The AP reports, "Roaring toward the finish," Sen. Barack Obama "presided Sunday over two Colorado rallies that together drew about 150,000 people, a startling turnout in a key swing state." The Denver Post says that at a Denver rally early in the day, estimates put the crowd "at more than 100,000." The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported on its website that at a rally in Fort Collins, Colorado, Obama addressed "a crowd estimated between 45,000-50,000." He "reiterated his plan to give tax cuts to 95 percent of Americans, contrasting his plan with challenger John McCain's plan that would give tax cuts 'only to the wealthiest Americans and the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.'
The AP reports Sen. John McCain, "behind in the polls and looking for a comeback, argued Sunday that voters should elect him president to create a check on a Democratic Congress that he says is determined to increase taxes and the size of government." McClatchy says McCain "all but" conceded "that Congress will remain in Democratic hands" as he "cast himself as a check on tax increases and defense cuts." ABC World News adds, "In the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll, independents prefer divided government to one-party rule. Forty-three percent to 34%. So McCain is raising the specter of a three-headed liberal hydra. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama controlling Washington."
However, later on ABC World News, Mark Halperin said, "On first blush it is an effective argument potentially as the polling suggests. The problem with the argument is, voters are not happy with the direction of the country. They want fundamental change. The kind Obama is talking about. I think for a lot of voters, they'll say, yeah, we want to give Democrats a chance. Unify control, to bring about some of the changes they want to have happen."
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The Washington Post reports John McCain "said Sunday that he and President Bush share a 'common philosophy' but insisted that he is his own man in his first appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press' in more than nine months." McCain "asserted that he has bucked the president's policies and his party on spending, Iraq and climate change, a record that he said proves his distance from the unpopular chief executive." On NBC's Meet the Press, McCain added, "The fact is I am not George Bush. The fact is that I was not popular within my own party. ... So do we share a common philosophy of the Republican Party? Of course. But I've, I've stood up against my party, not just President Bush, but others; and I've got the scars to prove it, including taking up, with Ted Kennedy, immigration reform, knowing full well that that was going to hurt my chances in the primaries."
Obama Seizes On Comment The Washington Times said Sen. Barack Obama "immediately pounced" on McCain's remark. The New York Times adds Obama "redoubled his efforts" to tie McCain to Bush by seizing on the comments, saying at a Denver rally, "I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk, and owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common." The CBS Evening News adds, "With encouraging polls in his pocket, the Democratic nominee is happy to repeat a dominant campaign theme at virtually every stop." Obama: "For eight years we've seen the Bush-McCain philosophy put our country on the wrong track. We can't have another four years that look just like the last eight." NBC Nightly News says that though it is "hardly new, it is Obama's closing argument, making John McCain's loyalty to George Bush a liability."
The AP reports that in Florida yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin "had a pointed message Sunday for Barack Obama: This thing isn't over yet." Palin said, "Where I come from, you have to win the game before you start cutting down the net." The Tampa Tribune adds that Palin "drew a crowd in downtown Tampa on Sunday that didn't look or act as if its side was the underdog in the presidential race, and she assured them Sen. John McCain can still win."
The AP reports GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin "said Sunday the $150,000 in clothes and accessories bought for her by the Republican National Committee don't belong to her, equating the high-priced wardrobe with the stagecraft at campaign rallies." The New York Times reports an "exasperated" Palin "veered off script on Sunday to confront, as she called it, 'the whole clothes thing.'" Palin said, "You know, I tried to just ignore it. Because it's so ridiculous." The Washington Post adds Palin "was introduced yesterday at a Tampa rally by 'The View's' Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who called coverage of the $150,000 wardrobe flap 'deliberately sexist.' The GOP's veep nominee, dressed in a pale pink jacket, itemized her entire ensemble: 'I am back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska,' Palin told the audience."
The New York Times reports in a front page story that Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama "are heading into the final week of the presidential campaign planning to spend nearly all their time in states that President Bush won last time, testimony to the increasingly dire position of Mr. McCain and his party as Election Day approaches." However, the Wall Street Journal reports McCain will "concentrate his efforts on the electoral-vote-rich battleground states of" Ohio, won by President Bush in 2004, and Pennsylvania, won by Sen. John Kerry. NBC Nightly News adds, "The good news for Barack Obama is, if in fact, a state like for example Colorado does start leaning his way. That is just a different path to the 270 electoral votes. The campaign has said all along that they wanted to broaden the electoral map. They didn't want just one path there."
