Horserace: CBSNews.com

Groups Push Candidates To Change Rules For Final Debate

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:09:42 EDT

The Open Debate Coalition, an umbrella organization that includes the heads of MoveOn, Wikipedia, Craigslist and other groups, sent a letter today pushing Barack Obama and John McCain to change the rules for the final presidential debate, Politico reports.

This week's second presidential debate was widely criticized, with some going so far as to call it the worst ever. Among the Open Debate Coalition's requests is that "that the debate moderator has broad discretion to ask follow-up questions after a candidate"s answer, so the public can be fully informed about specific positions," and that debate questions submitted and selected by the public be posed.

"The signers of this letter don"t agree on every political issue," writes the group. "But we do agree that in order for Americans to make the best decision for president, we need open debates that are 'of the people' in the ways described above. You have the power to make that happen, and we ask you to do so."

Full letter, via Politico, below.

Kerry Condemns "Hate-Filled" Language At McCain-Palin Rallies

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:31:36 EDT

The Obama campaign has thus far largely stayed away from reports about the increasingly angry rhetoric coming from some attendees of McCain-Palin rallies. (The candidate did make an indirect reference to the rallies this morning, saying, "it's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division.") 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, however, directly addresses the issue in a fundraising appeal today.

"The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin," Kerry writes. "Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out 'Kill Him!' and 'Off With His Head,' and yell 'treason' when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled."

McCain Ad Accuses Obama Of "Blind Ambition"

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:59:34 EDT

A new TV ad out this morning from John McCain"s campaign raises Barack Obama"s past association with Weather Underground member William Ayres in an argument about Obama"s ambition and judgment. The ad will run nationally, according to the campaign.

"Obama's blind ambition," the ad begins. "When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied. Obama. Blind ambition. Bad judgment. Congressional liberals fought for risky sub-prime loans. Congressional liberals fought against more regulation. Then, the housing market collapsed costing you billions. In crisis, we need leadership, not bad judgment." Watch it:

Starting Gate: How Bad Could It Be For GOP?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:37:35 EDT

It"s something that has been cautiously whispered about for months, but now it"s out in the open. Could this be a "wave" election?

The last time is happened, of course, was in 1994 when Republicans rode a tidal wave of voter discontent and swept Democrats out of power in Congress, disposing of longtime Washington fixtures that never saw it coming. Candidates who wouldn"t have had a chance in more conventional elections, from states and districts they never should have had a chance in, winning a net gain of 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate.

Nobody is predicting quite that level of gains for Democrats this year - at least not yet. But if the economic meltdown has been the earthquake that has jolted the landscape, the tsunami that follows could be unpredictable.

The signs, from top to bottom, are hard to ignore. At the presidential level, Barack Obama has established a solid, if slight, lead in the national polls. More importantly, the battleground states at the moment are almost exclusively traditional Republican must-haves like Florida and Ohio in addition to states that have been traditional locks for the GOP, such as Indiana, Virginia and even North Carolina.

The national picture has suddenly made the outlook much darker for Republicans down the ballot as well. In the Senate races, Democrats entered this cycle with a big advantage in terms of open seats, recruitments and safe seats. It appeared that even in the best of circumstances, it was unlikely that they would pick up the nine seats needed to achieve a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority. But in recent weeks polling has shown some surprisingly close races in previous safe states like Kentucky and North Carolina. In 1994, candidates were swept away that way, casualties of the bigger trends.

In the House, Republicans came into the cycle with similar disadvantages. Over two dozen retirements, recruiting difficulties and financial woes had the party hoping to simply stem the number of lost seats to single digits. With the Democrats now defending very few of their seats and taking the fight to Republicans all over the map, those hopes appear to be dashed. Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg yesterday revised his predictions upward, saying Democrats are now likely to win upwards of 20 seats in the House, maybe even 30 if current trends continue.

There are still over three weeks to go in the campaign and a lot can happen. Disgruntled voters may decide to punish the whole lot of them, lodging their frustrations against Democrats as well as Republicans. John McCain may succeed, whether in next week"s debate or afterwards, in his efforts to raise questions about Obama"s readiness and experience. Voters could decide that they don"t want one-party rule in Washington again. But time is growing short and there is little good news to calm nervous Republicans right now.

Obama Buys 30 Minutes Of Primetime On CBS

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:02:47 EDT

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that the Obama campaign purchased a half-hour of primetime airtime on CBS. A special from the Obama camp, sources tell him, will air on Oct. 29th at 8 pm.

The campaign is also reportedly in talks with NBC and Fox for a similar deal.

Contacted by Horserace, a CBS spokesperson declined to comment on the report. The Obama campaign confirmed the primetime network ad buy, reports CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic, but would not specify which network.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign has now confirmed the report, with spokesman Bill Burton saying the campaign has bought the time from CBS and is negotiating with other networks.

Such purchases are rare in modern politics, though back in 1992 independent candidate Ross Perot, "armed with more than two dozen charts and a metal pointer," made his case in primetime. A 30-minute block on CBS cost the wealthy candidate $380,000, the New York Times reported, and his buy pre-empted the show "Rescue 911."

