According to last month's National Asian American Survey [pdf], 41 percent of Asian Americans support Barack Obama while only 24 percent support John McCain.  But 34 percent remain undecided. If you happen to have undecided friends or relatives, particularly those who own small businesses, feel free to pass on this last minute debunking of Republican misinformation about Obama's tax plans.

The short version?  As far as I can tell, the vast majority of small businesses that employ ten or fewer employees not only won't see their taxes increase, but may actually reap tax benefits under an Obama Administration.

The longer version?  Read on.  And please post in the comments if I've missed anything or made any mistakes.  (And non-Asians, come on in, the water's fine!  Most of this information applies to every small business owner.)

Last week, Markos argued that now's the time to press our advantage and "crush the spirits" of the conservative movement by delivering "a defeat worse than they ever imagined." I humbly suggest that as part of the program, it's time to poll Arizona and prove the theory that McCain's home state only supports him by single digits.  It's time to move Arizona from "likely" to "lean," give a leg up to Democratic challenger Bob Lord in AZ-03, and saddle the McCain campaign yet another embarrassment to spin in the waning days of the election.

And, who knows, the results of an Arizona poll might just surprise even us...

Back in August, the Mason-Dixon poll made headlines by showing McCain up only six points in Arizona.  But post-RNC, three polls gave McCain double digit leads, with an ASU outlier from 9/25-28/09 giving McCain a seven point edge [Pollster].

But the state hasn't been polled since September 29.  And just to refresh, here's a bit of what's happened since then:

October 2 - Vice Presidential debate.  Biden wins every snap poll.
October 4 - Palin starts Ayers attacks ("palling around with terrorists")
October 6 - McCain/Palin supporters begin yelling "Kill him" and "Terrorist" at rallies
October 6 - Dow drops 370 points
October 7 - Presidential debate ("That One").  Obama wins every snap poll.
October 9 - Dow drops nearly 700 points
October 10 - Troopergate report finds Palin abused power, violated ethics law.

Etcetera etcetera.  Meanwhile, Obama has surged to over 50 percent in most national polls; come close to locking down New Mexico, Colorado and Virginia; and turned Nevada, West Virginia, and North Carolina into swing states.

Finally, here are three indications that McCain could be in particular trouble in Arizona:

• As Kos has noted, AZ-03 has moved within striking range for Democratic challenger Bob Lord.
• As ourhispanicvoices notes, Latinos in neighboring states of Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico are turning towards Obama three to one over McCain.
• As thereisnospoon notes, McCain's tanking in the Southwest may stem largely from Latino disgust with negative campaigning.  And Latinos are a big part of the Arizona electorate.  According to the Pew Research Center [pdf], "17% of eligible voters in Arizona are Latinos, the fourth-largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally behind New Mexico with 38%, Texas with 25% and California with 23%."
• And this is all anecdotal, but here's a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reprint of an Economist article entitled "Why Arizonans Dislike McCain."

Poll, baby, poll!

Yesterday, we took a peek at MSNBC's failure to properly report data about Joe Biden beating Sarah Palin by 26 points in favorability ratings after Thursday's debate.  Today, MSNBC continues to mislead by posting an AP article with the headline:

Todd Palin will talk to Troopergate investigator
Probe examining whether Alaska governor improperly fired commissioner

Sadly, a more accurate headline would read:

Todd Palin still refuses to testify in Troopergate probe
Will only speak to second probe run by political appointees answering to Gov. Sarah Palin

The AP article correctly notes that after refusing to testify in the Alaska Legislature's Troopergate probe, Todd Palin has agreed to talk with a separate investigation conducted by the Alaska State Personnel Board. But the article fails to properly explain the difference between the probes.  

First, the article uncritically repeats the McCain-Palin campaign's claim that "the Legislative Council's investigation is being manipulated to damage the governor before the Nov. 4 election."  

Second, the article omits the critical detail that the Alaska State Personnel Board investigation is being run by Republican political appointees who, as Time Magazine notes, "ultimately answer to [Governor Sarah Palin] herself."  From the September 23 Time article:

Instead, [Sarah] Palin plans to cooperate with an investigator from the state personnel board. That investigator is a Democrat, but the board's three members are political appointees who ultimately answer to the governor herself. (One was appointed by Palin, the other two by her predecessor.) They got involved only after Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself in early September to spark an investigation that her lawyers hoped would overshadow -- and effectively kill -- the legislature's inquiry.

So the real story is that Todd Palin is only cooperating with the investigation that's run by Republican political appointees who answer to his wife.

Just keeping track here, folks.

