And one more…

The Economist endorsed Obama. As did Francis Fukuyama. Those sounds you’re hearing are the last dominos falling, I think…

That said, The Economist never endorses the incumbents (Clinton, Dole, Bush, Kerry, Obama), so not too much of a surprise, but still. Biggest surprise here? That, according to McCain-ian logic, The Economist supports socialism. Commie bastards.

One Last Lazy Post

Campbell Brown is on fiyaaahhhh these days:

(The official embed wasn’t working… These things hate me)

Dole looks in serious danger of losing her seat, and it’s a pleasure to behold. In related gutter political news, Al Franken is being sued – sued! – for making allegedly false statements about his opponent, Norm Coleman. The claims, of course, aren’t false – they stretch the truth, certainly, but no more than the bulk of political ads – and, apparently, this is the fourth time Coleman has filed a suit late in the game in his runs for political office. The fourth! Incredible.

And, finally, Salon has a great piece up on the rise of the holy trinity of nightly newswomen over this campaign – Katie Couric, Campbell Brown, and Rachel Maddow (Maddow > Brown > Couric, for the record). Great reading.

And anyone heard the new Rich Boy track? Sure, it’s a shameless rip off of ‘A Milli’. And sure, Polow da Don uses the middle of the song to announce a mortgage-paying contest he’s hosting with Diddy (I kid you not). But this track BANGS. Rich Boy is a beast, and dude is smart as well. Can’t wait for his new album. Grab the song through TSS here.

I planned on doing a longer post tonight, but I’m tired.

Lollerskates!

Best video of the day:

What a lily-livered, chicken-hearted, weak-kneed, yellow-bellied halfwit. It’s been a pleasure watching the McCain campaign implode, and this is just the latest cherry on top. And we’ve still got a few days left! I can barely contain myself.

And then this happened, too, which is almost too awkward to really enjoy:

And that crowd? McCain had to bus in more than 4,000 schoolkids to flesh it out. Yikes. This is humiliation overkill.

That’s not fine, man (ohhhhh)

Am simultaneously watching baseball and reading the internets, and I came across a Howard Fineman piece in Newsweek titled Race to the Finish: Why It’s Still a Race. Keep in mind that it came out today. Now I’m not one to cast aspersions on writers, but I can’t imagine the thinking – or lack thereof – that went into this section:

Why hasn’t Obama run away with this?

Because the country remains culturally divided. Because the more it looks like Democrats will score huge gains in Congress, the more worried “soft Republican” voters get. Because McCain has succeeded, in the minds of some of those voters, in raising the hoary specter of “tax-and-spend” liberals. Because Obama hails from a place (South Side Chicago) and background (the son of professional academics) more reminiscent of Democratic losers like Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry than winners like LBJ, Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. Because some voters remember the hate-filled sound bites of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

A few comments:

1) Yes, the country remains culturally divided, which helps explain why the national poll numbers don’t show a complete blowout (as far as the Electoral College goes, I think it will be). Fineman cites a 49-47 edge for Obama, but I haven’t seen many polls with Obama dipping below 50, and I expect the final results will end up 53-47 or 54-46. Part of the blame for this cultural divide, undoubtedly, can be traced back directly to the insinuations that Obama’s a Muslim that have been going on for the entire campaign now, from Clinton to McCain, from Palin to Fox News.

2) The soft Republican/Democratic majority argument: I haven’t seen any polls supporting this, and I can’t imagine any exist. This argument that McCain and Palin have been trotting out as of late – that the election of Obama will bring about a legislatively unstoppable Pelosi-Reid-Obama trifecta – falls flat on its face. The reason that Obama looks to win the White House and that the Democrats look to be on the verge of making significant Congressional gains is precisely because voters want the Democrats to win. Explaining to the American people that the people they vote for will ascend to office likely won’t dissuade them from voting that way – it is the reason they’re voting for them in the first place. And soft Republicans who have yet to warm to McCain likely won’t do so because they’re worried that Obama is going to win, as if the binary, zero-sum nature of the presidentail race somehow eluded them. There’s a reason why McCain is getting swamped in traditionally red states, and it’s because of eight years of disastrous Republican government, cheerleaded along at every turn by the man heading the Republican ticket. It’s certainly not because the voters are unsure how the democratic process works.

3) Tax-and-spend liberals? This entire fantastical idea has been shredded over the last eight years, as Bush has ran up the deficit to a startling $11 trillion. I see no evidence that McCain has been able to raise this chimera in any significant fashion these last few months, and there are certainly no polls that indicate voters are beginning to flock to McCain because of his acumen with economics.

4) The place and background argument? Honestly? The most absurd argument I’ve read in this campaign. For one, I wasn’t aware that Obama was even from Southside Chicago. He’s from Hawaii, and while he did start his work in Chicago, he doesn’t exactly hail from there. Semantical absurdity aside, I don’t think that Michael Dukakis, Al Gore or John Kerry have had anything approaching the background that Obama has had. Certainly none did any work in a place like Chicago’s Southside, and I’m unsure what in Obama’s background prompted this comparison. The knock on Dukakis, Gore and Kerry was that they were – like many Democrats, allegedly – effete, elitist snobs. Obama is far from it, and Fineman should be ashamed he is even attempting to trumpet this ridiculous argument. McCain – the playboy scion of admiral royalty who married even richer (on the second go at it, too) – has far more in common with Dukakis, Gore and Kerry that Obama could ever hope to have. And the son of professional academics? WTF? Technically true, but so removed from its proper context that it threatens to destroy itself in a black hole of nonsense.

5) I think the people who are making part of their decision based on Wright were bound to vote against Obama in the first place, and that concerns over Wright reflect more of America’s continued problems with race and its aforementioned cultural wars than anything about Obama’s actual relationship with Wright, or Wright’s actual comments.

I think the closeness of the national polling – if we’re going to argue that the six or seven point Obama leads are actually close – reflect more the country’s continued hyper partisanship than anything else. After eight years of the most vile partisanship, and a campaign full of it (continued Rovian insinuations that Democrats aren’t patriotic are so virulently wound up in the GOP that it’s a surprise red parts of America won’t collapse in on themselves if a Democrat is elected), it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Obama isn’t up 70-30. There are other reasons, too – he’s black and decent-sized swathes of America still have a problem with that, the politics of fear have been in full bloom, etc. – but I think the blame can almost completely be laid at the feet of partisanship. And sure, all of the ridiculous claims that Fineman made as to Obama’s lack of support are wrapped up in that partisanship, but two facts lay immediate waste to his argument. One, Obama is contesting states like Indiana, North Carolina, Montana, Virginia and Arizona. Two, polls show that voters are far more concerned with the substantive issues this election than they are with the petty character attacks of the right. Obama’s lead is significant, and he will win, and it won’t be close. No amount of discredited Republican talking points or google-eyed skepticism – despite Fineman’s best, rather inelegant efforts – can prove otherwise.

Oh, and snap!

The embed isn’t working, so click here to check out the newest Obama ad.

Game over. Definitely the most devastating ad I’ve seen the Obama campaign come out with, and there are absolutely no spoken words. This is one of the purest examples of giving ‘em enough rope to hang themselves with that I’ve ever seen. Obama is winning Tuesday, for sure. I can’t wait. Young Jeezy, The Recession, Track 18 – gonna get a good workout come next week.