I can't imagine the decision grandfather faced before he fled Poland. My entire family on his side had refused to believe that centuries of hard work and laying roots were in danger. The family estate, the prestigious name they had established and the accompanying wealth were sources of immense pride, and my family was unwilling to abandon it all on second-hand information. They heard the rumors, and they saw the signs, but they were convinced that they would remain safe. They Nazis wouldn't come for them.

Wowzer.  For the first time, Rasmussen pegs Obama's support at 52% and now matches what Research 2000/Daily Kos has been saying for a few days:

Obama 52
McCain 44

Perhaps even better is Rasmussen's comment:

This is the highest level of support ever recorded for Obama and is his largest lead of the year. It also continues a remarkable twenty-five days in a row where the Democrat's support has never declined by even a single point.

Roger Wicker has a money problem - involving his own pay. He has said that he has never voted for a pay increase, but the facts are not on his side.

The fact is, he has voted for increases his own pay multiple times, even supporting a guaranteed cost of living adjustment to insure his pay kept up with inflation. The number of times he voted for increases is NINE times.

Wouldn't that be nice if we could all have cost of living adjustments built into our salaries?

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a representative in Congress that not only told the truth about their pay, but took the needs of the constituents ahead of voting themselves pay increases?

Norm Coleman is at it again - attempting to smear his opponent for not paying taxes. The truth is, Al Franken overpayed his taxes.

What Norm Coleman does not want you to know is that he supported tax cuts for the wealthy, billions in hand outs for Big Oil, and his rubber-stamp support for Bush's failed economic policies that have put the entire economy in danger of collapse.

Norm Coleman - attacking Al Franken in order to hide his own dismal record.

As we get into what looks like a month of aggressive and dirty campaigning by the McCain team - avoiding issues like the economy, Afghanistan, Iraq and more to spend 100% of it's time debasing Obama's character - the choice for Obama will be to maintain his level-headed and "presidential" approach.

Many of us are worried because of this. The American public, egged on by television pundits who need to create the kind of programming that draws audiences, has often fallen for the Karl Rove type of attack scheme. Obama is betting on intelligence.

Sources inside the McCain campaign report that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will suspend his campaign sometime next week due to bailing out of his airplane over Waziristan and being captured by Al-Qaeda.  Video tapes to be released by the terrorist organization will reveal his heroism under torture and deprivation.  When pressured to divulge state secrets, including names of field agents with whom he has been in contact, McCain will cleverly list the starting rotation of the 1952 Philadelphia Athletics, and afterward will claim it was actually the starting lineup of the Brooklyn Dodgers, thus capturing both PA's and NY's electoral votes.  Finally, he will be decapitated before being released, having reattached his own head with duct tape.  Campaign officials argue that this will lay to rest any voter unease that losing his head in every crisis will be an impediment to his perseverance, courage, and heroic leadership.  

This string of events will demonstrate once and for all what a true maverick McCain is as a candidate, and will be as president.  The ad that the campaign plans to release in the aftermath will ask voters whether they want more politics as usual with Obama, who merely gives speeches and proposes legislation, or Maverick John McCain, who is the embodiment of American Heroism.  

When asked if they feared that voters will see this as another McCain stunt, McCain's representatives were shocked and outraged that anyone could question the heroism of the maverick candidate, the only true patriot in this race for the presidency.  They then immediately accused anyone who could even think such a thing as an extremist who hates America who is so far out of the mainstream they must be "in the tank" for Senator Obama.  "Who do you want as president," they asked, "someone who pals around with terrorist professors of education or someone who gets himself captured, tortured, and beheaded by terrorists?  We think the choice is clear and trust the American people to make the right decision."

Additional reports have leaked out that a motorcycle and a shark tank were recently delivered to the McCain "cottage" in Sedona, AZ.  More on this story as it develops.

Since the topic of the Keating 5 is no longer off-limits in the TM, and the Obama campaign has launched a counter-attack to deal with the absurd Ayers smears launched by the McCain campaign, perhaps it is time to revisit not just John McCain's culpability and lack of judgment back in the time of Keating, but also the intimate involvement of his wife.

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

On Saturday night, there were reports not just that Obama was making a major play for the one electoral vote that comes with a victory in Nebraska's second congressional district, but that this move sufficiently concerned the McCain campaign that they decided to send Sarah Palin to Omaha to do a rally there.  Well, guess what?  Sarah denies that she went to Omaha to shore up flagging support.