US Elections - Times Online - WBLG

Is Obama eyeing McCain as energy secretary?

The plot of the West Wing has been invoked more than a few times during Barack Obama’s ascent to the Oval Office, most recently with the appointment of the chief-of-staff who inspired the acerbic character of Josh Lyman. Now, it seems life could imitate art once more as rumours begin to fly that the president-elect could make the ultimate bipartisan gesture of offering his Republican presidential rival a post in his Cabinet.

As Mr Obama prepared to meet with John McCain today to discuss future cooperation, there was speculation on a number of respected blogs that the Democrat could be considering offering his former opponent the post of Energy Secretary.

It would certainly be a neat end to a contest that has cleaved so faithfully to the storyline of the award-winning show that its writers could do well to consider careers as political oracles: in the final series, a presidential showdown between little-known Latino Democrat Matt Santos – based on Mr Obama – and ageing maverick Republican Arnold Vinick – inspired by Mr McCain – ends with the former becoming America’s first Hispanic president before offering his former rival the plum job of Secretary of State.

The two men’s well-known differences on foreign policy would rule out that particular position but on energy, the (admittedly pale) green credentials of Mr McCain – McCain the senator, that is, as opposed to McCain the base-pandering candidate – make him worthy of serious consideration.

But is it true?

Keating law firm donates $50,000 to McCain campaign

Those voting for the first time this year may not have even been alive during the Keating Five scandal, the political corruption case that threatened to end John McCain's political career back in 1989. Much to the chagrin of those Democrats gesticulating wildly at the very silent elephant in the room, the Obama campaign has largely refrained from touching upon the issue, perhaps preferring to leave past associations well alone, for understandable reasons.

But sometimes history throws little reminders into our present path, and this is one of those times. Campaign finance records have revealed that the law firm founded by Charles Keating - before he went to jail for fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy for his activities as chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loans - has made donations totalling over $50,000 to McCain's campaign.

The Center for Responsive Politics has done the maths, and says: "In amounts ranging from $200 to $2,300, about 30 partners and employees of the legal firm Keating, Muething and Klekamp, as well as their family members, have contributed $50,200 to McCain's 2008 campaign. All but two of the contributions came in July, and all but three of those July donations were logged on July 31, suggesting they were delivered at the same time. As with any bundle of campaign contributions, it's difficult to determine which donor was the "bundler," the person who solicited the contributions on the campaign's behalf. McCain's online roster of bundlers, which purports to name any individual bundling $50,000 or more for the campaign, does not associate any of McCain's major fundraisers with the Keating firm."

This is not improper in itself, and the only Keating included in the bundle is William J. Keating, Jr., Charles Keating's nephew, who is listed as a partner in the firm and contributed $1,000.

But it reminds us of McCain's role in "The Keating Five," a group of senators who received a total of $1.4 million in campaign contributions connected to Keating and personally intervened with government regulators to allow Lincoln Savings and Loans to make highly risky investments that defrauded thousands of investors and cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.

Keating, now 84, once wrote to McCain that "I'm yours till death do us part". Could he be keeping his promise?

Lies and more lies: the 10 dirtiest tricks in US electoral history

An already nasty race is getting even nastier with both parties trading allegations of voting irregularities and underhand tactics. Here, I take a look at the 10 dirtiest incidents in US electoral history - in no particular order.

Thomas Jefferson and James Callender

  The long and inglorious history of dirty tricks in US electoral politics stretches right back to 1800, in what was only the second contested presidential election. Vice-President Thomas Jefferson hired Scottish-born journalist and pamphleteer James Thomas Callender to slander his opponent, the incumbent president and formerly great friend, John Adams. In published writings, Callender accused Adams of being a “repulsive pedant” and “a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman”. In return, Adams' camp called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." The attacks sunk ever lower with Adams being labelled a criminal and Jefferson an atheist, but Jefferson’s smears-by-proxy were ultimately more successful with Callender convincing most Americans that Adams was set on attacking France, clinching the election for him.

However the tactics later backfired as Callender, after serving jail time for the slander of Adams,  turned on Jefferson and began to train his attacks on him. Callender wrote in a series of articles that Jefferson had fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings, and later, after that scandal ran its course, eventually blew over, exposed the President's attempt to seduce a married neighbor years earlier.

The Al Smith dinner: Vote for your comic-in-chief

Barack Obama and John McCain broke off from the ferocity of the campaign trail to give each other a good-humoured roasting at last night's Al Smith memorial dinner, a traditional pre-election stop. Watch the videos and cast your votes in our comedy election - results to be revealed on Monday. Then scroll down for our list of famous Al Smith dinner jokes.

NB - In the John McCain clip, the first few words of his opening are cut off. Apologies - this is currently the most complete footage available and it will be replaced when possible. But don't worry, all you miss are the obligatory acknowledgements.

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Colin Powell, 2002

"They even had an election in Iraq earlier this week. Saddam Hussein won with 99.999% of the vote. And Saddam Hussein asked his prime minister, "What about the rest?" The prime minister said, "Supreme leader, what more could you want?" "Their names!". In Baghdad, they don't have hanging chads, they just have hangings."

Al Gore, 2000

"I did think it was effective (on the campaign trail) when I weaved in stories of real people in the audience and their everyday challenges. Like the woman who's here tonight, whose husband is about to lose his job. She's struggling to get out of public housing and get a job of her own. Hillary Clinton, I want to fight for you!"

George W. Bush, 2000

“This is an impressive crowd. The haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.”

Michael Dukakis (5ft 6 inches), 1988

To George HW Bush (6ft 2 inches): "You've said many times in this campaign that you want to give America back to the little guy. Well, Mr Vice-President, I am that man.''

