Polls: McCain-Obama Race Close

As frequent readers of this site know, I have predicted that by the end of October John McCain would move slightly ahead in the national polls. The trend seems to be heading in that direction. See below.


Released: October 19, 2008 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama 47.8%, McCain 45.1%McCain slowly gains on Obama UTICA, New York


"Republican John McCain continued a slow advance on Democrat Barack Obama in the race for President, moving back within three percentage points as the race begins to head down the stretch run, the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking poll shows.Data from this poll is available here

McCain now trails Obama by 2.7 points, down from the 3.9 point deficit he faced 24 hours earlier.Seven-point-one percent of the likely voters surveyed said they remain undecided.Obama lost five-tenths of a point from yesterday's report, while McCain gained another six-tenths of a point. It was the third consecutive day in which Obama's numbers slipped and McCain's numbers increased.

McCain has once again moved above 45% support overall, a mark he has not seen since the second day of daily tracking reports. Obama's slip under 48% support is the first time at that level in nearly a week. He now stands within one-tenth of a percent of where he stood when the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking began almost two weeks ago. McCain is within two-tenths of a percent of where he was when the tracking poll began.During the 13 days of the tracking poll, Obama has led by as much as 6.2 points and as little as 1.9 points.

Except for a few hours of polling, this three-day rolling average of telephone polling now includes a sample taken entirely after the final presidential debate last Wednesday.

The Zogby tracking poll includes 1,211 likely voters across the country who were surveyed between Oct. 16-18, 2008, at the rate of about 400 per day. The survey, conducted using live telephone interviewers calling from Zogby's call center in Upstate New York, carries a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points.


McCain Up in Florida - Tampa Tribune Endorses John McCain

John McCain Leads in Latest Florida PollJohn McCain- 49%Barack Obama- 47%Survey USA, a prominent national polling firm, shows John McCain leading Senator Barack Obama in the state of Florida. The Survey USA Florida poll was conducted after the final presidential debate on Thursday October 16th.


Tampa Tribune Endorses John McCain for President

"McCain brings a lifetime of useful experience, including his grueling captivity in Vietnam and long Senate service. He believes in federalism, a strong defense and disciplined self-interest. McCain has been willing to cross party lines to work on tough problems. He co-authored a campaign finance law that failed to fulfill its objective, but he did muster the bipartisan support needed to try to control the buying and selling of public office."

EDITORIAL: "McCain for president, We need an experienced hand, not showy rhetoric" (Las Vegas Review Journal)

McCain-Palin in Home Stretch

I hope everyone will tune in to our Clintons4McCain Blog Talk Radio show on Saturday. We'll have to outstanding African-American guests, who will explain why they're opposing Barack H. Obama.

If you're not already making calls in support of John and Sarah, well, what are you waiting for? I received the following today from the McCain Campaign, and I can't say it any better than they did:

Team -John McCain and Sarah Palin were hard at work on the campaign trail this week, visiting with voters in battleground states and working day and night to reach out to undecided voters and energize supporters in the remaining days of the campaign.

John McCain came off a great win in his final debate with Senator Obama and the polls are beginning to tighten as we head into the final stretch. Yesterday, our campaign released a new TV ad highlighting this called, "Fight." John McCain and Sarah Palin are a team of reformers and fighters with a bold plan to make the next four years better for all Americans. Take a minute today to watch our latest ad by following this link.

Our country's economic troubles won't be solved by higher taxes and Senators Obama and Biden have laid out plans they say will "spread the wealth" around - taking more money from hard working Americans in the form of "patriotic" tax hikes.

If we're going to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin, we need your help. In the final days of the race, we need you to to pitch in and sign up to volunteer through our online phone bank. It's easy to use; you choose the state where you'd like to make calls and we provide the names, numbers and phone scripts. Please take a few minutes this evening or tomorrow to follow this link and make 20 calls for our campaign.

Our entire team, from our candidates to staff and volunteers, appreciates your support and dedication. Please get involved in the final days of the campaign. Your help can put us over the top on Election Day.

Sarah Palin, the brightest hope not just for America but for the Western World

I sent the following to 1,000-plus of my closest friends:

Dear Friends: I salute all of you who are involved in the Ground Game to ensure the election of John McCain and Sarah Palin. We need to reach out to friends, family, neighbors, and, yes, perfect strangers, to win on November 4.

The closeness of this election has been, at times, emotionally draining. But all of us have made many new friends and allies, some of them coming from unexpected backgrounds and political views. We need to ensure that never again does the U.S. have a presidential candidate like Barack H. Obama: inexperienced, unqualified, untrustworthy, and careless about protecting our country.

We in fact are going to take back this country. The goal of outstanding people like Chris Cook (http://modernconservative.com/), Jacquerie (http://wam98.com/), and Karen Hill (http://dncreform.com/) is to build organizations that will in combination be much bigger and stronger than the extremists' Moveon.org.

I urge all of you to join these groups now..We need to hang together and not demand total agreement on every issue, but rather aim for mutual understanding and unity on shared goals. There will be a lot more about this right after the election.

