Desperate measures for public defenders in Minnesota and beyond

Public defenders are overworked — it will probably always be that way. But water up to your chin is different from water up to your eyeballs. And eyeball-deep public defenders are drawing a line according to a story…

Confessions of a DFL door knocker

You know who we haven’t heard from enough? Those door knockers who walked themselves wobbly in the months, weeks, days, and hours before the election. Lord knows they have stories. Annette Price was one of those door knockers. By the time polls closed on Tuesday she was sure she had met every kind of crazy. Here’s a snapshot from a single Minneapolis block:

There was the guy who said he couldn’t go to the polls because his wife upstairs was “under the influence.”

“As it turned out,” Price says, “so was he.”

The couple was going to be voting for “The Maverick,” he told her. “Then he asked us if we thought The Maverick was drunk today.”

Putting the “Bradley effect” to rest

Joe Mathews of Politico put the “Bradley effect” to rest yesterday even before Barack Obama’s victory. In a piece called It was guns, not race, that affected Bradley, Mathews writes: “Over the past few weeks, I examined polling and…

Bluer than you thought–another look at that new political map

To look at the ubiquitous red state/blue state map in the wake of the Obama landslide is a bit confusing–it’s quite red. Mark Newman of the University of Michigan

Bill Ayers speaks at last — from his stoop

The New Yorker’s David Remnick caught Bill Ayers on his Chicago stoop today. Finally, we hear from the now-notorious educator and former Weather Underground leader. Here’s what he had to say:

“I think my relationship with Obama was

…

Watch crowds gather for the Obama ‘insurrection’ in Grant Park

Forget Wolf Blitzer; let former Chicago policeman and licensed private detective Paul Huebl walk with you to Election Day’s all-but-inevitable conclusion: an Obama victory party in Chicago’s Grant Park.
Only that’s not what Huebl is anticipating. He’s been talking for…

You want definitive? The Global Electoral College has spoken

The Economist has given all 195 of the world’s countries a say in the outcome of tomorrow’s presidential election with its Global Electoral College. Here’s how it works, as explained by The Economist: “As in America, each…

“We’re Muslim and we’re McCain voters and you guys are taking votes away.”

On Sunday Colin Powell spoke strongly against his party’s slandering of Islam. This kind of thing is happening at McCain’s campaign events too. Here’s video from the American News Project of a McCain rally in…

When was the last time a campaign TV spot left you numb?

Democrat Tom Udall is running for U.S. Senate in New Mexico and his campaign has produced a television ad that can only be described as time-stopping. In it, Army Sergeant Erik Schei, who was shot in the head by…

Ashwin Madia repeats Obama’s misleading math on Iraq

You’ve probably heard Barack Obama talk about the Iraqi government’s $79 billion surplus. Now Ashwin Madia is decrying the surplus in his latest commercial. On its face it’s a compelling argument: Why are we spending $10 billion a month…