"In October 1992, Perot drew audiences of 16.5 million and 10.5 million for 30-minute lectures/campaign ad aimed at voters," notes Hibberd. "But in Perot's second run in 1996, the candidate was rebuffed by the Big Four networks in an attempt to sell airtime. The FCC backed the networks in denying Perot airtime, saying that they acted legally in refusing."

Survey: Media Coverage Of Palin Too Tough?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:13:46 EDT

A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that 60 percent of Americans believe that the media"s treatment of John McCain and Barack Obama has been fair. And 66 percent say the coverage of Joe Biden has been fair as well. But when it comes to Sarah Palin, 38 percent say the coverage has been too tough. An equal 38 percent say it"s been fair and 21 percent say the media has been too easy on the Alaska governor.

Republicans are more likely to think Palin has been treated unfairly (68 percent) and Democrats less likely to agree (18 percent). But 41 percent of independents say they think the press has been too tough on her. Opinions of both vice presidential nominees changed after their only televised debate, with both candidates increasing their favorability ratings afterwards. For all those results and more, check out the full survey here.

McCain Gets NRA Backing

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:13:49 EDT

The NRA is endorsing John McCain for president even though the organization has had differences with the Arizona senator in the past (CBSNews.com"s Brian Montopoli detailed the NRA"s campaign efforts in an story). NRA Executive VP Wayne LaPierre will travel to key states like Pennsylvania, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada to discuss the endorsement, the AP reports.

Although the group has been critical of McCain for his support of closing the gun show loophole and for his push on campaign finance reform, LaPierre said he has "cast more than 60 votes in the Senate in support of the Second Amendment." But the group may be more enthusiastic about McCain running mate Sarah Palin. "She"s a hunter, she"s a Second Amendment supporter and she"s a tremendous asset to the ticket," LaPierre said.

It"s no surprise that the NRA would back the Republican ticket as its political arm has already been running TV and print ads raising questions about Barack Obama and plans to spend up to $40 million on campaign efforts this year. But the NRA hasn"t always endorsed in the presidential race. In 1996, the group declined to endorse Bob Dole.

Obama Ad Takes On McCain Proposal

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:49:59 EDT

Barack Obama"s campaign released a new ad this morning targeting the mortgage proposal John McCain unveiled during Tuesday night"s debate. The ad will run on cable nationally, according to the campaign.

"In a time of crisis, our leaders" judgment is tested. On Tuesday - an announcement," an announcer begins. The ad uses McCain from the debate: "I would order the Secretary of the Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America." The announcer continues: "On Wednesday, the details. McCain would shift the burden from lenders to taxpayers - guaranteeing a loss of taxpayer money. Who wins? The same lenders that caused the crisis in the first place. Putting bad actors ahead of taxpayers?
We can"t afford more of the same." Watch it:

Starting Gate: Getting Up To Speed

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:28:46 EDT

With less than a month to go, the pace of the 2008 campaign is about to shift into hyper-drive. There"s one face-to-face meeting between the principles left on the calendar and after that, a flat-out sprint to the finish. With so much happening, here"s a quick look around the track this morning:

While the McCain-Palin ticket continues to press the issue of Obama"s connections to William Ayers, their campaign has released a new Web ad this morning on the subject, calling Barack Obama "too risky for America."

In an interview with ABC News, Obama responded to the Ayres issue, saying, "all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points." Obama added: "I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn't willing to say it to my face."

About 63.2 million Americans watched Tuesday night"s presidential debate, according to Nielsen, about 11 million more than watched the first one but short of the 70 million who tuned in for the vice presidential face-off. The debate ranks 10th all-time for presidential debates and was the highest-rated presidential debate since 1992.

The NRA is endorsing McCain and the pro-gun group says its spending for the campaign will reach into "eight figures," according to the AP.

Democratic strategists are increasingly confident that Obama will not only win the election, but that he will win it comfortably, perhaps in a landslide, the Politico reports.

But former Bush strategist Karl Rove argues that the race isn"t over yet. "There are probably more undecided and persuadable voters open to switching their choice than in any election since 1968," he writes in his Wall Street Journal column, adding that both candidates have challenges in winning them over.

The Obama campaign has sent two of its top field operatives to Florida, reports CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder, "a sign of its confidence that the state, with 27 electoral votes, is tilting toward the Democratic candidate."

Study: McCain Ads Overwhelmingly Negative

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:01:07 EDT

A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, almost every TV ad run by John McCain"s campaign over the past week has been negative, compared to about 34 percent of those run by Barack Obama"s campaign. But for the entirety of the campaign, both have run mostly negative ad. In the campaign up to now, 73 percent of McCain"s ads have been negative compared to 61 percent of Obama"s, the study found.

And, Obama has been outspending McCain, the study shows. Between September 28th and October 4th Obama spent over $17 million on TV ads compared to about $11 million spent by McCain and the RNC combined. An earlier study showed that the campaigns spent about equally in early September.