Final week wrap-up

Zeituni Onyango has been living
in public housing in Boston, AP says (BBC News)

With mere hours until election day, a new story has sprung from the bowels of the media--Barack Obama's half-aunt is living in Boston, Massachusetts, illegally. "Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request." Obama claims he did not know she was living here illegally. It is unclear whether someone from the McCain campaign could have leaked this information.

What's ironic about this situation is that Onyango's case is not a criminal offense, but it is likely to still have negative effects for Obama's campaign. It creates distrust, and only strengthens misconceptions about Obama himself. Many people staunchly believe he is a terrorist, that he might not even be an American citizen, or that he is an Arab.

"Onyango's refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, non-criminal violation of U.S. immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the United States."

10 million? Really? If this is true, Onyango's situation is not uncommon, and shouldn't have drastic effects on Obama's reputation. But my guess is that it will anyway. This election is down to the nitty-gritty, the really nasty stuff right before the final vote, and voters will no doubt be thinking about this as they go to the polls.

Other issues this week included;

• Palin making off-script comments defending the wardrobe controversy
  The Republican National Committee went on a "$150,000 spending spree on clothing and accessories for the Palin family."

  Palin denounced talks of her wardrobe as "ridiculous" and declared emphatically: "Those clothes, they are not my property."

  "Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I'm not taking them with me," she said at a rally in Tampa, Florida.

• Small business owners unsure who to trust
  Some have said they dislike "Barack Obama's whole 'I'm going to take from the rich and give to the poor' Robin Hood attitude ... I am very offended by that. It smacks of socialism." Others have said they remember John McCain saying he doesn't understand the economy, and they agree he is not the best candidate to handle it.
  

And, of course, the issues I presented in my last two blog posts:

• Obama smacks McCain's health care policy
  Obama caught a McCain advisor saying that younger workers would stick with their employer's health plan, which would be better than what they would get with McCain's offered health care credit. Obama says this only serves to back up his argument that McCain's plan is not the best.
• Obama makes campaign history with his 30-minute TV ad
  Last Wednesday night, Obama launched a 30-minute television ad on five different networks declaring his final statements in the presidential race, using some of his huge lump of cash. CNN's Campbell Brown reminds readers of Obama's promise a year ago to take public funding, which he broke when he realized he could raise a lot more money on his own. The ad was so unprecedented that the first pitch of a World Series game was delayed for 15 minutes to accommodate it.
  

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"AP: Obama's Kenyan half-aunt in Boston illegally." CNN.com. 1 Nov 2008. CNN. 2 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/01/obama.aunt.ap/index.html>.

Bash, Dana. " Palin's off-script comments irk McCain aides." CNN.com. 27 Oct 2008. CNN. 2 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/27/palin.tension/index.html>.

Brown, Campbell. " Commentary: Obama breaks promise on campaign finance." CNN.com. 29 Oct 2008. CNN. 30 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

Keck, Kristi. "Obama takes swipe at McCain adviser's health care comment." CNN.com. 28 Oct 2008. CNN. 28 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campaign.wrap/index.html>.

Keck, Kristi. " Small business owners not sold on the candidates." CNN.com. 28 Oct 2008. CNN. 2 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/ohio.small.business/index.html>.

Above is Barack Obama's 30-minute TV special,
split into four videos that will play one after another.

The big controversy right now surrounds Barack Obama and his financially lavish 30-minute television special, which aired on five different networks on Wednesday night. Nothing like this has ever been done before--no president in history has ever bought television time to broadcast their final argument like this in the fight to the finish. The first pitch in a game of the World Series was delayed by about 15 minutes in order to accomodate Obama's ad--an unprecedented situation that has people talking.

Everyone knows that Obama's pool of money is unnaturally large, and that he has collected donations from all types of people; few seem to remember a promise Obama made about public financing. CNN's Campbell Brown points out that:"

"One year ago, he made a promise. He pledged to accept public financing and to work with the Republican nominee to ensure that they both operated within those limits.

Then it became clear to Sen. Obama and his campaign that he was going to be able to raise on his own far more cash than he would get with public financing. So Obama went back on his word."

