A new CNN/New York Times poll out tonight finds Obama 13 points ahead of McCain, 54% to 41%. Full poll results are here (pdf):

WHY HAS YOUR VIEW OF MCCAIN GOTTEN WORSE?
(Among those saying view has worsened)

His attacks on Obama 32%
Choice of Sarah Palin 14
Debate performance 12
He seems erratic/unsteady 11
Don’t like him 7

Opinions of Palin among these voters have drastically changed for the worse in the last three weeks, while favorable impressions of Joe Biden have improved among the same voters.

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Update: I watched the segment, and like Nightline's Cynthia McFadden, thought they seemed free of tension and genuinely enjoying each other's company. Obama was very effusive in his praise for Hillary. At the rally, when they walked out together, he didn't just hug her, but kissed her on the cheek. He acknowledged that Hillary has made a big difference in how he is doing in Florida. She minced no words to her former supporters: "As hard as you worked for me, we need you now to work just as hard for Barack."

Very classy on both their parts. And 50,000 turned out on a Monday in Orlando to hear them. Let's just hope they all go to the polls.

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Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's first joint interview since the end of Hillary's campaign will air tonight on Nightline. The interview followed their joint campaign appearance in Florida today. [More...]

Michele Bachmann's suspicion that anti-American sentiment lurks in the halls of Congress resulted in an infusion of cash for her Democratic opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg. Today the fallout from Bachmann's McCarthy-like rant continues, as a Republican announced his intent to run a write-in campaign that, with luck, will draw enough votes from Bachmann to give Tinklenberg the victory.

Aubrey Immelman is a psychology professor who lost to Bachmann in the primary. Immelman is a South African immigrant who, like many immigrants, has a greater appreciation of American values than those who were born in the United States.

"I gave up everything to come here, which is why I feel so strongly about the direction my country has been taking," he said Monday. "I'm a proud, patriotic American. And I cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism Michele Bachmann is pushing."

It's time for Michelle Bachmann to go home.

Judge Bush in Hennepin County, Minnesota is saddled with a problem this election year: his name.

Bush, who was appointed by DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1989 and was a public defender for years before that, has stood for election before, but never in a year when his last name was so unpopular. Talk at the courthouse is that Bush's opponent chose him among all the judges up for reelection solely because of his unpopular last name.

After going an entire evening without a message on my home answering machine, I was starting to think that all the criticism of John McCain's nasty robocalls had convinced McCain to pull the plug on the autodialers, despite his defense of the practice. And then the phone rang.

The message was a robocall, but not from John McCain. This one was from John Cornyn's wife Sandy telling me how wonderful her husband is and reminding me that early voting starts today in Texas. That's great, RoboSandy. Except I live in Wisconsin. You might have noticed the area code.

Barack Obama will be away from the campaign on Thursday and Friday. His grandmother's poor health has taken a serious turn. Obama plans to fly to Hawaii on Thursday to be with her. Send her, and the candidate, your positive thoughts.

Georgia 10 has a must read piece at Daily Kos that describes how it is done. Republicans have always concentrated on suppressing votes (causing long voter lines is also a classic technique), not on doing the virtually impossible - cheating on the vote count.

Some well meaning folks want to follow the red herring - crying "fraud!" in the vote count. The problem is not in the vote count - it is in denying the vote. Keeping eyes on the ball of voter suppression is the real battle for clean and fair elections - not silly Diebold conspiracy theories.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Barack Obama maintains a significant lead over John McCain in the latest WaPo poll:

The new survey shows Obama leading McCain by 53 percent to 44 percent among likely voters, little changed from a separate Post-ABC News poll released last Monday. Among all registered voters, Obama's lead is 10 percentage points, 52 percent to 42 percent.

Still Obama's election.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Good thing people are not paying much attention to Joe Biden. What a stupid thing he said yesterday:

Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

WTF? Did Biden take his extra stupid pills yesterday? Sheesh.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

It should be noted that for whatever reason, McCain has so far refused to go places that Hillary went in the primary (Wright, explicit comments about "hard-working, white" Americans supporting her, distributing emails with pictures of Obama in Muslim garb, etc.).

It should be noted that everyone of those charges is pure nonsense and Marshall should be ashamed for repeating them yet again. Hillary Clinton's campaign NEVER used Rev. Wright ever. When asked, she said she would not have him as her pastor. That was it. No ads. Nothing on Wright ever. The "hard working white Americans" line was the question she was asked by the AP reporter. It was another phony scandal, now a Josh Marshall specialty. But the one that takes the cake is the "Obama in Muslim garb" lie that DRUDGE sold and Marshall bought and still buys. What a disgraceful performance Josh Marshall has put in this campaign season. I'll be honest, I do not believe his site when it writes something about McCain. I have to see it somewhere else before I believe it now. I just do not trust his site anymore.

By Big Tent Democrat, definitely speaking only for me

Speaking to a gathering of the Federalist Society (where he was preaching to the choir), Judge Dennis Jacobs, chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, told the crowd that pro bono work is an anti-social activity. He particularly dislikes pro bono work for environmental causes, which he considers "legal activism."

"No public good is good for everybody," Jacobs said.

Perhaps Judge Jacobs meant to distinguish the helping hands that lawyers lend to the indigent in divorce and domestic abuse cases, landlord-tenant disputes, social security disability and veterans benefits cases, and all the other kinds of legal work that help individuals rather than the broader public. Even if that's so, it's shocking to think that a federal judge would disparage pro bono representation in lawsuits against the government. Making the government obey the law isn't an invitation to judicial "activism."

Helping society for free, rather than corporate clients for a healthy hourly rate, isn't anti-social. It's in the finest tradition of the bar to use the judicial system to help improve lives. Lawyers who do so should be praised, not scolded.

As Gov. Sarah Palin makes the round of Republican strongholds in Colorado today, the Aspen Daily News issues its endorsement of Barack Obama. On John McCain, the paper says:

McCain's own behavior has been cause for concern. He has clearly abandoned the 'maverick' platform that made him popular in 2000, and has shamelessly catered to the religious right, which has its party in a headlock.

It's hard to say what McCain's true colors are, but they were clearly evident in his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. While it was a tactical success in energizing the Republican Party, it was a reckless move that would put our country in danger should she ever become commander-in-chief. Not only is she inexperienced and unworldly, Palin just doesn't seem that bright. She dodges too many questions and fumbles too many answers to lead the free world.

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