The Best Campaign Commercial Yet
H/T to Matt and Rebecca
Year: 2008
Poll: The Early Line 10/10
Obama/Biden: 48%
McCain/Palin: 41%
Undec 7%
–In battleground states (CO, MI, NH, NM, FL, OH, PA, VA, WI and NV), Obama holds a more significant 52-38% lead.
–Obama’s lead among women has widened to 14 pts. Yesterday it was a 9 pt. advantage. Obama also holds a 2 pt. lead among men.
– 67% of voters rate the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Obama holds a 6 pt. lead among voters on the issue of who’d best handle the economy.
Today’s Diageo/Hotline tracking poll, conducted 10/7-9 by FD, surveyed 838 LVs and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4%. Party ID Breakdown for the sample is 41%D, 37%R, 18%I.
California Anti-Marriage Forces Pull Ahead in Polls, Fundraising
Video: Ad from supporters of marriage for gay Californians attacking lies in ads by anti-gay activists
A new television ad opposing gay marriage has apparently turned public opinion around in California on the issue, according to a new poll.
People can’t be sued for homophobic beliefs, just as racists cannot be sued because they choose to hate blacks or latinos. And anti-gay churches would not lose their tax exemptions, just as churches now do not jeopardize their tax exemptions because they espouse anti-semiticism.
A TV ad showing San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom saying California is going to have same-sex marriage “whether you like it or not†is being credited with flipping poll numbers to favor the Nov. 4 ballot proposition to amend the state constitution to undo the state Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage.
“This door’s wide open now. It’s gonna happen. Whether you like it or not!†Newsom says in a clip included in the ad paid for by forces supporting passage of Proposition 8.
The ad continues: “Four judges ignored 4 million voters and imposed same-sex marriage on California. It’s no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory. That changes a lot of things: People sued over personal beliefs. Churches could lose their tax exemption. Gay marriage taught in public schools. We don’t have to accept this. (‘Whether you like it or not!’) Yes on 8.â€
The ad omits the fact that the ruling came from the California Supreme Court, and that three of the four justices were Republicans. And the assertions that if Prop 8 loses homophobes could be sued over their “personal beliefs” and churches that promote hatred of gays could lose their tax exemptions are demonstrably false. People can’t be sued for homophobic beliefs, just as racists cannot be sued now because they choose to hate blacks or latinos. And anti-gay churches would not lose their tax exemptions, just as churches now do not jeopardize their tax exemptions because they espouse anti-semiticism.
Polls indicate that significant numbers of Californians are buying into the lies:
Although other recent polls have shown opposition to Proposition 8 (which means one supports same-sex marriage) running as high as 55 percent, and support for Proposition 8 (which means one opposes same-sex marriage) running as low as 38 percent, two polls released Oct. 6 and 7 show voters now have flipped.
Equality California said its internal polling shows 47 percent of likely California voters want to re-ban same-sex marriage and 43 percent want to keep it legal. Likewise, a CBS 5/SurveyUSA poll found 47 percent support for a ban and 42 percent opposition to it.
Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors sent out an urgent call for fundraising help on Oct. 7: “Our worst nightmares are coming true. Today we learned of the massive $25.4 million our opponents have raised so far. They are using this war chest to broadcast lies: 24/7 and up and down the state of California. And the polls show the lies are working. We need your donation now … So this is crunch time. With less than a month before the election, we must get on the air now to answer these lies and swing votes back to our side. And the only way to do that is to raise more money.”
Information on donating to fight to defeat Prop 8 can be found on the Equality California website.
U.S. Debt Clock Has Run Out of Digits
It’s been a fixture in New York’s Times Square since 1989, when it was erected to highlight the country’s $2.7 trillion record level of debt — and each American family’s share of it. But according to the BBC, when the debt surpassed $10 trillion last month, the clock ran out of capacity.
The clock’s owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.
Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst – the clock’s inventor – hopes to replace the Manhattan clock with its lengthier replacement early next year.
For the time being, the Times Square counter’s electronic dollar sign has been replaced with the extra digit required.
How did they gain the extra digit? The dollar sign is now a sticker — a cheap-o fix to the problem, but one consistent with the time in which we live.
According to the BBC, some economists believe the $700-billion bail-out plan for U.S. financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion.
It’s Official: Bush is Transitioning Out of the White House
Another reason to celebrate! As if this day weren’t wonderful enough, it just got better.
Unlike us, W seems down in the mouth about his impending freedom to cut brush from sun up to sun down.
