Shit My Dad Says (The Charlie White Edition)

The following is a screen shot from last night of Darrell White's facebook page. Darrell White is former Secretary of State Charlie White's father. The page has since been scrubbed clean of this content:

Edna Parker has died at 115

Lifelong Indiana resident and world's oldest living person, Edna Parker, died on Wednesday at her Shelbyville nursing home. Parker had lived in the farmhouse she shared with her husband Earl, who succumbed to a heart attack in 1939, until the age of 100. She remained active until the end, taking daily walks.

The supercentenarian outlived her two sons, Clifford and Earl Jr. She also had five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren.

Indiana Turns Blue

With 99% of precincts reporting, Barack Obama has won Indiana by 23,000 votes!

Indiana Closing at 9:45 PM

10 PM Update:

Obama now within 7,000 votes of carrying Indiana:





My (almost) final report from the Hoosier State - as of 9:45 PM the race here in Indiana has tightened to 50-49, with McCain leading by a mere 27,000 votes statewide. Regardless, Barack Obama is now the 44th president of these United States. But it will be interesting to see what final numbers I awake to tomorrow morning:

Indiana - 8:15 PM

At 8:15, with 35% of precincts reporting, it's 51-48 favoring McCain. Things worth noting on that total - heavily Democratic counties Lake and Porter have no numbers as of yet, and Monroe County (Bloomington) has only reported 200 votes thus far (75-25 favoring Obama). Also noteworthy, the conservative southwestern counties are coming into the Obama column. Statewide, McCain is underperforming compared to Bush 2004, abd Obama is overperforming the Kerry 2004 numbers.

Obama Leads by Ten Points in Indiana

The latest Big Ten Battleground Poll shows Barack Obama holding double-digit leads over John McCain in eight crucial Midwest states, including a 10 point lead in Indiana:



The individual surveys of between 562 and 586 randomly selected registered voters and those likely to register to vote before the election in each of the states were conducted by phone with live interviewers from Oct. 19-22 and were co-directed by University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientists Charles Franklin and Ken Goldstein with the cooperation of colleagues from participating Big Ten universities. The polls each have a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points. The states included in the poll were Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, home to the 11 universities in the Big Ten conference.

Why Indiana is Trending Blue in 2008

60% of Hoosier voters list the economy as their top issue, and Obama has a 59-34 lead with those folks:

New polling out today shows Barack Obama with a 2 point lead in the Hoosier State. The question to be answered is "where, in a state that hasn't given it's electoral votes to a Democrat since LBJ, is this support coming from"?

Is it a bounce from the Chicago media market, friendly turf for a widely-known local politician? That market affects 1/5 of the state, not enough for such a dramatic shift. Is it "the black vote"? Black voters normally turn out for Democrats, and it's worth noting that Indiana is 86% white. No serious gains there, either.

A new report from Salon provides some insight into the demographics that really are affecting the presidential race in our state this year - suburban Republicans - "upscale moderate voters who might be attracted to John McCain for economic reasons but recoil because of the social conservatism symbolized by Palin's presence on the ticket".

Some further stats from Polling Point:

-Independents who answered our poll said they went 46-36 for Bush in 2004, now they say they're 49-39 for Obama. That's a 20 point swing.

-But Obama is also peeling off a lot more Republicans than John Kerry did. Bush won them 92-4, but McCain is only up 86-10 in his own party. That's a 12 point gain for Obama even with GOP'ers.

-Obama is leaking a lot fewer Democratic voters here than Kerry did. Kerry won them 73-17, but Obama is taking them 84-11. A 17 point gain there means that Obama is doing double digits better with Democrats, Republicans, and independents relative to 2004 Democratic performance.

-Obama has significantly increased the Democratic performance with urban voters, as the conventional wisdom suggests and you might expect. A 51-38 lead from 2004 is now a 63-32 one. What you might not hear about as much is the fact that is making strong inroads with rural and small town voters as well. Bush won rural voters by 32 points last time, now Obama has halved that and trails McCain by just 16. Bush dominated in the small towns, winning 53-35 last time. Now Obama has the race with those voters in the margin of error, down just 47-44.

Hide the Moose and Ground the Choppers!

