Barack Obama Keeps Hitting John McCain Hard. Watch Videos.

Bill Clinton Campaigns With Barack Obama. Watch The Video.

Did You Watch Barack Obama's "Infomercials"? Well, Watch Below. Awesome Stuff.

Barack Obama's "Closing Argument". Watch Video.

"How Would Obama Or McCain Govern As president?"

How would Obama or McCain govern as president?
By Steven Thomma

WASHINGTON — Americans will know in a little more than a week who'll be the country's 44th president, but despite all the promises and the campaign bluster, they won't know until Jan. 20 and beyond how Barack Obama or John McCain would govern.

A landslide win for Obama, now suggested by the polls, could sweep more Democrats into Congress and give him a relatively free hand to change course at home and abroad on issues from taxes to Iraq.

A sinking economy, however, could force Obama to shift priorities, perhaps even delaying his promised tax increase on the wealthy or his expansion of health care to the uninsured. A resurgence of violence in Iraq could compel him to rethink his plan to withdraw U.S. troops.

On the other side of the crystal ball, a narrow win for McCain, the best possible outcome for him now suggested by polls, would set him up for a titanic fight with a Congress that seems sure to remain in Democratic hands.

McCain has a history of working with Democrats in Congress, but they'd be none too happy about watching the presidency slip from their grasp. It's all but impossible, for example, to see how McCain could get them to ratify his proposal to extend President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

"He has very poor prospects," said George Edwards, a scholar of the presidency and a political scientist at Texas A&M University. "The Democrats would be extremely shocked and irritated if he won. His notions of tax cuts are likely to not go anywhere. His approach to health care probably would not be the one the Democrats would pick up on."

Ironically, though, McCain might be able to strike a bargain with congressional Democrats to extend the expiring tax cuts for those who make less than $200,000 a year, much as Obama wants to do.

A President McCain, like all presidents, would have more leeway on foreign policy than he would on domestic matters. Even there, however, he'd find Congress fighting him at every step and appropriations bill.

"After eight years of the Bush administration, there is an awful lot of animus on Capitol Hill toward the Republican agenda," said former Rep. Tim Penny of Minnesota, a Democrat who's turned independent and supports McCain. "It would be a tricky situation for McCain."

While either candidate could still win, polls this week pointed toward a big win for Obama, who now leads in every state that Democrat John Kerry carried four years ago and in many states that Bush won, including Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia.

"If these numbers hold up, he could win the biggest Democratic landslide since Lyndon Johnson in 1964," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University.

Independent analysts such as Charles Cook of the Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia say the Democrats also could win a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate and add as many as 30 seats to their majority in the House of Representatives.

What would that mean? If you like Obama, it means that you could be very happy. If you don't like him, you could be very scared.

"If he wins big, there will be some sense of a mandate. And if he's got a lot of Democrats in Congress, they would be inclined to go along with him," Edwards said.

Domestically, Obama's biggest push could be to overhaul the tax code, cutting taxes for individuals who make less than $200,000 a year and raising them on those who make more than $250,000.

Though the government's deficits are likely to soar thanks to the $700 billion upfront cost of the financial system bailout and probable recession-driven drops in tax revenues, Obama says the tax cuts are needed even more now as an economic stimulus.

Whether he can push through the tax increases on the wealthy, as many Democrats want to do, is another question, however.

When ABC's George Stephanopoulos pressed him on whether he'd push the tax increases if the economy were in recession early next year, Obama said, "No, no, no, no, no. . . . I think we've got to take a look and see where the economy is. . . . We're going to have to re-evaluate at the beginning of the year to see what kind of hole we're in."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also said that concerns about the deficit should take a back seat to using government spending or tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Tax increases on the wealthy can come "later on," he said. "There are a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money."

Yet if Obama put off tapping that source of revenue, it would rob the government of the money he says he'd use to expand health care for the uninsured.

Obama's vow to pay for all his new programs could suffer another blow — or force another look at priorities — if he can't withdraw troops from Iraq and use that $10 billion a month elsewhere.

Across the changing chessboard, keeping one big promise could require breaking another.

In style as well, Obama could find himself at odds with congressional Democrats or his broader constituency for change.