Promoted by Steven D

After watching Joe Biden score consistently high ratings from women on CNN's undecided voter ticker during last night's Vice Presidential debate, I was surprised to see an article pop up on MSNBC's front page today with the teaser:

Women on Palin: She delivered
The Alaska governor boosted her standing with women, according to an early survey.

To borrow a phrase: Sadly, no.  

A little close reading reveals that the article buries the true story. According to the Mitchell McKinney survey data cited in the article, the real headline should be:

Biden nearly triples Palin's debate gains
Now beats the Alaska governor by 26 points in favorability, according to an early survey.

Or, more succinctly:

Palin loses

Here's the key data from the article:

Overall, Biden's favorability, already higher than Palin's, rose by 26 percent, from 53 to 67 points. Palin's, which started at 36 points and climbed to 41, rose by 14 percent.

The article confuses matters by using percentages that discourage direct comparison of the candidates' gains. To use terms everyone else would use with poll or survey data, Biden's favorability increased by 14 points while Palin's increased by just five.  Furthermore, Biden increased his favorability advantage over Palin from 17 points pre-debate to 26 points post-debate.  Finally, even with her modest gains, Palin can't seal the deal with voters -- she's stuck at 41 percent favorability.

So what about the article's claims about Palin's gains among women?  Here's the relevant quote:

With women, however, Palin's approval climbed 11 percent, from 70 to 79 among Republicans, and by 20 percent, from 21 to 25 points among Democrats. That split mirrors obvious party divisions, Mitchell said, but it also shows that Palin held her own despite recent stumbles.

So Palin gained nine points with Republican women and a four points with Democratic women.  But the article doesn't provide the breakdowns of Biden's ratings by female voters.  So direct comparisons of the candidates' gains among women are impossible.  

But we know that Biden gained 14 points overall.  Which indicates that unless Biden suffered a monumental gender gap, he most likely gained more among women voters than Palin did.

Which would undermine the entire premise of the article.

Hilariously, the MSNBC video accompanying the story further undermines the story by showing a focus group with seven undecided women, including five who voted for Bush in 2004.  After viewing the debate, five of these women had a less favorable opinion of Palin.  All seven of these women had a more favorable opinion of Biden.  

During his 2000 presidential race, John McCain first denounced the flying of the Confederate flag in South Carolina, then reversed himself, saying the flag was a "symbol of heritage."  On June 16, 2008, John McCain characterized that flip-flop as an "act of cowardice." I suggest that the same label can be applied to many of McCain's actions and omissions to this day.

Three days ago, Georgia Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland called Barack Obama and his wife "uppity."  Westmoreland claims he had no idea "uppity" was a racially charged term and has refused to apologize. Similarly, in 2000, John McCain initially refused to apologize when reporters revealed he had repeatedly used the term "gook."  When he finally repented for the "gook" comment three days later, McCain said, "I apologize and renounce all language that is bigoted and offensive, which is contrary to all that I represent and believe."

But McCain's renunciation of bigoted language does not appear to extend to denouncing those who use it.  So far, I can find no report of John McCain or his campaign denouncing Westmoreland or demanding an apology.  Instead, I've found multiple instances in which John McCain has supported or accepted support from other Republicans who made similarly incendiary racial comments:

Nothing personal here, folks -- this is purely on the issues.  If you have friends who are genuinely undecided, you might suggest they consider voting against John McCain because he...

• wants to tax the health benefits you receive from your employer
  
• proposes a tax plan that would give families as rich as his a $300,000 tax cut while saving middle class Americans just $319
  
• echoed Bush's claim that the "underpinnings of our economy are strong"
  
• supported Bush's veto of health insurance for children
  
• voted against health care funding for veterans
  
• wants to let internet providers choose what content you can access
  
• helped spread the false anthrax story and other misinformation that led us into war with Iraq
  
• joked about bombing Iran
  
• voted for torture
  
• supported Bush's illegal warrantless wiretapping
  
• has consistently voted against choice, family planning, and funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs
  
• has touted conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as "the model for [his] own nominees"
  
• supported the proposition in California to define marriage as only between one man and one woman
  
• voted repeatedly against the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday from 1983 to 1994
  
• repeatedly used the term "gooks" during his 2000 presidential campaign and initially resisted apologizing for it
  
• voted with Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007
  
• voted with Bush 100 percent of the time in 2008

Straight Talk Express Travel Advisory: Detours Ahead!

Today:

A spokesman for McCain's campaign said he would be unavailable for an interview on the subject of his temper.

Last week:

I believe in giving great access to the press for three reasons. First, I much prefer long back and forths, where reporters have multiple follow ups and I have an opportunity to explain my views in greater detail....

The New York Times has run at least eleven articles since Friday about Obama's "bitter" comments.

