The election is shaping up as a historic repudiation of Republicanism and extreme conservatism. But the Beltway Establishment does not like that. Here comes WaPo's Fred Hiatt with his plea for the post partisan Unity BS:

[W]e don't believe either party has a monopoly on policy wisdom. . . . We like to think, in other words, that a process in which both parties play a role can sometimes lead to better outcomes and not always to dead ends.

That's harder to imagine, though, as each party's moderate wing shrinks. A Democratic sweep might bring to Washington some relatively centrist freshmen who would provide a check on the most liberal wing of the party. But it might claim as victims some of the few remaining Republican moderates, such as Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon and Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and some of the real workhorses who are more interested in legislating than grandstanding -- the capable New Hampshire senator John E. Sununu, for example. The defeat of such politicians would be a loss for the country, not just for their party.

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I voted this morning. The line was pretty long - it took an hour. I'll violate the sanctity of the secret ballot and tell you I voted straight Democratic. I tell you this story in the daily "Polls" post because in the DKos/R2000 daily tracking poll (which has Obama by 5, 50-45, with 1% undecided, Barr gets 1, Nader gets 1 and "Other" gets 2) John McCain is drawing 92% of the Republican vote while Obama gets 5% of the Republican vote. See how well the Post Partisan Unity Schtick worked? For comparison, John Kerry got 6% of the Republican vote (Bush got 93% of the GOP vote in 2004.) This same poll has Obama slightly outperforming Kerry in 2004 among Dems and Independents. The difference is there are many more Dems and Independents in the 2008 electorate.

Among the other polls, Ras has Obama by 5, 51-46. Battleground has, for the umpteenth straight day, Obama by 3, 49-46. ABC/WaPo has Obama by 8, 52-44. Hotline has Obama by 7, 49-42. Gallup Expanded has Obama by 7, 51-44.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Intellectual conservatives are scampering away from Bush-McCain-Palin as if the Republican party leaders were infected with a toxic contagion. George Will today brands Bush and McCain as "faux conservatives" and accuses them of carelessness, citing Iraq and the selection of Sarah Palin as examples.

Will begins by slicing and dicing Palin, starting with an amusing story designed to mock Palin's belief that the vice president is "in charge of the United States Senate."

She may have been tailoring her narrative to her audience of third-graders, who do not know that vice presidents have no constitutional function in the Senate other than to cast tie-breaking votes. But does she know that when Lyndon Johnson, transformed by the 1960 election from Senate majority leader into vice president, ventured to the Capitol to attend the Democratic senators' weekly policy luncheon, the new majority leader, Montana's Mike Mansfield, supported by his caucus, barred him because his presence would be a derogation of the Senate's autonomy?

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Leonardo DiCaprio and a slew of the Hollywood celebrity-types who are so irksome to Republicans join with non-celebrity Americans to urge viewers to vote. "5 More Friends" is the second PSA; the first ("5 Friends") is here.

This is an open thread.

Four women filed suit against computer retailer Dell Inc. in federal court today, alleging a widespread pattern of gender and age discrimination.

The former managers, Mildred Chapman, Angela Hopkins, Julia Mahaffey and Bethany Riches, accuse the company of paying men higher wages for equal work and failing to fairly promote women to higher positions. Dell denied the accusations.

The lawsuit noted that there are no women in the company's highest tier of executives. ... Chapman, 59, also accused the company of disproportionately laying off workers older than 40 after it began cutting 9,000 jobs last year.

The four plaintiffs will ask the court to permit the suit to proceed as a class action. [more ...]

Barack Obama's half hour advertisement/infomercial is starting now. This is your place to comment.

Maybe the Republican Party should run Joe the Plumber as its next presidential candidate. Not only is he touted as an authority on tax policy, he's started offering his wisdom as a foreign policy expert.

There was a “Joe the Plumber” bus tour yesterday in Ohio. Joe the Plumber (aka Joe Wurzelbacher) teamed up with Congressman Rob Portman (who was allegedly on McCain’s VP short list) and they went to five different towns in Ohio stumping for the Republican nominee. ...

On the first leg of the five-town “Joe the Plumber World Invasion” tour, Wurzelbacher ran into a supporter who asked Joe if he believed, “a vote for Barack Obama means death to Israel.” ... “I’ll go ahead and agree with you on that,” he said.

[more ...]

Yesterday The Hill reported:

Democratic leaders are discussing a major reshuffling of Senate committee chairmanships, according to multiple sources, and the proposed changes include ousting Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) from his coveted chairmanship.

It would certainly feel good to do so:

Lieberman spokesman Marshall Witmann dismissed the speculation, saying Lieberman “is focused on doing all he can to elect John McCain as president rather than post-election Washington politics.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Um, that's sort of the point Marshall "Bull Spit" Wittman. But I think it would be a silly thing to do. Lieberman can do no harm on the Homeland Security Committee and he basically is a marginalized character already. Why give the Media some trumped up nonsense on Lieberman? Just ignore him. He's irrelevant now.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

This is tragic:

A newlywed killed by police after he stepped outside his home to confront suspected burglars was shot in a case of mistaken identity, police said. Julian Alexander died after being shot twice in the chest by a police officer who was chasing four burglary suspects early Tuesday morning. Police Chief John Welter said the officer ran into Alexander, mistook him for one of the four juvenile suspects and shot him. ...

"He was a good kid, trying to protect his house," said Alexander's mother-in-law Michelle Mooney. "And the police, instead of asking questions, they just shot first. Somebody has to be held responsible for this." ... Alexander got married last weekend and his 19-year-old wife is expecting a baby in December.

More here.

A new AP-GfK poll in 8 battleground states has Obama ahead or tied in all of them, including four states that Bush won in 2004.

The states are: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The polling shows Obama leading in Ohio (7 percentage points), Nevada (12 points), Colorado (9) and Virginia (7), all red states won by Bush that collectively offer 47 electoral votes. Sweeping those four — or putting together the right combination of two or three — would almost certainly make Obama president.

Obama is winning by double-digits in PA and NH. Ohio has 20 electoral votes, PA has 21 and FL has 27. Nevada has 5, Colorado 9, NC 15 and Virginia 13.

On issues, Obama leads on almost every one from the economy to health care. He pulls even with McCain or leads on national security.[More...]

Sarah Palin hasn't learned the art of tailoring a political speech to the audience. This morning she spoke about energy independence.

Palin spoke after touring Xunlight Corp., one of a handful of solar technology startup companies in Toledo, a struggling industrial city in this swing state. The city's leaders are hoping that the solar companies will create jobs to replace some of those lost by downsizing in the auto industry.

But Palin made only a passing reference to solar power in her speech and instead renewed her call for more drilling in U.S. coastal waters. She repeated her signature anthem, "drill, baby, drill," which seemed to fall a bit flat on the audience at the plant even as it's become a popular chant at her rallies.

Did Palin really believe the audience at a solar plant in Toledo would be interested in hearing "drill, baby, drill" rather than "sun, baby, sun"? Is she planning to drill under Toledo's Chrysler plant that just laid off 825 workers?

The winner of CNN's first iReport Film Festival Grand Jury Award has been announced. You can watch it above or in wider format here.

This documentary short follows a 90 year old great-great grandmother on her trek to vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 Pennsylvania Primary. Having voted all her life, this is the first time she's had the opportunity to vote for a Black man for the office of President of the United States.