That happened to Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, though both were more conservative than the congressional wing of their party, while Obama is at home with the liberal wing of the party that dominates on Capitol Hill.

"The challenge for Obama is how he can manage Congress," former representative Penny said. "Maybe he has that ability. But it's a big unknown. He's so new and has such a skinny legislative record."

One key test: If Obama could muster enough Democratic votes to pass legislation, would he still reach out for Republican votes, too?

"There's a lot of pent-up emotion and legislation waiting on Capitol Hill," Penny said. "If Obama allows the Democratic majorities on the Hill to set the agenda and call the shots, I think he could find himself disappointing a lot of voters who are looking to him to be a more conciliatory, bipartisan leader."

Neither party probably could get everything it wanted. Republicans likely could block Obama's plan of "refundable" tax credits to the working poor that would show up as checks; Democrats could block McCain's extension of tax reductions for the wealthy.

Poll: Obama's Race Not The Only Factor For Ky. Voters.

Poll: Obama's race not the only factor for Ky. voters
By Ryan Alessi

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. climbs the stairs to the plane as he leaves for Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008, in Indianapolis, Ind.

asset icon Poll results on race, religion in Kentucky's presidential campaign
Related Story Obama's faith is widely mistaken in Kentucky
External Link More coverage from the Herald-Leader/WKYT poll
Poll:
Does the fact that if elected, Barack Obama would be the first black president of the United States make you more likely to vote for him, less likely to vote for him, or does it not affect your vote either way?

The color of Sen. Barack Obama's skin is a negative for some Kentucky voters, a new poll shows, but it's far from the only reason the Democratic presidential candidate is trailing Republican Sen. John McCain in the state.

The Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll shows 12 percent of respondents said the fact that Obama, if elected, would be the first black president of the United States made them less likely to vote for him compared to 5 percent who said it made them more likely to support him. Eighty-three percent said Obama's race didn't affect their vote.

Overall, Obama, who is the child of a white mother and black father, trails McCain in Kentucky by 16 points, 55 percent to 39 percent, the poll results show.

"Let's not be naïve. Race is a factor with Obama. But is it costing him winning the state? No. There are a lot of other factors at work," said Del Ali, president of the polling firm Research 2000 in Olney, Md., which conducted the survey.

Not the least of which is the fact that the state has been trending toward Republicans for national offices for decades.

But the survey of 600 likely Kentucky voters, which was taken Oct. 19 to 21 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, also asked respondents to react to two statements about race in general.

More than half reported that they believed black politicians tend to be more concerned with promoting the interests of minority groups.

And more than three out of every five respondents also agreed with a statement that said "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites." One fifth of people polled said they disagreed with the statement while 19 percent said they weren't sure.

The 61 percent of Kentucky respondents who said they agreed with that statement is well above the 35 percent who agreed when asked the same question in a national Associated Press-Yahoo poll taken in September.

"It's the minority view in the rest of the country and a majority view in Kentucky," said Mark Peffley, political science professor at the University of Kentucky and a member of that department's Race and Politics Research Group. "That's a little troubling."

An analysis of the Kentucky poll numbers by the UK Race and Politics Research Group — which also provided guidance during the drafting of the survey questions — said those results could help explain why Obama's support in Kentucky is less than 40 percent when he leads McCain in most national polls.

Specifically, the analysis pointed out that the perception that blacks could be just as well off as whites if they worked harder was shared by 43 percent of Kentucky Democrats and 64 percent of independents who were polled. Four out of five Republicans also agreed with the statement.

Peffley, one of the UK professors in the research group, said further polling would be necessary to determine what that says about the extent of racial prejudice in Kentucky. But he said the results indicate a lack of understanding among Kentuckians that discrimination exists today. Such discrimination has been proven through experiments with black and white applicants for houses and jobs, he said.

Obama in Kentucky

While more respondents in the Kentucky poll said they are less likely to back Obama because of his race, it's not too far out of line with national results.

In the AP's poll, those saying they were more or less likely to support Obama because of his race were split at 9 percent.

Steve Voss, another UK professor in the race and politics group, said voters who are resentful of racial issues already are likely to associate the Democratic Party and its candidate with being supportive of minorities.