In her debate with the Washington Windbag Biden, Sarah Palin talked about an America chracterized by "liberty, tolerance/respect, and opportunity." That's a real good starting point.
God bless all of you.

Guns, Bod, Sarah, John: America

Why don't you spend your time during tonight's debate with fellow McCain-Palin Supporters in a chat room? Come to http://votebitter.com. If you'd like a classic "Sarah: Guns and God" tee-shirt, you can get one (or more) by clicking on the image to your right.

I sent my young friend, Rhandi, from Corpus Christi, Texas, copies of the pictures above of U.S. soldiers reenlisting en masse in Baghdad. She replied with a heartfelt letter about her experience as a young army wife. It touched me greatly, and I hope it will also touch you.

Steve,

You have me in tears. I don't know how I missed this, but thank you so much for the nice little "shout out." My husband has served nearly 8 long years in the military (including 2 deployments - 1 being a consecutive 2 together, and the later being the whole first year of our marriage). He, too, reenlisted in Baghdad. He will be in for as long as he can - only 12 years until retirement is an option, which at that time he will be 39 years young.

It's amazing when I think about the things I've sacrificed simply to be with him (leaving my comfort zone, families, and friends, attending a new school, and trying to start and continue life in a whole nother state, a whole nother atmosphere), but even more amazing still is the dedication and sacrifices I've seen him and other men and women like him, including friends, make for the better of our whole society.

My best friend from Portland, TX is marrying a marine in December, who is also thinking about reenlisting for the sole purpose of believing in what we're doing and what our country stands for. He planned on going in for four years and getting the heck out, but now that it's come down to it - he is pretty close to staying in for at least 1 more enlistment.

This man has a college degree and is one of the most educated, intelligent young men I know. I wouldn't want men and women of any less of caliber as he and my husband out there fighting for us. Just goes to show that pretty much every stereotype I've ever heard, and may have repeated, about our men and women in uniform is extremely wrong. :)

In the household I live in (and run :wink:), we support McCain. In the household I came from, they support McCain. In the households I've visited in my recent trip to Texas, we support McCain. I hung out with a BIG, BIG group of young adults (ages 20 to 24) and we were amazed by the fact that we could all agree on the same presidential candidate. Yes, politics did not get ugly between our group, and it seemed to only strengthen our beliefs, knowledge and united front regarding the future president of our country.

I've never seen so many young people get involved and feel this strongly, but going back to Texas made me proud to be where I was from, and even prouder to be apart of the friendships and relationships I have there, and with other fellow political followers.

When that big a group of young adults can get together and continue to have a good time speaking about political elections and candidates without all hell breaking loose and a big confrontation, you've got to know that something good is going on, and something great could be happening.I'm with you 1000% Steve. As is my husband, best friend and her fiance, who is currently deployed, plus the many, many others that I know - soldiers and civilians alike.

Thank you for sending out this email and including my family and I in it. Eric's been home since June and I'm still in tears when it comes to these types of things.

Thanks for all you do and more,

Rhandi

New Yorkers for McCain, Scranton

Rosa at RSVP153@aol.com sent the following urgent message to New Yorkers and other McCain-Palin supporters across the nation. As a Pennsylvanian, I hope people around the nation will respond in similar fashion.

The NYC Area Democrats For McCain had a very successful canvassing effort in Scranton, Pennsylvania over this past weekend. And people of color were well-represented in the crew.

Our conclusion is that there are many Democrats in Scranton who could be persuaded to vote for John McCain.

Barack Obama must be defeated now, rather than later. And, we will not be able to defeat Obama by just hoping that others will do the job, by hanging out mainly in the blogosphere talking to other NObama folks, by just giving up... Here are three recommended actions that you should do over the next three weeks to ensure that Obama is defeated now, rather than later.

ACTIONS YOU MUST DO TO DEFEAT OBAMA...

1. Canvass in Scranton, PA (door-to-door, or where people congregate) ... we need 50 people on each weekend day to get FREE transportation from the McCain campaign
2. Phone-banking to swing states (from your own home...call fellow Democrats)...see instructions below
3. Financial support (please, please help us to cover costs of flyers) ... click here for PayPal
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NYC AREA DEMOCRATS CANVASSING IN SCRANTON, PA...we need 50 people each day to get FREE transportation from the McCain campaign
Please email your commitment to pocpuma@aol.com

* Sat Oct 18th
* Sun Oct 19th

* Sat Oct 25th
* Sun Oct 26th

* Sun Nov 1st
* Sat Nov 2nd

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JOIN REAL DEMOCRATS USA GROUP IN CANVASSING TOUR IN OHIO...Oct 17th-19th
See schedule below. Contact Paulie Abeles at pabeles@RealDemocratsUSA.org

Fri Oct 17th:
* Columbus (meet-up to start and briefing)
* Circleville (Pumpkin Festival)
* Washington Court House
* Wilmington
* Lebanon (King’s Island Haunted Halloween Festival)
** Overnight in Lebanon (2 per room cost of $43 per person)

