would have to wait an hour and a half. "It's worth it," she said. "McCain is too hardline and too old and too erratic. He's out of touch with what matters today, which is the economy."

Mike Duhaime, the national political director for the McCain campaign, said he still felt confident of winning North Carolina. Democrats who win statewide offices are "more centrist" than Mr. Obama, Mr. Duhaime said.

Representative Robin Hayes, a Republican who represents this area and is facing a tough re-election fight, said North Carolina was "closer than they want it to be," and for all of the time and money that Mr. Obama has invested here, "he still can't close the deal."

"There are significant doubts in people's minds," Mr. Hayes said. And indeed, several voters expressed such doubts, picking up on messages put out in McCain campaign robocalls and through false Internet rumors about Mr. Obama's background and affiliations.

Mr. Hayes spoke to the crowd in the arena before Mr. McCain took the stage, and drew on the local pastime to offer encouragement. "If you're a Nascar fan, and I'm sure you are," he said, "all you got to win is the last lap."

By Katherine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, October 20, 2008

Much of the attention on the record amounts of money coursing through the presidential race this year, including in Senator Barack Obama's announcement on Sunday of his $150 million fund-raising haul in September, has focused on the explosion of small donors.

But there has been another proliferation on the national fund-raising landscape that was not fully apparent until the latest campaign finance reports were filed last week: people who have given tens of thousands of dollars at a time to help the candidates.

Enabled by the fine print in campaign finance laws, they have written checks that far exceed normal individual contribution limits to candidates, to joint fund-raising committees that benefit the candidates as well as their respective parties.

Many of these large donors come from industries with interests in Washington. A New York Times analysis of donors who wrote checks of $25,000 or more to the candidates' main joint fund-raising committees found, for example, the biggest portion of money for both candidates came from the securities and investments industry, including executives at various firms embroiled in the recent financial crisis like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG.

The joint fund-raising committees have been utilized far more heavily this presidential election than in the past. Mr. Obama's campaign has leaned on wealthy benefactors to contribute up to $33,100 at a time to complement his army of small donors over the Internet as he bypassed public financing for the general election. More than 600 donors contributed $25,000 or more to him in September alone, roughly three times the number who did the same for Senator John McCain.

And Mr. McCain's campaign, which had not disclosed most of these donors until last week, has taken the concept to new levels, encouraging deep-pocketed supporters to write checks of more than $70,000, by adding state parties as beneficiaries of his fund-raising.

All told, each candidate has had about 2,000 people give $25,000 or more to his various joint fund-raising committees through September.

"What we're seeing is an emphasis on the high-end check that we have not seen since the days of soft money," said Anthony J. Corrado Jr., a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine.

The Times examination of donors who wrote checks of $25,000 or more through September found some notable differences in the industries from which Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain drew their largest contributions.

Compared with Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain drew a slightly larger percentage of his big-donor money from the financial industry, about a fifth of his total. The next biggest amount in large checks for Mr. McCain came from real estate and then donors who identified themselves as retired. With his emphasis on offshore drilling, Mr. McCain has also enjoyed heavy support from generous benefactors in the oil and gas industry, a group Mr. Obama drew relatively little from.

After the financial arena, Mr. Obama drew the most in checks of $25,000 or more from retirees and lawyers - Mr. McCain collected significantly less in large donations from lawyers - followed by those in real estate.

Mr. Obama also drew a significant amount from big givers in the entertainment industry, who contributed relatively little to Mr. McCain. In contrast, donations from the private equity and hedge fund industries accounted for a significantly greater amount of the giving from Mr. McCain's largest donors, compared with Mr. Obama's.

Certain companies were especially generous to a particular candidate. Three top executives of Merrill Lynch, for example, wrote checks of $28,500 each to Mr. McCain; among them was the chief executive, John A. Thain. A dozen employees at Goldman Sachs wrote checks of $25,000 or more to Mr. Obama.

Donations to these joint fund-raising committees have surged this election cycle, taking in nearly $300 million this year through September - with Mr. McCain collecting slightly more than Mr. Obama - compared with $69 million in 2004. Campaign finance watchdogs call it a worrisome trend, saying the heavy emphasis on such arrangements brings candidates one step further into the embrace of major donors.

"This is subverting the whole notion of candidate contribution limits," said Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute.

Individuals are normally limited to contributing $2,300 to presidential candidates for the primary and another $2,300 for the general election. But the joint fund-raising committees allow donors to enjoy the clout that comes with writing a single large check that can cover the maximum contributions to the candidates, as well as $28,500 to the national party. In Mr. McCain's case, that check could also include $10,000 apiece for several state parties and $2,300 to a legal compliance fund for the general election. The money directed to the national and state parties can then be used to help the candidates under certain restrictions.

More than 1,800 people had donated $25,000 or more as of the end of September to Mr. McCain through his various "victory" committees, according to Federal Election Commission filings and data compiled by Public Citizen, a nonpartisan watchdog group. More than 300 people had contributed $50,000 or more.

As for Mr. Obama, about 2,000 people had donated $25,000 or more to his joint fund-raising committees through September, including more than 500 who have given $30,000 or more.

McCain finance officials introduced their main joint fund-raising committee, McCain Victory 2008, in the spring. Mr. McCain was still able to accept primary money, so money was divided between his primary campaign coffers, the Republican National Committee, several state parties and his compliance fund, for a maximum check of $70,100.

Mr. McCain is now taking public financing for the general election, but he has continued to raise money through his joint fund-raising committees, something that frustrates campaign finance watchdogs, because they argue that a goal of public financing is to get candidates out of the private money-raising business.

"It undermines the whole spirit of the system," said David Arkush, director of Congress Watch at Public Citizen.

Indeed, Mr. McCain collected $10.6 million just last week for the Republican Party at an event in New York he headlined with his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

The largest donors typically get V.I.P. treatment at fund-raisers, including dinner and a photo with the candidate.

Gordon V. Smith, a Maryland home builder, and his wife, Helen, gave $67,800 each to Mr. McCain this year and attended a fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va. Mr. Smith was later invited to an intimate dinner for major donors with Rick Davis, the McCain campaign manager. Mr. Smith, who said he was a staunch believer in free enterprise, called the meeting a "stroke" for big donors but said he had had a chance to offer some policy ideas. "Will the campaign talk to any donor? Even if you give 10 bucks, they'll talk to you, but you might talk to a volunteer," he said.

Arguably the biggest whales of all are the several dozen who contributed $70,000 or more to Mr. McCain. They included Marvin Gilliam, an executive at Cumberland Resources, a Virginia coal-mining company where several top officials made sizable contributions to Mr. McCain, as well as Mr. Gilliam's wife, Marcia; Joe Ricketts, founder of the securities firm TD Ameritrade; and Meg Whitman, former chief executive of eBay and a prominent McCain surrogate, who contributed a total of $92,400, according to F.E.C. records, although some will apparently need to be refunded because of federal contribution limits.

The Obama Victory Fund funnels money to his campaign coffers and the Democratic National Committee. The largest check a donor could write for the primary and the general elections was $33,100. Mr. Obama also has a separate committee that distributes money to 18 battleground states.

More than 500 donors contributed more than $30,000 each to Mr. Obama. They included James E. Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, a power company based in Charlotte, N.C.; Melanie Griffith, the actress; and John M. Noel, chief executive of Travel Guard, an affiliate of the insurance giant AIG.

By Michael Luo and Griff Palmer, The New York Times, October 20, 2008

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama criticized Republican White House rival John McCain for a "say anything, do anything" political style on Monday as he opened a two-day tour to kick off early voting in Florida.

McCain told supporters in Missouri that "nothing is inevitable" and he could still beat Obama, who leads in national opinion polls as the pair began a two-week sprint to the November 4 presidential election.

"In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over," Obama told about 8,000 supporters in Tampa, Florida. "We've seen it before and we're seeing it again today. The ugly phone calls. The misleading mail and TV ads. The careless, outrageous comments."

He noted McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, told reporters on Sunday that if she called the shots she would end the automated calls being made by McCain's campaign, including some that link Obama with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

"As you know, you really have to work hard to violate Governor Palin's standards on negative campaigning," Obama, an Illinois senator, told the crowd.

McCain defended the calls, shrugging off Palin's remarks in an interview to be aired on Tuesday morning.

"Well, Sarah is a maverick," McCain told CBS's "Early Show." "That robocall is absolutely accurate and by the way, Senator Obama's campaign is running robocalls as we speak."

Obama will spend two days in Florida to encourage voters to cast their ballots early in the crucial battleground state, which has 27 electoral votes and is vital for either candidate in their quest for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

More than half of all U.S. states allow voting before November 4, and Florida's window for early voting began on Monday.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll on Monday showed Obama with a 6-point edge on McCain. A new CNN poll gave Obama a 5-point lead among likely voters, down from an 8-point edge two weeks ago. Other polls also showed a tightening race.

"We've got them just where we want them," McCain said in St. Charles, Missouri. He criticized Obama for already beginning to select his Cabinet officials.

Obama touted his endorsement from Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell and said he would call on him for advice.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC's "Today" a day after earning the endorsement of Powell, who is also a retired four-star general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

'FORMAL ROLE'

"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss," Obama said.

McCain met with small business owners in Columbia, Missouri, and afterward repeated his charge that they would suffer under Obama's plans to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year and to increase capital gains taxes.

"Clearly they do not want to see an increase in their taxes of any kind," McCain said of the small business owners, saying Obama's plans were "not the recipe to bring our economy out of the ditch."

Obama announced on Sunday he had raised $150 million in September, shattering fundraising records he set earlier in the year and fueling a huge spending advantage of about 4-to-1 over McCain in recent weeks in battleground states.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis criticized Obama for not disclosing the identities of hundreds of thousands of donors who have contributed less than $200 to his campaign. Campaigns are not required to identify those small-dollar donors.

The Obama campaign said it had added more than 600,000 new donors in September for a total of about 3.1 million, with an average donation of $86.

"This pattern of nondisclosure, this pattern of nonresponsiveness, this pattern of setting their own rules to apply to this campaign is consistent with all the other patterns that we've seen," Davis told reporters.

The McCain campaign, which accepted $84 million in public funds for the general election in early September, has listed its small-dollar donors.

Davis said he was not concerned about Obama's financial advantage, and said the U.S. economic crisis had more to do with Obama's recent gains in opinion polls than his spending.

The Republican National Committee raised $66 million in September and will be able to help McCain compete in advertising.

"We think money is not going to be what decides this race," he said. "The lack of money on Wall Street has had more to do with the outcome of this last month politically than the money in Barack Obama's bank account."

By Caren Bohan, Reuters, October 21, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama has opened an 8-point lead over Republican John McCain two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.

Obama leads McCain 50 percent to 42 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, up from a 6-point advantage for Obama on Monday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

"It was another very big day for Obama," said pollster John Zogby. "Things clearly are moving in Obama's direction."

It was the second consecutive day that Obama gained ground on McCain as the two head into the final sprint to the November 4 election.

Obama, an Illinois senator, expanded his lead among two key swing groups. His advantage with independent voters grew from 11 to 15 points, and his edge with women voters grew from 8 to 13 points.

Obama also took a lead among voters above the age of 70 and expanded his lead among Hispanics and Catholics. His support among Republicans grew from 9 percent to 12 percent a day after he received the endorsement of Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"Maybe this is the Powell effect," Zogby said. "That wasn't just an endorsement, that was a pretty powerful statement."

McCain narrowly trails Obama among men and saw his lead among whites drop from 13 points to 9 points, 51 percent to 42 percent. Zogby said Obama was doing better than 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry among crucial sub-groups.

