The Nightowl Newswrap

Palin body-checks McCain In an interview with Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News, Palin told Vargas that she will definitely be a contender in 2012, declaring "I'm not doin' this for naught." Senator McCain, do not touch that knife, you'll bleed to death instantly! Your only hope is for it to be removed by a physician in an operating theater.

That's funny - I tagged Tom DeLay as a Dickhead years ago Disgraced and indicted, yet inexplicably influential, former congressman Tom DeLay harrumphed to Chris Matthews that he had "tagged him [Obama] as a Marxist months ago."

Michael Malone says the media is in the tank for Obama because they are afraid of bloggers no. I am n ot making this up. As my friend Kevin explained, It's not reporters who are the real problem, it's a cabal of middle age editors who are desperately trying to elect a president who will pay them back for their support by destroying blogs and rejuvenating the Newspaper Guild. Seriously. That's his theory. And, of course, it was worth a link from Instapundit.

It'scalled "coattails" The Obama candidacy is boosting the Democratic Challenger in the Georgia Senate race, and as a result the odious Saxby Chambliss, who got his seat by slandering triple-amputee veteran Max Cleland in 2002, could find himself a one-termer. Let's hope so! No one is more deserving of an electoral ass-kicking than that jackass.

McCain, on the other hand doesn't have any coattails Challengers and incumbents alike are complaining that McCain is making it harder for them to get elected. "All we need from McCain is to not completely implode," one House republican said last week. This lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid, predicted that “there is about a 15 percent chance that [McCain] can win at this point — and Obama would have to do something stupid.” One of the republican incumbents who is whining about it and was willing to speak on the record was Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who is locked in a tough reelection fight in South Florida against Joe Garcia, who it so happens, I can vouch for personally. He was not merely my lunch companion during YKos in July, but we sat next to each other from Austin to Lockheart and back last summer when we went for BarBeCue with Kevin Drum. I still say Kevin is one of a handful of people on the planet who doesn't scare the hell out of me behind the wheel of a car, and with whom I would ride again. That is one of the nicest things I have ever said about anyone. Joe is a true gentleman, nice guy and helluva lunch companion, and he can hold up his end of a conversation, too. If you are in his district, you should be working for him, and no matter where you are, if you have a few bucks to help with a final advertising push, I can say without reservation that the impression I got was one of a smart guy who knows his stuff and cares about his district. Good luck Tuesday, Joe!

Ouch Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is that rarest animal this election cycle - a republican who is expected to waltz to reelection next Tuesday, and he is not about to jeopardize his chances by having his picture standing next to Sarah Palin splashed all over every newspaper in the state. They were both campaigning in the same place in Indiana today - literally - but he greeted constituents in the parking lot. He couldn't fit the time into his schedule to go inside and appear with her. She has been to the state three times and he has not campaigned with her one single time.



A sure sign of a sinking campaign As Obama has pulled within two points in John McCain's home state of Arizona, the McCain campaign has started making robo-calls attacking Senator Obama as "inexperienced." The call means Republicans are sinking resources into a state that obviously should have been a lock for McCain, with the proverbial sand almost out of the hourglass.

I want to be this old broad's granddaughter! She blogs, and she called Sarah Palin a bitch - and then by-God defended herself for doing it! I will be visiting Helen regularly, and hope she keeps blogging now that I have discovered her and Margaret, her best friend for more than 60 years.

It isn't socialism when Sarah does it I had given up hope that anyone in the M$M would ask the question about every Alaskan getting a check from the state as a redistribution of oil company wealth. Tucker Bounds cleared it right up, tho. The Alaska arrangement isn't socialism...no...it's unique.

As of noon today, it stopped being "early this week" so where the hell are the medical records Sarah Palin said she would release early this week?

Good God, we hope so! In fact we will be pissed off if Traitor Joe doesn't loose his gavel next congress! Take his gavel at a minimum. If I had my druthers, he would be kicked out of the caucus before he quits. Send him across the aisle with his natural allies on the racist right a whipped and beaten shell, turned out into the cold.

Mockery done right Today Barack Obama chided the republican nominee for his desperate namecalling and incessantly screaming "socialist" and showed his wit and humor by adding a new passage to his closing arguments speech, musing whether McCain would next accuse him of "being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten."

Eh. What's one more? Sarah Palin was hit with another ethics complaint today, this one delving into the propriety of her habit of charging the state for her children's travel expenses.

Shays decides to try to save himself "He has lost his brand as a maverick," Rep. Chris Shays told the Yale Daily News in the latest criticism. "He did not live up to his pledge to fight a clean campaign."

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Patrick Ruffini asks "What It Will Take to Build a Rightroots Movement?" It's a legitimate question and the right would be well served to answer it, but his inexorable, obsequious whining is good for no less than three spit-takes.

If you're obsessively refreshing TPMElectionCentral and 538.com and you're just beside yourself, sure you're not going to survive the next five days, you need to read this and Chill. The. Fuck. Out.