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Three-quarters (74%) of internet users went online during the 2008 election to take part in, or get news and information about the 2008 campaign. This represents 55% of the entire adult population, and marks the first time the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that more than half the voting-age population used the internet to connect to the political process during an election cycle. SNIP This post-election survey finding comes after a similar poll in the spring of 2008. At that time, our survey found than 46% of Americans were online political users. In 2004, using a somewhat...

Former visiting St. Olaf College professor Phillip Busse paid a $480 fine after pleading guilty to misdemeanor theft charges stemming from a series of political campaign sign thefts. During the election season earlier this fall, Busse admitted to taking multiple John McCain/Sarah Palin lawn signs along a stretch of Hwy. 19 near St. Olaf in an article on the “Huffington Post,” a national news blog. After receiving several complaints about Busse’s article, members of the Rice County Sheriff’s Department met with Busse in late October and charged him with theft of three campaign signs. The erstwhile journalist and professor appeared...

Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists. McCain has faced a severe spending imbalance during most of the fall, but the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending. The decision to finance a final...

A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama,...

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business. The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel. In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and...

Before we get started: Does anyone know whether Joe the Plumber is kin to Six-Pack Joe? This was by far the most interesting debate to date, perhaps because we are -- at last -- down to the wire. Just as people often reveal their truer natures in times of crisis or under extreme pressure, McCain and Obama tonight seemed reduced to their essential selves. Cool Obama was quintessentially cool. Tense McCain was INTENSE. Both men smiled a lot, but both seemed less good-natured than like well-mannered pit bulls (without the lipstick), snarling behind teeth bared in imitations of mirth. At...

The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage office was on the line. As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that Mr. Wooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want the trooper nearby. Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Mr. Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty...

Let me say at the outset: I'll be voting for John McCain on November 4. I'll be voting for the man who was right about the surge, who holds clear-eyed views about terrorism and America's enemies, who has fought for leaner government over 20 years, who maneuvered the Roberts and Alito nominations through the Senate, who was right about Vladimir Putin.... Bona fides established? OK, now for the sermon. American voters are staggering under the worst financial crisis since at least 1982. Asset values are tumbling, consumer spending is contracting, and a recession is visibly on the way. This crisis...

Full breakdown here.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin remained in the dark while her husband repeatedly asked top state officials to help get his former brother-in-law kicked off the state police force, Palin's husband and top aides said in affidavits provided to The Associated Press. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is the focus of a legislative investigation into whether she abused her authority by firing the state's public safety commissioner to settle a long-standing family dispute. The commissioner says he was fired after resisting pressure to fire Mike Wooten, a trooper involved in a bitter divorce with Palin's sister....

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign denounced a racially charged newspaper column written by a member of his leadership team in Virginia. Bobby May, the author of the column, which appeared in a southwest Virginia newspaper called the Voice, has been removed from the campaign. He had represented Buchanan County. The column spoofed Democratic candidate Barack Obama's platform. For example, May wrote that if Obama were elected, he would divert more foreign aid to Africa "so the Obama family there can skim enough to allow them to free their goats and live the American Dream."...

In the land of instant television punditry, at least, the ayes had it when it came to the second debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain last night. It was summed up perhaps most directly by George Stephanopoulos of ABC: "Obama is two for two, he definitely won tonight." Where the night of the first debate between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, and the debate last week between Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gov. Sarah Palin, seemed to bring initial mixed reviews – which eventually evolved over time to largely favor the Democratic ticket — this one...

This reader out-Andies Andy: Well I have gone outside and pulled up my Mcain/Palin sign. This election is over. I will vote for Mcain but I know that come Nov. 5 Obama will be our president-elect. I feel sorry for Sarah Palin. A once promising career will be permanently connected to the landside loss of John McCain. I weep for my children and their families. Steady on. This next month is going to be a long month. Lots of things will happen. But McCain has to make some of them happen. His charge that Obama doesn't know the difference between...

"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand." This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week. Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year....

