Yay! I don’t have to do research tonight. The Wall Street Journal has done it for me. Here are the two presidential candidates directly compared on:

Trade
Energy
Unions
Taxes
Health Care

Barack Obama’s Education Plan
John McCain’s Education Plan

Highlights:

Obama

• Create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state “zero to five” efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
• Quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
• Provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.
• Reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law.
• Double funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the creation of more successful charter schools.
• Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field.
• Provide funding to school districts to invest in (dropout) intervention strategies in middle school.
• Double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
• Support outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for college.
• Create a national “Make College A Reality” initiative that has a bold goal to increase students taking AP or college-level classes nationwide 50 percent by 2016, and will build on Obama’s bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Senate to provide grants for students seeking college level credit at community colleges if their school does not provide those resources.
• Create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education.
• (Create) a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service.

McCain

• We are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.
• The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility.
• All students (will) have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.
• Schools can and should compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered - not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable.
• (Schools) should…compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them.
• Parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them….All federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing school.
• Devote five percent of Title II funding to states to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class or who participate in an alternative teacher recruitment program such as Teach for America, the New York City Teaching Fellowship Program, the New Teacher Project, or excellent university initiatives.
• Devote 60 percent of Title II funding for incentive bonuses for high performing teachers to locate in the most challenging educational settings, for teachers to teach subjects like math and science, and for teachers who demonstrate student improvement. Payments will be made directly to teachers.
• The first 35 percent of Title II funding would be directed to the school level so principals and teachers could focus these resources on the specific needs of their schools.
• Empower School Principals With Greater Control Over Spending.
• Expand The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program from $13 million to at least $20 million benefiting nearly a thousand more families.
• Ensure Children Struggling To Meet State Standards Will Have Immediate Access To High Quality Tutoring Programs. Local school districts can certify education service providers but providers can also bypass the local bureaucracy and receive direct federal certification. Education service providers can then market directly to parents. Title I money will be directed straight to the provider.
• Target $500 million in current federal funds to build new virtual schools.
• Allocate $250 Million Through A Competitive Grant Program To Support States That Commit To Expanding Online Education Opportunities.
• Offer $250 Million For Digital Passport Scholarships To Help Students Pay For Online Tutors Or Enroll In Virtual Schools.

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

The Daily Press has provided their voice to the chorus of endorsements that will come out between now and election day. For their part, they have chosen Sen. John McCain.

Here’s a little of their justification:

Obama’s rating as the most liberal member of the Senate — or one of the most liberal, depending on who’s doing the rankings — coupled with his vote tally in the Illinois Senate, and his policy statements, make it clear that this is a man who believes that we need an interventionist government that knows what is best for us, and will dip into our wallets to achieve its ambitious aims, whether they have to do with fixing the nation’s uneven access to health care or rescuing failing corporations.

Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin will pay a visit to Virginia today.

Both candidates will be in Virginia Beach this morning at 11 a.m. and Gov. Palin will move on to Richmond to join U.S. Senate candidate, Gov. Jim Gilmore, this afternoon at 2 p.m.

BD will be at both events. So check back here frequently today for audio, photos, and, of course, commentary.

In the meantime, for a backdrop on why this visit is important for the McCain-Palin ticket, the Wall Street Journal discusses today how Barack Obama has made gains in what used to be the “Solid South.”

Fueled by demographic shifts, rising doubts about the direction of the country, perceived missteps by Sen. McCain and a voter-registration push by the Obama campaign that has helped add a net of 310,000 new, mostly younger voters, the Democratic ticket increasingly appears positioned to win Virginia and make critical inroads across the South. A CNN/Time Inc. poll released Wednesday shows Sen. Obama has opened a nine-point lead on Sen. McCain in Virginia.

OK…now for the live-blog:

McCain’s speech:

Three weeks from now, you will choose a new President. Choose well. There is much at stake.