Okay. . .I guess we likely don't actually have any moose here in the Hoosier state, but, given Sarah Palin's cognitive skills, ground the choppers regardless. From the air, she might mistake a herd of dairy cows for her favorite game and locals dogs may morph into wolves an the aerial view. That's right folks, Caribou Barbie is invading our state!

John McCain has only made one appearance here so far, in July, and hadn't even set up field offices here. He's either taken the state for granted, or he's a complete idiot. On second thought, both options apply in this case. This is a state that George Bush won handily in the last two elections, a state not won by a Democrat since 1964, but. . .Obama is a popular senator from a state that borders Indiana. He's well known and often in the news in the heavily populated northwest part of the state. He's set up dozens of field offices in Indiana and narrowly lost to the popular Hillary Clinton. In short, he should have been responded to months ago!

And now, rather than making a personal appearance, McCain sends in his designated "feed red meat to the base" surrogate? Well, golly gee, shucks, say it aint so Joe John! The narrow base of racist, ignorant, low-information voters is all you have left. I guess I'm not surprised that you would hide behind Sarah Palin; after all, she's far more popular with those folks than you are. They're accepting you as a requisite to elect HER. I almost feel sorry for you. ALMOST. The "Maverick" exists no more. . .he is but an empty vessel, sold out to the Rovian machine that selected Palin to appeal to the core hatred of the neo-con culture.

You can't possibly win this election at this juncture. You've traded your reputation, your political career, your entire being, on one last roll of the dice. Sorry, John - snake eyes for you.

Obama Leads by 3 Points in Indiana

According to a new Indianapolis Star-WTHR poll, Barack Obama now holds a 47% to 44% lead over John McCain in the Hoosier State. While the Star report doesn't say so, I think it's safe to say that this is the first time that a Democratic presidential contender has held a lead in Indiana since my cousin Lyndon did so back in the year that I was born (1964).




The poll shows a solid lead for Obama in Marion County, but claims McCain holds the remainder of the state. I question that aspect. I am 100% certain that Obama will handily carry Northwest Indiana, Fort Wayne, and Bloomington. I predict a rural vs. urban race that should allow Obama to eke out a close win in Indiana.

As the poll shows, Obama supporters are far more "fired up and ready to go" than McCain's, and Obama trumps his opponent in every important issue except experience. As McCain continues to show his "experience" as he has during this week, people will continue to fall behind Senator Obama.

"They Must Think You're Stupid"

Barack Obama, on the stump today in Terre Haute, hammers McCain over his new message of "change":

Obama's Nuclear Ad - This one's got Dick!

A Trip to Salamonie Reservoir

9214 West-Lost Bridge West
Andrews, IN 46702-9731
(260) 468-2125

Click the satellite photo for more info:

We tried another "day trip" today - this time to the Salamonie Reservoir, just west of Huntington. Actually, it was a mere 35 minutes from here in Aboite, but you could easily spend the day there. Hunting, fishing, camping, boating, hiking, horseback trails. . .truly something for everyone. We packed a picnic lunch and camped out on the beach before hiking one of the trails.

The river area behind the Salamonie Dam seems to be pretty popular with fisherman - it was rather busy today.
A view from behind the dam, followed by a picture of the reservoir taken from the top, facing east.

Victory over the "Politics of Division"

Indiana's Incredible Shrinking Voter List

It's VERY interesting to note that these are the very same strong Obama counties who's results we're all awaiting this evening. . .

From Black Box Voting:

In April 2008 when Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the release of "record high" voter registration rolls, with 4.3 million voters set to vote in the Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that a whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been cancelled.

Now, the voter rolls are supposed to be tidied up prior to each election. Indiana's last general election was in Nov. 2006, and they have had a slew of special and general elections since then. So how have 1.1 million voters -- 26 percent of the current statewide list -- escaped the voter registration cleanup squad? Who are these million voters and where do they come from?

One quarter-million of them come from just two northwestern Indiana counties: Lake and Porter. Lake County reports purging 137,164 voters and neighboring Porter County cancelled out 124,958 voters.

Lake County, the home of Gary, Indiana, has spawned the Jackson Five and a great old musical (The Music Man) and has been referred to as "the second most liberal county in America." Lake County also has one of the heaviest concentrations of African-American voters that you'll find anywhere in the USA.

Nearby Porter County, the home of Valparaiso, is 95% white and went solidly for Bush in the 2004 election. It's also got a lot of college students.

