CALIFORNIA YANKEE

On Obama's victory

Congratulations to Obama for running a marvelous campaign.

'Significantly closer than the polls predicted'

Mark Ambinder reports the Minnesota for Obama campaign sent out an automated call saying the race is closer than expected:

"Hello, this is Jeff Blodgett from the Minnesota for Obama campaign. Our initial data shows this election is significantly closer than the polls predicted. We are putting out an urgent call for volunteers... We are organized groups to knock on doors at five P.M., or earlier if you can, for our final GOTV operation."

Sounds like what McCain has been saying for days.

McCain is smoking

The McCain camp released "The Mac Is Back" video Monday. Just hit the play button:



Peggy Wang got my dander up when she implied that this video was an attempt to appeal to young voters because it includes a shot of McCain smoking.

The smoking footage is from when McCain was a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton."

Don Colburn recently noted McCain has long since quit smoking and that Obama is still struggling with his smoking habit. Obama's smoking habit is just one more thing Obama tries to hide from the public.

Obama wins big in Guam

The Unofficial result in Guam, with all 58 precincts reporting gives Obama another win:

Obama - 20,120
McCain - 11,940
Barr - 212

Guam gets no Electoral Votes. But, unlike the results from Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, New Hampshire, Guam has been a reliable predictor of the outcome of the presidential election:

• Before President Reagan crushed Walter Mondale in 1984, he won by a landslide in Guam.

• In 1992, Guam's straw poll said President George H. W. Bush only deserved one term.

• In 1996 Guam re-elected President Clinton by a wider margin than the states.

• In Guam, George W. Bush barely snuck past Al Gore in 2000.

• W beat John Kerry with ease in 2004.

Voting twice in Philly

At least one voter has been observed voting twice under the watchful eye of a Philadelphia poll worker.

 Listen to the following phone call received by the Honest and Open Election Hotline:

We have already heard that Republican Election Board members have been tossed out of polling stations in Philadelphia.

What's next?

First results - Obama in a landslide

It's Obama, 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, and 17 to 10 and two write-ins for Ron Paul in Hart's Location.

The two small New Hampshire communities, with a total 115 residents between them, get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day.

Traditionally, the communities are the first to report presidential election results.

These first results from these small towns are not a reliable predictor as to the eventual winner of the presidency -- or even the result in New Hampshire. Dixville Notch usually leans Republican. Hubert Humphrey was the last Democrat nominee to win in Dixville, in 1968.

So maybe this landslide is a good omen for Obama.

Obama attacks himself

Mary Katharine Ham has put together the following video, which allows Obama to demonstrate, as Mary Katharine puts it, "the extent to which Obama has gotten away with blatant position switches, political opportunism, and outright lying while floating above us all as the post-partisan redeemer of America."

Thanks to Fausta for the tip.

Nobama girl wants to crush Obama

This clever spoof of the Obama girl has been around awhile. I don't know how I missed it:

Thanks to DonkeySlayer for the tip.

Obama will bankrupt the coal industry

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

That's the money quote from a interview interview Obama gave the San Francisco Chronicle.

Obama claims the quote is out of context. The following four minute video shows that the context doesn't help Obama at all. Obama plainly says his plans will bankrupt anyone who builds a coal plant.

The Republican National Committee targeted voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other coal-producing states with automated calls using Obama's own words -- "coal jobs, which are so important to our community, are in jeopardy. ... Listen to Barack Obama's plans to bankrupt the coal industry."

No wonder the Obama campaign lied to cover-up Biden's "We’re not supporting clean coal," gaffe. Maybe it wasn't a gaffe. Maybe it was an inconvenient truth.

NewsBusters' Tom Blumer reports that when the San Francisco Chronicle published an article about Obama's interview, the so-called newspaper failed to mention of Obama's willingness to bankrupt the coal industry. Nope, there's no media bias for Obama, is there?

ACORN's fraudulent voter registrations turn into votes

John Fund reports the left -wing Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) fraudulent voter registrations have been converted into fraudulent votes in Ohio:

"There are already documented examples of fraudulent registrations being converted into fraudulent votes in Ohio, where ACORN and other groups were active. Darrell Nash, an ACORN registration worker, submitted an illegal form for himself and then cast a paper ballot during the state's "early voting" period."

ACORN became a campaign issue last month after the group's Las Vegas offices were raided by authorities. During the raid, "voter registration forms and computer databases were seized to determine how many fake voter registrations were submitted and identify employees who were responsible."

According to Fund, an ACORN whistle-blower said there was a "conscious strategy" to create confusion and chaos in voter registration offices:

Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. "It's ludicrous to say that fake registrations can't become fraudulent votes," she told me. "I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots." MonCrief, a 29-year old University of Alabama graduate who wanted to become part of the civil rights movement, worked as a strategic consultant for ACORN as well as a development associate with Project Vote and sat in on meetings with the national staffs of both groups. She has given me documents that back up many of her statements, including one that indicates that the goal of ACORN's New Mexico affiliate was that only 40 percent of its submitted registrations had to be valid.

MonCrief also told me that some ACORN affiliates had a conscious strategy of flooding voter registration offices with suspect last-minute forms in part to create confusion and chaos that would make it more likely suspect voters would be allowed to cast ballots by overworked officials. Nate Toller, who worked on ACORN registration drives and headed an ACORN campaign against Wal-Mart in California until 2006, agrees. "There's no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances," he told me.

 

Many folks are concerned that fraudulent votes could be cast in Ohio. But, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat elected in 2006 with the support of ACORN, doesn't seem to be one of them. Even though Brunner admits that some 200,000 newly registered Ohio voters have been flagged by her office because their names, addresses, driver's license numbers, and/or Social Security numbers don't match other state or federal records, she refuses to release the information on those registrants to county election boards that have requested them for the purpose of running further checks.

"I'd be very suspicious of what is going on in Ohio," MonCrief told Fund.

I am suspicious of what is going on in Ohio. Unfortunately, it's not just Ohio.