Over a Million Expected at Obama Rally
November 4, 2008 at 5:29 pm (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Chicago, Rally)
Chicago will be home to one of the most electric rallies tonight, which is where Senator Obama will either concede the victory or accept his victory. Fox News Reports:
“City officials said as many as 1 million people are expected at Grant Park to hold a rally for the Democratic presidential candidate that supporters hope will become a historic victory celebration. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley told reporters that the evening will be emotional.
“He comes across to me as being the people’s president,” Illinois’ Secretary of State Jesse White said. “The one who has love in his heart for everyone. He’s a breath of fresh air. This country needs him and this world needs him.”
Security at the event is expected to extremely tight, with bulletproof windows on both sides of the podium where Obama will deliver his remarks. Secret Service agents, along with Chicago police, will monitor the crowd.
A Busy Cup in the Afternoon: November 4th
November 4, 2008 at 4:36 pm (Morning News) (Barack Obama, John McCain, Philadelphia, Sarah Palin, Voter Fraud)
Just a few short hours until the first polls begin to close and there feels like a million things to write about. We’re going to take it nice and slow here as we get closer and closer, hoping not to overwhelm anyone that might be reading the blog today. So, let’s take a look at the news stories that are popping up at this hour.
- Voter Fraud in Philly, Repeat of 2004: “GOP Election Board members have been tossed out of polling stations in at least half a dozen polling stations in Philadelphia because of their party status. A Pennsylvania judge previously ruled that court-appointed poll watchers could be NOT removed from their boards by an on-site election judge, but that is exactly what is happening, according to sources on the ground. It is the duty of election board workers to monitor and guard the integrity of the voting process.”
- Sarah Palin Discusses Her Future: “Sarah Palin appeared calm and confident Tuesday morning during her brief sojourn to Wasilla, Alaska, where she greeted hometown supporters and cast her ballot before departing for Phoenix to join John McCain for an election night rally. The governor voted shortly after 7 a.m. at her former workplace, Wasilla City Hall. According to the National Weather Service, the temperature at the time was 18 degrees. Wearing jeans and accompanied by her husband Todd, Palin told reporters who had gathered to watch her vote that she is “very optimistic.”
- Joe the Plumber Not Optimistic About Senator McCain’s Chances: “Joe the Plumber conceded Monday night that Republican John McCain has a slim chance of defeating Democrat Barack Obama in the race for the White House. Joe Wurzelbacher, the unemployed Ohio plumber who was thrust into the national spotlight in late September after quizzing Mr. Obama about his tax policy, made his prediction on the upcoming presidential election while be interviewed on Inside the Beltway Radio (www.washingtontimes.com).”
- What Results Will Be Interesting Tonight: “We’ll be providing updates throughout the night on The Fix — news! analysis! insight! you’ll laugh! you’ll cry! — but in the long dark tea time between now and when the polls start to close, check out our election viewer’s guide. We’ve broken down the key states, congressional districts and counties you need to watch on an hour by hour basis. Enjoy and remember to tune into The Fix tonight for all the news you need to know on Election 2008.”
- 5 More Things To Watch For Tonight: “Veteran pols know that you don’t need to stay up all night watching election returns or listening to the TV pundits to get a feel for which way the political winds are blowing. There are certain places to watch and clues to look for over the course of the evening that will provide strong signals about the eventual winners and losers. Here is Politico’s guide to five key things to keep an eye on.”
First Round of News: November 4th
November 4, 2008 at 8:19 am (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Democrats, Election Day, John McCain)
- Today is Election Day and Polls Open in Historic Fashion: “People in the isolated New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch cast their ballots just after midnight. The village, home to around 75 residents, has opened its polls shortly after midnight each election day since 1960, drawing national media attention for being the first place in the country to make its presidential preferences known. Democrat Barack Obama won 15 of 21 votes cast, and Republican John McCain won six votes. It was the first time since 1968 that the village leaned Democratic in an election.”
- Networks May Call Race Before Voting is Complete: “A senior vice president of CBS News, Paul Friedman, said the prospects for Barack Obama or John McCain meeting the minimum threshold of electoral votes could be clear as soon as 8 p.m. — before polls in even New York and Rhode Island close, let alone those in Texas and California. At such a moment, determined from a combination of polling data and samples of actual votes, the network could share its preliminary projection with viewers, Mr. Friedman said.”
