Fri, October 24, 2008 - 7:05 AM

No campaigning today for Barack Obama. He's taking time to be with his family -- literally. Obama flew to Hawaii to spend time with his grandmother, who's gravely ill.

Before he left, he told Robin Roberts of ABC's "Good Morning America" that he was leaving the campaign trail because he fears his 85-year-old grandmother won't live past Election Day. She has suffered a broken hip and has other health problems. The interview aired this morning.

The Democratic presidential nominee also said he expects to be doing some chores for "Toot," his nickname for Madelyn Dunham. Toot is a variation of the Hawaiian word for grandparent, tutu.

-- Marsha Mercer

Thu, October 23, 2008 - 10:58 PM

It turns out Joe McCain has created another political headache for brother John. First there were his public comments referring to Northern Virginia as "communist country," and now Washington's WJLA reveals an angry brother of the presidential candidate abusing 9-1-1 -- calling the emergency line to complain about traffic. Take a listen/watch for yourself.



--Neil Simon

Fairfax County will need to double the number of workers processing ballots Election Night in order to learn election results overnight, the county’s election manager said Thursday.

Fairfax and other localities stopped feeding ballots into optical scanning machines Friday after the state ordered the process halted so officials could review whether duplicate ballots were inadvertently mailed to voters.

The State Board of Elections’ email to local election officials asked they not resuming counting ballots until after Oct. 20 (Monday), but registrars said Thursday they were still waiting for a green light from the board.

“We’re waiting for direction from the state” before resuming the counting, said Judy Flaig, Fairfax County election manager.

“If we can’t count (now), we’ll need about 100 people to get it done overnight (Nov. 4),” said Flaig. Fairfax County was planning on having 50 or 60 officers of elections work to count ballots on Election Night.

“When you get too many people it’s harder to keep it well organized and systematic,” she said.

Fairfax County already counted 54,000 ballots before stopping Friday, Flaig said, putting them “ahead of where we were in 2004.”

Loudoun County officials said if they can’t count mailed-in ballots early, it could take up to two days to learn that county’s results.

--Neil H. Simon

Obama Winning in Rural Areas

Barack Obama has a slim lead over John McCain in rural areas of swing states, according to a new poll released today by the Center for Rural Strategies.

The poll showed Obama leading 46-45 among the likely voters. It’s his first lead among the rural group in three similar polls taken. The poll had a margin of error of 3.4.

A month ago he trailed McCain by 10 points. In May Obama trailed by 9 points.

In the October poll, rural voters gave Obama the edge on the economy and taxes, but favored McCain on the war in Iraq.

On overall favorability ratings, respondents scored McCain the highest, but on average found Obama and Joe Biden both more favorable than Sarah Palin.

Full details of the poll, conducted the first three weeks of October in 13 swing states, including Virginia and Florida, are available here.

Obama’s campaign pointed to success in Iowa and South Carolina in the primaries as evidence Obama has grown support in small towns since launching his candidacy.

“It’s reflective of a campaign that has fought hard for every single vote and has built a grass roots organization in communities large and small,” said Kevin Griffis, a Virginia Obama campaign spokesman.

McCain’s campaign said their ticket enjoys “very strong support” among rural Virginians.

“Rural voters support John McCain because of his strong support of 2nd amendment rights,” said McCain spokeswoman Gail Gitcho, “cutting the death tax and his pro-growth economic policies to help grow family businesses.”

--Neil H. Simon

Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain is shrinking, according to updated “swing state” polling released today by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows.

Obama leads 49 percent to 44 percent in the telephone survey taken between from last Thursday Oct. 16 through Tuesday. Obama had led 51-43 percent on Oct. 1.

The survey of 1,433 Florida voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

The same poll shows Obama increasing his lead in Ohio, to 52 – 38 percent; McCain has gained slightly in a third traditional swing state, Pennsylvania, but the poll shows Obama still holds a double-digit lead, 53 percent to 40 percent.

By margins of eight to 19 points, voters in each state told the pollsters they trust Obama more than McCain to handle the economy.

By smaller margins of two to six points, voters say they trust McCain more than Obama to handle foreign policy.