"These voters tend not to vote for national Democrats regardless of their race. They didn't vote for John Kerry either," Voss said. "The most one can say is that had Obama been white ... maybe he would have won more support than Kerry, but that's pretty darn speculative."

Indeed, Obama's polling numbers against McCain in Kentucky are on pace with Kerry's share of the vote in 2004 against Republican President George W. Bush. Kerry finished with 39.7 percent of the vote; an average of Obama's polling numbers have him about 40 percent, which is among the least change of any state, according to an analysis by UK professor Richard Fording.

"If there's something unusual in Kentucky, it's not evident in those numbers," Fording said.

Black politicians

One general concern is that 53 percent of respondents said they believed a black candidate would be more interested in advancing interests of minorities than the good of the nation, said Osi Onyekwuluje, a Bowling Green attorney who has run unsuccessfully for judgeships and as a Republican for state auditor.

"As long as that perception is out there, any black candidate running outside his own ethnic district is sunk," he said.

No black candidate has been elected to statewide office in Kentucky history.

But Onyekwuluje, who also is a member of the Kentucky advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Human Rights, said many people might lump black political candidates in with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, black candidates who have a controversial history of injecting racial overtones into campaigns.

"Heck, I'm black and I don't like those two," he said. "They rub me the wrong way also."

One Kentuckian, Kayla Music, 18, of Paintsville, said she believes Obama would give preference to minority groups.

"I think he'd be racist," she said. "He would give them more freedom than whites."

Peffley, of UK, said Obama has dispelled those beliefs in other places where he's campaigned frequently and said publicly that he even disagrees with some aspects of affirmative action policies.

And such stereotypes often fade once people get to know more about an individual candidate or official, said Voss. Obama, he said, has made great strides since the primary.

The Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll in May showed 21 percent of respondents believed Obama's race made him less electable in the state compared to 4 percent who said it made him more appealing.

"As you gain more information, the role of those stereotypes become less and less important," Voss said. "You can use the increasing information available in the news coverage and in the ads."

Roger Mahuron, 56, and a Henry County Democrat, said he still has had to defend his support of Obama to his friends.

"It almost seems to me like they're looking for an excuse not to vote for Obama," he said. "I hear lack of experience a lot. This is one thing that leaves me scratching my head."

Editor's note: Check out the poll results here.

Barack Obama's "Triple Threat".

An Obama Nation In Saint Louis, Missouri.

Read more from the WSJ.

Barack Obama Flexes Muscle, Weighs In On Kentucky's Congressional Races. Read The Campaign Email Below.

Dear Osi,

You can change politics in this country at every level -- up and down the ballot.

Our records show that you live in Kentucky's 2nd district .

There are candidates in Kentucky who are working to bring the change this country needs. Get involved and help carry them to victory in November.

Bruce Lunsford for Senate:
Visit the website

David Boswell for Congress:
Visit the website

Don't wait until Election Day to support these candidates. Get involved today to make sure Kentucky has a strong team to take our country in a new direction.

Thanks,

Obama for America

P.S. -- To get involved with Obama for America in your community, visit your state page:

http://KY.barackobama.com

BREAKING NEWS: Barack Obama Shatters Fundraising Records By Taking In $150 Million In September ! WOW!!

Read more here and shout out your WOWs.

Did You Miss The Presidential Debate? Well, Watch It Now.

Oh, BTW, if you wonder who Joe Plumber is, Watch below:

Your Eyes Are Not Deceiving You; Hillary Clinton Is Actually Campaigning For The Obama/Biden Ticket. Watch.

Does ANYONE Dare Utter The "L" Word?

Read more.

Retaliating For Barack Obama's "Keating Five" Ad, John McCain Drops An "Acorn" On Obama's Head. Watch The Ad.

This is a very effective ad.

Do you want to know more why?

Read this from the Post.

Oh, BTW, while there, check out the classic poses of the "Acorn" hustler! Below is a sample:

Anne Coulter Skewers Joe Biden And Gives A Pass To Sarah Palin. Didn't She Say She Would NEVER Vote For John McCain -- Or Was That ALL A Lie?

