The Changing Election

- Bush and Cheney have casted their ballots. For Who? Who do you think?

- Senator Barack Obama spends the day visiting his grandmother, who is gravely ill: “Mr. Obama came to the Punahou Circle Apartments here, a place of his own childhood, where his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lay gravely ill. For weeks, he has talked to doctors and tracked her condition. After she was released from the hospital last week, he received word that he should not wait until after the election to make what he believes could be his last visit.” A really sad story.

- The numbers are in for Senator Obama and Senator McCain, who took in more money?: “Obama, the Democratic nominee, spent more than $105 million during the first two weeks of October, according to new campaign finance reports. He reported raising only $36 million for his campaign during that period, about half the fundraising pace he enjoyed in September.”

- Early voters in Florida are seeing long lines: “After standing for more than an hour outside his polling place earlier this week, Dick Rosenow finally gave up when it started raining. He returned the next day, but again the line snaked around the branch library in this town south of Palm Beach. He waited an hour before he could cast his ballot.”

- Governor Sarah Palin responds to the recent wardrobe fiasco: “”It’s kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,” said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven’t even left the belly of her campaign plane.”

- Governor Sarah Palin Appointed Friends and Donors to Key Posts: “Palin picked a donor to replace the public safety commissioner she fired. But the new top cop had to resign days later under an ethics cloud. And Palin drew a formal ethics complaint still pending against her and several aides for allegedly helping another donor and fundraiser land a state job.”

- GOP Begins to Play the Blame Game: “With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisers, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering — much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.”

- Governor Sarah Palin Gave her First Policy Speech Today: “In her first policy speech as a vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin laid out details of how she would commit to helping children with special needs. The Alaska governor, whose infant son Trig has Down syndrome, said that a McCain/Palin administration would allow more flexibility for parents to choose their children’s schools, committed to fully fund the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, and promised to reform and refocus special needs services.”

- A Surprise Guest at Biden Rally: “Chaylee Cole, a student at Fairmont State University, was sent home from a part-time job at Philadelphia-based call center Direct Response on October 16th after telling her boss she didn’t like the ad — which stressed Obama’s ties to Weathermen founder Bill Ayers. Cole says she quit the next day.”

- How much is Palin’s Stylist Making?: “An acclaimed celebrity makeup artist for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin collected more money from John McCain’s campaign than his foreign policy adviser.”