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Anne / Nielsen Wire:
21.7% Of Households In Top Local TV Markets Watched Obama Infomercial — The combined overall household rating for Senator Barack Obama's Wednesday night infomercial, in the top 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 21.7.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, BlueOregon, Top of the Ticket, HorseRaceBlog, Campaign Silo, MyDD and Real Clear Politics
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Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed:
Obama ad boosts network ratings — UPDATED: If Barack Obama fails to win the election, perhaps the networks should hire him to entertain viewers on Wednesday nights. — On average, Obama's 30-minute primetime infomercial managed to outperform the usual broadcast programming in the 8 p.m. time period.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Caucus, NY Daily News, Nielsen Wire, Faithful Progressive, Political Machine and Salon
Robert Arena / AMERICAblog News:
McCain stood up by Joe the Plumber — McCain is in Ohio today - home of Joe the Plumber, John McCain's running mate for the last two weeks. McCain just threw a shout out to Joe, who was supposed to be there today. Well: — Oops - did someone get stood up? When Sarah Palin was in Ohio yesterday, Joe was there.
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Mark Murray / MSNBC:
JOE? WHERE DID YOU GO? — From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy — DEFIANCE, Ohio — “Where is Joe? Is Joe here with us today?” — That's the question John McCain asked roughly 6,000 people at Defiance Junior High School here this morning, But the correct answer was no — Joe the Plumber was nowhere to be found.
Roger Simon / The Politico:
McCain camp trying to scapegoat Palin — John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday. — And it has decided on Sarah Palin. — In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”
Discussion:
Comments from Left Field, Wonkette, MSNBC, Reuters, The Moderate Voice, Pam's House Blend, Martini Revolution and The Other McCain
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:WILL HAS NO USE FOR MCCAIN.... It's probably fair to say …
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Prometheus 6
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:Today's Polls, 10/29 — We're getting to you a little bit late tonight …
George F. Will / Washington Post:Call Him John the Careless
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The New Republic, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Firedoglake, Achenblog, The Daily Dish, www.redstate.com, MyDD, Martini Revolution, Reason, TalkLeft, PrestoPundit, INSTAPUTZ, Grasping Reality …, The Other McCain, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Rising Hegemon, The Heretik and The American Conservative
Economist:
It's time — America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world — IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be. Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world.
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Matthew Yglesias, Rising Hegemon, Liberal Values and The Campaign Spot
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Fouad Ajami / Wall Street Journal:
Obama and the Politics of Crowds — The masses greeting the candidate on the trail are a sign of great unease. — There is something odd — and dare I say novel — in American politics about the crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail.
Discussion:
The New Republic, Babalu Blog, Townhall.com, ¡No Pasarán!, HazZzMat, Betsy's Page and PrestoPundit
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Huffington Post Writer Stabs Lover 222 Times — It was inevitable that the Huffington Post would somehow end up sullied by recruiting such a massive army of unpaid contributors. But few would have imagined something this awful: Valued HuffPo political blogger Carol Anne Burger shot herself Friday …
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared
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Michael LaForgia / Palm Beach Post:Police: Ex-lover killed woman in rage in Boynton Beach
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Confederate Yankee, At-Largely, DBKP, Wake up America, Moonbattery and The Other McCain
Randy Ludlow / The Columbus Dispatch:
Checks on ‘Joe’ more extensive than first acknowledged — Tax, welfare info also sought on McCain ally — A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on “Joe the Plumber” were more extensive than it first acknowledged.
