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Voting For Obama Even If You Believe He Was A Terrorist
TPM Election Central — ... Ben Smith has just posted a remarkable account offered by a Republican consultant who conducted a midwest focus group on an unreleased adver-sleazement created by an unnamed third party group. ...

They hate Obama, but are voting for him anyway
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — Ben Smith shares an email he just got from a Republican consultant. The consultant held a focus group in the Midwest, where he showed them a nasty nasty nasty anti-Obama ad, hitting him with the kitchen sink. The focus group believed everything, but they're voting for Obama anyway: ...

Holy ! A Boatload of Wal Mart Work Boots Just Dropped
If I Ran the Zoo — This is just one choice quote from a focus group: 54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, NASCAR fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President." Read the entire Politico piece and just sit back and say--wow. Just. Wow. Oh, well, here's the ...

Signs that Things Will be Different This Time
The Moderate Voice — ... — namely, that Obama would win even if McCain played the card he does not want to play — you gotta read this slice of life, courtesy of one of Ben Smith’s Republican sources. Wow. ...

Quote(s) of the year
Political Animal — QUOTE(S) OF THE YEAR.... Ben Smith reports this afternoon on an email he received from a Republican consultant who recently helped run a focus group in an upper-Midwestern state. Participants were shown a television ad, which hasn't aired anywhere, that was a "no-hold-bars attack" on Barack Obama, the kind of spot the right is clamoring for. The consultant said the responses included some of the "most unreal moments of my professional life." Yes, the spot worked. Yes, they believed the charges against Obama. Yes, they actually think he's too liberal, consorts with bad people ...

Quote For The Day
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — ...    "I felt like I was taking crazy pills.  I sat on the other side of the glass and realized ... this really is the Apocalypse," - a Republican consultant witnessing a focus group in the upper Mid-West. ...

On the Good Ship Titanic: If you can't beat them, join them
Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. — As I noted on Monday from the pit of my despair , the reason that McCain is not resonating is because, regardless of some of his more populist announcements, as a Republican, conservative, non-socialist, he simply does not have the message nor the desire to give people what they want. What they want is for the government that they have been paying into like a never ending, bottomless piggy bank, to give them back something in return. Since McCain won't promise that, they are going to vote for Obama .I'll be very honest with you. The Republicans should set up and take notice. They need to dig up Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" and look up the ...

Surprise: Negative ad that hits Obama on Fannie and Freddie proves highly effective
Hot Air » Top Picks — Surprise: Negative ad that hits Obama on Fannie and Freddie proves highly effective posted at 2:10 pm on October 15, 2008 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | printer-friendly How long has the righty blogosphere been screaming at the RNC to go nuclear on this? No ad we’ve posted this year got as much grassroots buzz as that “What Just Happened?” dynamo that leveled the Dems on this same subject. Why McCain’s made Ayers the centerpiece of the attacks instead, I’ll never know, especially with Democratic voters reacting almost as well to this spot as Republicans did. Presumably, Team Maverick’s own focus groups are populated with nuts like ...

Quote of the Day
Shakesville — "Yes, the spot worked. Yes, they believed the charges against Obama. Yes, they actually think he's too liberal, consorts with bad people and WON'T BE A GOOD PRESIDENT...but they STILL don't give a fuck. They said right out, 'He won't do anything better than McCain' but they're STILL voting for Obama. … I felt like I was taking crazy pills. I sat on the other side of the glass and realized...this really is the Apocalypse."—An astonished Republican consultant ...

Ayers
The Corner on National Review Online — ... ), but I can't see many people voting on the issue. People are focused on the financial crisis, and unless/until McCain has a compelling, future-oriented message and program on the economy, nothing else is going to help him much. Check out this post from Ben Smith. A Republican consultant wrote him about a focus group where he aired an incredibly harsh anti-Obama spot that everyone in the room believed but it still didn't matter. Here's a quote from one woman in the focus group: "Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but ...

Obama's Ground Game : Watch it!
culturekitchen - fresh dissent served daily — Micah Sifry has put together, with a little help of his friends, a video of what the Obama ground campaign looks like using Google Earth. Watch it closely because if you are an Obamaniac, you are going to love seeing how intensely people are working all over the country to get Obama elected. The game is not going to be won on the web. It's always going to be won on the ground. Yet, it is obvious that Obama's "MoveOn.org'ing" of his presidential campaign has helped in getting those big margins (of up to 14%) that are registering at the polls. It doesn't hurt either that US Americans ...

Looking Forward To Tonight’s Debate: Nothing To Lose, Everything To Lose
Comments from Left Field — Undoubtedly you know that tonight is the final presidential debate, the last time that the two candidates for President of the United States will share a stage this election season.  We’ll be liveblogging it, as always, and, as always, I’ll have the liveblog post published sometime between eight and eight-thirty in anticipation. So let’s take a quick peek into what’s riding on tonight and how this may just go down. I’m going to go out on a limb and disagree with the bulk analysis out there.  It seems the consensus right now is that all of the pressure is on McCain who needs a major gamechanger tonight to ...

