Politico has an interesting article up in which it notes the findings of recent Pew study showing the media coverage of McCain over the last six weeks or so was mostly negative. Obama’s coverage on the other hand was slightly positive in total. They also analyze the coverage of the VP candidates, noting Biden’s coverage was almost as poor as McCain’s.

While they do tie much of the coverage of McCain to his own actions, the study makes an interesting connection between the results of the many opinion polls and the media coverage, noticing a corresponding relationship. The question is though, did the polls influence the coverage, or did the coverage influence the polls?

Yahoo News (AP) - Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs McCain as president

Well, many folks predicted it, but now it’s official. Not too surprising, since Powell’s foreign policy recommendations and stances are pretty much in sync with Obama’s.

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. (Photo: Associated Press)

WSJ has some details.

In case you somehow missed it, here’s Rep Bachmann (R-MN) in her oscar-worthy performance as Sen Joe McCarthy:

We start with the now well-worn Anti-American by association card, then move to expanding the associations. Matthews decides to call her bluff, figuring she’ll back down and look like the shill she’s playing the role of. But no, Bachmann refuses to relent, and throws down a royal flush of straight on McCarthyism craziness. Are we really so doomed to repeat our worst history? What’s next, War Relocation Camps for Muslims? Or maybe a resurrection of the Sedition Act?

USAToday - Former global leaders in Iran to support Khatami

It looks like there may be a new argument being weather ballooned by the McCain campaign, namely that having the same party in control of both the Legislative and Executive branches of government may not be the best thing for the country. Johnathan Martin at Politico has the details. Of course, the interesting thing is that the premise for this presupposes a poor showing for Republicans in Congress.

Personally, i think this may be McCain’s best argument yet in the pursuit of independents. Just looking over Bush’s term, one can see the validity. I even agree to a point (and have said as much previously), though not enough to change my voting preferences in this election. In 4 or 8 years though, who knows, we’ll have to see what happens.

A wide ranging collection of individuals has put together a petition to Senators McCain and Obama requesting a change to the format of the final debate. The group is calling itself the Open Debate Coalition. Their requests including allowing for more moderator discretion in followups and full footage release. Also, interestingly enough, is a request to come up with a better alternative to the current Commission on Presidential Debates to handle future debates. The membership is pretty diverse, as a couple of the individuals below demonstrate.

Lawrence Lessig; Professor, Stanford Law School, Founder, Center for Internet and Society

Eli Pariser; Executive Director, MoveOn.org Political Action

Mike Krempasky; Founder, RedState.com

Markos Moulitsas; Founder, DailyKos.com

Roger L. Simon, CEO, Pajamas Media

As most of you know, the report of the Alaskan special investigator on TrooperGate was released yesterday. And although it concluded that Palin acted within her “constitutional and statutory authority” in firing her safety commissioner Walt Monegan, it also stated that her actions in the pursuit of having her ex brother-in-law fired were in violation of Alaskan law. Politico (among many other places) has the story.

Looks like i was mistaken, she may be the right person to carry on the legacy of Dick Cheney after all.

McCain and his campaign have gone on overdrive in the last couple days, pulling out all the stops on a scorched earth campaign, and doing their best to convince the public that Obama is some sort of terrorist by association. Fortunately the public doesn’t seem to be buying it. From an Oct 8th poll (Fox News no less):

43. There has been some discussion of Barack Obama’s relationship with the
former radical activist William Ayers. Because Ayers is linked to plots to bomb
the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol in the 1970s, and because Ayres recently said
he wished he had done more, some people say Obama’s association with Ayers calls
into question his judgment. Does Obama’s connection with Ayers make you less
likely to vote for him for president or does it not really make a difference to
your vote?

            Less likely  No difference  (More likely)  (Don't know)
8-9 Oct 08      32%         61             2             5
Democrats        8%         83             2             7
Republicans     62%         33             2             3
Independents    29%         64             3             4

Though many of you may have seen this elsewhere, i’ll bring it up here for those who don’t venture far off the VA conservative blogosphere (other than coming here of course).

At a rally in Leesburg yesterday, Joe McCain referred to Arlington and Alexandria as communist country. AP has a quick rundown (including the campaign’s rapid-response), though it looks like Lowell over at RK may have broken it. Audio of the segment can be found here.

Yes, it was a simple joke. But in this heated political climate, even stupid jokes get echoed around and given undue attention. My dad was in Theta Xi at ODU (ODC at the time) with Joe, and from the stories i’ve heard we may get a few more gaffes from his sense of humor if big brother keeps him surrogating on the campaign trail.

At the barber shop I frequent, there is an elderly gentleman there named Ray. Ray is probably in his mid 80’s and has been deaf for quite some time. As a result of this and maybe other factors, Ray’s speech is difficult to understand. When i first started getting my haircuts there, I could barely understand a word Ray said, and would often have to ask him to repeat his questions. Now that I’ve been getting cuts from Ray for a while though, i have little trouble understanding him - he chides me for shaving with a hacksaw and i ask what mileage he’s getting in his Corolla.

As expected, the Senate passed the bailout bill. Final tally - 74 to 25. The 74 were 40 Dems, 33 Reps, and Lieberman.

On an amusing note, one of those voting against what has been called the Socialist Bailout was the one bona fide Socialist in the Senate, Bernie Sanders. Our own team, Warner and Webb, both voted aye. Ain’t that a kick in the teeth?

Most of the news we are getting about the negotiations in DC is from the press statements made by the major players. What happens behind closed doors has been pretty invisible, especially once McCain and Obama arrived. That’s what makes this report from Jonathan Weisman in the WaPo a piece of fascinating inside baseball. Lots of secondhand and ’senior Republican aids’ as sources, but it does appear that presidential politics has impacted the negotiations.

Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83.

What we got here is… failure to communicate.