Pull The Hair Plug On This Guy
by Ann Coulter

If Sarah Palin had made just one of the wildly inaccurate statements smugly uttered by Sen. Joe Biden in last week's vice presidential debate, there would have been 3-inch headlines in newspapers across America. (I can almost hear Katie Couric asking me, "Which newspapers?")

These weren't insignificant errors, such as when Biden said, "Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."

It turns out that Katie's restaurant, where Biden gets his feel for the average American, closed 20 years ago. The only evidence that he spends any time in Home Depot is that it appears that a pipe wrench fell on his head one too many times.

Palin would surely have been forced to withdraw from the ticket had she said something like that, but most of Biden's errors were not trifling mistakes like these. They were lengthy Lyndon LaRouche-like disquisitions that were pure fantasy from beginning to end.

For example, Biden said about Hezbollah: "When we kicked -- along with France -- we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." Hezbollah was never kicked out of Lebanon.

He continued: "I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.'" This is madness -- Lebanon is not a NATO country, nor had any NATO country been attacked by Lebanon.

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of foreign policy.

Biden also stoutly denied that Obama ever said he would sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Liberals find it hilarious that McCain can't use a computer keyboard on account of his war injuries, but Biden is apparently unaware of the Internet, because there are clips all over the Internet of Obama saying exactly that during the CNN/YouTube debate last year.

Biden might have remembered that debate since: (1) He was there, and (2) he later attacked Obama's answer, telling the National Press Club in August 2007: "Would I make a blanket commitment to meet unconditionally with the leaders of each of those countries within the first year I was elected president? Absolutely, positively, no."

And that's still not all! Obama's own Web site says: "Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions."

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his ability to remember well-known facts.

Biden also gave a long speech at the debate on vice president Dick Cheney's "dangerous" belief that "he's part of the legislative branch." The great constitutional scholar Biden cited Article I of the Constitution as proof that Cheney "works in the executive branch" and has "no authority relative to the Congress." Biden huffily added: "He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."

Palin would have had to deny that Alaska is a state in the union in order to say something comparably stupid.

Article II, not I, describes the executive branch. Someone tell Biden, who is supposed to be a lawyer. Apart from getting the Articles of the Constitution mixed up, what on earth does Biden mean when he says that the vice president "has no authority relative to Congress," apart from breaking ties?

The Constitution makes him president of the senate every day of the week. I realize that Biden may not be able to count to two, but Article I says the vice president is president of one of the two houses of Congress -- the one Biden is in, for crying out loud -- which is what you might call "authority relative to Congress."

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of the Constitution.

In one especially hallucinatory answer, Biden authoritatively stated: "With Afghanistan, facts matter, Gwen. ... We spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country."

According to the Congressional Research Service, since 9/11, we've spent $172 billion in Afghanistan and $653 billion in Iraq. The most money spent in Iraq came in 2008, when we have been spending less than $3 billion a week. So by Biden's calculations, we've spent only about $9 billion "on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country." There isn't even a "9" in $172 billion.

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of math.

In the same answer, Biden went on to claim that "John McCain voted against a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty that every Republican has supported."

The last nuclear test ban treaty the Senate voted on was the one Clinton signed in the '90s. As The New York Times editorialized on the Senate vote a few years later: "Last week, Senate Republicans thundered 'no' to the nuclear test ban treaty, handing the White House its biggest defeat since health care in 1994." Forty-nine Republicans voted against the treaty; only four liberal Republicans voted for it. That's the treaty Biden says "every Republican has supported."

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his ability to function as vice president.

Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Slander," ""How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," "Godless," and most recently, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans."

Editor's comment: Anne: you have skewered Joe Biden, admittedly, deservedly so. But why have you given a pass to Sarah Palin -- and to John McCain?

And did you NOT declare that you would NEVER vote for -- or support John McCain, or is your hatred for Barack Obama that OVERWHELMING?

NOW, let that truth be told!

Did You Miss Last Night's Presidential Debate? Well, Fret None, Here It Is. Question: Is It TOO Late For John McCain?

Watch "Too late for John McCain below:




Watch below for the entire debate, then tell us who won -- NO spinning (spin elsewhere, please)!:



Moreover, let the candidates do their own spinning:

Barack Obama Responds In Kind, Comes Out Swinging With "KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making Of A Financial Crisis". OUCH! That HURTS!! Watch.

