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.

----------------------------------------------------------
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.

---------------------------------------------------------------
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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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>.

ACORN; Obama denounces McCain's political strategy

As the election draws near with only a couple weeks to go, the news is surprisingly free of any important and/or new business. ACORN is being investigated for possible voter registration fraud in 10 different states. McCain is accusing the organization of trying to rig the election in favor of Democrats since they registered more Dems than Republicans, but there is no indication that these fake voters would ever show up at the polls. The main reason for the voter registration fraud is for people to keep their jobs, which depend on finding and registering 13 to 20 new voters every day.

Obama is telling voters that McCain has resorted to making stuff up about him, and that McCain would continue the war in Iraq without regard to financial cost, which has been a contributing factor to the country's economic crisis. McCain is slamming Obama for downplaying his relationship with William Ayers. Instead of remarking upon Ayers' change of character and prevalence on the education scene, Obama flatly denied that Ayers was involved in his campaign and McCain has seized on it.

As I said, not much that's new here. There hasn't been any major development that I can tell since Powell endorsed Obama. One thing I did notice was CNN's continuing tendency to talk more from Obama's side than McCain's. In one of the articles I used for this blog, McCain is constantly on defense while Obama's points are clearly laid out. Although I am in favor of Obama at this point, the lack of coverage on McCain frustrates me.

---------------------------------------------------

Johnson, Sasha. " Obama: McCain would continue dangerous policies." CNN.com. 22 Oct 2008. CNN. 23 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/campaign.wrap/index.html>.

Lawrence, Chris. " Ex-ACORN worker: 'I paid the price' for voter registration fraud." CNN.com. 22 Oct 2008. CNN. 23 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/index.html>.

For grins and giggles

Just for fun--here's a quick YouTube clip making fun of McCain's wandering around the during one of the debates.

Trust me. Just watch it.

Colin Powell openly supports Barack Obama

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he is voting for Barack Obama. (source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/19/colin.powell/index.html)

The most recent news in the presidential race? Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, has publicly endorsed candidate Barack Obama. Last Sunday, Powell announced on NBC that he plans to vote for Obama in the election, and praised Obama's character and ability to serve. CNN reports that Powell feels that both Obama and McCain are qualified to be president, but that Obama will bring change to the country that it desperately needs. Powell also commented on the ugliness of McCain's campaign, specifically about its "attempts to tie Obama to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers." (CNN) He believes it was too harsh and too narrow, and that it was unnecessary.
The kicker? If you didn't know, Colin Powell is a Republican. Obama is a Democrat.

Powell's endorsement may also sway some voters who were hesitant to vote for Obama because they felt he was not ready to be the nation's commander in chief, said Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst.

"It was extremely reassuring for this experienced military leader, a general, someone who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was secretary of state, to endorse Barack Obama and say, 'His world experience, his commitment and knowledge of national security are fine. You can vote for him without those kinds of reservations,' " Schneider said.

Doesn't seem to be much story-spinning here. The endorsement of Obama by a prominent member of the Republican party is creating quite the stir.

-------------------------------------------------------------
"Colin Powell endorses Obama." CNN.com. 20 Oct 2008. CNN. 21 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/19/colin.powell/index.html>.

Week 6 wrap-up

OK, so there's nothing really major that was new this past week. Basically the race has become nasty even though the candidates promised that it would not; both Obama and McCain ignored the mediator's request in the last debate that they promise to tone down their rhetoric. Obama and Palin are fighting wild rumors on the internet with watchdog organizations trying to prevent their spread.

McCain has so far shown a lack of detail in talking about his plans for taxes and the economy in general, in comparison to Obama. Voters are still not comfortable with either candidate's plans, and Obama met Joe the plumber who asked if he would be punished with higher taxes under Obama's plan. The main issues with the tax plans are: McCain doesn't plan on giving tax breaks to the general population, but rather to big companies in the hope that they will stimulate the economy and the wealth will be spread back down to the rest of the population. Obama has promised not to increase taxes on anyone who makes $250k a year or less, but plans to impose higher taxes on people who make more than $250k a year and use that money to help support the general population. Voters don't like McCain's plan because it looks like he doesn't care about the average person and wants to help out the big companies who created today's economic problems in the first place. Voters don't like Obama's plan because it is extremely socialist, reminiscent of Robin Hood, taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor. The main difference in their tax plans is that McCain claims he wants the average people to spread the wealth around (which they would do if they could, but given the current economic status I would say it's a moot point), and Obama wants the government to spread the wealth around (which, of course, the wealthy don't like because they want to keep their money, and the rest of society feels uneasy about because it means the government will have even more power).

