addicted

Taylor

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. Sarah Palin just revved up a crowd of 3,500 or so at an airport hangar. Crowd a fraction of the size of Obama 12 miles away and a few hours earlier, but enthusiasm? No gap whatsoever. In fact, hers was more raucous.

"America is not the problem. America is the solution. We love our country!... I thank God that we have a man who is ready and worthy to lead it," she told the crowd.

Whatever the polls and pundits say, the governor insisted, Saturday Night Live better plan to have her as a recurring character, because McCain-Palin is going all the way on Tuesday.

"A little advice to Tina [Fey]," she said. "We want to make sure she's holding on to that Sarah outfit, because she's gonna need it."

dallasnews.com

Taylor

ECONOMIC SIGNALS Data on productivity, employment and consumer credit will headline the week.

Reports will include the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for October and construction spending for September (Monday); factory orders for September (Tuesday); the Institute for Supply Management’s nonmanufacturing index for October (Wednesday); third-quarter productivity (Thursday); and employment for October, consumer credit for September and pending home sales for September (Friday).

COMPANY EARNINGS It is an active week for earnings, with reports coming from Belo, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, MasterCard and Viacom (Monday); Archer Daniels Midland, Marvel Entertainment, Tenet Healthcare and UBS (Tuesday); Cisco, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Molson Coors, the News Corporation, Revlon, Sara Lee, Time Warner and Whole Foods (Wednesday); Anheuser-Busch, Blockbuster, Cablevision, Deutsche Telekom, DirecTV, El Paso, PG&E, Qualcomm, Toyota and Walt Disney (Thursday); and the American International Group, E. W. Scripps, Ford Motor and Sprint Nextel (Friday).

GLOBAL MARKETS The European Commission releases forecasts for euro-zone growth, inflation, employment, debt and the deficit (Monday).

European Union finance ministers meet in Brussels to discuss responses to the global financial crisis (Tuesday).

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England make decision on interest rates (Thursday).

European Union leaders hold talks to discuss financial system reforms ahead of a global summit on Nov. 14 (Friday).

Brazil hosts a meeting for the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank presidents (Saturday).

INDUSTRY REPORTS Automakers report their United States sales (Monday), and retailers report their same-store sales for October (Thursday).

nytimes.com

Taylor

The buzz in political-media circles Friday was that reporters from The Dallas Morning News and two other newspapers had been kicked off Barack Obama's campaign plane because the papers endorsed John McCain.

Not exactly. Our reporter, Todd J. Gillman, was told a few days ago that there's no space for him after today. We have protested, arguing that a paper of The News' size and stature should be on-board for the final stretch of a historic campaign.

But we don't have evidence that the paper's recommendation had any bearing on the campaign's decision. No one from the campaign ever mentioned it to Todd. (And neither he, nor I, nor any other political reporter or editor had any input or knowledge of the editorial board's recommendation.) The campaign says it had tough decisions to make and insists no weight was given to the endorsement.

We think the decision is to some degree more a function of limited seats, and while we're a large regional newspaper, we're not national and we're not in a swing state.

We've had similar trouble with the McCain campaign. One of our reporters left the campaign plane this week after being told there would be no room for him, and we're only getting back on this weekend because that campaign is adding a second plane for journalists. (We pay our own way, but the campaign makes arrangements and bills us.)

Over the years, The News has shown a strong commitment to campaign coverage. We let both campaigns know in early October that we wanted to travel with them until Nov. 4. We still hope Obama aides change their minds.

Plus, we're the only Southern or Southwestern paper that's been on board regularly in recent weeks, and without us, there won't be any from outlets outside of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Boston. The campaign seems to be allowing for friendlier media. That should come as no surprise – Mr. Obama hasn't had a news conference in more than a month, but he's given interviews to Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and Mario Lopez, host of an entertainment news show. Mr. Obama is sitting on a lead and doesn't want to risk aggressive questions by a gaggle of unbiased political reporters.

Ultimately, here's what our readers need to know: Whether we're traveling with the candidates or following on our own, we'll bring you robust news and analysis of the final stretch of this historic campaign.

From dallasnews.com

addicted

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Palin's turn in Columbus, Ohio

The Week Ahead

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Dallas Morning News taken off Barack Obama's plane

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