John F Kennedy, 1960

"I had announced earlier this year that if successful I would not consider campaign contributions as a substitute for experience in appointing ambassadors. Ever since I made that statement I have not received one single cent from my father."

Tony Blair, 2007

"Recently I stood on the Mount of Temptation, near Jordan where Our Lord is said to have spent 40 days and 40 nights. One of the guides , whose family has witnessed the consequences of the conflict over the decades, remarked a little ruefully; “Couldn’t Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed have found a different part of the world to be born in ?”

Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968

"Just the other day one of our foremost newspapers quoted some of those famous "inside sources" to charge that a certain important archdiocese suffered from "government by crony." Well, as I have said before, "These are the New York Times that try men’s souls."

John McCain, 2005

"We Republicans aren’t having much fun there these days. Tom DeLay has been indicted; Bill Frist has been subpoenaed; senior White House aides investigated by a special prosecutor: the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court facing a difficult confirmation. Or as our friends at Fox News call it, a slow news month."

Not so secret anymore...

The St. Petersburg Times reports today that the Florida Republican Party "hastily convened a top-secret meeting" this week to address John McCain's apparent free-fall in the battleground state's recent polls.

The last four major polls out of Florida show Barack Obama leading McCain by anywhere from 3 to 8 points. A loss in Florida, which has 27 electoral votes, would, of course, be catastrophic to Mr McCain's chances at winning the presidency in November.

Among the other concerns expressed at the meeting was a growing concern that the McCain campaign staff weren't fully utilising grassroots volunteers. The St. Petersburg Times quotes former Florida GOP Chairman Tom Slade as saying, "I get the sense that on the statewide basis, the grassroots Republicans don't quite feel like they have a natural fit within the McCain organization."

However you interpret the reasons for the meeting, it can't be a good sign for McCain that top GOP officials in this must-win state felt the need to call for such a gathering in the first place.

Hat Tip to Ben Smith for pointing out the story.

Across the Pond, the album: The best unofficial campaign songs #1

So B-Rock has released an album eh? Here at Across the Pond, we reckon we can do better than that silver-tongued smoothie with all his celebrity pals, so we've put together a compilation of the best unofficial campaign songs, posted by you the people on YouTube. We'll be releasing one each weekday for the next two weeks (in no particular order).

CAUTION: These videos contain extreme lightheartedness, infantile humour and gratuitous silliness. We apologise for any offence caused.

First up, it's the Obama baby...

McCain wins debate!

It's the headline John McCain needs coming out of tonight's off, then on, then off, then on again debate, but I'm not sure this is how he wanted to get it.

Washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza has a reader send in a screen capture of this ad running a bit prematurely on the website of the Wall Street Journal this morning.

If nothing else, it's a nice illustration of the campaigns' theories that the post-debate spin is typically more important than the substance of the debate itself. With this debate airing late on a Friday night (when many people aren't paying attention), the "spin room" will be even more important than usual.

McCain's decision is based on what?

Word has just come out that John McCain will suspend his campaign tomorrow morning and return to Washington to address the country's financial crisis. Ben Smith points out though, that the only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling.

Whatever your political leanings, the timing is certainly interesting.

Obama and McCain are said to be working on a joint statement to be released later. Stay tuned to The Times for updates.

State of the race: an electoral college map

Two maps, in fact. The first uses the latest poll in each state to determine whether that state is a battleground (if it is tied, or one candidate is leading by six points or less) or if it is a solid state for the Republicans or Democrats (if one candidate has a lead of seven points or more). In this scenario, Barack Obama has a clear lead though there is a great deal still to play for.

In the second map, there are no battleground states. It is assumed that if a candidate has a lead of any size, the state will fall to that candidate. If the state is tied in the latest poll, I have taken into account the previous poll in order to break the tie. This map shows just how agonisingly tight the race really is - the two candidates are tied, both one point away from the magic number of 270.

I have listed the results of the latest polls for all states below the jump. A couple of notes: the result given is from the latest poll, or if multiple polls are submitted on the same day, an average is taken. Most of the polls were concluded in the past week, though in some cases the most recent data available is from the previous week. Results are collated from Real Clear Politics and USA Election Polls.

Hat tip to the Washington Post for the map - click on the link to the side of the map to create your own.

Map one: Electoral college including battleground states

Map two: Electoral college, no battleground states

Click below to keep reading for a breakdown of polling data

Chris Rock lays into Bill Clinton over tepid Obama support

One would be forgiven for thinking Bill Clinton was entirely neutral in the upcoming election from his performance on Letterman last night, in which he studiously avoided mentioning Barack Obama by name except to grudgingly remark that both he and John McCain should be "proud" to enter the White House in these troubled times. The notable absence of all but the coolest support for the Democratic nominee inspired his fellow guest, comedian Chris Rock, to unleash a lengthy tirade about Hillary Clinton and ungraciousness of the former first couple in defeat.

"Boy, is it me or he didn't even want to say the name Barack Obama?" Rock said, adding "Hillary ain't running! Someone ought to tell him..."

The comic continued: "I love Hillary but she ain't running! She got a lot of votes, but she lost, she did. The Patriots got a lot of points too, but they lost."

Rock tore into suggestions her defeat was due to sexism, roaring: "She lost to a black man that nobody had heard of, she didn't lose to The Power!"

He then trained his searing humour on Sarah Palin and her moose-killing abilities, quipping "Michael Vick's like, why am I in jail? They let a white lady kill a moose, black man wants to kill a dog, that's a crime..."

Watch the video below.

Obama update: The Democratic nominee has released a campaign song album. Click to read the story.