Sarah Palin On Barack Obama: "This Is Not A Man Who Sees America As You See America And As I See America." Racial Code Or Fair Play? Watch The Video.

Barack Obama Uses Debate Clip To Hit John McCain. Watch Ad.

Now That The Vice Presidential Debates Have Ended Between Joe Biden And Sarah Palin, Let The "Begging" and The "Spining" Begin.

First, here's Joe Biden's email:

Osi --

If you saw tonight's debate, you saw Governor Sarah Palin give a spirited defense of the same disastrous policies that have failed us for the past eight years.

She couldn't identify a single area where she or John McCain would change George W. Bush's economic or foreign policy positions.

If you want something different, Barack and I need your help.

Make a donation of $5 or more right now to bring about the change we need.

The change we need is fixing this broken economy from the bottom up -- not tax breaks for the wealthy and huge corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas. We need to focus on defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and restoring America's standing in the world -- not an unending commitment in Iraq.

Let's be clear: Governor Palin and Senator McCain are offering nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies at home and abroad, trying to disguise them in the rhetoric of change.

Americans need real solutions and real change.

We're in this together and there's a lot to do before Election Day. Please make a donation of $5 or more right now to support this campaign for change:

https://donate.barackobama.com/changeweneed

This is the most important presidential election you'll be part of in your life.

Thank you for all that you're doing.

Now let's get to work and change this country,

Joe



Below is Sarah Palin's email:

Dear Supporter,

In the weeks since I joined John McCain as his running mate, the Obama-Biden Democrats have used their allies in the liberal media to paint us negatively, all in an attempt to sway undecided voters. Tonight's debate gave me the opportunity to bypass the biased media filter and communicate our shared values of reform directly to the voters.

I know millions were watching as I went toe-to-toe against Senator Biden to explain our plans. Reform Republicans will strengthen the economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and secure our nation from the threat of Islamic extremism.

As we head into the final month of the campaign, I'm asking you to ensure we have the resources necessary to compete with the Obama-Biden Democrats and their liberal media allies in races across the country. You can help today by giving your financial support right now.

The stakes are extremely high and voters are already casting their ballots for the general election. You may have heard the media reports out of Ohio about same-day registration and voting. The Obama-Biden Democrats and their allies are exploiting loopholes in Ohio election laws that we fear may result in unqualified voters casting ballots. They're also hoping our voters will be so confused, that they will throw up their hands in frustration and stay at home instead of voting. That's why it's important to re-double our efforts.

The Democratic Secretary of State in Ohio even tried to disqualify thousands of Republican absentee ballot applications. She enlisted the help of liberal partisan friends and special interest groups when we challenged this in court. Thankfully, we were successful in taking the case all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court and won the right to reinstate these absentee ballot applications. The Obama-Biden Democrats will likely try this shameful, partisan tactic in other targeted states. They'll do anything to win this election.

We're heading into the critical weeks when many undecided voters will make their choice. Our team needs to get our message out to these crucial voters who can tip the scales in our favor. Your generous contribution of $25, $50, $75, $150, $250, $500 or more will help our team reach these voters.

You donation to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 funds our critical get-out-the-vote efforts in states all across the country. These efforts will be critical in defeating the shameful tactics the Obama-Biden Democrats are employing. Will you help get-out-the-vote for our entire team by making a donation right now?

I want to sincerely thank you for your generosity. Anything you can do to help today will go a long way to securing Victory on November 4th.
Sincerely,

Governor Sarah Palin
P.S. The Obama-Biden Democrats will do anything to win. Their allies are already hard at work employing shameful election tactics in Ohio and they won't stop there. We're in the final stretch of the campaign and need your immediate financial support to elect our ticket from top to bottom on Election Day. Please join our team for victory today!

________________________________________

Because the McCain-Palin Campaign is participating in the presidential public funding system, it may not receive contributions for any candidate's election. However, federal law allows the McCain-Palin Campaign's Compliance Fund to defray legal and accounting compliance costs and preserve the Campaign's public grant for media, mail, phones, and get-out-the-vote programs. Contributions to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 will go to the Compliance Fund, and to participating party committees for Victory 2008 programs.