Election Confidential

Written by: DFA Staff on Oct 10, 2008 12:43 PM EDT

Friday, October 10

In This Issue

• McCain's Rage Problem
• Dare We Downgrade the Bradley Effect?
• The Palin Rape Kit Story Needs More Exposure
• California Foes of Gay Marriage Surge Ahead
• A Provocative video aimed at the Millennials
• Can You Shoot Down Those Soviet Missiles ? Try, it's fun!

It is day 26 of the election countdown. Obviously debate #2, where McCain failed to make any headway, and a number of positive polls all provide some breathing space and growing confidence.

But when one candidate jumps ahead, the media like to help "tighten" the race to make the media more important. This obscures a more problematic issue: the growing deluge of stories about voter purges and machine problems. Today's front page New York Times article by Ian Urbina was an eye-opener, and it didn't even give us the whole story. The specter of voter system incompetence and corruption gives us all pause, reminding us that Obama may need to be well ahead in battle ground states in order to win, (the Bradley effect notwithstanding -- see below)

A key element of the McCain unfitness critique is his temper, or explosive rage as some describe it. It is a key reason why many fear the idea of waking up McCain to take that 3 a.m. phone call. Here he is in his own words: "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's." -- John McCain

As many know, Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films operation -- in this case Brave New PAC -- has been hitting it out of the park with a long string of short videos that have exposed many alarming truths about McCain, totally destroying the notion of the " straight talk express." These videos have spread like prairie fire and been huge hits on YouTube, dwarfing the traffic to many of McCain's videos.

The latest video is about McCain as a loose cannon: During the debate, John McCain said we need "a cool hand at the tiller," but McCain has proven to be a loose cannon. He has accosted his Congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle on everything from the federal budget to diplomatic relations. He is known for hurling profanities rather than settling disagreements calmly. His belligerence is legendary . Even conservative Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi has said, "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

1. Alert your friends to McCain's rage. Send them this video and ask them to pass it on
2. Post this video on all your blogs and networking sites like Digg -- critical tools for reaching those outside the choir. Make sure it gets viewed so many times it ends up on YouTube's home page, so undecided swing state voters can see it easily.
   
   
3. Get the latest on McCain with a free video subscription from Brave New PAC, and encourage others to sign up too.
   
   
4. Go and watch this very disturbing video

A new revelation about McCain's temper -- and his possible addiction to gambling, or at least to the large amount of gambling money given to his campaign -- is just out: Writing for the Daily Beast, Michael Kinsley relays a disturbing story about John McCain from Jeff Dearth, former publisher of the New Republic, when Dearth and McCain attended a magazine industry conference at a casino hotel in Puerto Rico in 2005.

The two biggest unknowns heading in to the home stretch will be race and how the voting system will perform. Daniel Okrent gives us a little history about the phenomenon named after Tom Bradley and argues that what happened in 1982 in California is not going to happen in 2008. He adds: "... I'm looking for the debut of the Obama Effect -- a level of increased participation among black voters that may change the electoral map for years to come.

As Eric Boehlert of Media Matters reports, Few Palin issues have "produced the type of visceral response ignited by the revelation that while she was mayor of Wasilla, the town began charging rape victims or their insurance companies for costly emergency-room rape kits and post-assault examinations. The story remains woefully under-covered by the mainstream media, where most outlets have shied away from tackling the touchy topic ..."

Check out Erik Johnson and Paul Lundahl's high-quality video telling the rape kit story. (These guys are fundraising to help defray their costs.)

Flash: A new poll just released by KPIX, San Francisco's CBS television affiliate, reveals a shocking shift in support for Proposition 8. According to the poll, likely California voters now favor passage of Prop 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent, following a recent blitz of advertising by supporters of the initiative. Meanwhile, an internal poll just released by the "No on 8" campaign confirms the KPIX poll numbers, showing Prop 8 winning 47 to 43 percent.

With a Wink: California's Courage Campaign leader Rick Jacobs has not lost his sense of humor in the face of the bad news on Prop 8.

Watch "Gender Auditors," the campaign's satirical new YouTube video, and pledge to vote "NO on 8" today. For those who live in the Golden State, it's up to all of us to spread the word to our friends, family and neighbors that Prop 8 is a fundamental invasion of our privacy.

Check out this powerful, disturbing video designed to get out the vote using an interesting take on fear and regret.

Think you can shoot down those Soviet missiles headed for Alaska , like Sarah Palin?

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