"He is clearly outperforming Kerry," Zogby said. "But two weeks is a lifetime in politics."

This was the first time Obama has stretched his advantage over McCain, an Arizona senator, to more than 6 points since the tracking poll began more than two weeks ago. Obama's edge had been between 2 and 6 points in all 15 days of polling.

Some other tracking polls have showed the race tightening in the last few days. But with the help of his huge spending advantage, Obama has maintained an edge on McCain in key states.

The poll, taken Saturday through Monday, showed independent Ralph Nader gaining 2 percent support. Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Libertarian Bob Barr each registered 1 percent support.

The rolling tracking poll surveyed 1,214 likely voters in the presidential election. In a tracking poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped to monitor changing momentum.

The U.S. president is determined by who wins the Electoral College, which has 538 members apportioned by population in each state. Electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states, which divide them by congressional district.

By John Whitesides, Reuters, October 21, 2008

PALM BEACH, Fla. - Democrat Barack Obama is bringing several GOP-leaning states he's aiming to win together in one place.

A clever campaign trick? No. He's holding a jobs summit Tuesday in economically precarious Florida, with participation by the governors of several states that went Republican four years ago and for which the Democratic presidential nominee is making a serious play this time around.

With the current economic crisis creating favorable conditions for Democrats, Obama has focused his final-stretch message almost entirely on that topic - and almost entirely on traditionally Republican turf. The subject of the battered economy, and battered households, is particularly timely in Florida, which has unemployment above the national average and one of the worst foreclosure rates.

So, on a two-day swing aimed at turning Florida his way, Obama planned to hammer home the message that he has the best economic plan during Tuesday's roundtable. The event, amounting to a mass public endorsement of his economic proposals, was drawing the governors of Michigan, Ohio, New Mexico and Colorado to the town of Lake Worth on Florida's east coast.

All the states except Michigan, which Republican John McCain recently abandoned, voted for President Bush in 2004 and all four now have Democratic governors.

In Colorado and Ohio, McCain is believed to be down, but within or close to the margin of error in polls. Florida, once solidly in McCain's corner, now is a tossup. And in New Mexico, Obama appears to have a comfortable lead.

Also participating in the discussion are Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, an Obama campaign adviser.

Obama has planned several other appearances in Florida on Tuesday, capped by an evening rally with his wife, Michelle, in Miami.

Obama also campaigned across the state on Monday, holding a solo rally in Tampa and a joint event with former Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in Orlando that was attended by more than 50,000 people.

The Democratic presidential candidate heads to more GOP states, Virginia and Indiana, on Wednesday and Thursday.

After a morning rally Thursday in Indianapolis, Obama will leave the campaign trail and fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly gravely ill, 85-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, a central figure in her grandson's life. She helped raise him.

"She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me," Obama said in his August speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

He is to resume campaigning Saturday in an undetermined location in the West, mostly likely another state that went for Bush in 2004, such as Nevada, aides said.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press, October 21, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - John McCain's criticism that Barack Obama isn't experienced enough to be president got a boost when the Democrat's own running mate, Joe Biden, told donors that he expected his boss to be tested, if elected, by a "generated crisis" shortly after taking office.

"We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars," McCain, a 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran, told a crowd Monday in Belton, Mo.

"What is more troubling is that Sen. Biden told their campaign donors that when that crisis hits, they would have to stand with them, because it wouldn't be apparent Sen. Obama would have the right response," added the Republican nominee, who was spending Tuesday in Pennsylvania, another battleground. "Forget apparent. Sen. Obama won't have the right response, and we know that because we've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign."

At weekend fundraisers, Biden said of Obama, "Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

McCain went on the criticize Obama's opposition to President Bush's decision to send tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq, as well as his rival's more restrained response to Russia's invasion of Georgia this summer.

Obama gained a forceful rebuttal to those concerns over the weekend, when former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed Obama and attested to his readiness to be president.

Powell also criticized McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, saying she failed to meet the primary qualification for a vice president: the ability to assume the presidency at any time.

The attacks on Obama are one element in a sharpened stump speech in which McCain also accused his rival of having socialistic tax policies. They come two weeks before Election Day, and as Obama maintains a lead in national polling as well as in surveys conducted in key battleground states.

It was unclear whether McCain might step back from his attacks after Obama's campaign announced that he will suspend campaigning for two days later this week to visit his gravely ill, 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii.

Amid concern that battleground states were slipping from their grasp, McCain aides scheduled a daylong tour across Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

McCain scheduled rallies in Bensalem, near Philadelphia; Harrisburg; and Moon Township, outside Pittsburgh.

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press, October 21, 2008

Barack Obama Monday aimed to put another dent in John McCain's comeback hopes with a double-bill rally in Florida with ex-foe Hillary Clinton to kick off a frenetic final fortnight of the White House race.

The rally is part of a three-day campaign offensive by the Democratic nominee's team in the electorally crucial southern state, as they hope to lock in an advantage with the start of early voting in the state on Monday.

The new offensive comes after Obama inflicted a demoralizing string of blows on his Republican rival over the weekend in the final stretch to the epic election on November 4.

On Sunday, the Illinois senator snapped up the key endorsement of former secretary of state Colin Powell and announced he had piled up a stunning 150 million dollar in fundraising last month.

The Democratic nominee will spend much of the week charging through what was nominally Republican territory, seeking to convert his lead on the electoral map and clear opinion poll edge into a big victory over McCain.

In Florida, Obama and Clinton were to headline a joint rally and several separate events Monday, pitching for a state which had looked solid for McCain, but where a wave of mortgage foreclosures offer the Democrats an opening.

The former first lady is highly popular in the Sunshine State and trounced Obama in the Democratic primary there, but the contest was declared void after Florida violated party scheduling rules.

McCain, 72, was meanwhile on the defensive Monday, attempting to cling onto states that helped send President George W. Bush back to the White House in 2004.

The Arizona senator was campaigning in midwestern Missouri on Monday, after Obama attracted a monstrous crowd of 100,000 people to St. Louis on Saturday.

He will fly onto Pennsylvania, a Democratic state in 2004 and a Republican target this year which now seems clearly tipping towards the 47-year-old Obama.

Just two weeks from election day, McCain's hopes rested on a hard-hitting campaign of mailings and automatic "robo-calls" to voters in swing states assailing Obama's character, past acquaintances and record on abortion.

McCain and his feisty vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin were also seeking to break through with claims that Obama is far more liberal than mainstream Americans, and is bent on pursuing "socialist" tax policies.

Powell, a Republican and former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the highest-ranking African-American ever in US government service.

In a stinging blow to his long-time friend McCain, Powell said on NBC that Obama, vying to be the nation's first African-American commander-in-chief, would be a "transformational president."

In another demoralizing blow to McCain, the Obama campaign announced a record-shattering take of more than 150 million dollars last month -- nearly double McCain's budget for the entire general election campaign.

Despite claims by the McCain camp that the race is narrowing, daily tracking polls on Sunday showed a steady Obama lead.

Gallup had Obama up by 52 to 42 percent among registered voters nationwide, reflecting the last presidential debate last week in which Obama was adjudged the winner by most snap polls.

Rasmussen also had Obama above 50 percent, with a 51 to 45 percent lead.

Obama's fundraising bonanza is helping him pummel his rival in a nationwide advertising blitz and allowing him to pin down McCain in Republican states, stretching his foe's resources even further.

The Democrat said in North Carolina that he was "beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of General Colin Powell."

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McCain said he had "always admired and respected General Powell."

"We're long-time friends. This doesn't come as a surprise," the Arizona senator said, touting his endorsement by other former secretaries of state including Henry Kissinger and James Baker.

McCain on Sunday renewed his condemnation of Obama's economic policies as "socialism" and warned a rally in Toledo in the key swing state of Ohio that Obama planned to "redistribute wealth" to the "more than 40 percent of Americans" who are too poor to pay income taxes.

By Stephen Collinson, AFP, October 20, 2008

Both candidates have transition teams at work, but experts say Obama's operation is picking up speed.

"It's not in the nature of John McCain to tempt fate," he said.

The Arizona senator's effort is headed by John F. Lehman Jr., a Navy secretary under President Reagan. William Timmons Sr., a prominent Washington lobbyist who helped plan Reagan's and President Bush's transitions, sent material about the mechanics of presidential transitions to the McCain campaign a month ago.

In an odd political twist, the Obama operation is dominated by alumni of the Clinton political machine, some of whom worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primaries.

John Podesta, a chief of staff under President Clinton, has spent much of the election year helping 50 experienced Washington hands -- including a couple of Republicans -- compile a comprehensive transition blueprint, one that most thought would be used by Hillary Clinton.

An early outline showed it to have 50 chapters, written for the most part by Clinton veterans, with planning down to the sub-Cabinet level. Now that project, soon to be published as a book, would help guide an Obama transition if he were to win.

Podesta, who declined to discuss the transition, is based at the Center for American Progress, a left-of-center Washington think tank set up by Clinton allies that has emerged as the unofficial headquarters of Obama's transition planning. With no designated transition office, Podesta is coordinating much of the work from the center, trying to keep his two jobs separate.

Podesta has set up teams aligned with Cabinet agencies and government departments. Leon E. Panetta, another former Clinton chief of staff and a onetime California congressman, is part of a group evaluating candidates for senior White House staff and high-level national security and economic policy positions.

"They're collecting names of people and resumes," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), an Obama supporter who also worked in the Clinton White House.

Prominent aides to Clinton, such as former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and former White House economic advisor Gene Sperling, are helping shape the economic ideas that would inform an Obama administration, a mission that is all the more urgent with financial markets in turmoil.

"Definitely, the next president will have to face it immediately," said Jason Furman, a top economic advisor to Obama who noted that he would want swift passage of a plan aimed at the middle class. Last week, Obama called for tax credits for businesses that created jobs and a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures.

On environmental matters, the Obama team is getting advice from Carol Browner, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton era.

Those close to Podesta say there are intentional parallels between a possible Obama transition and one widely heralded as a model: the carefully calibrated transfer of power that took place in 1980 when staff members working for Reagan collaborated with a relatively new Washington think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

One expert at the Center for American Progress advising Obama, defense analyst Lawrence Korb, played roles in the Reagan transition and the Reagan Defense Department. In 1980, Korb wrote a chapter on defense policy for the transition book prepared by the Heritage Foundation. Now, Korb is writing a chapter on Iraq for the Center for American Progress' book.

No decisions seem to have been made about who would staff the highest levels of an Obama administration. But names are floating about. Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, has been mentioned as a possible chief of staff. Daschle is a senior fellow at the same think tank that is home to Podesta.

In an interview last week, Daschle did not rule out an appointment as chief of staff. "It's way too early to make any comments about it," he said. "It's always a possibility, but I've not had any conversations with anybody about future positions and don't intend to."

Already, infighting has broken out among people working on Obama's transition. One sticking point involves nonprofit advocates anxious to ensure allies are chosen for offices that award grants.

"People have transition fever now in the Obama camp," Light said. "It looks already like the classic transition fights over who gets which position. Sometimes these disputes can become debilitating."




By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2008

Democrats in Republican-heavy states hope to gain from a surge of black voters eager to be part of history. Down-ticket races could get a boost even where McCain leads by double digits.

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. -- Anton Gunn is a Democratic candidate for the statehouse. He is also a black man running in a majority-white district -- a swath of Old South countryside and new suburban sprawl that hasn't elected a Democrat in 24 years.

Two years ago, Gunn ran for the same office and lost. But he believes that 2008 is his year. He has learned a lot since then as state political director for Barack Obama's primary campaign in South Carolina.

Even so, Democrats here and in other Republican-heavy Southern states hope to benefit from an anticipated surge of black voters eager to be a part of history, in spite of the winner-take-all rules of the general election.

