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This article is an acid example of awful and inaccurate editorializing against ordinary Americans by the leftwing Old Media on behalf of Obama's duplicitous minions. HOLLAND, Ohio - Joe the Plumber's story sprang a few leaks Thursday. Turns out that the man who was held up by John McCain as the typical, hard-working American taxpayer isn't really a licensed plumber. And court documents show he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes. "Joe," whose name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, was cited repeatedly in Wednesday night's final presidential debate by McCain for questioning Barack Obama's tax policy. This is an excerpt. Click...

This could turn fast for McCain.

“I’ve looked over Jordan, and I have seen Things are not what they seem. What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real... Meek and obedient you follow the leader Down well- trodden corridors into the valley of steel.” - Roger Waters I am tired of all the dancing around the subject with respect to Barack Obama’s political, social, and economic views. He’s not a “liberal,” or a “Democrat,” or a “progressive,” or even a “socialist.” Let’s call it what it is, shall we? It’s time to use the “C” word. His policies are communist, pure and simple. Even...

3 days of internals for this tracking poll, which was the most accurate poll in 2004.

Who is Joe the Plumber? He is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the notion of spreading the wealth in Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama during a campaign appearance in Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him. Sensing an opportunity during the debate, McCain cited that exchange when the candidates were asked to explain why their economic...

UPDATED WITH FINAL RESULTS As in the previous debates, CBS News and Knowledge Networks have conducted a nationally representative poll of uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction to tonight's presidential debate. And tonight's results have, by a wide margin, made it a clean sweep. Here are the final results of the survey of 638 uncommitted voters: Fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight's debate. Twenty-two percent said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-five percent saw the debate as a draw.

Debates should not be confused with trips to Lourdes: Few miracles are dispensed. John McCain needed a miracle in his final debate with Barack Obama on Wednesday night, a miracle that would wipe away McCain’s deficit in the polls and re-energize his flagging campaign. He did not get one. The clouds did not part. Heavenly choirs were not heard. Instead, the American public heard angry attacks from McCain. Sometimes McCain attacked directly, and sometimes he attacked sarcastically, but he never stopped attacking. And he never rattled Obama. Obama answered every attack and kept his cool. How cool? Obama was so...

Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business, came to symbolize the notion of spreading the wealth in Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama during a campaign appearance in Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him. Sensing an opportunity during the debate, McCain cited that exchange when the candidates were asked to explain why their economic plans are better than their opponent's. McCain said...

Where was Joe the Plumber six weeks ago when John McCain really needed him? Finally, McCain had someone to play off of, the guy from Toledo who figured out that his taxes are going up under Barack Obama. Joe the Plumber ran into Obama and confronted him the other day, and Obama brushed him off by saying that he just wants to “spread the wealth around.” You know, like the War of Poverty. That war is over, as you know. Poverty won. Barack Obama, the next president, couldn’t wriggle out of his videotaped remark about “spreading the wealth around.” Trying...

<p>John McCain last night put Barack Obama through a red-hot grilling, barely hiding his disdain for the Illinois senator and his outrage over Obama's policies.</p>

JOHN McCAIN, the man enough Americans will come to their senses for: Substance A- Style B+ Offense A- Defense A- Overall Grade A- During the first half of the debate, the Republican nominee showed off the best of himself—dedicated, sincere, patriotic, cheery, earnest, commanding—all without seeming old or anxious. He even scored some points in the "change" category, against the candidate who has owned the theme. He was also clear, upbeat, and totally on message. To his detriment, however, he became more aggressive and distracted during the second half, and perhaps lost a chance for the truly dramatic event he...

WASHINGTON (AP) — This time, John McCain kept Barack Obama on the defensive. The feisty Republican tried hard to find a lifeline Wednesday night, challenging his Democratic rival at every turn over his truthfulness, associations and record. By that measure, McCain won the last debate of the 2008 campaign. But that may not be enough.

Links Here in Japanese to Japanese commentary about last night's debate and elevates the issue of *JOE THE PLUMBER* as indicative of middle class concerned Americans.Translates him as [���管工�ジョー] "Hataraku Haikanko no Joe-san" (literally, "Joe, the Working Plumber"), and states he is an interesting developing campaign story in the USA delineating the differences between McCain and Obama on basic TAX ISSUES.Going global, folks. From my own research just now, even some of the dummies over at DU's heads are exploding in anger over this sudden, new, real live NARRATIVE to the American political landscape, Joe The Plumber (who conveniently...

