Happy Friday

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This doesn't hurt either

Optimism

Anyone who knows me knows that despite my strong support of him I've not had the brightest outlook of Obama's chances of actually winning the presidency. Polls and trends help make me feel better, but I still think that when it comes time to pull the lever, advance poll results won't bear out what folks do in the booth.

Recent poll results are helping to change my mind, though, based not on the numbers of likely winner, but on other questions, like some of those cited in this article from today's NY Times.

Some key points:

¶Mr. Obama is maintaining his lead, with 51 percent of likely voters supporting him and 40 percent supporting Mr. McCain in a head-to-head matchup.

¶Some perceptions of race are changing, with a marked increase in the number of people who say they believe that white and black people have an equal chance of getting ahead in America today.

¶Mr. McCain’s focus on taxes, including his talk about Joe the Plumber, seems to be having some effect, as a growing number of voters now say Mr. McCain would not raise their taxes.

¶Eighty-nine percent of people view the economy negatively, and 85 percent think the country is on the wrong track.

¶Mr. Obama continues to have a significant advantage on key issues like the economy, health care and the war in Iraq.

Six Days

"In six days, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope."

Barack Obama at a rally in North Carolina.

Charles for Obama

This is pretty amazing. Hope and optimism should trump fear and division.

Bible Spice

This is great.

Soon there will be a reckoning between the cerebral cons (who've been long content to pal up with vermin) and the wingnut residuum that has found its avatar in Bible Spice.

The Wire for Obama!

This seals it. Kema's a hell of an endorsement.

The article's worth a read. FiveThirtyEight has turned out to be a great new site for polling info, but this one goes a bit beyond that.

We Heart Old Dogs

They're the best. That's Cathy and Gus, a great example. And this article from the Washington post captures well the wonderful creatures that they are.

Careful: This one's a weeper. I read it at work and was glad no one happened by. Could have been embarrassing.

McCain and Al Qaeda

Kristof's got a good take on the endorsement of John McCain by Al Qaeda.

An American president who keeps troops in Iraq indefinitely, fulminates
about Islamic terrorism, inclines toward military solutions and antagonizes
other nations is an excellent recruiting tool. In contrast, an African-American
president with a Muslim grandfather and a penchant for building bridges rather
than blowing them up would give Al Qaeda recruiters fits.

Return of W

This is worth watching. Will Ferrel does a great W, and gets his message across as well.

Cartoon Commentary

This is fantastic.

Post-Boomer President

Joe Klein on why Obama's winning.

Even more remarkable, Obama has made race — that perennial, gaping American wound — an afterthought. He has done this by introducing a quality to American politics that we haven't seen in quite some time: maturity. He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision.

I couldn't agree more. It's time for what's next.

New on the Range

Hoo boy. Lots of goodies to lay on you this week. New stuff from Marnie Stern, Deerhoof, Gang Gang Dance, Dungen, Of Montreal, Women, Vivian Girls, Brazillian Girls, F*cked Up, Koushik, and Jay Reatard.



We'll also dig a little deeper into Matthew Dear, Holy F*ck, Four Tet, MGMT, and Animal Collective.



Tune in to RadioBoise today, Wednesday, from 5 to 7, and again Friday from 1 to 3.

Wasilla Wisdom

The Daily Show nails it.

MC Yogi

Another vid for Obama. Pretty good.

The Powell Endorsement

Huge. That's what I think. For lots of people, Powell's faith in Obama will bolster or enable their own, and in this race a bit of faith is a necessary thing.

I thought Powell's explanation, on Meet the Press, was as articulate and eloquent a case for an Obama presidency as can be made. It was also a gentle if undeniable refutation of McCain's campaign, if not his policies and person.

Powell's story of his encounter with the headstone of a fallen American soldier of the Muslim faith was as powerful a tale as I've heard told in this election, and hopefully it'll make people stop and take notice. Hopefully it'll give people pause the next time they encounter their own assumptions about who's on what side in all of this.

New on the Range

It's been a while since I've been live on the internets. Sometimes life just gets in the way of rocking out. But tonight I'm getting back to it.

New stuff from Deerhoof, Flying Lotus, F*** Buttons, Holy F***, Matthew Dear, and some other goodies. Tune in, Wednesday 5 to 7 and Friday 1 to 3.

Invisible Hands

Sullivan names my own fear and calms it, somewhat.

Obama is dominating with early voting in Iowa, North Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia, and Ohio. I'm unsure of the current polls showing a massive lead for Obama. But equally it would not surprise me if this race actually widened, and that the final result were on a double-digit kind of scale. Just as there is a chance of the invisible hand of racism suddenly undercutting Obama in the polling booth, so there is a chance of an historic one-off turn-out from African-Americans and young people that confounds all the conventional polling expectations. We could be just as surprised on the up-side as on the down-side. There are a lot of young and black people in this country. And they usually don't vote as often as they could.

Hitchens for Obama

This merits mention.

Christopher Hitchens pulls no punches in his "endorsement" of Barack Obama for president. Love him or hate him, Hitchens does have a knack for distillation, and what he lays out here in a case against McCain-Palin is pretty devastating, coming as it does from the right.

Tonight's debate should be (crushingly boring) very telling. How nasty is McCain willing to get? How well does Obama stand up to it? My own prediction is that is gets only slightly nastier than the last debate, and that it comes out a narrow Obama victory, just like last time. Then, tomorrow, the nastiness gets worse than it's ever been.

Que CERA

And you thought the Tour de France was over.

Positive doping tests continue to rock the post-race TdF, this time creeping right up onto the podium.

Bernard Kohl, the young new star from Gerolsteiner who stormed his way into the polka dot jersey, becomes the latest casualty of improved testing for the new and previously-thought-undetectable EPO type, CERA.

Ricco, Piepoli, Schumacher, and now Kohl. Something tells me we haven't heard the last of this.

Snow In the Foothills

It seems way too early for this, but we went to bed last night to falling snow and woke this morning to the first white-coated foothills of the year. So I took the dogs for a walk first thing in the morning. It's still a little foggy, but you get the picture.

Winter's coming. I just hope we get some good fall first.

Who Is Barack Obama?

Deerhoof Returns!

Offend Maggie.

Trax so hot I ain't even listened to em yet. But I'm excited. And so should you be.

The Ugliest of Us

The campaign of Sarah Palin and John McCain has gone so far down the lowest road that I'd bet even Karl Rove wouldn't recognize it. From shouts of "Kill him!" and racial epithets being hurled at technicians at their rallies, to the seizure of the idea of Obama as terrorist as presented by Palin, the dregs of America are on the march.

They attract the ugliest, most vile elements of our society.



And there are still 4 weeks to go. All we can hope is that the larger electorate, the sensible citizens among us, will see through this disgusting trash.

5 Days and Counting

Bad Weekend

Happy Friday

Pickers for Obama!

This is fantastic. There's a new radio ad running in Virginia starring bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley. Check it out over at TPM.

First Toby Keith says he's a Democrat who supports Obama, and now this. Who says we have to write off the South for the Republicans?