At the top of the results, you'll see a paid ad for Obama:

Who Advises John McCain?
Over 177 Lobbyists Run His Campaign Watch Obama TV Ads and Donate Today
BarackObama.com

Those guys are smart.

John McCain's campaign may be facing an uphill battle, but he and his staff still have plenty of ideas according to notes from a campaign brainstorming session. The notes were leaked to major media outlets from a source close to John McCain who asked not to be identified for unidentified reasons:

When I'm bored or anxious, I like to play with the interactive electoral college map over at RealClearPolitics.com. They set it up for you based on the latest aggregate polling data, but you can change the configuration at will. Obama has been ahead all along, but you had to turn several gray "toss-up" states to light blue "leaning Obama" in order to give him the win.

This post is not about a break-up or a political conversion. It is literally about how I lost my religion, more or less, and became an atheist. I thought about posting it yesterday but decided to spare the believers who care about me from witnessing me commit sacrilege on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when we are supposed to beg for God's forgiveness in case he left us off the Book of Life this year. I don't think there is any evidence that atheists suffer from higher death rates than believers, so whatever the drawbacks to atheism, premature death does not appear to be one of them.

In these dark days of negative politics and collapsing markets, I just want to call out a feel-good art project to warm our chilly hearts. A few of us associated with DagBlog organized a nationwide Obama fundraiser over the summer with fundraising parties in multiple cities across the country and around the world. I worked on the NYC event which took place at a loft in Brooklyn.

The Republican presidential hopeful John McCain let his frustration with the US economy boil over today. When asked in an interview about the challenges his campaign faces, McCain responded, "Look, it's no secret that the economy favors my opponent." Asked to elaborate, he replied, "This country is in crisis. Now is not the time to point fingers. But everybody knows that the economy caused this crisis, and I think everybody knows why it's doing it."

I spent the debate blogging as a 16-year-old, and I have to disagree with the assessment of a Biden win. The experience was, to be honest, very weird. Writing as SarahPalinGrrrrl in previous posts did not require me to get into her head. She and I maintained a respectful distance from one another. But during the live blogging, there was no time for that. I had to be SarahPalinGrrrrl. OMG. As a result, I listened to the debate the way a 16-year-old might have, or at least how I imagine that a 16-year-old might have.

Politico: John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

We just launched, and we're still working out kinks in the blog. The RSS feed on the main page was down, but it's back, baby. So get your DagBlog posts hot off the blog at http://dagblog.com/rss.

John McCain on the state of the economy

1/10 McCain: I don't believe we're headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.

Huzzah, the fundamentals are strong!

From Friday's debate:

Hey folks. I think that I need a new handle to maintain parity with the other "men" at this site, and I'm taking suggestions. It doesn't have to start with G, but it would be nice to maintain some connection to the name of the blog

Current candidates:

• G-man
• Grooveyman
• Unman
• Gingerbreadman
• Gingerman

Unman is my fav, but it doesn't start with G. After that I like Gingerman for the gingerbread and literary references. I would probably use this image as my avatar:

This post is not about the horse race or who "won" the debate. This post is about the greatest problem facing America today, a greater problem than we have faced in many years. This post is about the economy. I'm sorry to say that neither of the candidates took the opportunity to address it in a serious manner.

We are facing the worst economic crisis since the 1980's. WaMu just set a record as the "Largest U.S. Bank Failure Ever." (Mazel-tov, WaMu.) Investment titans are on the knees, the ones that haven't gone under or been torn apart. Debt is at a historic high. Credit is tight. People are losing their houses and their jobs. Everyone is angry. Everyone is afraid.

I wrote this piece some years ago, before I was 30. I'm now probably in what could be called an on-schedule midlife crisis, but this article still seems relevant. I've updated it slightly to make it current with the times...

America is fortunate to have a choice between two men of honor this election year. In another election, the candidates might have tried to exploit the financial crisis for petty political gain. But not this year. John McCain has gone so far as to propose delaying the first debate with Barack Obama so that they can solve our crisis:

The blogosphere is abuzz with rumors about a secret deal between John McCain and Satan. A contributor to popular political blog, TPM Cafe, first broke the story last week in a post entitled, Lady MacDeath - A Faustian Bargain of Sinister Deception. According to blogger TheraP, who does not quote any sources, Satan promised John McCain the Presidency in 2008 in return for sacrificing his soul and selecting Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Oh things are going well my friends. This stock market crash could not have come at a better time. Just look at John McCain squirm. All we need are a few more major bankruptcies, and we'll have the election locked up. As a special bonus, the greedy bankers are getting screwed too.

Back in the doom-and-gloom days of...um...last week, there were a number of stalwart cheerleaders at TPM Cafe who airily assured us that Obama had everything under control. While I wasn't particularly concerned about the polls--I've seen enough elections not to get my knickers in a twist over weekly fluctuations--I had the sense that at least some of those cheerleaders would insist that all was well up to the moment of crushing defeat. The knowing assurances that Obama's hesitance to attack was part of his rope-a-dope strategy seemed the most suspect.