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EAST ST. LOUIS - Carl Officer, the four-term mayor of East St. Louis, Illinois, announced before local supporters today that he has accepted the position as head of the Illinois Steering Committee of "Democrats for Bush," founded earlier this year by Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia. A life-long Democrat, Officer is a third generation African-American entrepreneur with a family funeral home business and mayor of one of the poorest cities in Illinois and, for that matter, America.

Due to copyright restrictions, I cannot link directly to the source of this story that nationwide voter registration is up a "moderate" degree of about 3 percent nationwide since 2000. But you can find one story about it on the Liberal newspaper in Washington, DC in their daily tracking poll box which shows Bush in the lead again. The study was done by the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate headed by Curtis Gans (who is not a conservative). The study did find registrations up more in battleground states such as Florida. There are about 10 million more...

ABC News President David Westin warned against the proliferation of opinion commentary in the news media at the Institute of Politics’ John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum yesterday night. “The more time we express our opinions, the less time we have to talk about the facts,” Westin said. “Unfortunately, opinion is driving out facts too often in most of what we see on television today.”

It is time for a more sober look at the great goose hunt with the perspective of history, at least a few days. 1. This was the wrong goose hunt in the wrong woods and the wrong time. 2. How would you like to be the last goose to die for Kerry's macho photo op? 3. Kerry did not go goose hunting as a last resort and he did not allow the game wardens to do their job. This was a goose hunt of choice and not of necessity and Kerry launched it as was a unilateral hunt with no...

"U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council... Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in December 2003, Mr. Kerry explained that he understood the 'real readiness' of the United Nations to 'take this seriously' because he met 'with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein.' But of the five ambassadors...

Bush at 51, Kerry 46, and Nader 1 is today's Gallup read.

If any Freeper lives in Los Angeles, I have a question. There is a very large billboard on Sunset Boulevard between LaBrea and Highland near Hollywood High School. The billboard has pictures of three African-American men and huge block letters that say "Vote or Die." Does anyone in LA know who paid for this billboard or what it is all about? Is it an extreme scare tactic?

Two more instances of break-ins and vandalism at Bush-Cheney local headquarters offices in Ohio and Arizona are reported today. There have now been a dozen such incidents in the last two weeks. It would be an easy and no-cost classy and decent move if John Kerry simply put out a statement that said violence and vandalism at any campaign office is wrong and destructive for democracy. So why does he not just do that?

The Missing Left Wing By Mark Q. Rhoads (Washington, DC---) Consider this odd fact. If you use the Google search engine to look for the phrase "right wing" you come up with 2,490,000 entries. But if you use the same engine to search for the phrase "left wing" there are only 1,050,000 entries. The phrase "right wing" is used 2.4 times more often than "left wing." Why is that? One might expect a closer parity for two terms that describe opposing points on a political spectrum. Of course some entries don’t have any political context, such as those describing the...

Bob Shrum, the man who brought you the Dukakis campaign of 1988, and made his candidate look ridiculous in a tank, has done it again. Now he puts Macho John in a fatigue jacket while someone else carries the late goose. I feel another Purple Heart application coming on. Joe Biden, the man who was forced out of the 1988 primary because he plagiarized his own life story from British Labour Leader Neil Kinnock, now informs the rest of us he thinks the president is "brain dead." Clinton is enroute to Philadelphia, Gore going to Florida, and attorneys flying every...

In 2000, the race for Tennessee was tight with Al Gore as a supposed favorite son who turned out to be not that favorite. Al got beat in 2000, went to New York to teach, never went home to Tennessee, and now at least one poll as Tennesse "leaning" to Bush by 22 points! Memo to Al Gore from Tennessee Democratic Party, "Thank you Al for all your party building efforts in your home state for the last four years. You have helped to push Tennessee into the GOP column for years to come." But take heart Al, Bill Clinton...

