12 days

Let's see what I've spotted online regarding the US election that I think is of interest.

A fairly glowing profile of Obama by Time magazine's Joe Klein. He wasn't the biggest believer in Obama throughout much of the electoral process, but seems to think much more highly of him now.

A pretty damning look at the McCain campaign from Robert Draper of The New York Times Sunday Magazine. It shows a campaign that never managed to find its focus or central narrative and completely shatters any notion that Sarah Palin was properly vetted for the position of VP. She was picked for purely cynical political reasons - they thought she could help shake up the campaign - rather than any rational belief that she could actual perform the job.

And with polls starting to turn devastatingly against McCain (he's losing in Montana!?), this is the point in the campaign where the rats start to abandon ship. You're going to see a lot more people start to speak out where they think the campaign went wrong. After all, they still have careers as political operatives, strategists, fundraiser and whatnot to consider.

Oh, and it's not just political operative rats that will start looking for a life raft. I've been wondering it and Marc Ambinder (who has done some top notch reporting this election) wonders if Palin is about to cut McCain lose. Oh, she's not going to stop campaigning or anything, but McCain's political future essentially ends on November 5. He's 72 years old. He's never going to run for president again. Hell, he might not even run for the senate again.

But Palin? She's young, has sucked up to a specific wing of the Republican party very efficiently and will learn a lot from this experience. So don't be surprised in the closing days of the campaign if she starts talking about things she thinks will help her get the nomination in 2012 (a constitutional ban on gay marriage, a total abortion ban, completely against stem cell research, etc) even if it means going against her "boss."

We haven't seen the last of her and I won't be at all surprised to see her as the Republican nominee in 2012....assuming she survives her reelection bid as governor of Alaska in 2010, of course.

But it is a sure bet that $150,000 clothing and hair shopping spree is going to hang on her for the rest of this election.

And some final thoughts:

When you're using animal feces and contemplating the using of electrical current to protect your lawn signs for a candidate you know things are getting weird.

A couple of cute and touching voting stories out there. This one is about three elderly Jewish ladies and the, well he sounds a bit like a redneck, who helped them vote for Obama. And was so touched by them that he decided to vote for Obama as well.

And while I like to think of myself as a cynic, even this story about a 90-year-old woman breaking down and weeping after she had voted because she never thought she would live long enough to vote for a black candidate for president had me getting a bit misty.

Sometime next week I'll make my prediction on which states each candidate will win. Feel free to offer up your predictions as well. I want to see how things shakedown the weekend first. I don't think things are going to suddenly go sideways for Obama, but you never know...

Last Five
1. Tired of pretending - Blue Rodeo
2. See your sunshine - Paul McCartney
3. Something beautiful - Tracy Bonham
4. Spiritude - Ron Sexsmith
5. Walter Reed - Michael Penn*