Bush’s role was diminished just a bit more today when he signed an executive order that officially begins the transition of his administration to either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain, the two men battling to succeed him.
The executive order creates a transitional coordinating council consisting of ranking officials from key White House agencies, including intelligence, defense, homeland security, budget, justice and other departments. Those officials will start working with the Obama and McCain camps so that whoever is elected can begin preparing to take over the reins of government on Jan. 20.
Hear that? He’s really leaving! Here’s your hat, Georgie, what’s your hurry?
Unlike us, W seems down in the mouth about his impending freedom to cut brush from sun up to sun down.
Like many presidents in their last months, Bush has visibly aged and has a thinner schedule than his first seven years in office. He hasn’t held a news conference since July 15 and his spokeswoman says it’s partly because he doesn’t want to get entangled in the presidential race.
Well boo frickin’ hoo. But is it humility that’s keeping him from butting into the campaign or that fact that no one wants him to?
He is no longer the undisputed leader of the GOP. Administration officials check in with John McCain’s campaign nearly every morning to walk through schedules and talking points to ensure the party message matches.
Hardly seems necessary to me but it certainly confirms the lockstep nature of the McCain campaign and Bush White House. Like we needed that confirmed.
Quote du Jour
I said at the altar, ‘I take this woman in sickness and in health.’ And being a Democrat is a sickness.
— Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the political beliefs of his wife, Maria Shriver
A Toast to Our Favorite Newlyweds
Forgive us for being a little giddy around here but today is a very special one at Pensito Review. It’s wedding bells for our own Editor-in-Chief, Jon Ponder.
Jon and his partner, Page, are finally tying the knot after only about 29 years. Why wait so long, you ask? They wanted to be absolutely sure they knew each other well enough, of course. No seriously, Page and Jon probably would have been married about 28 years ago had such unions been legal. But hey, what’s the rush?
Here’s to Jon and Page! May the next 29 years (and beyond) be just as wonderful as the first!
Esquire Endorses Obama
For the first time in its 75-year existence, Esquire magazine has endorsed a presidential candidate. Why did the publication choose to endorse Barack Obama for president?
We thought this election would be a serious fight over the future of this country, but only one candidate showed up.
In what at times reads like a back-handed endorsement — perhaps because they are utterly unpracticed in the endorsement game — Esquire’s editors finally get to the point in a really long paragraph:
In truth, though, Senator Obama is the only one of the two candidates who seems to believe in the idea of a political commonwealth, that there are those things — be they the guarantees in the Bill of Rights or mountains in Alaska — that we own together. Barack Obama stands, however inchoately and however diffidently, for the notion that a common purpose is necessary for common problems, that “government,” as it is designed in our founding documents, is our collective responsibility. It is this collective responsibility that built America into a great power without peer in the history of the world. And it is this collective responsibility that has succumbed to nearly thirty years of phony rightist populism, corporate brigandage, and the wildly cheered abandonment of a common American civic purpose. It is shocking that in America an argument for salvaging the common good is regarded as a radical notion by anyone, but that is where we are. And that is what Barack Obama seems to stand for. After all, as a young man with his potential, he could have headed straight to midtown Manhattan and made a fortune. Instead, he took a church job working for poor people in Chicago, and for his troubles, he and those poor people have been viciously jeered by the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. Such is their regard for the common good. And such is Obama’s promise. And in that, however inchoately and however diffidently, Obama stands not only against Bushism, but against Reaganism, which gave it birth. And that is more than enough.
Yep, more than enough.
Poll: The Early Line 10/09
Obama/Biden: 47%
McCain/Palin: 41%
Undec 9%
–After a tightening earlier in the week, Obama has re-opened a 6-pt. lead over McCain. This was likely driven by the fact that Obama has expanded his lead among women voters. He now holds a 9 pt. advantage over McCain with women. He also has a 2 pt. lead over McCain among men.
–Among the 66% of voters who say the economy is their #1 issue, Obama has a 13-pt advantage. And he holds a 6-pt. lead – 44-38% – on the question of who’d do the best job handling the economy. In yesterday’s poll, the two were tied on this question.
–Palin’s approval ratings are also sliding and she has almost a 1-1 fav/unfav rating, with 46% rating her favorably and 43% rating her unfavorably.
Today’s Diageo/Hotline tracking poll, conducted 10/6-8 by FD, surveyed 852 LVs and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4%. Party ID Breakdown for the sample is 41%D, 36%R, 18%I.
