| 6:55 PM: | Gore's Call to Action. "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," he said at the third annual meeting of former President Bill Clinton's initiative, which arranges partnerships between the very rich and the very needy. NYT. | |
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| 5:44 PM: | Sarah Palin's Secret Lover Revealed! No less than three members of the man's family including one by sworn affidavit have claimed that Sarah Palin engaged in an extramarital affair with husband Todd's former business partner, Brad Hanson. Natl Enquirer. | |
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| 4:57 PM: | Gates takes U.S. financial crisis in stride. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appeared on the NBC Nightly News Wednesday speaking with Tom Brokaw about the current economic crisis. Gates wasn't concerned about the state of the U.S. economy in the long run. CNET. | |
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| 4:08 PM: | McCain camp to propose postponing VP debate. McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis. CNN. | |
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| 2:20 PM: | Reid: McCain, Obama "would not be helpful" in negotiations. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the Senate, comes out with a statement saying John McCain's move to suspend his campaign won't help. Salon. | |
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| 2:18 PM: | CNN/Time Battleground Polls. Just released CNN/Time polls of likely voters in five states (Sept. 21-23. Error margin: 3.5%). Obama leads in three states (Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania) while McCain leads in two (Montana and West Virginia). Time. | |
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| 2:17 PM: | Obama: "this is exactly the time" for a debate. At a press conference, Barack Obama dismissed John McCain's idea to postpone Friday's debate. Salon. | |
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| 2:16 PM: | Presidential debate host says they still expect Friday event. The University of Mississippi, site of this year's first presidential debate, released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the school still expects the event to take place as scheduled Friday evening. CNN. | |
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| 2:14 PM: | McCain taking ads down. Aiming to prove how serious he is about addressing the financial crisis, John McCain has instructed his staff to take all his campaign commercials off the air, a spokesman tells Politico. Politico. | |
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| 12:30 PM: | McCain Calls Time Out. WTF? You can't just stop the presidential campaign -- what does that even mean? Meanwhile, I think walking and chewing gum at the same time is part of the president's job. Yglesias. | |
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| 12:28 PM: | CO Poll: Obama +9. A new Insider Advantage/Poll Position poll in Colorado (Sept. 23, 505 LV, MoE +/- 4.3%) shows Obama with a 9-point, showing almost no change since the last poll was taken last week. Time. | |
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| 12:26 PM: | McCain to suspend campaigning, wants to delay debate due to financial crisis. Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign just released a statement from the senator. USA Today. | |
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| 12:25 PM: | McCain seeks to delay debate to focus on economy. Republican John McCain says he's directing his staff to work with Barack Obama's campaign and the debate commission to delay Friday's debate because of the economic crisis. AP. | |
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| 12:24 PM: | Palin Says Another Great Depression Possible. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said if Congress fails take action to fix the financial crisis plaguing Wall Street, the U.S. could be in for another Great Depression. The Hill. | |
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| 12:01 PM: | McCain to suspend campaign? Just heard an announcement on MSNBC that McCain has requested that Friday's debate be postponed so he can focus on the economic plan in front of Congress. Scripting News. | |
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| 11:52 AM: | FOX News Poll: Obama Reclaims Lead Over McCain, 45% to 39% The poll shows Obama has improved his position on the most important issue to voters this year — the economy. He is seen as the best candidate to handle the nation's economy, and more voters also say he would be better at handling the current financial crisis facing the country. Fox. | |
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| 11:47 AM: | Bush to speak at 9PM Eastern. Facing congressional opposition, President Bush will deliver a prime-time address, speaking directly to the nation on the current financial crisis and the details of his $700 billion rescue plan. ABC. | |
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| 11:44 AM: | FOX Poll: Obama +6. New Fox News/Opinion Dynamics survey shows Barack Obama taking a 6-point lead over John McCain, erasing a three-point deficit just three weeks ago: Obama 45 (+3 vs. last poll September 8-9) McCain 39 (-6) Undecided 13 (+3). Time. | |
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| 11:42 AM: | Palin gets question, looks to McCain, demurs. This is what happens when campaigns let reporters into photo ops. They get all uppity and ask questions. Politico. | |