Obama Overwhelming McCain With Ads In Key States U.S. News and World Report notes Obama's poll numbers "may have flattened in recent days in the toss-up Sunshine State, but it's not for lack of trying. Or, rather, not for lack of advertising. Between October 6 and October 22, Obama ran 15,887 ads in Florida, compared with the 4,662 aired by Republican nominee John McCain, according to a Nielson Co. analysis released this afternoon. ... Nielson also found that in seven key swing states, including Florida, Obama overall placed 150 percent more ads than McCain during that same time period: 53,049 for the Democrat vs. 21,106 for the Republican."
Two Polls Show Obama Up In Virginia A Zogby International poll of 600 likely Virginia voters taken October 23-26 shows the Obama leading McCain 52%-45%. An ABC News/Washington Post poll of 784 likely Virginia voters taken October 22-25 shows Obama leading McCain 52%-44%.
Race Tied In Florida A Zogby International poll of 603 likely Florida voters taken October 23-26 shows the race tied at 47% apiece.
McCain Up 10 In West Virginia A Zogby International poll of 600 likely West Virginia voters taken October 23-26 shows McCain leading Obama 50%-40%.
Obama Up 5 In Ohio A Zogby International poll of 600 likely Ohio voters taken October 23-26 shows Obama leading McCain 50%-45%.
Obama Up 4 In Nevada A Zogby International poll of 601 likely Nevada voters taken October 23-26 shows Obama leading McCain 48%-44%.
Two Polls Show Obama Edging McCain In Missouri A St. Louis Post-Dispatch /Research 2000 poll of 800 likely Missouri voters taken October 20-23 shows Obama leading McCain 48%-47%. A Zogby International poll of 600 likely Missouri voters taken October 23-26 shows Obama leading McCain 48%-46%.
Obama Up 4 In North Carolina A Zogby International poll of 601 likely North Carolina voters taken October 23-26 shows Obama leading McCain 50%-46%.
McCain Up 6 In Indiana A Zogby International poll of 600 likely Indiana voters taken October 23-26 shows McCain leading Obama 50%-44%.
Obama Up 5 In Minnesota A St. Cloud University poll of 509 likely Minnesota voters taken October 14-22 shows Obama leading McCain 42%-37%.
Obama Up 15 In New Hampshire A Boston Globe /University of New Hampshire poll of 725 likely New Hampshire voters taken October 18-22 shows Obama leading McCain 54%-39%.
Obama Up 15 In Iowa A Quad City Times /Research 2000 poll of 600 likely Iowa voter taken October 19-22 shows Obama leading McCain 54%-39%.
All the national polls continue to show Barack Obama leading John McCain in the race for the White House, a trend that has held for several consecutive days.
The IBD /TIPP daily presidential tracking poll of 886 likely voters taken October 21-25 shows Obama leading McCain 47%-43%.
The Gallup daily presidential tracking poll of 2,794 registered voters taken October 23-25 has two likely voter models one (based on past voting behavior and current intention to vote) shows Obama leading McCain 50%-45%, while the second (based on current intention to vote) shows Obama up 52%-43%.
The C-Span/Zogby daily presidential tracking poll of 1,203 likely voters taken October 24-26 shows Obama leading McCain 50%-45%.
The ABC News /Washington Post daily presidential tracking poll of 1,308 likely voters taken October 22-25 shows Obama leading McCain 52%-45%. In an analysis, ABC News reported on its website, "Likely voters by 53-42 percent trust Obama over McCain to handle the economy, an Obama lead that's not quite as large as his biggest advantage on the issue last week, 56-38 percent. McCain's 42 percent is his best in a month, and up from a low of 37 percent Oct. 11."
The Hotline/Diageo tracking poll of 878 likely voters taken October 23-25 shows Obama up 50%-42%.
The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll for October 26 shows Obama leading McCain 52%-44%, the same as the previous day.
McCain Says Race Closer Than Polls Indicate On NBC's Meet the Press, McCain insisted that "polls have been consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are. It all depends on the voter turnout model. ... We're doing fine. We have closed in the last week. We continue this close through next week, you're going to be up very, very late on election night."
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New unemployment data show the labor markets have deteriorated significantly and now approach the troughs of the last recessions in 2001 and the early '90s. The Wall Street Journal pessimistically reports one of "the starkest indicators is that the number of people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more reached two million in September," a full "21% of the total unemployed, and approaching the prior peaks of about 23% in 2003 and 1992."While the "unemployment rate is at a five-year high at 6.1%, a broader measure of weakness that includes people who have stopped looking for work or whose hours have been cut to part-time is 11% -- the highest in 15 years." The Wall Street Journal also says Thursday's upcoming release of the government's preliminary estimate of third-quarter economic output could add to the "gloomy string of data."
Meanwhile, the AP says with the "economic wreckage" piling "dangerously higher, the Federal Reserve is prepared to ratchet down interest rates -- perhaps to their lowest point in more than four years." On the CBS Evening News, Zephyr Management's Jim Awad said, "They have to use every tool in their tool kit. I think that they will cut rates. I hope it's 50 basis point, a half a point."
