I have to be honest, if there is anything less interesting in an election cycle it is looking over a candidates taxes. At least when you look over endless campaign finance documents you could possibly find a smoking gun or learn a thing or two about a candidates overall strategy. The many years of IRS filings for an individual candidate though, that right there is a snoozer.

Just like they did with Hillary Clinton though the Obama campaign now hopes to turn Sarah Palin’s tax returns into a major campaign issue. Today Joe Biden released ten years of his own (Oh great, there goes my weekend… nah forget that I am not going to bother) and the Obama camp is already putting out the “when will Sarah Palin release them, when will Sarah Palin release them) game.

Earlier in the year the hype surrounded Hillary Clinton’s tax returns. Her failure to release them on the Obama timetable gave journalists lots to write about and bloggers lots to speculate over. “There must be some kind of conspiracy, they must show Clinton is lying about something, she must be on someones take!” But just like Obama’s birth certificate, they revealed absolutely nothing of interest when we finally got our grubby little hands on them. All we found out was that Clinton, like Obama and everyone else who runs for president, makes more money than most of us do or ever will. Wow, shocker!

I can just see the blog posts questioning if some crazy Alaskan cessationist cult bent on banning books and feeding babbies mind control juice and gives dentists molar probe listening devices pays her bills. In reality they undoubtedly contain the same boring information all of our taxe returns contain. Still, I am sure MSNBC and CNN right now are talking about it and precious space will be devoted to it in the New York Times this weekend.

Cannot wait.

Update:

: Also see this article from the financial times about Democratic jitters.

I love it when my predictions and commentary are accurate! Sorry to gloat, but I have to.

OK, so the other day I was on my high horse because my prediction that you would start seeing Democrats openly (and some behind the scenes) questioning the Obama campaigns handling of itself and its opponents. In that post I mentioned that Representatives were always the first to turn on a candidate because they were the most likely to lose their jobs if turnout did not favor their nominee. Well, guess what, Gallup is now reporting that after a year of double digit leads in generic polling about Congress, things are evening out.

Lets recap what has happened:

1) The Democratic Congress is even worse than the Republicans. Seriously, after coming in on a wave of “change” and the promise to end the War, get Representatives working a full week, pass meaningful ethics reform and stop the personal attacks, well, they are doing a terrible job. They have passed little to no meaningful legislation and Washington seems even worse now than it was a year ago.

2) The Iraq War has stabilized. Democrats thought the shift in attention to Afghanistan would actually help them because it would somehow signal the Bush administration was incompetent and ignoring the nation because of Iraq. While some may have this perception it is also a reminder that Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism is real, so are the dangers in fighting it. In short, leadership with military experience is a plus for Republicans.

3) There is real excitement with conservatives. No longer worried about building up the base, McCain can now focus on independents thanks to the energy of Sarah Palin. Obama and the media have no idea how to handle her, it only plays more to the base.

So with renewed excitement, a do-nothing Democratic Congress and a real sense of apathy, Republicans have a fighting chance at keeping the White House. This could spell doom for Democrats who thought they would see a massive shift in Congress. If Republican turnout is high, than that means many local races that were not competitive two months ago now are.

Watch the next few weeks for any major shift in issues. Read, flag burning, Elian Gonzalez, gay marriage, anything of that kind. They spring up constantly in the final weeks of a campaign and they can be deadly. At this point we could see either side utterly destroyed by a gaffe or awarded for being on the right side of an issue that seems trivial to elites but resonates to voters. Something will come, we just don’t know what it is yet.

Last night was Gov. Sarah Palin’s first real interview since accepting the nomination given to Charlie Gibson on ABC. One thing is for sure, ABC is milking this thing for all it is worth with a second night tonight, a special on 20/20 and I believe they also ran something on Nightline last evening.

How did she do? Not surprising those who like Barack Obama ripped her to shreds, those who like her thought she did wonderful. The rest of agree she did fine but not amazing. She met expectations and will live on another day.

The largest point of contention would have to be her answer on respecting Pakistan’s territorial border despite intelligence suggesting we could squash a threat. She answered it in the best way a person can. She suggested she would consider it but made no verbose statements about racing in to invade the nation or bomb them at will. She of course received an enormous amount of criticism in the blogs for it but she aligned her position with that of McCain who has chastised colleagues both Democrat and Republican who have gone further.

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Cross-posted on 26th District

I wanted to take a moment today and acknowledge September 11th.

Like many I believe this should be a day of remembrance, unity and a chance to reflect on what this nation represents. Terrorists hit the great symbols of our nation in 2001, our business, our defense and if they had been allowed they too would have hit our Capitol, the symbol of our democracy and our plurality. They attacked all that they dislike about our nation; they attacked all that that ultimately makes us great.

The beauty of our democracy is that none of us must agree. The wonder of our Republic is that in the end, though we may fight, we prevail. We prevail not in spite of our differences but because of them. There is little now that divides our people so great that we should abandon our democracy. There was a time when this nation nearly tore itself apart but we prevailed. There was more than a time when our nation faced empires abroad bent on strife, but we prevailed.

