This picture isn’t new (it was taken in mid-September) but it is new to me. I’m normally not an “awww, a little kid!” type of gal but…. awww, a little kid! With a euphoric look on his face! And Obama looking serene!

Once again, I slacked off and missed the liveblogging, depriving you all of my witty commentary. My deepest apologies. I only hope that a lengthy post-debate analysis will make up for it.

First, the format. This was my favorite format so far. The close proximity forced them to look at and interact with each other, although McCain tried mightily to avoid doing so. I really enjoyed the rules outline for this one, in that follow-up was required, and there was plenty of time for back-and-forth exchanges. I also thought that Bob …

Dick Morris is smoking some good shit:
In the meantime, Republican bastions like South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana are now no better than tossups. If the election took place this week, it would be a wipeout of major proportions. Even McCain‘s home state of Arizona has to be classified as leaning toward Obama.
Damn, and I thought I was an optimist. I’m with him on Georgia to an extent, …

The past few weeks we have heard of any number or horrendous things being yelled out at Palin/McCain rallies, and seen any number of racist demonstrations from the crowd.  So far, however, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and “official” Republican outlets have tried to stay away from the precipice.  No more.
Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Sen. Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to “Waterboard Barack Obama” – material that offended even state GOP leaders.
And, …

The creativity of the Obama campaign never ceases to amaze me.  Via TPM, we see that Barack Obama is now buying virtual ad space in online games:
Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we’re able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator’s campaign team. “I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the …

The more Democratic nooks of Blogtopia (yes, Skippy coined that phrase) are all a-twitter about new West Virginia poll results that shows Obama up 8 points — indeed, hardly ten minutes goes by without a brand-spanking-new utterly breathless BREAKING!!1!!!!ZOMG!!!! diary on dKos trumpeting what has already been trumpeted ad nauseum. Even more sober-minded and cautious sites like RCP, Pollster and even Nate Silver over at fivethirtyeight have moved West Virginia into the “toss-up” column.
All this based on an ARG poll. A freakin’ ARG poll! For reference, ARG this year has …

In an effort to seem relevant, John McCain’s campaign announced that they would have big news sometime this morning, but they couldn’t talk about what it was. After all of McCain’s crazy stunts I thought it would be that he was going off to hunt down bin Laden, or personally buying off every bad mortgage. Scott Lemieux thought the elusive “whitey tape” would finally be revealed. But after all that build up, it turns out nope, it’s just a 90-second web ad.

That’s all you’ve got? ‘Cause …

I was mildly surprised at the debate last night that McCain didn’t bring up any of the attacks his campaign has emphasized over the last few days. Apparently, I’m not the only one.
Obama also said he was surprised some of those attacks weren’t brought up by his opponent at the debate Tuesday night at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
“I am surprised that, you know, we’ve been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn’t willing to say it …

As you may have noticed, I wasn’t able to make to the liveblogging last night.  Instead, I slacked off and went to a debate party for nachos, wings and drinking.  I’m glad to have had some time to think over the debate, though, and write out some thoughts.
Firstly, I hate watching debates on CNN.  Or any network, really.  I usually watch debates and conventions on C-SPAN or PBS so that I can watch them without a thousand irritating graphics.  On CNN, there’s something flashing in the corner constantly telling me …

I do love me some Pollster.com! And I’ve gotta tell you, wading through the numbers they’re putting up has me in a state of surprise if not outright shock.
Current presidential poll averages show Obama pulling ahead in states like Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania and widening his leads in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Indeed, some PA polls have Obama out front by double digits.
But wait, there’s more: Rasmussen has McCain’s lead in Texas and Mississippi down to single digits, and the latest polls out of Georgia show that race tightening …