McCain campaign recommends sending criminal lawyers to swing states

John Danforth, former U.S. Senator and Co-Chair of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, described the conduct of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as “particularly outrageous,” and offered recommendations for a fair election. These included having ACORN submit their database to election authorities, reporting canvassers who turned in false information, and having the Department of Justice send criminal lawyers along with the initially planned civil rights lawyers to battleground states.

“Some say ‘well, the presence of lawyers throughout the country is itself intimidation’. We don’t understand how it can be viewed as intimidation if lawyers from the criminal division show up, but not when lawyers from the civil division showed up,” said Danforth during a McCain-Palin conference call.

“These are not people who appear in windbreakers that say FBI on the back. These are simply attorneys who are making sure the process is working well.”

Danforth noted the seriousness of the allegations against ACORN.

“When the registration system is subverted to the tune of 400,000 applications submitted by one organization, that really undermines the whole process of conducting elections.”

According to Danforth, the McCain campaign has reached out to the Obama campaign to find a joint solution to voter fraud concerns, but have been essentially been “stiffed”.

McCain campaign quote proves Obama's better on health care?

Obama-Biden Senior Adviser Anita Dunn says that McCain Senior Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin's admission that the presumed health care plan a person has at has at their job is better than any plan they could
receive with the McCain tax credit, is a "huge October surprise." Dunn said that the McCain campaign "was coming clean" in a teleconference today.

Dunn continued, saying that the Obama campaign's assertions that McCain's health care plan is "inadequate" have been proven "accurate" with Holtz-Eakin's admission. She echoed her surprise at the McCain campaign quote, and said that the Mc Cain campaign has had a "loose relationship with the truth."

Neera Tanden, Obama-Biden Domestic Policy Director, said that 20 million people will lose their employment health care under McCain's plan. She stated that putting people in an individual-based health care was inadequate because "people pay more for less." She added that the statistics and Holtz-Eakin's quote "reinforce that Senator Obama's plan has been right all along." She said that Obama's system is employer-based instead of individual-based like McCain's plan.

Tanden claimed that while Obama's plan is expensive, every cent of the plan is "fully paid for."

McCain better for economic growth?

Former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp called on Sen. Obama "to lower taxes during a recession" in a teleconference today. Kemp said he didn't know any economist who advocated "for a tax increase" during such a time.

Kemp also said it was important to "stop the hemorrhaging" of home ownership. He claimed Sen. McCain will help homeowners in default by renegotiating their payments. Senior McCain Advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin said Obama's plan of a "90 day mortgage moratorium" doesn't fix the inherent problem of home ownership.

Holtz-Eakin said he had noticed "daily shifts in the Obama tax plan." He stated that while Obama started his campaign by saying that everyone making under $250,000 would get a tax cut, Obama said recently that only those making under $200,000 would see a tax cut. In addition, Holtz-Eakin said that Sen. Biden claimed that the tax cut would only be given to those making under $150,000.

Virginia Delegate Chris Saxman said in reaction to Obama's tax plan, "I don't want Joe the Plumber's money. I want him to invest."

Speaking about McCain's chances in the battleground state of Virginia, Saxman said that Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, current and former governors of the state, "both ran as centrist democrats." He said
Sen. Obama is not running as a centrist, as evidenced by his plan to raise taxes.

Obama Campaign: We are playing more offense than defense in the final 11 days

The Obama-Biden campaign hosted a teleconference on the state of the race and how they believe they are winning in the final days of the campaign.

Campaign Manager, David Plouffe, said that they are forcing the McCain campaign to spend money in states that they thought they were secure in. Plouffe believes that Obama is in good shape in states that were thought to be won by McCain. "If you look at the facts, it's a daunting task for McCain to win," Plouffe said.

National Field Director, Jon Carson, said that when looking at the Electoral College, "we are in good shape." Carson went on to state that Democrats are voting at a significantly higher rate than Republicans when it comes to early voting. He believes that early voting will help when election day comes.

Battleground State Director, Jen O'Malley, said that Sen. Obama's campaign is doing everything they can to sway independent voters to vote Democrat. "We have 1.5 million volunteers who are making more than 400,000 contacts a day in battleground states. These contacts will help Obama win the battleground states," O'Malley said.

With only 11 days to go till the election, O'Malley stated that a lot could still change but she believes that Sen. Obama has a good chance of taking many of the battleground states.

White House Briefing

With election day two weeks away, why hasn't the president been campaigning for John McCain? White House spokesperson Dana Perino says Sen. McCain -- who now goes to great lengths to distance himself from Mr. Bush, by saying "I'm not George Bush" - is running his campaign as he sees fit. Besides, Perino says, the president has had a lot on his plate the last few months: notably Russia's invasion of Georgia and the economic crisis. Does this suggest he's too busy to help Sen. McCain? "Not at all," says Perino.

The possibility of a second round of economic stimulus checks is on the White House radar, but with Congress away for the next few weeks, the White House is not expecting anything to happen anytime soon. Does the White House support the idea? "We're open to any and all ideas," Perino says. But she points out the massive $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress and signed by the president is still in the pipeline: "It'll take a while for that to have an impact."

Perino knocked down the The New York Times article claiming President Bush has decided not to close the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 272 detainees are being held. "The president remains committed to closing Guantanamo," she said, "But it is complicated." Perino cited several reasons, including ongoing habeus corpus litigation, military tribunals and the unresolved issue of where to move any detainees that might be released. "Guantanamo would be easy to close," she says, "If you don't care about those issues."