These are hard times. Our economy is in crisis. Financial markets are collapsing. Credit is drying up. Your savings are in danger. Your retirement is at risk. Jobs are disappearing. The cost of health care, your children’s college, gasoline and groceries are rising all the time with no end in sight. While your most important asset — your home — is losing value every day.

Americans are fighting in two wars. We face many enemies in this dangerous world, and they are waiting to see if our current troubles will permanently weaken us.

The next President won’t have time to get used to the office. He won’t have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction. We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight.

I’ve been fighting for this country since I was seventeen years old, and I have the scars to prove it. If I’m elected President, I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I’m not afraid of the fight, I’m ready for it.

I’m not going to spend $700 billion dollars of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. I’m going to make sure we take care of the people who were devastated by the excesses of Wall Street and Washington. I’m going to spend a lot of that money to bring relief to you, and I’m not going to wait sixty days to start doing it.

I have a plan to protect the value of your home and get it rising again by buying up bad mortgages and refinancing them so if your neighbor defaults he doesn’t bring down the value of your house with him.

I have a plan to let retirees and people nearing retirement keep their money in their retirement accounts longer so they can rebuild their savings.

I have a plan to rebuild the retirement savings of every worker.

I have a plan to hold the line on taxes and cut them to make America more competitive and create jobs here at home.

Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy.

The explosion of government spending over the last eight years has put us deeper in debt to foreign countries that don’t have our best interests at heart. It weakened the dollar and made everything you buy more expensive.

If I’m elected President, I won’t spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money, on top of the $700 billion we just gave the Treasury Secretary, as Senator Obama proposes. Because he can’t do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I’m going to make government live on a budget just like you do.

I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren’t working for the American people. And I will veto every single pork barrel bill Congresses passes.

If I’m elected President, I won’t fine small businesses and families with children, as Senator Obama proposes, to force them into a new huge government run health care program, while I keep the cost of the fine a secret until I hit you with it. I will bring down the skyrocketing cost of health care with competition and choice to lower your premiums, and make it more available to more Americans. I’ll make sure you can keep the same health plan if you change jobs or leave a job to stay home.

I will provide every single American family with a $5000 refundable tax credit to help them purchase insurance. Workers who already have health care insurance from their employers will keep it and have more money to cover costs. Workers who don’t have health insurance can use it to find a policy anywhere in this country to meet their basic needs.

If I’m elected President, I won’t raise taxes on small businesses, as Senator Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs. I will keep small business taxes where they are, help them keep their costs low, and let them spend their earnings to create more jobs.

If I’m elected President, I won’t make it harder to sell our goods overseas and kill more jobs as Senator Obama proposes. I will open new markets to goods made in America and make sure our trade is free and fair. And I’ll make sure we help workers who’ve lost a job that won’t come back find a new one that won’t go away.

The last President to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Senator Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover. That didn’t turn out too well. They say those who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Well, my friends, I know my history lessons, and I sure won’t make the mistakes Senator Obama will.

If I’m elected President, we’re going to stop sending $700 billion to countries that don’t like us very much. I won’t argue to delay drilling for more oil and gas and building new nuclear power plants in America, as Senator Obama does. We will start new drilling now. We will invest in all energy alternatives — nuclear, wind, solar, and tide. We will encourage the manufacture of hybrid, flex fuel and electric automobiles. We will invest in clean coal technology. We will lower the cost of energy within months, and we will create millions of new jobs.

Let me give you the state of the race today. We have 22 days to go. We’re 6 points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.

What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I’ve never been the kind to do it from the sidelines.

I know you’re worried. America is a great country, but we are at a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. Will we continue to lead the world’s economies or will we be overtaken? Will the world become safer or more dangerous? Will our military remain the strongest in the world? Will our children and grandchildren’s future be brighter than ours?