Stacey Gore, a black voter in Gunn's district, said none of his black friends were dismayed by the fact that Obama was trailing in the polls here.

"Everybody I know is fired up," he said.

Gore said he would be voting for president for the first time in 12 years. The 45-year-old truck driver blames high gas prices and a weak economy on the Republicans, and he plans to vote for Obama.

He added that he didn't know much about Gunn -- though he would probably pull the lever for him.

"I'll probably vote straight Democrat," Gore said.

Such sentiments could give a boost to a number of down-ticket races in Southern states where McCain holds a commanding lead. In Mississippi, African American enthusiasm for Obama could help former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove -- a white, moderate Democrat -- in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Roger Wicker.

In Louisiana, the same forces could help the reelection effort of Rep. William J. Jefferson, an African American who has been indicted on corruption charges. Black voters could help tip the scales for him in what may be a racially polarized runoff election Nov. 4.

Here in South Carolina -- where Republicans control the governorship and the state House and Senate -- Democrats are setting more modest goals. The excitement over Obama, plus economic worries, they say, could help them gain some statehouse victories.

But they are also upbeat about their party's longer-term prospects here -- in part because the Obama campaign is lavishing unprecedented attention on the state. Obama for America has two paid staffers in South Carolina, and more than 20 others are working for Obama as part of the Campaign for Change, a group funded by the Democratic National Committee.

Their presence is an attempt to harness the passion Obama stirred up here in the primary and put it to good use. About 15,000 volunteers helped the Obama campaign in its successful January primary effort in the state. Black voters were a major factor: About 295,000 turned out to vote in the primary, twice the total in 2004.

Carol Fowler, chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said the Obama camp did not want to let that kind of enthusiasm go to waste -- even if it might not be enough to make their candidate competitive.

"I think [the Obama campaign] is trying to achieve, frankly, a stronger Democratic Party everywhere," she said.

The move would appear to be part of Obama's "50-state strategy," which purports to put up a fight in states long dominated by the GOP. It is unclear, however, how many staffers are working for Obama in other Republican-heavy Southern states. The campaign would not disclose those numbers.

In South Carolina, Obama workers have been contacting volunteers and supporters who took part in the primary to ensure they show up Nov. 4. They were signing up new voters until Saturday's deadline. Gunn said that when Obama volunteers and staffers canvass in his district, they regularly put in a good word for him.

State election officials expect to have a net gain of 300,000 registered voters this year -- about 100,000 more than in 2004. Though Democrats are touting their efforts, Republican officials say they have been signing up new voters as well. (South Carolina voters do not register by party, so it is unclear who has the edge.)

In Gunn's district, the number of black registered voters has increased by 12% this year, while the number of white voters has grown by about 7%, according to an analysis provided by the state Democratic Party. Still, white voters -- more likely to vote Republican -- outnumber blacks 2 to 1.

As a result, Gunn, 35, knows he will have to find a good chunk of white support. His plan, he said, is to "go right into the belly of the beast, so to speak, to go out into traditionally conservative communities that wouldn't traditionally vote for a black candidate or a liberal candidate. That's what we learned from the Obama campaign -- you've got to go talk to voters where they are."

That means going door to door in the commuter suburbs that have sprung up here in Richland County, about half an hour northeast of the state capital. Gunn, at 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds, earned a football scholarship to the nearby University of South Carolina and relies on that history as a common denominator: He hands out brochures with photos from his glory days as a starting center.

One recent night, he was stumping at a high school football game in Kershaw County, the more rural chunk of his district. The crowd was representative of the county -- about 70% white.

While hobnobbing with old friends, Gunn was approached by a white teenager, and it was apparent they had met before. The candidate greeted him warmly, then engaged him in a discussion of Kurt and Kyle Busch, siblings who are stars of the NASCAR circuit.

After the teen melted into the bleachers, Gunn noted that he wasn't old enough to vote.

"He's in 10th grade," he said, smiling. "But his parents are old enough."




By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2008

His campaign believes he could win the state if Democratic voter registration gains can be converted into actual votes.

MIAMI -- Barack Obama has sent five of his most senior operatives to Florida -- two of them to focus on the single county that includes Miami -- for the duration of the presidential campaign, in a newly sharpened strategy to win the election by driving Democratic voter turnout in the Republican-dominated state.

The big bet on Florida and Miami-Dade County, Obama aides say, is based on the campaign's belief that it has secured enough supporters to win the state and must now ensure that those supporters get to the polls -- in contrast to states such as Ohio, where the campaign believes victory depends on persuading more voters to support Obama.

In addition to Hildebrand, who is now focusing almost entirely on Miami-Dade County, the officials sent to Florida include the Obama campaign's liaison to the national Democratic Party and its senior or No. 2 outreach directors for African Americans, Jews and religious leaders.

Four of the officials are working out of a third-floor suite in a Miami Beach office building, and one, national party liaison Paul Tewes, has joined the campaign's state headquarters team in Tampa.

The Obama staffers are arriving in Florida just as both parties are placing final markers on the electoral map, signaling where the last battles for voters will take place before election day. The Republican National Committee, for example, decided this week to stop its presidential campaign advertising in Wisconsin and Maine to concentrate on holding more traditionally Republican states.

Some Florida Republicans have been grumbling in recent weeks that John McCain's campaign has not kept pace with advertising and grass-roots activities in the state, which has been dominated for more than a decade by the GOP in presidential and state-level races.

Obama aides have said they planned to spend $39 million to win Florida. But some Republicans think the total expenditure will far exceed that amount, given the countless Obama ads they see on television, the Obama spots that play even on country music stations -- which Republicans tend to target -- and the campaign's paid staff of nearly 400.

"Obviously, we're not used to being outspent," said Al Cardenas, the state's former GOP chairman and an advisor to the McCain campaign. "This is new. Now we're getting a sense for how the other side has felt."

Cardenas said the race in Florida was far from over. He said McCain remains popular among Cuban Americans, who are traditionally Republican, and high-profile supporters such as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) might help boost support among Jews.

Cardenas also cited the McCain campaign's appeal to conservative voters in northern Florida, home to many military service members and veterans, and he said the GOP continues to enjoy a robust get-out-the-vote network.

Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, was such a big draw earlier this month that the campaign moved a Fort Myers event to a larger venue. In Jacksonville, a state newspaper reported, cars lined up for as long as three blocks after the campaign set up a drive-through system for obtaining rally tickets.

Still, Cardenas said, the true strength of the Obama campaign is an open question. Can the Democrats, who have never before mounted a sophisticated ground game in Florida, build enough of a cushion in vote-rich southern counties such as Miami-Dade to offset Republican strongholds in the conservative Panhandle?

"We're not going to win in Dade," Cardenas said. "The question is whether we lose it by 25,000 or 75,000. That's the key to winning the state."

McCain will make two appearances in the state today, including a Miami event aimed at Cuban Americans and other Latinos.

Most recent surveys show Obama leading in Florida, with margins that range from 1 to 8 percentage points. But the Democrat's campaign aides believe that if they can reach all of their voters starting Monday, when early voting begins here, they can extend the margin, taking the state's coveted 27 electoral votes and thwarting McCain in a must-win state for his campaign.

Though the Obama campaign has spent months amassing voter lists and building neighborhood-based networks of staff and volunteers, campaign officials said in interviews this week that they had worried they weren't yet organized enough to reach their goals in Miami-Dade.

Hildebrand, a key architect of Obama's national field organization, arrived earlier this month and started courting key black and Cuban American leaders.

On Monday, Hildebrand and Alaina Beverly, the campaign's No. 2 black-outreach coordinator, hosted a lunch with about 30 of Miami-Dade's most powerful African American clergy, asking them to assist in efforts to get voters to the polls.

"The substance of the conversation was that we really have to get people out to vote, that we just pack out the polls with people," said the Rev. Walter T. Richardson, pastor of the Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church.

The Obama strategy has already changed the political landscape in places like Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's congressional district in southern Florida.

Just six years ago, Diaz-Balart, a Republican, headed the state panel that drew the boundaries of the district to create a safe GOP seat. Today, thanks to the Democratic voter registration increases in Miami-Dade, the two parties are at parity in the district, and polls show Diaz-Balart in a close race for reelection.

Now the Obama campaign has begun coordinating efforts with the Democratic challenger in the district, Joe Garcia.

In a trade-off that is uniquely Miami, Garcia is trying to deliver a portion of district's Cuban Americans, who are typically Republican, and Obama's team is trying to push record turnout among the district's small but energized black population.

In a region with one of the country's largest concentrations of Jews, Obama must contend with the fact that some Jews in Miami-Dade and next-door Broward County remain skeptical of him, and aides are asked frequently about the false rumors that he is a Muslim.

A top Jewish-outreach official from the campaign has arrived to coordinate a busy schedule of synagogue meetings and surrogate speakers, such as Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Charles E. Schumer of New York; former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross; and Dan Gelber, a top Democratic leader in the Legislature.




By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2008

The Maine senator asks McCain to end automated telephone calls seeking to link the Democratic nominee with '60s radical William Ayers.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, facing a tough reelection fight, urged GOP presidential contender John McCain on Friday to stop making automated calls into her state linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to a 1960s radical.

"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," said Collins' spokesman, Kevin Kelley. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."

The so-called robocalls -- which began Thursday, the day after the final presidential debate -- refer to Obama's ties to one-time Weather Underground leader William Ayers. They also are being made in other battleground states, including Nevada, Wisconsin and Virginia.

The calls say Obama "has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans."

In 1969, when Obama was 8, Ayers co-founded the Weatherman, which became the Weather Underground. It claimed responsibility for bombing several government buildings, but not a judge's home. Obama has condemned Ayers' radical activities.

Charges against Ayers were dropped because of government misconduct. Today he is an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1997, the city named him its citizen of the year.




The Associated Press, October 18, 2008

The Republican defends Florida, and the Democrat makes a push for Virginia. They gird for potential legal fights after the election.

MIAMI -- With less than three weeks to go before the election, the trajectory of the presidential campaign was apparent Friday in the candidates' schedules.

Republican John McCain was defending Florida, which every GOP White House occupant in modern times has won, but where McCain trails in recent polls. And Democrat Barack Obama was campaigning in Virginia, which has gone Republican for decades.

For McCain, that meant trying to cast the Illinois senator as a tax-and-spend Democrat who should not be trusted to guide the nation out of its economic straits.

"Sen. Obama claims that he wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don't pay taxes," McCain told about 6,000 supporters at Florida International University in Miami.

"That's not a tax cut, that's welfare," he declared as the crowd booed loudly.

While the candidates pursued voters in big rallies, their forces arrayed for potential legal fights over the election results.

The Obama campaign called on Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey to strip the Justice Department of jurisdiction over voter fraud allegations, saying the department was coordinating with the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign to harass voters.

That move followed news reports that the FBI has opened a voter registration investigation into the community organizing group known as ACORN. Officials with the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now have denied wrongdoing and said they had called registration officials' attention to limited irregularities.

The Obama campaign suggested that the Justice Department's interest in the case echoed political pressure the Bush White House put on federal prosecutors to press voter fraud cases before the 2006 election.

The pressure -- and the later removal of nine Justice Department prosecutors -- has prompted an ongoing investigation by a special prosecutor, to whom the campaign also sent its complaint.

"It appears now that the political people and the senior officials in law enforcement are working hand in glove . . . collaborating in this anti-fraud circus to create an environment of fear and intimidation," said Obama campaign attorney Robert F. Bauer. He called it "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics."