Sat Oct 18th:
* Hillsboro
* Chillicothe (WWF wrestling expo)
* Bainbridge (Festival of Leaves)
* Waverly
* Piketon
* Portsmouth
** Overnight in Portsmouth (2 per room cost of $46 per person)

Sun Oct 19th:
* Jackson to
* Chillicothe (WWF)
* Circleville (last day Pumpkin Festival)
** Columbus (ending point and debriefing)

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PHONE BANKING TO SWING STATES...see instructions below
1. Study talking points on John McCain (file attached).
2. Click one of the two phone bank links below (Daytime, Evening/Weekend). You will be prompted to sign up for phone bank. Fill out form (takes less than 1 minute).
3. After signing up, you will be sent an email from john@johnmccain.com to set up your password.
4. After setting up your password, click one of the phone bank links below, again.
5 At the top of the screen you should see "Voter2Voter Phone Bank"
6. Scroll down to the area where you can select the state (lower left side). Then, select a swing state such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, etc)
7. You are set to go. You will see a name of a fellow Democrat in the upper left corner of screen.
8. Study the script (make sure you review all questions...you will have to scroll down to do so)
9. Start making calls. Be courteous. Be well!

Daytime Calls Phone Bank
10am to 6pm Eastern Time
http://www.johnmccain.com/PhoneBank/?guid=59169733-6F60-4228-8A8F-7FD538E52989
Evening and Weekend Calls Phone Bank6pm to 9pm Eastern Time:http://www.johnmccain.com/PhoneBank/?guid=A72D7DE9-5BFE-41D6-808C-F1E8CCF9E500
**If you have any questions, contact Imri Eisner, ph-703-220-8582, email ieisner@mccain08hq.com

George Bush's Resignation Speech

The speech George W. Bush just might give:

Normally, I start these things out by saying 'My Fellow Americans.' Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer.

I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: There's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office.

The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people. I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out.

Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media.

Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security.

We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this 'blood for oil' thing.. If I were trading blood for oil I would've already seized Iraq 's oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell.

And don't give me this 'Bush Lied...People Died' crap either. If I were the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty.

Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named ' Clinton ' established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

Now some of you morons want to be led by a junior senator with no understanding of foreign policy or economics, and this nitwit says we should attack Pakistan , a nuclear ally. And then he wants to go to Iran and make peace with a terrorist who says he's going to destroy us.

While he's doing that, he wants to give Iraq to al Qaeda, Afghanistan to the Taliban, Israel to the Palestinians, and your money to the IRS so the government can give welfare to illegal aliens, who he will make into citizens, so they can vote to re-elect him. He also thinks it's okay for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and we should stop our foreign aid to Israel

Did you sleep through high school?

You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic model s squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to outspend and out-tech them.

That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are.

They want to kill you, and the bastards are all over the globe.You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you're not. That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement, and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that.

When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight.. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor.'

Instead, you've grown impatient. You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops.

Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, dang it, you might just as well FedEx a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing.In this day and age.

It's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet. It just isn't on the pages of the New York Times, USA Today, or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you 'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol or Dancing with Stars.

I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you're too stupid to leave a city that 's below sea level and has a hurricane approaching. I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from.

But I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads.

So I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient for years. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.

Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there are just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.So that's it.

God bless what's left of America .Some of you know what I mean. The rest of you, kiss off.

PS - You might want to start learning Farsi, and buy a Koran.

People Helping McCain Win

I've been wearing my Sarah Palin "Guns and God" tee-shirt in PA, and it's been attracting a lot of attention. You can get one by clicking on the Sarah logo on the sidebar. Tomorrow, as a former business speechwriter, I'll be writing on "A Speech for Sarah Palin."

Today on Clintons4McCain Blog Talk Radio (Saturday, 5-6 p.m. ET) our primary guest was Jean Avery, founder of http://moms4mccain.blogspot.com. You can find the archieved broadcast by clicking on the following link: http//:blogtalkradio.com/clintons4mccain

Jean Avery has turned her "little" group of American moms into a countrywide organization. She's one of the most innovative activists in the nation and has developed many fascinating concepts, including what she calls "nap-time politics."

Next week on the radio show we'll feature two African-Americans who are spearheading the campaign against Obama and for McCain-Palin. They'll be Lloyd Marcus and Tanya Crews.The co-hosts of the program will be Anne Franklin of Texas and Steve Maloney of Pennsylvania.

Our emphasis from now until the election will be on "ground-game" activities (calling, canvassing, e-mailing, etc.) that are essential to winning the election.

A second point: I'm asking everyone in our huge coalition to join the action-oriented group known as "Wake-Up America." You can join today by going to: http://wam08.com It will explain exactly what you can do to get out the vote for McCain-Palin. WAM will make common cause with ALL groups dedicated to the election of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

A final point: one of the country's best organizations at attracting Democrats and Independents to McCain-Palin has been: http://dncreform.org. They're influencing votes around the country, but they need your financial support -- even a few dollars will help -- to continue their efforts. Please assist them.

Again, I'd like to thank all of you for your efforts on behalf of Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin. The practical actions we take will ensure victory on Nov. 4.