***Dave Does the Election – Staying Up Late on a Thursday Edition

I need to make this quick, so a bit more bullety, a bit less paragraphic.

MCCAIN

1. Senator, I’m shocked! How could you endorse redistribution of wealth like that? Oh, wait, that was back in 2000. Hmmmm … but would this count as an issue you’ve flip-flopped on? Say it ain’t so, John.
2. Remember, when terrorists endorse McCain, it’s a trick, but when they endorse Obama, it’s for real. Right.
3. Can John McCain still win? “Anything’s possible” — but how precisely can he go about it?

PALIN

1. The NeedlessMarkupGate Scandal continues to dog poor Gov. Palin. Since the clothing was a gift from the RNC to her family, some people are wondering when she’ll be paying the $50K in gift taxes she’ll owe on it. Some other people are surprised that McCain is wholeheartedly supporting her for it, given that five years ago he was supporting legislation to forbid just that sort of thing (something about how having campaigns pay for clothing and other personal items would seriously “erode public confidence”).  On the other hand, Fox News is all over how unfair it is for the media to dwell on personal grooming expenses of candidates.
2. Maybe Palin can pay back the GOP for some of those dresses by suing SNL for slander, as Newt Gingrich suggests she do. Yeah, great idea there, Newt. (Hey, weren’t you a big tort reform guy once upon a time?)
3. Is Palin being stupid or disingenuous here, first saying she won’t call Obama a socialist, then talking about how Obama’s policy proposals are all socialist? Hmmmm, maybe both.
4. A tip to the Governor: when you (incorrectly) rag on an opponent about his being willing to sit down with terrorists and dictators “without preconditions,” you might want to actually have figured out what preconditions you yourself would insist upon. D’oh!
5. Okay, it’s a cheap shot but a funny one.

OBAMA

1. Why are Republicans voting for Obama? Just listen.
2. Why is Obama winning? Steady temperment and thoughtful decision-making. What novel attributes for a president!
3. Unlike some candidates, the Obama family isn’t dropping $150K for a wardrobe.
4. This picture was from earlier this summer, when Obama visited Hawaii and threw a lei into the ocean where his mother’s ashes were scattered. Very quietly touching.
5. Mad props to Ron Howard (et al.) for this little film and being willing to, um, humiliate himself in order to get his message of support for the Obama campaign out.

OTHER RACES

1. Rep. Bachmann says she doesn’t actually think Obama is anti-American, really, at least not to speak of — she just got tricked into saying it by a nasssssty interviewer. Sorry, Ma’am, Gov. Palin already used that excuse. Of course, Bachmann is also telling the press one thing, and telling her far-right audiences (whom she’s hitting up for money, since the GOP’s abandoned her) something quite different.
2. Rep. Hayes, who I featured the other day first saying “liberals hate America” and then his campaign saying he flatly denied saying that, now denies denying that he said it. Are you keeping up here? But don’t worry, Rep. Hayes, evidently calling liberals “anti-American” is the “in” thing in your crowd.I’d love to see Marilyn Musgrave get retired. Talk about an embarrassment to our state.
3. I knew Colorado’s Amendment 48 was bad news, but I hadn’t realized Chow heinous it is.
4. I live in a nice, conservative suburb of Denver, Tom Tancredo Country, one of those places where almost every local contest goes to the (R)s. Yet, astonishingly, Arapahoe County is now considered a swing disctrict! Yow!

THE CAMPAIGN

1. Who is a Real American? Here are some suggestions of what Americans (at one of them) wants. Sounds like a pretty good list to me.
2. Election 08 as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign – Kind of goofy, but with some amusing points.
3. Was a McCain volunteer brutally attacked for her political beliefs? Um, chances look high that it was a hoax. Even Michelle Malkin, God help us, doesn’t believe the story. What’s remarkable (and scary and disgusting) is checking out the linkbacks at the bottom of the Malkin article, most of which are drinking-the-koolaid “See! See the Muslim-thugocracy black-on-white violence inherent in the Obama candidacy! Help! We’re being oppressed” kind of insane crap. I mean, these people really believe that the Obama Campaign is sending black thugs with knives to beat up and intimidate McCain supporters (and the only reason we don’t hear about it is because of a media conspiracy, of course). Yeesh.
4. Do most Americans love taxes? I think most Americans think taxes are necessary, and even a civic duty. But I don’t think they love them.
5. The GOP Intellectual Wing who’ve been banished and battered for daring to suggest that Obama might be a better candidate and that the Republican Party has strayed from its core vision, continue to speak out. I must confess to a bit of schadenfreude, but I honestly do wish them well in flushing the fat cats and social conservatives from their party.
6. Why it’s criitical that people vote.
7. Why it’s critical not just to beat the Republicans, but to beat them badly.

And so it goes. And so I go … to bed.