FOXNEWS: Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State

[flyingimam]

Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State
Obama starts airing ads in Arizona as state polls show the race is in a dead heat

FOXNews.com
Saturday, 2008-01-306

With a huge money advantage, Barack Obama has forced John McCain to defend Republican turf in states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri. But now Obama is seeking a knockout blow by buying ads in his home state of Arizona.

Polls show the race tightening there, and Democrats believe Obama can pull off the upset.

"I think that it is certainly possible," said Emily DeRosa, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. "It's something that we all would love to see."

DeRosa said an Obama victory in Arizona would be "monumental."

"More than that, I think it is an incredible indicator of Obama's strength that he's performed well here without making an ad buys here up until this moment," she said.

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment. On a conference call Friday, McCain campaign officials called the Obama television ad a waste of money.

"We encourage them to spend their campaign cash as much as they can," McCain political director Mike DuHaime said.

McCain holds a 4.4 percentage point lead, a virtual toss-up, according to average of polling in the state by Real Clear Politics. Some polls put McCain's lead at only a 1 percentage point.

The last presidential candidate to lose his home state was Al Gore in 2000. The only electoral votes Walter Mondale won in his landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1984 were from his home state of Minnesota.

The Obama campaign has set up three offices in Arizona and has had staffers there since August. But the campaign didn't buy ads there until Friday, signaling its belief that the state was in play.

"We're trying to win everywhere," Obama campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro told FOXNews.com

"People in Arizona, Illinois, all over this country want change, as they just can't afford another four years of the failed Bush-McCain policies," he said. "Americans have a clear choice on Tuesday, and in Obama, they see a leader who can lift up the middle class and bring this country together."

The ad features endorsements from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Warren Buffet, the nation's best known investor.

Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State - FOXNews.com Elections
-------------------------------------------------------

I doubt McCain will lose his home state, but if he does... boy that will be some embarrassing moment for him.

btw for those of u who may not know it, the story mentions 1984 landslide and how only Minnesota supported their native candidate Mondale, i have attached the 1984 electoral map as a reference. i doubt US will ever see such a unified map of either color again, or do we?!

flyingimam Reviewed by flyingimam on 11-02-2008. FOXNEWS: Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State Obama starts airing ads in Arizona as state polls show the race is in a dead heat FOXNews.com Saturday, 2008-01-306 With a huge money advantage, Barack Obama has forced John McCain to defend Republican turf in states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri. But now Obama is seeking a knockout blow by buying ads in his home state of Arizona. Polls show the race tightening there, and Democrats believe Obama can pull off the upset. Rating: 5

[beachguy in thongs]

Oh, man! I mean, ma'am. I'm sorry.



Atlas Shrugs: A Hillary Staffer Comes Clean ..... it's wild

Friday, October 31, 2008
A Hillary Staffer Comes Clean ..... it's wild
What we are in for ............... read every word:

What you were never intended to know in this election Redstate via Israpundit

After a long and careful consideration of all the implications and possible consequences of my actions today, I have decided to go through with this in the hope that our country can indeed be guided into the right direction. First, a little personal backgroundâ?¦ I am a female grad student in my 20â??s, and a registered Democrat. During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets youâ??ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top. Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker. Though I was still bitterly loyal to Hillary, I still held out hope that he would choose her as VP. In fact, there was a consensus among us transplants that in the end, he HAD to choose her. It was the only logical choice. I also was committed to the Democratic cause and without much of a second thought, transferred my allegiance to Senator Obama.

Iâ??m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. Iâ??m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job â?? to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. Iâ??ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesnâ??t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 â?? Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas â?? particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaignâ??s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, and I do admit that I am relying on internal gossip, Senator Obama actually went against the advice of his top advisors. They wanted him to choose her, but the only significant opposition to this within the campaign came from Barack and Michelle Obama. In short, he let personal feelings take precedence over what was the most logical thing to do. Biden, by the way, has been a disaster inside the campaign. Everyone cringes whenever he gives an interview, and he creates so many headaches as the campaign has to stay on their toes in order to disseminate information and spin whatever it was he was trying to say.

2 â?? Sarah Palin. Donâ??t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing â?? we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I donâ??t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them. With Leiberman, the plan was to paint him as an erratic old-timer who didnâ??t have a clue as to what he was doing (pretty much a clone of McCain). In Romney, we had him pegged as an evil capitalist who cut jobs. Pawlenty was going to get the â??Quayle treatmentâ?�, or more precisely: a pretty face, with no valid experience. Tom Ridge was going to be used to provide a direct link from McCain to Bush. As you can see, we were quite enamored of all of them. Then the unexpected happened â?? Sarah Palin. We had no clue as to how to handle her, and bungled it from the start. Though through our misinformation networks, we have successfully taken some of the shine off. But let there be no doubt. She remains a major obstacle. She has singlehanded solidified â??softâ?� Republican support, mobilized the McCain ground game, and has even had some appeal to independents and Hillary voters. This is what our internal polling confirms.

