HOT or NOT: The Week-In-Review

HOT: Obama wins debate. Again. CNN reported that 53% of uncommitted voters surveyed identified Dem nominee Barack Obama as the winner of the debate and 22% identified John McCain.

NOT: McCain’s temper. It was clearly the most emotional debate to date. But while Barack looked calm and composed, McCain looked like he was about to blow his lid. Gotta love those split screens.

HOT: Wash Post Endorses BO. The Post remarked that it was an easy decision for them when looking at McCain's campaign strategy and selection of a running mate who is unfit to lead. They admire Obama's "impressive qualities" and are hopeful about an Obama presidency.

NOT: Rally hate. Reports and videos are coming in of the angry words shouted at McCain-Palin rallies. While McCain has called them "fringe" types, him and his running mate have referred to Barack Obama by using his middle name - Hussein, provoking words like "Terrorist" and Kill Him" from their attendees.

HOT: Obama goes after FOX news. At Wednesday's debate, Obama challenged FOX News' "fair and balanced" coverage, saying, "If I Were Watching Fox News, I Wouldn't Vote For Me."

NOT: Joe “The Plumber” giving more interviews in one day than Sarah Palin As VP Candidate. Um, yea this guy is everywhere all of a sudden. He said in a recent interveiw, "I'm kind of like Britney Spears having a headache. Everybody wants to know about it."

Quote of the Week:
“I'm probably going to call him [Joe "The Plumber"] this morning," McCain said. "I thought he would probably be up late. I heard that his — that his phone lines were pretty well flooded. But I think we're going to be spending some time together.”

And check out Our Fabulous Video of the Week:

Debate Part 3: Republicans Heart "Joe (insert cliched Blue-collar job here)"

So, tonight was the last and final debate between Prez candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Again, neither candidate caused fireworks but it was certainly the most interesting (translation: I didn't fall asleep) debate between the candidates.

In a nutshell: McCain played offense and went after Barack's associations. Barack stuck to the issues while McCain kept plunging away at "Joe the Plumber." What's next "Joe the miner" or "Joe the repairman?" B-rack picked up speed in the last few innings and McCain did a horrific job of trying to keep his cool.

Best moment: Watching the insta-poll dip for women when McCain talked about how Sarah Palin is a model for women everywhere. Women no likey the Sarah Palin.


Fun with wordle:

Obama:
McCain:

Philly Fans Never Disappoint

Being a native Philadelphian (woot!) myself, I know there is only one thing we like more than Philly cheesesteaks. And that's booing. The fans were more than up to the task when Sarah Palin came to town...

HOT or NOT: The Week-In-Review

HOT: Another Win for BO. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for two years, Tuesday's debate was a total bore and not a game changer, but Obama came out strong and hit McCain where it hurt.

NOT: Confusing Joe Biden with John McCain. A Tampa area resident and former Republican who supports Obama introduced Joe Biden as, "the next Vice President of the United States, John McCain." Um, awkward. Hey, at least, it’ll make for a good story at company icebreakers (?)

HOT: David Brooks on Palin. David Brooks has been taking a spoonful of straight-talk lately and called Sarah Palin a "fatal cancer to the Republican party" on Monday afternoon. He criticized Palin’s lack of intellectualism and her propensity to “scorn ideas,” comparing her to George Bush. Zing! And again, this is from David Brooks, not Barney Frank.

NOT: Cindy McCain Attacks. Cindy McCain accused Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama of running "the dirtiest campaign in American history." Really now?! According to an analysis by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, almost every ad that the McCain campaign ran last week was negative, compared to just 34 percent of those by Obama. Hmmm. If the campaign’s strategy is to make Cindy an attack dog, I say bring it on.

HOT: Voting Early and Often. The Wall Street Journal has reported that a large number of blacks in Georgia are taking advantage of the early voting option to avoid “polling problems” on Election Day. Ludacris was amongst one of the 263,408 ballots already cast in Georgia. Wonder who he's voting for...

NOT: FOX News Complains that Sarah Palin Photo is Not Retouched. So FOX News has officially run out of things to complain about and recently ran a segment in which a Republican strategist criticized Newsweek’s latest cover as a “gross slap in the face” to Sarah Palin. The commentator could not believe that Newsweek did not retouch the Palin photo! How tragic! There are Americans struggling to put food on the table and this is the subject of their criticism.

Quote of the week: "Lord knows I have a lot to repent for." - Joe Lieberman on MSNBC

And check out Our Fabulous Video of the Week:

Debate Wrap-up: Round 2 Goes to Obama

It's another W for Barack "That One" Obama. Woot! NBC's focus group of undecided Pennsylvania voters had the Illinois Democrat winning by roughly a 60-40 split. John "My Friends" McCain seemed particularly timid about attacking Obama during the debate and yet seems to be A-ok with Palin and his wifey going negative. Just like a man to make the women do his dirty work for him. Whether this non-strategy will work for McSame remains to be seen.

