What a week this is starting to be! Obama is tying up a controlled and well thought out campaign with the support of more and more people (including leading Republican spokespeople and influential Independents), while McCain and Palin, supported by the most extreme 527 groups, are trying anything to smear the Democratic candidate and are resorting to tricks to turn the numbers around.
In front of crowds in the 100,000 range, Obama summed up his campaign with this statement:
In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope. In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need. In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo. In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history. That’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting for.
This will likely be the standard Obama line throughout the week, barring anything unexpected.
We are getting some desperate things on the other side, however. One 527 television commercial in Pennsylvania and Ohio is bringing up Reverend Wright again (not something which McCain himself has endorsed). A fake flier has appeared in Hampton Roads, Virginia which, according to a newspaper article from The Virginian-Pilot says:
“an emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the follwing (sic) emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial (sic) precincts and ensure a fair electorial process.”
The four-paragraph flier concludes with: “We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but felt this was the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial process.”
Voting day, of course, remains November 4, and it is not clear who would believe this kind of garbage.
The article went on to say:
In 2007, the General Assembly passed a law making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly communicate false information to registered voters about the date, time and place of the election or voters’ precincts, polling places or voter registration statuses in order to impede their voting. The measure is one of the few such deceptive voting practice laws in the country, according to the watchdog group Common Cause.
Nothing has been done at this point to go after the distributors of this flier by any legal agencies as of this morning.
And then there has been another Republican “name” to come out for Obama just this morning, former Maryland Senator Charles “Mac” Mathias:
In one week, Americans will face a momentous choice. We must decide which of two talented, patriotic individuals is better suited to set the course for the nation and steer it through a stormy sea.
I have known John McCain for many years, even before he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1982. And like so many other television viewers, I have come to know Barack Obama as he has made his spirited quest for the highest office in the land through this long and unprecedented campaign.
Sens. Obama and McCain have vastly different backgrounds and strikingly different visions of how America should navigate these tumultuous times. For me, the decision on who should be the next president transcends private friendship or political affiliation. My decision is based on the long-range needs of our country and which of these two candidates I feel is better suited to recharge America’s economic health, restore its prestige abroad and inspire anew all people who cherish freedom and equality. For me, that person is Barack Obama.
Another long-time McCain friend who supports the Democrat. This can.t be a good morning for McCain.
And the early voting lines here in West Virginia, where McCain is still leading in the polls, get longer. There might be an upset here.
