The Gadfly Climbing The Wall

No Winners: John McCain and Barack Obama are among those who won nothing in the bailout mess. Neither (apparently) helped deliver an agreeable compromise despite attempts to show them working to do so.

Flawed: The McCain strategy of keeping Sarah Palin from the media has troubled me from the get-go. I understand the desire to shelter her at the outset, but to trot her out for high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson and then Katie Couric leaves me wondering if McCain's media advisers have any brain cells that still function. An alternative strategy would have been to trot her out for multiple press availabilities at the same time instead of funneling all attention on her first two major interviews, in neither of which did she distinguish herself.

Media Bias: Forty years ago, when national politics became of intense interest to me, I could not have imagined the national news media would become the cesspool that it is today. Fairness? It's gone. Journalistic ethics? Gone. Telling both sides of the story? Sadly, almost non-existent. Targeting public figures in "gotcha" interviews is today the norm; witness the non-stop villification of George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin, almost any prominent Republican. While Barack Obama's family (half-brother, half-sister) and his ties to radical friends, and Joe Biden's family (lobbyist son) get passes from the media, they focus on Palin's family. While Biden's laughable gaffes are virtually ignored, any perceived stumble by Palin or McCain is non-stop fodder for reportage and extended discussion by Obama surrogates on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times. And by "surrogates," I don't refer to guests...I refer to reporters and commentators employed by those entities.

Possible? Is it possible that the Obama-Biden ticket will set a new low for the Democratic presidential ticket vote in Oklahoma? With repeated state polls showing the duo at less than 30 percent and going nowhere, a 77-county sweep by McCain-Palin appears likely at the moment. There's still a month to go, and anything can happen, but it's clear the two have no base upon which to build. The weakness of the Democratic ticket has clear implications down-ballot, particularly in the Senate race where incumbent Jim Inhofe has a commanding lead of 20-plus percent over challenger Andrew Rice. Whether the lack of enthusiam for Obama-Biden will impact races farther down the ballot, like those involved in the battle for control of the State Senate, is yet to be seen but the lastest Sooner Survey showing the GOP likely to easily take control has them almost giddy with excitement.

The Joe Biden Gaffe-mobile Continues

From Fox News ~ When Hillary Clinton told a tall tale about "landing under sniper fire" in Bosnia, she was accused of "inflating her war experience" by rival Democrat Barack Obama's campaign.

But the campaign has been silent about Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, telling his own questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.

"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube last year. "Number one, you take all the troops out - you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."

But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."

The senior senator from Delaware went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.

"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."

The rest of the press ignored the flap at the time because Biden was viewed as having little chance of ending up on the Democratic presidential ticket. But even after Biden was selected to be Obama's running mate last month, his claim to have been "shot at" drew no scrutiny from the same reporters who had savaged Clinton for making a similar claim that turned out to be false.

FOX News has been asking the Obama campaign for details of the alleged shooting in Iraq ever since Biden was tapped to be vice president. Biden campaign spokesman David Wade promised an answer last week, but failed to provide one.

Meanwhile, the gaffe-prone Biden has again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones - this time in Afghanistan. Biden said he will grill Republican rival Sarah Palin in Thursday's vice presidential debate about "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down."

"If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."

But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Senators Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.

Hastings Apologies For Palin Remarks

(CNN) - An African-American congressman from Florida is apologizing for his comment that black and Jewish voters should not support Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

"I regret the comments I made last Tuesday that were not smart and certainly not relevant to hunters or sportsmen," Rep. Alcee Hastings said in a statement issued Monday.

Last week, at a panel on the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats during the annual conference of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Hastings told attendees what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the importance of supporting Sen. Obama in November's presidential election.

"If Sarah Palin isn't enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," Hastings said last week. "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through," he added

FEC Questions Strange Obama Campaign Donations

The Federal Election Commission is asking questions about numerous strange donations to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

In a letter dated June 25, 2008, the FEC asked the Obama campaign to verify a series of $25 donations from a contributor identified as “Will, Good” from Austin, Texas.

Mr. Good Will listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.”

A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25. In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375.

Following this and subsequent FEC requests, campaign records show that 330 contributions from Mr. Good Will were credited back to a credit card. But the most recent report, filed on Sept. 20, showed a net cumulative balance of $8,950 — still well over the $4,600 limit.

There can be no doubt that the Obama campaign noticed these contributions, since Obama’s Sept. 20 report specified that Good Will’s cumulative contributions since the beginning of the campaign were $9,375.

In an e-mailed response to a query from Newsmax, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt pledged that the campaign would return the donations. But given the slowness with which the campaign has responded to earlier FEC queries, there’s no guarantee that the money will be returned before the Nov. 4 election.

Similarly, a donor identified as “Pro, Doodad,” from “Nando, NY,” gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You,” just as Good Will had done.

But in some of them, he didn’t even go this far, apparently picking letters at random to fill in the blanks on the credit card donation form. In these cases, he said he was employed by “VCX” and that his profession was “VCVC.”

Following FEC requests, the Obama campaign began refunding money to Doodad Pro in February 2008. In all, about $8,425 was charged back to a credit card. But that still left a net total of $11,165 as of Sept. 20, way over the individual limit of $4,600.

Read the entire article at http://www.newsmax.com.

TvPoll: Republicans Continue Huge Leads

This week's TvPoll for KWTV-Channel 9 shows John McCain and Sarah Palin maintaining their previous 30 percent-plus lead over Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Senator Jim Inhofe maintaining his previous 20 percent-plus lead over challenger Andrew Rice.

The poll puts McCain-Palin at 67.6 percent, Obama-Biden at 26.5 percent. Inhofe had 56 percent to 35.5 percent for Rice.

In the Corporation Commission race between Republican Dana Murphy and Democrat incumbent Jim Roth, Murphy's lead is placed at 9 percent; that's down from her 14 percent lead two weeks ago and the same as her lead a month ago. Murphy had 38.3 percent, Roth 29.1 percent with 32.6 percent undecided.

Obama Tops 51%, Leads McCain By 6%

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday-the first update with results based entirely upon interviews conducted following the first Presidential Debate--shows Barack Obama attracting 51% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%.

Dan Boren Explains Vote For Bailout Bill

Democratic Congressman Dan Boren, who today joined Republican Congressman Tom Cole in voting for the bailout bill, issued this statement explaining his vote: “Although Congress voted down the proposed financial package today, there is little disagreement that something must be done.

"Our country currently faces arguably the largest economic emergency in our history. It is my hope that Congress will reconvene soon to continue working toward addressing this economic crisis.

"Today I voted in support of the legislation because I believe the American banking system is at risk of total failure.

"Over the past two weeks we have seen our nation’s largest bank, three of our nation’s premier investment banks, and the country’s largest insurer fail. This should be cause for great concern.

"Many Oklahomans count on banks and financial institutions to protect their life-savings, expand their businesses, make major financial purchases, and send their children to college. A failure of our lending institutions could destroy our nation’s economy and cause many of our citizens to lose their jobs and homes.

"In the weeks to come, I will continue to monitor any proposal put forward to deal with the current financial situation.”

Can Biden Withstand Palin Debate Pressure?

Can Joe Biden withstand the pressure of his debate with Sarah Palin this week?

It's a fair question to ask given Biden's repeated gaffes and while Palin has stumbled during recent television interviews, it is Biden whose comments have drawn "He said what?" responses.

The most recent Biden gaffe came when he said that when the Depression occurred (in 1929), President Franklin Roosevelt went on television and reassured the nation. Herbert Hoover was president in 1929; commercial television was, at that time, unknown to the nation. The mainstream media, however, have given Biden a pass on this gigantic gaffe and instead focused on Palin.

Writing on the National Post, Sheldon Alberts reported, "In recent days, Biden has claimed it was the “patriotic” duty of wealthy Americans to pay higher taxes, urged a wheelchair-bound man to 'stand up' at a Democratic rally, and suggested Hillary Clinton 'might have been a better pick than me' as Obama’s running mate.

"But many of those remarks were lost amid the media fascination with Palin."

Those remarks, and others, have prompted what Alberts described as "growing concern" in the Obama camp that Biden will make a campaign-staggering gaffe in the debate with Palin.

A Los Angeles Times columnist wrote of Biden, "And, of course, last summer Biden attempted to endear himself to an Indian American supporter by telling him that in Delaware, 'you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.' Not only was this an offensive line, it didn’t even make any sense: The observation, familiar to anybody who watched a comedian on cable television 15 years ago, is that Indian Americans are the only ones who work in convenience stores, not that they’re the only ones who shop there. The man can’t even keep his condescending cliches straight."

Then there's this, from a New York Times columnist, who wrote that Biden is "a human verbal wrecking crew.

"This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign last year by calling Mr. Obama 'articulate and bright and clean,' and who noted that a person needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin’ Donuts or 7-Eleven in Delaware, his home state.

"The man who, reading his vice-presidential acceptance speech from a teleprompter, bungled Mr. McCain’s name and called him 'George.' ('Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip,' he explained.)

"The man who, on the day Mr. Obama announced him as his running mate, referred to his party’s presidential nominee as 'Barack America' and noted that his wife, Jill Biden, a college professor, was 'drop-dead gorgeous' but, problematically, possessed a doctorate.

"The man who has said he is running for president (not vice president) and who confused Army brigades with battalions. Who referred to Ms. Palin as the lieutenant governor of Alaska.

"Aides to Mr. Obama said that Mr. Biden’s propensity to misspeak could pose problems, particularly in the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 2. They are watching his performance but have not tried to rein him in. They have assigned two veteran minders to travel with him — David Wilhelm, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, and David Wade, a former spokesman for Senator John Kerry."

Key, Reynolds Applaud Bailout Opposition

A pair of state legislators praised congressional lawmakers for opposing a mammoth bailout of financial lenders, saying the plan undermines the free market and public trust.

“My dad always said a good deal today will still be a good deal tomorrow, so I see no reason to rush this bailout plan through Congress without careful review,” said state Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. “As it is now written, the plan will simply incentivize bad business practices and lead to further disruption of our economy.”

“This bailout plan is nothing more than an attempt to protect poorly run businesses from the consequences of bad management decisions using taxpayer money,” said state Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City. “For free markets to work, private businesses must be allowed to succeed or fail based solely on their ability to turn a profit and not their ability to exploit political connections.”

Reynolds and Key said it is “morally indefensible” to force financially responsible Oklahoma businesses and families to foot the bill for national lenders “who couldn’t pass an economics 101 class.”

Lucas Opposes Bailout Bill

Congressman Frank Lucas said today he opposed the bailout bill because, “I am concerned about the current state of our financial system. However, the constituents of the Third Congressional District spoke loud and clear over the last week in opposition to the proposed rescue plan, and I am here to represent their voice in Congress. I await the development of other proposals to address the crisis our financial markets are facing.”

Fallin Explains 'No' Vote On Bailout Bill

Congresswoman Mary Fallin today issued the following statement concerning her vote against the economic bailout plan:

“Like all Americans, I am extremely concerned with the present state of the economy. I believe government action is needed to stabilize the financial sector and to protect the economic security of our families and businesses. Today’s bill, however, puts the interests of Wall Street above that of Main Street and rewards bad behavior at taxpayer expense. While I remain optimistic about achieving a legislative agreement in the future, I cannot support the legislation before us today for three fundamental reasons.

“First, it represents a violation of a basic American principle to expect taxpayers – who are not at fault in this crisis – to underwrite the rescue of those who are. A combination of bad lending policies at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, poor oversight of those agencies, equally bad practices on Wall Street and in the financial markets and, in some cases, simple irresponsible greed, caused this mess. It is simply wrong to expect the hard working American taxpayer to pay for it.

“Second, I was elected to work and speak and vote for the people of the Fifth District of Oklahoma. I cannot tell my constituents in good conscience that the plan we saw today, a massively funded and lightly regulated government intrusion into private finance, is going to benefit the people who put me in office and who I am proud to represent.

“Third, this does not need to be the end of the process. We can shore up our financial markets and protect the investments of our citizens while providing a much greater degree of accountability and transparency. I have been working with my colleagues in the House to develop such alternative solutions, and I remain optimistic that a final legislative agreement will be much stronger than the one we saw today.

“I am ready to do what it takes to pass a workable economic recovery plan that protects the savings, retirement and economic security of American taxpayers. I cannot, however, support a ‘bailout’ that takes $700 billion away from Main Street in a bid to protect Wall Street from the consequences of reckless decisions and a culture of greed. Nor will I write a blank check and simply hope that throwing money at our current problems will make them go away.”

Obama, Aides See Landslide Election Win

Barack Obama's senior aides believe he is on course for a landslide election victory over John McCain and will comfortably exceed most current predictions in the race for the White House.

Read the entire story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics.

McCain-Palin Sign Demand Recalls Reagan Campaign

The demand for McCain-Palin yard signs in Oklahoma reminds some veteran Republicans of Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign.

State party officials say they are distributing about 10,000 McCain-Palin signs per week and the supply lasts but a few days.

The campaigns of Senator Jim Inhofe and Congresswoman Mary Fallin also apparently are experiencing a run on their signs and requests for McCain-Palin signs as well.

Rasmussen: Obama Maintains Poll Lead

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%. That's the fourth straight day Obama has been at 50% and the fourth straight day McCain has been at either 44% or 45%.

Chesapeake Employees Flood Roth With Cash

By Mick Hinton And Tom Lindley/Capitol Bureau, Tulsa World ~ Employees of Chesapeake Energy Corp., the state's largest natural gas producer, have sunk more than $100,000 into Jim Roth's bid to retain his seat on the state Corporation Commission, an analysis by the Tulsa World shows.

Story Below: Roth's Seattle Involvement Defending McClendon From Gay Attacks Revealed In Emails

More than 80 Chesapeake employees have contributed at least $1,000 each to the campaign of Roth, a Democrat running against Republican Dana Murphy. Roth sided with Chesapeake in a key vote last October involving construction of a coal-fired power plant.

"I've never had a contributor ask for anything in return and they must know that they would never get it,'' Roth said.

[Aubrey McClendon and Clay Bennett are honorary co-chairmen of Roth's campaign. Roth's website reports, "In a letter mailed to friends by Mr. Bennett and Mr. McClendon they state, 'Moving Oklahoma forward by making it a better place to work and live is a mutual goal. Jim Roth also shares our vision of a pro-growth Oklahoma.' They continue, 'As the Incumbent, he is a leader that demonstrates the vision, integrity and experience necessary for the responsibility of this position.'"]

With five weeks to go before the Nov. 4 election, Roth's fundraising efforts already have set a record for a Corporation Commission race and could reach $1 million before it's over.

A former Oklahoma County commissioner, Roth was appointed to the three-member Corporation Commission by Gov. Brad Henry last year after Denise Bode resigned.

Roth and Murphy, an Edmond lawyer and former administrative law judge for the commission, are vying to fill the remaining two years of Bode's term. Through the Aug. 11 campaign reporting period, Roth had raised $884,143.18 and had $652,805.89 to spend. Murphy had raised $324,307.30 through the same period but only reported a balance of $60,965 after winning a Republican Party primary battle against Rob Johnson of Kingfisher.

Roth's campaign has received maximum $5,000 contributions from a number of prominent Democrats and Republicans, including Tulsa oilman George Kaiser; Clay Bennett, chairman of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA franchise; Enid oilman Harold Hamm; Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor; former University of Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer; and oilman Boone Pickens.

Other Tulsans who have given $5,000 contributions to Roth's campaign are David Chernicky, George Krumme, Janet McGehee, Robert Price, Stuart Price, Joe Robson and Stacy Schusterman.

So far, 104 Chesapeake employees have contributed $100,675, including 82 who have given Roth $1,000 each, often on the same day, according to reports filed with the state Ethics Commission.

Aubrey McClendon, chairman and CEO of Chesapeake, gave a maximum contribution of $5,000, as did Energy for Oklahomans, a political action committee for the company.

Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Chesapeake is Oklahoma's largest natural gas producer and the third-largest overall producer of natural gas in the United States.

Last year, McClendon led a campaign against the proposed Red Rock coal-fired power plant. Two of the state's largest utilities, American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., wanted to build the plant. Roth and Commissioner Jeff Cloud voted to deny pre-approval of the plant, which effectively stopped the project. Roth said the Red Rock debate was not about which fuel should be used to generate electricity. Rather, he said, it was about whether ratepayers should be asked to pay for the costs of the plant before it was put into operation.

"When I stood up to the utilities and said no to their $2 billion plan and advocated using Oklahoma fuel for Oklahomans, I'm sure that it did attract support of employees and businesses here in Oklahoma because they know I'm working for Oklahoma," Roth said.

State and federal law prohibits corporations from contributing to candidates, although individual employees can, as long as they are not coerced into giving and their giving is not carried out by the corporation itself.

Marilyn Hughes, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said that when employers start specifying amounts and to whom, it might appear that an employee's job is dependent on making a contribution.