Of the three Presidential debates, Senator John McCain’s best performance came on Wednesday evening in New York. He was feisty, spirited and spent a good portion of the proceedings on the attack – something many conservatives were hoping they’d see with less than three weeks to go before Election Day. In fact, during the face-off, on the great FreeRepublic.com website, the “live debate” thread saw many “Freepers” asking where this John McCain had been hiding all this time. He was good. To be sure, McCain seemed especially comfortable in Wednesday’s environment – seated around a discussion table with both Obama...

...Forty-nine percent of respondents said that Obama won the debate, compared to 46 who believed his opponent, Sen. John McCain, came out on top. The three-point gap separating the two candidates was equal to the poll’s margin of error. Five percent said they were unsure which candidate had the better evening. Perhaps the best news for McCain is the rating he received from independent voters. Among respondents not identified with either major political party, McCain was judged tonight’s winner, 51-42 percent.... The candidates were evenly matched among white voters, with McCain posting a narrow 49-46 percent advantage. African-Americans picked Obama...

The Chronicle's five-member panel of "undecided voters" has disbanded. The five Houstonians have chosen their candidates: three for Sen. John McCain, two for Sen. Barrack Obama. Whether this political microcosm will accurately predict the behavior of millions of undecided voters nationally on Nov. 4 remains to be seen. The panelists threw themselves into zesty discussions spanning two convention speeches, two presidential debates and the much-scrutinized vice-presidential debate. When recruited in August, the five panelists expressed similar reasons for being undecided at that poi

They clashed on the economy and scored points off each other on negative campaigning. But in the end, the real star of the third and final presidential debate was neither John McCain nor Barack Obama but a small town plumber called Joe. Joe Wurzelbacher from Toledo, Ohio, has become an unlikely media star after finding himself the focus of the debate between the two White House rivals. Last weekend, when Mr Wurzelbacher met Senator Obama as he campaigned in Toledo, the plumber tackled the Presidential candidate over his tax plan. Pointing out that he faced higher taxes under the Democrats,...

(CBS) A majority of uncommitted voters (39 percent) who watched Wednesday's third and final presidential debate felt Sen. John Kerry won, though nearly as many (36 percent) thought the result was a tie, and about one-quarter gave the debate to President Bush. Immediately after the debate, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of more than 200 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks who were "uncommitted voters" - voters who are either undecided about who to vote for or who have a preference but say they could still change their minds. During the debate, women frequently registered more positive reactions...

Released: October 16, 2008 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama 49%, McCain 44% Obama gains a bit heading into the final presidential debate UTICA, New York - Democrat Barack Obama maintained his small edge over Republican John McCain Wednesday, gaining slightly among independent voters heading into last night's final presidential debate, the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby telephone tracking poll shows. Data from this poll is available here This latest report came out of the field just hours before the debate began.Obama's edge grew to 5.5 points over McCain today, up from a 3.8 point advantage in yesterday's report. Each day's report includes a three-day rolling...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a 5-point lead over Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/ZOGBY poll released on Thursday. Obama leads McCain by 49 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest four-day tracking poll, up slightly from a 4-point lead on Wednesday. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. The poll was taken before Wednesday's debate between the two candidates, their third and final televised match-up before the November 4 election. Pollster John Zogby said the results have remained in a relatively narrow range...

Voters are closely divided over which presidential candidate won the third and final general election presidential debate, according to an exclusive Politico/InsiderAdvantage nationwide survey of undecided debate-watchers. Forty-nine percent of respondents said that Obama won the debate, compared to 46 who believed his opponent, Sen. John McCain, came out on top. The three-point gap separating the two candidates was equal to the poll’s margin of error.

The narrative arc of the final presidential debate did not work in John McCain’s favor. It was a line similar to the one traced by the Dow Jones Industrial Average in today’s trading session. McCain started quite well, getting off the most memorable line of the evening -- that if Barack Obama had wanted to run against George Bush, he should have run four years ago. From there, I thought, things went downhill for him. The big question leading up to tonight was whether McCain would swing for the fences, bringing up William Ayers and all the rest of the...

IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Three Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Obama maintained a 3-point lead over McCain going into their third and final debate. Among the early trends in our tracking poll is an increase in undecideds among respondents 65 and older. There are now almost as many sitting on the fence in this group as there are among independents, where the race is tight. McCain could also be doing better among conservatives and married women.