John McCain is collapsing in the polls in Florida and other swing states, but Sarah Palin, God bless her, has a solution. "For me, the heels are on, the gloves are off," she announced at high noon Monday to a group of Republican donors at the Naples Beach Club.... Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned...

Likely voters nationwide: Obama: 53 percent McCain: 45 percent A new national poll suggests Barack Obama is widening his edge over John McCain in the race for the White House. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Monday afternoon suggests that the country's financial crisis, record low approval ratings for President Bush, and a drop in the public's perception of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin all appear to be contributing factors in Obama’s gains among voters....

Remember how conservatives had their undies in bundle over Gwen Ifill moderating Thursday's Veep debate? Well, some on the left are worrying about Tom Brokaw as moderator of Tuesday night's throwdown. There's already a Boot Brokaw online petition. The suggested replacements? Charlie Rose or Bill Moyers. Why? Some are ticked because he led the effort internally at the Peacock to remove Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann from both commentating and anchoring big election events. And he has served as what some call "shuttle diplomacy" with the McCain campaign, promising them they could get fair coverage from NBC. And MoveOn started...

Virginia Republicans are warning that John McCain's prospects for winning a state that has been in the GOP column in every presidential election since 1964 could be in jeopardy. With Barack Obama treating the Old Dominion like a battleground state and reliable polls showing a margin-of-error race there, some are cautioning that McCain is making a critical mistake by allowing the Democratic nominee to outpace him in terms of visits and resources committed.... Together, McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have held just one campaign event in Virginia. And the campaign has taken its ads off the pricey Washington,...

Main Bullet Points: Palin Trips Up on Troop Levels Biden Fudges on Troop Funding Palin's False Tax Claims Biden's False Defense Palin's Health Care Hooey McCain in Spain? Palin's Small Business Balderdash Defense Disagreements Killing Afghan Civilians? Out of Context? McCain in the Vanguard of Mortgage Reform? And There's More...

Early in last night's vice-presidential debate, Sarah Palin said that she might not answer the questions as moderator Gwen Ifill posed them. This was the Alaska governor's way of saying she was going to stick to the talking points she had stuffed into her head, no matter what the subject. When Palin described John McCain's health-care plan, she talked about his offer of a $5,000 tax credit so families could buy insurance. She failed to mention that McCain would pay for the credit by taxing existing insurance benefits. Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden -- politely -- pounced on her omission,...

On September 22nd, while doing a Google search for photos of the McCain-Palin rally in Media, PA that day, I discovered that the Obama Campaign website had announced a protest of that rally. I posted what I had found on this thread. Tonight, while reading and commenting on the FR Live Debate thread, I came across a comment by FReeper 1066AD: To: EagleandLibertySarah Palin is in Dallas, TX tomorrow (Friday) for a fundraiser at the Fairmont.The unwashed are promising a demo..... 3,411 posted on 10/02/2008 8:59:20 PM PDT by 1066AD Well, remembering what I had found a couple of weeks...

Sarah Palin has committed yet another political blunder after claiming she had held talks with a British ambassador - talks that never actually took place. In an answer to questions about her foreign policy experience ahead of tonight's make-or-break vice presidential TV debate, her aides listed numerous contacts with foreign officials - including Britain's ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald. However the meeting never occurred....

Florida Republican leaders hastily convened a top secret meeting this week to grapple with Sen. John McCain's sagging performance in this must-win state. Their fears were confirmed Wednesday when four new polls showed Sen. Barack Obama leading, a reversal from just a few weeks ago when McCain was opening up an advantage.... One of the concerns has been the relationship between grass roots volunteers across the state and far fewer paid campaign staffers. Complaints range from not getting yard signs quickly enough to knowing who will speak at events and overall manpower coordination.... McCain supporter and former Republican Party of...

Polls in five crucial battleground states in the race for the White House released Wednesday suggest that Sen. Barack Obama is making some major gains. The CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. polls of likely voters in Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia suggest a shift toward the Democratic presidential nominee. In Florida, the state that decided the 2000 presidential election, 51 percent of likely voters say Obama, D-Illinois, is their choice for president, with 47 percent backing Republican presidential nominee John McCain....