“As we enter the home stretch, Sen. Obama is winning voter groups that no Democrat has carried in more than four decades, and he holds very solid leads in the big swing states. If these numbers hold up, he could win the biggest Democratic landslide since Lyndon Johnson in 1964,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“In Florida, Obama’s margin over McCain is due mostly from stronger support from Hispanics than Kerry received," said Brown, referring to Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who lost the state to President Bush.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

If Barack Obama is to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina in decades, it's probably going to take a shattering of previous turnout records. Though early voting numbers have been huge in the state thus far, his running mate, Joe Biden, isn't taking any chances. He's talking to a crowd of rabid Dems in Charlotte right now, and telling them to get out and vote early (though not often).

"Ladies and Gentlemen, there's no excuse (for not voting this year). None," he said.

Also, he just unleashed maybe the most tortured analogy for the campaign, comparing it to a NASCAR race, a blatant pander in racin' crazy North Carolina. "Right now the campaigns are tradin' a little paint...and the McCain campaign is getting a little loose," he said.

Not a lot of NASCAR fans in the house apparently, because the crowd stays pretty silent.

--Sean Mussenden

LEESBURG,Va.--In Barack Obama's second Virginia stop Wednesday, he said the presidential election could hinge on the state's 13 electoral votes and urged supporters not to get overconfident.

"I know some folks may not think so, but this looks like the real Virginia to me," said Obama, in a clear jab at a John McCain campaign surrogate who said Northern Virginia was not "real Virginia."

"This looks like authentic Virginia and y'all look like a bunch of Virginians," he joked to an estimated 10,000 people at Loudoun County's Ida Lee Park.

Obama criticized McCain for running a negative campaign, saying "that's what you do when you are out of ideas, out of touch and running out of time."

Obama, seeking to be the first Democrat to win Virginia since 1964, said there is a "righteous wind at our back."

But the candidate was quick to quash presumption on the part of supporters. When he said "if" he becomes president and supporters interrupted him, shouting "when," he quickly tamped down the cheers.

"No, no, no. I'm superstitious," he said. "I don't like counting those chickens before they're hatched."

Still, he said, "If we win Virginia, we'll win this general election."

-Neil Simon

Wed, October 22, 2008 - 3:41 PM

LEESBURG,Va--They've come from near and far for this evening's Obama rally, and some supporters say they've already voted.

Suad Mohammed cast her absentee ballot in person last Tuesday in Fairfax County. Even then the line was long, she said.

"I asked everyone in line, and 90 percent were for Obama. It was young people," she said.

"I don't want four more years of Bush," said Mohammed, who has a 14-year-old son. Education is most important to her, she said.

Leesburg resident Rod Williams said he'd wait to vote on Election Day. At the Obama event with his two sons, 9 and 11, Williams said he came for "a piece of history."

"It's something that's not transferable in books," Williams said. "It makes it come alive."

--Neil Simon

LEESBURG,Va.-- An idea of the size of the crowd Obama is drawing today in Leesburg: Traffic is so backed up it took 45 minutes to drive half a mile to the venue, Ida Lee Park.

Early voting has already attracted 300 people a day to two sites in Leesburg and Sterling, said Judy Brown, Loudoun County general registrar.

The fast-growing Northern Virginia area saw a flood of new registrants this year, she said, adding that the Obama campaign brought in roughly 75 percent of all the registration forms the county received.

Absentee voting is underway, and there are reports of some people receiving double absentee ballots. Expecting a "rough night" on Election Day due to high turnout, Brown said she was under the impression she was not supposed to process the hundreds of absentee ballots that have been mailed to her office -- because of problems with the absentee ballots. She feared not getting a head start processing the ballots could delay election results.

But the Virginia Board of Elections has not ordered registrats to halt processing ballots, according to spokeswoman Susan Pollard.

Pollard acknowledged there may have been "miscommunication" among the state's 134 localities, but she said as long as election officials check voter information on mailed in ballots against the voter rolls, they can process those ballots now.

A 2007 state law allows the processing of ballots by computers before Election Day, Pollard said.

-- Neil Simon

John McCain has nudged back ahead of Barack Obama in Florida – 46 percent to 45 percent -- according to a new presidential campaign poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc.
Two weeks ago, a Mason-Dixon poll showed Obama held a 48-46 percent edge.

The new poll released today shows 7 percent of the Florida voters surveyed remain uncommitted, while 2 percent are for candidates other than Republican McCain or Democrat Obama.

