Gallup: All signs point toward Obama

Happy Sunday morning, everyone. Here's hoping you enjoyed the extra hour of sleep; I just woke up an hour earlier. No complaints, though - it's more time to blog about one of the most important elections in recent American history - two days to go.

Anyway, despite what some GOP hacks are promoting - the idea that McCain is gaining on Obama - the polls are not bearing this out. Yesterday, Drudge pimped a one-day Zogby poll that had McCain ahead 48%-47%. One day? A pimple on the face of the electorate. Even this morning, Drudge has up a Zogby poll that puts Obama up by 6. In the national polls, Obama is up by an average of 7.8%, which is just a bit over yesterday. WaPo has a pretty revealing story about polls - in the last 159 national polls, Obama has led them all.

McCain seems to be narrowing Obama's lead slightly, including right here in Pennsylvania, but I believe it will be too little, too late. I'm not at all surprised that the race is narrowing, however - the last two presidential elections, nefarious vote counting tactics aside, have been very, very close, and I don't think this one will be any different. Of course, I would love to be wrong - I'd love to see Obama run away with it in a landslide, but I have my doubts about that.

We all have to keep fighting - e-mailing, talking to friends, donating some time on Tuesday or even donating a few dollars through Obama's Website. Remember, Obama will still need resources after Tuesday, especially if, heaven forbid, we have a replay of 2000, when the lawyers and ground efforts have to be dispatched if the election is disputed. So, even if you can spare $5, please donate.

There's some good news and bad news in the Senate races. On the bright side, Ted Stevens is going to get bounced out on his ass in his up north after being convicted on seven felony counts this past week; and Kay Hagan is leading the insipid, vapid Elizabeth Dole by five points after her despicable ads portraying Hagan as an atheist. A bit of bad news, though: Norm Coleman now has a small lead on Al Franken in Minnesota, and Saxby Chambliss is up by 5 in the latest polls over Jim Martin, BUT both races are still winnable by the Democrats, especially if Obama carries both states (he will in Minnesota, and he has an outside shot at carrying Georgia).

To that end, please support these Senate Democratic candidates (and of course, others, too) by clicking the links below giving a little bit of money. Even $5 can help to make a difference in the final days.

Jim Martin in Georgia
Al Franken in Minnesota
Kay Hagen in North Carolina

Getting 60 votes in the Senate would be a major plus to Obama if he gets in, and would obviously be useful in blocking some of McCain's more ridiculous proposals should he prevail on Tuesday.

Obama rips McCain & Bush over fundraiser

Yesterday, (video above) Barack Obama took a swipe at John McCain for his fundraiser in Arizona with President Bush, which was behind closed doors. A partial transcript:

I just had the privilege of visiting with Felicitas Rosel and Francisco Cano at their home here in Las Vegas.

Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting. He's holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters. And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn't want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years.

That's damn right. McCain wants to suckle from the president's fundraising teats, but he doesn't want any pictures with a president who has the worst approval rating of any president since Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. Here's hoping voters aren't fooled by McCain's cozy relationship with Bush that goes all the way back to late 2000. The only time McCain has put any sort of distance between himself and Bush was when he decided to run for the presidency. And even since then, it hasn't been nearly enough.

Reuters explores the complex and delicate relationship McCain will have with the president this fall:

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has said he wants help from Bush, who can haul in enormous campaign cash. But McCain has walked a fine line with the unpopular Bush, backing the president on the Iraq war while bucking him on how to address climate change.

Bush will kick off raising money for McCain on Tuesday and Wednesday at three events in Arizona and Utah, but they will only be together at one and it will be out of the public eye. That has raised questions about whether Bush helps or hurts the Arizona senator.

[Snip...]

"The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats," Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, said in a memo to fellow Republicans.

[Snip...]

"[Bush] is poisoning the well for Republican congressional candidates and for John McCain," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I think McCain's chances depend in part on whether Bush and his White House team can manage to get Bush up around 40 (percent) again," referring to the president's approval rating.

That's a pretty interesting analysis, and the last point by Sabato I find very entertaining - get Bush back up to around 40 percent? I have a better chance of becoming president than that happening, but only time will tell.

If Obama is smart, he will spend a significant amount of his campaign cash doing precisely what he describes in the footage above, and that's re-running pictures over and over and over again of McCain hugging Bush, as well as his many appearances with him, including this spring's press conference in the Rose Garden. It may not "stick" in terms of political damage to McSame, but it's a point worth reminding voters about, without question.

So, just how much has McCain actually voted to favor of Bush's position on issues? See below...

This according to the Congressional Quarterly, via Progressive Media. I guess we can conclude that the answer to the question I posed above is "a great deal," to say the least.

One other noteworthy statistic about McCain's Senatorial conduct this year - as WaPo reports, he's also the most absent senator in 2008 as well. And running for president should not be an excuse, for any senator, period, to miss important Senate votes. I don't know the statistics that compare Obama, Clinton and McCain, but I have read in recent weeks and months where Obama and Clinton have jumped on planes to get back to Washington for critical votes. I can't remember the last time I heard McCain doing the same thing. Heaven forbid a McCain fundraiser ever gets in the way of his obligations as a U.S. Senator. Ooops.

h/t Crooks & Liars for the McBush portrait