The NBC-Wall Street Journal reported a tie between Bush and Kerry in their poll today among likely voters. But they had Bush ahead among "registered" voters. This same oddity creeped up in a Zogby poll. For many decades, Republican candidates have usually polled the other way around--better among likely voters than registered voters--a larger population. So what is going on? My educated guess is based on talks with professional pollsters in Washington. It is getting very expensive to poll and to get a good sample. Many people who have time on their hands are willing to take 20 minutes to...

"He (Kerry) also made campaign stops meant to play to southeast Ohio's strong gun-rights voters. In Pike County's city of Buchanan, Kerry's motorcade stopped at the Village Grocery Store, where he paid $140 for a hunting license he plans to use during a hunting trip and campaign stop in Youngstown this week." "Can I get me a hunting license here?" Kerry asked store owners Paul and Debra McKnight.

I can't believe it. A UN official is quoted by the BBC as saying Kerry helped to foment current violence in Haiti by saying if he were president he would have sent troops to protect the "elected" dictator Jean Bertrand Aristide. Now Aristide supporters are rioting in the hope that if Kerry wins they can bring Aristide back. All this from the most anti-Bush news group outside of Al Jazeera and CBS, the BBC. If the BBC is turning on Kerry then you know they think he must be toast.

Kerry has a new ad that blames President Bush for shortage of flu vaccine. He is also blaming Bush for a frivolous draft bill introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)and voted down by all Republicans and almost all Democrats two weeks ago. Next, Kerry will blame Bush for magma flows on Mount Saint Helens, tremblors in Taiwan, a cold snap in Iowa, sun spots, and early frost on the pumpkin. According to Kerry, the sky is falling. He voted to punch the sky as a last resort but he never thought Bush would actually make the sky fall. Its ok...

Surprise surprise. The New York Times decided to break from tradition and actually endorse a Democrat for President. They have been breaking with tradition now for about 150 years. The newspaper with "all the news that's fit to print" (and/or plagiarize in stories by Jayson Blair, and the paper that has to fire editors such as Howell Raines) is weighing in on this campaign with its august and otherwise imgainary gravitas circa 1958. That was about the time that New York Times correspondent Herbert Matthews was calling "Dr." Fidel Castro the "Simon Bolivar of Cuba" and "the George Washington of...

How is it that any poll that shows Kerry closing on Bush has a headline that says "Kerry Surging" while any poll that shows Bush more than 5 points ahead has a headline that says "Too Close to Call?" If Kerry partisans are right when they claim he "won" three debates then why is he still behind?" In fly-over country, people do not have a lot of trust in what Kerry says since they know he will say something different ten minutes from now.

Congratulations to actor Ron Silver for his clear analysis on MSNBC after second debate tonight. He said that Kerry always says he would do a better job creating and leading an international alliance to confront threats like Saddam. But in 1991 when Saddam's troops were in Kuwait, President Bush's father formed a coaliton that included France, Germany, and a final UN Security Council resolution endorsing the use of force. But Kerry still voted NO on January 12, 1991 when he was asked to support the UN authorization and send US troops to Kuwait. If Kerry could not even confront Saddam...

Even Mike Barnicle said on MSNBC that he felt like at the end of the debate Cheney was going to turn to Edwards and demand that he give him the keys to the car. It was like a father saying to a son, you have misbehaved, you are grounded for the next two weeks. Even Ron Reagan (I am famous because my father was) said there was a stature gap. Edwards tried to counter his weak background to be VP or president by saying a long resume does not mean wisdom. That's right, but experience and wisdom together trumps inexperience...

Will CBS commit itself to a hunt for the real forger? Did Burkett admit he was the forger or was he too a victim of a hoax? Now Joe Lockhart admits that Mapes called him to suggest that he call Burkett to check out Burkett's story. If that is not coordination between CBS and the Kerry campaign, then what is? Just imagine if a Fox producer called the Bush campaign or RNC and suggested that they call a Swift Boat vet with documents on Kerry. The other networks would scream to the roof top. The bottom line is that Viacom,...