Since the election I've talked a lot about Sarah Palin with friends on both sides of the aisle. The general consensus is she wasn't given a chance to succeed because the McCain campaign did such a bad job of handling her. Her selection so late in the summer that she has little time to prepare for the national spotlight, which I would argue she was never going to be ready for anyway. What has been exceptionally revealing is the McCain campaign and Fox News (a la Campaign Carl) assault on Palin post election. The stuff about her clothes and her general intelligence came from conservative sources. It showed how undisciplined and amateur the McCain campaign really was. I feel bad for the fact that this woman put her neck our for John McCain and she got trashed because they did such a bad job with her. Anyway, I hope she rebounds and gets the Republican Presidential Nomination. Palin 2012!

As we found out by looking at the final outcome, it didn't really matter who ended up being the vice presidential nominees in 2008. It usually doesn't, but it is always something to talk about during the natural down periods of a presidential campaign. However, this year was a little different in the respect that a lot of attention was paid to one of the vice presidential candidates.

As someone who backed the Sarah Palin pick and discussed the possibility of it way back when, my natural instinct is to defend it. With everything as it was at the time of the choice, looking back I still would have been for it. She was the best of the bunch.

Look at the others that John McCain was considering: Joe Lieberman. Tim Pawlenty. Tom Ridge. Mitt Romney. Lieberman, though he was a great solider for McCain would have enthused the base less than McCain and there is no evidence he would have brought in any crossover votes. Pawlenty? You think he could have made a difference? One of Tom Ridge's big selling points was that he could bring Pennsylvania into play. McCain lost by 11% there. Ridge maybe, and I stress maybe, could have helped marginally there. Not enough to make a significant impact, especially considering McCain did what he thought he had to in many Western PA counties. Romney could have been solid during the economic crisis that no one predicted, but people were still looking at the top of the ticket for answers, not the bottom. I also think the Democrats would have turned Romney into an "evil CEO" who was part of the problem. The hatred between McCain and Romney could not have been more clear during the GOP primary season. That really only left one pick at the time. McCain was trailing at the time, needed a huge splash, and had to hope to catch lightning in a bottle. He made his splash alright.

Could the initial roll out have been better? Yeah. Could she have performed better in a couple of interviews? Yeah. Team McCain tried to control her and script her way too much. They could have also been more effective at flipping her lack of experience back on Obama. But she did a lot to help McCain. He couldn't raise money. That problem was over in an instant. Palin drew crowds McCain could have only dreamed and people left her events fired up, again something McCain himself wasn't doing. People started volunteering. She was thrown right into the fire, but the surprise announcement was the only way to do it. Democrats were caught off guard and then genuinely scared after her convention speech. They were. You and I both know it. Hence the absolute savage treatment she got in the media (sorry, that is not what this post is about).

History will probably forget, but the McCain / Palin ticket was leading before Lehman Brothers fell and the Wall Street collapse started. Sarah Palin did her job and got the numbers to where they were. External events made it a moot point and made what may – may – have been a successful campaign powerless to do anything. Exit polls showed that those voters who said Palin was an important factor broke for McCain. Those for whom it wasn't went against him. Things would have turned out worse for the GOP if McCain had picked any of the above – by at least a couple million votes nationwide. In the end they didn't win, but Palin most certainly was not the reason. All the juvenile finger pointing by the McCain staff won't change that. It is both sad and infuriating that some people are out there spreading trash about Palin in order to try and save McCain or themselves.

As for Barack Obama, there really isn't second guessing to be had. He got almost 53% of the vote. As it turned out, he could have pretty much picked anyone on his short list and been okay. The Constitution said he had to pick someone to run with that was over 35 and not from the same state as him, so he did. Joe Biden tried his best a few times to throw a wrench into the big plan but the general mood and landscape prevented him from being a success in that regard.

There is a natural follow up to this post asking what is next for Governor Palin. In due course.