Bankruptcy For GM And Chrysler? The Wall Street Journal reports, "As talks between General Motors Corp. and long-time rival Chrysler LLC continued over the weekend, a harsh reality has emerged: Without a merger and possibly an assist from the federal government, two of Detroit's Big Three auto makers could run out of cash within a year."
The Washington Post editorializes, "Car and truck sales fell 26.6 percent in September, the first month since 1993 in which fewer than 1 million vehicles moved off the lots." ... We would all have been better off if the federal government had enacted a higher gas tax so that the Big Three could have planned production on that basis."
Small Banks Fear Bailout Funded Takeovers The Wall Street Journal reports that the government bailout plan "is fueling a long-simmering war between financial institutions, prompting fears among small banks that big banks getting rescue money will be encouraged to buy smaller rivals." The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, says the bailout effort "is only a few weeks old -- but it's already morphed into something far broader and more ambitious than its designers originally intended," with possible purchases of "risky mortgages" and an expansion into the insurance sector and other industries.
Investors Hope For "Signs Of Calm" NBC Nightly News reported, "After weeks of eye-watering plunges on Wall Street investors will be looking for signs of calm when the markets open tomorrow." In a similar report last night, ABC World News noted that the "Dow has already fallen nearly 23%" this month.
ABC World News reported Syria is claiming that "American military helicopters fired on a target inside of Syria, killing eight people, including some women," in what it called an act of "serious aggression." The official Syrian news agency is reporting "that American soldiers traveling on four helicopters crossed into Syria near the Iraqi border town of Abu Kamal shortly before dark" and "attacked a building under construction, killing a number of people, before flying back into Iraq."
NBC Nightly News reported that "a senior US official has confirmed...that the United States has struck at a suspected al Qaeda terrorist target inside Syria. The attack was apparently carried out by US Special Ops." The CBS Evening News also reported that "US sources say this attack was an attempt to get the al Qaeda in Iraq operative responsible for funneling foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq. And the sources say they got their target, but it's unclear whether that means he was killed or captured."
From Damascus, the AP reports on the "extremely rare attack," which "a US military official said...targeted the network of al-Qaeda-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Damascus' official Syrian Arab News Agency said US military helicopters entered Syria along the Iraqi border in Bukamal near the town of Deir Ezzor, which is considered a haven for Sunni Arab militants infiltrating Iraq."
The Financial Times says "relations between Washington and Damascus appeared to plunge to a new low," and "the Syrian foreign ministry summoned the US chargé d'affaires in Damascus to protest, according to Sana, the state news agency."
AFP reports, "In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment," and "Commander Darryn James told AFP that there was 'no response' from the US Department of Defence about the Syrian reports." The New York Times also notes "the United States military did not immediately comment on the attack." The Washington Post and Washington Times run similar stories.
McClatchy reports the US military has "warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn't agree to a new agreement on the status of US forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq." But "many Iraqi politicians view the move as akin to political blackmail." The AP, meanwhile, reports "Iraq's Cabinet delayed a decision Sunday on the draft security agreement." The meeting of the "37-member Cabinet, made up of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds," had been called "to discuss the agreement and review proposed changes that would be submitted to the Americans."
Meanwhile, the Washington Post says that if agreed upon, the status-of-forces agreement "would apparently tie the hands of the next US president in some respects if it was ratified by the Iraqis before Jan. 20." For example, the Post reports that "the next president would have to wait a year if he wanted to pull out of the agreement altogether, according to Article 31, the final section."
Female Lawmakers Surging In Iraq USA Today reports a development "getting little notice amid the violence of the past several years is an astounding experiment that is nearly unheard of in the Middle East -- Iraq's constitution mandates that women make up 25% of the parliament. That's a higher percentage than the US Congress," and "slowly, the women of Iraq's parliament are emerging as a political force."
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Craig Ferguson: "In the news this week, CBS News' Katie Couric asked both presidential candidates" when was "the last time they cried. ... Obama said the last time he cried was at his daughter's birthday. McCain said the last time he cried was when he saw the poll numbers."
Craig Ferguson: "This week in 'People' magazine," Sarah Palin "talks about the plans for her daughter's wedding. You know, Bristol's getting married. And Sarah says it's very difficult to find a dress that doesn't clash with the shotgun."
Craig Ferguson: "But" Sarah Palin "is not letting all this criticism of her get her down. She said she's putting the election 'in God's hands,' which is good news for the Democrats because they think Barack Obama is God."
Jimmy Kimmel: "The economy has become the central issue in" the "presidential campaign. I personally...haven't heard one word about fencing in the Mexicans in months, right?"
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