60 Second Politics

With just over two weeks left in the campaign, the candidates are hitting the trail hard and continued to make news over the weekend.

• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he plans to vote for Sen. Barack Obama. "I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming into, onto the world stage and the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama," said Powell.

• When asked about the endorsement, McCain offered this: "Well, I have always admired and respected General Powell. We are longtime friends. This doesn't come as a surprise. But I am also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state ... and I am proud to have the endorsement of well over 200 retired army generals and admirals," McCain said, noting the support offered by Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

• Sen. Barack Obama set a new record for presidential fund raising in September, with more than $150 million in contributions.

• Politics turned funny over the weekend when Palin made a guest appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." SNL received their highest ratings in 14 years for the show with Palin and her lookalike, Tina Fey.

60 Second Politics

https://politics4moms.blogspot.com/2008/10/60-second-politics_20.html

60 Second Politics

Despite my lack of blogging in over a week (pox on those darn school fundraisers), there has been plenty of political fodder coming out of both campaigns. So to bring us up to speed, here's another addition of 60 Second Politics:

• Allegations are amassing that community group ACORN has turned in thousands of fraudulant voter registrations in at least 6 states. Acorn workers have been indicted in Missouri and convicted in Wisconsin and Colorado, and investigations are still under way in Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Acorn officials bill themselves as nonpartisan community organizers merely interested in giving a voice to minorities and the poor. In reality, Acorn is a union-backed, multimillion-dollar outfit that uses intimidation and other tactics to push for higher minimum wage mandates and to trash Wal-Mart and other non-union companies."

• The McCain campaign has been hitting Sen. Obama hard over the last week on his ties and associations to questionable figures like terrorist Bill Ayers. An article from Commentary.com gives an analysis of why these associations and character does matter.

• Salon.com published an interesting article about the various "makeovers" Sen. McCain has gone through over the past few weeks and months in an effort to re-energize his campaign and to connect with voters.

• Sen. Obama recently purchased 30-minutes of air time from two national networks and is in negotiations with two other networks. What he'll do with the air time remains to be seen. Along the same lines, here is a great article on the amount of money each candidate is spending on commercials.

• Of course, the economy is on everyone's mind. The Wall Street Journal helps you sort out the latest plans and moves to stabilize the economy: "What Paulson is Trying to Do."

60 Second Politics

https://politics4moms.blogspot.com/2008/10/60-second-politics_15.html

60 Second Politics

A lot of time there are just little snippets of political news that don't warrant an entire post, but I still think you'd find interesting. So I'm going to start a new feature called "60 Second Politics" where I just give you the latest political news fast and dirty.

• A new global poll of 17 countries finds a huge preference for Barack Obama over John McCain in the presidential election in 16 of those countries. In the 17th country -- the U.S. -- McCain was edging out Obama.
• The Biden campaign has canceled Senator Biden’s public schedule for Monday and Tuesday after his wife Jill’s mother passed away this afternoon. he’d already suspended events last night in Washington and today in Virginia due to her illness.
• McCain's campaign pulled out of Michigan last week.
• Meghan McCain has a new book called My Dad John McCain.
• Palin declared over the weekend that "The heels are on, the gloves are off" as she talked at a rally for the first time about Barack Obama’s friendship with Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers.
• The Obama camp responded with a series of ads that link Sen. McCain to the Keating 5 in the 1980s.

60 Second Politics

https://politics4moms.blogspot.com/2008/10/60-second-politics.html