Not a lot of sleep, not a lot to eat, and not a lot to say right now.

In Ohio, 2 U.S. House Seats were lost and one is still too close to call. The Democrats also took over the State House for the first time since 1994. Local candidates Rich Nero and Randy Cole both lost.

Summit County Republicans took a beating that everyone saw coming. A major beating. But Judge Spicer won and since that was one of two races party leadership actually cared about (other than County Engineer) they will try to claim success. Looking forward to that one.

Things could have been much worse in the U.S. Senate. Ted Stevens, Norm Coleman, and Gordon Smith are leading, and Saxby Chambliss looks headed to a run-off in Georgia as he fell just below 50%. Republicans should keep at least two of these seats and hopefully three. Went to bed thinking Coleman could not make up what he needed with only 2% of precincts left, but was pleasantly surprised to see he is ahead. Thoughts of Franken winning woke me up at least 3 times an hour. The Democrats had a once in a generation chance and so far have only gained 5 seats. That said, it is terrible that Republicans like Ted Stevens and Gordon Smith (outstanding vote not favorable to him) may win while John Sununu lost and Norm Coleman is fighting for his political life against some vile comedian.

Congratulations to Kyle and most other Democrats. Now that I know what the feeling of losing a presidential election is like, it isn't very pleasant. Kyle called me last night to offer his condolences. It was appreciated and showed his class. I do not like Barack Obama, I think he is a far left radical, and do not think he will be a good president. But he will be my president. Nothing bothered me more than when losers who hated Bush would say "he isn't my president." Yes, he was – and still is. And yes, Obama will be mine. And that I respect. I will oppose his polices but at the same time never forget that he was elected by a majority of Americans.

Once I get some food in me, I'll have more.

Part I – We discuss the vice-presidential candidates, final stretch polling, and Ohio.

Part II – We discuss local races and what to look for on Election Day.

Ben and I would like to take a moment to personally thank Ray Horner for his support of our work on this site by having us on his program. He is a class act and an Akron original. Thank you Ray and keep up the good work.

This is the best closing argument ad I have seen from the Obama campaign. It helps respond in general to the desperate attacks of Republicans continuing to throw anything at Obama hoping it will stick.

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, "Master Strategist" Karl Rove gave his electoral predictions one week out and he has Barack Obama with 317 electoral votes even if he loses all toss-up states. The sea of blue on his map across the Midwest is remarkable when you consider the source. He has Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana all going for Obama. The margin in Ohio is 4.5%. I believe the organizational strength of the Obama campaign's organization is going to flex is muscle over the next week and be the difference maker in the election to deliver that kind of margin in our state. If Obama wins Ohio by over 4%, then Democrats pick up two congressional for seats for sure (Kilroy, Boccieri) and have a strong chance to unseat three other Republican districts (Chabot, Schmidt, LaTourette). Looking across the rest of the map, Rove has Obama winning Colorado, Minnesota, and New Mexico. Using Rove's map, Obama can afford to lose the toss-up states of Florida, North Carolina, and Missouri and still win comfortably. Again, this is a map endorsed by Karl Rove.

Live Blog Wednesday: Join us Wednesday night to live blog Barack Obama's prime-time address at 8:00pm EST.

As mentioned, I attended the McCain / Palin rally yesterday at Green High School. The estimates I have seen say around 15,000 were there. It was more than a solid turnout for a chilly Wednesday afternoon. Just now I opened my "reporters notebook" to see what I wrote down from yesterday then I remembered I never even pretended to be working. So here is what I do remember.

Mary Taylor introduced the early speakers in her as role as unofficial MC for big state Republican events. Her being from Green probably didn't hurt either. Jim Laria, Greg Bachman, and Rob Portman were the three who talked. I was really impressed with Portman. Still glad he wasn't the VP pick, but he sounded good. I am not sure why Summit County candidates Laria and Bachman were given time to speak over Ohio House and the Congressional candidates. Maybe someone out there knows. Singer Lee Greenwood was there and sang a few songs, including his famous "God Bless the USA." We need to get an over / under on how many times he has performed that particular song since he first wrote it. Seriously it has be around 12,000. That Ohio flag they designed in the stands looked really awesome and made a great backdrop.