3 â?? Obamaâ??s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry â??racismâ?� whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCainâ??s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didnâ??t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. Theyâ??d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank.

4 â?? The Bradley Effect. Donâ??t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true â??toss up statesâ?�. The only two of these the campaign feels â??confidentâ?� in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% â??refuse to respondâ?� result. You canâ??t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the â??hipâ?� choice, and we all know it.

As part of my research duties, I scour right wing blogs and websites to get somewhat of a â??feelâ?� as to what is being talked about on the other side. Much of it is nonsense, but there are some exceptions which give the campaign jitters. A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Donâ??t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaignâ??s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media â??buzzâ?� which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the â??under-reported cell phone users or young votersâ?� we hear so much about. What is underreported is you.

Go read it. I am telling it folks, it is ours ............... no normal person is going to elect the Mansorian candidate. Obama is a plant. Now get out the vote -- we have massive voter fraud to overrcome.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday, October 31, 2008 at 01:45 AM in WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER

[JakeMartinez]

How can ANY Clinton supporter say McCain is a better pick for president?

I don't get it. At all...

[maladroit]

pamela geller is a right wing blogger with a hate on for obama...she writes lies about him all the time and i bet this is just a desperate last minute lie to scare the vote...this is some of her crap about obama being a muslim with a fake birth certificate

Atlas Shrugs: ATLAS EXCLUSIVE: FINAL REPORT ON OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE FORGERY CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

Obama, the Muslim Thing, And Why It Matters - Opinion - Arutz Sheva

[beachguy in thongs]

Don't vote for the white guy/white girl or the mulatto/white guy.

Vote for the Arab-American/Hispanic!

Obama should've mentioned some things:

According to Matt Gonzalez, if you look at Obama's history, he voted for every war appropriation (delayed, maybe, one), The Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment, has taken the democratic party to, now, wanting to reverse a 25-year ban on offshore drilling, keeping over 60,000 American soldiers in Iraq, escalating the war in Afghanistan, and, talks about increasing military spending (just like John McCain).

Military spending has already gone up from $300,000,000,000.00 (in 2001) to $700,000,000,000.00 (this year).

This comes from the first 1/5 of Matt Gonzalez' interview with Latino USA. http://www.utexas.edu/coc/kut/latino...sa_podcast.mp3

[dragonrider]

Obama starts airing ads in Arizona as state polls show the race is in a dead heat

FOXNews.com
Saturday, 2008-01-306

With a huge money advantage, Barack Obama has forced John McCain to defend Republican turf in states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri. But now Obama is seeking a knockout blow by buying ads in his home state of Arizona.

Polls show the race tightening there, and Democrats believe Obama can pull off the upset.

"I think that it is certainly possible," said Emily DeRosa, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. "It's something that we all would love to see."

DeRosa said an Obama victory in Arizona would be "monumental."

"More than that, I think it is an incredible indicator of Obama's strength that he's performed well here without making an ad buys here up until this moment," she said.

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment. On a conference call Friday, McCain campaign officials called the Obama television ad a waste of money.

"We encourage them to spend their campaign cash as much as they can," McCain political director Mike DuHaime said.

McCain holds a 4.4 percentage point lead, a virtual toss-up, according to average of polling in the state by Real Clear Politics. Some polls put McCain's lead at only a 1 percentage point.

The last presidential candidate to lose his home state was Al Gore in 2000. The only electoral votes Walter Mondale won in his landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1984 were from his home state of Minnesota.

The Obama campaign has set up three offices in Arizona and has had staffers there since August. But the campaign didn't buy ads there until Friday, signaling its belief that the state was in play.

"We're trying to win everywhere," Obama campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro told FOXNews.com

"People in Arizona, Illinois, all over this country want change, as they just can't afford another four years of the failed Bush-McCain policies," he said. "Americans have a clear choice on Tuesday, and in Obama, they see a leader who can lift up the middle class and bring this country together."

The ad features endorsements from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Warren Buffet, the nation's best known investor.

Obama Seeks Knockout Blow in McCain's Home State - FOXNews.com Elections
-------------------------------------------------------

I doubt McCain will lose his home state, but if he does... boy that will be some embarrassing moment for him.

btw for those of u who may not know it, the story mentions 1984 landslide and how only Minnesota supported their native candidate Mondale, i have attached the 1984 electoral map as a reference. i doubt US will ever see such a unified map of either color again, or do we?!

I doubt Obama will take Arizona, but it sure would be a slap in the face to McCain.

McCain has been forced into more and more defensive positions during the last couple of weeks, having to defend and campaign in traditionally red states to keep from losing more ground. And Obama has also been campaigning in red states to try to peel more of them away from McCain. Obama's blue states are all secure, and the battle has all been on McCain's territory for weeks now. I hope Obama can take Arizona --- I know someone who moved there from CA, a very active Democrat, and she would probably piss her pants for joy if they could bring Arizona home for Obama.

