What's Your Obama Tax Credit

post from TalkLeft on 21 October 2008 07:39:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Forget Joe the Plumber, here's Al the Shoe Salesman. Watch him calculate his tax cut under Obama and then go calculate your own.

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NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama 52 McCain 42

post from Daily Kos on 21 October 2008 07:38:27 PM. © Daily Kos

NBC/WSJ Poll RV (10/4-5) MoE +/- 2.9

Obama 52 (49) McCain 42 (43)

The most important things to know from this poll:

"Voters have reached a comfort level with Barack Obama. The doubts and question marks have been erased," said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the poll with Republican Neil Newhouse.

On taxes: +14 Obama
On the economy: +21 Obama
On temperament +20 Obama

On Sarah Palin (my bold):

The one candidate whose popularity has fallen is Gov. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Voters are less likely to see her in a positive light, and much more likely to report negative feelings.

Fifty-five percent of voters say Gov. Palin isn't qualified to be president if the need arises, up from 50% two weeks ago. And when given a list of possible concerns about Sen. McCain, voters were by far most likely to say they worry about Gov. Palin's qualification to be president.

The concern about Gov. Palin may also be reflected in the enthusiasm gap between the candidates, which appeared to be closing after the conventions but has widened again. Four in 10 McCain voters call him the "lesser of two evils"; 14% of Obama voters feel the same way. Twenty-six percent of McCain voters say they are excited about their vote; twice as many Obama voters feel excited.

From WSJ:

Self-identified supporters of Republican presidential nominee John McCain aren’t that excited about the Arizona senator’s candidacy, particularly when compared to supporters of Barack Obama, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Just over one-quarter, 26%, of McCain’s supporters said they are "excited" to vote for him this fall, while over one-third, 34%, said they were just "satisfied" to cast their ballot for McCain. Perhaps the most troubling number for McCain is 39% — that’s the number of his supporters who said they were voting for him "as the lesser of two evils."

Obama’s supporters are doubly as excited with their candidate, with a majority, 52%, stating they are "excited" to vote for the Illinois senator, and just 14% identified him "as the lesser of two evils." Like McCain voters, however, one-third of Obama’s supporters, 33%, said they were just "satisfied" with casting their ballot for him.

TODAY'S POLLS

Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.com) wrote up a tracking poll primer covering the eight available trackers. It includes sample size, time of publication and quirks, as well as Nate's opinion of the trackers. Recommended.

Obama McCain MoE +/- RV/LV Today Research 2000: 50 (50) 42 (42) 3 LV Reuters/Zogby: 50 (50) 42 (44) 2.8 LV Diageo/Hotline: 47 (47) 41 (42) 3.4 LV Rasmussen: 50 (50) 46 (46) 2 LV Battleground: 48 (49) 47 (45) 3.5 LV Poll goes back to 10/14 and to 10/20 Gallup: 52 (52) 41 (41) 2 RV See also the LV I and LV II numbers IBD/TIPP: 47 (47) 41 (41) 3.3 LV alternate link ABC/WaPo: 53 (53) 44 (44) 3 LV

^{All trackers are data from today (yesterday's numbers in parentheses). LV=likely voter, RV=registered voter.} Pew: 52 (50) 38 (40) 2.5 LV Ipsos/McClatchy:50 (48) 42 (39) 3.5 LV NBC/WSJ: 52 (49) 42 (43) 3.8 RV

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Pew Research Poll: Barry Steve Obama Leads Señor
McCain, 52%-38%

post from The Gun Toting Liberal on 21 October 2008 07:31:14 PM. © The Gun Toting Liberal

Polled Americans Unfairly Cite Panama John’s (very) Old Age, Bad Judgment, And Horrible Campaign Misconduct As Good Enough Reason To Ride “The (so-called) Good Ship Obama “O” Biden”I could not be more ashamed of my fellow Americans who are so willing to jump ship from...

This is only a comment summary. Visit http://guntotingliberal.com to view the lastest content complete with some of the most outrageous original photoshops in the political blogosphere!

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http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=3684

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ALARM: Conservatives Embrace Melodrama

post from Garling Gauge on 21 October 2008 07:30:04 PM. © Garling Gauge

He’s a socialist! He pals with terrorists! He kills babies! He’ll.. have to do things presidents do!Waiting for the next over-the-top GOP slur about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama certainly doesn’t take long, nor does waiting for the next Republican non-issue melodrama.Take the most recent: Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said at a Seattle fundraiser [...]

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Palin: ‘I’m Not Going To Call’
Obama ‘A Socialist,’ But He Believes In Socialism

post from Think Progress on 21 October 2008 07:30:00 PM. © Think Progress

Today, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat down with CNN for the first time. During the interview, CNN reporter Drew Griffin noted that “socialism” has “come up on the campaign trail.” But when Griffin asked, “is Barack Obama a socialist,” Palin dodged and deferred to “Joe the plumber“:

PALIN: I’m not going to call him a socialist but as Joe the plumber has suggested, in fact, he came right out and said it, it sounds like socialism to him and he speaks for so many Americans who are quite concerned now after hearing finally what Barack Obama?s true intentions are with his tax and economic plan.

