Day: October 24, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama holds a 10-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.

Obama leads McCain by 51 percent to 41 percent among likely U.S. voters in the three-day tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points. Obama had a 12-point lead on Thursday.

Barack Obama and John McCain enter the final days of the presidential campaign amid dwindling reserves, with Obama hindered by a sudden drop in fundraising and McCain restrained by spending limits.

Obama, the Democratic nominee, spent more than $105 million during the first two weeks of October, according to new campaign finance reports. He reported raising only $36 million for his campaign during that period, about half the fundraising pace he enjoyed in September.

Scott McClellan, President Bush’s former press secretary who angered old colleagues with a tell-all book earlier this year, said Thursday he is backing Barack Obama for president.

McClellan is the second former administration official to back the Democratic candidate this week. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell came out Sunday for Obama.

Authorities have tracked down a college student — the son of a prominent Democratic Tennessee politician and Obama supporter — who allegedly hacked into Sarah Palin’s personal e-mails, leading to their being posted, along with private family photos, on the Internet.

If you intend to vote for president solely on the basis of either candidate’s claims about what he will do to solve the nation’s growing health care pains, you have to be one confused dude or dudess. The claims and counter claims that have bombarded you from your television set every few minutes are so off the wall, they ought to go down in the Guinness Book for the record number of distortions in one political campaign.

Read his lips: Brand-new taxes.

Barack Obama promises to return personal income taxes to Clinton-era levels, with the top rate rising from 35 percent to 39.6. His agenda — call it "No Tax Hike Left Behind" — boosts levies on capital gains (from 15 percent to 20), dividends (from 15 percent to 20), and death (from 0 percent in 2010 to 45, on estates exceeding $7 million).

These increases among existing taxes would work like brass knuckles on a wobbly economy. Even worse, Obama also proposes brand-new taxes that further threaten to pulverize growth and jobs:

Joe Wurzelbacher, a middle-class Ohio contractor, asked Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama about his tax plans a few weeks ago. Now, all of a sudden, Americans are having a debate about socialism.

In response to "Joe the Plumber’s" question about whether the aspiring small businessman’s taxes would go up, Obama said: "It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you — that they’ve got a chance at success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."