A Zogby poll due out Saturday shows John McCain having taken the lead against Barack Obama. He now tops the Illinois Democrat by 48-47%. According to Drudge, McCain’s been making inroads amongst crucial groups:

He is beginning to cut into Obama’s lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters.

DO NOT LET UP. The race is not over. What can you do before election day to help ensure a McCain victory?

• Vote on November 4th. Let nothing get in your way of doing so.
• Volunteer to drive other McCain supporters to their polling place. Veterans and seniors are definitely people you should ask if they need help.
• Donate to the National Republican Trust PAC. It will spend over $6 million (as of the last update) on running ads featuring Obama and Jeremiah Wright in key swing states….this weekend alone. I’m sure they’ll keep it up if there’s more dough in their coffers.
• Volunteer for Team McCain. You can call undecided voters from the comfort of your own home. Sign up at the McCain site and you’ll get a script and list of numbers to call. Gabriel Malor has a whole bunch of information on that.
• Spread the word about this poll. Seriously. The Obama campaign and the left in general would love nothing more than a demoralized GOP base. If Republicans think that the election is over, why would they take the time to stand in line and vote? Many won’t. If they know that it’s close and every vote counts, they’ll make sure they turns out.

I’ll have more in a bit. Want to get this post published first.

The upper floor has gone from $250,000 to $200,000 to $150,000 and now to $120,000 within the past two weeks. What will it be by Christmas, $20k? I don’t usually hold candidates to what their supporters say, but Richardson is an approved surrogate for the Obama campaign. He’d know Obama’s plans better than most people.

We’re in for a fun four years, aren’t we?

I gave McCain a pass for throwing Joe Klein off of his plane, but these are two different situations. Joe Klein is a commentator whose anti-McCain commentary was consistent. These are newspapers, including the Washington Times, that have opinion sections but actually have news sections.

The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states — and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!

The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs — and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

If we were talking about taking, say, Ann Coulter off of the plane, I could understand. She’s an anti-McCain commentator like Klein is an anti-Obama one. But these are papers.

Via The Corner, pardon my skepticism over this:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A prominent New Hampshire Republican who was a delegate to the party’s nominating convention is quitting John McCain’s campaign and endorsing Barack Obama.

Fred Bramante says he is resigning as a member of McCain’s New Hampshire Leadership Committee. He had been a co-chairman of Mike Huckabee’s New Hampshire presidential campaign and joined McCain after the former Arkansas governor dropped out of the race.

Bramante, a member of the state Board of Education, said he opposes McCain’s support of school vouchers, which he said politicians must abandon if they want to improve education.

Bramante said he’s concluded that McCain would do little to improve education, while Obama supports new and innovative ideas.

Hold on. I can understand an opposition to school vouchers (though don’t agree with it). But the guy only switches over to Obama with less than a week before the election and over the voucher disagreement? McCain has supported school vouchers consistently over the years. If that issue is so important to Bramante that it decides who he votes for, why didn’t he check where McCain stands on it before joining a leadership committee for the campaign?

I’m not buying the excuse.

We won’t know for sure unless the Los Angeles Times or someone else comes forward with the tape, but Director Blue says he has a source who viewed it earlier on. If what he says Obama said is true, it’s no wonder that people want it suppressed.

However, I received a tip from a person who has provided useful, accurate and unique data from LA before (e.g., “All six of CNN’s ‘undecided voters’ were Democratic operatives”). Take it for what it’s worth, but I believe this person is on target.

Saw a clip from the tape. Reason we can’t release it is because statements Obama said to rile audience up during toast. He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” plus there’s been “genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis.”

It would be really controversial if it got out. Tha’s why they will not even let a transcript get out.

The video would, if released in time, cost Barack Obama the election. He (and the L.A. Times) knows that full-well. Americans won’t take kindly to such sentiments and the Jewish vote would fall away in the blink of an eye.

Via Wizbang Blog.

Democrats must be truly worried about their prospects in the state of Pennsylvania. Governor Ed Rendell’s office is now even playing the racism card against the GOP for wanting the state to actually, get this, enforce voter-registration laws. You’ll appreciate the irony here:

The head of the county bureau of elections hasn’t encountered any suspected voter registration fraud, but allegations in other parts of Pennsylvania  have sparked a lawsuit and a verbal exchange between a state official and the Republican Party.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party filed a lawsuit to assure the vote count is accurate – a move that Gov. Ed Rendell’s press secretary described as a “Jim Crow attitude.”

A member of the Democratic Party talking about Jim Crow attitudes? Savor the irony there for a moment. Juicy, isn’t it? Marinated to perfection.

So pathetic has our electoral process become that this is an issue. It’s not so much that Obama messed it up that’s the issue here. It’s that it’ll be largely ignored or simply brushed off, while a similar gaffe by McCain or Palin would’ve been played until the Second Coming of Christ.

This is what happens when a candidates goes off script.

Barack Obama, in Raleigh, N.C., was doing a riff attacking John McCain for supporting the idea of putting some mandatory retirement money into the stock market.

“If Senator McCain is elected, we’ll have another president who wants to privatize part of your Social Security. Could you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks, these last two months? You wouldn’t need Social Security. You’d be having a — like, what was it, Sanford and Son. `I’m coming Weezie!”

Except, of course, that Weezie wasn’t on Sanford and Son. He was on The Jeffersons. Redd Foxx would actually grab his chest and say:

Oh, this is the big one! You hear that, Elizabeth?! I’m coming to join you, honey!

Obama should stick to his talking points and avoid the cultural references.

Actually a pleasant interview with Conan O’Brien. As Allah notes, she’s a lefty in the mold of Alec Baldwin: She opposes Palin, but is willing to compliment her for being a good sport and polite. She’s really getting the voice down, isn’t she?

Are you in possession of a tape of Barack Obama at the Khalidi dinner that’s been the subject of much controversy? How would you like $175,000 immediately just to hand it over before the election? That’s what’s being offered by Aston Grimaldi II and other donors.

Come on, folks. $175,000 just for handing over a video of Obama at a 2003 dinner. $175,000. Think about what you can buy with that chunk of dough. For handing over a video by Tuesday.

Apparently calling your constituents racists and rednecks isn’t the best re-election strategy available. How near-miraculous is this? The last time Murtha faced a competitor, he beat him by over 20 points. Okinawa Jack hasn’t been this close to losing his seat in many, many years.

The momentum has shifted. National media and politicos are paying attention. Veterans are standing up against the troop-slandering incumbent. The polls are tightening. (A new one posted at GrassrootsPA shows a virtual dead heat: MURTHA 45.5% RUSSELL 43.7%.)

I don’t recall covering this (and don’t see it in my archives) but Murtha isn’t pleased with the prospect of Lt. Col. William Russell taking his seat, needless to say. “No goddamned way” will a carpetbagger take his seat, John the Corruptocrat insists. That might not go over well in his, shall we say, religious district.

This would be quite a consolation prize (in addition to an FL16 pick up) if the presidential election doesn’t go our way come Tuesday. Not only is Murtha one of the most corrupt members of Congress, but he’s smeared our troops as cold-blooded killers.

Help Murtha retire early. He deserves it, don’t you think?