Obama represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois in the mid-1990s to force the state to implement a federal law allowing people to register to vote when they get a driver's license. The Justice Department was on the same side of the case as ACORN. Last spring, Obama's campaign paid more than $800,000 to a group affiliated with ACORN for get-out-the-vote operations during the primaries. The group did not register voters.

McCain did not mention ACORN on Friday, but his campaign manager, Rick Davis, said that Obama's campaign and ACORN had a "nefarious relationship." In an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, Davis said ACORN had "been trying to steal 11 states blind and take us into the most corrupt election cycle that we've seen in the nation's history."

The dust-up over ACORN echoes past Republican accusations about such voter registration efforts. Voter fraud is an issue that helps galvanize the party's base, and in many states, including the ones visited by the candidates Friday, McCain could use the help.

In his visit to a state won overwhelmingly by President Bush four years ago, but currently trending toward Obama, the Republican nominee portrayed himself as a dogged fighter on the comeback trail. He exhorted his supporters to "fight" beside him, and invoked Joe Wurzelbacher, or Joe the Plumber, the Ohio workingman who has become a celebrity.

McCain mentioned Wurzelbacher almost two dozen times at the Wednesday debate in a critique of Obama's tax plan, which he said would hurt Joe. Wurzelbacher later told reporters he would receive a cut under Obama's tax proposal. On Friday, McCain accused Obama of "smearing" the plumber in the days since. He was apparently referring to inquiries by independent reporters about the plumber's unpaid taxes.

"I spoke to him this morning," McCain told about 1,800 people in a performing arts center in Melbourne, on the Space Coast. "I want to tell you, his spirits are good. He's a tough guy."

While McCain was trying to shore up his standing in Florida, Obama was making his seventh trip to southwest Virginia, a Republican stronghold, in the first of several days to be spent in states that voted for Bush.

Every Virginia poll this month has shown Obama ahead in the state. McCain visited Monday and is to return today. The two campaigns together spent $3 million advertising here the first week of October. Obama outspent McCain 5 to 1, and has a sophisticated ground operation with 50 field offices, plus 19 state Democratic offices. The Democrats have added 430,000 registered voters this year.

"It would mean a cut of more than 20% in Medicare benefits next year. If you count on Medicare, it would mean fewer places to get care, and less freedom to choose your own doctors. You'll pay more for your drugs, you'll receive fewer services, and you'll get lower-quality care."

As the two presidential candidates clashed across the South, their running mates were talking patriotism, and trying to define who has it.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was quoted as saying Thursday at a North Carolina fundraiser that she was glad to be in the "very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation."

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), campaigning in New Mexico on Friday, said Palin's remarks represented a "policy of division."

"We are all patriotic; we all love this country," said Biden, whose son -- like Palin's -- is serving in Iraq.

The Republican later said her remarks had been misconstrued.




By Bob Drogin and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2008

More than 10,000 tickets were given out for the rally, which marked Palin's second visit to Lancaster County, said Dave Dumeyer, chairman of the county GOP.

"She plays extremely well in Lancaster County," Dumeyer said. "She has the conservative values I think a lot of people around here respect and admire."

Tracy Cromeans, 47, who works at a visitors' center in nearby Gettysburg, called Palin "a breath of fresh air."

"She's a woman," said Cromeans, wearing a Palin T-shirt and pink campaign button, "so we've got a strong, wonderful woman running with John McCain."

Clad in a green kilt and knee socks and wearing a "Read My Lipstick" button, Ephrata resident Brett Gilbert, 56, called Palin "my kind of person" in part because she's a hunter and has a child in the military.

"She's real," said Gilbert, a vehicle damage appraiser. "I mean, the other day she had to stop at Wal-Mart and buy diapers."




The Associated Press, October 19, 2008

The Republican says his rival would turn the IRS into a giant 'welfare agency.' The Democrat calls McCain out of touch and says his middle-class tax cut would benefit only working people.

CONCORD, N.C. -- John McCain sharpened his attack on presidential rival Barack Obama's economic proposals Saturday, accusing the Democrat of seeking to turn the United States into a socialist country and convert the IRS into a giant "welfare agency" that would dole out cash at Washington's discretion.

"The only 'welfare' in this campaign," Obama fired back during a huge rally in St. Louis, "is John McCain's plan to give another $200 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest corporations in America." Police estimated the crowd at 100,000.

In recent days, McCain has seized on a comment that Obama made in defending his tax policies to Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man now better known as Joe the Plumber. Obama, who was canvassing Wurzelbacher's neighborhood last weekend, told him, among other things: "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

McCain, delivering a national radio address before setting out for stops Saturday in North Carolina and Virginia, said Obama's approach sounded "a lot like socialism."

"At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives," the Republican nominee said. "They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut. It's just another government giveaway."

Obama has said that his plan would cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, including Wurzelbacher. McCain has said 40% of Americans don't pay income taxes, either because they are elderly or don't make enough money.

"In other words, Barack Obama's tax plan would convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington," McCain said in his radio remarks.

Strategists for the Arizona Republican see Obama's spread-the-wealth comment as a major gaffe -- providing an opening on an issue that has worked to the benefit of the Democratic nominee amid the nation's financial crisis.

Socialist theory calls for collective ownership of most private enterprise and for an egalitarian society. Karl Marx argued that socialism was a transitional phase between capitalism and communism.

Obama responded to McCain's charges at a rally at the Gateway Arch.

"Lately, Sen. McCain has been attacking my middle-class tax cut," Obama said. "He actually said it goes to 'those who don't pay taxes,' even though it only goes to working people who are already getting taxed on their paycheck. That's right, Missouri: John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare.' "

Obama cast their differences as a question of values.

"John McCain thinks that the way to rebuild this economy is to double-down on George Bush's policy of giving more and more tax breaks to those at the very top in the false hope that it will all trickle down," Obama said, to boos and catcalls. "I think it's time to rebuild the middle class in this country, and that is the choice in this election."

The Illinois senator was referring to McCain's plan to make permanent the tax cuts enacted in President Bush's first term, which are set to expire Dec. 31, 2010. McCain says that letting the cuts expire amounts to a tax increase that would badly undermine the already struggling economy.

Standing beneath the 630-foot stainless steel sculpture, his suit jacket off, Obama spoke to an audience that covered hundreds of yards of sloping hillside at a park in downtown St. Louis. Others stood on balconies and in side streets, or peered from the windows of nearby high-rise apartments.

The crowd far surpassed the 75,000 people who showed up to see Obama in Portland, Ore., during the primaries, as well as the 80,000 who packed Denver's football stadium to hear his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention.

Hours later, 75,000 turned out to see Obama across the state in Kansas City. (The biggest crowd of the campaign, an estimated 200,000 people, gathered in Berlin during Obama's summer swing through Europe.)

Obama is driving deep into Republican territory. Missouri supported President Bush in 2000 and 2004, and has gone with the winner in all but one presidential contest over the last century. Obama's visit was his seventh since clinching the Democratic nomination in June.

McCain spent Saturday in Virginia and North Carolina, states that Republicans used to take for granted.

In the heart of conservative North Carolina and later at an outdoor rally in Woodbridge, Va., about 25 miles southwest of Washington, McCain drew crowds of several thousand. He used both events to hammer Obama's tax plans -- a focus that McCain's aides hope can boost the Republican in the last two weeks of the race, much as his surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his running mate helped in September.

The campaign has been portraying Wurzelbacher -- as it has Palin -- as a working-class hero. On Saturday, McCain aides distributed hand-painted signs for supporters to wave for the TV cameras: "Fight for Joe the Plumber," "I'm Joe the Plumber" and "Don't Take Joe the Plumber's $$$."




By Bob Drogin and Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2008

Skepticism, born of centuries of experience, is shaping the mood of the black electorate. Some Barack Obama supporters worry that the candidate will be hurt, defeated by racism, or fraud.

ATLANTA -- Tonya Jones doesn't want to imagine what it would feel like to have a black president in the White House.

"I want to feel that euphoria, but I can't," said Jones, an African American hairstylist who was hanging out in front of her shop here on a slow afternoon. "Because I don't want to put myself way up here" -- with this she raised her hand over her head -- "only to fall." She let her hand plunge downward like a falling elevator.

"Everybody's on edge, I'm telling you," she said.

Such are the fraught emotions of African Americans, whose up-from-slavery story could culminate Nov. 4 in the election of a black president. Polls show that black voters overwhelmingly support Barack Obama in the presidential race, in many cases for reasons that transcend policy: One popular T-shirt depicts Obama with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. under the banner "A Dream Answered."

But many blacks are also steeling themselves for the heartbreak that will come if a breakthrough does not. Damascus Harris, a school administrator in Chicago, rattled off a litany of past indignities his people have suffered -- from the broken promises that followed slavery to Jim Crow-era voter suppression to racist redlining by banks. They explained, in part, why Harris won't be surprised if Obama loses this election.

"I'm not naive about what our history has been," he said.

That skepticism, born of centuries of experience, is shaping the mood of the black electorate on the eve of this historic election. Even with Obama surging in national polls, the excitement of his black supporters is in many cases tempered by an acute anxiety.

"I've seen lots of moods around rage and progress and all those things," said Andrea Y. Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Richmond who marched with King when she was a girl. "This is the strangest one I've experienced . . . of anticipation, hope, pride -- and fear."

Fear finds its most intense expression in the ongoing concerns for Obama's safety. Rosalind Johnson, a finance company worker from Camden, S.C., stated her deepest worry bluntly, as if it were a fact: "He will be assassinated," she said on a sunny weekday morning recently as she walked out of her local registrar's office.

There are other, less morbid concerns. Some voters fret over the shadowy workings of a system that they believe will prevent Obama from ascending to the highest office in the land. Sometimes this conversation hinges on the voting irregularities of the 2000 election. Sometimes the sentiment is more vague.

"It's going to be something," said Tony Gonzales, an Atlanta barber. "Because it's a black person, something's going to happen."

Shan Dennis, a worker at a Decatur, Ga., insurance company, said she isn't worried about a fix being in -- but she says it's something she hears about quite a bit.

"That's been a big [issue] in the African American community," she said. "A lot of them think someone is not going to let him win."

Other voters are dismayed by the ugly tone that has emerged in the last few months, as Obama's candidacy unearthed frank expressions of prejudice from white voters, and polls show some of them may be resistant to the idea of a black president: One AP-Yahoo News poll in September suggested that a third of white Democrats held negative views toward blacks.

The Rev. Kevin M. Turman, pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Detroit, has seen similar polls. He grows worried and frustrated when he thinks of the scenario they could trigger.

"My concern is that white Democrats -- who agree with Obama on every issue -- won't vote for him because he's black," Turman said.

Historically, Turman said, black voters have proved one of the most reliable constituencies for the Democratic Party. If whites don't show up to vote for a qualified black candidate, he would feel something like betrayal.

"I will have to reconsider my lifelong support of the Democratic Party," he said. "Perhaps it will be time for us to look at elections on more of a candidate-by-candidate basis, and not just vote the party ticket."

Obama's father was a black Kenyan; his mother was a white Kansan; and he was raised by white grandparents. The election, of course, is about many things, not just racial identity. And black voters have different opinions about whether the election should be viewed as a referendum on the state of American race relations.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights veteran and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, thinks the matter is plain:

"What we boil down to is a choice between 'Will you vote for the good of the country?' or 'Will you vote your racial fears?' " said Lowery.

But Charles Johnson, a novelist and English professor at the University of Washington, said it may be difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions about race relations from the November vote.

"There will be black Americans who will be certain that if [Obama] loses it was on the basis of race," Johnson said. "Then again, there's going to be a percentage of people who, when the race issue is put to the side, didn't like his policy proposals. It could be a combination of those.

