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Sarah Palin's Thanksgiving turkey

Sarah Palin, back in her home state of Alaska, fulfilled one of her ceremonial roles as Governor yesterday and "pardoned" a turkey for the Thanksgiving holiday. The bird behind her during this interview wasn't so lucky.

The world according to Sarah Palin

Our friends at Comment Central have picked up an interesting news item about infighting in the Republican campaign and the shock of the McCain camp upon discovering just quite how poor Sarah Palin's knowledge of geography, let alone international affairs, really was.

Click to read the post and watch the video. And then breathe ...

The pro-America America

Twenty-two thousand people showed up Monday to greet Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin in the western Colorado town of Grand Junction. After all the crowd controversy  of the last few weeks, I'm sure she was thrilled to get out of there without any major news being made.

Unfortunately, no one mentioned that to this guy. The Post Independent reports:

Heated words between drivers leaving Sarah Palin’s rally Monday allegedly escalated with one man brandishing a loaded handgun.

Jack B. Cheskaty, 62, of Grand Junction, said he pulled a handgun because “he wanted to be ready for anything” in what started as a verbal spat between drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving Lincoln Park around 8 p.m. Monday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Cheskaty was booked on a felony menacing charge, so he'd better cast his ballot early. If convicted, this might be his last chance.

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.

"Pitbull" Palin turns on own supporters

Sarah Palin accidentally turned her fire on some of her own supporters yesterday when she mistook them for hecklers at a rally in Richmond, Virginia.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, who has been spearheading her ticket's increasingly savage assaults on Mr Obama in recent weeks, was in the midst of a tirade against the Democratic nominee when a commotion began on the edges of the rally.

The large crowd, more than 20,000-strong, had spread across the car park of Richmond International Raceway and scores of people on the fringes, over 100 metres from the stage, could not hear her.

"Louder! Louder!"they began to chant, some pointing skyward to suggest that the volume be increased.

The self-styled "pitbull in lipstick" looked on bewildered as other supporters began to shout "Sarah! Sarah!", in an effort to drown out what they mistakenly thought was a protest.

The supporters on the periphery then got a taste of the tongue-lashing normally reserved for their Democratic counterparts as Mrs Palin began a shrill admonishment of their lack of honour.

"I would hope at least that those protesters have the courage and the honour of thanking our veterans thanks for giving them the right to protest," she said, jabbing her finger at them repeatedly.

Her husband Todd Palin then stepped forward to inform her that "they just can't hear you back there."

Some in the crowd had been standing for more than three hours on a sunny day without shade. At least 25 people collapsed from heat-related illnesses and three were admitted to hospital.

Mrs Palin has been tussling with John McCain over the increasingly sharp tenor of her assaults on Mr Obama in recent weeks, while critics have accused her of stoking xenophobic sentiment with suggestions that the mixed race candidate is "not like us" and "is not a man who sees America like you and I". At some particularly charged rallies, cries such as "Kill him!" have been heard from riled up supporters, while the Republican nominee was forced to take a microphone from an elderly woman who began to denounce Mr Obama as an "Arab".

Elsewhere - and perhaps partially as a result - she herself has felt the audience's ire. At a Philadelphia ice hockey match between the Rangers and the Flyers on Saturday, angry boos rang through the stadium as Mrs Palin and her seven-year-old daughter Piper walked onto the ice to drop the ceremonial first puck. The incident can be seen on the above video - continue after the footage of the Richmond rally to watch.

Women for Obama

After John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his Vice President, Barack Obama had completely lost a 10 point advantage among women. According to today's TIME poll, he has regained his advantage with an extra cushion to spare. Obama now leads the McCain/Palin ticket among female voters by a margin of 55-38.

If Palin performs well at tomorrow night's debate, however, there's always the chance she could give McCain a much-needed boost in this all-important demographic.

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...

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.

"First Dude" may testify in Troopergate Probe Friday

According to Anchorage Daily News, Todd Palin, husband of Governor Sarah Palin, could testify as early as tomorrow in the Alaska legislature's probe into the sacking of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Of the 13 subpoenaed witnesses, Mr Palin is the most notable scheduled to appear before the investigative committee tomorrow morning. The attorney for the Palins, Tom Van Flein, said a decision could be made as early as this afternoon about whether the governor's husband will testify.

Read more about the Troopergate scandal here.

Hat Tip to The Page for the heads up.

UPDATE (Sept. 19): Todd Palin has refused to testify, citing his belief that the investigation is no longer "legitimate." Charges could be brought eventually.

Polls: Obama closes gap on McCain

Barack Obama has all but eroded John McCain's poll lead as the Palin effect begins to wear off, according to the latest polls.

The Republican nominee had established a four to five point lead over his rival following the St Paul convention - and in particular Sarah Palin's introduction to the country as his vice-presidential pick.

But Obama has now pegged him back to just a one point edge, according to an average of the latest polling data by Real Clear Politics. The pair are now virtually tied at 46.1 to 45.1 per cent.

Meanwhile some surveys, including the Hotline/FD Tracking poll released today, show the Democratic nominee in the lead by 2 to 3 points. A round-up of four daily tracking polls by MyDD gives Obama a 1.5 point lead, but with margins of error typically around 3 points the overall impression is of a dead heat.

The data may reflect Obama's success in painting his rival as out of touch with economic concerns aas he contrasts McCain's previously upbeat assessment of the economy with the current turmoil on Wall Street. The Hotline/FD poll shows McCain's approval ratings on the economy sinking from 43 to 36 per cent in just four days.

The Obama camp has also been fighting back hard against a series of negative ads by McCain, accusing him of running a dishonest campaign based on smears and distortions.

But perhaps the most significant factor in Obama's resurgence may be that the conservative euphoria surrounding the young governor of Alaska is beginning to wane. This view is borne out in poll data cited by Newsweek, which shows Palin's favourability ratings dropping by 10 points in just three days as a series of unhelpful stories and a questionable performance in her interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson reinforce doubts over her experience and past political judgments.