For whatever reason, these two counties had ... what ... massive data entry problems? Exceptionally messy records? Lots of dead people who climbed back into their graves? I truly hope we aren't going to see a lot of disappointed voters on Tuesday, when they perhaps learn that they were among the lucky million people who got purged.

HERE'S WHERE THE HEAVIEST INDIANA PURGES ARE:

Lake 137,164 48% (Gary)
Porter 124,958 115% (Valparaiso)
Marion 68,120 10% (Indianapolis)
Monroe 66,009 85% (Bloomington)
Tippecanoe 53,456 58%
Madison 42,952 47% (Anderson)
Hamilton 42,325 26%

Here's a picture map with the numbers and percentages for the whole state:


Read more on this HERE. . .

Indiana vote tracking

Live Indiana results from CNN, updated frequently, are HERE.

It's worth noting that Democratic voters turned out 3-1 in relation to Republican voters in Allen County. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, For the first time in my life, I'm proud of Allen County.


Q - How many voters were disenfranchised today in Indiana?

A - Nun

"Hometown" - Barack Obama

Vote for Barack Obama tomorrow!

Here are a few details and rules that will help make the voting process run smoothly. Make sure to share these with your friends:

• If you are registered and will be 18 or older by November 4th, 2008, you can vote in the May 6th Primary.


• Polls will only be open for 12 hours -- 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. -- and we're anticipating high turnout, so try to vote early in the day. Go before work if you can, or plan to take time to vote on your lunch break.


• When you vote, you must bring with you a Photo ID issued by the state of Indiana or the U.S. Government that has your name and an expiration date after November 7th, 2006.


• Acceptable ID includes Indiana driver's licenses, Indiana state photo ID card, a U.S. Passport, U.S. Military ID or Student ID from an Indiana state school, so long as it includes a photo and an expiration date.


• And if this is your first time voting, make sure you bring an acceptable document that shows your current address, such as an Indiana driver's license, current utility bill, bank statement, or paycheck.

Newest Zogby Poll shows dead heat in Indiana

From Zogby:

Clinton holds a sizable edge among Catholics and a small advantage among Protestant voters. She also leads among older voters, while Obama leads among all Democratic primary voters under age 55. In a key age demographic - those voters age 35 to 54 - Obama enjoys a 10-point lead. This was a group that went for Clinton in the recent Pennsylvania primary, after leaning toward Obama in the week before the election.

Clinton leads by 11 points among white voters in Indiana, which make up about 83% of the electorate. Obama leads by an enormous 10-to-1 ratio among African American voters in Indiana. He also continues to lead in northern Indiana, a large section of which is influenced by his hometown Chicago media market, and in Indianapolis. In the southern half of the state, which features a population much like that of Ohio next door, Clinton continues to enjoy a double-digit lead. Obama is holding on to a nine point lead among Indiana men, while closing the gap to five points behind Clinton among women.

Obama hits Clinton on Gas Tax Gimickry

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
Indianapolis, Indiana
Friday, May 2, 2008

This morning, we learned that while the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged last month, wages have gone down, and the economy lost 20,000 more jobs. That's 260,000 jobs lost since the beginning of the year. That's 260,000 more Americans who won't have a paycheck to help them cover the rising cost of health care and child care; gas and groceries. This news is troubling, but it's not surprising - because in recent months, we've seen the problems in our economy grow worse and worse.

Now, a big part of why so many folks are struggling is that Washington hasn't been looking out for them. For too long, we've had a politics that's been more about scoring points than solving problems.

We've had a good example of this lately, with the so-called gas tax holiday that Senator Clinton is proposing. At best, this is a plan that would save you pennies a day for the summer months; that is, unless gas prices are raised to fill in the gap, which is just what happened in Illinois, when we tried this a few years ago. Just this morning, there was an article in the paper about how the real beneficiaries of this tax holiday would be the oil companies, who'd walk away with billions more in profits.

Meanwhile, unless you can magically impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies overnight to pay for the holiday, it could imperil federal highway funding, and cost Indiana more than 6,000 jobs.

Now, the two Washington candidates in the race have been attacking me because I don't support their idea. In fact, yesterday Senator Clinton demanded that everyone go on the record on this issue. She even borrowed one of President Bush's favorite phrases, and said that every member of Congress had to tell her - "are they with us or against us?"

