A McHurry-Cain on the Brain

Kausfiles :

The See-Saw Cuts Both Ways: Republicans have been gaining in the "generic" Congressional ballot, according to The Hill...As someone rooting for an Obama victory coupled with a small Dem majority in Congress, I've worried that in all the last minute confusion the See wouldn't know which way to Saw, given the countervailing possibility that ticket-splitting voters would side with McCain and compensate by voting for Dems in downballot Senate and House races. ... But if the MSM Final Push to Victory. among other factors, really does help produce a big Obama closing surge, that could (perversely!) tip the ticket-splitters' lever against Franken, Martin, etc., no?

If you think Obama is going to win, having more Republicans around to act as a check (and support him in times of national peril -- something the "Obama wing" is unlikely to do) then voting Republican down ticket makes sense.

A few months back I added my twist: What if the late Obama surge (Yes, I saw it coming!) is more media brain farting than a political storm? This is most unlikely to happen, of course. Obama is ahead in every poll. Still, the voters may take a look at the leap they are about to make and decide to stay on this side of the political Chasm. In this case, folks may vote for McCain but knowing he'll loose, vote for the Republican down ticket (instead of splitting their vote). In which case we could have McCain by a nose and a better than expected Republican outcome in Congress.

Yes, one last pleasant dream.

Who puts the GO in GO-vernment? Barack Does!

Well, I didn't watch Sen. Obama's "advertisement for myself!" because I ain't buying it. Also, I heard consumers will spend less of their own money this Christmas (though likely more of someone else's). So this morning I did a little catching up on what the iO said ("Here's what I'll do!") via a surprising source: The AP.

Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities

THE SPIN: "Here's what I'll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we'll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. "

THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."

When the iO said, "scale back some of his proposals" he meant John McCain's proposals, not the iO's own proposals -- for instance, there is that whole Pentagon thing which can be turned into affordable housing.

On tax increases, his floor has come down from $250,000 to $200,000 in one week. Sen. Biden then knocked it down to $150,000. Let's see, dropping at fifty thousand a week their tax increase floor should be under me by Thanksgiving.  In fact my feet feel more firmly planted already. I thank whatever gods may be for my Go-vernment -- which goes not just for me, but for you, too! 

This looks like France. A landslide.

Via The Corner

Is Team Obama Worried McCain Will Pull It Out?

Don't Let Up, Europhile Obamaniacs. Go to France and get out the vote.

And now that they've invented spell check, even I could do it.

Jules Crittenden » Embarrassment

Yeah, well here’s my advice on that point, Mike. Call yourself a reporter, an editor, a columnist, a commentator, whatever it is you actually do. “Journalist” is a bogus word for people who are trying to make it sound like this wretched business is something exalted, something professional, something that requires arcane, secret knowledge hard come by. All things it never was, as amply demonstrated on a regular basis by some of the best in the business working at some of the finest publications in the nation.

I was talking to a friend about the news "business" a decade or so ago and opined the Columbia school of Journalism graduates were quickly squandering the reputation for reliability that high school drop outs built over the past century.

Sheer Panic: it ain't panty hose.

Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come - Times Online

Dubbed Dr Doom for his gloomy views, this lugubrious disciple of the “dismal science” is now the world’s most in-demand economist. He reckons he is getting about four hours’ sleep a night. Last week he was in Budapest, London, Madrid and New York. Next week he will address Congress in Washington. Do not expect any good news.

Contacted in Madrid on Friday, Roubini said the world economy was “at a breaking point”. He believes the stock markets are now “essentially in free fall” and “we are reaching the point of sheer panic”.

For all his recent predictive success, his critics still urge calm. They charge he is a professional doom-monger who was banging on about recession for years as the economy boomed. Roubini is stung by such charges, dismissing them as “pathetic”.

OK. I know what I'm gonna do. After Obama wins and those government checks start rolling in I am going to cash them and buy gold.

CNN reports Desperately

Yesterday Democratic friends of mine told me of a CNN report about chaos and back stabbing in the McCain Campaign. They were hoping to get me barking mad, of course, but I took the news with equanimity. I good-naturedly pointed out what lying skunks they are over at CNN (it's not about the truth -- unless the truth works -- it's about furthering the lie and shaping opinion to fit the lie). Then today I read this:

CNN Political Ticker: Palin warns Obama would create nanny state if elected

"Are we hearing what he is saying with 10 days to go?” she asked plaintively. “Are voters hearing what he is saying about his plans for bigger government?”

Asked plaintively. Yep: Now it is chaos and desperation in the campaign rhetoric!

Way to go Z-man! Zero out that poll!

Zogby International

“There is no question that this race continues to tighten and that McCain is finding his message again,” said Pollster John Zogby. “It is after all about the economy and that is how McCain tightened it up the last time. I have said over and over again, when he focuses on extraneous issues, he screws up. In today's single day of polling, it was 49% to 46% in favor of Obama. McCain has moved his own numbers each of the three days and Obama has gone down from 54% to 50% to 49%. I have alluded before to this strange, magnetic pull that brings Obama down to 48% or 49%, a danger zone for him. McCain's gains are among white voters, where he now leads by 12 points, and with men, where he again has a healthy lead. There is still a lot of campaign to go. A lot of campaign to go.”

Just the other day the Zog produced a poll with Obama up 12. Now he is saying it is basically a three point race -- in other words, within the margin of error. This swing occurs in a matter of forty-eight hours. A strange magnetic pull indeed. Talk about spin. From the North Pole toward the South Pole.