Election Roundup #2

• FactCheck.org continues to do yeoman’s work analyzing campaign ads released by both Barack Obama and John McCain.  Their “Whoppers of 2008″ article summarizes the most misleading claims made by both sides.  My favorites: Obama will raise your taxes, and McCain wants to occupy Iraq for 100 years.  Both assertions have been thoroughly debunked, but, like zombies, both continue to wander the night claiming victims among the electorate.
• Sarah Palin’s woes from the Katie Couric interview continue—Palin was unable to name to a Supreme Court ruling with which she disagreed, other than Roe v. Wade.  Critics are suggesting Palin has virtually no familiarity with the Court’s history.  Meanwhile, Melissa Rogers writes about Palin’s response to Couric’s question about teaching creationism in the public schools.  It appears Palin has backed away from her earlier statements on this issue.
• Conservatives are upset over Gwen Ifill’s book, Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, claiming she will be too sympathetic to the Obama-Biden ticket in tonight’s VP debate.  The book has not been released to the public, and publication is scheduled for January 2009.  Ifill discussed the book in a September 4 interview with the Washington Post, before she was selected as a debate moderator.
• The U.S. Senate passed a sweetened version of the bailout plan rejected earlier this week by the U.S. House.  Both Sens. Obama and McCain voted for the bill.
• It’s amazing to me the lengths to which people are going to blame each other for the nation’s economic crisis.  FactCheck.org breaks down two of the more absurd claims making their way across our television screens.  First, MoveOn.org blames McCain’s former economic adviser Phil Gramm for writing legislation that, according to them, helped create the current mess.  Not true.  In fact, Gramm’s legislation has been credited for softening the crisis.  For his part, McCain has wasted no time blaming Obama for causing the crisis.  A McCain add implies that Obama was partly responsible for killing legislation that would have tightened regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac.  In fact, Republicans, who controlled the Senate at that time, did not allow the bill to come up for a vote.
• A CNN/Time poll shows Obama’s lead over McCain in Virginia has grown to 9 points: 53% to 44%.  Politics 1 lists several other polls across the nation.