My answer to you is yes. Yes, we will lead. Yes, we will prosper. Yes, we will be safer. Yes, we will pass on to our children a stronger, better country. But we must be prepared to act swiftly, boldly, with courage and wisdom.

I know what fear feels like. It’s a thief in the night who robs your strength.

I know what hopelessness feels like. It’s an enemy who defeats your will.

I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I’m an American. And I choose to fight.

Don’t give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight.

Fight for a new direction for our country.

Fight for what’s right for America.

Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington.

Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead.

Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children’s future.

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Now, let’s go win this election and get this country moving again.

Photos from today’s rally in Virginia Beach.

Thelma Drake

Randy Forbes

Bob McDonnell

Hank Williams Jr.

Video of McCain and Palin Speeches at WVEC

Richmond Rally here and here
Photo-blog from Richmond and
at Conservativa, courtesy of Jane Dudley.

Other’s also attended the Richmond event…here are photos from Mike and a very tough review by Rick.

The latest poll results from Military Times are now available; and, not surprisingly, McCain polls very well, eclipsing Obama by a large margin: 68-23%.

Enlisted personnel support McCain 67-24%; Officers support McCain 70-22%. Obama enjoys a 79-12% lead among African-Americans, but McCain holds a 63-27% lead among Latinos and Hispanics.

The Navy supports McCain 69-24% and the 18-34 age group supports McCain 65-27%.

By a wide margin, across all ranks, genders, and generally race, McCain is the military’s preference to be their next Commander-in-Chief.

90-second campaign commercial by McCain on Obama’s ACORN association:

In last night’s debate, I was taken aback when I heard Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat, call for tax cuts for the middle class in order to ease their financial burden and thus, perhaps, enabling them to keep their mortgage, contrasted with Sen. John McCain, the Republican, who called for a $300 billion adventure by the government to get further into the mortgage business.

Curious, I went to the McCain web site today to see more details on the plan:

The McCain Resurgence Plan would purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes. By purchasing the existing, failing mortgages the McCain resurgence plan will eliminate uncertainty over defaults, support the value of mortgage-backed derivatives and alleviate risks that are freezing financial markets.

The McCain resurgence plan would be available to mortgage holders that:

* Live in the home (primary residence only)

* Can prove their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan (no falsifications and provided a down payment).

The new mortgage would be an FHA-guaranteed fixed-rate mortgage at terms manageable for the homeowner. The direct cost of this plan would be roughly $300 billion because the purchase of mortgages would relieve homeowners of “negative equity” in some homes. Funds provided by Congress in recent financial market stabilization bill can be used for this purpose; indeed by stabilizing mortgages it will likely be possible to avoid some purposes previously assumed needed in that bill.

Perhaps Nina Easton, a Fox News contributor, said it best: those who were truly defeated in last night’s debate were fiscal conservatives who saw their ship keel over and slip beneath the waves.

The only saving grace to this plan is that it purports to be part of the existing and already approved $700B giveaway.

Do fiscal conservatives even exist anymore?

What does McCain have to do tonight to win? What about Obama?

Is this is a make or break for either candidate?

Is bringing up Bill Ayers’ association with Obama a wise move? What about Obama going after McCain regarding the Keating Five?

Should McCain hammer home that it was Democrats who caused the instability in the markets based on Fannie and Freddie? Or, should Obama blame McCain for voting with the Bush administration 90% of the time during which the crisis occurred?

We’ll do a live-blog of the debate right here. Hopefully some of my colleagues will join me. Feel free to chime in yourself.

Consider this post your pre-game tailgate and front-row seat to tonight’s main event.

Also, we’ll have a poll up regarding the winner of the debate here too. So please check back and vote!

Also - please join us on Thursday for “Virginia Politics On-Demand” on BlogTalkRadio for our live discussion with Gov. Jim Gilmore. The governor will be with us for the first forty minutes of the show and will take your calls.