"I do think that giving the exact amount, giving it on the same day to the same candidate would be facts that would have to be considered to determine whether there was coercion," she said.

Tom Price, Chesapeake's vice president of communications, said Thursday that his corporation is careful to follow the law regarding campaign giving: "I am extraordinarily proud of the fact that our employees get involved in the political process," he said.

Price said it was the perspective of many Chesapeake employees that Murphy had not been fair in her rulings as an administrative law judge at the Corporation Commission. In response, Murphy asked: "What do people from the financial department and human relations know about me?"

Price also said Chesapeake employees supported Cloud in his 2002 race against Murphy. In 2002, Cloud received $37,800 from Chesapeake employees, campaign reports filed with the state Ethics Commission show. Cloud has received $12,500 from Chesapeake employees so far this year.

Price said he finds Roth to be "an analytical and sophisticated decision maker who works as hard as any public official that I have ever had engagement with."

Roth and Murphy are involved in a hard-fought race dominated by contributions from donors associated with the oil and gas industry, which is regulated by the commission along with public utilities, telephone companies and interstate transportation. The regulated industries are traditionally among the largest donors in previous commission races.

Roth said he has strong support from people all across Oklahoma in every type of job because he "has been working very hard for a year and a half to serve Oklahoma." He said he is building a large campaign fund because "the work is important and a positive message always costs more in a tough political environment."

Murphy said her grassroots campaign features contributors chiefly from independent oil and gas producers who often have five or fewer employees. "I think it is fascinating that my opponent says he is a consumer advocate when it appears the majority of his money comes from the wealthy," she said.

Roth's Seattle Involvement Defending McClendon In Gay Community Revealed In Emails

Excerpted From An Article By Jim Brunner/Seattle Times ~ Despite (Aubrey)McClendon's repeated denials that relocation (of the Sonics to Oklahoma City) was always the plan, two additional potentially damaging e-mails were revealed in a transcript of his deposition released Friday.

In early 2007, McClendon predicted that a controversy over his contributions to an anti-gay marriage group would improve the chances of the Sonics moving to Oklahoma City. Later that year, McClendon apologized to principal Sonics owner Clay Bennett for telling an Oklahoma newspaper he'd always intended to move the Sonics. But McClendon added, "the truth is we did buy it with the hope of moving to Oklahoma City," according to a copy of his e-mail read aloud during the deposition.

While no major revelations emerged during his deposition, McClendon was asked about two e-mails that previously have not been disclosed in court filings.

The first e-mail came early last year, after controversy erupted in Seattle over large political contributions made in 2004 by McClendon and (Tom) Ward to an anti-gay marriage political committee. News of the pair's political leanings didn't sit well in the Democrat-controlled Washington Legislature, which was then considering whether to fund the Sonics' Renton arena proposal.

Jim Roth, an openly gay politician in Oklahoma, offered to contact Seattle media to defend McClendon against accusations of being anti-gay.

McClendon encouraged that effort, but told Roth in an e-mail: "The reality is it just improves OKC's chances of getting them [the Sonics] here year after next." Roth responded: "Yes, and then we all win."

Asked about that exchange, McClendon said he had been discouraged by "personal character attacks on me" and didn't think that Roth's efforts would make a difference.

Rasmussen: Obama By Six Over McCain

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. This six-point advantage matches Obama's biggest lead yet. Obama is now viewed favorably by 56% of voters, McCain by 54%.

Morris: McCain's Brilliant Bailout Strategy

By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann ~ (John) McCain has transformed a minority in both houses of Congress and a losing position in the polls into the key role in the bailout package, the main man around whom the final package will take shape.

Pundit Argues That McCain's 'Bold Move' Is About To Pay Off

He arrived in Washington to find the Democrats working with the Bush administration to pass an unpopular $700 billion bailout. The Democrats had already cut their deal with Bush. They agreed to the price tag while Bush agreed to special aid to families facing foreclosure, equity for the taxpayers, and limits on executive compensation. But no sooner had McCain arrived than he derailed the deal.

Knowing how unpopular the bailout is with the American people, the Democrats are not about to pass anything without broad Republican support even though their majorities permit them to act alone. Instead of signing on with the Democratic/Bush package, the House Republicans are insisting on replacing the purchase of corporate debt with loans to companies and insurance paid for by the companies, not by the taxpayers.

That, of course, is a popular position. McCain would be comfortable to debate this issue division all day. And, if the Democrats don't cave in to the Republican position, that's probably exactly what he'll do on Friday night's scheduled debate in Mississippi.

But the Democrats are not about to be stubborn. They know their package is a lemon and need the political cover of Republican support. So the Republicans can write their own ticket — and they will. John McCain will be at the center of the emerging compromise while Obama is out on the campaign trail kissing babies.

If the deal is cut before Friday's debate, my bet is that McCain shows up in triumph. If it isn't, he shows up anyway and flagellates Obama over the differences between the Democratic package and McCain's.

By Monday, at the latest, the Democrats have to cave in and pass the Republican version. They don't dare pass their own without GOP support, so they will have to acquiesce to the Republican version.

Then McCain comes out of the process as the hero who made it happen when the president couldn't and Obama wouldn't. He becomes the bailout expert. And, of course, the bailout will work.

With the feds standing behind the bad debt, whether by purchase or loans and insurance, Wall Street will breathe a sigh of relief. Bears won't dare bet against the economy with the entire weight of the federal government on the other side. They may be bears but they are not rabid.

Finally, McCain, as the reigning expert on bailouts, then can take the tax issue to Obama, saying that a tax increase, such as the Democrat is pushing, would destroy the bailout, ruin the economy, and trigger a collapse.

This bold move by McCain is about to work. Big time.

Dan Boren Honored By NFIB

Congressman Dan Boren has been presented with a “Guardian of Small Business” award from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

NFIB, the nation’s leading small-business association, awarded Boren the honor for his voting record on behalf of America’s small-business owners in the 110th Congress.

Boren was one of only twelve Democrats in the U.S. House to receive the award, and with a rating of 90 is the highest-rated Democrat in the House.

Sooner Survey: GOP Appears Likely To Take Control Of State Senate As Candidates Lead In Key Races

The latest edition of the Sooner Survey predicts Republicans easily will take control of the State Senate in this fall's elections. The historic change will come, in part, because of the weakness at the top of the Democratic ticket this year, said the survey's director, Pat McFerron.

The survey measured support in five key Senate races and found Republicans leading in all five.

Writes McFerron: "Recent polling in the five most discussed state senate races in the state reveals that Republicans are well on their way to winning control of the state senate for the first time in history. If the elections were held today, Republicans would not only easily retain the three currently held Republican seats in play, but would also win the Democrat-held open seat in Stillwater, as well as defeat incumbent Democrat Nancy Riley in Tulsa. All totaled, Republicans look well on their way not just to a narrow lead in the composition of the State Senate, but to at least a four-vote margin."

Senate District 15 (Norman area): Republican incumbent Jonathan Nichols, 48%, Democrat Diane Drum, 25%.

Senate District 31 (Lawton / SW): Don Barrington, the incumbent Republican, 58%, Democrat Keith Erwin, 24%.

Senate District 21 (Stillwater area): Republican Jim Halligan, 50%, Democrat Bob Murphy, 30%.

Senate District 37 (South Tulsa/Sand Springs): Republican Dan Newberry, 38%, incumbent Democrat Nancy Riley, 32%, Undecided, 31%.

Senate District 27 (Panhandle / NW): Republican Bryce Marlatt, 57%, Democrat Bowdy Peach, 17%.

Jones Cites Roth's 'Pure campaign propaganda'

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones today chastised appointed Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth for turning a recent case before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission into pure campaign propaganda in order to present himself as a "'White Knight' riding in to save Oklahoma ratepayers from those 'Evil Other Commissioners and Commission Staffers,' whom Roth described as 'rubber stamps for special interests.'

"The problem is that Jim Roth’s comments are long on political rhetoric and short on facts. Calling an agency like the Commission a rubber stamp infers that as a whole, it is in the pocket of some special interest," Jones said. "One has to wonder what special interests that he is referring to, as his own campaign seems to be very familiar with special interests.

"Jim Roth's statement has the fingerprints of chief political advisor Pat Hall all over it. When Hall is not acting as Roth's political advisor, he is a lobbyist for the very companies Roth regulates," Jones continued. "Roth's rather lengthy statement appears to satisfy Hall's clients, both political and corporate.

"Who is Jim Roth to question the integrity of other Commissioners like Bob Anthony, a true champion for all Oklahoma citizens? For Roth to imply that Jeff Cloud, Denise Bode, Ed Apple and Cody Graves did not properly represent Oklahoma citizens is an insult to those Commissioners and the employees of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as a whole," Jones concluded.

Cleta Mitchell Battles Obama Over NRA Ads

Former Oklahoma House member Cleta (Deatherage) Mitchell is in the middle of a battle between Barack Obama and radio and television stations airing anti-Obama commercials placed by the National Rifle Association.

Mitchell, who as a Norman Democrat in the State House once chaired the powerful appropriations committee, moved to Washington to practice law years ago. She now represents the NRA and is on the organization's board of directors.

The Obama campaign has written radio and television stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, pressing them to refuse to air the NRA commercial.

"This advertisement knowingly misleads your viewing audience about Senator Obama's position on the Second Amendment," says the letter from Obama general counsel Bob Bauer. "For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement."

The ad, "Hunter," compares Obama's anti-gun stances of the 1990s with his current, more pro-gun, stand, and was chided for inaccuracy in The Washington Post (which has long criticized and belittled the NRA), an item to which Bauer's letter refers.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam, who provided the letter, said it shows clear evidence that the ads are "hurting him," and stood by their substance. He also provided a copy of the NRA's own letter to the stations from Mitchell and a memo disputing The Post story. He also said the radio ad is running only in Pennsylvania at the moment.

'Dr. No' Says Andrew Rice Clueless

Oklahoma Victory 2008 today released the following statement from Senator Tom Coburn in response to U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Rice’s attacks on Senator Jim Inhofe and Rice’s attempts to align himself with Senator Coburn’s leadership:

“Andrew Rice has neither the experience nor the ideas to address our nation’s financial crisis. Nor does he have any basis for associating his liberal agenda with my record of limiting the growth of government. His attempt to associate his agenda with mine in the context of a partisan attack against Jim Inhofe is personally offensive to me and an affront to Oklahoma voters,” Coburn said.

“Senator Jim Inhofe, unlike Andrew Rice, has a record of keeping taxes low and government limited. Had Washington politicians followed Jim Inhofe’s conservative philosophy we would be in much more secure position today. Andrew Rice, on the other hand, would empower Senate liberals who want to increase taxes, orchestrate a government takeover of health care and pass on crushing debt to future generations,” Coburn said.

“Finally, it’s absurd that Andrew Rice now wants to associate his views with mine when he actively worked to elect Brad Carson in 2004. In fact, Rice was part of Carson’s left-wing political base and was offended that Carson wouldn’t proudly identify himself as a liberal. Rice was a liberal then and he’s a liberal now. He should campaign on his true convictions, not try to hide his views behind baseless partisan attacks,” Coburn said.

Matt Thompson Named To New OIPA Post

Matt Thompson has been named vice president of governmental affairs for the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA).

Thompson has been vice president of business development for the OIPA. Previously, he was director of corporate affairs for Diamondback Energy Services.

Thompson is an Ada native. He replaces Bruce Stallsworth in his new position.

Zogby: McCain Up By 2% Over Obama

The very latest poll numbers from John Zogby put John McCain squarely ahead of Barack Obama at 46 percent to 44 percent, respectively.

McCain moved from three percentage points behind Obama to two points ahead of the Democrat in less than a week.

One possible reason for the boost — McCain’s decision to forego politics as usual to focus on the current financial meltdown. The polling was conducted after McCain’s announcement that he would suspend his campaign.

Independent voters played a key role in the latest figures: McCain now leads with independents by nine points, 43 percent to 34 percent.

The survey was conducted on Sept. 23-25, 2008, with 4,752 likely voters and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

Rasmussen: Obama Takes 5% Lead

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%. This is Obama's biggest lead since his convention bounce peaked with a six-point advantage.

Worth More Than A Thousand Words....

NFIB Honors Inhofe As 'Guardian'

The National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB) today awarded Senator Jim Inhofe a “Guardian of Small Business Award” for continued support of America’s small business owners. Inhofe has been recognized as a “Guardian of Small Business” in every Congress since being elected to the U.S. Senate.

Wilbanks To Head Teachers' Retirement System

James Wilbanks has been named executive director of the Teachers' Retirement System. He succeeds Tommy Beavers, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Wilbanks is now director of revenue and fiscal policy in Treasurer Scott Meacham's office, a post he's held since 2005.

Ethics Commission Raps McMahan's Knuckles

The Ethics Commission issued a "public reprimand" today against former Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan for soliciting a campaign donation from an employee in his office.

The employee, Martha Grubb, is one of the dozens of McMahan employees identified by The McCarville Report Online in 2006 as donors to his campaign.

McMahan was convicted in June on three counts of conspiracy and accepting public bribes.

The Ethics Commission said that on July 14, 2005, McMahan sent the letter in violation of an ethics rule which states than an elective officer shall not knowingly solicit, directly or indirectly, a campaign contribution from an employee.

The reprimand does not carry a fine or any other punishment except for the issuance of a letter from the Ethics Commission.

Benge Backs Clingman On Felon Voting

House Speaker Chris Benge said today he agrees with a state Election Board official that former felons cannot register to vote until their full sentence has expired.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently said that former Oklahoma felons should be able to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election if they are no longer incarcerated, have completed any probation or parole requirements and are no longer under the supervision of the prison system.

But, Election Board Secretary Michael Clingman said he believes the law forbids former felons from registering to vote until the length of their original sentence has ended, even if they do not serve the entire time.

Benge said he supports Clingman’s interpretation of the law.

“It is vital that we ensure our laws are properly interpreted and strictly followed,” said Benge. “When a sentence is handed down by our court system, we need to respect that amount of time, regardless of whether the criminal spends it all in jail or not.”

State law says “Persons convicted of a felony shall be ineligible to register for a period of time equal to the time prescribed in the judgment and sentence.”

Inhofe Questions Federal Bailout Plan

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) today said the American people deserve answers to the growing number of questions regarding the Treasury Department bailout plan. Before Congress hands over a blank check to the Secretary of Treasury, Congress must ensure any proposal includes accountability, transparency, and Congressional oversight.

“First off, America faces unprecedented financial challenges,” Inhofe said. “I am greatly concerned about the significant problems in our financial and banking sectors, and what those problems might mean for our economy in the coming years. However, following my meetings with Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, reviewing the Administration’s proposal, speaking to constituents in Oklahoma, and reviewing the proposals from members of Congress, I am currently convinced that this hastily-crafted $700 billion bailout lacks the details necessary to provide me with confidence that this plan will do anything more than the bailouts Congress has already enacted. Historically, massive federal interventions do not have a successful track record, and I’m skeptical that this will do more good than harm.

“As our economy began to experience trouble some months ago, Washington’s first reaction was bailouts. We’ve had a $300 billion mortgage bailout and the $200 billion Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout, to name just two. I opposed these measures. As was the case then, I am not convinced that the solution to our problems is to place the burden on taxpayers by imposing massive debt on them.

“Beyond concerns about how this approach impacts taxpayers, with each passing day more and more questions are being raised about how Secretary Paulson’s plan will actually work. Questions are being raised, as yet unanswered, about the mechanics of the program and who would be making these enormous decisions with taxpayer largesse. I simply cannot support providing a blank check to the Secretary of the Treasury. The massive proposed bailout is being rushed through Congress and there is no question this plan would punish the American taxpayer by forcing them to pay the price for the poor decisions made by large investment firms. Supporters of this program admit as much. As a fiscal conservative, it is my belief that this approach is not the answer to our problems.

“Rather than rushing a proposal through Congress so Members can leave town by the end of the week, Congress should focus on protecting taxpayers and seeking viable alternatives to address the financial crises.”

Media Campaigns Hard For Obama

By Tony Blankley/Washington Times ~ The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight-out propagandists for the Obama campaign.

While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08, for the first time, the major media consciously are covering for one candidate for president and consciously are knifing the other.

This is no longer journalism; it is simply propaganda. (The American left-wing version of the Völkischer Beobachter cannot be far behind.)

And as a result, we are less than seven weeks away from possibly electing a president who has not been thoroughly or even halfway honestly presented to the country by our watchdogs -- the press.

The image of Obama that the press has presented to the public is not a fair approximation of the real man. They consciously have ignored whole years of his life and have shown a lack of curiosity about such gaps, which bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct.

Read the entire column at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/the_man_who_never_was.html.

