Sunday, October 05, 2008

Obama Over 50 Percent In Average Of Tracking Polls - TMP

Talking Points Memo reports that Senator Barack Obama's ahead of his presidential challenger Senator John McCain by a comfortable margin, 50.4 percent to 42.7 percent in a "poll of tracking polls."

It's the first time Obama has been over 50 percent in a poll of polls.

Republican Sues Gov. Sarah Palin Over Email Use

The growing perception that Alaska Governor and GOP VP hopeful Sarah Palin has her own ethics problems is fed by stories like this one. According to the Washington Post, Palin is being sued by a Republican Alaska activist Andree McLeod for her use of private email accounts for public business. Here's the detail:

In a lawsuit filed in Alaska Superior Court, a Republican activist seeks to force Gov. Sarah Palin to produce copies of official correspondence she sent and received on private e-mail accounts.

Andrée McLeod filed the suit Wednesday and publicized it in a news release today. "Rather than using her state e-mail account, throughout her two-year tenure as Governor of Alaska, defendant Sarah Palin, as a matter of routine, has used, and, on information and belief, continues to use, (at least) two private e-mail accounts... to conduct official business of the State of Alaska," the suit alleges.

The suit is the latest front in a battle McLeod is waging over Palin's e-mail. In June, she filed an open-records request and received four boxes of redacted e-mails. But more than 1,100 others were withheld, an action Palin justified by claiming executive privilege. McLeod appealed that claim last month before going to court last week.

McLeod has questioned whether Palin was using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business in a manner that would skirt open-records laws. In one notable e-mail, a Palin aide apologized for discussing state business on a public account. "Whoops!" Palin aide Frank Bailey wrote, after addressing an e-mail to the governor's official state address. "Frank, this is not the Governor's personal account," a secretary reminded him.

John Russo - Oakland's Top Lawyer On Biden Palin Debate



I sat down with Oakland's Top Lawyer John Russo just a day after the Vice Presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and to talk about who won the debate, and what Palin's assendency says about American Government and Culture.

We have a difference of views and it centers on the idea that Palin did a terrible job -- my contention. Russo says that in debates one must "hold their ground" make sure their point is gotten across. He says she did that.

My point was that she just repeated talking points and failed on many occasions to answer questions Gwen Ifel asked of her.

What do you think? Watch the video and let me know here.

John McCain And The Keating Five - " Keating Economics" - keatingeconomics.com

This is the subject John McCain would like many to forget about, but since it concerns the financial markets, which recently caved, the matter of the "Keating Five" scandal comes front and center in the election campaign.

The "Keating Five" scandal consists of five elected officials, four Democrats, none of them active anymore and one Republican -- John McCain. McCain had a close relationship with Charles Keating, the CEO of Lincoln Financial. Keating gave each official, including McCain well over $300,000 to have them hold off the Federal Government from checking into allegations of fraud. McCain himself got over $100,000, making him the largest benefactor of Charles Keating's fiscal gift.

In turn, McCain held off scrutiny, but was eventually caught. McCain was found guilty by the Senate Ethics Committee of using "poor judgement" in his dealings and relationship with Keating.

Now, the question of what John McCain's learned -- nothing -- comes up again. There's a new website that's focused on this called "Keating Economics" and on October 6th at 12 noon -- that's tommorrow -- a new video on the subject will be released.

Stay Tuned.

Sarah Palin's Folksiness Is The Problem - Newsweek

Newsweek has an excellent article on "The Palin Problem" which the mag sees as that in representing "Joe Six Pack" is it good or right for the person seeking high public office to be "like average Americans.?"

The other problem I have is that I view Joe Six Pack as racist.

More on that, later.