Hans Bader / OpenMarket.org:
You're Still A Racist, Obama Advisor Says — Even if you vote for Obama, you're still probably a racist, according to Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, in his remarks at a recent panel discussion at my alma mater. Ogletree, Obama's top advisor on race issues, explains that since Obama is …
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Scott Conroy / CBS News:
Sen. Bond Warns Palin Crowd That Obama Wants Judges Who Empathize With “The Gay” — From CBS News' Scott Conroy: — (CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO.) - Taking the stage as one of the pre-program speakers at a Sarah Palin rally here in Rush Limbaugh's hometown, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri …
Krooney / TIME.com:
Pennsylvania Hope for McCain — Republican must-win state poll from NBC/Mason Dixon: — Obama 47, McCain 43, Undecided 9
Dana Blanton / Fox News:
FOX News Poll: Obama's Edge Over McCain Narrows — The race for the White House has tightened significantly — with Barack Obama now ahead of John McCain by three percentage points — according to a FOX News poll released Thursday. — FOXNews.com — As the candidates make their closing arguments …
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Lead Among Likely Voters 5 to 7 Points — PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama holds a statistically significant lead over John McCain in both Gallup likely voter models, according to Oct. 27-29 Gallup Poll Daily tracking. In the traditional model, which defines likely voters based …
John Hood / The Corner:
A Joke And What It Reveals — Speaking in front of a huge audience at downtown Raleigh rally yesterday, Barack Obama threw off a humorous line about John McCain's accusation that the Obama tax plan is redistributionist: … Ha ha. — Only, in this passage Obama revealed precisely …
Richard S. Dunham / Houston Chronicle:
Poll finds 23% of Texans think Obama is Muslim — WASHINGTON — A University of Texas poll to be released today shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading by comfortable margins in Texas, as expected. But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, Pat Dollard, The E&P Pub, Bob Cesca's Goddamn … and Gateway Pundit
Indianapolis Star:
With presidential race too close to call, ‘every vote counts’ — Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama are locked in a dead heat among Hoosier voters, according to a new Indianapolis Star-WTHR (Channel 13) poll. — More than ever, that means Indiana's 11 electoral votes …
David Peisner / Esquire:
Why White Supremacists Support Barack Obama — How do racists, anti-Semites and all-purpose hate-mongers view the possibility of America's first black president? Not necessarily the way you think they would. — If recent polls are to be believed, white voters favor John McCain over Barack …
Dylan Boyle / Iowa State Daily:
Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls — Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday's rally even though they were not protesting.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:
For immediate release — The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent. — The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures.
Wyatt Andrews / CBS News:
Reality Check: The Cost Of Obama's Pledges — Web Exclusive: If Victorious, Barack Obama May Find Fewer Resources Than He Needs For His Campaign Promises — (CBS) This story was written by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. — Without question, the Barack Obama infomercial served …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Hot Air, www.redstate.com, Betsy's Page, Commentary and Wake up America
The Huffington Post:
GOP Mailer Uses Obama Supporter To Attack...Obama — The Republican Party of Wisconsin is sending out a somewhat peculiar attack-mailer targeting Barack Obama. — The literature accuses the Illinois Democrat of never having “led” like a president is required to do, citing a history of voting …
Discussion:
Grasping Reality …
Elizabeth Chuck / MSNBC:
Feds probe Countrywide's ‘V.I.P.’ program — The wide-ranging criminal investigation into wrongdoing at Countrywide - once the nation's largest mortgage originator - now includes serious scrutiny of a loan program that provided special mortgage deals to the well-connected and powerful, including two U.S. senators.
Larry J. Sabato / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
THE LAST WORD—ALMOST — The Crystal Ball's Next-to-Last Projections for the 2008 Election — Director, U.Va. Center for Politics — These are our 2008 election projections as of Thursday, October 30. We will make final adjustments and tweaks on Monday afternoon, November 3, and post them to the website.
TheInDecider / Comedy Central:
Stephen Colbert Endorses Barack Obama — Several prominent Republicans have announced their support for Barack Obama, which means Stephen's not getting any attention. The media can now talk about the courage it took Stephen to cross party lines into the one that has a pretty good shot of winning.
Discussion:
Washington Wire
Binyamin Appelbaum / Washington Post:
Banks to Continue Paying Dividends — Bailout Money Is for Lending, Critics Say — U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years.
Discussion:
New York Times, Needlenose, Newshoggers.com, The Heretik, The Washington Independent, QandO, AMERICAblog News and On Deadline
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Double digit gap — A reliable source tells me that the CBS/New York Times poll due out later today will have Obama up 11 among likely voters, ticking down two points since their poll a week ago, but still a very, very wide margin in the waning days of the contest.
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