Poll: Obama Takes Clear Lead Over McCain

From The Washington Post ~ Turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Democratic nominee Barack Obama the first clear lead of the general-election campaign over Republican John McCain, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll.

Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.

More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support.

The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

New Poll: McCain Up 40, Inhofe Up 22

A new TvPoll for KWTV-Channel 9 finds the John McCain-Sarah Palin Republican team with a 40 percent lead over Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The poll also found incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe maintaining a huge lead, almost 22 percent, over liberal Democrat Andrew Rice.

Cheney "A black cloud," Says Keating

Former Governor Frank Keating says in a new book that he thinks Vice President Dick Cheney leaked news of a cash gift from a retired New York financier to Keating's family.

The fallout from the leak could have played a role in Keating not being named as U.S. attorney general in 2001, when President Bush took office, the Tulsa World reported from its Washington Bureau.

Keating apparently never before had blamed Cheney for the leak, but did so in Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, a book written by Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman.

"It obviously came from Dick Cheney or one of his people," Keating said in the book.

"It was gratuitous, and it was petty, and it appeared vindictive to me, and it was utterly beneath the dignity of a person of Cheney's achievement. I mean, Dick Cheney coming into my life has been like a black cloud."

Joe Biden's Strange Disease: Foot/Mouth

From Politico ~ Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.

He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

As Reason's Jesse Walker footnotes it: "And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'"

Obama Struggles To Win Clinton Voters

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama's support from backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton is stuck smack where it was in June, a poll showed Tuesday, a stunning lack of progress that is weakening him with members of the Democratic Party in the close presidential race.

An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll shows that among adults who backed his rival during their bitter primary campaign, 58 percent now support Obama. That is the same percentage who said so in June, when Clinton ended her bid and urged her backers to line up behind the Democratic senator from Illinois.

The poll shows that while Obama has gained ground among Clinton's supporters - 69 percent view him favorably now, up 9 percentage points from June - this has yet to translate into more of their support.

In part, this is because their positive views of Republican presidential nominee John McCain have also improved during this period.

Those supporting McCain have also edged up from 21 percent to 28 percent, with the number of undecided staying constant, the survey showed.

Rasmussen Polls Around The Country

From Rasmussen Reports:

Florida: McCain Still Ahead by Five

Ohio: McCain 50%, Obama 46%

In Michigan, Obama 51% McCain 44%

Pennsylvania: Obama Holds Three-Point Advantage Over McCain

McCain Ahead Again in Virginia, 50% to 48%

Daily Kos To Rice: Bad News

The Daily Kos, liberal blog that a few months ago touted Democrat Andrew Rice as the liberal who could defeat incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, seems inclined today to throw in the towel.

"Bad news" is how the blog refers to its own poll data, which shows Rice lagging far behind Inhofe. Rice got just 34 percent in the poll, which put Inhofe at 56 percent. The results seem to mirror other recent polls.

In the presidential race, the Daily Kos pollsters found the McCain-Palin ticket at 59 percent, the Obama-Biden ticket at 36 percent.

McCain Leads (Barely) In Three Key States

From AOLNews.com ~ John McCain holds a razor-thin one-point lead in Florida, ahead of Barack Obama's 47-46 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls.

The Republican presidential nominee held a healthier margin there for most of the summer, but Obama has aggressively targeted Sunshine State voters on the airwaves, topping McCain by a margin of more than eight to one when it comes to ad spending.

Florida has 27 electoral votes at stake.

McCain also leads by a one-point margin in Ohio, up 47-46 percent. No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes at stake.

The Ohio poll of polls consists of three surveys: Big Ten Battleground (Sept. 14-17), CNN/Time/ORC (Sept. 14-16), and Ohio Newspaper Poll/University of Cincinnati (Sept. 12-16).

The Florida poll of polls consists of four surveys: ARG (September 14-17), CNN/Time/ORC (September 14-16), Research 2000 (September 15-18), and Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 (September 14-17).

In Missouri, a battleground with 11 electoral votes up for grabs, McCain leads Obama by four points, 49-45 percent, according to a Research 2000 poll released Sunday.

Rasmussen: Inhofe Cruising To Reelection

Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe is cruising towards re-election in November.

The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the U.S. Senate race finds the incumbent leading Democratic challenger Andrew Rice 55% to 39%.

Inhofe has served in the Senate for the last fourteen years and serves on the Committee on Armed Serves and Environment and Public Works. Rice is currently serving in the state’s senate.

Inhofe has a dominate 65% to 29% lead among unaffiliated voters in Oklahoma. While he leads 62% to 34% among men, he has just a 49% to 45% edge among women.

The incumbent is viewed favorably by 59% and unfavorably by 34%. Rice is still much less known to voters. The challenger is viewed favorably by 45%, unfavorably by 38%, and 18% have no opinion of him.

In Rural America, It's McCain And Palin

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ~ Republican presidential nominee John McCain leads Democratic rival Barack Obama by 10 percentage points, 51 percent to 41 percent, among rural voters in 13 pivotal states, a poll released on Monday shows.

Rural voters, who tend to be social and fiscal conservatives, strongly preferred McCain over Obama on taxes and the war in Iraq. The two men are tied statistically on the economy, which respondents said was their No. 1 issue.

The poll questioned 742 likely voters Tuesday through Thursday in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Nearly one-fifth of Americans live in rural areas.

By a 2-to-1 margin, rural voters said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, "represents the values of rural communities." Fifty percent said her nomination made them more likely to vote for McCain.

California Is Obama's, But...

From Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle ~ Post-convention swing state polls are tipping toward Sen. John McCain, the TV pundits are waxing about "The Palin Factor," and Sen. Barack Obama's California supporters are freaking out about a race Democrats were uncommonly confident about only a month ago.

Conversely, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's addition to the GOP ticket jolted Northern California Republicans out of what one described as their "Underground Railroad" existence in one of the nation's most liberal regions.

Ever since her speech to the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3, party officials say volunteers have been contacting California GOP offices in numbers unseen since Ronald Reagan was on the ballot for the White House.

Despite generating all this fear and enthusiasm, the Palin Factor hasn't changed the race in California. Obama beats McCain 52 percent to 36 percent in a Field Poll released last week....

Washington Post Attacks Todd Palin

By P.J. Gladnick/Newsbusters ~ Does anybody remember Bill Clinton boasting in 1992 that a vote for him means "buy one, get one free?" Of course, he was referring to the fact that by electing him, you would also get Hillary as a virtual co-president. No big outrage in the liberal media back then about a spouse being too involved in the political affairs of her husband.

However, The Washington Post has now taken the involvement of Todd Palin in Alaska civic affairs to suggest that perhaps he is some sort of Machiavellian power behind the throne.

Unfortunately for their premise, the facts dug up by Washington Post writers, Alec MacGillis and Karl Vick, actually shows Todd Palin to be an upstanding citizen with very limited involvement in political affairs. In fact, the criticisms of the "First Dude" in their article are so lame as to be laughable.

Palin Draws 60,000 At Florida Rally

The Villages, Florida ~ Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters in a crowd estimated by local officials at 60,000 that John McCain is "the only great man in this race" and promised Sunday he will fix the nation's economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

"He won't say this, so I'll say it for him," the Alaska governor said in an almost confidential tone at the close of her first Florida stump speech. "There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you. John McCain wore the uniform of his country for 22 years -- talk about tough."

The Villages, a vast, upscale planned community north of Orlando, has about 70,000 mostly adult residents -- many of them military retirees -- who vote reliably Republican in statewide races.

Tens of thousands inched along roads into the picturesque town square of the complex, where they stood in sweltering heat for about four hours as local GOP officials and a country band revved up the crowd.

"Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!" they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed -- along with free water bottles -- by local volunteers.

The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000.

Admiring throngs mobbed the Palin family's arrival and departure, snapping souvenir pictures. Autograph seekers thrust campaign signs, caps with the McCain-Palin logo and copies of magazines with her face on their covers, and the Palins responded warmly.

Oklahoma, Alabama Best McCain-Palin States?

Oklahoma and Alabama appear poised to deliver the highest percentage of the November vote for Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Polls in both states show the Republican ticket with huge leads over Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

In Alabama, polls consistently have shown McCain-Palin with a 25-30 percent lead over Obama-Biden. In Oklahoma, polls show the GOP team up by 33-38 percent.

Fannie Mae Chief Gave Obama $126,000

By Warner Todd Huston On Newsbuster.org ~ In a 2005 video Daniel Mudd, at the time the interim CEO of the catastrophically failed mortgage lender Fannie Mae, affirmed his fealty and that of Fannie Mae to the Congressional Black Caucus. The top three campaign donation recipients were Democrats, number two of which was Barack Obama, yet the media is laying mum on these facts. One wonders what would be going on in the media if John McCain were a top recipient of campaign donations from a market crashing, government bail-out getting organization like Fannie Mae?

The three top campaign donation recipients from Fannie Mae were all Democrats. Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) got $165,000, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was given $126,349, and failed presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-MA) took $111,000 from the folks at Fannie Mae. Is this information getting out there?

Shooting Sports Foundation Targets Obama

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has joined other pro-2nd Amendment groups in criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his running mate, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

The NSSF has launched an ad campaign that says, "Barack Obama has supported a total ban on handguns, a ban on the sale or transfer of all semi-auto firearms, a ban on right-to-carry permits, (and) a ban on firearms kept in the home."

The first ad appears in the October issue of Guns & Ammo magazine.

AP Poll: Racial 'Misgivings' Could Cost Obama

From The Associated Press ~ Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks—many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004—about 2.5 percentage points.

Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

NRA: Obama Most Anti-Gun Candidate Ever

From NRA-ILA ~ In an appearance in Nevada, anti-gun presidential candidate Barack Obama told his followers: "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said.

"And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.'" (http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8999386&nav=168XYT17).

Barack Obama has gone beyond lying about his long anti-gun record. Now he is inciting his followers to lie for him and to be aggressive and confrontational with anyone who will not buy his lies.

The truth must scare Obama, and the truth is, Barack Obama is the most anti-gun candidate who has ever run on a major party ticket in American history. Don't buy Obama's lies. Or the lies repeated by his misguided followers.

McAlester Blog Battle Moves To Kay County

By Susan Hylton/Tulsa World ~ The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office has appointed the Kay County District Attorney's Office to handle a Pittsburg County case in which its district attorney accuses a Web site operator of libel.

Pittsburg County District Attorney Jim Bob Miller recused himself from the case after making a complaint with the McAlester Police Department against the Watercooler Web site's operator, Harold King.

Some of the comments have accused Miller of being involved in drug-dealing and other corruption and criticized his prosecutorial decisions.

Kay County, which borders Kansas, and its county seat, Newkirk, are far from Pittsburg County, in southeastern Oklahoma. Kay County District Attorney Mark Gibson said he knows nothing about the case and that more than likely he would be handling it personally. "I've been to McAlester twice in my life," he said.

Gibson also will look at complaints filed by Wayne Stipe and his mother, Billie Jean Stipe, the widow of businessman Francis Stipe, who accuse King of slander and "imputing unchastity to females."

A recent blog post on the site suggested that Francis Stipe's brother, former state Sen. Gene Stipe, actually fathered Wayne Stipe.

Gibson also will consider whether to file assault charges against Wayne Stipe for allegedly punching King in the mouth outside a McAlester grocery store Aug. 9.

King filed a complaint against Miller for allegedly filing a false instrument in connection with a subpoena he received demanding that he provide police with the identities of 35 posters on the Web site. King said Miller's subpoena was invalid because no issuing authority was identified in the paperwork.

King also filed a complaint against Wayne Stipe and Billie Jean Stipe for allegedly filing a false police report. Richard Hull, the first assistant district attorney for Pittsburg County, considers King's complaints to be retaliatory, according to a letter he signed to the attorney general asking that Miller be removed from the case.

RNC Corrects Oklahoma Delegate Vote

The Republican National Convention's official tally of Oklahoma's 41 votes has been changed to show 39 for John McCain and 2 for Ron Paul, State Chairman Gary Jones was notified today.

An RNC official told Jones of the change, prompted by the earlier erroneous listing of all 41 delegate votes for McCain.

Henry Seeks Flooding Disaster Declaration

Governor Henry today requested a major disaster declaration for five counties in Northern Oklahoma as a result of severe storms and flooding that have occurred in the past week.

The request asks President Bush to approve federal assistance for individuals and business owners in Alfalfa, Grant, Kay, Major and Woods counties.

Nearly 200 homes and businesses in and around Blackwell, Burlington, Capron, Dacoma, Fairview, Jefferson, Nash, Pond Creek and Tonkawa sustained damage after Tropical Depression Lowell delivered record rainfall to parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. More counties may be added to the request as additional damage assessments are completed.

Lucas Due On Fox With Cavuto Tonight

Congressman Frank Lucas will appear on FOX Business as a guest of Neil Cavuto this evening to discuss the recent turmoil in the financial markets and the steps Congress and the federal government plan to take to correct the problems. The program begins at 6:00pm EDT. Lucas will appear at approximately 6:15pm.

Gallup, Pew Find Top Race Tight Again

THE POLL: Gallup Poll Daily tracking, national presidential race among registered voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 48 percent, John McCain 44 percent

OF INTEREST: According to this poll, voters' views of the race have returned to about where they were for much of the summer, when Obama generally had a modest but consistent lead over McCain. The Republican caught Obama as the GOP convention ended in early September and McCain's lead in this survey reached as high as 5 percentage points. Obama, though, has regained a slender advantage.

DETAILS: Conducted Sept. 15-17 by landline and cellular telephone with 2,815 registered voters. Sampling error margin plus or minus 2 percentage points.

THE POLL: Pew Research Center, national presidential race among registered voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 46 percent, John McCain 44 percent

OF INTEREST: This poll, now showing an even contest, has changed little over the summer. Narrowed to likely voters, each candidate gets an even tighter 46 percent. Republicans are more excited than before the party conventions of late August and early September, though Obama's remain slightly more energized. McCain has cut Obama's edge for being more trusted on the economy _ voters' top issue _ from 15 percentage points in July to 9 points. People are still split about evenly over whether they think the Republican's policies will differ from those of the unpopular President Bush. Obama is still viewed as likelier than McCain to bring change to Washington.

DETAILS: Conducted Sept. 9-14 by landline and cellular telephone with 2,509 registered voters. Sampling error margin plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Prater Says He 'Resents' Holmes Suggestion

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the Tulsa World today he doesn't appreciate an attempt by Democratic Party Chairman Ivan Holmes to "pull" his office into the Lance Cargill controversy.

“I resent the fact that it appears the Oklahoma Democratic Party is attempting to pull my office into a partisan fight,” Prater said, noting that Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office has already reviewed the issue and decided no further action is warranted.

Holmes today asked Prater, a Democrat, to look into the Cargill fundraising controversy, that drew Cargill an Ethics Commission reprimand for irregularities in donations intended for the Oklahoma Republican Party that instead went to other entities.

Coffee Joins Call For Probe Into Donations

Republican Senate leader Glenn Coffee today joined Republican State Chairman Gary Jones in calling for an investigation into donations that go "well beyond moral and legal limits."

Said Coffee: "The evidence presented today by Chairman Gary Jones shows a disturbing lack of regard for the spirit and the letter of Oklahoma Ethics rules and campaign law. The 18 PACs that were formed -- several within hours of the June 30 deadline for PAC-to-PAC contributions -- and received maximum donations from the Working Oklahomans Alliance PAC just prior to that deadline, are evidence of a clearly orchestrated effort on the part of a significant and affluent segment of the opposing party's campaign apparatus to assert influence on the election process that goes well beyond moral and legal limits.

"This is a very complicated matter. When one starts peeling back more layers of this onion, this thing could smell even worse.

"Considering the slow pace of justice, I trust that the appropriate authorities -- both at the state and federal levels -- will not let this matter fester, and will launch immediate investigations into this egregious breach of the public trust."

Jones Seeks Ethics Panel Probe, Says 18 PACs Used To Funnel Workers Comp Donations

From The Oklahoma Republican Party ~ Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones said today that it’s time to quit playing politics with the issue of campaign ethics violations in Oklahoma and called on Oklahoma Democrat Chairman Ivan Holmes to join him in putting a stop to illegal contributions and ensure that no Oklahoma elections are determined with the use of illegal or unethical contributions.

“Several months ago I asked Chairman Holmes to join with me for the purpose of making Oklahoma elections fair and equitable,” Jones said. “If Chairman Holmes truly wants fair elections he will work together to help put a stop to the sleazy politics that have plagued our state’s past.

“In 2002 I had an election stolen from me with over $150,000 in illegal contributions to my opponent. It wasn’t until after the 2006 rematch that the majority of my opponent’s contributions were confirmed as improper,” Jones said. “I don’t want to see any other candidate, Democrat or Republican, have an election stolen as a result of illegal funding.

“Chairman Holmes stated he has concerns that he wants looked at. I, too, have concerns,” Jones continued.