"The conclusion that we draw from this is going be varied," he added. "I think we just have to wait and see."

Given the strong emotions Obama has stoked, however, it may be difficult for some voters to see the nuances.

Kevin Rodgers, who works alongside Tonya Jones at Atlanta's First Class Barber Shop, spoke of a trip to Washington that he recently made with his young daughter. After visiting the Jefferson Memorial, he bought her a ruler with pictures of all 43 presidents.

"They were all white, and we discussed that," said Rodgers. "Now, with a win, there'd be a black face on that ruler. That says everything to me."

Rodgers predicted that an Obama victory might trigger a major change in the way black Americans view their country and their countrymen.

"The amount of heart it takes for white people to pick Barack -- I think that will help some black people look at this country with hope," he said. "It will be a real gesture -- a major gesture. I think it's a major blow to hatred."

However, he said, an Obama loss "validates a lot of the discontent" that black Americans harbor.

"It proves it, in a way," he said, referring to lingering prejudice. "It gives validity to it." Some black voters don't want to contemplate what a loss would feel like, much the way Tonya Jones does not want to contemplate a win. But Pennsylvania state Rep. Jewell Williams, a Democrat who represents one of the largest African American districts in the Keystone State, has given it some thought. He said he'd encourage blacks to make Nov. 5 a sick-out day.

"I would encourage every African American not to go to work," he said. "We will need to show how important we are again. Maybe America will pay more attention to us if we all stayed at home."

In the long term, an Obama loss could discourage future political participation among the black voters who have registered for the first time this year, said Wilbur C. Rich, a political scientist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

The loss of enthusiasm could extend beyond new voters. Harris, the Chicago school administrator, has voted in every presidential election he could. The 40-year-old likes to think of himself as a coolly dispassionate voter. But he said he cried when Obama claimed the Democratic nomination -- and expects the same kind of cathartic response if the candidate wins in November.

Imagining an Obama loss is another story. If that happens, Harris said, he will probably give up on the idea that voting makes a difference.

"This for me, politically, is the endgame," he said. "If McCain wins, I'm done. I will have conclusively decided that this is a purposeless exercise."

Michael Baisden, a popular radio host and Obama supporter, discounts such talk. "I think that's people hoping for the best," he said, "and preparing for the worst."




By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2008

Internet donors making small donations to their choice for president are helping seal the fate of a system created in 1976 in response to the Watergate scandals.

The epitaph of the federal campaign finance system is being written by 3.1 million people like Sharon Pipino.

Pipino offered her latest contribution to Barack Obama on Sunday via the Internet: $25. She was answering an e-mail from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe in which he announced that the Democratic presidential nominee raised a record-setting $150 million in September. Obama also added 632,000 new donors last month.

Obama -- the first presidential candidate to opt out of the government financing system since its establishment in 1976 -- is free to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. He gets hefty sums from big donors. But the universe of high-end donors is relatively small, particularly as the Wall Street crisis erodes their wealth.

There are far more people like Pipino, who have provided half of the $605 million that Obama has raised since last year. And it's those donors who are sealing the fate of the public finance system that was created in response to the Watergate scandals. Intended to restrain the corrupting effect that money can play in politics, the system is financed by taxpayers who voluntarily check 'yes' on their annual returns to allow $3 of their taxes to be set aside for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

Republican nominee John McCain, lacking Obama's small-donor base, accepted the $84.1-million grant from the Federal Election Commission. His campaign has had access to almost $140 million, split among his account, the Republican National Committee and various state accounts.

But with Obama's $150 million from September plus $49 million raised by the Democratic National Committee, the Democrats have a vast cash advantage heading into the Nov. 4 election. Obama can go on offense in states that Republicans must hold and still spend freely on costly TV ads.

"It is working out brilliantly," California Democratic consultant Bill Carrick said of Obama's decision to forgo public funding.

A year ago, before attaining front-runner status, Obama signed a pledge to the group Common Cause in which he vowed to push for "full public funding for qualified candidates who agree to spending limits and to stop accepting private contributions."

"I will make passage of such legislation one of the priorities in my campaign and in my presidency if elected," Obama told the group. But he decided to forgo public financing once he realized that he could amass far more through Internet donations than McCain.

McCain, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said Obama was "completely breaking whatever idea we had after Watergate to keep the costs and spending on campaigns under control."

"The dam is broken," McCain said. "We're now going to see huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal."

Whether Obama will take action on public financing of campaigns if he is elected is uncertain. Republicans and many Democrats are skeptical of public funding schemes. The Internet favors Democrats. Experts note Democrats tend to be younger than Republicans and more accustomed to buying things online.

"My guess is that this system will just go away," Carrick said. "The public financing system is basically the horse and buggy of politics."




By Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2008

Reporters covering the Republican in 2000 recall an engaging conversationalist who would talk incessantly, have a quip ready or field impromptu questions. His rigidity is now a stark contrast.

CONCORD, N.C. -- A couple thousand people saw John McCain at a rally here last week. But the national media was not among them. Reporters were stuck behind some bleachers -- with no view of the stage.

It might have been illuminating to hear the exchanges afterward, as the Republican nominee for president greeted voters who surged toward the stage. But reporters were kept in their place, far to the rear.

And you could not shut the man up. One moment, McCain would recount a long-ago romance in Brazil, or rhapsodize about an Eisenhower biography, or worry about the starting rotation of his Arizona Diamondbacks. The next, he would delve into the challenges presented by the Iraq war or dissect the politics of immigration reform.

Yes, the candidate knew from his 2000 run for president how his garrulousness could charm. But he didn't score points merely by filling reporters' notebooks and by feeding their egos. He won them over because he truly had convinced them (with some exceptions) that he was a thoughtful man, a man of substance.

On a swing last week from Pennsylvania to Florida and North Carolina, McCain read his stump speech from a teleprompter. He attacked his opponent, Barack Obama, accusing the Democratic nominee of misleading the public and dragging the nation toward socialism. He seldom ad-libbed.

The reporters who had been crammed into the back of McCain's plane would hurry to the tarmac to catch glimpses of the Republican as he moved to and from his motorcade. But with only one brief news conference in more than two months, they were long past expecting McCain to pause for questions.

After a rally in Florida, the campaign permitted reporters to board the plane through the front cabin, since there were no stairs to the rear door. We filed right past McCain, a moment that, in the past, surely would have prompted at least a sardonic greeting ("Hey, jerks"), a quip drawn from the headlines or an invitation for a quick inquiry.

But McCain remained in his seat, ear locked to his cellphone. His eyes cast downward, scarcely acknowledging even the journalists he has known for years.

I'm traveling with Obama now, so I expect I'll have something to say about how he relates to his press corps. For now, let's just acknowledge that the Illinois senator also has alienated his share of reporters by appearing aloof and failing to take questions for long stretches.

It's nothing new for campaigns to rein in their candidates, keeping unscripted moments to a minimum. Obama's handlers must wish he had never met Joe the Plumber. But McCain once rebelled at being managed and often wandered off message.

An episode in July helped confirm to McCain's handlers that too much time with the media would pose a problem. That's when my colleague, Maeve Reston, stumped McCain with a question that stemmed from comments made by his own advisor, Carly Fiorina, about whether it was fair for health insurance companies to cover Viagra but not birth control pills.

McCain scowled. He stroked his chin. He paused for what seemed forever.

"I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer," he finally conceded.

The awkward videotaped moment, still easily found on the Web, left his campaign scrambling for a couple of days to contain the damage.

Not long after, McCain's advisors pulled the plug on protracted bull sessions with reporters. McCain may have sidestepped some gaffes. But he also surrendered the moments that made many journalists -- and voters -- believe the Straight Talk brand.

At a town hall just before the New Hampshire primary, McCain said that the U.S. military might need to remain in Iraq for 100 years or more. Like the other reporters there, I barely flinched.

That's because those long sessions on the bus made us intimately familiar with his stance in Iraq. We knew he was talking about maintaining bases for the long term only after the end of the shooting war, if American troops were out of immediate danger.

You didn't have to like that stance, but it was clear, no matter what the opposition said, that McCain did not mean he wanted to keep American troops fighting in Fallujah into the 22nd century.

Now the media is kept at arm's length and left to wonder what McCain is really thinking.

Has the candidate who once told us it wasn't worth winning if you had to wallow in the mud grown comfortable depicting Obama as a pal of terrorists? Does he really think the Democrat will turn America into a socialist state?

Not only has McCain gone missing. In recent days, his top aides also have stayed off the trail. So reporters stew in the back of the plane, speculating about the man they thought they knew.

When the small "pool" of reporters who follow McCain everywhere returned from Thursday's Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, they sounded almost wistful. The two presidential candidates had each taken turns as stand-up comics and the consensus was that, while Obama had been amusing, McCain had killed.

"It was just striking last night; McCain was so funny and sharp. I realized I hadn't seen that in many months," said one newspaper reporter. "It had been hidden for so long it was almost hard to recall."

The reporter asked that his name not be published for fear that his access to the candidate could get even more restricted. He added with a rueful smile: "If that's possible."




By JAMES RAINEY, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2008

News of the Republican's endorsement and a record $150 million raised in a month propel the Democrat as he campaigns in GOP country.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Barack Obama strongly boosted his presidential prospects on Sunday, winning the coveted endorsement of former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and ringing up a staggering $150 million in contributions in a single month of fundraising.

The endorsement from one of the country's most respected statesman-soldiers enhances Obama's credibility on national security issues, and his huge cash haul allows him to extend his crucial advantage on the television airwaves.

The Illinois senator's showing came as he continued to drive deep into Republican territory, stumping in North Carolina, which has not backed a Democrat for president since 1976.

Republican John McCain campaigned Sunday in must-win Ohio, where polls show a close race, and spent part of the day defending running mate Sarah Palin's qualifications on national television and in a call with Jewish leaders.

The day's main stage, however, was a TV studio in Washington, where the retired four-star Army general ended months of speculation by crossing party lines to support Obama, who is vying to become the nation's first African American president.

"I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation . . . coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage; and for that reason, I'll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama," Powell said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Given his credentials -- as secretary of State for President Bush, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father, and national security advisor to President Reagan -- Powell's vote of confidence may allay concerns about Obama's readiness to be commander in chief, one of the Republicans' primary lines of attack.

"What that just did in one sound bite -- and I assume that sound bite will end up in an ad -- is it eliminated the experience argument," former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on ABC's "This Week."

For all its potency, however, Powell's endorsement may have been only the second most important political development of the day, coming hours after the Obama campaign announced its latest fundraising total in an e-mail to supporters.

The $150-million figure shattered the previous monthly record and, combined with the $49.5 million raised by the Democratic Party in September, gives Obama a gargantuan financial advantage over McCain with just more than two weeks to go in the race.

"Presidential campaigns are about making tough decisions with limited resources," said University of Wisconsin political scientist Ken Goldstein, who tracks presidential campaign spending on television. "Obama doesn't need to make tough decisions."

Indeed, Obama has used his riches to mount serious challenges in such traditional GOP strongholds as Indiana, Nevada, Virginia and here in North Carolina, where polls show the race essentially even.

Obama has a significant cash advantage over McCain, who accepted $84.1 million in federal funding for the fall campaign and can spend no more than that amount. Obama had initially said he would accept public financing if McCain did, but changed his mind after his strong fundraising performance in the primaries.

By opting out of the government financing system -- and becoming the first major-party candidate to do so since it was set up in 1976 -- Obama is free to raise and spend unlimited sums. Overall, Obama has raised a record $605 million for his campaign.

Powell, 71, who once considered a history-making bid to become America's first black president himself, said he reached this decision after closely observing Obama and McCain over the last two months.