There will be no more debates. It's time for voters to make their decision, with election day fast approaching. What changes we will see now in the campaign? What will be McCain's last stand, Obama's last stand? Which issue will be the determining factor in this presidential race?

----------------------------------------
[posted late, on Oct. 22]

Candidates reach out to "Joe the plumber" in final debate

The main point of tension between Obama and McCain is currently their tax plans, with the economy looming in the minds of voters everywhere. America is extremely concerned about what will happen to their money.

In their final debate Wednesday night, both candidates made references to "Joe the plumber," a man whom Obama met while campaigning. Joe Wurzelbacher in Ohio asked Obama about his tax plan. Joe has been working for a plumbing business and wants to buy it, but he was concerned that Obama's tax plan would make him pay higher taxes onces he owned the business. Senator Obama replied that it's possible Joe would have to pay higher taxes like others who make $250,000 a year or more. He also said that it's better to lower taxes for the little guys (less than $250,000 a year) so they can invest in businesses like the plumbing company Joe wants to buy.

McCain said that Obama's plan would give the money to the government for them to spread the country's wealth around, while he intends to have citizens spread it around themselves. CNN remained pretty unbiased in this article, but in others I have read on CNN their political analysts think this was a weak spot for McCain. They don't believe this is the right time to promote power to the individual--citizens are angry and worried about the economy, their savings, and their future--that, at a time like this, Americans generally want to give their trust over to the government to let them deal with things.

I already know who I will vote for, and if you've been following my blog here you can probably guess who. It saddens me that the debates are over, but I've learned some interesting things about the candidates and have found even more strength in the candidate I was leaning toward from the very beginning.

----------------------------------------------
[posted late, on Oct. 21]
----------------------------------------------

Snow, Mary. " 'Joe the Plumber' happy to help candidates make point." CNN.com. 16 Oct 2008. CNN. 22 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/16/joe.plumber/index.html>.

Fire on the campaign trail

The campaigns of Obama and McCain have become increasingly vehement. Both candidates are fighting dirty, despite their promise to keep their rhetoric clean. Palin and a McCain ad have been focusing on Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, which is by now an old, weak point to make. Obama was 8 when Ayers participated in Weather Underground, and their only relationship was in working together on a fundraiser for a school improvement project.

In the meantime, the language used by McCain's crowd has turned nasty. Someone shouted "Kill him! (Obama)" at a McCain rally, and people continue to condemn him for being a Muslim (which he is not). McCain has made a point to correct these people, however, telling one woman who called Obama an Arab that he's not, that he's a decent family man that he (McCain) just happens to disagree with on important issues.

Both candidates are fighting rumors, Obama concerning his ethnicity, qualifications to be president, his religion, and his association with less-than-reputable characters. McCain's campaign is fighting rumors mostly about Sarah Palin on her qualifications, her involvement in the trooper ordeal, and her true political party.

----------------------------------
[posted late, on Oct. 21]
----------------------------------

" Candidates dial back campaign rhetoric." CNN.com. 13 Oct 2008. CNN. 22 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/blackwell.jackson.qa/index.html>.

Greene, Richard Allen. " Candidates hit back hard, fast against online attacks." CNN.com. 15 Oct 2008. CNN. 22 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/internet.rumors/index.html>.

Week 5 wrap-up

The momentum now seems to be in Obama's favor. Before the debates, McCain's campaign had an overwhelming amount of the spotlight with his controversial pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Since then, Palin's past has been heavily questioned, and the trooper investigation is STILL not complete. She has failed to hold her ground in the few interviews she has done, and has been continuously spoofed by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live. McCain himself lost a considerable amount of credibility when he suspended his campaign to support the first bailout bill, which failed. A revised bill passed several days later, but did nothing to repair the damage done to McCain's image.