Campaign jingle: Joe-the-Plummer that's the name, He just sent Obama's chances down the drain. Joe: Here, Hero McCain fix'd that for ya. McCain: Are you the Joe, Sarah was talking about?

EXTON, PENNSYLVANIA: So Joe made an appearance - several in fact. Does he make a difference, do you think? I noticed no-one picked up on him in the comments after yesterday's blog. Is tax important as an issue this election? As for who won, the answer here in Pennsylvania is clear. The Phillies. No, I'm not being trivial or flippant. John McCain wants to win Pennsylvania, and therefore needs his message to get across to people here. But not as many as he would have liked were watching this debate, as so many in this state were watching a crucial...

McCain put the beatdown tonight on that crossdresser. When Campbell Brown says Obambi got toasted, you know hell just froze over. that's all.

In the campaign's final two weeks, voters will take a last serious look at both presidential candidates. The outcome of the race isn't cast in stone yet. Barack Obama holds a 7.3% lead in the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, but the latest Gallup tracking poll reveals that there are nearly twice as many undecided voters this year than there were in the last presidential election. APThis week also brought a reminder that Sen. Obama hasn't closed the sale. The Washington Post/ABC poll found 45% of voters still don't think he's qualified to be president, about the same...

A couple of months ago, Barack Obama stated that he wanted to create a “national security force” equal in size and funding to the military....What does this mean? ..."Create a Civilian Assistance Corps (CAC): An Obama administration will set a goal of creating a national CAC of 25,000 personnel. This corps of civilian volunteers with special skill, sets (doctors, lawyers, engineers, city planners, agriculture specialists, police, etc.) would be organized to provide each federal agency with a pool of volunteer experts willing to deploy in times of need at home and abroad." ...

The star of the final presidential debate was Joe Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber." John McCain mentioned Wurzelbacher tonight shortly after the debate began, and both he and Obama said his name more than 25 times during the 90-minute debate. How many times did the word Iraq come up? Six. How many times was the word economy used? 16. So, what makes Joe the Plumber so special? Well, Obama met Wurzelbacher on Sunday, just shortly after landing in Toledo, Ohio. Before heading to his hotel for an intensive two days of debate prep, the campaign organized a quick stop in...

Final Debate: Before I get spun: 1) McCain did himself some good in this zero-sum game, because in the first half of the debate he seemed sunny, yet had Obama on the defensive;; 2) But not enough good; 3) Specifically, McCain failed to drive home the risk of placing so much power and trust in a relative unknown. Why couldn't he say, "I know I'm behind by a few points. But do you really know what you're getting with Sen. Obama?" Everything else in the campaign has been so explicit--with talk by Obama of a "pivot" and appeals, not to...

Thank you, Joe W., America's plumber, wherever you are. He must be a Browns fan. McCain scored big with the Joe the plumber exchanges, and with the campaign tactics exchange. Obama looked angry and stumbled repeatedly as he tried to cope with what he really told Joe the plumber --guaranteeing the replay of the clip again and again and underscoring Senator Obama's flexibility when it comes to facts-- and with what John Lewis said. Obama's answer on ACORN was a jaw dropper and opens the door to the MSM, as does the Ayers exchange. McCain drove this home without going...

During the first half of the debate, the Republican nominee showed off the best of himself -- dedicated, sincere, patriotic, cheery, earnest, commanding--all without seeming old or anxious. He even scored some points in the "change" category, against the candidate who has owned the theme. He was also clear, upbeat, and totally on message. To his detriment, however, he became more aggressive and distracted during the second half, and perhaps lost a chance for the truly dramatic event he needs to change the game. Still, if a silent majority of persuadable voters watched the debate, they saw why McCain's advisers...

In the campaign's final two weeks, voters will take a last serious look at both presidential candidates. The outcome of the race isn't cast in stone yet. Barack Obama holds a 7.3% lead in the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, but the latest Gallup tracking poll reveals that there are nearly twice as many undecided voters this year than there were in the last presidential election. The Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll (which was closest to the mark in predicting the 2004 outcome -- 0.4% off the actual result) now says this is a three-point race. This week also...

The transcript of the fourth and final debate of the 2008 election season is now posted at the Commission on Presidential Debates' official website, www.debates.org. Also available at this site are the transcripts from the other two presidential debates and the vice presidential debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joseph Biden. For a historical perspective, you can read transcripts going all the way back to 1980, Reagan vs. Carter. Enjoy!