He said the GOP nominee did not seem to grasp the depth of the global financial crisis and appeared to offer shifting solutions to it.

He called Alaska Gov. Palin "a distinguished woman," but added, "I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president."

Powell expressed disappointment at the tone of McCain's campaign, saying the Arizona senator and GOP operatives were resorting to "demagoguery" in their portrayal of Obama's dealings with William Ayers, a Vietnam-era radical who is now an education professor. The two men are not close, but have served together on civic boards in Chicago.

"It isn't easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that," Powell said, adding that the two Vietnam veterans had known each other for 25 years. "But I strongly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president . . . who will not just continue, basically, the policies that we have been following in recent years."

Obama acknowledged Powell's support at a rally in Fayetteville. "I have been honored to have the benefit of his wisdom and his counsel from time to time over the last few years, but today I am beyond honored," he said.

McCain said he was not surprised by Powell's decision. "We have a respectful disagreement," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Obama's tactical advantage was evident from Sunday's light schedule: a lone event in a state that he does not need to win. Appearing at Fayetteville's sports arena, Obama laced into McCain, summoning some of the high-flown rhetoric that helped launch the Democrat's national rise. And, in a rare mention, he attacked McCain's running mate.

Last week, Palin extolled the values of what she called "the real America" and "very pro-America areas." On Saturday, a campaign aide spoke about McCain's support in the "real Virginia," as opposed to the northern suburbs near the nation's capital.

Obama shouted his response over the roar from the crowd of more than 10,000. "There are not real or fake parts of this country," he said. "We're not separated by the pro-America and anti-America part of this country. We all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from."

Fayetteville is near Ft. Bragg, one of the Army's largest installations. Some in the crowd had military buzz cuts, and a few came in camouflage.

"The men and women from Fayetteville and all across America who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats or Republicans or independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag," Obama said. "They have not served a red America or a blue America. They have served the United States of America."

The Republican candidate held two rallies in Ohio, rushing through his standard speech so quickly that he left both ahead of schedule. At the convention center in Toledo, which was half-full, the crowd barely responded at times to his applause lines.

In Toledo, which is near the town where Joseph Wurzelbacher challenged Obama on his tax plan, McCain cited the now-famous plumber to press his argument that his opponent's agenda would hurt businesspeople in a time of economic stress. "I won't raise taxes on small businesses, as Sen. Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs," he said.

McCain had invited Wurzelbacher to join him Sunday, but the burly Everyman rebuffed the offer and instead took his son and father to New York City, where he appeared on a Fox News talk show hosted by former GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. McCain is scheduled to campaign in the area again at midweek, and aides said the invitation stood.

Wurzelbacher has acknowledged that his taxes would actually be cut under Obama's proposal, but McCain and Palin continue to intone his name frequently to try to connect with swing voters who are increasingly skeptical that the duo can be trusted to fix the economy.

McCain has also been forced to spend more time trying to reassure anxious voters -- including many Republicans -- that Palin is qualified to assume the presidency.

Twice on Sunday morning, in an interview on Fox News and later in a conference call with Orthodox rabbis and other Jewish leaders, McCain defended his decision to select the first-term governor and former small-town mayor.

He also opened his remarks at his first rally, in Westerville, Ohio, by praising Palin as "a role model and a reformer" who had "energized America."

Palin electrified delegates at the Republican National Convention and continues to draw far larger, more euphoric crowds than McCain. And, initially, she helped McCain rise sharply in the polls and briefly overtake Obama's once solid lead in national polls.

But the bounce subsided quickly amid the economic crisis. Despite Palin's credible performance in the one vice presidential debate, polls show that she has become a liability for McCain, with a plurality saying her presence makes them less likely to vote for the GOP ticket.

But McCain admits to no second thoughts. He called his running mate "a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America," and insisted that he "could not be more pleased."

"She's the best thing that could have happened to my campaign and to America," he said on Fox News. "And when I see the enthusiasm and I see the passion that she has aroused, I am so happy."




By Mark Z. Barabak and Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2008

Election officials around the country are bracing for huge voter turnout and a big spike in early voting may not be enough to prevent long lines at the polls come November 4.

A number of key swing states around the country are reporting significant increases in voter registrations, an early indicator of how many people are likely to vote come Election Day. Among battleground states with the biggest gains in voter registration are Nevada, up 30 percent, Virginia, up 11 percent and North Carolina, up 9 percent.

But even swing states with less significant jumps such as Ohio or Missouri, where registration is actually down slightly statewide, have seen huge increases concentrated in particular counties and cities that could overwhelm local officials.

Ohio's Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland and its suburbs that has a history of election problems, has seen a 10 percent increase in registered voters compared to 2004 and St. Louis, Missouri is seeing the highest registration levels in a quarter century.

Overall, 13 battleground states have already received 3.4 million new registrations as of Oct. 14, compared to 1.8 million new registrations in 2004, according to Laura Quinn, chief executive of Catalist, which tracks voter registration for progressive organizations.

"This is a tsunami for all election boards," says Richard Bauer, the assistant director of the St. Louis County Board of Election commissioners, which includes St. Louis' suburbs.

The high level of interest in the election leaves local officials scrambling for unprecedented voter turnout. In Virginia, for example, the Secretary of State's office is projecting 90 percent voter turnout statewide, compared to 71 percent in 2004. Nationally, Mary Wilson, president of the League of Women Voters, says many election officials are bracing for 80 to 85 percent turnout. Of particular concern is that a flood of first-time voters navigating the polling place for the first time could make lines move even slower.

In St. Louis County, the number of poll workers is being increased by 20 percent from 4,900 to 6,000, says Bauer. Virginia has added 300 new polling places.

But nationally, a study released by the Century Foundation and Common Cause of 10 swing states found significant problems remain in the allocation of voting machines, and the recruitment and training of poll workers. Increasingly complicated voting laws and technology have strained the army of low-paid senior citizens most localities rely on to operate polling places.

Local officials and both presidential campaigns have encouraged voters to cast their ballots prior to the election. Many states allow voters to cast their ballots early in person or use absentee ballots without an excuse such as illness or being out of town.

Early voting is expected to increase from eight percent in 2004 to a third of voters this year, predicts Paul Gronke, who directs Reed College's early voting information center.

"Election administrators are trying to push these methods to reduce the pressure on their staffs," says Gronke.

Those efforts appear to be working. In Colorado, 57 percent of voters received absentee ballots and 100,000 of them had already been received as of Oct. 15. Gronke says he expects about half of votes to come in before election day in Nevada and New Mexico, too.

Ohio voters had requested 1.2 million absentee ballots as of mid-October, compared to 500,000 in 2004, according to Catalist.

Nevertheless, Wilson of the League of Women Voters says that if voter turnout does exceed 80 percent, even high early voting may not be enough to prevent long lines during peak voting hours.

"You reach a point where nothing you can do can make much of a difference," Wilson says.

By Seth Stern, CQ Politics, October 20, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama has expanded his national lead over Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race to 6 percentage points, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Monday.

Obama leads McCain 50 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, up from Obama's 3-point advantage on Sunday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

The rally by Obama broke a string of three consecutive days when McCain had gained ground on the Illinois senator after their final debate on Wednesday. It was the first time in 14 days of the tracking poll that Obama has reached 50 percent.

"Obama has really consolidated his base, and now has huge leads among young people, African-Americans and Hispanics," said pollster John Zogby.

"Reaching 50 percent puts him in winning territory."

Obama also increased his support among two key swing groups that could be vital in the November 4 election. His edge with independents rose from 8 points to 11 points, and his lead among women grew from 6 points to 8 points.

McCain narrowly trails Obama among men and leads by 13 points, 53 percent to 40 percent, among whites.

"McCain seems to have slipped a little bit, but in the grand scheme it's still a very close race," Zogby said.

Obama has led McCain, an Arizona senator, by between two and six points in all 14 days of polling. "This race has not really moved all that much in two weeks," Zogby said.

POWELL ENDORSEMENT

The expanding lead for Obama came as he received the endorsement of Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell and announced he had raised a stunning $150 million in September.

His fundraising haul shattered the records he already owns and will fuel a huge advantage for Obama in paid advertising in the final 15 days of the campaign.

Some other tracking polls also showed the race tightening in the last few days, but with the help of his huge spending advantage Obama has continued to hold an edge on McCain in some key battleground states.

The poll, taken Friday through Sunday, showed independent Ralph Nader and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney with 1 percent support. Libertarian Bob Barr barely registered any support.

The rolling tracking poll surveyed 1,211 likely voters in the presidential election. In a tracking poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped in an effort to track changing momentum.

The U.S. president is determined not by who wins the most national votes but by who wins the Electoral College, which has 538 members apportioned by population in each state. Electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states, which divide them by congressional district.

By John Whitesides, Reuters, October 20, 2008

MOSINEE, Wis. - John McCain hurried along the edge of the crowd, using both hands to reach across metal barriers and make fleeting contact with supporters. He had just finished one rally, and his plane was waiting to ferry him to the next.

Then he spotted a veteran wearing a "Marine" cap. McCain slowed, then stopped.

"Thank you for your service," McCain told the man.

A former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain will always make time for a fellow veteran.

Working the "ropeline" - the fence or security barricade that separates a candidate from the crowd - is part of the rhythm of any presidential campaign. Some candidates are energized by the experience; others view it as a chore.

In McCain's case, his reaction seems to hinge on whether he's established a connection with the crowd during his appearance: If it's been a boisterous, enthusiastic group, he's inclined to linger and shake hands. If he's gotten a lukewarm reception, he'll bolt for the motorcade.

"Good to see you," is about as deep as McCain goes as he greets most voters after his events. But he always stops for veterans, one of the few constants in his ropeline routine.

"I'm proud of those veterans who have served their country, that come to my rallies and fire me up. I love them," McCain says.

As the campaign enters its home stretch, McCain's time on the ropeline is becoming more tightly controlled. Advisers try to limit unscripted interactions that can unexpectedly turn sour.

In the age of YouTube, the campaign is all too aware of how quickly word of a ropeline gaffe can spread. McCain's team regularly hammers Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden, for example, for telling a voter along an Ohio ropeline that the United States shouldn't have coal plants. The comment was caught on video and quickly spread across the Internet.

Gone are the days when McCain would endlessly linger after a rally and hold almost a second event to shake hands and talk with voters. It's a sign of just how reined-in the freewheeling candidate has become.

It's a far cry from the days back in New Hampshire - the state that resurrected McCain's primary-election campaign from the brink of disaster - when McCain would wade into crowds to talk with voters. An aide would hand him a permanent marker and he'd sign copies of his books or napkins or posters. He would get into discussions with voters who disagreed with what he'd said during a town-hall meeting.

Even as recently as August, McCain regularly walked over to voters to meet with them, as he did at an Orlando, Fla., Olive Garden with Senate buddies Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Florida's Mel Martinez. It was a case of retail politics blending with restaurant doggie bags.

Those days are over. After dinner in Minneapolis last week, McCain made a restaurant-to-motorcade beeline.

Aides attribute the shift to the time demands that come with the campaign's hectic, final days.

"He's still doing town halls, one or two a week. But you've got to cover a lot of territory," said campaign adviser Mark Salter.

When McCain works a ropeline, his face seems to telegraph his thoughts: After a recent teleprompter speech in New Mexico, his expression seemed to suggest, "These rope lines are a chore." But when he walked offstage recently in Davenport, Iowa, where an anti-war protester had stopped him on Saturday, McCain flashed a wide grin and told Salter, "That was fun."