But no matter what search terms I use, I can find exactly zero articles from the New York Times about the April 11 ABC interview in which President Bush admitted that he approved of his top advisors' authorization of the "enhanced interrogation" or torture of al Qaeda suspects.

Just in case the New York Times is looking, here are its eleven missing links to the most important story of the weekend:

In her latest Time.com blog post, Ana Marie "Lovin' Eyes Can't Ever See" Cox defends her girlfriend John "She Can Do No Wrong" McCain from charges of hypocrisy with a heartfelt tribute to the "towering" standards McCain sets for himself.  In fact, the things McCain says he believes are so rarefied and wonderful that if he betrays those beliefs, we should hardly fault him.  Seriously.  This is her argument:

So Obama's opponents tut tut over his comments about the bitterness of some voters in Pennsylvania.  And Obama hits back hard.  Check out the video -- he totally nails it at the end.  

This is why I'm supporting this candidate.  Because when the clowns who rule the airwaves think the most important issue of the day is whether a candidate orders coffee or orange juice, we need a leader like Barack Obama who has the ability to cut through the stupid chatter and make real points about real people and real problems.

Regardless of who the Democratic nominee is, the media and the Republicans will make every effort to drum up fake outrage at every opportunity.  We need a candidate who can hit back with charm and power and common sense at the drop of a hat in a YouTube friendly way.

The media and Obama's opponents would much rather debate the appropriateness of the term "bitter" than discuss McCain's torture flip flop or McCain's possible breaking of campaign finance laws or McCain's failure to support the troops.

But Obama seizes the issue, turns it around, and rubs McCain's face in his failure to respond to the mortgage crisis.

The trick is making sure that folks are able to actually see and hear Obama's words.  So feel free to spread this video around -- particularly to friends in Pennsylvania.

Hat tip to SusanG for the video link.

This post was originally published at AsiansVote.com.

So enough with the "When a Man Loves a Woman" act.

If she's bad he can't see it
She can do no wrong

Two months ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof noted John McCain's flip flop on torture, but concluded that "Mr. McCain truly has principles that he bends or breaks out of desperation and with distaste. That's preferable to politicians who are congenital invertebrates."  

I'm just guessing here, but the people who have been killed due to the Bush Administration's torture policies probably wouldn't find anything "preferable" about John McCain's "desperation and distaste" with selling them out.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has just issued a press release about its exit polling for the 2006 election.  The key quote from AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung:

The decade-long trend of Asian American voters favoring Democratic candidates contributed to the dramatic shifts in political power that took place in Tuesday's midterm elections.

All good news here.  A sampling of how Asian Americans voted in key elections:

Virginia Senate -- 76% D versus 21% R

New Jersey Senate -- 77% D versus 21% R

Maryland Senate -- 73% D versus 24% R

Pennsylvania Senate -- 71% D versus 29% R

Massachusetts Governor -- 75% D versus 21% R

Michigan anti-affirmative action proposal -- 76% against

TJ Cox is an Asian American Democrat running for Congress against Republican George Radanovich in California's 19th District. Democrats aren't supposed to win in the 19th District, which was gerrymandered to be a safe Republican seat and voted 57.3 to 38.6 percent for Bush over Kerry in 2004.  But Cox is fighting hard and has won the endorsements of the Fresno/Modesto Bee, Esquire, and the daughter of former Rep. B.F. Sisk.

So in hopes of inspiring folks to spread the good word to their friends and family in the 19th District, here's a little love for TJ Cox:

As Cox reveals in his AsiansVote.com interview, he supports stem cell research, he's pro-choice, and he believes that "the two billion dollars a week spent in the Middle East is money that could be invested here at home on schools, roads and health care."  

Asian American filmmaker Eric Byler has put his talents to good use in his volunteer work for the Jim Webb campaign for the US Senate.  If you're looking for some inspiration as you plan your own GOTV work, check out the video he made for GenerationWebb.com about a multiethnic group of Webb volunteers and why they love their candidate.

If you live in Virginia or nearby and have time to volunteer for Webb, contact Byler's group, Real Virginians for Webb.  And dontcha dare miss their GOTV rally tomorrow, Saturday, October 28, in Annandale.  From the official press release:

VA GOVERNORS to SPEAK at JIM WEBB RALLY

Real Virginians for Jim Webb

A Diverse Grassroots Coalition Event to Support Jim Webb

Governors Tim Kaine and Mark Warner will join Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb at a "Get Out The Vote" rally Saturday at Poe Middle School in Annandale at 1 pm.  Congressman Jim Moran and Congressional candidates Judy Feder and Andrew Hurst will also speak.