“Let’s both just lay our concerns on the table and demand that the rules be followed.”

“Recent on-line reporting and internet access to contribution reports has allowed Oklahoma citizens to view reports and closer scrutinize those contributions,” Jones explained. “It was that access that helped make the connections that led to the indictment and conviction of many who violated campaign laws and violated the public trust.

“I am alarmed by the funds received and distributed by the Working Oklahomans Alliance PAC. The funds are collected from injured workers by their workers compensation attorneys; recent articles in the Oklahoman say the contributions could total over $1,000,000 and many supposed contributors say they didn’t know they were making political contributions,” Jones said. “Funds from the Working Oklahomans Alliance have been funneled into at least 18 other political action committees.

“These practices appear to be unethical and possibly criminal as well,” Jones asserted. “It is imperative that the Oklahoma Bar Association investigate this activity and the attorneys involved be held responsible, and possibly disbarred if appropriate.

“I call on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission to immediately open an investigation and a put a stop to this before any candidate gets elected with illegal or unethical funds,” Jones said. “Any candidate who has accepted these funds should immediately dispose of these tainted contributions.

“Recently Attorney General Drew Edmondson made a gift from his campaign funds to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Chairman Holmes has been asking for more funding for the ethics commission. I hope he will join me in asking anyone who has accepted a contribution from anyone tied to this scheme give that as a gift to the Ethics Commission to investigate this and any concerns Holmes or others might have,” Jones concluded.

Ron Kessler: Why The Polls May Be Wrong

By Ron Kessler On Newsmax.com ~ Most polls may be overstating Barack Obama’s support by 5 to 10 percentage points because those surveyed may not be telling the truth about voting for him, ad executive Gabe Joseph III tells Newsmax.

It is possible that, when live callers ask for a respondent’s name, the individual is more likely to say he will vote for Obama, says Joseph, president of ccAdvertising, which conducts polls for a range of candidates and members of Congress. [Some in the industry describe Joseph's firm as "a robocall vendor."] When automated dialers do the polling, respondents are more likely to give an honest answer because they think of the poll as being anonymous.

“I believe the traditional pollsters, when they ask your name, institute a bias,” Joseph says. “We never ask anybody who they are. We do not have to. The only personal identification we obtain comes at the end of the survey when we ask about gender and age.”

The difference is apparent when automated pollster results are compared with traditional polls that ask the individual’s name, he says. In many circles, particularly within the traditional Democrat base, it is politically incorrect to tell a pollster the respondent will not vote for Obama, he says.

“It’s very difficult to ask a question about race and get an accurate answer,” Joseph says. “People are concerned that their name is going to get out. So the only way that we’ve been able to track it, is to actually do surveys where the respondent is not identified before elections, before primaries. If you do one beforehand, you can look at the difference and you see what’s really happening.”

The clearest example of the disparity was in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. The polls showed Obama running ahead of Hillary Clinton by up to 13 points. When the returns came in, Obama had lost by three points to his fellow Democrat.

The phenomenon has been dubbed the Bradley Effect, first identified in a 1982 California gubernatorial election. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley was the supposed front-runner in an open race. Polls showed the African-American Democrat running well ahead of white Republican candidate George Deukmejian. Yet, when the returns came in, Bradley lost by more than 50,000 votes.

To be sure, when it comes to Obama, not every primary election validated the Bradley Effect. But now, in every state ccAdvertising is tracking, Joseph has discerned “a 5-point to 10-point difference” between the number of respondents who say they will vote for Obama when asked anonymously, compared with results when pollsters request their names.

In ccAdvertising’s most recent poll on Sept. 7, the company surveyed 130,000 homes in 13 targeted states. Overall, 48.5 percent of the respondents said they would vote for McCain, compared with 40.2 percent for Obama, a difference of 8.3 percentage points. Of the respondents, 11.3 percent said they had no preference.

The results showed a decrease in support for Obama of 4.9 percent and an increase in support for McCain of 6.3 percent over a previous poll taken before the conventions.

McCain won 11 of the states surveyed with 149 electoral votes: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Obama won two of the states surveyed with 86 electoral votes: California and New York.

What's In Tom Cole's Future?

Congressman Tom Cole's future is discussed in "The Crypt" at www.politico.com today. Among the questions are (1) Will Cole seek a second term as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and (2) Will he become a candidate for governor in 2010?

Read at http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0908/Will_Tom_Cole_run_for_NRCC_again.html.

NRA: Oklahoma Proposal Will Lead Nation

By Darren La Sorte/NRA-ILA Manager of Hunting Policy ~ This past session, legislators in Oklahoma passed legislation by a combined vote of 143-2 allowing Oklahomans to decide whether to adopt a truly meaningful Right-to-Hunt constitutional amendment in November.

Over the last five years, NRA-ILA has been leading the effort to adopt these improved amendments, and it is hoped this success in Oklahoma will lead to a wave of meaningful protections in other states as well.

Read La Sorte's entire article at http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?ID=324.

Hacking E-mail Is A Federal Crime

Excerpted From A Post By Michelle Malkin ~ Sometime early this morning, between approximately 3:00am - 4:00am, members of an infamous group of hackers broke into Gov. Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo e-mail account. The incriminating discussion threads included screenshots of Palin’s e-mail and private e-mail addresses of her contacts. The threads have since been deleted.

Hacking e-mail is a federal crime.

A TV anchor who broke into his colleague’s e-mail account recently pleaded guilty and faces a maximum five years in prison.

The law will catch up to the hackers, but what about the lowlifes who are now gleefully splashing the alleged contents of Palin’s private e-mail account all over the Internet?

The Gawker smear machine — see here for all the background you need — has posted private family photos of Palin’s children that were apparently stolen from the e-mail account.

They have used Bristol Palin’s illegally obtained private cell phone number from her mom’s private account, recorded her voicemail message, and posted it on their website.

They have reprinted her husband Todd’s private e-mail address and son Track’s private e-mail address.

You think this is just a harmless prank? Those of you who have had to deal with break-ins and identity theft know exactly what a burdensome process it is to recover from crimes like this.

Gawker knowingly and deliberately published illegally obtained photos of the Palin children.

Where are the privacy absolutists now?

You think Palin Derangement Syndrome is bad now? These by-any-means-necessary lunatics are just warming up.

Another Veteran's Group Endorses Inhofe

Senator Jim Inhofe has been endorsed for reelection by the nonpartisan group Vets for Freedom. The organization, established by combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, educates the American public about the importance of achieving success in these conflicts by applying first-hand knowledge to issues of American military strategy.

Earlier, Inhofe was endorsed by two other groups of veterans.

Poll Finds McCain-Palin Surge In New Jersey

A new Quinnipiac University Poll conducted in New Jersey shows the race for president there is tightening.

John McCain now trails Barack Obama in New Jersey by 45-48 percent, making the race a virtual tie when the poll's 2.8% margin of error is factored in.

The result represents a seven point swing toward McCain, who trailed Obama by ten percentage points in an August poll from Quinnipiac.

Fallin, Lucas Cite Victory For Gun Owners

Congresswoman Mary Fallin and Congressman Frank Lucas were among those who voted today to restore gun rights to Washington, D.C., requiring the city to comply with the Second Amendment and a recent Supreme Court ruling. The bill they supported, which passed with a bipartisan majority, forces the District of Columbia to eliminate a series of restrictions on gun ownership which have effectively banned handguns within the nation’s capitol.

Fallin called the vote a “victory for gun owners and a victory for the Constitution.” She urged the Senate to take up the bill quickly and for the president to sign it into law.

“Owning a gun for self-defense and sport is one of the fundamental rights enjoyed by all Americans,” said Fallin. “It has been a longstanding outrage that here in our nation’s capitol a web of intrusive regulations and legal hurdles has essentially done away with that right. I am pleased that Congress took action today to restore this basic freedom and guarantee the Constitution and our rights are not trampled.”

Lucas said the measure emphasizes the importance of the 2nd Amendment and upholds the long-standing right of Americans to own firearms.

TvPoll: MSM Draws Negative Perception

The main stream media has lost its credibility if a new TvPoll for KWTV-Channel 9 is to be believed.

Pollsters asked, "Do you have an overall positive or negative perception of main-stream media?"

Only 22.9 percent said positive, while 60.7 percent said negative; 16.4 percent said they don't know or refused to answer.

The results come after nonstop attacks by some in the MSM on Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and controversy over allegations made against her.

Former Rep. Jim Holt Dies At 67

Former State Rep. Jim Holt, Ponca City Republican, is dead at age 67.

Holt died following a 12-year battle with a neurological disease, his daughter said.

Holt served in the House for 22 years and retired in 1996. He flew combat missions in Vietnam and served more than 30 years on active duty and in the Marine Corps Reserves.

Thompson Asks Probe Of Internet Deal

Rep. Mike Thompson has asked Attorney General Drew Edmondson to investigate the proposed Google-Yahoo! deal that would give Google control of over 90 percent of the search advertising market.

Thompson, R-Oklahoma City, said Oklahoma should add its name to the growing number of organizations and states that are investigating the deal. The transaction is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice and has been the subject of hearings in both the United States Senate and House. States as diverse as California, New York, Florida, and Connecticut are currently looking at the deal because of its monopolistic implications and impact on privacy. Last week the Association of National Advertisers, a major trade group that represents companies like Procter & Gamble and General Motors, sent a letter to the DOJ opposing the Google-Yahoo! deal.

Oklahomans Find $150,000 During Fair

From The Treasurer's Office ~ Cash and stock worth more than $150,000 has been found for people attending the Oklahoma State Fair in Oklahoma City, Treasurer Scott Meacham announced Tuesday. The money was found during the fair's first six days by treasurer's staff at the "Pot of Gold" booth in the Cox Pavilion at the fair.

LA Times Columnist Slaps Obama Insult

Excerpted From A Column By Jonah Goldberg/Los Angeles Times ~ One reason McCain is not versed in the mechanical details of sending e-mail and typing on a keyboard is that the North Vietnamese broke his fingers and shattered both of his arms.

As Forbes, Slate and the Boston Globe reported in 2000, McCain's injuries make using a keyboard painfully laborious. He mostly relies on his wife and staff to show him e-mails and websites, though he says he's getting up to speed.

"It's extraordinary," Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said, "that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail."

For the record, President Clinton sent exactly two e-mails while in office, according to the archives in his presidential library.

Besides, by this logic, Obama is even less qualified to be commander in chief because, unlike McCain, Obama has never fired a gun, flown a plane or led men during wartime.

And if the Obama campaign did not intend to mock a disabled veteran, what does it say about his supposedly "cybersavvy" campaign that they don't know how to conduct a five-minute Google search to find out these things?

TvPoll: McCain-Palin By 41, Inhofe By 25

A new TvPoll for KWTV-Channel 9 indicates a Republican sweep of the state this year.

The new poll reinforces earlier polls showing the McCain-Palin Republican ticket trouncing the Obama-Biden Democrat ticket and incumbent Senator Jim Inhofe running far ahead of Democrat Andrew Rice.

In the new poll, McCain-Palin are at 68.8 percent, Obama-Biden at just 27.4 percent.

In the Senate race, Inhofe is at 55.7 percent, Rice at just 30.6 percent.

In one of two Corporation Commission races, Republican Dana Murphy has 45 percent to 32 percent for Democrat incumbent Jim Roth.

Prager: 'The Gibson Doctrine'

By Dennis Prager ~ Sarah Palin's reputation survived her interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson.

The same cannot be said for Charlie Gibson.

On my radio show last week, I twice defended Barack Obama. Once, against those conservatives who took a comment made by Obama in an interview with George Stephanopoulos out of context and suggested that Obama had inadvertently admitted he was a Muslim. And again, when I contended that Obama did not imply that Palin was a pig in his now famous "lipstick on a pig" reference.

I mention this only because I want to assume that people of good will on both sides can still be honest about what transpires politically. And in this instance what transpired was that Gibson intended to humiliate Palin.

It wasn't even subtle. Virtually everything Gibson did and virtually every question he posed was designed to trap, or trick, or demean Gov. Palin. There are views of his face that so reek of contempt that anyone shown photos of his look would immediately identify it as contemptuous.

But one series of questions, in particular, blew any cover of impartiality and revealed Gibson's aim to humiliate Palin.

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you -- what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His worldview?

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

When he asked Palin whether she agreed with the Bush Doctrine without defining it, he gave the game away. He lost any pretense of fairness. Asking the same unanswerable question three times had one purpose -- to humiliate the woman. That was not merely partisan. It was mean.

I couldn't answer it -- and I have been steeped in international affairs since I was a Fellow at the Columbia University School of International Affairs in the 1970s. I have since been to 82 countries, and have lectured in Russian in Russia and in Hebrew in Israel. Most Americans would consider a candidate for national office who had such a resume qualified as regards international relations. Yet I had no clue how to answer Gibson's question.

I had no clue because there is no right answer. There are at least four doctrines that are called "Bush Doctrine," which means that there is no "Bush Doctrine." It is a term bereft of meaning, as became abundantly clear when Gibson finally explained what he was referring to:

GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that -- the right to preemptive attack of a country that was planning an attack on America?

That's the Bush Doctrine? "The right to preemptive attack of a country that was planning an attack on America?"

Isn't that just common sense? What country in history has thought it did not have the right to attack those planning to attack it? I learned the "Bush Doctrine" when I was a student at yeshiva in the fourth grade, when I was taught a famous Talmudic dictum from about 1,800 years ago: "If someone is coming to kill you, rise early and kill him."

And preemptive attack is exactly what happened in June 1967, when Israel attacked Egypt and Syria because those countries were planning to attack Israel. Would any American president before George W. Bush have acted differently than Israel did? Of course not. Did they all believe in the Bush Doctrine?

That is how Gibson added foolishness to his meanness.

All the interview did was reconfirm that Republicans running for office run against both their Democratic opponent and the mainstream news media.

This year it is more obvious than ever. The press's beatification of Obama is so obvious, so constant (how many covers of Newsweek and Time has Obama been on?) that media credibility even among many non-conservatives has been hurt.

Let me put this another way. Charlie Gibson showed far greater hostility toward the Republican vice-presidential candidate than Dan Rather did in his interview with Saddam Hussein or Mike Wallace did in his interview with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Which reminds me of another Talmudic dictum: "Those who are merciful to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful."

We might call it the media's Gibson Doctrine: Confront Republicans, act obsequious toward tyrants.

High Court Disbars Steve Lile

The Oklahoma Supreme Court today disbarred former Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Court Judge Steve Lile. Lile resigned in 2005 after allegations were made against him.

The Supreme Court found Lile submitted false travel claims and false expense claims while he was judge. The Supreme Court says Lile filed almost weekly travel claims from June to October 2004 saying he was attending conferences, projects or meetings. Instead he was going to see his son in prison or to take care of legal and other issues involving the son.

The court says the false expenses claims were for personal purchases made by his assistant. He also was found to have improperly been involved in his son's drug cases.

NY Post: Obama Secretly Urged Troop Delay

Despite his insistant demands for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama secretly urged Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement that would lead to a draw down in troop numbers.

A blockbuster expose in Monday's The New York Post by Amir Tahiri revealed that Obama made his demand for the delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Post.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the U.S. elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview with The Post.

Zabari recalled that Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of U.S. troops, and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open," Zebari said.

Obama says he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2010, a development that would be impossible if the status of forces agreement were delayed as he asked the Iraqis.

In addition to his backdoor approach to the Iraqis, The Post said that Obama also sought to persuade U.S. commanders — including Gen. David Petraeus — to suggest a "realistic withdrawal date," a request they refused.

The Post noted that "to be credible, Obma's foreign-policy philosophy requires Iraq to be seen as a failure, a disaster, a quagmire, a pig with lipstick or any of the other apocalyptic adjectives used by the American defeat industry in the past five years."

Proof That Campaign Work Destroys Brain Cells

Oprah Takes On Tom Coburn, AKA 'Dr. No'

By Alexander Bolton/The Hill ~ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), spurred on by activists and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, is planning round two against his nemesis: Tom Coburn, aka “Senator No.”

Reid’s office has sent word to Senate Democrats that it would like to bring the so-called Coburn omnibus bill to the floor soon, setting up a rematch with the conservative Oklahoma Republican who has often brought the Senate to gridlock.

Coburn won the last round, but this time Reid has Winfrey on his side. The daytime TV star, who draws 44 million viewers weekly, was not seen as much of a political activist until she threw her support behind Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Now Winfrey has squared off against Coburn, who has blocked S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act.

Read the entire story at http://www.thehill.com/.

Winfrey asked her viewers Monday to call and write the Senate to demand their support for the legislation, sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.).

Obama's Economy Isn't In The Tank

Barack Obama today is criticizing John McCain for McCain's remark that, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong...." Obama asks, "Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?" Obama says the sky is falling, that the economy plummets.