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| 11:39 AM: | Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains 3-Point Edge. Barack Obama is maintaining a three-point, 47% to 44%, edge over John McCain among registered voters in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update for Sept. 21-23, unchanged from Tuesday's report. Gallup. | |
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| 9:02 AM: | McCain Pollsters Buck Up The Troops, And Other Polling News. McCain pollster Bill McInturff and chief of strategy Sarah Simmons want you to know that they're convinced that the ABC News Washington Post poll out this morning is an outlier and "not at all indicative" of what the campaign sees in in the states. Atlantic. | |
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| 9:02 AM: | So, about that nine-point spread... The McCain campaign took issue with the ABC/Washington Post poll which shows Obama up by 9. MSNBC. | |
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| 8:51 AM: | McCain camp attacks Times, doesn't deny report. What the statement doesn't dispute is the actual news in the story: the $15,000 monthly payments from Freddie Mac, which began while Davis was still running the firm. You can judge the news value of that for yourself. Politico. | |
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| 8:41 AM: | Pew Research: Missing Cell-Phone Onlys Matter. Few in the field of survey research have examined the problem of cell phones and surveys as closely over the last four years as Scott Keeter and his colleagues at the Pew Research Center. Pollster.com. | |
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| 8:12 AM: | Remember Those Companies We Bought. Remember when Fannie Mae was a private company? Freddie Mac? AIG? Ah, those were the days. But more to the point, remember when the federal government took them over? Wouldn't it be nice to know what we're doing with them? Yglesias. | |
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| 7:45 AM: | Park Avenue Diplomacy. "You can't tell someone else that the ground on which they make their voting decision is irrational," [Clinton] said primly. Well, actually you could, if you weren't still sulking and plotting for 2012. Maureen Dowd. | |
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| 7:24 AM: | Our Generals Almost Cost Us Iraq. In late 2006, President Bush, like President Lincoln in 1862, adopted a new approach to the war. He replaced the uniformed and civilian leaders who were adherents of the failed operational approach with others who shared his commitment to victory rather than "playing for a tie." In Gen. David Petraeus, Mr. Bush found his Ulysses Grant, to execute an operational approach based on sound counterinsurgency doctrine. This new approach has brought the U.S. to the brink of victory. WSJ. | |
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| 7:24 AM: | Biden to hammer McCain over national security. Joe Biden is set to give what the Obama campaign is calling a major speech on national security in Ohio at 11 a.m. ET. "This week, John talked about the judgment required to be Commander in Chief. He's right: nothing is more important than judgment." CNN. | |
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| 6:55 AM: | Undecided voters not satisfied with both candidates. A recent AP-Yahoo! News poll found that 18 percent of likely voters are up for grabs — undecided or willing to change their minds — little more than five weeks before Americans choose between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. AP. | |
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| 6:10 AM: | McCain Aide's Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac. One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain's campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. NYT. | |
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| 6:07 AM: | New voting glitches raise concerns in Florida. With 41 days to go before the presidential election, election officials and political operatives in this heavily populated Florida county — famous for overvotes, undervotes, butterfly ballots and hanging chads — are worried about a repeat performance of the chaos that clouded the outcome of the 2000 presidential race. MSNBC. | |
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| 5:08 AM: | Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million. Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say. NYT. | |
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| 4:26 AM: | Where They Really Stand Among Women. Gallup Poll Daily tracking finds John McCain leading Barack Obama among white women by 47% to 45% in the latest weekly aggregate, but McCain's advantage over the past few weeks is most evident among women aged 30 to 49 who do not have college degrees. Gallup. | |
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| 4:09 AM: | McCain Holds Key to Administration's Bailout Passage on Capitol Hill. If Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain doesn't vote for the Bush administration's $700 billion economic bailout plan, some Republican and Democratic congressional leaders tell ABC News the plan won't pass. ABC. | |
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| 4:03 AM: | Pelosi won't jump alone. Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps. The Hill. | |
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| 3:52 AM: | Economic Fears Give Obama Clear Lead Over McCain in Poll. Among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent. Washington Post. | |
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