Live Blog:

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Danae, Jason and Jim also share their thoughts in this post-debate podcast (caution, McCain ideologues…it’s not what you want to hear):

 

 VPOD: Post Presidential Debate Reaction, Oct. 10, 2008 [16:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (99)

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.

Yesterday John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to help deal with the current economic crisis.  Many questioned this move, Barack Obama going so far as to reject McCain’s appeal for Obama to join him in helping deal with this issue instead of playing politics and saying leaders in Washington can call him if they need him.

The thing is, leaders in Washington spent the first part of the week doing exactly that.

Only they didn’t call Barack Obama.

They called John McCain.

Is George Will trying to send McCain a message or is he just fed up? Either way, this is quite a salvo:

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

In a little-known publication, “Contingencies”, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries, Sen. John McCain wrote for this month’s issue:

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

This statement in such a far-reaching publication (deep sarcasm intended) sent Virginia Democrats into such a state of angst that they hastily called a press conference this past Saturday outside McCain HQ in Arlington.

Judy Feder, Democratic nominee for US Representative from Virginia’s 10th Congressional District and Barbara Favola, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Board and a member of Virginia’s State Health Board were the headliners at this sideshow.

The Democrats decried the statement. The gist of their disapproval: “In spite of the unprecedented crisis created by Bush-McCain deregulatory policies, McCain wants to put Americans’ health care at the mercy of Wall Street,” said a DPVA press release.

Oh, there’s so much fun with this, where to begin?

Instead of getting overly-analytical, let’s keep it simple:

1) As has been proven again and again, it was Clinton policies that laid the groundwork for last week’s economic fun. Not saying the Bush admin didn’t help. But let’s be grown-ups when we talk about this.
2) Deregulation has not been the culprit. In fact, over-regulation and poor lending/borrowing practices are probably more at fault. And, certainly, government, as Democrats always default to, is not necessarily the cause or the solution.
3) It is precisely the lack of competition among HMOs that causes them to have a monopoly and places both patients and practitioners over-a-barrel (and Judy Feder and Barbara Favola want to give HMOs and government MORE control!)
4) Reliving the heady days of sit-ins and demonstrations, the libs took their fight to “the man” himself. Apparently 20 people showed up. First, if you are going to have a healthcare availability, wouldn’t you rather choose a hospital or clinic? Especially one that might have long lines? Second, if you’re going to make it a stunt, be sure to have numbers to back you up.
5) This McCain statement, which shows he’s thinking about healthcare and making it more competitive, which should make it more efficient and affordable to the average consumer, would have never been heard of, buried in this obscure magazine. Now Democrats have actually helped tell the story of a pretty darn good and key proposal of the McCain campaign.

If Judy Feder wants to represent the 10th District, she probably ought to stay away from stunts that help tell the Republican message.

MyDebates is a new site created by MySpace in conjunction with the Commission On Presidential Debates.  Through here you’ll be able to watch the debates, discussion the issues, give your opinion and more.

Before the debates you can take a little survey to see where you stand on the issues and express your support.  How’s it looking so far?  Well, if MySpacers voted (which many don’t either for being too young or the usual abysmal turnout of those under the age of 25), John McCain’s in trouble:

Del. Chris Saxman, VA co-chair for McCain-Palin, pulls no punches in this Virginia update for the presidential campaign.

What does he think of the latest poll numbers? Virginia volunteers for Obama being asked to work in Pennsylvania? Why are Democrats afraid of a hockey mom from Alaska? Why is there no surge of Iraq stories on the front pages anymore? And, will we see McCain and Palin in Virginia Beach soon?

Plus, much, much more!

Quote of the podcast: “I don’t know why when things go wrong in America, Democrats get excited so much!”

Listen!

 

 VPOD: Del. Chris Saxman, McCain Campaign Co-Chair - Sept. 17, 2008 [28:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (180)

To listen to any of the previous podcasts, click here.
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Opening music “Highway Run” by the Charlie Wheeler Band available through Ariel Publicity.