Yet another controversy has arisen over former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's clothing. This time it's her choice of headgear. She is on vacation in Hawaii and was photographed wearing a John McCain campaign visor which had been defaced with a black marker. The marker was used to cross out McCain's name, which somehow just made it more noticeable. Because of all the bad feelings between Palin and the McCain campaign staff (as detailed in Palin's book) many took the visor to be a nasty snipe at McCain. But she says that's not true, she was just trying to go incognito. Take a look:
Sarah issued a statement to Politico which said: "I am so sorry if people took this silly incident the wrong way. I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago. So much for trying to be incognito."
She should have picked up a new visor in the hotel gift shop. Problem solved!
Mad Men star January Jones loves sharks and she is trying to help save them. She recently visited Senator John McCain to tell him about the plight of sharks. John McCain was ecstatic and posted the above picture on his Twitter account and said, "Great meeting & tour of the Capitol with January Jones, who is an advocate for sharks. I'm a huge fan of Mad Men!"
Politico reports that January Jones also lobbied Capitol Hill last Tuesday on behalf of shark conservation. Jones is the new spokesperson for Oceana's save the sharks campaign. She is trying to get Congress to pass the Shark Conservation Act of 2009.
Ok, this is just too weird. During the last two episodes of Mad Men, Betty Draper asks for help from the governor's right hand man in saving the Pleasantville Road Reservoir from the dastardly plans of the local city council.
Did John McCain Crush Cindy's Dreams of Dancing With the Stars?
Page Six quotes "an impeccably placed source" for its report that Cindy McCain really, really wanted to be on Dancing With the Stars, but John put his foot down and won't let her.
Sen. John McCain might regret choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, but an even worse decision will deprive his fellow Americans of what would have been the best season of "Dancing With the Stars" ever. Our impeccably placed source says, "Just before Thanksgiving, Cindy McCain (above) started talks with producers to appear as a dancer on the show. She wanted to do it very badly." But this week, Sen. McCain "put the kibosh on it." Reps for the show and McCain didn't return calls.
We find it hilarious that McCain's office didn't return the impassioned calls from Page Six demanding to know if it's true that the Senator had crushed his wife's dreams of dancing on TV. The staff members probably thought it was a prank or something.
We bet the First Dude Todd would never stop Sarah Palin from going on Dancing on the Stars if she really wanted to.
Barack Obama is the next president of the United States. He is the first black president. They will also need to update this list of the top ten youngest presidents. Obama's promise of change resonated with voters as the Democrats turned several red states blue that had not been blue in a while. John McCain gave a very gracious concession speech - you can watch it here. McCain said, "This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight."
In his speech Barack Obama told the world that America is a place where anything is possible. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer." He also said his daughters Sasha and Malia will be getting a new puppy when they go to the White House. The Obama family must be thrilled.
Here's a video of Barack Obama's victory speech. He appeared with Michelle and his daughters just before giving the speech.
The candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain both voted this morning. Barack and Michele Obama voted at Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School in Chicago.
And John and Cindy McCain voted at the the Albright United Methodist Church in Phoenix.
Results should start coming in this evening around 7 p.m. Eastern time. You can find some resources here in our previous post.
Voters are heading to the polls today in large numbers to cast their vote for Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama. Local elections are also being decided today as well as local issues. The most discussed proposition in this election has been Proposition 8 in California. If passed, Proposition 8 will eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. There are many sites saying Vote No or Vote Yes on Proposition 8.
Over 30 million Americans already voted in early voting according to data from the United States Election Project. That leaves another 100 million or so still to vote today. It is expected to be a busy day with long lines. There will no doubt be confusion and problems at some precincts but hopefully thigns will go smoothly for the vast majority of voters. The results should start coming in around 7 p.m. Eastern time - that's when voting closes for some of the earliest states including Indiana and Virgina. Here are a few resources to help you find voting places, predictions and election results.
Where to Vote?: Websites like Vote411.org can help you find your way to the voting booth. Google Maps has set up a feature at http://maps.google.com/vote to help you find out where to vote. You can see a video about this feature here.
Results: If you want to watch the results online some good resources are CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times, Politico, USA Today and Google Maps. There's also television as well - the networks will be covering the results live until the wee hours of the morning. Local newspapers are also great sources for the results of local elections.
Saturday Night Live had a hilarious skit last night starring Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin (played by Tina Fey) where they were selling products on QVC. They couldn't afford the big 30-minute informercial like Barack Obama so they had to settle for a slot on QVC. The catch was that they had to sell products while they were giving their campaign pitch. John McCain was very funny and Tina Fey was great as always. Take a look:
Candidates Reassure Voters About the Financial Crisis
The headlines about the current financial crisis are quite worrisome, to say the least. The Fed coordinated a global cut in interest rates by half a point. The markets rebounded a bit, but then continued their downward slide this afternoon. Both presidential candidates spoke today about what they would do about the crisis and how we should face it. First up is Barack Obama: campaigning in Indianapolis, Obama urged Americans not to panic over the faltering economy, saying that better days lie ahead:
And here is John McCain today with his proposal for the U.S. government to buy up all of the bad mortgages and renegotiate them so people can stay in their homes.