Turns out McCain is talking about the fundamentals of...Obama's economy.

Consider: In August, Obama raised $66 million for his campaign from thousands who gave small amounts. Hardly a sign of an economy in the tank. And today, Obama is in Hollywood for a fundraiser his workers say will set a single-day record of about $9 million, with each dinner plate costing attendees $28,500 each. Economy in the tank? Duh!

How Will Blacks React To An Obama Loss?

By Randall Kennedy In The Washington Post ~ I am a black man born in 1954, the year of Brown v. Board of Education. Fleeing the abuses of Jim Crow, my parents moved from South Carolina to Washington, D.C., later that decade.

Tales of racial oppression and racial resistance were staples of conversation in our household. My father often spoke of watching Thurgood Marshall argue the case (Rice v. Elmore) that invalidated the rule permitting only whites to vote in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Memories of that story played a large part in producing the tears I shed on the evening Barack Obama won this year's primary in the Palmetto State.

Read the entire column at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202414.html?hpid=opinionsbox1.

Veterans Groups Support Jim Inhofe

Senator Jim Inhofe today announced he's received the endorsement of the National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition.

He also named the leaders of his newly formed “Veterans for Inhofe” campaign team. The team, led by retired Air Force astronaut Lt. General Tom Stafford, will be responsible for reaching out to veterans to build support for his reelection, an Inhofe statement said.

Zogby Says McCain-Palin Ticket Surges

From Zogby.com ~ An Electoral College tidal wave has followed the surge of interest in the rejuvenated Republican presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin, nearly erasing a once-daunting Democratic advantage and creating a race for the White House that is nearly dead-level even.

The latest Zogby Interactive polling in 11 key battleground states, and a further analysis of polling in other states, has resulted in the recalibration of the Zogby Electoral College Map, available at http://www.zogby.com/.

In this latest Zogby calculation, Obama/Biden lead the race with a projected 234 Electoral College votes in 18 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 226 votes from 25 states for the McCain/Palin ticket. Another 78 Electoral College votes from seven states remain up for grabs, the latest Zogby analysis shows.

Rifle Association Endorses Dana Murphy

Dana Murphy, Republican nominee for the Corporation Commission, was endorsed today by the Oklahoma Rifle Association.

"Ms. Murphy is highly qualified for this position and is a strong proponent of the 'right to keep and bear arms' and has demonstrated strong support for the sportsmen of Oklahoma," ORA's Executive Director Charles Smith wrote in his endorsement letter.

The ORA has been instrumental in furthering access to the 2nd Amendment for the citizens of Oklahoma, including the fight for the "Stand Your Ground Law" that has become the model for other states to follow.

Murphy believes the ORA endorsement shows the need to have elected officials who understand the Constitution and "are willing to preserve that which our founding fathers created.

"My family comes from a long tradition of the shooting sports and I know first hand the incredible work of the ORA to ensure and further our 2nd Amendment rights in Oklahoma," said Murphy. "I am flattered and honored to receive their endorsement in my race for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner."

House Candidate Sued By Former Manager

The Oklahoman's Nolan Clay reports today that a candidate for the State House, Democrat Michael Walker of Midwest City, is being sued by his former campaign manager.

Walker is accused of shaking and choking campaign consultant Teresa Hill during a campaign meeting in July. Hill says Walker first threatened her and says she was bruised and her eyeglasses were broken. She also claims Walker lied to her about his past and says he owes her $10,250.

Hill claims Walker recently resigned from John Marshall High School before he was terminated for "inappropriate behavior" with students. Walker denies that.

Walker calls the lawsuit "frivolous" and says Hill is making things up because he fired her. Walker faces Republican Rep. Charlie Joyner for the House District 95 seat in the November general election.

Rasmussen: McCain Hits 50% For First Time

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows John McCain reaching the 50% level of support for the first time since Barack Obama wrapped up the Democratic Presidential Nomination. McCain retains a three-point advantage for the third straight day, 50% to 47%.

The Gadfly At The Family Wisconsin Farmstead

Family Farmstead: It is of considerable import to Clan McCarville that the original farmstead home of Great Great Grandfather Dennis Daniel McCarville in Willow Springs, Wisconsin, has been purchased and is being restored by Rick King of nearby Darlington, birthplace of my father. The house, built of limestone, was erected, it is surmised, in the 1870s. Great Great Grandpa was at that time well into his senior years but by all accounts was a robust and active man who worked his farm until his dying day. Speaking of which...this photo shows the stairs leading to the attic, from which Great Great Grandpa fell in 1883 and died as a result. He was 99 years, 11 months and two weeks old. The man on the fatal steps is distant cousin Ron Black. It was from Great Great Grandfather Dennis that my Grandfather Ignatius Dennis (his father's name was Thomas) got his second name, which in turn became my father's third name (Ignatius Millard Dennis) until he legally dropped Ignatius in the 1920s and became Millard Dennis, or, as he discovered to his dismay as we moved from state to state throughout the 1940s and 1950s, "M. D." McCarville in the phone books, resulting in numerous late night emergency medical calls. The family name Dennis became my first name, and its feminine version (Denise) the first name of our oldest daughter. There was conjecture as to why my father dropped "Ignatius" as his first name. My late mother said it was because he did not like being called "Iggie" in school. However, given the alcoholism which overtook his father, drove the family into abject poverty and forced my father and his brothers to work at early ages to support the large family, I've always suspected my father sought separation from his own father. Grandfather Ignatius Dennis died in an institution in Clarinda, Iowa, in 1959. I met him but once, in 1953.

Krauthammer Nails Gibson, Who 'Got it wrong'

By Charles Krauthammer/The Washington Post ~ "At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.'"- New York Times, Sept. 12.

Informed her?

Rubbish.

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today.

It is utterly different.He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"

She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?"

Sensing his "gotcha" moment, Gibson refused to tell her. After making her fish for the answer, Gibson grudgingly explained to the moose-hunting rube that the Bush doctrine "is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense."

Wrong.

Read all of the column at www.washingtonpost.com.

Rasmussen: McCain-Palin Strong In Oklahoma

From Rasmussen Reports ~ John McCain is holding a two-to-one lead over Barack Obama in the Republican stronghold state of Oklahoma, according to the first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters there this election year.

McCain has 63% of the vote versus Obama’s 32%.

Palin Selection Gave McCain Big Boost

Not only does the GOP presidential nominee have the backing of 95% of Republicans, but 41% of Oklahoma Democrats support him, too. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats favor Obama. Unaffiliated voters are nearly evenly divided over the two candidates.

Nationally, the race between Obama and McCain remains close in both the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and the Electoral College projections.

In Oklahoma, 41% of voters have a Very Favorable view of McCain. The identical number (41%) have a Very Unfavorable view of Obama, compared to 11% who feel that way about McCain. Twenty percent (20%) say their opinion of Obama is Very Favorable.

The Republican ticket gets a boost, too, from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s selection as the party’s vice presidential nominee. Sixty-six percent (66%) say she was the right choice to be McCain’s running mate as opposed to 30% who say that of Obama’s selection of Delaware Senator Joseph Biden. Forty-two percent (42%) say Biden was the wrong choice, but only 22% feel that way about Palin.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) rate their view of Palin as at least somewhat favorable, including 56% who say it is Very Favorable. Eighteen percent (18%) say they have a Very Unfavorable opinion of Palin.

By comparison, 37% have at least a somewhat favorable view of Biden, including 16% who say that view is Very Favorable. Thirty-one percent (31%) have a Very Unfavorable opinion of the longtime Democratic senator.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) say Palin is at least somewhat conservative, and over half (52%) say she is Very Conservative. Fifty percent (50%) believe Biden is at least somewhat liberal, with 24% saying he is Very Liberal. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say Biden is a moderate.

McCain has a sizable lead among both men and women, although the latter are slightly more supportive of the Democrat. In all age groups and all but one income category (those earning $20,000 to $40,000 a year), the Republican leads handily.

Oklahoma has gone for the GOP presidential candidate in every election since 1968 and has one of the most conservative congressional delegations. President Bush won the state with 66% of the vote in 2004.

Rasmussen Markets data shows that Republicans are currently given a 99.8% chance of winning Oklahoma’s seven Electoral College votes this fall. At the time this poll was released, Oklahoma was ranked as “Safely Republican” in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. NOTE: Factors other than the latest Rasmussen Reports poll impact the Balance of Power ratings. The current status is indicated on the table in the upper right hand corner of this article.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of Oklahoma voters say they will be voting with enthusiasm for their candidate, but 30% say they will be voting primarily against the other candidate. For 34% of voters economic issues are the most important ones in this election, but 29% say national security is the priority.

Forty-three percent (43%) give Bush good or excellent marks for his job performance, but 34% rate his work as poor.

Gibson Misrepresented Palin Position

Millions of TV viewers who watched ABC News’ interview with Sarah Palin Thursday night never saw her take issue with a key question in which she was asked if she believes that the U.S. military effort in Iraq is “a task that is from God.”

The exchange between Palin and ABC’s Charlie Gibson, in which she questioned the accuracy of the quote attributed to her, was edited out of the television broadcast but included in official, unedited transcripts posted on ABC’s Web site, as well as in video posted on the Internet.

But in the version shown on television, a video clip of her original statement was inserted in place of her objection, giving a different impression of how Palin views the Iraq war.

Read the entire story at http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/12/abc-edits-out-palin-objection-to-holy-war-question/.

Biden's Son Resigns Lobbyist Job

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter has stopped working as a federal lobbyist, work that had made him a Republican target in the presidential contest.

“I no longer expect to act as a federal lobbyist,” Hunter Biden said in a letter to the Clerk of the House and the Senate Office of Public Records. The letter is dated Aug. 25 and was made public Friday.

While some in the news media have focused on Replublican John McCain's association with former lobbyists, there's been little mention of the high profile lobbying done by Biden's son.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who chose Biden as his running mate last month, has been a vocal critic of rival McCain’s ties to lobbyists. In a television ad Friday, Obama repeated criticisms of McCain for having current and former prominent lobbyists on his campaign staff.

Clinton Adviser Penn: Media 'Biggest loser'

CBSNews.com: Your former colleague Howard Wolfson argued that you all unintentionally paved the way for Palin by exposing some of the unfair media coverage that Hillary Clinton received. And, therefore, a lot of the media may now be treating Sarah Palin with kid gloves. Do you agree with that?

Mark Penn: Well, no, I think the people themselves saw unfair media coverage of Senator Clinton. I think if you go back, the polls reflected very clearly what "Saturday Night Live" crystallized in one of their mock debates about what was happening with the press. I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems. And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

CBSNews.com: So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

Mark Penn: Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time. Now, the media defense would be, "Yeah, we looked at these other candidates who have been in public life at an earlier time." What happened here very clearly is that the controversy over Palin led to 37 million Americans tuning into a vice-presidential speech, something that is unprecedented, because they wanted to see for themselves. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves. The media has lost credibility with them.

Inhofe Campaign Challenges Rice

Senator Jim Inhofe's campaign manager today offered to donate $5,000 to "any of the liberal organizations" opponent Andrew Rice is involved in if Rice can refute assertions about him in an Inhofe campaign commercial.

An Inhofe news release reads, "First the Rice campaign circulated a canned press release dated September 1, calling the Inhofe campaign’s ads that started September 9 'false.' Now, Andrew Rice is up on television with another canned response, saying the ads 'aren’t true.'"

Said Inhofe Campaign Manger Josh Kivett: “I have one simple challenge for the Rice campaign: please explain which part isn’t true. If Andrew Rice can refute the fact that he founded the Progressive Alliance Foundation which opposed Oklahoma’s traditional marriage amendment, we will donate $5,000 to any of the liberal organizations he founded, led, or worked for. Or if Senator Rice can prove he did not cast the votes highlighted in our advertisement, we will gladly make the $5,000 contribution."

Towery: Obama Losing Youth Traction

By Matt Towery/Southern Political Report ~ The hidden story of the last week has been the shift in many states and nationwide among the youngest of voters, those ages 18-to-29, from a solid entrenchment in the Obama camp to a significant drift toward a newly revived John McCain effort, all courtesy of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Read all of Towery's column at www.southernpoliticalreport.com.

Bush Honors Two, Raises McCain Dollars

Karen Stark of Oklahoma City and Major Dan Rooney of Broken Arrow walk from Air Force One with President Bush this morning at Tinker Air Force Base. Bush honored Stark for The Hugs Project, which provides neck coolers to troops, and Rooney for The Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides educational opportunities for families of military members killed or disabled in action. Bush later attended a meeting of business leaders and was the guest of honor at a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and presidential nominee John McCain.

McCain-Palin Ticket Shows Western Gains

Washington is the latest state to show a strong western surge for John McCain since he added Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Washington finds Barack Obama still ahead, but barely. It's Obama 49%, McCain 47%. A month ago,Obama was up by twelve percentage points.

Recent polls have shown McCain gains in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota.

Capitol Hill Democrats Fear Obama Fallout

By Andrew Ward/Financial Times, in Washington ~ Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election.

Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.

A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.

“If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year when the Democrats should be sweeping all before us,” said the fundraiser, a former Hillary Clinton supporter.

“There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to. People are going crazy, telling the campaign ‘you’ve got to do something’.”

Chafee: Palin A 'Cocky wacko'

From Politico ~ Republicans are holding back because it's 9/11, but you can be sure tomorrow they'll be all over former Sen. Lincoln Chafee's comments. Palin, Chafee said yesterday in Washington, is a "cocky wacko."

Chafee was a Republican senator but now backs Obama. He and other Obama supporters are unhappy at the response Palin is getting, and, politics being politics, their response is to criticize the GOP vice presidential nominee.

But every time they do so in a personal or semi-personal fashion, Republicans will seize upon the attacks to garner more sympathy for a woman they're portraying as under siege.

[Meanwhile, Palin's first interview with ABC-TV's Charlie Gibson produced no major surprises, with Palin fielding his questions and explaining previous comments and her positions on numerous issues.]

Henry Declares State Of Emergency For Ike Aide

Governor Henry has declared a state of emergency just in case Hurricane Ike evacuees from the Texas Gulf Coast are brought to Oklahoma.

Hurricane Ike is expected to hit Texas on Saturday, likely just west of Houston. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten says evacuees could begin arriving any time.

Henry's declaration clears the way for the state to get federal disaster assistance to cover expenses related to housing evacuees.

Oklahoma City police Sgt. Gary Knight says volunteers and emergency responders are preparing the old Lucent Technologies plant in western Oklahoma City to house evacuees; it's the same place used to house those who fled Louisiana in advance of Hurricane Gustav.

TMRO Poll Voters Back McCain, Palin

Almost 70 percent of those who voted in our poll asking who would be elected president if the election had been held now chose Republican John McCain, compared to 30 percent for Barack Obama. That's a turnaround from a previous poll asking the same question; in it, Obama received 57 percent, McCain 43 percent.

In our poll asking for a "Salute" or "Yuck" on the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, 71 percent gave a salute.

Nation Awaits Palin ABC Appearance

Charles Gibson's interviews with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will form the basis of a special prime-time edition of "20/20" Friday, ABC said Wednesday.

Gibson is traveling to Fairbanks and Wasilla, Alaska, for the first TV interviews with Palin since she was selected as John McCain's running mate. The first excerpts of the talks will be shown on "World News" Thursday.

Gibson is having three separate interviews with Palin, ABC said. Parts of the interviews will be spread around other ABC news programs, including "Nightline" and "Good Morning America."

The prime-time special, at 10 p.m. EDT, will also include a bio of Palin by ABC's Kate Snow and a round-table discussion on the presidential race moderated by George Stephanopoulos.

The Alaska Republican has proven to be a ratings-grabber during her short time on the national political scene. Her speech to the GOP national convention last week was seen by more than 40 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research.

A Fox News Channel documentary, "Governor Palin: An American Woman" last Saturday was the highest-rated prime-time documentary in the network's history, with 2.7 million viewers.

Poll: 70% Say Palin 'Doing the right thing'

From Opinion Dynamics/Fox News Poll ~ There has been some controversy about (Sarah) Palin’s personal and family life in the short time since the announcement of her nomination. Some have suggested that it’s not right for her to run for high office given her personal family situation.

There is no mistaking how American voters feel about the propriety of Palin running for high office. An overwhelming 70 percent think she is “doing the right thing” by getting into the race as the GOP vice-presidential nominee, while only 17 percent view it as “wrong.”

And, while a plurality of voters (48 percent) do not think this controversy is driven by sexism, nearly as many (45 percent) believe it is the result of gender-based considerations. Interestingly, among younger women (under 45 years of age) the belief that these controversies are gender-related jumps to 50 percent.

Inhofe Votes To Fix Veterans Survivor Plan

Senator Jim Inhofe, senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, voted tonight in favor an amendment (#4979) to the Defense Authorization bill (S. 3001 ) that will go a long way in support of our nation’s veterans. Inhofe co-sponsored Senator Bill Nelson’s long overdue bi-partisan fix to the unfair Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) offset. The amendment passed by a vote of 94-2.

SC Demo Chair's Abortion Remark Stuns Many

From Fox News ~ South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Palin is an opponent of abortion rights and gave birth to her fifth child, Trig, earlier this year after finding out during her pregnancy that the baby had Down syndrome.

Late this afternoon, Fowler apologized "to those" who "might have been offended" by her remark.

[Fowler is the wife of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, who apologized earlier in the campaign for a remark he made. She was a superdelegate who endorsed Obama.]

Bush To Honor OKC's Karen Stark

President Bush will present the President's Volunteer Service award to Karen Stark of Oklahoma City on Friday to honor her work on behalf of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, known as The Hugs Project.

Bush also will attend a private fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the Republican National Committee.

Bush will land at Tinker Air Force Base.

Stark's organization began providing handmade neck cooling ties, nicknamed "hugs," to military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004.

Lawton Republicans Serving 'Moose Stew'

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has fans in the Comanche County Republican Party, as this sign outside the party office in Lawton indicates. Posing with the sign is former county chairman Bill Williams.

Terrill Honored For Immigration Law

Rep. Randy Terrill has been named a winner of the Federation for American Immigration Reform's "We the People" Award.

The award is granted to "people whose efforts have demonstrated exceptional service to the immigration reform movement."

Terrill will receive the award in recognition of his work as author of one of the most meaningful state-level immigration reform laws in the country.

"The Federation for American Immigration Reform has been successfully holding the line in Washington by preventing amnesty for illegal aliens," said Terrill, R-Moore. "House Bill 1804 has become a model not only for other states but for the nation as well. On behalf of the citizens of House District 53 and the taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma, it's an honor to be recognized for that work."

Terrill will be presented the award at a banquet tonight in Washington, D.C.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform is conducting its annual "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally this week to encourage Congress to secure the border first and oppose amnesty for illegal aliens.

Terrill is one of three recipients of the "We the People" Award this year. The other honorees are CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and Dr. Rodney Hunt, founder of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.

Obama Tees Off On News Media

From News Sources ~ Speaking at a high school in Norfolk, (Barack) Obama took a few moments to address what he calls "the made-up controversy" of the day, Amie Parnes reports.[He refers to his lipstick-on-a-pig remark.]

Obama said the McCain campaign moved to "seize an innocent remark and take it out of context because they knew it's catnip for the news media."

"See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about...Enough!" he said.

Obama called the attacks "lies, outrage and swift boat politics.""These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change," he said.

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responds: “Barack Obama can’t campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign. His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises, and his record of bucking his party and reaching across the aisle simply doesn’t exist.”

Fallin Named To Palin 'Truth Squad'

Congresswoman Mary Fallin will be among those criss-crossing the country as part of a "Truth Squad" of Republicans defending Alaska Governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin from attacks.

Fallin, who appeared on MSNBC earlier this week in precisely that role, is one of about two dozen members of Congress and others who will fan out to address attacks on Palin.

It will be Fallin's first foray into full-fledged national politics. While she's had some exposure as lieutenant governor and a member of Congress, she'll now widen her exposure on the national stage.

Fallin brings her personal background to the debate; like Palin, Fallin's career in politics and government came at the same time she was raising children.

SD7: Lerblance Faces Sherrill Challenge

It would be among the most unlikely of upsets, a Republican defeating an incumbent Democrat legislator in an area so heavily Democrat in registration it's been said that every Republican could meet in the Sonic drive-in lobby and not worry about an elbow in the ribs.

But in McAlester's Senate District 7, Republican Kenny Sherrill (right) has the attention of Democrats, including his opponent, incumbent Democrat Senator Richard Lerblance (left), despite the 5-to-1 Democrat-Republican voter registration.

Republicans claim Lerblance is a so-so campaigner and has a voting record that makes him vulnerable. Democrats say don't believe the GOP hype; they say Lerblance is rock solid for reelection.

Lerblance has demonstrated the power of incumbency in campaign fundraising; he's topped $145,000 and as of his mid-August finance report, had $80,000 still on hand. Most of his individual donations came from trial lawyers. Sherrill, meanwhile, reported having raised $66,000, including a $25,000 personal loan, with $50,000 on hand.

Republicans say Democrats are so concerned about the race they've placed a party staffer in the area to help Lerblance and they note that Jeremy Hendricks, well-known Democrat campaign consultant known for his tie to Democratic Congressman Dan Boren, is spending more and more time on Lerblance's campaign.

Some Republicans believe Boren has "loaned" Hendricks to the Lerblance campaign, but Boren himself says that's not true: "It is true that Jeremy is working for Richard Lerblance. He is a paid staffer for the Lerblance campaign as well as ours. He has done this in the past. Last cycle, I believe, he had sixteen different candidates, so we did not loan him. We operate as two separate campaigns."

Republicans don't claim this seat is one they must win to take control of the State Senate, but they do believe it demonstrates that the battle for control is a real one, and that Democrats feel the need to defend a seat that should be solidly safe for them.

Lerblance, an attorney seeking a second four-year term in the Senate, served in the state House beginning in 2003. He then won a special election to serve the final year of a term when longtime Senator Gene Stipe resigned in disgrace.

In 2004, Lerblance defeated Sherrill, then a Democrat, to win the seat. Lerblance beat Sherrill by 604 votes, and Sherrill's campaign then consisted mostly of putting out signs, insiders say.

Sherrill, 66, a rancher in Pittsburg County, owned and operated the McAlester Union Stockyard from 1974 until 1996 when he sold it to his children.

Sherrill said that since statehood, there's rarely been a general election race for the seat because no Republicans or independents filed for the office. He said he changed his registration so everyone in the district who is registered will get an opportunity to vote.

Sherrill said there's a clear difference between him and his opponent: "I'm very conservative. He is extremely liberal."

Lerblance argues he should be re-elected because he has represented the district well.

He has said that illegal drugs are the No. 1 issue that has to be addressed.

Sherrill said he believes the district needs a senator to represent the values of the district: "I have been a workin' man all my life. I am not a lawyer. I know what it's like to borrow money."

SPR: Gaddie Column On Palin Selection

Keith Gaddie, pollster, pundit and political science professor has an opinion piece about Sarah Palin on Southern Political Report. Read it at http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_98_562.aspx.

The Battle For The Oklahoma State Senate

For one outsider's take on the battle to control the Oklahoma State Senate, read this article: http://ballotbox.governing.com/2008/09/the-oklahoma-se.html.

Poll: Murphy, Cloud Have Substantial Leads

SurveyUSA, polling for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, reports that Republicans Dana Murphy and Jeff Cloud have substantial leads over their Democratic Corporation Commission opponents.

Most surprising is the 54-36 percent lead reported for Murphy over incumbent Commissioner Jim Roth, appointed to the post by Governor Brad Henry when Republican Denise Bode resigned.

Cloud is shown with a 52-37 percent lead over Democrat Charles Gray, former House member.

Here's the analysis from SurveyUSA: Republicans Lead in Both Oklahoma Corporation Commission Contests: In elections for full and short-term seats on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission held today, 09/09/08, Incumbent Republican Jeff Cloud and Republican challenger Dana Murphy both lead their Democratic opponents by double digits, according to this exclusive KFOR-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA.

In the race for a full six year term on the Commission, incumbent Republican Jeff Cloud defeats Democrat Charles Gray 52% to 37%. Cloud, first elected in 2002, leads by 17 points among men and by 13 points among women. Among voters age 18 to 49, Cloud leads by 7. Among voters age 50+, Cloud leads by 22. 1 in 4 Democrats cross over to vote for Republican Cloud. Independents are disproportionately undecided.

In the race for a short-term, two year term on the Commission, Republican Dana Murphy defeats Democratic incumbent Jim Roth 54% to 36%. Murphy, a geologist and attorney, leads by 17 points among men and by 19 among women. Among voters age 18 to 49, Murphy leads by 13 points; among voters age 50+, Murphy leads by 23. 30% of Democrats cross over to vote for the Republican Murphy. Independents are disproportionately undecided.

Roth was appointed by Democratic Governor Brad Henry to fill a vacancy on the Commission in June of 2007; Republican Denise Bode, elected to her second full term in the office in 2004, resigned her seat. The winner of the short-term commission seat will serve the remaining two years of Bode's term.

Obama 'Pig' Line Ignites New Controversy

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he'll change Washington, but he's just like President Bush.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to (Alaska Governor Sarah) Palin's joke. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

McCain's campaign immediately organized a telephone conference call in response and called on Obama to apologize for calling Palin a pig.

Obama's campaign said he wasn't referring to Palin; he had been talking about McCain immediately before the lipstick comment.

American Farm Bureau Honors Inhofe

Senator Jim Inhofe has received the “Friend of Farm Bureau” award by the American Farm Bureau for his continued support of agriculture during the 110th Congress. Inhofe has been given the “Friend of Farm Bureau” award in every Congress since he took office.

Meacham: Strong Economy Fuels Collections

From The Treasurer's Office ~ Fueled by strong collections from sales taxes and the gross production tax on natural gas, general revenue collections for the state of Oklahoma in August exceeded both the estimate and collections from the prior year, State Treasurer Scott Meacham announced today.

Preliminary reports show general revenue fund collections totaled $490.1 million for August. That amount is $47.6 million or 10.8 percent above the prior year; and $43.8 million or 9.8 percent above the estimate.

Meacham said strong sales tax collections indicate that Oklahoma's economy remains healthy, in spite of the national economic downturn.

Sales taxes provided $152.9 million to the general fund. That is $22.3 million or 17 percent more than the same month last year and $15 million or 10.9 percent above the estimate. "Sales tax collections were significantly above both the prior year and the estimate. Even when inflation of retail prices is factored in, these numbers show a strong increase in sales across the state," Meacham said. "Even more impressive is the fact that August collections include the impact of the sales tax holiday the first weekend of the month. The tax commission estimates the loss of revenue from the sales tax holiday to be $6.6 million."

Gross production taxes also showed much higher collections than the previous year and the estimate. Gross production taxes provided $96.6 million to the general fund. That is $39.7 million or 69.8 percent above the same month last year and $40.1 million or 70.9 percent above the estimate.

Net Income Taxes: This source yielded $155.9 million to the FY-09 general revenue fund, which was $7.5 million or 4.6 percent below the prior year and $6.8 million or 4.2 percent below the estimate.

Individual income tax collections produced $152.4 million, which was $7.5 million or 4.7 percent below the prior year and $7 million or 4.4 percent below the estimate.

Corporate returns produced $3.6 million,which was $5,000 or 0.1 percent above the prior year and $0.2 million or 6 percent above the estimate.

Sales Tax: The state's number two revenue source produced $152.9 million for general revenue, up $22.3 million or 17 percent from the prior year and $15 million or 10.9 percent above the estimate.

Gross Production Tax: This tax on natural gas accounted for $96.6million for the month, which was $39.7 million or 69.8 percent above the prior year and $40.1 million or 70.9 percent above the estimate.

Motor Vehicle Taxes: This source, based on motor vehicle sales and licenses, produced $18 million, which was $7 million or 27.9 percent below the prior year and $5.5 million or 23.2 percent below the estimate.

Other Revenue: Other revenue, which includes investment earnings along with taxes on insurance, inheritance, alcoholic beverages and others, produced $66.6 million. This was $0.1 million or 0.2 percent above the prior year and $1 million or 1.5 percent above the estimate.

The treasurer's investment earnings totaled $13.8 million for the month, which is $1.9 million or 12.3 percent below the prior year reflecting the current low interest rate environment.

Year-to-Date: After the first two months of the fiscal year, revenue collections total $947.2 million, which is $93.5 million or 11 percent above the prior year and $74.2 million or 8.5 percent above the estimate.

Fallin On MSNBC: Palin Agent Of Change

Congresswoman Mary Fallin, speaking this afternoon on MSNBC, described Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as an agent of change who is not afraid to make hard decisions even when it impacts those in her own Republican Party.

Fallin said the vice presidential nominee has a record that will be judged by voters and deflected questions that seemed designed to question Palin's label of "reformer."

Fallin said she got to know Palin six weeks ago while on a fact-finding trip to Alaska. Fallin said she was impressed with Palin's knowledge and friendliness.

TvPoll: McCain-Palin 65.9%, Obama-Biden 27.9%; Jim Inhofe 57.2-29.2% Over Andrew Rice

A new TvPoll for KWTV-Channel 9 shows Republicans with substantial leads in major Oklahoma races.

In the presidential race, John McCain and Sarah Palin are reported at 65.9 percent, while Barack Obama and Joe Biden trail badly at just 27.9 percent with 6.2 percent undecided.

In the U. S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Jim Inhofe is reported at 57.2 percent, while Democrat Andrew Rice has only 29.2 percent. Independent Stephen Wallace has 3.6 percent and 10 percent are undecided.

In the Corporation Commission race, Republican Dana Murphy has 44.7 percent compared to 36.1 percent for incumbent Democrat Jim Roth. About 19 percent are undecided.

Like Obama, Palin Faces Internet Lies

Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have one thing in common: Both have been assailed by Internet bloggers who don't let a little thing like the truth or facts get in the way of their allegations.

The litany of Internet-circulated lies and half-truths about both is long.

Some have done their fact-checking, however, and refute many of the claims made by bloggers. Read the story at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13307.html.

SurveyUSA: Jim Inhofe Over Andrew Rice By 22%, McCain-Palin Over Obama-Biden By 33%

A new SurveyUSA poll taken September 5-7 for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City shows the McCain-Palin ticket up 33 points over the Obama-Biden ticket in the presidential race and Senator Jim Inhofe up 22 points over Andrew Rice in the U. S. Senate race.

The poll found the McCain-Palin ticket at 65 percent, Obama-Biden at just 32 percent.

In the Senate race, it was Inhofe 56 percent, Rice 34 percent.

The state is not considered in play for Obama, as it hasn't voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1964.

Obama 'A Nightmare' For Gun Owners

"Obama's election would be a nightmare for the country's 80 million law-abiding gun owners and a tragedy for American freedom." ~ Gun Rights Advocate John Snyder.

'She is one of us'

“She is one of us. Her family is the one where the rain falls and the faucet drips and, no matter what, the family deals with it. These families go to work every day, send their sons and daughters off to fight the country’s wars, nurse their children through crisis, and walk proudly together to face the troubles that come their way.” ~ Jim Wooten, Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Palin To Campaign In Oklahoma?

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin may be scheduled for a "whistle stop" visit to Oklahoma during the campaign, sources in the McCain-Palin campaign say.

Palin's campaign schedule is not set and even when it is, it will be subject to change, a source says, but Oklahoma is on the list of western and southern states where Palin's pro-gun rights, anti-abortion and overall conservative positions could help the ticket, the source says.

It is unlikely McCain himself will visit the state, the source says.

Meanwhile, it also seems unlikely that Barack Obama will visit the state even though Governor Brad Henry and University of Oklahoma President David Boren have urged him to do so.

MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat

By Brian Stelter/The New York Times ~ MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

Network Meltdown Sends Palin Attackers To The Sidelines

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

“In a rapidly changing media environment, this is the great philosophical debate,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions.

“MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

The employee, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not permit its people to speak to the media without authorization. (The New York Times and NBC News have a content-sharing arrangement exclusively for political coverage.)

Mr. Olbermann, a 49-year-old former sportscaster, has become the face of the more aggressive MSNBC, and the lightning rod for much of the criticism. His program “Countdown,” now a liberal institution, was created by Mr. Olbermann in 2003 but it found its voice in his gnawing dissent regarding the Bush administration, often in the form of “special comment” segments.

As Mr. Olbermann raised his voice, his ratings rose as well, and he now reaches more than one million viewers a night, a higher television rating than any other show in the troubled 12-year history of the network. As a result, his identity largely defines MSNBC.

“They have banked the entirety of the network on Keith Olbermann,” one employee said.

In January, Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews, the host of “Hardball,” began co-anchoring primary night coverage, drawing an audience that enjoyed the pair’s “SportsCenter”-style show. While some critics argued that the assignment was akin to having the Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly anchor on election night — something that has never happened — MSNBC insisted that Mr. Olbermann knew the difference between news and commentary.

But in the past two weeks, that line has been blurred. On the final night of the Republican convention, after MSNBC televised the party’s video “tribute to the victims of 9/11,” including graphic footage of the World Trade Center attacks, Mr. Olbermann abruptly took off his journalistic hat.

“I’m sorry, it’s necessary to say this,” he began. After saying that the video had exploited the memories of the dead, he directly apologized to viewers who were offended. Then, sounding like a network executive, he said it was “probably not appropriate to be shown.”

In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Olbermann said that moment — and the perception that he is “not utterly neutral” — restarted months-old conversations about his role on political nights.

“I found it ironic and instructive that I could have easily said exactly what I did say, exactly when I did say it, if I had been wearing a different hat, and nobody would have taken any issue,” he said.

“Countdown” will still be shown before the three fall debates and a second edition will be shown sometime afterwards, following the program anchored by Mr. Gregory.

The change casts new doubt on what some staff members believe is an effective programming strategy: prime-time talk of a liberal sort. A like-minded talk show will now follow “Countdown” at 9 p.m.: “The Rachel Maddow Show,” hosted by the liberal radio host, begins Monday.

Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology. “I think ideology means we think one way, and we don’t,” he said. Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.

But MSNBC is the cable arm of NBC News, the dispassionate news division of NBC Universal. MSNBC, “Today” and “NBC Nightly News” share some staff members, workspace and content. And some critics are claiming they also share a political affiliation.

The McCain campaign has filed letters of complaint to the news division about its coverage and openly tied MSNBC to it.

Tension between the network and the campaign hit an apex the day Mr. McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. MSNBC had reported Friday morning that Ms. Palin’s plane was enroute to the announcement and she was likely the pick. But McCain campaign officials warned the network off, with one official going so far as to say that all of the candidates on the short list were on their way — which MSNBC then reported.

“The fact that it was reported in real time was very embarrassing,” said a senior MSNBC official. “We were told, ‘No, it’s not Sarah Palin and you don’t know who it is.’"

Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, the past and present anchors of “NBC Nightly News,” have told friends and colleagues that they are finding it tougher and tougher to defend the cable arm of the news division, even while they anchored daytime hours of convention coverage on MSNBC and contributed commentary each evening.

Mr. Williams did not respond to a request for comment and Mr. Brokaw declined to comment. At a panel discussion in Denver, Mr. Brokaw acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews had “gone too far” at times, but emphasized they were “not the only voices” on MSNBC, according to The Washington Post.

Al Hunt, the executive Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News, said that the entire news division was being singled out by Republicans because of the work of partisans like Mr. Olbermann. “To go and tar the whole news network and Brokaw and Mitchell is grossly unfair,” he said, referring to the NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

Some tensions have spilled out on-screen. On the first night in Denver, as the fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough talked about the resurgence of the McCain campaign, Mr. Olbermann dismissed it by saying: “Jesus, Joe, why don’t you get a shovel?”

The following night, Mr. Olbermann and his co-anchor for convention coverage, Mr. Matthews, had their own squabble after Mr. Olbermann observed that Mr. Matthews had talked too long.

Some staff members said the tension led to the network’s decision to keep Mr. Olbermann in New York for the Republican convention, after he ran the desk in Denver during the Democratic convention. MSNBC said that he stayed in New York to anchor coverage of Hurricane Gustav. But some workers say there were other reasons — namely, that Mr. Olbermann was concerned about his safety in St. Paul, given the loud crowds at MSNBC’s set in Denver.

NBC Universal executives are also known to be concerned about the perception that MSNBC’s partisan tilt in prime time is bleeding into the rest of the programming day.

On a recent Friday afternoon, a graphic labeled “Breaking News” asked: “How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?” Mr. Griffin called the graphic “an embarrassment.”

Poll: 10% Lead For McCain-Palin

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll reports that the McCain-Palin ticket leads the Obama-Biden ticket 54-44 percent among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 percent.

Among all respondents, the McCain-Palin ticket had a four percent lead.

Gallup: With Bounce, McCain Leads Obama

John McCain has overtaken Barack Obama in the Gallup daily tracking poll and has his highest level of support in that poll since early May.

McCain leads Obama 48 percent to 45 percent among registered voters, by Gallup’s measure. McCain has so far earned the same convention bounce as Obama, though at a more rapid pace.

Oklahomans See Palin Media Bias

Is the news media biased against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain's vice presidential running mate?

The Political Machine is asking that question in an online poll and thus far, more than 70 percent have answered yes. In Oklahoma, 76 percent have said yes.

There's only one enclave where the majority say the media hasn't been biased, and that's the District of Columbia. Across the south, west, north and east, there is agreement, most of it in the 65-70 percent range.

Access the poll and results at http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/09/05/hot-seat-palin-and-the-media/.

The Gadfly In Defense Of Sarah Palin

Sarah Barracuda, the lipstick-wearing bulldog of a political dynamo who has now been savaged by the best of the mainstream media piranhas, has a rough two months ahead of her, but in a perverse way, the instant, non-stop personal attacks already launched may have made her bulletproof from any impact future attacks might have.

Based on polling of the public's reaction thus far to the attacks, the critics have created sympathy and support for the Alaska governor and have given Republicans renewed reason to attack the elitist media members whose demeaning, snide, in bad taste and often ignorant remarks about her border on slander and libel.

Some of the attacks demonstrate more about how of touch with ordinary citizens the critics are than how bad the governor is.

Witness this acerbic analysis from two writers for The Associated Press: Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out - Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.

Potentially damaging? How so? And in whose opinion? Her husband isn't running for anything, and the driving deal was 22 years ago. The pregnancy of her daughter should be off-limits and most Americans agree. The only folks bothered by her "lack of international traveling" seem to be those who travel on the credit cards of their media employers; the average person doesn't have a passport and doesn't travel internationally. Her effectiveness as governor is fair territory and thus far, the pluses far outweigh any negatives reporters have come up with.

The attacks from some media talking heads have been disgusting. MSNBC and CNN are the chief offenders, with constant nit-picking, snide remarks and questions designed to diminish, without factual foundation, the governor and her accomplishments. The goofballs like Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Soledad O'Brien, Wolf Blitzer and others have overplayed whatever hand it was they thought they had and all they've done is further diminish their own importance as credible sources of news and demonstrate their lack of civility.

Sarah Palin isn't Joan of Arc. She's a governor, mother, wife and conservative politician who apparently can take care of herself. She'll need everything she has to endure the next 60 days and whether she'll be proven a plus or minus for John McCain remains to be seen. What doesn't remain to be seen is how nasty some in the left-wing media become when they feel threatened.

Hugh Hewitt got it right in his Town Hall column: "Millions of Americans are deeply ticked off at the assault on Sarah Palin launched by people who have never done anything but talked for a living and who wouldn't know how to turn on a snowmobile, a jet ski or an RV to save their lives, much less how to negotiate an oil lease. Millions of Americans who have never received a government check are shocked at the dismissiveness of Palin's background especially in contrast to the worship of the government-backed lifetime careers of Obama and Biden. And millions of American women are especially outraged that the feminist elite in the broadcast booths and newsrooms have joined the blogger mob in peddling smears about a wonderful mother and wife who also happens to have been an extremely successful professional in a variety of settings. Why, they wonder, has Obama gotten a year-long pass on his entire life including Ayers, the Annenberg Challenge, Rezko and Wright while Palin is put on the big media rack on made-up charges? Because she's a woman?"

World: State Democrats Losing Power

By Randy Krehbiel/Tulsa World ~ Republicans are gaining control of Oklahoma's fastest-growing districts.

Republicans control most of the state's largest and fastest-growing legislative districts, a trend that could magnify recent Democratic losses in the Oklahoma House and Senate if it continues through redistricting following the 2010 census.

"If it stays the way it is, it's going to hit us hard and we know it," said Ivan Holmes, state Democratic Party chairman.

University of Oklahoma political science professor Keith Gaddie said, "It's going to be hard to draw districts without carving out some new Republican seats. Southeastern Oklahoma is going to lose one Senate district and maybe two."

Read the entire story at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectID=12&articleID=20080907_16_A17_hRepub497748.

World: Democrats Gain In GOP Districts

By Randy Krehbiel/Tulsa World ~ That Oklahoma Republicans are steadily gobbling up Democrats' historic lead in registered voters is not news.

The GOP won control of the state House of Representatives in 2004 for only the second time in state history and shows no signs of giving it up.

Republicans expect to win a Senate majority in November for the first time ever.

According to state Election Board figures, registered Republicans gained ground on Democrats in 36 of 48 Senate districts over the past two years, and in 69 of 101 House districts, with many of those gains in Democratic strongholds in southeastern and southwestern Oklahoma.

What is perhaps surprising is that Democrats are also making inroads into traditionally Republican areas, most notably south Tulsa and northwest Oklahoma City.

"It's hard to say whether it's new people moving into those districts or people who have lived there becoming more involved," said state Democratic Party Chairman Ivan Holmes, who lives in far northwest Oklahoma City.

"We have seen a change in the population. There is a fairly large Hispanic community we didn't have before, and the African-American population has increased, too."

In House District 85, sandwiched between upscale Nichols Hills and blue-collar Bethany, Democrats have had a net gain of almost 700 voters since 2006, when Republican David Dank defeated Democrat Jennifer Seal by 127 votes.

Read the rest of the story at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectID=12&articleID=20080907_16_A17_Takaoa521156.

World: Lawmaker's Home Sale Raises Queries

By Mick Hinton/Tulsa World Capitol Bureau ~ Rep. Rex Duncan led the neighborhood charge against a company's effort to double the size of its landfill, less than a mile downwind from the west Sand Springs subdivision where the state lawmaker lived.

Duncan was the neighborhood champion, noted for making emotional pleas at several public hearings in early 2006.

But then, American Environmental Landfill Inc. bought Duncan's house, doubling the price the lawmaker had paid for the property 13 years earlier. Duncan, R-Sand Springs, received $270,000 for the house that had cost him $135,000.

Read the entire story at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectID=12&articleID=20080907_16_A17_Americ956726.

Poll: McCain-Palin Tops Obama-Biden

UTICA, New York - Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin left St. Paul, Minnesota, with a smallish bounce overall and some energy in key demographic groups, as the race for the presidency enters a key stage and voters begin to tune in to the contest, the latest Zogby Interactive poll finds.

The McCain/Palin ticket wins 49.7% support, compared to 45.9% backing for the Obama/Biden ticket, this latest online survey shows. Another 4.4% either favored someone else or were unsure.

In the two-way contest in which just McCain and Obama were mentioned in the question, the result was slightly different, with McCain leading, 48.8% to 45.7%.

In a Zogby Interactive survey conducted last weekend, just after the McCain announcement that Palin would join his ticket, McCain/Palin won 47.1% support, while Obama/Biden won 44.6% support.

The interactive survey of 2,312 likely voters nationwide was conducted Sept. 5-6, 2008, and carries a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points.

Pollster John Zogby: "Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket. She has high favorability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party. The striking thing here in this poll is that McCain has pulled ahead among Catholics by double-digits. On the other hand, Palin is not helping with likely voting women who are not aligned with either political party. The undecided independent women voters decreased this week from 15% to 7%, but those women went to Obama. Palin is also helping among men, conservatives, notably with suburban and rural voters, and with frequent Wal-Mart shoppers, who tend to be "values" voters who like a good value for their money."

McCain's favorability rating increased from 50% favorable last week to 57% favorable now, a significant jump that indicates the GOP convention was a success. Among independent voters, 61% now have a favorable impression of him, compared to just 49% who said the same a week ago.

Nearly half - 49% - said they had a favorable opinion of Barack Obama, while 50% they had a negative impression of him. Among independent voters, 47% gave him favorable marks, compared to 46% who said the same thing last week.

Among the vice presidential candidates, 54% said they now hold a favorable view of Palin, while 42% hold an unfavorable view. While 49% have a favorable opinion of Joe Biden, 47% hold an unfavorable view of him.

From Fox News ~ Democrats are not caring for their Stars and Stripes. At least that’s the message out of John McCain’s campaign.

McCain supporters, claiming they rescued 12,000 miniature American flags from the site of Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech last Thursday, redistributed the orphan flags to audience members ahead of a McCain rally in Colorado Springs on Saturday.

The move was an overt swipe at Obama from a campaign whose motto has been “country first.” But Democratic convention organizers claimed the flags were not going to be discarded — but instead were snatched from the site of Obama’s historic address to carry out a “cheap political stunt.”

McCain supporters said the flags were discovered by a vendor at Denver’s Invesco Field after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention. The vendor supposedly found trash bags full of flags in and near garbage bins, and turned them over to the McCain campaign.

Boy Scouts were sorting through 84 bags of flags in Colorado on Saturday, before a McCain supporter had veterans distribute them to the audience.

“We want to find good homes for these flags,” radio host Dan Caplis said at the rally, adding that whatever flags remained would be placed at memorials throughout Colorado. Audience members, who booed when Caplis announced that the flags were left in Denver, waved the flags and chanted “U.S.A” before McCain arrived at the rally with his running mate, Sarah Palin.

Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement saying McCain should applaud the fact that thousands of American flags were “proudly waved” at their convention.

Is GOP Convention Bounce Coming Early?

By Mark Impomeni/Political Machine ~ On the day after the Republican Party convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, there are indications that the traditional post-convention bounce usually seen in opinion polling is materializing early for the GOP.

Analysis

The Real Clear Politics polling average has narrowed to show Sen. Barack Obama with a 2.5 point lead over Sen. John McCain. That is down four points in the last three days.

The reason for the tightening can be found in two of the components of the average, the Gallup and Rasmussen Reports daily tracking polls.

Gallup shows the race as a 48-44% Obama lead, down from a nine-point Obama advantage on Aug. 29th, the day after his acceptance speech. That was Sen. Obama's biggest lead since Aug. 15th and came on the same day that Sen. McCain announced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. On Thursday, Rasmussen showed the race as a two point Obama lead, 48-46%. Both polls have very large sample sizes, 2800 and 3000 respectively, and measure public opinion over three days, averaging the result. Gallup measures registered voters while Rasmussen measures likely voters.

The news for the McCain campaign is likely to get better. Both results only include one day in in which voters would have seen Gov. Palin's vice-presidential acceptance speech. With the enthusiastic response to her address, and the fact that Plain is now more popular than either presidential candidate, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, the daily tracking numbers should close even further as the weekend progresses.

By Monday, all three days in the rolling average of each poll will include post-Palin speech sampling. That result is likely to show an even race or perhaps a small McCain lead.

The pattern of this election appears to be set. This will be a very close election, just like the elections of 2000 and 2004. Democrats still appear to have the built-in advantages.

But the selection of Gov. Palin by Sen. McCain has energized the Republican base like never before in this contest. Conservatives for the first time have a reason to vote for the McCain ticket, rather than against the Democrats.

The first Presidential debate takes place on Friday, Sept. 26th. Unless one of the candidates has a major misstep before then, the race is likely to remain even or close until then.

Rasmussen: Following The Bouncing Poll

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows the beginning of John McCain's convention bounce and the race is essentially back where it was before Barack Obama's bounce. Obama now attracts 46% of the vote while McCain earns 45%. When "leaners" are included, it's Obama 48%, McCain 46%.

Turpen, Humphreys Raise Money For Cloud

The KFOR-TV "Flash Point" team of Democrat Mike Turpen and Republican Kirk Humpheys is teaming up off camera to raise money for Republican Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud.

Postcards received by potential donors announce the event, in Humphreys' Oklahoma City home, on September 23rd.

Turpen and Humphreys and their wives are hosts of the event.

Donations of $250 to $5,000 are requested.

Obama's Tie To Black Panthers Mentor Unveiled

It's reported today that new evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Read the entire story at http://www.newsmax.com/politics/obama_sutton_saudi/2008/09/03/127490.html.

Roth Chases Down Hit And Run Driver

By Bryan Dean/The Oklahoman ~ Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth made a citizen’s arrest this afternoon after he witnessed a hit-and-run collision near the state Capitol.

Oklahoma City Police Master Sgt. Gary Knight said the wreck occurred near NW 23 and Ollie.

Roth, contacted by The Oklahoman, said he was driving west on NW 23 about 12:30 p.m. when a man in the car next to him rear-ended a woman and pushed her car into a sport utility vehicle.

“I stopped and realized that the guy who had caused the accident quickly pulled up and took a right turn on a side street and sped away,” Roth said.

Roth said he cut through a parking lot and drove north on Western, hoping to cut the fleeing driver off. He caught up to the driver as they reached NW 25 and Western.

“I pulled in front of him and blocked his car and told him to get out,” Roth said. “I told him what he did was illegal and he was leaving the scene of an accident and that we should go back and see if everyone was OK.”

Roth said several other people stopped to see what was going on and helped him block the man’s car. Roth said he called 911, and Oklahoma City police quickly arrived and arrested the man.

Knight said Mallikarjuna Pawgad Mutt, 23, was arrested on a complaint of leaving the scene of an accident and two traffic violations. Knight said Mutt, an OCU student, told officers he fled because he only had a learner’s permit and not a driver’s license.

“Any time you are involved in a traffic accident, you need to stop,” Knight said. “It’s not just for safety reasons. If you flee the scene of an accident, you are just adding to the number of charges you are going to be facing.”