Since then, McCain has continued to lose ground to Obama, who is still gaining considerable support in the polls and has done well in the last debate.

The main questions now are:

• Will McCain prove to the country that he will be a better leader, or will he continue to flatline in the polls?
• Will Obama continue to gain a lead in the polls? Will misconceptions about his ethnicity and religion harm his potential?

Results from Tuesday's debate

"Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain sparred about domestic policy during their second presidential debate."
(source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/debate.poll/index.html)

CNN has two different beliefs about last Tuesday's debate: that Barack Obama performed better than John McCain, and that neither gave a better-than-average performance. Members of their political team, including Paul Begala, Gloria Borger, and David Gergen, agreed that Obama was more calm, collected, and prepared for the debate, and on several occasions rose to a challenge from McCain and destroyed his opponent's credibility. Other members of CNN's political team, including William Bennett, Alex Castellanos, and John King thought that neither candidate succeeded in laying down unique solutions that would solidify voter confidence.

Turning now to an article from CNN, results from their telephone polls show that the audience thought that Obama did much better than McCain, and that McCain didn't gain any ground in the debate despite his advantage in the town hall format. I won't plague you with numbers this time around, but here are a few statements from the article that I thought were relevant:
--Obama's favorable rating went up after the debate. McCain's didn't change.
--A majority of those polled said they thought that Obama appeared to be a better leader and was more likeable than McCain in the debate.
--An overwhelming majority thought that McCain spent more time than Obama in attacking his opponent.
--Democrats thought Obama won. Republicans thought McCain won.

It's interesting to me that the results of the poll show that Obama did better than McCain on a majority of points, despite the near-even ratio of Republicans to Democrats in those polled--yet when asked directly who won the debate, both parties thought their own candidate won.

It seems like CNN is maybe asking questions that pertain more to Obama than McCain to make him look like he has the spotlight, especially when there is a clear split in the last point I made.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

" Highlights, analysis of the second presidential debate." CNN.com. 8 Oct 2008. CNN. 14 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/second.debate.highlights/index.html#cnnSTCOther2>.

Steinhauser, Paul. " Obama picks up second debate win, poll says." CNN.com. 8 Oct 2008. CNN. 14 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/debate.poll/index.html>.

Obama gains more ground in the polls

CNN's main stories, even after the debate tonight, deal with Barack Obama's lead in the polls. Since taking a hit for the failure of the first bailout bill, McCain has been losing favor and is hoping to win it back in the town hall-style debate. Whether or not he has done so remains to be seen; in Thursday's post I intend to take a look at CNN's framing of the debate and see how other media giants are talking about it.

There were some astonishing numbers in CNN's polls. I realized that McCain lost some serious footage when the bailout bill he vigorously supported went down the drain, but the most recent numbers show a dramatic drop in the public's faith in McCain's abilities.

"The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Monday afternoon suggests that the country's financial crisis, record low approval ratings for President Bush and a drop in the public's perception of McCain's running mate could be contributing to Obama's gains."

Many people now see McCain as unfit to deal with the economy after he suspended his campaign to support the bailout, which was ultimately killed by members of his own party. Approval ratings for Bush are so low they have now tied Nixon's, and are only a couple points away from Harry Truman's record low of 22%. This hurts McCain's campaign because "a growing number of Americans believe the Republican presidential nominee would have the same policies as the current Republican president. Fifty-six percent say McCain's policies would be the same as Bush, up from 50 percent a month ago." Also, public approval ratings of Palin have dropped considerably-- " Forty percent now have an unfavorable view of Palin, up from 27 percent a month ago and from 21 percent in late August."

The numbers here certainly lean in Obama's favor, but is CNN excluding McCain's strong points? They have included a couple, but it's difficult to tell what is being left out here.

	McCain	Obama
Who would better handle the war in Iraq?	46%	51%
Who would better handle the economy?	37%	57%
Financial crisis?	36%	53%
Health care?	33%	60%
Terrorism?	54%	44%
Overall favorable rating?	54%	62%
Who has better experience to be president?	54%	36%

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Steinhauser, Paul. " Poll: Obama seen as more compassionate than McCain." CNN.com. 7 Oct. 2008. CNN. 11:30pm, 7 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/compassion.poll/index.html>.