[dragonrider]

Oh, man! I mean, ma'am. I'm sorry.



Atlas Shrugs: A Hillary Staffer Comes Clean ..... it's wild

Friday, October 31, 2008
A Hillary Staffer Comes Clean ..... it's wild
What we are in for ............... read every word:

What you were never intended to know in this election Redstate via Israpundit

After a long and careful consideration of all the implications and possible consequences of my actions today, I have decided to go through with this in the hope that our country can indeed be guided into the right direction. First, a little personal backgroundâ?¦ I am a female grad student in my 20â??s, and a registered Democrat. During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets youâ??ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top. Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker. Though I was still bitterly loyal to Hillary, I still held out hope that he would choose her as VP. In fact, there was a consensus among us transplants that in the end, he HAD to choose her. It was the only logical choice. I also was committed to the Democratic cause and without much of a second thought, transferred my allegiance to Senator Obama.

Iâ??m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. Iâ??m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job â?? to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. Iâ??ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesnâ??t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 â?? Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas â?? particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaignâ??s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, and I do admit that I am relying on internal gossip, Senator Obama actually went against the advice of his top advisors. They wanted him to choose her, but the only significant opposition to this within the campaign came from Barack and Michelle Obama. In short, he let personal feelings take precedence over what was the most logical thing to do. Biden, by the way, has been a disaster inside the campaign. Everyone cringes whenever he gives an interview, and he creates so many headaches as the campaign has to stay on their toes in order to disseminate information and spin whatever it was he was trying to say.

2 â?? Sarah Palin. Donâ??t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing â?? we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I donâ??t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them. With Leiberman, the plan was to paint him as an erratic old-timer who didnâ??t have a clue as to what he was doing (pretty much a clone of McCain). In Romney, we had him pegged as an evil capitalist who cut jobs. Pawlenty was going to get the â??Quayle treatmentâ?�, or more precisely: a pretty face, with no valid experience. Tom Ridge was going to be used to provide a direct link from McCain to Bush. As you can see, we were quite enamored of all of them. Then the unexpected happened â?? Sarah Palin. We had no clue as to how to handle her, and bungled it from the start. Though through our misinformation networks, we have successfully taken some of the shine off. But let there be no doubt. She remains a major obstacle. She has singlehanded solidified â??softâ?� Republican support, mobilized the McCain ground game, and has even had some appeal to independents and Hillary voters. This is what our internal polling confirms.

3 â?? Obamaâ??s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry â??racismâ?� whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCainâ??s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didnâ??t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. Theyâ??d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank.

4 â?? The Bradley Effect. Donâ??t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true â??toss up statesâ?�. The only two of these the campaign feels â??confidentâ?� in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% â??refuse to respondâ?� result. You canâ??t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the â??hipâ?� choice, and we all know it.

As part of my research duties, I scour right wing blogs and websites to get somewhat of a â??feelâ?� as to what is being talked about on the other side. Much of it is nonsense, but there are some exceptions which give the campaign jitters. A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Donâ??t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaignâ??s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media â??buzzâ?� which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the â??under-reported cell phone users or young votersâ?� we hear so much about. What is underreported is you.

Go read it. I am telling it folks, it is ours ............... no normal person is going to elect the Mansorian candidate. Obama is a plant. Now get out the vote -- we have massive voter fraud to overrcome.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday, October 31, 2008 at 01:45 AM in WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER

This is all pretty much BS I think. And also a huge threadjack too, considering how long it is and off topic.

Here's what I think about these points:

1. Most of the Hillary supporters have come around to Obama. Those that haven't are outspoken enough to already be accounted for in the polls which still show Obama ahead. There is no hidden Hillary backlash.

2. Sarah Palin is a drag on McCain. She fired up the conservative base, but she is unappealing to most independents that McCain needs, and she has also fired up Democrats who are opposed to her.

3. Nobody seems to care about the guilt-by-association angle McCain and Palin hasve taken to attack Obama, except the hard-core conservatives who weren't going to vote for Obama anyway. There are enoungh REAL issues to worry about that no one cares about the trumped up stuff.

4. The Bradley Effect is the only real wildcard this person brings up that might have some effect, but not as much as she thinks. If this effect were a factor it would have shown up in the primaries, and it didn't. Instead of outright lying to pollsters as people did in the 80's, they are more likely to just say they are undecided instead. There aren't enough undecides left to for there to be much of a Bradley effect, even if they were all to break for McCain. It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think it will be a huge factor.

Now, back to Arizona...

[beachguy in thongs]

a huge threadjack too

Alright, I guess I wasn't paying attention.

[dragonrider]

Alright, I guess I wasn't paying attention.

Ha ha! Could happen to anyone...