Roth said at least one woman involved in the wreck was treated by paramedics. He said he never considered whether the man might be armed or that confronting him could be dangerous.

“It just outraged me that he rear-ended a young lady and his instinct was to flee the scene instead of helping her,” Roth said. “It offended me.”

Confirmed: McCain Wins TV Ratings Race

From The Live Feed ~ John McCain has won the ratings race.

The Republican nominee beat Democratic challenger Barack Obama's record-setting convention speech viewership by 500,000.

McCain's address at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night was seen by about 38.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Obama received 38.4 million.

That means McCain's speech is now the most-watched in convention history -- 41% higher than President Bush's acceptance speech four years ago, and 1% higher than Obama's address last week.

Looking at the speech's audience demographics, McCain drew significantly more male viewers than Obama (16.2 million). McCain also drew more white viewers (32.2 million), while Obama was seen by more African Americans.

Though anticipation has been running high for McCain's address, the speech also may have benefited slightly from a strong NFL lead-in on NBC. Initially Republicans feared McCain might have to compete with the game for viewers' attention. But the NFL match started early, then put about 13.6 million viewers on the doorstep of NBC's 10 p.m. coverage of McCain's speech.

Still, NBC has aired the most-watched convention coverage among the broadcaster nets all week, and its numbers compared to rivals were not much different than on previous nights. In other words: the game may have helped, but it wasn't a major factor in McCain's massive viewership (even with the NBC receiving an NFL lead-in, Fox News is expected to win the network-by-network breakdown).

Also, with interest in his running mate Sarah Palin spiking viewership for the RNC on Wednesday, the convention was able to gain some significant momentum after losing its first night to Hurricane Gustav coverage. McCain received 5% more viewers than his running mate.

FOX NEWS: 9.1 MILLION; NBC: 8.7 MILLION; ABC: 6.0 MILLION; CBS: 5.3 MILLION; CNN: 4.8 MILLION; MSNBC: 2.5 MILLION (from 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.)

'Myth and deceit' Cited In Palin Media Attacks

By Jonah Goldberg/Tribune Media Services ~ "What is wrong with these people?" was the nigh-upon-universal reaction among conservatives at the GOP convention this week. Liberal reporters inquired of conservative journalists, Republican delegates, right-leaning janitors, free-market short-order cooks, even the guys walking around in elephant suits: Will Sarah Palin drop out? What about the Eagleton Option?

For those who don't know, the Eagleton Option refers to Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern's first VP pick in 1972, who was forced to withdraw because of allegations of mental illness.

A hybrid of myth and deceit peddled by the chattering bandersnatches of the Democratic Party's backup communications offices at MSNBC and other press-release transmission belts of the Obama campaign, the whole pseudo-story was surely the brightest flare in the bonfire of asininity in St. Paul this week.

Of course, it was hardly the only journalistic will-o'-the-wisp unleashed from the media bog. The claim that Palin was a Buchananite -- and hence an acolyte of a "Nazi sympathizer" according to Florida Rep. Robert Wexler -- was not true. The claims she cut funding for pregnant teens, that she was a member of the more-goofy-than-scary Alaska Independence Party, that Trig Palin -- her special-needs baby -- was really her daughter's: these were all bogus. As for the even more disgusting smears peddled at the Daily Kos and one blogger at The Atlantic -- smears that drove much of the prurient investigation into the Palin family's privacy by more reputable sources -- they were as untrue as they were repugnant.

But it was the Eagleton canard that spoke volumes. First, just as a matter of reportorial fact, as opposed to Keith Olbermann clicking his ruby-red slippers and wishing it were so, the idea that the rank and file of the GOP wanted her gone before her speech was distilled nonsense. Now, it's plain hilarious.

In the wake of Palin's performance Wednesday night, there's vastly more support among conservatives for flipping the McCain-Palin ticket to the Palin-McCain ticket. Send McCain to attend the funerals and cut the ribbons! Put the lipsticked pit bull at the lead of the Alaskanized GOP sled!

One good barometer of conservative support: Rush Limbaugh, who is rumored to kick his cat across the room in rage when he hears the name "McCain," now calls the Arizona senator "John McBrilliant."

For good or ill, going forward, Palin is easily the most popular Republican in the country, at least among people inclined to vote for the GOP. That may not last, of course (she has many trials ahead), but the instant decision of Beltway blowhards to push the Palin-as-liability fable says a lot about how little they understand much of the American electorate.

One partial explanation for the feeding frenzy is the bowel-stewing fear among an Obamaphilic press corps that Palin might actually help McCain win.

But another part of the answer is that the press was simply surprised. Cockroaches scatter when shocked by a flipped light switch. Grizzly bears attack when startled. And when caught napping by big news, the press corps floods the zone. Editors scream at underlings who missed the story. Networks fret they'll be scooped. And all of a sudden, the norms and standards become a blur in the race to be first. In the case of Palin, the press vaulted over every principle and standard they'd established about what is and isn't fair game, like O.J. Simpson leaping over luggage in the old Hertz commercials. It required the Jaws of Life to pry news of John Edwards' affair out the mainstream press. But when it came to the personal drama of Palin's 17-year old daughter, the press clawed for morsels like they were golden tickets from Wonka Bars.

They wouldn't have done the same thing if Palin were an unknown Democrat, because the press' reflex is to assume the worst of Republicans.

The Eagleton Option exposed the press' gut instincts, and the viscera are not pretty. Eagleton dropped out because it was leaked that he'd received shock therapy for ill-defined mental problems. Many of those who expected Palin to withdraw see her values and her choices as proof of a mental problem.

"She's more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's issues," quoth a spokeswoman from the predictably shrill National Organization for Women, which always defines womanhood by a woman's commitment to left-wing feminist dogma. If you're pro-life, or even just a Republican, you're not a real woman, you're suffering from some sort of pernicious gender confusion.

How long before the Palin-haters insist she needs shock therapy, too? For her own good, of course.

Obama-Biden Won't Break 35% Here?

Seventy-four percent of those who voted in our poll asking what percentage of the vote Barack Obama and Joe Biden will receive in Oklahoma believe it will be 35 percent or less.

And in our poll asking which television network has been the least fair to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, MSNBC was first followed closely by CNN.

Stunner: McCain TV Audience Largest Yet

From TV Week ~ Presidential candidate John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention drew more television viewers than his rival Barack Obama attracted at the Democratic party's event last week, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.

NBC’s coverage of Sen. McCain’s speech started directly at the tail end of the opening game of NFL season, with the speech pulling in a 6.3 rating/10 share, topping Sen. Obama’s speech last week by 26%. That lead-in may have boosted audiences who last night turned out in droves to watch Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin introduce herself to the country.

ABC’s showing of the McCain speech averaged a 4.5/7, down 2% from the same night of the Democratic convention last week, while CBS’ coverage took in a 3.4/5, an increase of 3%.

Inhofe, Rice Agree To Two Debates

Senator Jim Inhofe and his Democratic challenger, State Senator Andrew Rice, have agreed to two televised debates.

One is scheduled October 7th on Tulsa's KJRH, Channel 2. A date for the second, on Oklahoma City's KOCO, Channel 5, has not yet been set.

Biden: Media Attack On Palin 'Outrageous'

From The Hill ~ Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden repeated a Republican line of attack Thursday, slamming reporters for their “outrageous” and “sexist” treatment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

“I just think some of the stuff said has been over the top, totally unfair, and has been sexist and I think the way the governor has handled it has been admirable,” the Delaware senator said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I think this stuff about how can she be a governor and vice president and raise...kids, c'mon, whoever those folks are don't know any strong women.

“The truth is, some of the stuff that the press has said about Sarah and that others have said about the governor, I think, are outrageous. Look, I think kids are off-limits, flat off-limits.”

Rasmussen: 58% View Palin Favorably

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom.

The figures include 40% with a Very Favorable opinion of Palin and 18% with a Very Unfavorable view. Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52%. A week ago, 67% had never heard of her.

The new data also shows significant increases in the number who say McCain made the right choice and the number who say Palin is ready to be President. Generally, John McCain’s choice of Palin earns slightly better reviews than Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden.

Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.

Control Of Shotgun Saves Texas Couple

BLUE MOUND, Texas ~ When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice.

The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.

"I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms.

Although the intruders told her to keep quiet, she screamed for her husband. She told her 12-year-old son, who was awakened by the sound of the shattering glass front door, to get his 5-year-old sister and hide.

"It was like a horror movie," her husband, 32-year-old Keith Hoehn, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I thought I was a dead man. We're fighting for our lives."

With Kellie Hoehn clinging to the weapon's muzzle, her husband tackled the man who held the shotgun. She knocked the intruder in the head with a jar candle, giving her husband a chance to wrest the shotgun.

By then the tussle had spilled out onto the front lawn. Keith Hoehn shot one of the men who had a pistol, police said. Wounded, that man ran away. Then the intruder who initially had the shotgun charged Keith Hoehn.

Kellie Hoehn told The Dallas Morning News that she screamed at her husband, "Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him."

Her husband fired the shotgun and the man fell to the ground. Then the shot man lunged a second time.

"Well, I shot him again, and I guess that was it," Keith Hoehn said.

Dakota Scott Benoit, 20, of Richland Hills, was pronounced dead at a hospital. John Garland Pierson, 25, of Haltom City, was in critical condition and in police custody at the hospital.

Poll: 71% Give McCain Good-Excellent Nod

An America Online poll shows that 71 percent of those who voted in the hour after John McCain's speech at the Republican National Convention gave it a rating of "good" to "excellent."

CBS Flash: McCain-Palin Tie Obama-Biden

(CBS) ~ The presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain is now even at 42 percent, according to a new CBS News poll conducted Monday-Wednesday of this week.

Twelve percent are undecided according to the poll, and one percent said they wouldn't vote.

This is in contrast to a poll conducted last weekend, where the Obama-Biden ticket led McCain-Palin by eight points, 48 percent to 40 percent.

McCain has also closed the enthusiasm gap some with Obama, but it still exists. Fifty-five percent of Obama's supporters are enthusiastic about their choice, and now so are 35% of McCain's. Last weekend, just 25 percent of McCain's supporters were enthusiastic about him, compared to 67 percent of Obama's supporters.

Cole: McCain-Palin Ticket Key To Wins

From The Hill ~ The House GOP will rely on the top of their ticket for electoral victory, according to the top House Republican in charge of campaigns.

“Our strength in Congressional races this year rests at the top of the ticket,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) told delegates Thursday in his address to the Republican National Convention.

He implored the party faithful to work hard for their presidential candidate. “The harder you campaign for John McCain, the better our Congressional candidates will run,” he said.

80% Say Obama-Biden Won't Top 35%

About 80 percent of those who've voted thus far in our poll asking what percentage of the vote the Obama-Biden ticket will get in Oklahoma in November say the duo won't top 35 percent.

If you've not yet cast your vote, you'll find the poll on the right side of this page along with other polls; your votes are invited in each.

Palin's Audience Almost Matches Obama's

From The Live Feed ~ Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night nearly matched the record-setting numbers of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Palin pulled in 37.2 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 55% higher than Day 3 of the DNC, when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and President Clinton took the stage (24 million).

It's also up a sharp 99% from the Republican convention's third day in 2004 (18.7 million).

In fact, it came close to upsetting Obama's historic address on Thursday -- the most-watched convention speech in history (38.4 million viewers).

Palin's viewership is up significantly from Tuesday's RNC tally, when 21.5 million tuned in to see President Bush and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman endorse nominee John McCain.

Welcome, Liberal Democrats

A hearty Oklahoma welcome today to the liberal Democrats who have been sent our way by liberal bloggers, including Daily Kos, to vote in our online polls.

At the Democrats of Oklahoma Community Forum, administrator Jane Luttrell and others are clucking over their clever votes for Fox News in our poll about which network has been the least fair to Sarah Palin. That they admit (?) watching Fox is startling news. It's demonstrative of the mindset of these folks that they feel the need to play these kinds of games.

That our obscure state blog site draws such attention flatters us.

Fox News Tops CNN, MSNBC Combined

Here are the ratings for last night's Republican National Convention viewing: Fox News 6,179,000; NBC 4,468,000; CNN 3,220,000; ABC 3,098,000; CBS 2,928,000; MSNBC 1,590,000.

Palin's 'Star-turning performance' Lauded

By Tom Raum and Liz Sidoti In St. Paul (AP) ~ Sarah Palin delivered.

An embattled vice presidential candidate, a novice on the national stage, the head of a family suffering its "ups and downs," the first-term Alaska governor rocked the GOP convention with a star-turning performance.

[Her performance is the more remarkable because during it, her teleprompter became inoperative and she delivered much of the speech from memory.]

Wielding a stiletto and a smile, Palin belittled Democrat Barack Obama and praised her new boss, John McCain, jolting the crowd of GOP partisans.

"Don't you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States!" McCain said, hinting the controversy surrounding his pick. "And what a beautiful family."

Indeed, the family was on display for the TV cameras - five children, including a 17-year-old unmarried daughter who is pregnant.

Their mother lacked the soaring oratory skills of Obama - a man she attacked as a tax-raising, terrorist-coddling, self-indulgent liberal. But the former TV sportscaster spoke in calm, TV-friendly tones reminiscent of Ronald Reagan. Like the former GOP president, Palin warmed the crowd with quips and jokes.

"What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull," she said, pausing for a beat and a smirk. "Lipstick."

She left the crowd smiling.

"For too many times, we've brought knives to gun fights," said Chuck Gast, a delegate from Maryland,

When asked if Palin brought a gun to the fight, Gast said: "Yes, I think she brings a big gun, like a moose gun."

Cole, Fallin To Address RNC Tonight

Congressman Tom Cole and Congresswoman Mary Fallin, the two Oklahomans remaining on the Republican National Convention schedule following changes due to the cancellation of Monday night's schedule, will speak tonight.

Fallin's chief of staff, Nate Webb, said her time slot of 7:35 p.m. was confirmed by convention schedulers this morning. Cole will speak during the first hour between 6 and 7 p.m., likely just after the beginning of the hour.

Senator Tom Coburn and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett originally were scheduled to speak as well.

Palin: A Stunning Star Is Born

By Fergus Shanahan/The Sun Of The UK ~ A week ago nobody had ever heard of her.

Today she is the most talked-about woman in the world. And with good reason.

Sarah Palin's sensational performance at the Republican Party Convention may turn out to be the tipping point of this rollercoaster American election.

Obama fans hoping she would fluff her big night were in for a nasty shock.

This speech has turned the election upside down. It was simply stunning.

Democrats and their Lefty media backers had been sneering that she was a small town nobody, a hick from the Alaskan sticks put into a job way beyond an inexperienced woman.

Believe me, you will not be hearing that again.

Palin turned out to be an electrifying mix of intelligence, passion, energy, optimism and plain speaking.

Full of self-assurance and aggression, she popped Barack's balloon big-time.

From the moment she walked on stage in this cavernous bear pit, bandbox smart in cream jacket, trim black skirt and black heels, she proved that John McCain knew exactly what he was doing when he picked her as running mate.

Hair piled into a slight beehive – more Sarah White House than Amy Winehouse – she blinked and smiled behind her geeky spectacles as the vast crowd went ballistic.

For an unpopular party divided over Iraq and struggling to compete with Obama's Messianic glamour, the choice of Palin looks absolutely inspired.

Main Street America will have loved her performance.

And it was seen by 30 million voters – the greatest number ever to watch a candidate for the much-derided VP post.

She is popular with voters for the very reason America's snooty political establishment despises her: She isn't one of the Washington gang.

She's a moose-hunting mum of five with a sledge-load of problems behind her own front door that workaday Americans can relate to.

A child with special needs. A daughter of 17 pregnant. A constant juggle between family and career.

As she said, her family has had its ups and downs like any other.

Last night her first task was to introduce herself and her family to an American public incredulous that the unknown Alaska governor could within weeks be a heartbeat away from being their commander in chief.

Compared to the journeyman career politicians dominating both parties here she seemed fresh, natural, one of us and not one of them.

She spoke to America as one mum to another. She cracked good jokes.

What's the difference between a hockey mum and a pit bull?, she asked. Answer: One wears lipstick.

What will have scared the enemy camp most is the devastating series of prime-time punches she landed on the jutting Obama jaw.

Showing steel beneath her magnolia jacket, she slaughtered his lack of experience, his vanity, his emptiness beneath the windy waffle.

It was the most powerful demolition of the Democrat hero I have heard in two weeks on the US election trail.

The St. Paul audience adored her.

When she duffed up the Lefty media commentators for their sexist sneers, the vast crowd roared approval and pointed in anger at the titans of the American press aloof in their special enclosure.

And quite right too: who ever asked whether Obama could still be a good dad if he became president?

The irony, as Palin pointed out, is that liberal media sniping has only succeeded in uniting Republicans behind her.

The wagons have been drawn up and the Republicans are ready for battle.