The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation's Republican governors..

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/13/gop-files-suit-to-undo-mccain-rules/

In case you missed it, Newsweek is reporting some post-election day gems. Nearly all of it would be interesting to even the most passing of political junkies. A few of the juicier tidbits:

• Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family--clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

• Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary's name came up in veep discussions, and Obama's advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, "Are we sure?" He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.

• On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers--Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons--met to decide whether to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."

• The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide..

Taking Dijamo's advice to force update of my comments and recommended sections by posting something. Anything...

In case you missed it, Charles Fried  - Solicitor General under Reagan and former McCain campaign supporter - has asked his name be removed from the campaign due to his recent vote for Senator Obama.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

As you are undoubtedly aware, Rick Davis has recently stated the McCain campaign is considering using Revered Wright as an attack point. I was uncertain how this might be tactically executed save something simplistic and straightforward, like "He was his preacher, and that is BAD..." type of stuff.

Wondering if this from the McCain campaign website might be their strategy:

"There was a total lack of accountability" at Obama and Ayers' Chicago Annenberg Challenge, former city school superintendent Paul Vallas has told The Post. Indeed, "If you went back and asked, you'd be hard-pressed to find out how the money was spent."

 

Well, maybe.

 

As it turns out, the Obama-helmed CAC was directing big bucks toward the propagation - in Chicago public schools - of the whack-job racist ideology most famously preached by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

When attempting to post comments on reader blogs, I am informed after clicking "Submit" that my comment will be held for review by the author until such time as he or she deems it fit for inclusion in the thread.

Is this a new overarching comment policy? Or do I simply need to flip a switch somewhere to re-enable my unfettered contributions to reader blogs? Surely, the TPMCafe public is dying to hear my thoughts on the great issues of our time.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A weeklong period in which Ohioans could register to vote and immediately cast a ballot ended Monday with turnout that didn't quite match the expectations of election officials — or the campaign predictions that preceded it.

Early returns showed about 3,000 voters in Ohio's four largest counties took advantage of the disputed policy, a surprisingly low turnout to some elections officials.

The window was expected to benefit Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, as his campaign and advocacy groups pushed Democratic-leaning groups such as college students and low-income voters to the polls.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OHIO_EARLY_VOTING?SITE=JRC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A bit surprising to me. Must say a bit unnerving too.

Fellow TPMers, lest we forget in light of current positive poll data, no modern political campaign can ever survive a dearth of funding.

Whether you have donated previously to Senator Obama's campaign, or if you have not yet done so, please internalize the fact that NOW is the time to act. As we rapidly approach Nov 4th, both campaigns will be pressured by smaller and smaller returns from contributions that are made later and later.

Please consider helping Senator Obama's campaign get an accurate picture of how much it has available to spend in these 'End Of Days', by contributing today!

Shameless plug: Please "recommend" this otherwise empty and uninformative post to keep it visible to the greatest number of eyeballs possible. Less than 30 days left - let's help seal the deal.

Courtesy of Jonathan Martin at Politico, the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain is suspending operations in Michigan...

"McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida.   Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

::Sigh::

About 2 seconds after McCain uttered the words "...Republican Guard..." in reference to Iran's terrorist group, I was on cloud nine. Game, set, match... this whole thing was about to be over. I was attempting to envision how cool Obama might play the mistake as he calmly explained "...by the way, John, I think you meant the Revolutionary Guard...."

or maybe...

"... John, when did the Republican Guard rebase in Iran? I hadn't heard...."

But alas, opportunity was wasted when he not only failed to correct McCain, but repeated the same mistake himself! Talk about the game-changer that wasn't.

Although I know it wasn't likely, I was really hoping the debate would somehow deliver the knockout blow - where Obama would put McCain down for the count once and for all. Man, what a painfully missed chance.

As many of you know, in the case of a tied vote from the electoral college, the duty of selecting a president and vice president falls to the House and Senate respectively.

At this point in the race, I am wondering if a tie is becoming more likely? Analyzing the current "swing" states, is it unreasonable to suppose the voting breaks down thusly:

Obama -
   Colorado
   Minnesota
   Michigan
   Pennsylvania. Total electoral votes: 269

McCain
   Nevada
   Montana
   Indiana
   Ohio
   West Virginia
   Virginia
   North Carolina
   Florida
   New Hampshire
   New Mexico*. Total electoral votes: 269.

*(Disclaimer: Here I give McCain a tremendous benefit of the doubt with regard to New Mexico - my analyses indicate the state will be a win for Senator Obama)

So that leaves us with Nebraska and Maine - both of which appoint their representatives to the electoral college by congressional district rather than the more common "winner take all" formula. Perhaps we can pick off one of the Nebraskan electoral voters? Start dialing those cornhusker phones now!

In all seriousness folks, re-examine the lists above. To win the presidency, our man really only needs 4 states: CO, MN, MI and PA (assuming NM is in the bag). Conversely, McCain needs 10 or more.

I will always be the last person to succumb to overconfidence, but the writing is on the wall. It may be faint, but it's there. Barring any major unforseen catastrophes, 08 is trending toward a done deal for President Obama.

There seems to be some consternation since Gallup, USA Today and others have released recent data showing Senator McCain ahead of Senator Obama in national polling.

I do believe that politics favors the paranoid, but please believe me when I attempt to reassure you there remains relatively little danger of a McCain victory despite the new data points.

Based on a model which I have devised, there quite a few available and (currently) likely paths for Senator Obama to reach the White House. Conversely, Senator McCain's footing is significantly more shaky, with critical failure points along the way. I list several of them here in increasing order of likelihood (e.g. from least likely to most likely). Senator McCain almost surely loses the election if:

He loses Missouri and Michigan
He loses Florida
He loses Virginia, Missouri and New Hampshire
He loses Ohio and Colorado
He loses Virginia and Michigan

Do not take this post to imply that your efforts to elect Senator Obama can be safely shelved - but rather simply that you shouldn't worry so much.

On the other hand, if your paranoia still reigns supreme - please consider doing something productive with it and using the states I list above to target your campaigning activities.

Thanks.

There has been some recent complaints registered by TPM readers regarding uninformed site users who somehow should "know better" than to submit multiple times the same post after receiving a server error.

While it is very understandably frustrating to see valuable posts disappear due to overzealous people who submit theirs multiple times (also understandably when they believe their posts did not go through), let's not forget the bigger picture here...

This is ALL the fault of TPM. Frankly, their entire IT department should be completely embarrassed. I don't know who is the biggest fool: Those who post over and over again, TPM, or us - for continuing to use TPM.

Ah Johnny Zogby. I just can't get enough of that guy - you know, the one who authoritatively predicted Kerry would take 310 electoral votes way back in '04.

I follow state-by-state polling shifts quite closely, and had noticed for sometime an interesting trend in Arizona - generally moving in favor of Senator Obama. While the observed movement is noteworthy and unexpected, anyone with an ounce of sense knows to summarily dismiss it because Arizona is obviously (to the detriment of Arizonans) destined to fall solidly in the McCain column.

Enter John Zogby, master of the Pay-For-Poll: he'll find you any result for just four easy payments of $99.95!

http://www.zogby.com/50state/showstats.cfm?statename=Arizona

I wonder if he also offers any Genu-wine fine I-talian leathers, or Garonteed 24K gold necklaces?

I will be one of the very last people to succumb to overconfidence. Still, can't help to find it at least a little amusing that the Washington Post (among others) seemingly continues to insist all the cards are in place for a resounding McCain victory the very same day we get something completely different from Gallup.

So, just how many times does one need to repeat something until it finally becomes true? Heidi Klum loves me... Heidi Klum loves me...