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In greeting Obama, McCain said; “It’s good to be with you at a town hall meeting.“
That quip is a jab at Obama. Last June, McCain invited Obama to appear with him at a series of 10 town hall discussions across the country.
McCain said the idea was based on an agreement of President John F. Kennedy and Arizona Republican Barry Goldwater, who planned to travel together and debate the issues in the 1964 campaign. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.
In tonight’s second presidential debate, at Belmont University in Nashville, Sen. John McCain will do his best to address the meltdown. Not the Wall Street meltdown—the meltdown on the electoral map.
For political junkies, one of the most intriguing Web sites is http://www.electoral-vote.com. The site updates each state’s electoral votes each day, in shades of red or blue, depending on the latest polls.
On Sept. 26, the night McCain and Sen. Barack Obama met in their first debate at Ole Miss, Obama was ahead on the map, with 286 electoral votes to 252 for McCain. But McCain was well within striking distance of the magic 270.
In the last 11 days, amid the Wall Street meltdown, polls in many swing states have shifted sharply to Obama. For now, at least, the site’s map has given Obama four more states with 63 electoral votes—Florida (27) Ohio (20) Missouri (11) and Nevada (5).
Heading into tonight’s debate, the site now gives Obama a commanding electoral college lead of 349-174, with 15 votes undecided, because polls are tied in North Carolina.
That means McCain might well take the gloves off tonight, because he is running out of time to swing the swing states back to red.
Jeff E. Schapiro has this report:
Creigh Deeds, running for the 2009 Democratic nomination for governor, has picked up a laurel from organized labor in his announced rival’s backyard.
The Washington Building and Construction Trades Council on Friday named Deeds, a state senator from rural Bath County, Legislator of the Year.
Vance Ayres, the council’s executive secretary-treasurer, said, “The simple fact is Creigh Deeds is a leader in the fight for working families and getting our economy back on track.“
The council, an arm of the AFL-CIO, represents ironworkers, electricians, painters and other construction workers.
The Washington area is the home base of Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria, another Democrat running for governor next year.
A second Northern Virginian may make the race: Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and FoB&H—Friend of Bill and Hillary.
Times-Dispatch reporter Tyler Whitley sparked a dust-up at the debate when he asked Warner whether he stands by his statement at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner that the U.S. should start withdrawing troops from Iraq in January 2009.
Warner says the U.S. should not put an “artificial timeline,“ but that it is time to begin withdrawing U.S. troops.
Gilmore shot back at Warner, saying: “National defense and national security is too important for a flip-flopper.“
Warner pointed out that in June 2007 Gilmore wrote a column in the Washington Post in which he called on President Bush to draw down the troops in Iraq.
Warner and Gilmore also differ on what to do about the nation’s illegal immigrants.
“I don’t think we’re going to deport 12 million people,“ Warner says. Echoing Barack Obama’s language, he says the nation must strengthen border security, then illegal immigrants must go to “the back of the line” for an opportunity to work toward citizenship.
Gilmore says “there cannot be a path to citizenship,“ without a reform of immigration laws.
