With just one week to go until the US presidential election, 12 million Americans have already voted, and early polls are indicating a strong lead for Barack Obama. As things heat up for this final week, keep your browser on Crikey as we bring you all the breaking news, polls, analysis and videos straight from the campaign trail at our Campaign Crikey live news page and blog.
Our daily pick of the best news commentary and analysis, as featured on our website:
McCain still anchored down by Bush. A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday reveals that the Arizona Republican is not only trailing substantially (19 percent) among early voters, but faces political obstacles that seem downright insurmountable. Despite devoting countless airtime and speeches towards distancing himself from George W. Bush, more people today believe McCain would be an extension of the current administration’s policies than they did just one week ago. — Huffington Post
White supremacists in white tuxedos. In the ATF affidavit, a copy of which you’ll find below, Cowart and Schlesselman “discussed the killing spree to include targeting a predominately African-American school, going state to state while robbing individuals and continuing to kill people.” The pair’s “final act of violence” would be an attempt to kill Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee… Apparently befitting the historic assault, Cowart and Schlesselman “stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt.” — The Smoking Gun
Vidal on McCain. Mr McCain seems to be in the terminal throes of a self-love that causes him to regard himself as a great American hero. From time to time, he likes to shout at us, “I have fought in many, many wars,” and, “I have won many of them,” but he has, so far, never told us which were the ones that he has actually won, since every war that he has graced with his samurai presence seems to have been thoroughly lost by the United States. – Gore Vidal, Truthdig
Will Obama scare swing voters? Here’s my advice to Sen. Barack Obama’s supporters: Stop predicting that the Democrats will sweep into the White House and Congress come January with a mandate to expand Big Government. — MSNBC
The fat lady has not begun to sing. If you are a supporter of Barack Obama, you will have to forgive me today for spraying you with a blast of ice water. Listen to me: Obama might lose. As we head into the final days of the campaign — or the end times, as Sarah Palin might put it — let me count the ways by which McCain could pull this off. — Guardian
Michelle-O is no Jackie-O. Girly-girls and SuperMoms aren’t threatening to average Americans; high-achieving community activists, apparently, are. Why talk shop when you can talk shopping? — Columbia Journalism Review
The latest election coverage on the Crikey blogs:
White supremacy by the numbers — Jonathan Green
Moose lips sink ships — Chong Weng Ho, US election blog
The best clips from our US election video wrap — posted daily on the Crikey US election blog:
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.