Watch it:

video details and more

Palin is trying to have it both ways — trying to take the high road in saying she won’t call Obama a “socialist” and at the same time, calling his policies “socialism,” all while hiding behind “Joe the plumber.” Indeed, just hours before her CNN interview, Palin told Glenn Beck, referring to Obama’s tax policy, “We cannot flirt with this and now is not the time to experiment with, as Joe the plumber calls it, socialism.”

In fact, by definition, a “socialist” is “one who advocates or practices socialism,” which is exactly what Palin has been accusing Obama of for the last week:

– October 17: “Sen. Obama said that he wants to spread the wealth and he wants government to take your money and decide how to best to redistribute it according to his priorities…Joe [the plumber] suggested that sounded a little bit like socialism.”
– October 19: “Friends, now is no time to experiment with socialism. To me our opponent?s plan sounds more like big government, which is the problem.”
– October 20: “There are socialist principles to [Obama’s tax plan], yes.”

Perhaps Palin is also trying to distance herself from the right wing’s common talking point that Obama is a Marxist. But it seems that she has at least one mainstream media figure fooled. Time’s Mark Halperin said of Palin’s CNN interview: “Palin declines to call Obama ’socialist.’”

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/21/palin-obama-socialist/

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The Rule Of Law: Excising The Local NeoCon Rot

post from Firedoglake on 21 October 2008 07:28:00 PM. © Firedoglake

The FDL family has had a profound positive impact on the federal scene on issues surrounding the rule of law. We are all hurt when justice is politicized, even at the state and local level. One of the worst imaginable of these situations is in Maricopa[...]

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/10/20/the-rule-of-law-excising-the-local-n
eocon-rot/

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Suggestion Box

post from Firedoglake on 21 October 2008 07:27:29 PM. © Firedoglake

Please let us know here at FDL if you have inspired ideas or just simple suggestions about things we can do better. We really appreciate your support.[...]

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KY-Sen: Tied

post from Daily Kos on 21 October 2008 07:15:04 PM. © Daily Kos

SurveyUSA. 10/18-20. Likely voters. MoE 4.3% (9/21-22 results)

McConnell (R) 48 (49)
Lunsford (D) 48 (46)

Operation Decapitate GOP Leadership (or is it "Operation Avenge Daschle"?) continues on track, with the first non-partisan poll this cycle to show McConnell losing his lead. Our R2K poll last week had McConnell leading 46-42, but SUSA pushes leaners harder. And what we're getting is a neck-and-neck race after large McConnell leads earlier in the cycle. A SUSA poll on 8/9-11 had him leading by a comfortable 52-40. One of our R2K polls had it 50-37 in mid-September.

McConnell's woes can probably be traced to this:

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Mitch McConnell is doing as United States Senator?

Approve 44
Disapprove 49

When half your constituents aren't happy with your performance, you're in a world of hurt.

On the web:
Bruce Lunsford for Senate

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/8LxR-z8i8zQ/637767

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Chutzpah: West Bank Settlers Complain That
Checkpoints Make Them Late For Work

Thank you, Mitch Plitnick, who represents B'tselem, the Israeli human right organization in Washington for bringing this insanity to my attention.

A group of Israeli settlers have filed a suit against Israeli authorities because the so0called security checkpoints -- designed to prevent terrorists from getting into Jerusalem -- are making them late for work, school, the gym, whatever.

There are some 600 checkpoints; more are added all the time. A tiny minority of that number are on the border between Israeli and Palestine (a few dozen or so). These are designed to protect Israel against terrorists who might cross into Israel. The rest are internal checkpoints designed to impede Palestinian movement from one Palestinian town to another. The checkpoints -- along with the "settlers only" superhighways -- divide and dice the West Bank into small pieces, giving the settlers a viable homeland while preventing the Palestinians from reclaiming the economic and social viability that they had before the occupation.

How ironic is it that the settlers, for whom Israel has constructed an entire system of internal barriers to Palestinian movement, now are filing suit because sometimes the border checkpoints (designed to deter terrorism) inconvenience them!

Palestinians are not just inconvenienced by the checkpoints. The checkpoints have caused thousands to lose their jobs (they can't get to them). They prevent kids getting to school. And they have caused innocent people (including women in labor and babies) to die because they were prevented from getting to the hospital. See this from Israel's Yedioth Achronoth. Or this list of victims (and their testimonies from Btselem).

On the other hand, think of those settlers who were so late to work that they lost a good parking space..

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"There Is No Ground Game"

Today on Morning Joe, Chuck Todd said Barack Obama has a "small but significant lead" in Florida and that "Florida has really slipped away from John McCain," calling the situation "a head-scratcher." This is interesting to hear since it still looks like[...]

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