The complete text, via Sargent, is on the flip. Two things stood out for me. First, the 90 day moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. This was first proposed by Hillary Clinton in December 2007, when she also proposed a temporary interest rate freeze. If my memory serves, Obama agreed with the idea at the time.

The second thing that strikes me is that there is no HOLC in Obama's plans. It seems to be up to Congress folks who care about HOLC who will have to make Obama do it. It seems to not be in his plans. The complete text of the speech on the flip.

Via Todd Beeton, I take my opportunity to associate myself with the remarks of a Nobel Prize winner:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Both candidates ended up running some version of a turn out the base election. It just so happens that this year the Democratic base is much bigger than the Republican base.

. . . PAUL KRUGMAN: I was critical of Obama early on for this notion that we were going to be bi-partisan, it wasn't going to happen...

STEPHANOPOULOS: You wanted a base election...

KRUGMAN: ...and here it is.

Indeed, here it is. Events have provided Barack Obama with the opportunity for a progressive mandate. Let's hope he takes that opportunity.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

With 3 weeks to go, the polls have all switched to a LV (likely voter) model. It is important to understand the each organization has its own likely voter model. Gallup invented its famous one (the 5 questions) and, as far as I know, has not varied it much. As a result, Gallup LV polling has been subject to wild fluctuations. By contrast, Rasmussen (and others, R2000 for one, I think) on the other hand, has switched to a party ID likely voter model and is more stable. And of course each polling outfit has its own general house biases and flaws. (One misconception to be addressed here is about the Bradley Effect. That turns up, for the most degree and if at all, in exit polls, not in pre-election polling.) Later I will round up some old posts from 2004 on the LV model controversies. But for now, let's look at the polling 3 weeks out.

DKos/R2000 has Obama up 12, 52-40. WaPo/ABC has Obama up 10, 53-43. Gallup's new LV polling has Obama up 6, 51-45 (or 4, 50-46, using their 2004 model.) Hotline has Obama up 8, 49-41. Battleground has Obama up 8, 51-43. Ras has Obama up 5, 50-45.

More . . .

Here's William Kristol's prescription for the McCain campaign:

What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over.

Right. Because junking the campaign and starting over three weeks before the election is a perfect way for McCain to counter the charge that he's erratic.

Kristol also wants McCain to run "as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate." Because that cheery smile (a/k/a forced grimace) is what will win the election for McCain.

John McCain has a plan.

In his visit with volunteers on Sunday, Mr. McCain acknowledged that “the economy has hurt us a little bit in the last week or two” and that he was “a couple points down” in national polls. But he said he would rebound because voters “want knowledge and they want vision.”

Win with vision. An intriguing plan, coming this late. And what is John McCain's vision for "the economy [that] hurt [him] a little bit in the last week or two?"

[more ...]

Is all the right wing angst over some Acorn workers who apparently registered nonexistent people (who are, by definition, incapable of voting) a distraction not only from John McCain's intellectually bankrupt campaign but also from the real election fraud that we've come to expect from Republicans?

Now, New York University professor Mark Crispin Miller is warning that elements within the Republican Party may attempt to steal the 2008 presidential election from Barack Obama.

[UPDATE: As with every post I write, I speak for myself only. BTD wishes to be specifically disassociated from this post.]

[more ...]

Update: Mayhill Fowler at HuffPo has much more on Colorado, including the great photo above.

Public Policy Polling released a new Colorado poll (pdf) yesterday showing Sen. Barack Obama with a ten point lead over John McCain.

Obama leads John McCain 52-42, up from a seven point advantage in a PPP Colorado survey three weeks ago. With only 6% of voters undecided and just 6% of those with a current preference open to changing their minds McCain is basically in a situation right now where he will need to take every undecided voter and also every Obama supporter willing to consider changing their mind to have any chance at winning the state.

PPP says the Latino vote has propelled Obama to his surge, and similar trends are seen in New Mexcio and Nevada: [More...]

Newspaper editorials from the Heartland are beginning to roll in: Shorter version from this one in the Toledo Blade:: Walk and don't look back.

Sen. John McCain, by nature, has shown himself to be incapable of providing the American people with an optimistic vision of the future. Firmly rooted in the failed politics and policies of the past, he cannot guide us on a path he does not see.

More...

Here's a funny line from a NYTimes story on the election - "The main thing [McCain] needs to do,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, “is focus on a single message . . . over the next 30 days[.]" The election of course is in 23 days. And the polling with 23 days to go says the Presidential contest is over.

DKos/R2000 has Obama up 13, 53-40. Gallup has Obama up 9, 51-42. Hotline has Obama up 10. Newsweek has Obama up 11, 52-41. Ras has Obama up 6. And so on. It's over.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

I spent the better part of three years arguing against Barack Obama's political style - the Post Partisan Unity Schtick. The reason I did so was because I believed that in order to gain a real mandate for progressive change, Obama needed to run on a progressive platform and use the politics of contrast to gain a mandate for progressive change. Clearly, that is all irrelevant now. Like Herbert Hoover before him, George W. Bush has handed a Democratic President the mandate to try whatever he thinks will work. David Broder, as is his wont, misunderstands the politics of it all yet again:

For now, Obama can benefit from the plausibility of his contention that this is "the final verdict" on the policies of the Bush administration, supported for the most part by McCain and other Republicans. But in a few weeks, the winner of the election will take custody of the problem and his name and reputation -- not Bush's -- will be on the line.

(Emphasis supplied.) [More...]

You may recall the Star Trek episode in which Captain Kirk and his crewmates are captured by attractive androids who are also imprisoning Harry Mudd. Kirk subjects the android-in-chief to the Liar's Paradox. "Everything I say is a lie," Kirk tells the android. Followed by, "I am lying." Smoke emits from the android's ears as it devotes its full computing power to a conundrum that does not compute. Eventually the android freezes up and the good guys escape.

John McCain is in danger of crashing in much the same way, for much the same reason. To win in Colorado, McCain needs to hit hard on Ayers and Wright. Or so he's being told by the state party chairman, Dick Wadhams.

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Since John McCain named John Lewis as one of the three wise men from whom he would welcome advice if he were president, McCain should heed this:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

Rep. Lewis reminds us that "George Wallace never threw a bomb" or "fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights." Evoking the memory of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Lewis cautioned that "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

[more ...]