- Senator Obama’s Rally Tonight Will Be Unprecedented: “Security precautions and logistics have steadily whittled away the size of the crowd expected at the event. Where the gathering once seemed likely to swell on warm weather and high hopes for a hometown candidate, public safety officials doused expectations by restricting which parts of the park will be open and saying they would turn away people if the crowd was too big and unruly. Still, Tuesday night’s rally promises to lure 100,000 or more, and participants will have a standing-room-only chance at witnessing history.”
- Campaigns Send Lawyers to Watch Polls: “It’s not quite “one man, one vote, one lawyer” this election year, but it’s pretty close. Platoons of legal experts have converged on the nation’s so-called swing states, ready to litigate if and when voting irregularities manifest themselves in Tuesday’s presidential balloting.”
- Democrats Eye Gains in House, Senate: “Democrats are eyeing election gains Tuesday to build a crushing majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, a predominance no party has wielded since the Democrat-run Congress 30 years ago during President Jimmy Carter’s administration. They need to pick up nine Senate seats to reach the magic 60-vote majority that could break filibusters and ram bills through the chamber, and at least 11 seats currently held by Republicans are in play this year.”
Evening Round of News: November 3rd
November 3, 2008 at 9:34 pm (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Early Voting, Exit Polls, Sarah Palin, Troopergate)
- This news just broke even though I caught wind of it earlier; Palin Cleared in Troopergate Scandal: “Alaska’s Personnel Board concluded Monday that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin did not violate ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, contradicting an earlier investigation’s findings. “There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters,” Timothy Petumenos, the Anchorage lawyer hired to conduct the probe, wrote in his final report.”
- Sad News for Barack Obama Today; Grandmother Passes Away One Day Before Election: “The day took a tragic turn for Sen. Barack Obama when his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died today. Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Dunham died at home late last night in Hawaii, or roughly between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Eastern. Obama learned of the news a little after 8 a.m. in Florida, where his campaign held a morning rally.”
- Tomorrow’s Exit Polls Could be Skewered by Early Voting and Absentee Ballotts: “The massive number of voters selecting their next president through absentee and early voting could make it difficult to forecast preliminary results out Tuesday evening. Some political observers predict early and absentee voters will make up about 30 percent of the total votes on Election Day — which could approach a record 130 million to 140 million. And state-by-state statistics consistently show Democrats dominating Republicans in early turnout.”
- Some are looking past November 4th as Candidates are looking at potential aides and appointees: “Americans will elect not only a president on Tuesday, but also his huge team of aides, advisers and bureaucrats who will help the winner run the federal government for the next four years. Clearly a John McCain presidency would be more conservative than a Barack Obama presidency. Beyond the ideological and partisan divides, however, are differences in style, tone and pedigree that would distinguish one administration from the other.”
- Cheney’s Hometown Paper Endorses Obama: “With just over a day before polls start to close, Vice President Dick Cheney’s hometown newspaper named their presidential pick – Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. “It is a foregone conclusion that Wyoming’s three electoral votes will go to Sen. John McCain. It would be easy for the Star-Tribune to simply agree with the majority of voters in this red state and endorse the Republican candidate for president,” the Editorial Board of Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune wrote Monday.”
Another Round of News: November 3rd
November 3, 2008 at 12:34 pm (Morning News) (ACORN, Barack Obama, Florida, John McCain, Sarah Palin)
- Governor Palin Feels Like the Far-left wing of the Democrat Party is ready for a takeover: “With her voice beginning to crack on this final marathon day of campaigning, Sarah Palin promised an audience in Ohio: “We will win!” “You can just feel it here,” she said at a rally in the Cleveland suburbs. “You can just feel it here in Ohio, victory’s coming, we can do this, we can win, we can win Ohio. And we must win for you.”
- Senator McCain’s Rally in Tampa, FL draws a small crowd: “Barack Obama may lead John McCain by just 2 points in the latest CNN Florida poll of polls, but the enthusiasm gap appears a bit wider. John McCain’s first rally of the day, in Tampa outside Raymond James Stadium, only drew about 1,100 people. Local reporters noting that at almost the same spot just before the 2004 election, President Bush drew about 15,000 people. Two weeks ago, Obama drew an estimated 8,000.”