McCain / Palin were supposed to take the stage at around 3:30 and it ended up being around 4, which for a political rally is actually on time. It was the standard stump speech by both with the newer stuff added in. Sarah has gotten much better since I heard her in Youngstown in September. I would actually say McCain has too. I've heard this basic speech multiple times in person and about 1,297 times on TV or radio, so to me it wasn't a big deal. But the people there loved it. They went after Senator Government hard. Where this was up until about two weeks ago, I don't know. If every uncommitted voter in the country was there yesterday, McCain would win the election going away. Ohio.com filmed a video at the event; here it is.

I left a couple of minutes before I knew McCain was going to finish because I didn't want to get stuck in traffic since I had to get home for the World Series. Going to things like this really do boost your morale. It definitely gives you hope to see the base fired up and committed to the ticket. The base will be there. That I know. Hopefully it is enough. I've stated I think McCain can still win. Now we have a poll question to see if you agree.

I included some more pictures after the jump.

Press working hard looking at their Facebook pages…

This afternoon I sat down with Scott Knowles and Kevin Egan. They teach Political Science at Drexel University and closely follow Pennsylvania Politics. I wanted to get their take on the state of the presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. In this clip, they discuss the impact of Sarah Palin, the coal belt between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, McCain surrogates, how Obama wins, and how Drexel University students are engaged in this election.

In the Democratic Primary, the weeks of the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries were certainly a high point of the tension between the Obama and Clinton camps. At that point in the primary, Senator Casey backed Obama, Governor Rendell backed Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh's operation chaos was in full swing. Democrats everywhere were split right down the middle as the primary fight continued to escalate. Since then, the Democratic Party has come together behind Senator Obama and Senator Clinton has become one of the Obama Campaign's best weapons.

Today, I'm traveling to Philadelphia to participate in a "Media and Elections" panel at Drexel University. The timing of the trip turns out to be perfect with McCain focusing on the state, the Phillies in the World Series, and Penn State scheduled to get upset by Ohio State this Saturday. While on the road, I hope to snag a couple interviews to see if there is any validity to McCain's efforts.

Fox News Sunday With McCain In Ohio
Chris Wallace took his Sunday show to Columbus today for an interview with Senator McCain. McCain was looking to give a pep talk to conservatives and let them know that he is not out of it yet. McCain tried to make the case that the presidential debate last week was a turning point in the campaign with the emergence of Joe the Plumber as the voice of the small business owners. Other than that, McCain had nothing new to say and seemed irritated by most of the questions. I give Chris Wallace credit for conducting a tough and fair interview. It looks like the McCain campaign has nothing new for the closing stretch of the campaign. Good.

Why did the McCain campaign agree to send Sarah Palin in to participate in these sketches? How did they help her? The purpose of a politician going on Saturday Night Live to meet their impersonator is to try and disarm the impression by showing that they can laugh at themselves. In return, SNL usually tones down the impression to allow the candidate to show they are a good sport. The two sketches Palin participated in were just embarrassing for Palin. Alec Baldwin goes in, mocks the Republican candidate for Vice President to her face, and then walks her to the podium. Why did Palin's handlers agree to that? Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin has been just lethal in defining Palin as a ditz from Alaska. Last night was no exception. Rather than Palin taking the podium with Fey to disarm her, the two stare each other down as they trade spots. How does that help Palin? In the second sketch, the woman asking the country to put her a heartbeat away from the highest office in the land can be seen dancing in her chair while some mascot moose is shot during a rap song.

