England for Obama

The ‘whoa!’ gag made me laugh out loud, I must confess.

Here’s last night’s great Wag Of The Finger segment for your enjoyment, too. Well, Obama does get a mention. Although it’s not as funny as the ‘plants’ bit :

And finally: Stephen uses DaColbert Code to work out who’s going to be President:

What’s particularly wonderful about Ken Duberstein’s endorsement of Barack Obama isn’t just that it’s yet another conservative voice saying yes, I may be a Republican but I can’t support the John McCain ticket - but that Duberstein then went on MSNBC to openly criticise John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin:

Ah, it’s like all our Christmases are coming at once…

Actually, not to put a downer on things, but: I do find it rather annoying when pundits and even Duberstein here use polling results that show that people don’t think Sarah Palin is ready to be Vice President as evidence that Sarah Palin isn’t ready to be Vice President. The fact that people don’t think she is doesn’t mean that she isn’t. If you see my logic. I mean, don’t get me wrong: I’m very happy that people don’t think Palin is ready to lead. But those polls show nothing more than what people think or believe to be true; and you don’t need to use them as some sort of justification when talking about Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications/readiness. You can do that with, y’know, facts.

…on television; while the YouTube video currently has 1,416,160 views. No: 1,416,161. No: 1,416,162.

But did it work? Well, Gallup polled people after the 30-minute advert aired - read their findings below. In short: Obama’s gone up, McCain’s gone down, but not by huge percentage points. So it may not have made a big difference - but in the words of Daily Kos: “It baked the cake”.

“The political landscape could be improving for Barack Obama in the waning days of the campaign. Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 28-30 shows him with an eight percentage point lead over John McCain among traditional likely voters — 51% to 43% — his largest margin to date using this historical Gallup Poll voter model.

Since Tuesday, McCain’s support among traditional likely voters has dropped by four points (from 47% to 43%), Obama’s has risen by two points (from 49% to 51%), and the percentage of undecided voters has increased from 4% to 6%.

Thursday night’s interviews are the first conducted entirely after Obama’s widely viewed 30-minute prime-time campaign ad, which ran on several television networks Wednesday evening. Obama held a substantial lead over McCain in last night’s polling, however no greater than what Gallup found on Wednesday.

Obama’s current 11-point lead over McCain among all registered voters — 52% to 41% — is up from an eight-point lead in yesterday’s report, and ties his highest advantage on this basis, last recorded 10 days ago.”

Here were the findings from Rasmussen:

Ad Make You More/Less Likely to Vote for Obama?

More Likely: 54%
Less Likely 24%
Among McCain Voters: 8% More Likely
Among Conservatives: 39% More Likely
Among Republicans: 21% More Likely
Among Men: 50% More likely
Among Women: 59% More Likely
Among 65+: 57% More Likely
Among Whites: 50% More Likely

Apparently, one in seven voters are still persuadable. Who are these people?!

When I posted a video of Ronald Reagan apparently endorsing Obama it was, of course, a video mash-up. A fake if you will. That is not the case with the endorsement of former chief of staff to Ronald Reagan, according to CNN:

Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.

“Well let’s put it this way - I think Colin Powell’s decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama.”

Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein’s tenure as chief of staff.

Source: CNN

When Ronald Reagan’s former chief of staff backs Barack instead of McCain citing Reagan’s former national security advisor, when it’s supposed to be McCain’s strongest reason to vote for him, you’ve got to wonder why anybody would vote for McCain.

A lovely new ad from the Obama campaign:

…Keith Olbermann takes a look at the polls, and the state of the two campaigns right now:

Watch last night’s interview here, folks (yes, it’s in two parts. That’s not a copy and paste error below):

Apparently it’s a direct career path from community organising to crack-dealing:

November 4th will see the end of many things. Eight years of George W Bush. Hopefully, eight years of Republicans in the White House, eight years of self-serving politics, and eight years of hawkish, neocon philosophy.

But it will also mark the end of a very important phenomenon.

Truthiness.

‘Truthiness’ was coined by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report back in 2005. It was a stroke of genius - quickly becoming the buzzword of the year and even gaining its own Wikipedia entry.

Colbert came up with the term following George Bush’s remarks that he nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court based on how he felt about her. As opposed to the actual reality of, say, facts. Or experience. ‘Truthiness’ is, in short, the feeling of something to be right - and in Stephen and Dubya’s world, that’s enough. In fact, it’s better than facts. Because you have more nerve endings in your gut than in your head.

Watch him introducing the word for the first time:

‘Truthiness’ has, in all truth(iness), never really left Republican politics since 2005 - and in fact, it’s been all-too visible during the current election campaign.

From introducing us to Sarah Palin as “exactly who this country needs” despite barely knowing her, and telling us that we would all be just as “impressed” as he was by her (because who cares about little things like the facts of her record?), to trying to tell Americans why they should feel afraid of Barack Obama (he’s a terrorist! He’s a socialist! He’s, erm, not like you and me!), John McCain has shown time and again that he, his campaign and his party are still driven by Rovian, Bushian ‘truthiness’.

But you know what? The American people aren’t buying it any more. You can put lipstick on the truth and call it truthiness, John - but people will still see the truth. Both of you and your running mate, and of your opposition candidate.

An Obama victory marks the victory of truth over truthiness. And that’s The Word.