Steinhauser, Paul. " Obama widens lead in national poll." CNN.com. 7 Oct. 2008. CNN. 11:30pm, 7 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/06/poll.of.polls/index.html>.

Post-debate change of focus

There's no doubt, after the DOW dropped hundreds of points and Congress pushed through a $700 billion bailout deal to take over Wall Street, that the economy is on the mind of America. How will it affect the campaigns of the presidential candidates? Already we've seen McCain suspend his campaign to return to Washington, in the hopes of gathering support for the bailout deal--only to be accused of pulling a political stunt by both Democrats and Republicans, and even lose ground in the polls when the deal was killed by his own party. Up until now, both candidates have been honing in on the economy for political leverage, but CNN reports that McCain is now changing directions.

The move isn't unexpected. Why linger on a topic that can only hurt your relationship with possible voters? McCain has now decided to focus instead on personally attacking Barack Obama in order to sway voters' minds. It was his running mate Sarah Palin who struck the first blow.

"We see America as the greatest force for good in this world," Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

In this little speech, Palin refers to Obama's limited association with Bill Ayers, a "founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol." The article from CNN continues, briefly explaining the relationship between Ayers and Obama.

"Obama and Ayers, now a university professor, have met several times since 1995, when both worked with a non-profit group trying to raise funds for a school improvement project and a charitable foundation. CNN's review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved."

Palin says Obama has terrorist connections although Obama's relationship with Ayers lacks substance. If there was a truth to this story worth knowing, I think we would have heard about it already.

On the other side of the battleground, Obama has renewed his attacks on McCain's health care policies, calling them "cynical and deceitful."

"He will say anything to distract the American people away from his basic intention to force millions of Americans to accept government-run health care," the campaign said in a statement.

The messages in this case don't really matter. These candidates have bigger issues to address. McCain attempted to shift the focus from the economy to the personal qualities of his opponent--which, as illustrated by Obama's renewed attacks, seems to have succeeded. I'll be curious to see what the next four weeks will bring to this election.

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" Obama accuses McCain of looking for distractions." CNN.com. 5 Oct 2008. CNN. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/05/campaign.wrap/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

" Obama campaign rejects Palin 'terrorist' gibe." CNN.com. 5 Oct 2008. CNN. 11pm, 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/05/palin.obama.terrorist.claim/index.html>.

Stewart, Martina. " Palin hits Obama for 'terrorist' connection." CNN.com. 5 Oct 2008. CNN. 11pm, 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/04/palin.obama/index.html>.

More bailout effects; pressure on Palin

For the past few days, there have been two major recurring issues I have been keeping an eye on. One is a follow-up from previous posts, and the other is fairly new.

• How the bailout proposal has affected Obama and McCain's campaigns
  An article by CNN caught my attention in regards to this issue, bringing up several points which many people might not know about. They are:
  
  1. Obama and McCain's struggle to promote a bipartisan solution to the bailout proposal that failed to pass on Monday, but passed with amendments on Wednesday.
     Everyone realizes how important the economic crisis is, that something needs to be done about it soon. Just last night the $700 billion bailout proposal passed, with amendments to the original which was shot down by Republicans on Monday. In that brief time period, McCain and Obama focused on rallying lawmakers to the mutual cause of a bailout compromise. What did Obama do? "Obama encouraged lawmakers to approve an economic stimulus plan that would benefit taxpayers." How about McCain? Interestingly enough, CNN had nothing to say about what McCain contributed to this bipartisan cause. I also found it worthy to note that the article went on to illustrate in detail how McCain pointed fingers about the original failure of the bill, but only gave brief mention of Obama's finger-pointing before saying that Obama has moved on from the 'blame game' to supporting the bailout bill.
     
     Now more than ever, I am starting to see some of the framing from CNN, how their articles rarely include equal coverage on both candidates. It is obviously a left-wing organization which supports Obama.
     