Using Wordle, I generated the "word clouds" from Obama and McCain's responses in the debate. Notice that McCain said the word "Friends" almost as much as he said "America." Check it out:

OBAMA:

McCAIN:

Karma At Work: Jerome Corsi Detained in Africa

I can't help but laugh about this one: Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality and co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, has been deported from Kenya. Just before Corsi was scheduled to announce his findings of his investigation into Barack Obama's Kenya connections, he was picked up by authorities at his hotel and detained at the Nyayo House in Kenya. He was briefly held at immigration headquarters and then brought to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for deportation.

Corsi's book makes erroneous allegations that Barack Obama was raised a Muslim radical. Check out the article here.

Keith Olbermann Is My Homeboy

In a Special Comment, Keith Olbermann addresses Sarah Palin's remarks that Obama was "pallin' around with terrorists." Great stuff.

The Sunday Funnies

Hello Politicas, this week's Sunday Funnies spotlights a Daily Show clip on Why John McCain is the 'Black' Candidate. Check it out:

HOT or NOT: The Week-In-Review

So while everyone heaps copious amounts of praise on Gov. Sarah Palin for remembering her own name at yesterday’s debate, check out this week’s HOT or NOT on the VP debate.

HOT: Exceeding expectations. After her failed attempts at interviews the past few weeks, Gov. Sarah Palin was clearly much more prepared for the VP debate (and by “prepared,” I mean well-scripted). Her rehearsed answers and folksy one-liners seemed to resonate early on and make any sane person want to rip out their hair by the end. Palin did, however, exceed expectations (and by “exceed expectations,” I mean she didn’t royally make a fool of herself). She certainly held her own against Biden (and by “held her own,” I mean… ok you get where I’m going here…). Clearly not a game changer but she lives to fight another day.

NOT: Refusing to directly answer questions. Did Palin know that there was a moderator on stage asking her questions? It sure seemed like she thought she could meaninglessly ramble off strings of memorized phrases in between words like “maverick” and “drill” and forget the minor detail of actually answering the question. Rrrrright. The best part was when the moderator, Gwen Ifill, asked the candidates to name their “Achilles heel” and Palin started uttering her prepared speech on having experience. Wink, smile, insert folky-ism, wink. Aw shucks, ya gotta love her!

HOT: Specifics. If we’ve learned one thing from the last few elections, it’s that personality matters. The American people are suckers for a warm smile and down-to-earth charm. But as Biden stated in the debate “facts matter” and having a solid understanding of the state of the economy, foreign affairs and other prominent policy issues is a real qualification for the POTUS and his/ her side-kick. Again, Palin stuck to her vague talking points without actually giving specific examples of policy proposals and couldn’t name one thing a McCain-Palin admin would do differently than Bush. Bad news bears.

NOT: Palin on Iraq. Two Words: Massive failure. (Enter here some lame joke about how her answer having less of an exit strategy than the War in Iraq).

HOT: Insta-polls. Gotta love/hate how CNN already has the public opinion polls on the debate before the actual debate has ended. Here’s the gist: Biden Wins Debate, 51% to 36%. Woot! Republicans can claim that Palin won the debate all they want but the poll numbers tell a different story.

NOT: Excessive Winking. Nuff said.

HOT: Biden’s restraint. I truly heart Biden and his straight-forward ways but he does have a reputation for inducing cringes when he opens his mouth. He had ample opportunity to hit back at Palin for her snarky comments or blatantly ignorant statements, and yet he restrained himself in an attempt to prevent a war with the whole female race. He was very cautious about attacking John McCain and not Palin personally.

NOT: Shoutouts at VP debates. Um yea, this is not the MTV Music Awards! What’s next – “Big ups to my boo” at the State of the Union? I mean really. It may have come off as cute to some cheeseballs but the rest of us were left feeling absolutely perplexed about this move.

And here are the quotes of the week:
Palin: "How Long Have I Been At This? Like Five Weeks?"
Biden: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history."

Stayed tuned for: The McCain-Palin campaign trying to backtrack from Palin's apparent agreement with Biden on benefits for same-sex couples. Send in the janitors to clean it up!

Check out Our Fabulous Video of the Week:

John McCain's Latest Target: Gwen Ifill?

Aside from playing the lowered expectations game in preparation for the VP debates between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, the McCain camp has taken a shot at Gwen Ifill (?). Ifill, who is the moderator for Thursday's VP debate, has a historical book called "Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" coming out.

Given the subject of her book, the campaign is McComplaining that Ifill is not nonpartisan enough to moderate the debate. Here's where it gets ridiculous: McCain agreed with the selection of Gwen Ifill as moderator two weeks after her book had been reported to the Associated Press. Yet, they've just decided to bring this up a day before the debate. Not to mention that Ifill broke her ankle on Monday night falling down the stairs in her home while carrying "research related to her moderating duties at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis." Hmm.