As Election Nears, Obama Hits Key States

With the election only 48 hours away, Senator Obama has been all over the country, visiting many key states, including Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Florida and Colorado. In his speeches, he cautioned his supporters, telling them "don't believe for a second that this election is over." While the polls are beginning to tighten, the Democratic nominee still has a commanding lead.

The state of Hawaii has verified Obama's birth certificate as genuine, knocking down notions that he was actually born in Kenya, which would have made him unable to serve as president.

Florida Uniting

Today in Florida, Obama met with Bill Clinton in Florida for a rally. After spending Monday in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Tuesday in Pennsylvania and Virginia, Obama finally spent a full day in Florida. He ended his day with his rally With Clinton. This is a huge step, because it shows that the Clintons are finally throwing their full support behind the democratic candidate. This unification of the democrats, so to say, is a huge gain for Obama, especially since Clinton was the last democrat to win Florida’s electoral votes.

Obama plans to move from Florida to Virginia, Missouri, and then back to Florida tomorrow, and ending his week with a visit to Iowa on Friday.

Obama Heads West

Senator Obama spent the latter part of the week campaigning in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. He witnessed a record turnout in Boulder, where over 100,000 people came to a rally on Sunday. There, he pounced on a comment made by McCain on "Meet the Press." "Just this morning, Senator McCain said that actually he and President Bush 'share a common philosophy.'" Obama hopes to wrest back these western states from the red, where they have been for the past several elections.
Several newspaper endorsements rolled in, including a surprise from Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News endorsed Obama, saying that "brings far more promise to the office." The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and several other papers also endorsed the Democratic nominee. This marks the first time in history that the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat.
In other news, a federal court has thrown out a suit brought by Philip J. Berg, questioning whether Senator Obama was a "natural-born citizen." Judge R. Barclay Surrick stated that Mr. Berg had no grounds to sue, a similar decision as the one made on a suit questioning Senator McCains citizenship earlier this year.

Sunshine Obama

Obama started this past week with a Visit to Florida, which may very well be his sunshine state. Although Florida has gone Republican in the last two elections(by close margins), this year seems to be different. In an average of polls, Obama is leading Florida at +2 percentage points, which may owe some credit to the fact that he has "poured people and money into Florida in building the largest field organization ever assembled in the Sunshine State." After holding several rallies, mostly in the south of Florida, The senator flew to Virginia, a state he holds by about 10 percent, where he was greeted by sunshine and smiling faces.

The forecast for the upcoming weekend: sunshine perhaps, with a chance of light drizzle or even heavy rain on the Obama Campaign. Obama plans to travel to Nevada this weekend to address gun control, a large issue in the state. Although Obama seems to have a pronounced lead in urban areas, he is trying to secure at least a 40% vote in some rural areas that are chalk full of people "who just (hate) Obama." Obama has a shakey lead of about 2 percentage points in nevada.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

Obama had another busy week, campaigning all over New York and Missouri. As is tradition, he and Senator McCain took a night off to relax and trade jokes at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner. For one night, there was "no other crowd [he] would rather be palling around with." The next day, it was back on the campaign trail, and the Democratic nominee was boosted by both an endorsement from Colin Powell and a record $150 million in fundraising in September. Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, as well as President George W. Bush's Secretary of State. With only two weeks to the election, the Obama campaign is bombarding the airwaves with advertising, including ads in popular video games such as Madden '09 and Burnout Paradise.

Style Points

After campaigning for Two days throughout Ohio, a 'swing state' in which he and McCain are "Statistically tied," Barak Obama squared off once again with McCain for the third and last debate of the election, this time in NY. Although the group of undecided voters in the CBS studio mostly tended to lean towrds McCain, who they said showed to be more presidential than Obama and much better than in previous debates, polls made to homes and over the internet show Obama comfortably winning the debate. A big issue tonight was supprisingly personal, having to do with both candidate's tendencies to attack the other candidate rather than polocies, or discussing issues. this conversation, ironically enough, ended with attacks from both candidates.
Obama was reported to be calmer than McCain. This is reportedly caused in part by his reported 8% national lead over McCain. He may have been acting calmer in an effort to look more presidential, while McCain would surely over exert himself, trying to make attacks to make Obama look bad. This apparently paid off for Obama.
Obama is flying to Londery, New Hampshire to campaign tomorrow.

Race Gets Dirty as Election Nears

With the election a mere three weeks away, the race abruptly took a turn towards the negative. As Obama pulled further ahead in the polls, Senator McCain and Governor Palin questioned the ties between Obama and Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign responded with a video highlighting McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the Savings and Loan Crisis. However, late in the week, McCain toned down the attacks as his supporters became more and more angry. Obama praised the decision, but kept up the attack, saying that "when it comes to the economy and what families here in Pennsylvania are going through, Sen. McCain still doesn't get it."
Obama had a busy week of travel, holding as many as four rallies in one day in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Ohio is considered a crucial swing state, and Obama's many visits over the past weeks have helped him pull ahead in the polls, to a rough tie.