There are 16 days left until the election. Time is the most valuable commodity any candidate has in the final stretch of the campaign. Why fly her all the way to New York and waste a night on this? There is someone who is in charge of managing her time and protecting her from these kind of situations. Why didn't that person object when they read the script? "You know Lorne, the Governor is happy to do the show, but we're not going to have Alec Baldwin call her awful, hotter in person, and then walk her to the stage." I just don't see how Sarah Palin got any benefit out of her appearance.

The bad news keeps building for Republicans outside of their own party. 14 state polls were released yesterday and McCain was leading in just one: Georgia. Elections are decided by the Electioral College and Obama is taking the fight to McCain's most important states. Of the national polls released, Obama's smallest lead was 4% and his largest was 10%. The Politico reports that the Republican National Committee is looking to tap into its $5 million line of credit to buy ad time trying to protect their Senate Candidates that are in deep trouble. It is nice to see they are at least consistent on deficit spending.

The Election is by no means over and McCain will no doubt try to reinvent himself again this week, but things are not looking up yet.

Note: We will live blog Wednesday night's debate. Join us at 9:00pm EST.

26 days to go. McCain trails in the polls. Barack Obama (D-ACORN) is leading in the swing states and taking no chances with voter registration. What does McCain have to do to regain momentum? Is there anything he can do? Some of you actually think he should give up. Seriously. That makes me sick. Why? Because the media told you to? Get it together.

Anyhow, the question now seems to be one of character. Will McCain go after Obama's past? He has seemed very reluctant to do it. Just last night he and Governor Palin were on Hannity and Colmes (only with Hannity) and Hannity threw softballs about Ayers and ACORN. McCain didn't want any part of it. I was left scratching my head. Then today they released a new ad, "Ayers." Obama wants to know why he won't talk about Ayers to his face. Now that he said that, Barack might get his wish next Wednesday in Long Island at the third debate. I would guess he will now. Calling McCain out doesn't sound like a great strategy to me. This new ad looks like it might be run on TV shortly even though it is around 90 seconds. This afternoon in Wisconsin at a town hall campaign, McCain and Palin started hitting Obama hard. People in the audience were mad they weren't attacking hard enough. 26 days out, it looks like McCain finally gets it. If he starts going on the offensive, people are going to get more fired up. (BTW: Obama acts like he never talks bad about McCain on the campaign trail in his whiny interview…please. Also note the lack of follow ups by Charlie Gibson as compared to when he interviewed Palin). If rank and file Democrats want to whine like Obama about "personal attacks" let them. They aren't truly offended – they just don't want these issues to come up. They would consider them "relevant" if it was McCain's past. And by all means, like I have said before go after McCain if you want. This is a battle for the White House, not Summit County Council.

At times during the last couple weeks I wondered whether McCain decided he wasn't going to mention Ayers, ACORN, Chicago Machine politics, etc. It looked like he was just content to lose and say America just chose the other candidate – he didn't want to take the risk of attacking Obama. Now it looks like he was just waiting until more Americans were paying attention.

If John McCain called you this afternoon and said he was firing Steve Schmidt and you were now in charge of the campaign, what would be some of your first moves? Just asking.

States Update: I wrote way back when that I felt McCain had a better chance in Michigan than Pennsylvania. As we know now, McCain has ditched Michigan. I wonder if PA will be next. It looks bleaker than ever there. It was always going to be an uphill fight there, but to say things are grim for McCain there would be an understatement. It assume it would be too much of a PR hit to take to pull out of the Keystone State as well, so they really can't do it. But I wonder if they wish they had stayed in Michigan instead. Both were always long shots, but Michigan is a hell of a lot cheaper to run ads in. Too late now.

Big for McCain: Gets the NRA endorsement, which was not a given.

Hugh Hewitt and Bill Kristol tell Republicans not to despair. Hewitt lays out why McCain can win and Kristol spells out what McCain has to do. I met Hewitt in 2006 and he was a good guy. Here is hoping he is right. And Kristol is right that the Obama Campaign and the MSM want people like me to think the election is over to kill our spirits. Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard says look back to 1976 for some answers as to how to close the gap. I'd like to see a commercial run like Ford did about Carter (on page 2).

