memeorandum: Haters — In this week's New Yorker, Steve Coll remarks … (Ross Douthat)

8:10 AM ET, October 22, 2008

Top Items:

Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:

RNC appears to shell out $150K for Palin fashion — The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

Mark Murray / MSNBC:

Poll: Obama opens biggest lead over McCain — Dem leads rival by 10 points among registered voters in NBC/WSJ survey — WASHINGTON - With voters' increased confidence in his ability to serve as commander in chief, as well as a majority who now believe he would do a good job as president …

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, The Moderate Voice, CNN, Marc Ambinder, MyDD, Comments from Left Field, The Swamp, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, Firedoglake, Democratic Strategist, Hotline On Call, TPM Election Central, The Washington Independent and Donklephant

Marc Ambinder:

Republicans Disgusted By RNC Spending On Palin … There is already an attempt to blame the media — as in, the liberal media would have looked askance at Palin if she wasn't clad in Neiman Marcus, but this won't wash. Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed …

Discussion: The Jed Report

Associated Press:

AP INVESTIGATION: Alaska funded Palin kids' travel — ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, JammieWearingFool, Political Machine and The Washington Independent

Pew Research Center:
Growing Doubts About McCain's Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The RNC's Stimulus Package

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Oliver Willis

Lewis Diuguid / Midwest Voices:

Shame on McCain and Palin for using an old code word for black — The “socialist” label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots. — J. Edgar Hoover …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Jules Crittenden, Newshoggers.com, Classical Values, Media Blog, Babalu Blog, HillBuzz, IMAO, Gateway Pundit and The Volokh Conspiracy

CNN:

Palin discusses potential plans for America — (CNN) — Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin vowed on Tuesday to use her executive experience to tackle government reform and energy independence if she and Sen. John McCain win this year's presidential election.

Discussion: TalkLeft, PoliGazette and The Huffington Post

Ross Douthat:

Haters — In this week's New Yorker, Steve Coll remarks that at McCain-Palin rallies “the mood has been not so much socialist as national-socialist.” This comes on the heels of last week's New Yorker, in which Hendrik Hertzberg described McCain-Palin rallies as “bloodcurdling hate-fests.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

CNN: Palin apologizes for patriot ‘pro-America areas’ comment

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Is Palin A 2012 Contender or Pretender?

Discussion: New York Times, Real Clear Politics and Marc Ambinder

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

SURPRISE, SURPRISE — So Gov. Palin is giving her first interview to CNN to CNN's investigative reporter Drew Griffin. — Remember this is the guy they sent to Alaska to investigate Trooper-gate and came back snarking, “But please tell me if you think [Trooper Mike Wooten's] tale …

Discussion: Think Progress, CNN, Washington Monthly, TIME.com, No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

CNN: Transcript of Palin interview with CNN

Byron York / The Corner:
Palin and CNN — A bit more on CNN's “quote” from National Review …

Discussion: Eunomia and 24Ahead

Terry McSweeney / KGO-TV:

Protestor tries to arrest Rove in SF — SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There was major political theater involving President Bush's former chief of staff Karl Rove. A protestor tried to arrest Rove for treason Tuesday morning while he was speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association Convention, continuing in San Francisco.

Discussion: The LA Times President … and skippy the bush kangaroo

Desi / Greatscat!:
Another attempt to arrest the nation's most innocent man

Discussion: Think Progress

Jim Rutenberg / The Caucus:

McCain's Camp Shaves Its Ad Targets — Democrats who monitor advertising spending now put at five the number of states where Senator John McCain is reducing his advertising - New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maine and Minnesota. — In essence, Mr. McCain's campaign has decided to spread …

Discussion: Donklephant, Top of the Ticket, FiveThirtyEight.com, Open Left, Crooked Timber, TPM Election Central, Swampland, Kevin Drum and Maine Politics

Dave / Political Machine:

A Closer Look At the State Polling — Alternate Title #1: Why the Democrats are still very nervous. — Alternate title #2: Why John McCain is touring PA today. — RCP is THE must-have resource for any election and this one is no different. While I've been keeping a sharp eye on the state polling …

Discussion: Riehl World View

Mark Hemingway / The Corner:

The Emperor Has No Taste Buds — Here's humorist David Sedaris in that bastion of sophistication, The New Yorker, on undecided voters: — To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat.

Discussion: New Yorker

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Police prepare for unrest — Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest. — Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Making Light and Mother, May I Sleep …

CNN:

Rendell ‘still a little nervous’ about Penn., asks Obama to return — (CNN) — Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has sent two separate memos to the Obama campaign in the past five days requesting that the Democratic Presidential candidate—as well as Hillary and Bill Clinton—return to campaign in Pennsylvania …

Discussion: Open Left, Classical Values, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, www.redstate.com and Truthdig

Rich Lowry / The Corner:

CNN's Rank Dishonesty — Watch this clip from a CNN interview with Sarah Palin (I'm assuming nothing of significance has been edited out by TPM). And then read the context of the quote from Byron's favorable story on how Palin governed from an issue ago: … I'm disgusted, but not surprised.

Discussion: Hot Air

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
INCOMPETENT, STUPID, UNQUALIFIED, CORRUPT, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE?

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Breitbart.tv:

WHILE MUCH OF MEDIA IGNORES, MSNBC AND NBC MISLEAD ON BIDEN AUDIO — In reporting on Joe Biden's controversial statements about the world “testing” a President Obama, both NBC and MSNBC played similar but milder audio of statements made by Biden in San Francisco on Saturday rather …

Discussion: Clayton Cramer's BLOG and INSTAPUTZ

The Huffington Post:

McCain Accidentally Agrees: Western Pennsylvania Is Racist — Sen. John McCain offered, on Tuesday, what may go down as one of the more awkward moments of this campaign cycle, in which — speaking in Western Pennsylvania — he declared he 'couldn't agree more' with the sentiment …

Discussion: News Hounds, The Jed Report and Oliver Willis

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:

Obama Opens Double-Digit Lead — New Poll Shows McCain Ceding Ground on Taxes, Values; Palin Loses Shine — WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama has opened up a double-digit lead in the presidential race, with a growing number of voters saying they're now comfortable with the Democratic nominee's values …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Washington Wire, Mudflats, Pajamas Media and Daily Kos

Washington Post:

Big Donors Drive Obama's Money Edge — The record-shattering $150 million in donations that Sen. Barack Obama raised in September represents only part of the financial advantage the Democratic nominee has amassed entering the final weeks of the presidential contest, newly released campaign finance records show.

Discussion: Election Law

EW.com:

Lorne Michaels: How ‘SNL’ Got Sarah Palin — ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How incredibly fortunate was it that the election's breakout star also happens to look exactly like Tina? — LORNE MICHAELS: There was all that, and it's the first election with a star in a long time.

Discussion: TIME.com and The Volokh Conspiracy