Well, folks have been weighing in. And you know what? It turns out that people want to be on the side of the American people - they don't want to be for something that is such an obvious election year gimmick; they don't want to line up behind an idea that's more about trying to get a few votes than getting you meaningful relief.

Speaker Pelosi said that she's against the McCain-Clinton gas tax gimmick because it won't pass savings on to consumers, and "it will defeat everything we've tried to do to lower the cost of oil." Steny Hoyer rejected the idea, saying it "would not be positive." Tom Harkin, a Senator who knows a thing or two about what working people are facing here in the Midwest, said that he can't be for it because there's no guarantee that it will "put money in the pockets of our consumers." You might think that there's more support for it in Senator Clinton's home state. But her own supporter, Governor Patterson, said he's against it because the benefit of the tax cut "doesn't go directly to the consumer" - instead, it goes to the oil companies.

But Senator Clinton does have some support for her plan in Congress. After all, the person who first proposed it was John McCain. So I guess when she says "are you with us or against us" - Senator Clinton is referring to her and John McCain. That's one vote she's got, because on this issue, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are reading from the same political playbook.

This isn't a real solution. It's a political stunt. This is what Washington does whenever there's a big problem. Politicians pretend that they're looking out for you, but they're just looking out for their poll numbers. Senator Clinton's own staff even told the Washington Post that they knew the idea might not make much of a difference for you, but it could make a big difference for her campaign. And when the Clinton campaign was pressed to find a single expert who supported her plan - I'm not making this up - they put her campaign pollster on the phone to talk about how the idea polls well.

But what Americans need isn't an idea that polls well; what you need is real change. What you need is leadership you can trust. That's what I'm offering. I'm tired of seeing us lose so many jobs month after month, year after year. When I'm President, we'll stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas and start giving them to companies that create good-paying jobs here at home. And we'll focus on long-term job growth. Rather than put highway funding at risk like my opponents are proposing, I have a plan to invest in our infrastructure and create millions of new jobs in the process. And I have a plan to invest in our green energy sector that will create up to five million new green jobs - and those are jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.

To help Americans meet rising costs, I've proposed the biggest middle class tax cut of any candidate. It would mean real savings for working families, struggling homeowners, and seniors. We also need to address our economic woes at their source - the housing crisis. Nearly two years ago, I introduced legislation to crack down on predatory lenders and mortgage fraud - legislation that could have prevented this crisis from escalating. And I've called on Washington to help homeowners re-finance their mortgages so they can stay in their homes.

It's time to quit the political stunts, and start offering real solutions. That's what I've been doing throughout this campaign, and that's the kind of leadership I intend to offer as President of the United States.

Early Voting Favors Obama

Early voting numbers here in the Hoosier State seem to offer some encouragement to Barack Obama's campaign:

About 20 percent of the 127,000-plus absentee ballots received as of early Friday were cast in three Indiana counties _ Marion, Monroe and Lake _ that political observers believe Obama is strongly favored to win.

Lake County has a large population of black voters and is in Chicago's shadow. Obama has typically won big among college-age voters, and Monroe County is the home of Indiana University in Bloomington. Obama's campaign sought out IU students with voter registration and early voting drives and a free Dave Matthews concert.

Robert Dion, a professor of American politics at the University of Evansville, said Obama has mounted an innovative campaign that's stressed early voting and his supporters appear more energized than those for Clinton.

"In a close race, modest advantages in organization can yield big results, and if Obama out-organizes the Clinton campaign on these absentee ballots, it would be a great boost to him," Dion said.

Regardless of the final results next Tuesday, it's likely that the state's 72 delegates will be fairly evenly split due to the closeness of the race. Although Clinton has been favored here, if Obama delivers a one-two punch with Indiana and North Carolina, it could effectively end a Clinton campaign that has already been accepted as DOA by all but the most resolute Clintonistas. . .

Obama's Indiana Campaign Recap

The Obama campaign team made a recap video of the grassroots movement we've built here in Indiana.

Barack has spent a lot of time in Indiana over the past few weeks, talking to folks everywhere from the South Bend Fairgrounds to the CMW factory in Indianapolis about how we can bring jobs back to Indiana and solve the problems we're facing.

Take a moment to watch the video right now and look up your polling place: