On Friday, the New Times Reported that Senator Hillary Clinton will accept the Obama administration’s offer for her to become the next Secretary of State. Good news for Hillary, but what would it mean for the Obama administration? Anywhere the Clintons go, they carry a lot of baggage with them, some good, some bad. Will Hillary plan her run for 2012 while she’s supposedly working to make the Obama administration the best possible? Or has she agreed to cool it until 2016? I find that highly unlikely. I guess Obama is trying hard to keep his enemies as close as possible, I just hope he doesn’t keep his back turned for too long, else he may end up with the Clintons’ political tool of choice in it.

In other cabinet news, MSNBC reported that Obama will announce Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary and former Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson as commerce secretary. No word on if Richardson will grow his beard back or not, though MSNBC was happy to note that minutes after reporting on Geithner’s acceptance, the DOW sprung up 300 points, showing Wall Street’s full approval of Geithner.

Ouch, the hits keep on coming. Though the far right are still in their dreamland that everything is a-ok in McCain / Palin land, everything is not OK. For instance, this weekend we had the shocking news that Palin’s homestate newspaper, The Anchorage Daily News, has endorsed Barack Obama for president of the United States. Well gosh, I guess it’s not all rose petals and moose pies in the great white North.

Highlighting the steady hand and calm-demeanor of Obama, The Anchorage Daily News had some choice words. On Obama

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

On Palin

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

On McCain

Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn’t show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.

NBC and the Wall Street Journal, two organizations which apparently aren’t part of Sarah Palin’s real America (comments she apologized for earlier Today), have released the results from their recent poll showing Obama is up by almost 10 points over John McCain.

“Voters have reached a comfort level with Barack Obama. The doubts and question marks have been erased,” said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the poll with Republican Neil Newhouse.

And even more telling, more and more voters are concerned that Sarah Palin is incapable of being president, which is becoming more apparent everyday.

Fifty-five percent of voters say Gov. Palin isn’t qualified to be president if the need arises, up from 50% two weeks ago. And when given a list of possible concerns about Sen. McCain, voters were by far most likely to say they worry about Gov. Palin’s qualification to be president.

McCain’s favorite Silicon Valley adviser, Meg Whitman, formerly of eBay, is being trumped by the Obama campaign, after Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced his endorsement of the Junior Senator from Illinois for President of the United States. Though quick to point out it is purely a personal endorsement, not an official company stance, having the CEO of the tech scene’s largest player come on board in an official capacity, Schmidt has been an informal adviser to Obama on tech issues for some time, is great news for the Obama campaign.

Welcome to the campaign Mr. Powell! During his much talked about interview on Meet the Press Sunday Morning, Colin Powell held a brilliant, 7 minute long speech explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for President of the United States. We briefly touched on the gossip going around regarding Colin Powell’s endorsement earlier in the week, but now we’re relieved, excited and more than happy to hear Powell’s decision.

Explaining his disappointment with the Republican party tactics of trying to smear Obama, much in the same way McCain was smeared by the Bush campaign in 2000, as well as the inherent ugliness of the Republican party in the past few elections, Powell described Obama as cool, calm, collected and showing an intellectual curiosity required of the President of the United States.

Though we’re by no means fans of Colin Powell, he is showing genuine concern for the direction this country is taking and the direction a McCain / Palin administration would steer us towards.

A rally featuring Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in downtown St. Louis, Missouri pulled in a crowd of over 100,000 people, with confirmation from the St. Louis police. Wow. Just, wow. Missouri being one of the battleground states in this year’s election and usually a Republican stronghold hosting Obama’s largest rally on US soil to date is a big, big deal.

I expect a negative comment by Palin or McCain before morning, stating that turnouts such as this do not matter as Obama is just a celebrity, because you know, it’s a bad thing that Americans actually look up to their (future) Commander in Chief.

Friday was another big, big day for Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, as he picked up a handful of high-profile endorsements from some of the largest and most respected news organizations, in addition to a well-known conservative radio host and Bush SR appointee, who have announced they’ll be crossing party lines to support Mr. Obama.