- Can Florida Avoid Another Election Meltdown?: “Like a man revisiting the scene of a bad car wreck, former Vice President Al Gore came to Palm Beach County, Fla., on Friday. Palm Beach, you may recall, is where butterfly ballots, hanging chads and other election catastrophes helped thwart Gore’s efforts to win Florida’s electoral votes – and the presidency – in 2000. That bizarre recount drama gave the White House to George W. Bush by just 537 ballots. This time Gore was stumping for Barack Obama, but memories of the 2000 debacle were surely not forgotten, especially since Palm Beach keeps experiencing electoral mishaps. The county is using a third voting technology in as many presidential elections, and its first two outings this year weren’t encouraging: 697 votes uncounted in one municipal election, and 3,500 missing during the recount of a judge’s race.”
- Governor Palin Blows off Fox News: “Last week, Fox News host Megyn Kelly complained that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AZ) hadn’t done enough interviews on Fox. “She has yet to do any Fox daytime. She has not gone on this broadcast. She hasn’t gone on Fox and Friends. She hasn’t done Brit Hume’s show,” Kelly said. Days later, Kelly announced that Palin had finally granted her an interview to be aired today at 9am. This morning, however, Kelly announced that Palin had backed out at the last minute, less than 24 hours before their scheduled 10-minute sit-down on Sunday”
- Falsified Registrations Become Votes: “The liberal “community organizing” group ACORN became a campaign issue last month after Nevada’s Democratic attorney general and its Democratic secretary of state teamed up to conduct a highly visible raid of the group’s Las Vegas offices. They seized files on what could be thousands of fraudulent voter registrations. After ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, complained the raid was a “stunt” designed to hinder its efforts at minority registration, Larry Lomax, the chief elections officer in Las Vegas, responded that the group’s claims it had extensive quality controls to catch fraudulent registrations were “pathetic.” He noted that ACORN had hired 59 inmates from a work-release program at a nearby prison and that some inmates who had been convicted of identity theft had been made supervisors. That led some local wags to joke that at least ACORN was hiring specialists to do their work.”
First Cup of News: November 3rd
November 3, 2008 at 10:50 am (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Florida, John McCain, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Sarah Palin)
- In Battleground States, Palin becomes a Superfan: “Sarah Palin isn’t just your average sports fan. In fact, if her stump speeches are any indicator, the Republican vice presidential candidate is the greatest sports fan in the entire country. Like any politician who would spend time campaigning in minor-league baseball stadiums and college gyms in battleground states around the country, Palin kicks off most of her speeches by name-dropping the local sports team, a dependable applause line for any candidate.”
- Here’s a shocker; Campaigns Negative Down Home Stretch: “The two candidates kept swinging at each other as their campaigns focused on a handful of states that will determine the election. Obama cut an ad that used Vice President Cheney’s endorsement of McCain to reinforce his central argument that his rival represents a third term of the unpopular Bush administration. Republicans in Pennsylvania brought back the controversial comments of Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., despite McCain’s admonition that he should not be used as a political weapon, and the campaign unleashed robo-calls that employed the withering dismissal that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made of Obama’s experience when the two were competing against each other in the Democratic primaries.”
- Senator McCain is Banking on a Big Comeback: “John McCain is sprinting to the Election Day finish line, telling supporters in “blue” Democratic states Sunday that he is the better bet to revive the economy and protect national security. During stops in Pennsylvania, which Democrat John Kerry won four years ago, McCain said he remains “a few points” behind rival Barack Obama in the Keystone State. McCain is seven points behind in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, but the GOP nominee predicted a historic comeback.”
- Long Lines in Florida Capped the Final Day of Early Voting: “The last of Sunday’s early voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties waited in darkness well past closing time on the final day of early voting. ”It’s gonna be a long night,” said Joe Castronovo, 72, in a line at the Aventura Government Center that was still hundreds strong at 8 p.m.”
- Obama Crowds Flood Ohio: “Barack Obama returned to Ohio Sunday to rally tens of thousands of people in the state’s three largest cities, whose support is crucial to any Democratic victory in a state known for its evenly divided electorate. Obama, within reach of becoming the first black president in U.S. history, found rapturous crowds in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati that spilled out of parks and stadiums and into surrounding streets — 21 months after launching a campaign propelled by new and young voters and by virtually unanimous support from black voters.”
A Late Cup of News: November 2nd
November 3, 2008 at 12:29 am (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Electoral College, John McCain, Sarah Palin)
- Governor Palin Turns Attack to Months Old Comments about Coal: “Audio of Obama’s comments began bubbling up on major conservative blogs over the last 24 hours, and Palin wondered why voters were only now hearing about the remarks. The insinuation that the Chronicle had been hiding the coal comments from the public brought about shouts of “Liberal media!” from the crowd. “Why is the audio tape just now surfacing?,” Palin asked. “This interview was given to San Francisco folks many, many months ago. You should have known about this, so that you would have better decision-making information as you go into the voting booth.” Contrary to her attempts to portray a media cover-up, audio and video recordings of Obama’s January 17 sit-down with the Chronicle editorial board have been freely available online for more than nine months.
- Candidates in the 2008 Election Spent Over $1 Billion Dollars: “But it has been Obama, with his $641 million and 3.2 million donors, who has rewritten the rules for financing campaigns. He abandoned the public financing system — the first major party candidate to do so in a general election since the campaign money reforms of the Watergate era. McCain stayed in, but Obama’s success left little doubt that taxpayer-supported presidential campaigns, as currently configured, are 20th century relics. Neither Obama nor McCain participated in public financing during the primaries. McCain did agree to accept $84 million in general election public financing and the limitations on spending that went with it. He also raised money for the Republican Party, which so far has spent about $100 million on his behalf to supplement his public funds.”
- CNN Takes a Look at the Absence of President Bush: “In the waning days of the election season, as both parties campaign fervently for their candidates, one man has been notably absent — President George W. Bush. Reporters began asking questions immediately after the White House schedule last week noted Bush had no public events Friday through Monday, and would spend most of his time at Camp David.”
- What is the Democrat’s Failproof Plan? Controlling the Secretary of State Offices: “In anticipation of a photo-finish presidential election, Democrats have built an administrative firewall designed to protect their electoral interests in five of the most important battleground states. The bulwark consists of control of secretary of state offices in five key states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio — where the difference between victory and defeat in the 2004 presidential election was no more than 120,000 votes in any one of them.”
- According to the Associated Press, Senator Obama is on track for Electoral College win: “Barack Obama has pulled ahead in enough states to win the 270 electoral votes he needs to gain the White House — and with states to spare — according to an Associated Press analysis that shows he is now moving beyond typical Democratic territory to challenge John McCain on historically GOP turf. Even if McCain sweeps the six states that are too close to call, he still seemingly won’t have enough votes to prevail, according to the analysis, which is based on polls, the candidates’ TV spending patterns and interviews with Democratic and Republican strategists. McCain does have a path to victory but it’s a steep climb: He needs a sudden shift in voter sentiment that gives him all six toss-up states plus one or two others that now lean toward Obama.”
A Mid-Afternoon Cup of News: November 2nd
November 2, 2008 at 6:40 pm (Morning News) (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin)
- While Speaking at Florida State University, Protesters Make Noise at Biden Rally: “For the first time since being named the Democratic vice presidential nominee, a small group of McCain and Palin supporters tried to interrupt the Delaware senator’s remarks from the public sidewalk about 150 yards from the podium. Their chants inaudible through a megaphone, they took to using the device’s siren to disrupt. Biden referred to “the people in the parking lot” four times, using them as an example of those that Democrats will have to reach out to after Tuesday.”
- Senator McCain’s Hopes Lie on the Swing States: “Two days before the election, John McCain is behind in every national poll and in polls in nearly every swing state. Barring an unforeseen incident or a well-hidden trove of voters in key states across the country, the Republican Arizona senator appears headed for defeat. While Florida and Ohio offered a dramatic coda to the past two elections, Pennsylvania and Virginia could end the competitive stage of the race quickly this year.”
- The RNC has enlisted one person no one thought of to attack Senator Obama; Senator Hillary Clinton: “The RNC will begin an automated telephone campaign Sunday targeting millions of voters in key states that supported Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary or have a large concentration of blue collar voters, a Republican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells CNN. The official was not able to specify which states, but added: keep an eye on Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.”
- Senator Obama Could Be First Democrat since 1976 to get 50% of the vote: “Barack Obama is on track to be the first Democrat to win a majority of the vote since 1976, according to the final pre-election poll by the Pew Research Center. Obama leads John McCain 52 to 46 percent, by Pew’s measure, which projects that McCain will win undecided voters by a slight margin.”
- Governor Sarah Palin might be hoping for some more time?: “Sarah Palin may be hoping for a little more time before Election Day. She told a crowd of 3,300 in a high school gym here that November 4th is close, but it is actually a day closer than she acknowledged. “Now with just three days from the election, the time for choosing is near. Ohio, are you ready to help us carry your state to victory?” Palin said.”
Quick Thought: Not really a news story worth reading, but I did like the fact that Fox News decided it was important… for whatever reason.
