Here’s the whole video for those that haven’t seen it, and for my mother-in-law Bonnie and anyone else in Columbus who is still on the fence about who to support next Tuesday.

Put aside for a moment who this guy is speaking for on CNN and ask yourself if there’s ever been a worse performance by a spokesperson on behalf of a campaign.

Obviously another case of the liberal elite left coast media trying to filter the McCain campaign!!

Unfortunately for this guy, he’s headed off to the proverbial military radar base in Alaska of campaign spin doctors after that performance.

An interesting read from a publication that has hardly been friendly to Democrats or more liberal positions over the years.

First, the praise for Obama:

For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead…

…In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

They then turn their attention to the McCain campaign and it’s not pretty:

That, however, was Senator McCain; the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance” now embraces theocratic culture warriors. The campaigner against ethanol subsidies (who had a better record on global warming than most Democrats) came out in favour of a petrol-tax holiday. It has not all disappeared: his support for free trade has never wavered. Yet rather than heading towards the centre after he won the nomination, Mr McCain moved to the right.

Meanwhile his temperament, always perhaps his weak spot, has been found wanting. Sometimes the seat-of-the-pants method still works: his gut reaction over Georgia—to warn Russia off immediately—was the right one. Yet on the great issue of the campaign, the financial crisis, he has seemed all at sea, emitting panic and indecision. Mr McCain has never been particularly interested in economics, but, unlike Mr Obama, he has made little effort to catch up or to bring in good advisers (Doug Holtz-Eakin being the impressive exception).

The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.

The entire thing is worth a read.

Milwaukee is the 35th largest T.V. market by population, and about 14.4% of all viewers in that market watched Sen. Obama’s 30 minute infomercial last night:

Rank Market Market Rank (by population size) Household Rating(% of U.S. households that watched)

35 Milwaukee 14.4 54
Nielsen

Nationally, about 20% of households watched the informercial last night.

Jenny and I sat down to watch the 30 minute commercial from Sen. Obama tonight. In short, it was a very powerful closing argument for his candidacy that I think will connect with average Americans who still might be on the fence about who to vote for next Tuesday.

The one thing lacking from it? Any kind of attack on John McCain, which was brilliant. The commercial stayed true to Sen. Obama’s campaign thus far, which is a message of hope, change, and working on the issues that matter to middle class Americans.

If the McCain campaign had the means to get out the same kind of 30 minute commercial on seven networks, I can’t help but think it would have been the exact opposite.

In all, a touching and effective closing argument from Sen. Obama tonight, and money well spent.

Relevant to some conversations I’ve been having with fellow Democrats:

There’s lots of work to be done. Helping out is as simple as going to my.barackobama.com and signing up for a two hour shift over the next week to make phone calls, drive folks to the polls, or do lit drops.

What does that make now in the last few years? Three? Four?

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens found guilty of 7 felonies, says he’ll appeal, fight for re-election
Ted Stevens, a pillar of the Senate for 40 years and the face of Alaska politics almost since statehood, was convicted of a seven-felony string of corruption charges Monday – found guilty of accepting a bonanza of home renovations and fancy trimmings from an oil executive and then lying about it. AP

Someone should ask Sarah Palin if she’s still planning on voting for her Republican Senator next week…

INSIGHT CHECK!! Polling outfits are the new “BIASED LEFTY ELITE LIBERALS”, especially if they show a Democratic candidate with a lead over a Republican one.

In fact, if polling firm X doesn’t report the race to be, at the very least, tied between Senators McCain and Obama, it’s proof that they’re “in the tank” for Barack Obama.

In fact, there’s a direct correlation between the margin that Barack Obama is ahead in polling firm X’s report and the degree to which they’re “in the tank” for him.

Gov. Palin responds to Saksgate:

“It’s kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,” said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven’t even left the belly of her campaign plane. – Chicago Tribune

This single paragraph pretty much says it all:

What “facts” are out there that haven’t been reported? It must be the “MEDIA” filtering her again!

It’s hard to say that the clothing isn’t worth $150,000 when there are campaign reports that say exactly that.

That’s a lot of money to spend on clothes that were only to be worn during a 5 day convention, 2 of which you attended.

So they spent $150,000 on a bunch of clothes that she won’t even use and are going to sit in the belly of a plane?

I wonder how a Republican like Senator Norm Coleman, who’s in a tight race, would feel knowing that his party spent that kind of money that could have gone to advertisements, GOTV operations, or mailings on clothes that were meant to sit in the closet of a campaign plane?

More on the post last night about the GOP spending at least $150,000 on VP candidate Sarah Palin’s wardrobe:

Again, this is the prerogative of the RNC by all means. But think about it, there are people out there who are having a hard time keeping up with the payments on their $150,000 house, and here you have the GOP spending that kind of money on clothes?

It just reinforces the already strong perception out there that the McCain campaign is out of touch with the tough times most people are facing right now.