Wow, just wow.  Republican dirtbag Brad Blakeman was questioned on MSNBC by David Schuster about how could McCain claim to be against wasteful spending when Palin has spent over $150k on clothing.  Blakeman then tried to turn the discussion to Obama's trip to visit his dying Grandmother in Hawaii.  He said "Forget about the energy that is wasted, what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a private trip when this guy should be humping his bags on a commercial plane or taking a smaller plane. Taking a 767 of campaign money from people who could least afford it is more of an outrage in my opinion." 

I for one have donated $25 from every paycheck to Barack Obama's campaign.  I do not feel my money is being wasted for this trip.  His grandmother helped mold him into the powerful leader he will be for our country.  For that, my money could not be used in a better way.

Here is the link to the Huff Post's article, with video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/gop-strategist-on-palins_n_137226.html

I am a fifth grade teacher in Utah.  I have been teaching my students from day one about the election process in anticipation of these final 2 weeks of the election.  I feel the importance of this election is something fifth graders should be aware of.  In class we have been running elections for class president, and learning about what electoral votes are, how many are needed to become President, and tracking polls from the beginning of the school year.  I have also required my students to watch the debates, and discuss them with their parents, and write a summary of the 3 debates and what they thought.

Today, we had a brainstorming session where I put up one of the candidates names, and then asked for one word responses from each student as to what they thought of the candidates based on impressions from the debated and advertisements we have looked at.  When I put up McCain's name, I some responses like "brave", and "fighter".  I got more responses like "old", "mean", "wrong", and "confused".  More than 2 to 1 were negative responses.  When I put up Obama's name, I got overwhelming positive responses such as "caring", "generous", "nice", and "leader".  These responses were about 3 to 1.  Remember these are kids in one of the reddest states in the Union.  I was very surprised that my 5th graders from Utah had more positive thoughts about Obama than McCain.