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America's moment of truth

Election officials are braced for the biggest turnout in US history today as voters finally deliver their verdict on Barack Obama and John McCain to bring to an end a gripping, two-year campaign.Although officials expressed confidence that polling booths would cope, campaigners and analysts expressed fears that the strain could see long queues and stations having to extend opening hours into the night. The effect would be a delay in declaring results in key states.With all the main polls putting Obama well ahead, political analysts from right and left said they expected him to easily reach the 270 of 538 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, and many predicted a landslide, with him taking 350 or more electoral seats.The Washington-based Pew organisation, one of the most respected pollsters which accurately predicted the vote in 2004, yesterday put Obama on 52% and McCain on 46%. RealClearPolitics, a website that averages out the main polls, put Obama on 51% to McCain's 44%. If the polls are borne out today, he would become the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to win 50% or more of the popular vote.The excitement generated by Obama's candidacy is expected to see between 130 million and 140 million Americans vote, easily eclipsing the 121 million who turned out in 2004.Obama and McCain both began multi-state tours yesterday in Florida, before heading towards their home states today. There was a poignant start to Obama's tour when he learned of the death of his 86-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, while he was campaigning in Florida. She helped raise him and in a campaign advertisement this year he described her as having "taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland".Obama decided to continue with his appearances and later told a rally in Jacksonville, Florida: "After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush and 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from change in America."Obama was unable to avoid providing occasional glimpses throughout the day that he expected to become the 44th president. In a courteous gesture he might not have made if the race was closer, Obama said he wanted to "congratulate McCain on the great race that he has fought".Exuding confidence, he told a rally the previous night: "The last couple of days, I've been just feeling good."As polling day nears, he has become more reflective, telling CBS yesterday that he had found the toughest part of the two-year campaign was the rightwing attack on his wife, Michelle. He described this as "just completely out of bounds".McCain, at a rally in Tampa, Florida, insisted he could still pull off a surprise win. "The pundits may not know it and the Democrats may not know it, but the Mac is back. We're going to win this election."The Democrats, as well as political analysts, were less sanguine than election officials about trouble-free voting, saying that with 300,000 precincts across the country, there would be problems.Democratic officials complain that in some states Republican election officers are not opening enough booths in areas that are predominantly African-American in the hope that some voters, put off by queues, will go home without voting.Professor Michael McDonald, an election expert at Virginia's George Mason University, said: "I would not be surprised if we had long lines, potentially keeping polling places open longer on election day." He anticipated problems in states that had not allowed early voting in significant numbers, such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Missouri.The Democrats are outspending the Republicans on final-day advertising by at least two to one. They are also likely to have more staff and volunteers out, with 770 offices nationwide to McCain's 370.US elections 2008Barack ObamaJohn McCainDemocratsRepublicansguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many

TAMPA, Florida, Oct 10 (IPS) - If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say.

Contrary to RNC official, Politico 's Javers said of debate: "McCain really benefits from low expectations"