Today, the National Stonewall Democrats issued the following statement in response by accusations from Governor Sarah Palin that sexual orientation is a choice: "John McCain chose a poor running mate, but he did not choose his sexual orientation. This is another example of why we need a pro-equality President like Barack Obama in the White House. For Governor Palin to suggest that individuals randomly choose their sexual orientation based on nothing but a whim is wrong and it repeats the talking points of the anti-gay special interests which continue to control the McCain/Palin campaign and the Republican Party."...

A month after Gov. Sarah Palin joined Senator John McCain’s ticket to a burst of excitement and anticipation among Republicans, she heads into a critical debate facing challenges from conservatives about her credentials, signs that her popularity is slipping and evidence that Republicans are worried about how much help she will be for Mr. McCain in November.... "I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States," David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in...

Bob Barr has finally sensed his opening. With Senator McCain calling for Friday's debate to be postponed, the former Georgia congressman and Libertarian Party nominee says he is eager to fill in as a replacement. "Given Senator McCain's political stunt to avoid the debate, I ask that Friday's debate moves forward without him, as I am more than willing to step in to participate," Mr. Barr said in a statement this morning...

Republicans seem lost as a party and here's one solution to bring them back into focus, since the Democrats are falling all over themselves to lose. They are LOSING NATIONALLY ergo Republicans need a WINNING NATIONAL STRATEGY. Hello, MR. NEWT redux...

It’s not news that Hillary Clinton has a bad taste in fashion, and many have blamed her for an absence of any sense of style. Hillary simply doesn’t care and continues to terrify us with totally unflattering blazers and pants. To read more

The presidential campaign currently underway has missed the historically rare opportunity to engage the candidates for president in a serious discussion about how they would respond to a very likely impending recession brought on by twin banking and currency crises. Usually financial crises -- and the recessions that often follow -- appear without much warning. But today, while of course the future never can be predicted with certainty, the evidence is accumulating to suggest that the United States soon may be facing something similar to Japan's experience in the late 1980s and 1990s. As described by Franklin Allen and Douglas...

There have been more than a few recent articles and editorials attempting to affix blame for the demise of the Republican Party. Peggy Noonan blames President Bush. Rush Limbaugh believes a McCain nomination will kill the party. However, even in a worse case scenario, the Republican Party will probably stagger along for several years much like the last decade of the Whigs. Conservative Republicans should probably be more concerned about the impending demise of the conservative movement within the party. Some individuals can be blamed more than others, but this folly has many fathers. The latest blow to conservatives has...

by The Times-Picayune Monday January 21, 2008, 6:38 PM By Chris Kirkham West Bank bureau He's the staunchly anti-war candidate in a crowded Republican field. Pundits and pollsters have written him off as a long shot for the presidential nomination. His campaign organizers say he's the victim of "media blackout." But for the 600 Ron Paul supporters spilling out of a Kenner hotel conference room Monday, none of that mattered. On the eve of the Republican Party caucuses in Louisiana, the slight Republican congressman from Texas outlined his unconventional presidential platform, touching on everything from abolishing the Federal Reserve to...

Time to Move On...From Hillary William Kristol Fri Dec 14, 9:43 PM ET Washington (The Weekly Standard) Vol. 013, Issue 15 - 12/24/2007 - The defining moment of the Democratic presidential campaign so far came during the Des Moines Register debate, December 13, at 2:10 P.M. Central time. Q: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, State Department policy director, and Navy secretary, among others, advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisers and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you're...

A one-day fundraising drive billed as the second “money bomb” for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appears to be falling well short of its target — at least partly because of a dispute among his zealous base of online supporters. The goal of the drive — patterned after the original money bomb that turned the Texas congressman from “Ron who?” to a surprise factor in the race — was to raise $2.5 million Friday. And Benton said the huge role of online activists in Paul’s effort means “we lose a certain element of control.” “What we as a campaign try...