One of these two men will be our next president. The current crisis gives each of them a chance to display his leadership abilities to the nation. We certainly like it when they talk about the economy and what they would do about it. Because the economy and jobs just became the number one issue in this election.
Spirit Halloween Uses Candidate Mask Sales to Predict Winner of Presidential Race
Spirit Halloween is touting the accuracy of its Spirit Halloween Presidential Index. They claim the past three presidential election outcomes were foreseen with Halloween sales of candidate masks. As you can see in the graphic above Barack Obama leads John McCain in mask sales 67% to 33%. That's good news for him if his sales lead holds.
Here's a look at Spirit's data from the past three elections.
2004 Spirit Halloween Presidential Index
John Kerry 35%
George W. Bush 65% *
2000 Spirit Halloween Presidential Index
George W. Bush 57% *
Al Gore 43%
1996 Spirit Halloween Presidential Index
Bill Clinton 71% *
Bob Dole 29%
"It's no coincidence that Presidential elections take place just days after Halloween, when the mask factor has its greatest impact," said Steven Silverstein, President and CEO, Spirit Halloween. "The Spirit Halloween Presidential Index is a remarkably consistent and accurate predictor of the next President. It's eerie."
Spirt Halloween says the highest volume of mask sales are usually in the last 1-2 weeks before Halloween. They also say McCain has been slowly closing the gap between himself and Obama in terms of mask sales. You can get weekly updates by emailing: presidential@spirithalloween.com.
Now that we've hashed out how many houses the presidential candidates own, it's time to investigate
how many cars they each have. Newsweek is on the case. Michelle and Barack Obama own one Ford Escape hybrid. Cindy and John McCain have quite a few cars.
Obama's lone vehicle also is a green machine, a 2008 Ford Escape hybrid. He bought it last year to replace the family's Chrysler 300C, a Hemi-powered sedan. Obama ditched the 300C, once 50 Cent's preferred ride, after taking heat for driving a guzzler while haranguing Detroit about building more fuel-efficient cars.
McCain's personal ride, a 2004 Cadillac CTS, is no gas sipper, but it should make Detroit happy because it's made by General Motors. "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud," McCain said in the interview with Detroit's WXYZ-TV. But the rest of his fleet is not all-American. There's a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan. Otherwise, there's a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup truck, which might come in handy on the Sedona ranch; a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep; a 2008 Jeep Wrangler; a 2000 Lincoln; and a 2001 GMC SUV. The McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities.
The Cadillac is registered to John, Cindy's name is on eleven of them. The car she actually drives is a company car that has plates that say "MS BUD" which is kind of hilarious, if you ask us. It's a Lexus. The Huffington Post has photos of some of the vehicles the candidates own. Now that that's settled, we expect Time magazine to do an in-depth investigation into what kind of toilet paper each candidate uses.
Blender magazine lists
the favorite songs of both presidential candidates. Take a look:
Barack Obama
"Ready or Not" Fugees
"What's Going On" Marvin Gaye
"I'm On Fire" Bruce Spingsteen
"Gimme Shelter" Rolling Stones
"Sinnerman" Nina Simone
"Touch the Sky" Kanye West
"You'd Be So Easy to Love" Frank Sinatra
"Think" Aretha Franklin
"City of Blinding Lights" U2
"Yes We Can" will.i.am
John McCain
"Dancing Queen" ABBA
"Blue Bayou" Roy Orbison
"Take a Chance On Me" ABBA
"If We Make It Through December" Merle Haggard
"As Time Goes By" Dooley Wilson
"Good Vibrations" The Beach Boys
"What A Wonderful World" Louis Armstrong
"I've Got You Under My Skin" Frank Sinatra
"Sweet Caroline" Neil Diamond
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" The Platters
We have to wonder: do the candidates even see these questionnaires? We think some intern fills these out by guessing what might sound good to a large number of voters. Clearly, Frank Sinatra is a must-list. Because we're having trouble wrapping our minds around the concept of Senator McCain listening to that much ABBA. Still, points for the Mamma Mia references.
Paris Hilton's Video Response to John McCain Political Ad
Remember when John McCain ran an ad showing Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and then Barack Obama, saying that "he's the biggest celebrity in the world but can he lead?" Kathy Hilton got mad because she had donated $4300 to McCain's campaign. We thought Paris wouldn't really mind because the ad clearly showed her as one of the three biggest celebrities in the world. Forget politics, you can't buy publicity like that.
Well, now Paris has made her own video for FunnyorDie.com which responds to the McCain ad. It's hilarious. She's really funny. Take a look:
When you're running for president, your shoes and clothing are fair game for the press.
Isabel Wilkinson of The Huffington Post
investigates
the state of John McCain's footwear. Senator McCain favors these $520 Ferragamo leather loafers which are available at Neiman Marcus. Isabel says the loafers are elitist, but consider this: do we really want our president wearing Crocs to the G8 summit? He needs some stylin' loafers, and these fit the bill. Has anyone determined what loafers Barack Obama wears? His staff refuses to reveal who makes his suits, which is most annoying. Because it really is an important campaign issue for us.
Page Six quotes "an impeccably placed source" for its report that Cindy McCain really, really wanted to be on Dancing With the Stars, but John put his foot down and 
Over 30 million Americans already voted in early voting according to 
