by Thomas Pierce

Good morning y'all,

Two weeks from today, America picks its next president. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, oh no, only 14 more days of election news... only 14 more days of stump speeches, poll-data, kerfluffles, game-changers, and a never-ending barrage of questionably accurate/appropriate campaign advertisements. However sad the prospect that all of this must come to an end, we march on:

McCain had a rough weekend — what with Obama's insanely large fundraising numbers and the Colin Powell endorsement — but yesterday the Republican nominee may have found an antidote to some of that. Oddly enough (or perhaps not so oddly), it came from Joe Biden. Seizing on Biden's comments that an Obama presidency would encounter an international crisis within its first six months, McCain addressed a crowd in Belton, Missouri saying, "We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars." He added:

What is more troubling is that Sen. Biden told their campaign donors that when that crisis hits, they would have to stand with them, because it wouldn't be apparent Sen. Obama would have the right response... Forget apparent. Sen. Obama won't have the right response, and we know that because we've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign.

Questioning Obama's experience and judgment could be effective, but whether or not McCain will be taking this message to swing states like Colorado is unclear. CNN's John King reported last night that the campaign may be looking at a revised electoral strategy that emphasizes Pennsylvania — and doesn't rely on states like Iowa, New Mexico, and Colorado (all won by Bush in 2004). Team McCain had previously banked on a win in Colorado, but that could be changing:

"Gone," was the word one top McCain insider used to describe those three states.
This source said while the polls in Colorado remain close, he and most others in the operation were of the opinion that the Obama campaign and its allies have a far superior ground/turnout operation and "most of us have a hard time counting on Colorado."

Campaign manager Rick Davis is among the dissenters, believing the state remains within reach, several sources in and close to the McCain campaign say.

However, the McCain camp kicked back this morning, saying they still have their sights set on Colorado. Jonathan Martin reports:

Two senior aides didn't deny that Colorado appeared challenging, but pointed to the two key indicators of any campaign's intent, time and money, to make the case that they were still holding out hope there.

"We didn't send Gov. Palin there for no reason," said one, a reference to the vice presidential nominee's three rallies across the state today.

Speaking of Palin, she's now taking questions — maybe even more than Obama, Biden, and McCain.

 

Following the Republican Convention, Palin was criticized for going on media lockdown, offering nary a press conference. Her interviews — with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson — didn't exactly go well. And when she met with foreign leaders like Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai last month, the campaign only let one producer into the room for 30 seconds. On the stump, Palin's contempt for the mainstream media is one of her favorite talking points. But despite that, two weeks ago she meandered to the back of her campaign plane and subjected herself to reporters' questions. And it continued over the weekend. She fielded questions on Saturday and Sunday — on the plane, on a tarmac, and at an ice cream shop. As From the Road notes, this could actually enable her to claim she's making herself more available to the press than the other candidates at this point in the race:

By contrast, Biden hasn't held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn't taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September. John McCain—who spent most of the primary season holding what seemed like one, never-ending media availability—hasn't done one since Sept. 23.

And in other Palin news, the LA Times has an interesting piece today about Palin's college years. According to the article, her professors (spanning three colleges) don't remember her:

Indeed, interviews with a dozen professors yielded not a single snippet of a memory.

Most were perplexed and frustrated that they could offer no insight into a woman who has become their most famous former student. Only a few classmates recalled her, and those with the strongest memories were people she had grown up with in Alaska.

And what of Barack Obama? He got some bad news yesterday. His grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, is ill. The candidate announced he'll be taking two days off later in the week to fly to Hawaii to visit with her. He'll return to the trail on Saturday. But until he leaves the continental US, he'll continue stumping in the Sunshine State along with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, urging people to vote early now that the polls are open officially open there.

Oh, and Barack Obama has won... Nickelodeon's Kids Pick the President contest. Two million kids voted for president and elected the Democratic hopeful. But here's the interesting part: his victory was a narrow one... 51% to 49%. If we assume that kids vote like their parents, could this be the most accurate and significant poll data available? As Nick News' Linda Ellerbee points out, the Nickelodoen contest has correctly predicted the winner four out of the last five elections. Hmm...