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press, October 20, 2008

Obama Leads on Optimism and Temperment in Final Weeks

More challenges for John McCain: Likely voters overwhelmingly reject his effort to make an issue of Barack Obama's association with 1960s radical William Ayers. Fallout continues from McCain's pick of Sarah Palin for vice president, with 52 percent saying it weakens their confidence in his judgment. And on optimism, it's Obama by 2-1.

Skepticism about the Ayers issue was one of the factors cited by Colin Powell in his endorsement of Obama yesterday, and in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, likely voters broadly agree: 60 percent say Obama's relationship with Ayers is not a legitimate issue in the presidential campaign; 37 percent say it is.

There's less of a split, though, on the Obama campaign's association with the community group ACORN; 49 percent say it's not a legitimate issue, 40 percent say it is, with more, 11 percent, unready to express an opinion on the subject. McCain's accused ACORN of voter registration fraud; the group blames some of its canvassers for filling out faked forms, and says it itself has notified the authorities of such cases.

On the vice presidential candidates, 52 percent of likely voters say McCain's pick of Palin has made them less confident in the kind of decisions he'd make as president; that's up 13 points since just after the selection, as doubts about Palin's qualifications (also voiced by Powell on Sunday) have grown. Just 38 percent say it makes them more confident in McCain's judgment, down 12 points.

Those numbers are more than reversed on Obama's pick of Joe Biden: 56 percent of likely voters say it makes them more confident in Obama's decision-making, 31 percent less so.

Optimism, meanwhile, is a strong point of differentiation between the two candidates. Likely voters by 62 percent to 30 percent see Obama as more optimistic than McCain - all else equal, an attractive quality in a candidate, as Ronald Reagan demonstrated. And in a similar attribute, voters by a 17-point margin, 54-37 percent, see Obama has having the better personality and temperament for office.

INDIES - On all these, the views of swing-voting independents are critical. They see Obama as more optimistic by 57-31 percent and as better-suited temperamentally by 52-36 percent. The Palin pick makes them less rather than more confident in McCain's judgment by 51-39 percent, while the Biden selection makes them more rather than less confident in Obama by 50-33 percent.

Independents by 60-37 percent say Ayers is not a legitimate issue; on ACORN they divide more narrowly, 47-42 percent.

OTHERS - There are other differences among groups. Views of the Palin selection, naturally, are highly partisan. But majorities of moderates (62 percent), young adults (59 percent) and women (56 percent) all say it makes them less confident in McCain's judgment. (More women than men say so.) So do near majorities, 48 percent, of white women and married women alike.

The pick plays better in the GOP base: 70 of Republicans, 68 percent of evangelical white Protestants and 67 percent of conservatives say the selection of Palin makes them more confident in McCain's decision-making.

On Ayers, similarly, 62 percent of conservatives and 67 percent of Republicans say it's a legitimate issue. Just 29 percent of moderates, 12 percent of liberals and 10 percent of Democrats agree.

METHODOLOGY: This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 16-18, 2008, among a random national sample of 995 likely voters, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a 3-point error margin for the full sample. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by TNS of Horsham, Pa.

By GARY LANGER, ABC News, Oct. 20, 2008

Barack Obama's record-breaking September fundraising puts him on track to spend as much as a half-billion dollars for the general election, or almost double the resources of Republican opponent John McCain.

Obama, the first major-party nominee to shun public funding for the general election, reported taking in $150 million in September, the most ever raised by a presidential candidate in one month and more than twice as much as his previous record of $66 million in August.

He entered September with $95 million in the bank. Combined with the $50 million raised by the Democratic National Committee, which can be spent on his behalf, Obama brought in another $200 million last month. Political observers expect him and the party to at least match those figures in October, giving Obama around $500 million for the two-month campaign ending with the Nov. 4 election.

McCain accepted $84.1 million in federal money, barring him from directly raising private funds except to cover certain legal and accounting costs. Combined with the $103 million in the bank he entered September with, plus an estimated $100 million that advisers say the Republican National Committee will raise in September and October, McCain will have around $300 million for the general election.

'Tactical Flexibility'

"From a tactical standpoint, Obama's decision to refuse public money was remarkably successful, and it means that he has tactical flexibility as we move into the final couple of weeks of the campaign,'' said Arthur Sanders, chairman of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. "McCain cannot answer in kind.''

The money advantage allows Obama to continue expanding the electoral playing field, setting up offices and airing ads in states such as West Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana, which President George W. Bush won in 2004.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said yesterday the money would also help in North Dakota, another state that voted Republican in recent presidential elections.

McCain drew down his reserves in September, ending the month with $46.9 million in cash, according to a filing his campaign made last night with the Federal Election Commission. The party committees and the Obama campaign are set to file their September reports to the FEC by the end of the day.

Focus on Economy

Obama's bank account also allows him to emphasize issues such as the economy, which favors Democrats, and drown out Republican attacks on his qualifications and positions.

"In framing candidates, advertising money is the name of the game,'' said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey. "Democrats can use this money in the next few weeks to keep public attention focused on the economy, which hurts McCain, and telling the public what Obama is about rather than having the GOP do that for them.''

McCain, 72, yesterday renewed his criticism of Obama for breaking a promise to accept public financing if he won the Democratic nomination.

"We're now going to see huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal,'' McCain said on "Fox News Sunday.''

Ad Spending

The RNC has helped make up the money gap between Obama and McCain, spending $34 million on ads attacking the Democratic nominee during the campaign. The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, has spent $1.1 million on ads attacking McCain, an Arizona senator.

Forsaking public financing also gives Obama, 47, the freedom to decide where to spend his money. Most of the activities of the RNC can't be coordinated with the McCain campaign.

Obama's "financial advantage and, equally important, his strategic control of all of his general election funds allow him to expand the number of battleground states and make it impossible for McCain to map a comeback,'' said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington- based research group.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has now raised $605 million since he began his bid for the White House, more than anyone else has ever brought in. Last month, his campaign added 632,000 new donors, the most ever in a month, for a total of 3.1 million to date.

"These are absolutely astronomical numbers,'' said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "Never before have the Democrats been so flush with funds.''

Even with its record funds, the campaign is no less frugal. Obama press aides yesterday were lamenting that they have to share one tape recorder among four people and that they couldn't convince the campaign to buy them more.

By Jonathan D. Salant and Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg, October 20, 2008

In one of the most important symbolic moments of the general election, former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced today that he is endorsing Barack Obama for president. Making his decision public on NBC News' "Meet the Press," the long-time fixture in Republican administrations effectively reinforced the sense of momentum Obama has been building, declaring the Senator from Illinois as a "transformational figure." "I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, a fresh set of ideas to the table," said Powell. "I think we need a generational change, and I think Senator Obama has captured the feelings of the young people of America, and is reaching out in a more diverse, inclusive way across our society."

Sources say Obama courted Powell's support for well over a year, with private discussions that have largely involved policy consultations, but also some explicit pleas for support. Powell's neutrality up until now had worried some Republicans, and a possible nod for Obama has been rumored and discussed for months. Whenever he has been asked in public about Obama, Powell has had nothing but kind words but, before his appearnace on Meet the Press, always stopped short of a full endorsement.

The decision is not only symbolic but, in terms of timing, one of great tactical importance. Powell is a brand unto himself in American politics, and clearly transcends the media's tendency to hype endorsements more than their actual importance to voters. However, the indisputable benefit that Powell brings Obama is that the former Secretary of State and general is sure to block out any chance McCain has of winning the next two or three days of news coverage, as the media swoons over the implications of the choice. It is simple political math: McCain has 15 days to close a substantial gap, and he will now lose at least one fifth of his total remaining time.

Powell's decision brings other clear benefits as well. He is so trusted for his judgment on national security (even in the wake of his role in the current Iraq War) that his confidence in Obama to become commander-in-chief will resonate with many elites and voters. The Democrats' ability to play the Powell card for the next two weeks makes it much harder, even if there is an unexpected international crisis, for Republicans to suggest Obama simply isn't qualified to protect the country. Powell reinforced Obama's qualifications on "Meet the Press": "Senator Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm, patient, intellectual, steady approach to problem-solving that I think we need in this country."

If some voters still see Obama as a nebulous, unknown figure with questionable associations and liberal tendencies that makes them wary of voting for an African-American, Powell's decision may ease their minds. In some ways his image is the perfect complement to Obama's. Unlike the newly arrived Obama, Powell has been an establishment figure of vast experience in the national spotlight for well over a decade on military and international affairs, first as a career Army man, then in a variety of national security roles, culminating in his service as Secretary of State.

When Powell considered his own run for president in 1995, his political advisers found that there was an extraordinarily wide and deep well of support for the retired general as a political figure. In fact, by some standards, before Obama, Powell was the most successful African-American politician of the last two decades, without ever actually seeking elective office. Even after being tied to the Bush administration and its widely disliked foreign policy decisions, Powell has maintained extraordinary popularity, with nearly three quarters of Americans continuing to view him favorably, in part because he is perceived as a non-partisan figure, almost above politics.

Finally, Powell long ago cast his lot with the Republican Party, even though he is known to have disagreements with the GOP on some social issues. He has been a powerful speaker at party events, and one of the truly powerful symbols the party has had to deploy. His crossover endorsement is Obama's biggest yet from a Republican and fuels many of the Democrat's regular themes: Obama is the future and McCain the past; Obama - and his party - can be trusted on national security, Bush mishandled the Iraq conflict; and other Republicans (and independents) should be comfortable supporting the man from Illinois.

Powell will not become a full-throated partisan on Obama's behalf, but the two are now joined symbolically. It is most similar to Senator Edward Kennedy's endorsement of Obama over Hillary Clinton in February, which garnered extraordinary news coverage at a critical moment and broke the spirits of the opposition. Like Kennedy, Powell is a larger than life figure who commands a wide following. Powell says he will not campaign actively for Obama , but he does not need to. His words on Sunday were more than enough.

By MARK HALPERIN, Time, October 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - With little relief in sight, people are getting more anxious about the slumping economy and how it affects them.

The share of people who believe the country is moving in the right direction has plunged in just a few weeks, from 28 percent in September to 15 percent in October, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters that was released Monday.

At the same time there is a drop in those surveyed who say they are happy about the way things are going in their own lives. Now 59 percent say they are personally happy, compared with 70 percent last month.

The magnitude of the financial meltdown and its impact on the overall economy is hitting people hard across the social and economic spectrum.

Strikingly, one-third are worried about losing their jobs, half fret they will be unable to keep up with mortgage and credit card payments, and seven in 10 are anxious that their stocks and retirement investments are losing value, according to the poll.

Also, there is widespread distress about being able to afford unexpected medical expenses and children's college expenses, and having to postpone retirement because their savings have eroded, the survey found.

"I'm just a normal person trying to get by in life," said Mary Huss, 57, an unemployed social worker from Salinas, Calif., who is facing cash shortages and questions about how she will pay her medical costs and her teenagers' college expenses. "And yet I feel fortunate that I'm not in the place where a lot of Americans are where they're losing their homes."

The AP-Yahoo News poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, has repeatedly interviewed a group of about 2,000 people since last November in an effort to get a person-by-person view of how the country is reacting to the presidential campaign and the events affecting it.

The picture the survey paints of those who have grown less happy since September is telling. One-third are retirees.

James Haste, 78, of Arvada, Colo., is among those who have watched their retirement savings shrink.

In September he said the nation was headed in the right direction. Now he is among the 84 percent who say it is hurtling off track. The retired engineer lists the financial crisis, the energy situation and rising unemployment as the top problems.

"Markets are going to come back, but not soon," he said. Banks and other financial institutions "are going to have to write off a lot of bad stuff, and who's going to take the hit? The banks can't do it if they're going to stay in business. It's a slow process."