Mark Penn, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) chief strategist, said Thursday that the Democratic front-runner would get 360 electoral votes if the election were held tomorrow and she faced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R). Penn, in a campaign memo, said the results would be similar regardless of which of the top Republican candidates Clinton would face. Ahead of Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, the memo is a rallying cry for Clinton supporters. The former first lady has undergone her first major crisis in the race following a shaky performance at the last debate. However, Penn paints the race...

Democratic presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. pats a young cow during a campaign stop at the Hokinton Fair in Contoocook, N.H., Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007.

Consumer advocate and 2000/2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader has not ruled out another run in 2008, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday it’s too early for him to make a decision. The man who many blame as spoiling the election for Al Gore in 2000 also said a potential third party candidacy by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would not affect his decision to run. Earlier this week, Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat until he ran for mayor in 2001, dropped his affiliation with the GOP — a move that increased speculation he is considering an independent presidential bid. Nader also...

The gloves are off and the candidates have already begun swinging. Obama has received key support and contributors, but has yet to display the political muscles that Hillary has known for decades. This campaign can’t afford one misstep that is why Hillary Rodham Clinton will stick to five basic themes in the race for the White House in the 2008 Campaign:

Al Sharpton has never tried to extinguish the flames of racial unrest in America; all too often he’s viewed as a polarizing figure. Never mind the fact that he won’t raise the capital necessary in modern presidential politics, but when it comes to the presidential qualities of coalition building he lacks tremendously.

In all my years of Today-watching, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like the display Matt Lauer put on this morning. In beseeching Al Gore to run for president, Lauer literally portrayed him as the planet's potential savior. "If you were to run for president, you could take this issue to the next level, even if just during a campaign. And if you were fortunate enough to win the presidency, you would sit in the most powerful office in the free world with a real chance to make . . . " Matt stopped himself at the enormity...

Remember when Congressman Charles Rangel introduced a proposal in 2003 to re-instate the draft? When it came to a vote, Rangel voted AGAINST his own draft bill. If you thought Rangel's draft proposal was nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt, you would not be wrong. Of course, Rangel was in the minority party back then. However, now that the Democrats are in the majority in Congress, Rangel has proposed the SAME cheap publicity stunt over the draft again only to be slapped down by Nancy Pelosi who publicly nixed the idea. Keep in mind that Charles Rangel is...

A pro-life activist says he's "profoundly disappointed" that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has "snubbed a dialogue with pro-life groups" - after she expressed interest in finding common ground with them. The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said pro-life leaders, including himself, have been trying for two months to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Sen. Clinton, but she has declined. In late January, Sen. Clinton urged a group of abortion rights supporters to find common ground with pro-lifers. "We should be able to agree that we want every child born in this country to be wanted,...

Mrs. Clinton's path to moderation represents a triumph of spin over reality. Mrs. Clinton witnessed how her husband was twice elected president as a self-described "new Democrat." Seeking to re-invent her liberal image for 2008, she clearly knows that American voters have repeatedly rejected authentic liberals like herself. She no doubt remembers what happened to Hubert Humphrey in 1968, George McGovern in 1972, Walter Mondale in 1984, Michael Dukakis in 1988 and John Kerry in 2004. So, Mrs. Clinton's political handlers understandably want to soften her hard-earned liberal credentials. Beyond the impeccably liberal record she has established in decades of...

| Jose Canseco has a better chance of sitting in the Oval Office four years from now than Condoleezza Rice. A considerable number of Republican earlybirds, fretting about who'll run for president in 2008—and forget the absurd talk that Sen. Bill Frist, a wobbly Majority Leader at best, and about as exciting as a Three Dog Night reunion, is the putative front-runner—are talking up the Secretary of State, hawking Condi t-shirts and posters on the Internet. She ranks high in the polls for possible contenders, just as two other non-starters, Rudy Giuliani (way too socially liberal) and John McCain (too...