During the September 22 edition of MSNBC Live, host Jeff Rossen and Politico correspondent Eamon Javers agreed that expectations in the upcoming presidential debate were higher for Sen. Barack Obama. After Rossen referred to Obama as "an amazing orator," Javers said that "everybody assumes that Barack Obama is a better speaker than John McCain" and added: "[I]f Obama stumbles, on the flip-side, and doesn't appear as well-versed or as smooth a talker as we've come to expect of him, that could be a real disaster for the Obama camp. ... So, McCain really benefits from low expectations going in here." In fact, "everybody" doesn't "assume[]" that Obama is the better speaker in a debate setting and that McCain needs only to exceed low expectations: Republican National Committee deputy chair and McCain campaign fundraiser Frank Donatelli recently asserted that McCain "is much better at giving answers off the cuff, and Obama has some troubles when he doesn't have his teleprompter." Moreover, several media figures and outlets have also suggested that a debate setting favors McCain. In a September 16 interview with National Review Online, Donatelli said: "Starting early next week, I think you'll see a lot of interest in Friday's debate. It may draw the highest numbers we've ever seen, and I think that for the v.p. debate, you'll see a tremendous amount of interest. We feel good about that. Senator McCain is much better at giving answers off the cuff, and Obama has some trouble when he doesn't have his teleprompter." Numerous media outlets or figures have also asserted or suggested that a debate format favors McCain. For instance: In a September 9 column, The Des Moines Register's David Yepsen wrote: "The next big events are the debates. Democrats should be worried about those as well. McCain sticks to his message and is better at sound-bite answers in these gabfests. Obama hesitates and meanders. He seems too thoughtful. Too thoughtful? How can that be bad in a president, when we've had so little thoughtfulness in recent years? Sorry, but the nature of television being what it is, the one-liner and the glib jab tend to look more commanding and executive-like. Thoughtful is too equivocal. We got a little taste of how the debates could look at that Saddleback Church forum awhile back. McCain did much better than Obama simply by delivering clearer answers. Obama should have done a better job of focusing his answers, especially since this problem plagued him in the primary debates." In an August 24 editorial, the Dayton Daily News wrote of Obama: "He is not the greatest debater in the world. In the debates during the presidential primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton did better. And when Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain were interviewed a week ago on television by the same minister, Sen. McCain did better. In an August 18 post on MSNBC.com's First Read blog, political director Chuck Todd, deputy political director Mark Murray, and political researcher Domenico Montanaro wrote of August 16's Saddleback Civil Forum: "[It] was a fascinating event because the contrast between the two candidates was so clear. Obama better be thankful for the timing -- he seemed a little rusty and clearly has some work to do before he meets McCain face-to-face on September 26, the night of the first presidential debate in Oxford, MS. If there is an upside for Obama, it's that he might now enter the first debate with slightly lower expectations than McCain." On the August 18 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Terry Jeffrey, editor of the conservative Human Events, said of Obama: "He's an excellent stump speaker. He's not a good debater. When they were asked direct questions on Saturday [at the Saddleback Civil Forum], John McCain gave clear, direct, immediate answers. He was funny sometimes. Barack Obama was convoluted in his answers. He wasn't direct. He seemed evasive at times. I think that these debates could be very good for John McCain." In an August 18 article for the conservative American Spectator, Philip Klein wrote: "But if this weekend's forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church is any indication of how the two candidates will perform in the presidential debates, it's time to recalibrate the existing expectations. The debates may still be a wipeout -- only Obama now seems likelier to bite the dust." During CNN's August 16 coverage of the Saddleback Civil Forum, senior political analyst David Gergen said: "I think coming out of this, the clear lesson for Barack Obama is if he wants to win the debates against John McCain, he's going to have to lift the quality of his game. He's got to be like McCain, forceful, persuasive, patriotic, moved the crowd. Barack Obama thoughtful, but I don't think moved the needle very much emotionally. He's going to have to lift it up. I think we ought to readjust our thoughts about what these debates look like. John McCain is going to be a much tougher opponent. But tonight is an example of much tougher opponent in these debates than anybody thought." On the April 8 edition of Fox News' America's Election HQ, during a discussion of Gen. David Petraeus' testimony to Congress, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that "Obama here was kind of groping for words. He was nowhere near the normal eloquent Obama he usually is." Host Megyn Kelly replied: "And a lot of Republicans think that if we go forward into a general election with McCain on one side and Obama on the other, we'll see more of that, because their feeling is he is better on the stump than he is in the debate forum." Fleischer replied: "Absolutely." From the 10 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on September 22: ROSSEN: Now, on Friday, Barack Obama and John McCain will go from trading sound bites and these long-distance jabs we keep seeing to a face-to-face showdown. That's when it gets real interesting. It's their first debate, but while most Americans are focused on the economic crisis, this debate is about foreign policy and national security. Eamon Javers is a correspondent with Politico.com. Good morning to you. JAVERS: Hi, how are you? ROSSEN: What are the expectations going into Friday? I mean, could this be a game-changer debate? JAVERS: It's absolutely a game-changer. I mean, the stakes couldn't really be higher. I mean, we've got the financial world in a total meltdown, and we're supposed to talking about national security, but I don't see how the candidates will be able to resist talking about this financial crisis, that really, if it is allowed to unspool, could become a real national security crisis for the United States and much of the Western world here, as the economies are really on the brink of total disaster. The stakes for these presidential candidates really couldn't be higher on Friday. ROSSEN: Eamon, that's the point here. I mean, McCain had a bad week last week, he has since come down in the polls -- we're beginning to see it in the daily tracking polls, and I have some of the state polls in front of me as well. How does he turn this around? Does he really have to -- I mean, does he have to change his message, or does he just keep going the way he's been going? JAVERS: Well, there's two problems for John McCain. One is on the substance, and then the other one is on the style of the debate. On the substance, this is going to be about national security, which is his strong point, but to the extent that we get into the economy at all, that hasn't really been his strength so far. Understanding what's going on in the financial markets right now is difficult enough for people who are sophisticated players in the markets, let alone for John McCain, who has never been an economic expert. So, beefing up on the substance is going to be very tough for him. And then on style, Barack Obama is such a smooth, good-looking, polished speaker. For John McCain really isn't, and to go head to head with Barack Obama on that front is gonna be difficult. And you can be sure that his aides are really rehearsing him right now, over and over and over again on the key lines that they want him to say and just getting comfortable with the camera and the environment and all the things -- the little things that you have to do when you're on stage to present a calm and commanding presence on stage. ROSSEN: Obama is setting up debate camp in Tampa, Florida, I think, this week. What is John McCain doing, do you hear about? JAVERS: Well, John McCain is gonna be doing the same thing. Both candidates are gonna find a staffer who is really good at imitating the other candidate. So, McCain people will have a person actually playing Barack Obama during their mock debates as they go through, and they try to throw everything they can think of at their candidate to make sure that he is on his toes and can respond to any kind of jab from the other side. Both sides will come up with an aide who will actually play the opposing part. ROSSEN: No one is gonna take away from Barack Obama -- he is an amazing orator. Does John McCain try to go after that, or just play his own game here? Why even try to beat a guy that you think you can't beat in that category? JAVERS: Well, yeah, it's tricky. I mean, McCain can play the expectations game, right. I mean, everybody assumes that Barack Obama is a better speaker than John McCain, and if that's how it turns out, then people will say, "Well, that's pretty much what we thought." But if Obama stumbles, on the flip-side, and doesn't appear as well-versed or as smooth a talker as we've come to expect of him, that could be a real disaster for the Obama camp, because McCain, by contrast, will look a lot better. So, McCain really benefits from low expectations going in here. ROSSEN: Lot to lose for both sides. Eamon Javers, Politico.com. Thanks so much for your help today.

