In his book Armed Madhouse and his appearances on Air America, Greg Palast has talked about his investigation of peculiarities at New Mexico's polling places. Apparently in order to believe the election results, you have to believe the many Latinos and Indians travel long distances in rural areas and wait however long in line, only to decide not to cast a vote. Or you could believe lousy old machines lose lots of votes, and the election officials are happy with that situation. I find the latter more believable. If New Mexico's electoral votes had been enough to change the 2004 election, it would have received the scrutiny of Ohio. Probably McCain can't win a fair election, but as to whether that's what we'll have...

Is it so hard just to say that Obama understands Wall Street and economics better than McCain?

And Obama made a speech last Spring to a Wall Street audience telling them they needed more regulation. Not what they wanted to hear I'm sure, but just like with Iraq, it looks like he was ahead of the conventional wisdom.

Wait for it, only a matter of time, and the GOP echo chamber will be all abuzz with how Democrats are endangering American families by refusing to pass a bailout, when in fact they keep trying to vote on something with restoration of bankruptcy judges authority to revise mortgages, etc., and Republican keep blocking the votes. The blue dogs are caving already, maybe with election-anxious other Democrats to start urging doing whatever Bush wants.

Time to contact congressmen and try to buck up their courage to resist the Paulson plan and add government equity and some other things conservatives can't stand.

Wow, Rep. Marcy Kaptur summarized it nicely. Somebody has been visiting the liberal blogosphere or listening to the liberal end of talk radio. Or if she figured this out herself, bravo. I wish more Democrats would listen to the base and blow off the blue dogs. Maybe at last enough Democrats have decided they've been lied to too many times?

I agree with Kaptur, real reform or nothing. I'll take my chances with Wall St. going boom.

I'll tell you the difference. Being active in the local and state Democratic parties, I have been encouraged to write letters to the editor, but I have never even been handed talking points, let alone been asked to sign a letter and pretend it's mine. Even being handed a letter with accurate talking points would be OK I suppose, but making things up is OK? Pretending a personal story is mine would be OK? What is wrong with Republicans?

It seems the McCain campaign didn't consider the possibility there are connections in McCain's background that the Obama campaign had ready, just in case. Obviously the Keating Five video wasn't cranked out in an hour because Palin decided to bring up Ayers and Wright again. If McCain had something new on Obama, he'd use it. Obama clearly has more ready to go. McCain might really regret trying to make this about character. My take is that all he's done is found yet another issue that doesn't work for him.

My understanding is the questions are already picked. I'm sure Brokaw picks them. The questioners have to read their question exactly as it is on the cards, and then their microphones are cut off. No followups from Brokaw or the questioners are allowed. Maybe they'll make some change for the drop in the stock market today, but my impression is the rules are inflexible.

The conventional wisdom on attack ads is they do damage to both attacker and target. The attacker gambles that the target gets hurt more. This supports that belief. Now if these studies could tell targets how to blunt the attacks. Obviously McCain picked the Ayers attack on purpose.

Though I still maintain thee personal attacks have already done their damage, or almost all. McCain has nothing left. Obama it appears still has dirt on McCain, so even if this is all McCain has, I think it's a loser for him.

Most liberals have it wrong too. Most of us think felons can't vote. Most felons think they can never vote again. Few people know that laws on felons voting rights vary by state. It is important when doing GOTV to find our own state's laws and have that information handy for when someone says they can't vote because they have a criminal record.

For Minnesotans, our law is felons must be "off paper", which means probation and parole must be completed before they can register, even if they expect to be off paper before the election. If the pre-registation deadline has passed, Minnesota has registration at the polls.

The governor of North Carolina, Michael F. Easley, was recently on Rachel Maddow's TV show, and he indicated a belief in the reverse Bradley effect. The Bradley effect, named for former LA mayor Tom Bradley, means white voters will be unwilling to admit to pollsters that they won't vote for a black candidate, so the polls indicate more support for the black candidate than is really there. Bradley led in the polls for governor but lost. The reverse Bradley effect, for which there isn't yet anything but anecdotal evidence, says whites find it socially unacceptable to admit they would vote for Obama, so his support might be greater than the polls indicate. I hope I'm getting Easley right, and I hope he's right. I suspect it is, but no proof --- until election day. And even then, if Obama does better than polls indicate, that might get credited to new voters and Democratic GOTV.

I've been doing some doorknocking this year, and I signed up with my congressman for election day GOTV, so I'm sure going to try to make that happen, and I look forward to watching election results with a big room full of excited Democrats.