The telephone poll of 625 registered voters was conducted Monday and Tuesday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, meaning the presidential race in Florida remains a statistical dead heat.

Voters give Obama a slight edge on the issue of handling the economy (45-41), as well as on managing health care (50-34) and energy policy (45-40), while McCain gets stronger marks for national security (54-37)), managing government spending and taxes (50-38) and handling the Iraq War (50-39).

The economy remains the top issue, but there has been some drop off (from 69-61), with the shift primarily coming from voters expressing increased concern about taxes and government spending.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

People are talking today about Sarah Palin's fashion makeover. Politico's Jeanne Cummings has story today about the Republican National Committee's decision to spiff up Sarah Palin and her family for their close-ups.

Here's a bit of Cummings' report:

"The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

"According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

"The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

"The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August."

A spokesman for the McCain campaign first declined to comment specifically on the shopping spree, saying there were more important things to discuss. Later, the campaign issued a statement.

"`With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.'"

So does that mean Palin gets a tax write-off too?

-- Marsha Mercer

From the McCain campaign:

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, at 11:30 a.m. EDT, McCain-Palin 2008 will hold a press conference call with former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and McCain-Palin Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Randy Scheunemann to discuss recent news stories about which candidate terrorists would like to see in the White House in 2009.


I'm guessing Bob Barr? Kidding. While this might seem like another attempt by the campaign to tie Obama to terrorists (see: Ayers, Bill), the AP reported today that Al-Qaida supporters are calling for a pre-election terrorist attack on the U.S. to help McCain win.

From the AP:

The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."

--Sean Mussenden

Tue, October 21, 2008 - 8:35 PM

Richmond mayor and former Virginia governor Doug Wilder “can’t imagine a scenario in which (Barack Obama) loses” Virginia.

Appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, Wilder, the country’s first African-American to be elected as governor of a state, predicted polls in the Obama-McCain race will show a reverse Bradley effect. Tom Bradley, an African-American mayor of Los Angeles lost the 1982 California gubernatorial race, though polls had showed him comfortably ahead.

But Wilder said more recent races with African-American candidates, including his own gubernatorial results in 1989, more closely traced internal polling. Polls may be underestimating Obama’s popularity in Virginia, he said.

There’s going to be some Republicans in Virginia who may not say they’ll vote for Obama, but they will, Wilder said.

‘REAL VIRGINIA’
Wilder dismissed as “foolish talk” a McCain spokeswoman’s remarks that Northern Virginia is not “real Virginia” and John McCain’s brother Joe McCain’s comment that the area is “communist country.”

Asked how those comments were playing in Virginia, Wilder said, “I hope they play them over and over and over again” as they help Obama in the commonwealth.

--Neil Simon
-30-

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) wants Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning and Gov. Charlie Crist to allow federal poll watchers in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Miami-Dade and Broward counties on Election Day.

The organization, in a statement, said it was responding to reports that Browning, a Crist appointee, has said the U.S. Government Accountability Office can’t include Florida in its plans to check equipment and document polling-place accessibility.

“In a state with such a high senior citizen population and high population of people with disabilities, it’s outrageous that the Secretary of State refuses to let people in to measure accessibility. What’s he got to hide?” said Jim Dickson, vice president for Government Affairs at AAPD.

Florida is the only state – of 31 in the country picked to participate in the survey - that refuses to let the federal inspectors into polling places on Election Day. Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are the four counties selected by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson on Monday called on Crist in a letter to allow the inspectors into the polling places.

Browning acknowledged Monday that his initial response to a request by the GAO was that “No, you can’t come to our polling places.” He said state law is very clear on who can go into a polling place.

But Browning also said the state would reconsider that position.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

Independent and Republican Virginia voters are featured on a new Web site aimed at helping Barack Obama.

Votingreason.com, is the creation of 32-year-old New York City filmmaker Sorrel Ahlfeld, who said he built the site to expand the political dialogue among undecided voters

The videos showcase Republican and Independent voters from Florida, Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire talking straight to the camera about their reasons for supporting Obama.

The interviews are aimed at swing voters who may feel drawn to Obama, but still hesitant, said Ahlfeld.

“It would be a lot easier to make that decision if they see someone who has made that decision already,” said Ahlfeld, whose site reports thousands of views since being launched last week.

--Neil Simon