Hot Air links to a Washington Post story: Sources within the campaign say that they will become much more aggressive in exposing Barack Obama’s ties to radicals and his lack of experience and judgment in the final four weeks of the campaign. This strategy entails significant risk, but they need to regain the edge they had before the conventions. Risky? Yes. Necessary? Yes.

Bailout passes. Like I have said, I have no idea as to whether it was needed or not. I do know that the story had to be moved off the front pages politically for McCain. McCain and Palin will be in Greater Cleveland Wednesday. Location not announced yet. Probably going for me. Also on the bailout, I noticed Betty Sutton (so also did two other GOP House members) switched her vote from no to yes in less than a week. Buckeye RINO has what could be called an "informative" video of Sutton.

Ohio.com takes a look at the contest (often talked about here) between Rich Nero and Mike Moran for the 42nd House District. Gonna be a tight race in a district that is split about dead evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

Ohio University switches to semesters, effective in 2012. I was always a fan of the quarter system – probably the only thing I liked about that communist loving school. There is nothing left to like now. Wonder what the results from precincts where OU students and faculty will be voting will like November 4? Obama 94 Other 3 McCain 3? Too high a result for McCain? I remember how miserable the papers and hate speech there were in 2002 – for a midterm election. God help the few Republicans down there now. I feel for you.

Canton Repository endorses Kirk Schuring over John Boccieri in the race to take Ralph Regula's seat in OH-16.

Lastly, not politically related, but a good story from the Plain Dealer on the 12 year old captain of the football team at Holy Name High School.

Well I guess this has nothing to do with politics either. Had to mention it though. Sorry…..but I held out this long.

Last night President Bush spoke to the nation and repeated the same vague description of the financial bail out plan that we have heard all week. It was a reminder to the nation of who has been there for the past 8 years. Bush announced that he is convening a special meeting today and invited Obama and McCain to participate. Today, both candidates will be flying into Washington for a photo-op with President Bush, the man John McCain has been trying desperately to distance himself from. Hopefully SEC Chairman Chris Cox, the man John McCain hastily called for to be fired, will be there for pictures also. It is good to see President Bush back in the headlines. We Democrats have missed him.

In the midst of all this, Barack Obama has shown why he is ready to be president. He hasn't completely changed his positions, hidden from reporters, or needed a timeout. What I liked most was that Obama said that the American people deserve to hear from the candidates seeking the highest office in the land now more than ever. I completely agree and look forward to Friday's debate. Hopefully John McCain will be able to make it.

Bonus: If you missed Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, you need to press play. It is obvious why they don't want her doing interviews.

The novelty of Sarah Palin is starting to wear off as voters start to realize the importance of this presidential election in the midst of an economic crisis. Joe Biden is hitting Ohio hard this week. Today, he will campaign in hard hit Canton, where he will be introduced by Congressional Candidate John Boccieri. Later today he will be in Youngstown for an outdoor rally. These events present Biden with an opportunity to continue to showcase his understanding of the economic issues impacting our state.

The press has become increasingly impatient with Palin's unwillingess to participate. One of my favorite lessons from political science class is something to the effect of "you've got to feed the press or they will eat you alive." Since Sarah Palin isn't feeding the press, they have gone looking for something to eat and seem to have chosen a steady diet of fact checking Palin's talking points and looking into her record. The coverage is revealing that she is all show and little substance.

We've got a long way to go. I believe this race is dead even nationally and that we are a bit behind in Ohio. I also believe that Joe Biden is the kind of guy who understands the working class issues of Ohio voters and will be a difference maker down the stretch.