"I'm still voting for Obama"
Daily Kos — ... Ben Smith talks to a Republican consultant, who had done a focus group showing a hard-hitting, no-holds barred anti-Obama attack ad from a 527 that has yet to air, to a group of midwestern Reagan Democrats. The results: ...

Obama haters for Obama
Interesting Times — Amazing : 54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, NASCAR fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President." Part of me wonders if we want people like this voting for Obama. Just how out of it do you have to be to think that Reagan was for taking over Wall Street? But then another part ...

Obama Is a Terrorist and I'll Vote For Him
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo — I discussed ways McCain might get back in the race below, but if this report is to be believed, it's a lost cause. These were the reactions a Republican consultant got from blue collar types in the upper Midwest after showing them the nastiest possible anti-Obama ads: 54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, NASCAR fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was ...

Dirty Bombs, Dirty Elections…a roundup
The Anchoress — Okay, enough fun and games with the pie recipes - here’s a roundup of everything I’m finding interesting today. A smorgasboard. Bill Ayers is just a really nice guy in the neighborhood. I personally think McCain gains nothing in going after Ayers - particularly not in this debate where, having challenged McCain to say something “to my face” - Obama will be loaded for bear and ready to shoot down any concerns with appropriate (and mild-sounding) spin. But I’m sure McCain - his sense of honor outraged - will walk right into the set-up. IMHO, he’s better off going after ACORN ...

Obama and White Voters, Part 2
The Stump — ... , Ben Smith posts an absolutely fascinating e-mail from a Republican consultant who recently tested a hard-hitting, anti-Obama ad before a bunch of upper-Midwestern swing voters. Here's what the consultant had to say: ...

Why Ayers And ACORN Have No Traction
Wizbang — The deep linkages of Barack Obama to both a domestic terrorist and a fraudulent ACORN organization have been made in the minds of the public. They have. The problem is that it just doesn't matter to enough people to reflect in their choices and thus in polls. Sad? Yes. Despondently so. But a fact that should be the clarion call to young conservatives regardless of victory or defeat in three weeks' time. Ben Smith at Politico has a friend who is a Republican consultant. He showed a Midwestern focus group a hard hitting ad linking domestic terrorist Bill Ayers to Obama. They ...

Infuriation nation, continued
Sister Toldjah — Part two in a continuing series … —– If you think what you heard from the Howard Stern “man on the street” interview segment a couple of days ago was infuriation, what til you read this: I just got an astounding e-mail from a Republican consultant I know well. He’s a guy who’s always thought Obama had a “glass jaw,” and was always among those agitating for hitting Obama harder. Recently, he conducted a focus group in an upper-Midwestern state, showing them the kind of ad he thought would work: A no-holds-barred ...

Final Debate Thoughts
LiberalOasis : The Blog — ... After seeing focus group data like this, where people believe the worst about Obama and plan to vote for him anyway just to have change, it's doubtful that 24 hours of Joe can upend the race. ...

Final Debate Thoughts
The Hollywood Liberal — ... that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When’s he going to decide that $100,000 is too much, you know? I mean, you’re on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you’re rich? And $100,000 and you’re rich? I mean, where does it end? You know, that’s–people got to ask that question. Well, it ends at a place called democracy, where politicians propose ideas during campaigns and people vote on them. And if they break their word you can vote them out. After seeing focus group data like this , where people believe the worst about Obama and plan ...

Jesus. Just, Jesus.
Rachel Lucas — Ben Smith got an email from a Republican consultant he knows well, who ran a focus group and showed them an attack ad about Obama (full of truth). Here is that email. Read it and then resume your fetal position. [The group was] Reagan Dems and Independents. Call them blue-collar plus. Slightly more Target than Walmart. Yes, the spot worked. Yes, they believed the charges against Obama. Yes, they actually think he’s too liberal, consorts with bad people and WON’T BE A GOOD PRESIDENT…but they STILL don’t give a f***. They said right out, “He won’t do anything better than McCain” but ...

You Say that Like It's a Bad Thing
Obsidian Wings — by Eric Martin Joe Klein saw what I saw: Pundits tend to be a lagging indicator. This is particularly true at the end of a political pendulum swing. We've been conditioned by thirty years of certain arguments working--and John McCain made most of them last night against Barack Obama: you're going to raise our taxes, you're going ...

You Say that Like It's a Bad Thing
Newshoggers.com — by Eric Martin Joe Klein saw what I saw: Pundits tend to be a lagging indicator. This is particularly true at the end of a political pendulum swing. We've been conditioned by thirty years of certain arguments working--and John McCain made most of them last night against Barack Obama: you're going to raise our taxes, you're going ...

No More Mister Nice Blog — ... Maybe it's just a temporary condition -- maybe there's just a huge chunk of voters in the middle who are like the ones in that now-famous focus group of Reagan Democrats and independents who watched a brutally negative ad about Obama and believed it, but didn't care because they simply despise Bush and the GOP right now. Maybe in six months we'll be back in the country I remember, the one that fell for "Kerry looks French!" and "Ha ha ha, Dukakis in a tank!" ...