McCain was not great tonight, but he was good. And, if this had been the first debate, it would have been a great base on which to build through the second and third. I especially liked it when he drew attention to Obama's linguistic evasions - his commitment to "look into" offshore drilling, which is pol-talk for "never gonna happen". The Democrat nominee is very good at this - his mildly irksome linguistic tic, "Look - here's the thing", sounds like a declaration of "straight talk", while invariably prefacing some evasion or obfuscation. I don't think McCain should have let...

...if you wanted to run against him, you should have done it four years ago. See the video...

JIM LEHRER: And as usual here, to wrap things up, we get the perspective of our regular team of Gergen & Shields, that's David Gergen, Editor at Large of U.S. News & World Report, and Mark Shields, Syndicated Political Columnist for the Washington Post. Mark is with us tonight from Phoenix, Arizona. David, 24 hours later how does it look to you? DAVID GERGEN, U.S. News & World Report: I think that we discussed this last night and I think they had a good debate and I think you are to be congratulated, you and your panel. It was a...

This time, John McCain kept Barack Obama on the defensive. The feisty Republican tried hard to find a lifeline Wednesday night, challenging his Democratic rival at every turn over his truthfulness, associations and record. By that measure, McCain won the last debate of the 2008 campaign. But that may not be enough. McCain still desperately needs to change the trajectory of a race that's tilting significantly toward Obama. Democratic voters outnumber Republicans, the economic crisis has transformed the race in Obama's favor, President Bush is extremely unpopular, most voters think the country is on the wrong track and the Democrat...

Moments of crisis have their purpose, not least of which is to witness how those weathering them will measure up to much greater challenges ahead. The recent financial market tumble afforded priceless opportunities to rate the strength of character of those to whom we may soon be yielding the power to govern. It is noteworthy that when the opportunity arose to display the desired strengths upon which voters will be counting on beyond voting day, Barack Obama -- not John McCain -- chose instead to mock the presumed shortcomings of his opponent. This particular crisis also furnished Obama and his...

We need to list out Obama's lies. There were a bunch of them. Two to start the list;1.)Obama immediately critisized John Lewis for his racism charge 2). Obama never supported denying health care to babies that survived abortions

TEMPE, Arizona (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry appeared to gain more momentum heading toward November 2, easily beating President Bush in the third and final debate, a poll taken late Wednesday night suggests. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup snap poll taken immediately after the presidential debate found that respondents gave a significant edge to Kerry over Bush, 52 percent to 39 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The numbers were similar to the results of a poll taken the night of the first debate September 30 in Miami, Florida. That night Kerry was...

Not the first 2, but tonight! As one with experience in TV debate, I try to be objective about this. Obama is on defense though the night, stuttering much more than previous, notice? McCain went after BO much more than other way around McCain is smiling, relaxed, while O is nervous ABC & CBS both had focus groups, and I was happy to see in both groups, one lean more towards O, but 3 more McCain! McCain is rebutting EVERY point brought up, an improvement McCain score points on Education (not throwing more $, vouchers), Health Care, (Mandate vs choice),...

Drats on already on it

reuters

So the question remained: would McCain go for a knockout blow? Would he finally ask Obama what he was doing all those years with unrepentant terrorist Ayers, or find some other means finally to knock Obama off balance? (Conservative columnist Quin Hillyer, no McCain cheerleader, postulated before the debate that “McCain is just the cussed, unconventional, willful, irritable, Odd Man to pull it off.”) Well, voters expecting some fireworks didn’t get a full display, but there were some sparks...

FREEP it

After the debate was over, the "conservative" pundits immediately trashed McCain. This was followed by Frank Luntz, who declared that is focus group idiots loved Obama (of course Luntz also said Palin was the knockout debate winner and McCain would surge in the polls after her debate). This is supposed to be the conservative network? I switched over to PBS, and Clarence Page was giving more credit to McCain's performance than the Fox pundits. Same on CNN.

Well? Who Won?

Update: Obama claims his lead would be bigger if not for Fox News --The “polls don’t mean anything!” crowd has suddenly decided that this one does mean something and dared me in the comments to another thread to post it, which I’d been planning to do. Here you go: Obama 50, McCain 43 among registereds, a net gain of four for Maverick since last week, and Obama 49, McCain 46 among likely voters, two points better than the recent Gallup average and the steady five-point lead Obama’s had in Rasmussen. Might that signify a hopeful trend? I thought so —...