Our revolutionary vision of the world ignited a revolution not just of a new rule around the world, but new innovation, new freedom and likewise the ability for nations to disagree but to do so in peace. The ability to fight great wars when our visions collide; but to rebuild one another much greater than we were before and with new understanding about what makes us different in addition to the same.

The world and our nation are not perfect. This should never be taken as a sign that we are unworthy of the rights bestowed upon us by our creator or the right to believe that our vision of the world is ultimately righteous. Instead it is a necessary part of our design and a reason to let our freedom drive us to seek perfection in an imperfect world.

I love this nation, I love our democratic process and I love all that makes us both flawed and makes us strive to be better.

There is no end to the many lives who died in the brutal and senseless assault that took place on September 11th. They live now in the infinite, a reminder to us that moments of struggle are finite when we have clarity of purpose to see better tomorrows.

Best wishes to you all and all my thoughts to the families and friends, neighbors and a nation that still feel loss on this day.

From ABC News:

“Make no mistake about this,” Biden responded. “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate, I mean that sincerely, she’s first rate, so let’s get that straight.”

Spokesman Ben Porritt offered this response from the McCain camp: “Barack Obama’s most important decision of this election, and Biden — the candidate he selects — suggests, himself, that he wasn’t the right man for the job, and that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice. Biden certainly has a credible viewpoint on this.”

I predicted earlier in the week that you would no doubt start hearing reports from within the Democratic Party questioning the Obama leadership, strategy and organization. It has begun. I originally aid we would probably see them in a few weeks, but the last few days of missteps “you can put lipstick on a pig” from the Obama team seems to have brought them out sooner.

First is this piece entitled McCain Poll Surge, Fundraising Give Democrats Election Jitters which includes the statement that the Obama camp’s “novelty has worn off,” from Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. Also the statement that this has been the Republicans “best week” Representative Artur Davis. The positives and reassurances come from Democratic “strategists” in the piece. Why is this important? Let me explain.

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Yesterday New York held some primaries and Democrat Jon Powers, an Iraqi War veteran who gained national media attention, lost to a little known candidate named Alice Kryzan. For several months now I have been following the race and offer up a postmortem here on 26thdistrict.com

Well the case of foot-in-mouth disease that seems to be spreading throughout the Democratic Party continues with this little nugget just reported on from Politico in which the SC Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler who said Sarah Palin is a running mate:

“Whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Ouch! That is going to come back to haunt the Democratic Party with religious voters.

From The Hill:

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) says that if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) becomes the first female vice president it will be a “backward step for women.”

Asked by a local television reporter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin if electing Palin would be a step forward for women, Biden said, “well look, I think the issue is what does Sarah Palin think? What does she believe?”

“I assume she thinks and agrees with the same policies that George Bush and John McCain think,” Biden added. “And that’s obviously a backward step for women.”

Update: Biden is also taking heat from the McCain camp over comments he made concerning “special needs kids” and which party would support them best. From a CNN report:

“I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy…and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect,” he said. “Well, guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research?”

Gov. Palin said in her acceptance speech that she would be an advocate for those with special needs if she was elected. Responding to the comment the McCain team said the following:

“Barack Obama’s running mate sunk to a new low today launching an offensive debate over who cares more about special needs children,” McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt said. “Playing politics with this issue is disturbing and indicative of a desperate campaign.”

- Today the International Herald Tribune reports there are growing concerns over Obama’s fundraising machine as the possibility that he may not hit targets grows. I am always VERY skeptical of these reports from anyone as they tend to be media management of downplaying expectations so that any amount above the target is heralded. With that said, it could be true, we will see.

- One thing is for certain, the McCain campaign is now racking in the money. Raising $5 million in 5 hours in Chicago the excitement now being generated from Sarah Palin, a successful convention and the rebranding of McCain’s maverick message all seem to be paying off.

- Speaking of the payoff, Gallup now says Obama has the lead by 15% with independent voters in their latest poll. This is important. Reports from CNN yesterday said that their polls have been leveling off for months showing an increasingly static 50/50 race while the excitement level, once heavily favoring Obama amongst his voters, is now either equally match or exceeded in McCain circles. As I have been continually predicting we could well see a return of the 50/50 electorate we’ve seen in the last two elections. Dems turning out heavily for Dems, Republicans for Republicans. Leaving independents, as always, the most important voting block.

It will be VERY interesting to see state polls over the next three weeks. Specifically watch New Hampshire, Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Everyone seems to be leaning Pennsylvania toward the Democrats, but if Obama/Palin make a major push in rural parts of the state it will force Obama/Biden to spend more resources. That is the strategy I would push on and let Obama spend resources in Colorado; Wisconsin and others. In my opinion Obama needs to push heavy in urban districts in Ohio and Michigan, let New Hampshire fall as it will and shore up the vote in Pennsylvania. Florida is most likely lost to Democrats this year. This election will be about squeezing every vote out of the states that matter most to the electoral college.

- The Obama campaign is hitting hard and fast on Palin & McCain’s “maverick” theme. Questioning Palin’s support of the “bridge to nowhere” and attempting to link McCain to Washington and the Bush administration. McCain & Palin have been pushing biography over issues and Obama is working hard to undermine their message by questioning that biography. The media seems to be doing the same, starting first with the announcement of Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy and now moving onto her faith.