A Republican, Haste said he sees government bailouts such as the $700 billion plan passed by Congress this month and the Treasury Department's plans to buy shares in major banks as necessary evils. Overall, 54 percent said they approved of the rescue plan, 28 percent disapproved and the rest had no opinion.

The poll shows how financial worries have permeated all corners of society, with some hit harder than others:

- Though about one-third worry about financing a child's college education, six in 10 people under age 45 are anxious about it.

- 53 percent worry they will have to work longer because their retirement savings have dwindled, and 66 percent of people in their 40s feel that way.

- One-third worry about losing their job, but nearly half in their 30s and 40s do.

- Forty-six percent of whites and 62 percent of blacks worry about making mortgage and credit card payments.

- Sixty-six percent overall are concerned about facing major medical bills, including 78 percent of unmarried women.

Public approval of both President Bush and Congress has followed the downward spiral of financial markets, the survey showed.

The poll found that 25 percent said they approved of the way Bush was handling his presidency, down from 32 percent in August. Remarkably, just 3 percent said they strongly approve of the job Bush is doing, compared with 51 percent strongly disapproving.

Just 11 percent said they approved of the job Congress is doing, while virtually no one gave lawmakers strong approval.

Anderson Lee, 21, a caregiver from Bowling Green, Ohio, is among those saying the country is heading the right way.

"Certainly there are some problems we're facing now with the economy and overseas issues," Lee said. "But we've faced larger problems in the past. That spirit of working together and working to make the country better will drive us through the problems we're facing."

Donna Gasior, 43, a professor at a Detroit-area community college, said the stock market tumble is having a "huge effect because pretty much everyone's retirement funds are in the stock market." She said she believes she has time to recoup but her 69-year-old mother "gets a majority of her income just from investments."

A Democrat, Gasior said that "mismanagement and policies have really come home to roost with the economic collapse we're seeing. I think things have been on the wrong track for a long time."

The AP-Yahoo News poll included 841 likely voters, was conducted from Oct. 3-13, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Included were interviews with 373 Democrats, 252 Republicans and 214 independents.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press, October 20, 2008

John McCain suggested that his Democratic rival Barack Obama's record-shattering fundraising haul will lead to scandal in their presidential race and future races, and he hinted that there may already be funny business going on with Obama's legions of small donors.

Obama announced Sunday morning that he pulled in $150 million in September, which McCain described on "Fox News Sunday" as "completely breaking whatever idea we had after Watergate to keep the cost and spending on campaigns under control. First time, first time since the Watergate scandal. And I can tell you this: that has unleashed now in presidential campaigns a new flood of spending that will then cause a scandal and then we will fix it again. But Sen. Obama has broken it."

The Republican senator from Arizona was referring both to Obama's reversal on a pledge to participate a system that gave McCain's campaign $84 million in taxpayer money but limited his spending to that amount, and also to recent news reports highlighting over-the-limit contributions to Obama given in under-$200 installments from previously undisclosed small donors. Some were fictitious and had listed names such as "Doodad Pro" and "Good Will."

Federal election rules only require campaigns to report the names, addresses and occupations of donors when they have given more than $200 - and more than $200 million of Obama's total fundraising haul is from such small contributions.

"We know that when you have unlimited amounts of money - in this case $200 million unreported - and there's already been stories of people who have made small contributions multiple times and all that. I'm saying it's laying a predicate for the future that can be very dangerous," McCain told host Chris Wallace in a live interview from Ohio on Sunday morning, blasting the Illinois senator for not voluntarily disclosing his small donors, as McCain has done.

"There's $200 million of those campaign contributions - there's no record. You can report online now. Two hundred million that we don't know where it came from. Lot of strange things going on in this campaign. The American people should know where every penny came from," McCain said. "They know where every penny of my campaign contributions came from."

McCain also defended his campaign's controversial robocalls hitting Obama for his past association with former 1960s radical Bill Ayers, saying the calls are "legitimate and truthful" and "far different" than the robocalls attacking him during his failed bid for the GOP nomination in 2000.

And McCain challenged Wallace's assertion that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had become "a drag" on the GOP ticket.

"As a cold political calculation, I could not be more pleased," McCain said, calling Palin "a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America" and asserting "she's the best thing that could have happened to my campaign and to America."

By Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, October 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - Two weeks before Election Day, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is busily banking every early vote he can get in key states. Republican nominee John McCain is more selectively working to lock in the early votes of his most iffy supporters, figuring the rest will make it to the polls sooner or later.

Voters in every state can now cast ballots through early voting or absentee voting programs. Results won't be released until Nov. 4, but a look at those who have voted shows the Democrats have been aggressive.

In Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, Democrats - or at least those living in heavily Democratic areas - are requesting and submitting ballots in large numbers. In Florida, Republicans hold an edge, while in Indiana, absentee voting has been split among Republican and Democratic areas.

President Bush won all six states in 2004, and McCain probably needs to win them all to claim the White House this year. The early voting snapshot, taken more than two weeks before Election Day, illustrates the strategies and strengths of both presidential campaigns.

Obama is pushing early voting on a grand scale, in speeches, e-mails, a Web site and even ads placed inside video games. Eighteen video games, including the extremely popular "Guitar Hero" and "Madden 09," will feature in-game ads from the Obama campaign.

"We are trying to expand the electorate and expand the process," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.

Republicans, meanwhile, are targeting supporters who don't always vote in presidential elections, believing they can get more reliable voters to the polls on Nov. 4, said Rich Beeson, political director for the Republican National Committee.

Obama could win the absentee vote race in some competitive states, but Republicans are hoping McCain will more than make up the difference on Election Day, Beeson said. The Republicans, with their extensive database of voter information, have long had a formidable get-out-the-vote operation.

Nationwide, about a third of the electorate is expected to vote early this year, thanks to expanded early voting provisions and fewer restrictions on absentee voting. That would be up from 22 percent in 2004 and 16 percent in 2000.

Ebonee Lusk, who voted early in Fort Wayne, Ind., said she couldn't wait until Nov. 4 to cast her ballot for Obama. "I wanted to get in, cast my vote for Barack Obama and make sure my vote counts," said Lusk, 28.

Leonard Goeglein, an 80-year-old Fort Wayne retiree, said he made sure to get his vote in for McCain before he heads to Florida for the winter.

"We're going to get out of the cold weather for awhile so I had to vote early," Goeglein said.

Absentee voting used to be reserved mainly for people who were unable to make it to the polls on Election Day, whether they were too sick to travel, away on business or serving in the military. This year, more than 30 states allow any registered voter to cast an early ballot, some in person and others by mail.

Election officials in many states report high demand for absentee ballots.

"Every presidential year it gets bigger as more people get comfortable with it and they understand the process," said Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro. "It's a fact of life that people in America like to do things at their own convenience."

As of last Wednesday, about 300,000 voters had requested absentee ballots in Iowa, with registered Democrats requesting about 60,000 more ballots than registered Republicans.

There was a similar pattern in Franklin County, Ohio, a key county that includes Columbus, the state capital. As of last week, about 76,000 registered Democrats had voted or requested absentee ballots, compared to 41,000 Republicans and 89,000 unaffiliated voters.

Early voting in Ohio has sparked controversy, with Republicans challenging the legality of a weeklong period at the start of October when Ohioans could register and vote on the same day. State and federal courts upheld the voting window, and some Democrats predicted tens of thousands of college students would register and vote for Obama all in one step.

But only 13,141 voters went to the polls during the period, leading Republicans to mockingly dub it "Golden Week."

In North Carolina, more than 200,000 voters went the polls in the first two days of early voting, last Thursday and Friday. Some 62 percent were registered Democrats while 22 percent were registered Republicans. On Sunday, the Cumberland County elections board added two early voting sites to accommodate people attending an Obama rally in Fayetteville, drawing criticism from state GOP leaders.

In Georgia, more than 540,000 ballots had already been cast as of Wednesday, eclipsing the total number of early voters in 2004. Georgia doesn't track absentee ballots by political party, but many of those votes were in the Democratic strongholds of metropolitan Atlanta.

Also, black voters, who overwhelmingly support Obama, made up a disproportionately high percentage of Georgia's early voters, accounting for 37 percent. Blacks represent 29 percent of the state's 5.6 million registered voters.

Polls show Obama trailing McCain in Georgia, but high turnout among black voters could make the race more competitive.

In Florida, a perennial battleground, voters had requested more than 1.6 million absentee ballots, with registered Republicans requesting about 220,000 more ballots than Democrats, according to numbers compiled by both political parties.

Early voting is becoming more popular because voters like the convenience, campaigns want to bank votes and election workers want to ease crowding on Election Day, said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org.

"It's exactly like TiVo," Chapin said. "My favorite TV show is on at a time when I can't watch it or it's not convenient for me to watch it. It's the same thing with voting."

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press, October 19, 2008

John McCain demurred Sunday when given the chance to echo his campaign's stinging critique of a New York Times' profile of his wife Cindy.

"What's your reaction, and her reaction, to the story?" Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday" asked McCain during a live interview on the program.

"I didn't read it. I heard about it," McCain said. "I suggested that she not do that either."

That's quite a different tone than the one with which the McCain campaign pushed back against the story, which was published in Saturday's paper and, among other things, posited that Cindy McCain "aspires to be like" Princess Diana and habitually fudges details.

The McCain campaign, which has often accused the Gray Lady of favoring McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama, issued a statement Friday night calling the Cindy McCain profile "yet another in a series of vicious attacks on Senator John McCain, this time targeting not the candidate, but his wife Cindy. Under the guise of a 'profile' piece, the New York Times fails to cover any new ground or provide any discernible value to the reader other than to portray Mrs. McCain in the worst possible light."

The statement, which concluded that the piece was "gutter journalism at its worst - an unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate's spouse," was accompanied by a letter in which Cindy McCain's attorney complained to the newspaper's executive editor, Bill Keller, that the paper had scrutinized the GOP nominee's wife but not aspects of Barack Obama's past, including his admitted youthful drug use.

Wallace, who called the story in question "a very rough piece about your wife," asked McCain whether he agreed "that if they're going to go into these kinds of matters, that the New York Times should investigate Barack Obama's drug dealer."

This time, McCain dodged the question entirely, responding "I just want to go on with this campaign. Most Americans want in these difficult economic times to see who has a plan of action for getting our economy out of the ditch, helping working families, men and women. I think I made a very good point of that, that I have that plan, in the debate the other night. I think it's being reflected in the polls. I know it's being reflected in our campaign events. And I'm very pleased where we are. And I love being the underdog. You know every time that I've gotten ahead, somehow I messed it up."

By Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, October 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said Monday.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC's "Today" in an interview aired Monday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush's former secretary of state, endorsed him.

"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss," Obama said.

Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that's relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator. Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network's "Meet the Press" a day earlier.

In that interview, Powell called Obama a "transformational figure" in the nation's history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain's campaign tactics. But, Powell said, he didn't plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the Nov. 4 election.

"I won't lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop," Obama said with a grin Monday. "Obviously, if he wants to show up he's got an open invitation."

Powell's endorsement came just hours after Obama's campaign disclosed that it raised $150 million in September - obliterating the old record of $66 million it had set only one month earlier.

He expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying "it goes too far."

McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell's endorsement, saying it wasn't a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.

The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

At a boisterous rally Sunday, Obama said McCain was "out of ideas and almost out of time."

He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wis., next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Instead, he intends to spend two days this week in Florida, where early voting begins on Monday, and travel to Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Nevada and Indiana. Those states hold 97 electoral votes combined, and Bush won all in 2004.

Obama also may stop in West Virginia, where his campaign recently bought statewide television advertising in a late attempt to put the state's five electoral votes into serious contention.

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press, October 20, 2008