BREAKING: Early voting starts tomorrow (Saturday) in Florida! "Miami-Dade and Broward counties are offering the maximum 96 hours, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for eight consecutive days, beginning Saturday." Be sure to visit CanIVote.org to ensure you are still registered. At the link, you not only find out if you're currently registered, but, in my case at least, it provided the address at which to vote and gave me directions! As a reminder, Republicans in Florida want to keep you from voting. Rachel Maddow says, very eloquently, "if you don't vote, you're fulfilling someone else's plan."
DEVELOPING: Tammy Duckworth has a diary up at daily kos, and she could use your donations of time (phone calls) and money. I've donated today to Tammy's campaign, Senator Claire McCaskill's and President Barack Obama's. Do you have a couple dollars you can spare on this pay day? This is the last stretch, folks, and every little bit helps! Arturo S. Rodriguez also has a recommended diary right here! Hell yeah, "Si Se Puede!" Be sure to catch the whole list of bloggers in the GOTV BLOGATHON, past and future, running on our site!
THE PRESIDENT AS CAMPAIGNER, TODAY
President Barack Obama hit the airwaves today! He had his daily Presidential Briefing, and he issued a couple of statements (below), then he was videoed and taped and will be sent by liberal-leaning waves and digital transmissions to radios and televisions across the country. Stops included “The Michael Smerconish Show,” MTV and the American Urban Radio Networks. He also sat down for a campaign briefing at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters.
First Lady Michelle Obama hit the airwaves last night, made a splash on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, and that impact is still being felt today with a campaign ad dealing with GOTV and replays of her Kimmel appearance. Here she is doing a hilarious impression of teenagers--have you seen that look too?
The Obama Campaign has owned the GOP when it comes to media buys. It is no secret that the supposedly-savvy Massachusetts businessman and ostensibly debt-minded candidate is paying three- and four- and even five-plus-times as much as OFA to air TV campaign ads in battleground states simply because OFA bought their air time early at reduced rates and Romney's ship of fools waited to the last minute when air time was sold at a premium.
Here's another way the President's Campaign has out-smarted Romney's: The OFA campaign schedule is media friendly. The major players have mapped out appearances in advance to give local media--that's free local media--the opportunity to publicize--again for free--the future campaign stops of the President, Vice President, FLOTUS, Bill Clinton and others. This can be seen with Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Wisconsin today.
Yes, the campaign Unleashed THE BIDEN on Wisconsin, and they did it with much local media pre-fanfare. Starting six days ago, local Wisconsin affiliates were publicizing THE BIDEN'S future Wisconsin visit. Every day after that up to today, there were additional, and increasing local media reports about THE BIDEN'S visit. And these don't include the local TV and radio stations providing free advertisement for campaign stops because OFA thought that that was important. It culminated in THE BIDEN'S appearances at University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh and -Parkside:
"The Governor can't run from the truth."
THE PRESIDENT AS PRESIDENT, TODAY
President Barack Obama took on the challenges presented by Hurricane Sandy earlier today, working with federal assets to prepare for the possible challenges. The White House reported the following:
This morning, President Obama convened a call with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, National Hurricane Center Director Dr. Rick Knabb, and Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan to receive an update on Hurricane Sandy and ongoing federal actions to prepare for the storm as it continues to move toward the United States mainland. The President directed Administrator Fugate to ensure that all available federal resources are being brought to bear to support state and local responders in potentially affected areas along the eastern seaboard as they prepare for the severe weather.
Impacts from the storm could be felt as early as this weekend, and FEMA is in close contact with state and local partners as the storm approaches. At the request of states, FEMA is proactively deploying Incident Management Assistance Teams to multiple states up and down the Eastern seaboard to assist efforts as state and local partners prepare for the storm. Because of the potential for significant power outages, FEMA is encouraging state and local authorities responsible for coordinating with local utility companies to do so ahead of any impacts. The President asked his team to continue to ensure there were no unmet needs and to keep him regularly updated on weather forecasts and hurricane preparations.
Additionally, the President called the WNBA championship-winning
Indiana Fever to congratulate them on their victory and welcome them to the White House, and he released a statement extending his and the First Lady's "best wishes for a joyful
Eid al-Adha to Muslims in the United States and around the world." The FLOTUS and POTUS "also congratulate[d] the millions of peaceful pilgrims who are performing the Hajj, including thousands of American Muslims."
IT'S THE SUPREME COURT STUPID!
They've pushed their fringe up the ranks so that they can now make decisions that directly affect the composition of the United States Supreme Court -- if they get elected. As Tina Fey said yesterday, these "gray-faced men with two-dollar haircuts" don't need to be making decisions about the bodies of women:
The four
most important facts about the United States Supreme Court? Justice Antonin Scalia is 76 years old, Justice Anthony Kennedy is 76 years old, Justice Stephen Breyer is 74 years old, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 79 years old. The GOP will create a court in their own image:
Link to Transcripts and Documents.