Hannity asked if it was "danger[ous]" for Obama to speak of "economic crisis" but ignored McCain ad saying "the economy is in crisis"

During an interview with Gov. Sarah Palin aired on the September 17 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity asked, "Is Senator [Barack] Obama then using what happened on Wall Street this week -- is he using it for political gain? Is there a danger if a presidential candidate is saying to the world that America's situation, economic crisis, is the worst that we have seen in decades, which was words that he was using yesterday?" But Hannity did not ask Palin if there was "danger" in an ad released by Sen. John McCain's campaign in which McCain asserts that "[t]he economy is in crisis," or in a September 15 speech in which he said: "The American economy is in a crisis." Later in the program, in reference to Obama's criticism of McCain for his September 15 statement that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong," Hannity asked Fox News political analyst Karl Rove: "[I]s Senator Barack Obama suggesting our economy is not a strong economy? Is he sending a signal to the world? Is that presidential? It almost seems like he's panicked and inexperienced and has never seen these cycles before." But Hannity again did not note the McCain ad, nor did he note that in a speech later on September 15, following Obama's criticism, McCain asserted: "The American economy is in a crisis." McCain also said: "The fundamentals of our economy are at risk," and that "those fundamentals are threatened, they are threatened and at risk because some on Wall Street have treated Wall Street like a casino." And in that speech and a September 16 speech in Tampa, Florida, McCain said that "the top of our economy is broken." Hannity did not ask Rove to assess whether McCain's statements were "sending a signal to the world," or whether such a "signal" was "presidential." From the September 17 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes: HANNITY: Is Senator Obama then using what happened on Wall Street this week -- is he using it for political gain? Is there a danger if a presidential candidate is saying to the world that America's situation, economic crisis, is the worst that we have seen in decades, which was words that he was using yesterday? Is there a danger in terms of the world hearing that? PALIN: Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record proving that he can work both sides of the aisle. He can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this. It is that profound and that important an issue that we work together on this and not just let one party try to kind of grab it all, capture it all, and pretend like they have all the answers. It's going to take everybody working together on this. [...] HANNITY: Let me ask you this, because we've got this whole issue. And one of the first questions I asked her is the attacks now by -- by Senator Biden and Senator Obama is, you know, that Senator McCain said the fundamentals of the American economy are strong. And I'm thinking about this, and I know we've got our problems. Certainly, we've been watching the Wall Street issues. Certainly, people have real concerns. But I'm wondering on the converse side of that, is Senator Barack Obama suggesting our economy is not a strong economy? Is he sending a signal to the world? Is that presidential? It almost seems like he's panicked and inexperienced and has never seen these cycles before. ROVE: Yeah, well, it's one thing to say, look, we face challenges, which, if you recall, Senator McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are strong but we're facing a crisis and challenge. And it's one thing to say, you know, "Look, we're going to be resolute. We can get through this. We've got the best workforce in the world. We've got innovation and technology and a flexible economy. And we'll be able to overcome bubbles like the housing bubble and problems like Wall Street. But we've got challenges and we need to work on them." It's another thing to seem to be divorced from reality. Senator Obama is attempting to make Senator McCain look like he's divorced from reality. The problem is anybody who wants to pay attention to it is seeing that Senator McCain made a longer comment with which most Americans would associate themselves. And by truncating that comment, Senator Obama is raising questions about his own credibility.

Bad Part of Town... For Car Alarms

In a certain part of downtown Tampa, Florida, people have been complaining for years about car alarms randomly going off, or not working at all. It turns out that a local radio station's signal interference is the cause. read more