     
  2. They have "revamped their financial messages this week, shifting away from attacks on each other and intensifying their calls for action from Congress."
     Given McCain's recent failure to gain some credit for the first bailout bill, this seems a risky move. Both candidates are going into this with a notion of reserve; neither wants to get too closely wrapped up in something like that again when the consequences can be devastating. The stakes are just too high. But at least it's nice to know they have stopped bashing each other to address the economy issue on equal terms. Obama is already ahead in this regard since he gained five points over McCain after the bill failed on Monday.
     
     
     
• Sarah Palin's qualifications and knowledge are under heavy speculation; there is a high amount of pressure on her to perform well at tonight's VP debate.
  Here are a few intelligent points from CNN:
  
  1. CNN's Roland Martin says that the McCain campaign made a sour mistake in hiding Palin from the media. She has little experience in that area, and now that she is starting to participate in a few national interviews, her performance has been disastrous. Her interview with Katie Couric has been endlessly criticized for comments such as her suggestion that her state's proximity to Russia enhanced her foreign policy credentials. Will she be able to convince voters in the VP debate this evening? What America wants right now is to know where she stands on the issues, to hear her speak without the aid of a teleprompter, to decide once and for all whether McCain made the right choice in choosing her as his running mate.
     
     
     "What is most at stake is whether she's the subject of further ridicule or can show Americans that she has a strong command of the issues. If she can do the latter, she validates McCain's selection. If not, she calls into question his judgment, and at this stage of the game, that is not a good thing."
  2. Gloria Borger made similar comments, agreeing that the McCain campaign made a mistake in masking Palin. At Palin's breakout performance at the National Convention, she was bold and confident, unafraid to take anyone on. Now she's blubbering through interviews and losing her confidence with each mistake.
     
     
     "[The McCain Campaign has] managed to turn a self-confident and appealing candidate into one who is afraid of veering off her talking points. She's clearly studying and cramming, but it's like trying to cram for an exam when you haven't really taken the class.

     And the more mistakes she makes on her scarce public outings, the more self-assurance she loses. Each mistake becomes magnified, so one mistake could be deadly."
     
     

     Now is the time for Palin to prove to the world that she's worthy of the title of Vice President of the United States. If she does poorly in the debate, it calls McCain's judgment into question--which would be extremely detrimental to his cause.
     
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     

     Borger, Gloria. " Borger: McCain's bold Palin move becomes a crisis of caution." CNN.com. CNN. 10pm, 2 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/30/borger.palin/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

     Henry, Ed. " Bailout plan forces McCain, Obama into balancing act." CNN.com. 1 Oct 2008. CNN. 10pm, 2 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/01/candidates.bailout/index.html>.

     Martin, Roland. " Commentary: Time for Palin to strut her stuff." CNN.com. CNN. 10pm, 2 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/01/martin.palin/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

     
     

McCain and the failed bailout bill

The House voted Monday on the $700 billion bailout deal, and failed to pass it. This loss has come as a big blow to John McCain, who made a huge deal of suspending his campaign to rally support for the package. What's extremely ironic in this situation is the fact that the majority of Democrats voted for the bill (140 for to 95 against) while most Republicans voted against it (165 against to 65 for). Looks like McCain's efforts to rally his fellow Republicans has failed miserably.

A CNN poll concluded that, before the bailout bill vote, McCain and Obama were tied in the polls, whereas now Obama has a lead of 5%.

Even those who thought McCain was doing the right thing by suspending his campaign to return to Washington are wondering now whether it was the right move or not. McCain put his trust in the bill, hoping to help America but also hoping to gain the credit for its success, but now that the bill has been shot down, it makes him look pretty weak.

Despite bias and framing, there's no denying these truths from CNN. There is actual evidence from the polls that McCain has lost some ground because of this affair. What will happen next with the bill?
------------------------------------------------------------------

Henry, Ed. " McCain takes hit from bailout collapse." CNN.com. 30 Sep 2008. CNN. 1 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/30/bailout.candidates/index.html>.

Tanneeru, Manav. " Straight from the House's mouth: Why the bailout bill failed." CNN.com. 30 Sep 2008. CNN. 1 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/30/bailout.reax/index.html>.