If you are presented with an option which will give you more money, it only seems logical that you would take that offer unless there was a string attached. The string in this case was Obama's promise, which was sacrificed for the sake of his campaign. All the money he's made so far will give him a considerable advantage in the short time left before the election.

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Brown, Campbell. " Commentary: Obama breaks promise on campaign finance." CNN.com. 29 Oct 2008. CNN. 30 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

Sinderbrand, Rebecca. " Obama takes top billing on U.S. television." CNN.com. 29 Oct 2008. CNN. 30 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/29/campaign.wrap.spending/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

Obama smacks McCain's health care policy

Sen. Barack Obama slams Sen. John McCain's economic policy at a rainy rally Tuesday in Chester, Pennsylvania. (CNN)

Today, Senator Barack Obama pounced on a comment about health care made by one of McCain's advisors. It's exactly the kind of thing he's been waiting for. Both candidates have made a point of using comments from their opponent to undermine their opponent himself, and this is the latest incident. Here's a bit from a CNN article:

In an interview with CNNMoney.com Tuesday, McCain's adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eaton, said that younger, healthier workers likely wouldn't abandon their company-sponsored plans under McCain's health care plan.

"Why would they leave?" said Holtz-Eakin. "What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit."

Obama seized on that comment, saying, "This is the point I've been making since Sen. McCain unveiled his plan. It took until the last seven days of this election for his campaign to finally admit the truth. But, better late than never.

The truth is, John McCain's health care plan is radical, it's unaffordable, it's not the change we need right now."

Obama used this comment as a platform for his own ideas. He believes McCain's health care credit is not what the country needs, that it will not heal the problems it was designed to fix. It's laughable to me that the McCain aide said what he did; was it pre-planned, or a spontaneous goof-up? Either way, he should have realized that Obama would use it.

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Keck, Kristi. " Obama takes swipe at McCain adviser's health care comment." CNN.com. 28 Oct 2008. CNN. 28 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campaign.wrap/index.html>.

Assignment : Presidential ad

Here's a short video I compiled for class. It is a pro-Obama presidential ad showing McCain saying that today's Republican government is out of control.

The clips are from the first presidential debate as recorded by C-SPAN. Bill Steiner is the narrator, and the music is from Mendelssohn's Italian Reformation Symphony, specifically the Andante section of No. 5 in D Major.

I used Windows Movie Maker.

Obama does NOT actually approve of this ad. I merely tagged it onto the end to make it feel genuine. With that in mind, enjoy my ad!

Week 7 wrap-up

This past week:
Colin Powell publicly endorses Obama.
ACORN is being investigated for voter registration fraud in 10 states.

Since my Thursday post, some interesting articles have come up on CNN.

• President Bush has made an effort to stay out of the public eye in this campaign. His approval rating of 27% is extremely low, and he hopes to avoid further damage to his image by providing the candidates with more campaign material. Since Obama has been constantly working to portray McCain as another Bush, it would look very bad for the two of them to be seen together much at all. At a conference in the Cabinet, McCain and Obama sat at opposite President Bush at a long table in order to prevent images of either candidate sitting next to him, which could later be used in campaign ads. (CNN)
• There seems to be a good deal of unrest in the McCain campaign. Sarah Palin has publicly disagreed with McCain on several policies, going off-message multiple times against the advice of her aides. CNN's article included statements from aides of each campaign. Her own aides said that Palin is trying to take more control of her message. A McCain aide said that she takes no advice from anyone, and that she is acting solely in her own interests rather than the interests of her party and McCain himself.
  
• Bill Clinton will be campaigning with Barack Obama for the first time this Wednesday. His wife Hillary has already done so. Bill predicts that Obama will win easily in the election, and says that McCain is trying to separate himself from Bush even though McCain supported him for the majority of his time in office.

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Bash, Dana. " Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says." CNN.com. 26 Oct 2008. CNN. 26 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html>.

Diakides, Tasha. " Bill Clinton to campaign with Obama in Florida." CNN.com. 25 Oct 2008. CNN. 26 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/campaign.wrap/index.html>.

Quijano, Elaine. " Bush on campaign trail: Out of sight but not out of mind." CNN.com. 24 Oct 2008. CNN. 25 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/24/bush.trail/index.html>.