GOP at its Gracious Best

Pennsylvania GOP airs an attack ad featuring Rev. Wright.

House GOP leader calls Obama "chicken shit" for voting present in IL.

A selective quote from an Obama interview is used to make robocalls in coal-producing states.

Nasty push polls are reported in Ohio.

Briefs from the Presidential Race, 10/22/08

McCain buys ad time in Indiana for the first time.

Pew analysis shows that equal media coverage for McCain and Obama. Coverage of McCain is twice as negative as that of Obama.

Palin is now more accessible to the media than Biden.

Washington Post reports on support for McCain on the Al-Qaida Web sites.

McCain camp pushes back on the WP article. Think Progress headline: When Terrorist Endorses Obama, It's for real; When One Endorses McCain, It's a Head Fake.

Jake Tapper notes that not all of the hatred is on the right.

Alaska paid for Palin daughters to travel.

Giuliani robo-calls hit Obama for being soft on crime. Calls reported in Minnesota, Colorado, and Virginia.

Sen. Honorable in the Sewer

Joe Klein:

Back in 2000, in South Carolina, the robocalls--and calls to local right-wing talk radio shows--were about John McCain's "interracial child" and Cindy McCain's drug addiction. They were a craven, disgusting tactic by the George W. Bush campaign. McCain was, rightly, outraged by them.

Now McCain's campaign is making robocalls distorting Barack Obama's non-existent relationship with Bill Ayers...

Now this isn't quite the spew that McCain suffered in South Carolina, but hey, he's got three more weeks to descend to that. Certainly, such calls are not the sort of activity normally attributed to "a man whose courage has never been questioned," as McCain described himself last week. Real men don't hide behind robocalls. It is nowhere near honorable.

Robocalls

Political Punch reports on a collection of robocalls taped by TPM. The transcript from one of the robocalls:

"I'm calling on behalf of John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama and his Democrat allies in the Illinois Senate opposed a bill requiring doctors to care for babies born alive after surviving attempted abortions -- a position at odds even with John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama and his liberal Democrats are too extreme for America. Please vote -- vote for the candidates who share our values. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202 863 8500."

See also, Robocalls Begin.

Robocalls Begin

Political Wire:

The McCain campaign and the RNC "are pumping new robocalls into North Carolina that question Barack Obama's patriotism by charging that he and his fellow Dems put 'Hollywood before America,' another sign that Republicans are seriously worried about losing the traditionally red state to Obama," according to TPM.

Marc Ambinder:

Shaun Dakin of the National Political Do Not Call Registry flags a call that one of his members from Pennsylvania received this week:

Q22. What was the content of the call? Please be as specific as possible?
A22. Live caller asked us if we supported Obama. I said yes and he proceeded to tell me that I would be voting for a terrorist.

No other information provided.... has anyone else received calls like this?