Let’s start with the Chicago Tribune, who hasn’t endorsed a Democratic presidential nominee since it’s founding in 1847.

On Nov. 4 we’re going to elect a president to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose.

The strongest candidate to do that is Sen. Barack Obama. The Tribune is proud to endorse him today for president of the United States.

Then over the pond to London, where the Rupert Murdoch-owned London Times endorsed Obama with much fanfare. The London Times hasn’t endorsed an American presidential candidate since Nixon in the 70s, though we won’t hold that against them.

Barack Obama has shown the character, intelligence and judgment to be president. He is the better candidate for the White House

Then back to Philly, where conservative radio-show host Michael Smerconish announced on his show his endorsement of Obama to a stunned audience.

“John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I’m voting for a Democrat for president.

“I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia,” says the Republican.

Then we have a few less-surprising, but still significant endorsements. The Denver Post tosses their hat in for Obama in a crucial swing state, where every endorsement counts.

Republicans love to mock Obama’s history as a community organizer. But here was a man with no money to offer, no patronage to dispense, no way to punish his opponents. All he could do was to work with people from all walks of life, liberals and conservatives, business people and the unemployed, and bring them together in common cause for a better community. Could there really be better preparation to reunite a worried and divided America to again pursue our “more perfect union”?

The LA Times backed Obama, though a major win, was not completely unsurprising.

We need a leader who demonstrates thoughtful calm and grace under pressure, one not prone to volatile gesture or capricious pronouncement. We need a leader well-grounded in the intellectual and legal foundations of American freedom. Yet we ask that the same person also possess the spark and passion to inspire the best within us: creativity, generosity and a fierce defense of justice and liberty.

The Times without hesitation endorses Barack Obama for president.

Then to wrap it up, the Washington Post got in line behind Obama, comparing McCain to Bush and also pointing out the travesty that is Sarah Palin.

The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain’s disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race.

Over the weekend, 15 newspapers endorsed Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. According to Editor/Publisher who is tracking press-related endorsements for both presidential nominees, many of the papers this weekend endorsed Obama from battleground states, such as Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Pennsylvania. In addition, the endorsing publications had strong words again John McCain, who had 0 newspapers endorsed McCain this weekend.

The Wisconsin State Journal and The Sun of San Bernardino had backed Bush in 2004. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called Obama’s opponent, John McCain, “the incredible shrinking man” who had made a horrific pick for his running mate.

80s New Wave pioneers, and Akron, Ohio-natives, DEVO are heading to their hometown to perform at a benefit rally for Barack Obama on October 17th. As the McCain campaign receives another request from popular musicians to cease using their songs at rally’s, the news of DEVO rallying for Obama serves as another example of the troubles the McCain campaign has going forward, as it becomes more and more marginalized into the far-right of the Republican Party.

All proceeds of the rally will go to the Summit County Democratic Party as they try and help turn Ohio for Obama. Ohbamio?

DEVO TO THEIR NATIVE OHIO
YOUR DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE IS TO VOTE FOR OBAMA!

DEVO is making an urgent trip to their native Akron, Ohio to rally for Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama!

DEVO will be holding a concert on Friday, October 17th at 8pm at the Civic in Akron.

Tickets go on sale TOMORROW at 11:00am (Tuesday, October 7th) at the Akron Civic Theatre Box Office (330.253.2488 or akroncivic.com) and Ticketmaster (330.945.9400, 216.241.5555 or ticketmaster.com). Reserved seats are available for $50, $35, and $25. A limited number of VIP tickets, which include a post show reception with the band, are available for $150.

All proceeds will benefit the Summit County Democratic Party

Being the lovers of word clouds, we ran transcripts from Sarah Palin and Joe Biden through one of our favorite sites, Wordle, to come up with a lovely cloud showing the top 150 terms used most through the debates by the candidates. We’ve removed many of the common words to get down into the terms being thrown around the most. Then for a little added word-lust, we added Gwen Ifill’s transcript.

Joe Biden

Sarah Palin

Gwen Ifill