Obviously it has not been a good three days or so for John McCain. After six weeks or so of everything going exactly right, momentum was stopped cold. First it was Hurricane Ike and now it is Wall Street. Obama needed one or two events to get McCain and Palin out of the news and he got them. I would imagine there are some conflicted Democrats out there who want economic turmoil to the detriment of the country despite it hurting their pocketbooks so they can get a poll boost. Must be a pleasant position to be in. The poor economic news is helping Obama; it isn't that surprising.

Polling was bad today. Obama retook the lead in the Gallup. CBS News, with an interesting sample, put Obama +5. State polls weren't that kind either. It is going to get worse over the next couple of days for McCain the polls. Expect it. As of right now, the RCP average is exactly tied. Everyday can't go exactly the way of McCain.

Obama has unleashed negative ads. No problem with that…people say they don't like them, but they work. They won't go unanswered and some are likely to backfire (like the latest ad on Spanish speaking TV). It is politics. This is a tough campaign.

Anyhow, there is a way to go – 7 weeks. As good as some of you felt last week or the week before, I urged caution for this very reason. The environment was tough going in, and as we are being reminded it still is. There will be more twists and turns, but don't get discouraged because of a bad couple of days. Polls go up and down. Down today, and probably the next few, but they'll be back up at some point. Get down off the ledge. The candidate who has no flaws (according to Obama himself) isn't invincible. There is an opening for leadership, McCain's #1 trait.

Yesterday I went to the McCain-Palin rally in Vienna, outside Youngstown. It was held at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport / Winner Aviation hangar, which was cool because the plane landed right there and you got to see it come in – the place went crazy when the plane touched down just a couple minutes after 4.

Before that, there was a gaggle of local speakers as well as Auditor of State Mary Taylor.

As far as the main speeches went, it was nothing you wouldn't have expected. Palin had a lot of the same lines she has been using, but added some new stuff about how she will have a major role in energy policy. McCain spent the bulk of his time discussing the current events on Wall Street as it was the major news story of the day. His last line was how he would rather spend time in Ohio campaigning with the people there as opposed to Obama who was at a Hollywood fund raiser. Crowd ate it up. The attendance was estimated at 7,000+. I am horrible at estimating sizes of large masses of people, but would have guessed a little lower. Regardless, it was a great turnout for a Tuesday afternoon and people stayed patient in the hot airplane hanger that occasionally filled with fumes. One thing really stood out, and I think you know what I am going to say…..the number of women. Tons. The effect of her selection is real. Many brought their daughters to see Governor Palin. Saw a few wearing their Hillary shirts as well and a few "Another Democrat for McCain" signs in yards nearby. Not based on what I saw today, but Obama is going to have real trouble matching Kerry's performance in the Mahoning Valley. I don't think he will get what he needs there.

It is clear from polling the base is consolidated, but it was nice to see it in person to get a personal confirmation.

Aside from McCain and Palin, the most recognizable person there was "Campaign Carl," Carl Cameron from Fox News. People cheered him….while staring at the rest of the media in a not very approving way. Through a few phone calls, I set myself up with a press pass. The best part of it was that I got to sit in a chair while others had to stand while waiting. Thanks to those who helped me with that. The traveling press that was there with McCain and follows him around paid absolutely zero attention to anything he or the Governor said. I mean none. McCain could have said he was going to eliminate the federal income tax or ban the NFL and they wouldn't have noticed. They were all sitting there with their playing with their laptops and talking to each other. This might be normal – when you hear basically the same thing at every stop, you probably stop paying attention. Not sure. The local media, however, was paying attention and taking notes – the guy directly next to me was from ONN. I think I angered a couple of them because I stood the whole time, but that is because I gave my chair to a little girl on the other side of the barrier so she could stand up and see. Probably would have stood anyhow. I wanted to clap at various points, but I figured that wasn't acceptable in the media area so I didn't. It wasn't an Obama speech.

Lastly, I spent a good few minutes talking to two women from Warren, Marge and Myrna while waiting for McCain to arrive. Very nice ladies….glad to have met you.

Pictures added after the jump.