Two Discounts for Two Trains Running- FINAL TWO WEEKS‏

	ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT! $20 Tickets- All Remaining Seats Click Here Thursdays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2PM and Sundays at 3PM $30 Tickets- All Remaining Seats Click Here Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM Now - November 9, 2008 Nate Holden Performing Arts Center Critics Are Raving! "First-class opportunity to hear one of August Wilson's most eloquent works…the play's powerful meditations on race, justice and political prophets make it a fascinating text in light of Barack Obama's historic candidacy." – Los Angeles Times "The success of director Israel Hicks' revival can be attributed to the consistency and quality of the cast." – LA Weekly "Helmer Israel Hicks and a capable ensemble understand the rhythmic flow and subtextual undercurrent of Wilson's Language." – Variety (l to r) Ellis E. Williams, Glynn Turman, Roger Robinson (l to r) Felton Perry and Earl Billings (l to r) Russell Hornsby and Michole Briana White All Photos By Craig Schwartz About Ebony Repertory Theatre Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT), a newly formed Equity Company, is the Resident Company and Operator of the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, under the leadership of Founder/ Producer Wren T. Brown and Artistic Director Israel Hicks. ERT's commitment is to bring diverse, high standard, professional performing arts to the Mid-City community, as well as the greater Los Angeles area, to engender business development along the Washington Boulevard corridor, and to make the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center Los Angeles' Newest Cultural Destination! For more information about Ebony Repertory Theatre or to join our mailing list Click Here

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Some of McCains Black Relatives Support Obama‏

Some of McCain's black relatives support Obama

BY ELGIN JONES

Black-mccain-family_web.jpgIn the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where the ancestors of Sen. John McCain owned enslaved Africans on a plantation, black, white and mixed-race family members unite every two years for their Coming Home Reunion, on the land where the plantation operated.

Some of McCain’s black family members say they are not sure exactly where they fall on the family tree, but they do know this: They are either descendants of the McCain family slaves, or of children the McCains fathered with their slaves.

White and black members of the McCain family have met on the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.

“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,” said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it doesn’t mean that much to him.”

Other relatives are not as generous.

Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his past, and refuses to accept the family’s history.

“After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should accept this and embrace it.”

She said the senator never responded to her email.

Although Charles is uncertain who will get his vote for president, several of John McCain’s black and white relatives are supporting his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

“I am absolutely supporting Obama, and it’s not be cause he’s black. It’s because he is the best person at this time in our history,” said Lillie McCain, a professor of psychology at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.

“We simply need to look at the economy, and McCain’s campaign does not take us there,” said Joyce McCain, Lillie’s sister, a retired engineering manager with General Motors who lives in Grand Blanc, Michigan. “He is my cousin, but we are in dire times right now and people are hurting. Sen. Obama is clearly the best choice to be president.’’

Charles McCain and his wife, Theresa, who still live in Teoc, started the reunions over a decade ago. Charles is the deacon of Mitchell Springs Baptist Church, the only black house of worship in the area.

When Theresa McCain started the family reunions in the late 1980s or early ‘90s (neither he nor his wife is sure of the exact starting date), only black family members attended. But as word spread about the gatherings, white members of the McCain famil y got involved. Today, the reunion has expanded to the point where it is becoming a community event.

The reunion’s website, teocfamilyreunion.ning.com, has pictures, postings and other information about the family gatherings. While Sen. McCain’s brother, Joe, and many of his other white relatives attend the reunions, family members say Sen. McCain has never acknowledged them, or even responded to their invitations.

“Well, a lot of the people who had moved away and were living up north, would send money to help us maintain the church,” said Theresa McCain, 62. “Myself and others began inviting them back home for picnics, just to show our appreciation.”

The McCain campaign did not respond to repeated questions about John McCain’s black relatives, or about his relatives of both races who support Obama. Pablo Carrillo, a media liaison with the McCain campaign, said the senator was aware of his African-American relatives, but asked the reporter to put his questions into writing, and that someone would get back to him.

After the reporter sent questions in writing, and made repeated follow-up phone calls, neither Sen. McCain nor anyone else from the campaign responded.

Based on information obtained by the South Florida Times, the senator has numerous black and mixed-raced relatives who were born on, or in, the area of the McCain plantation. The mixed races in the family can be traced back to the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where his family owned slaves.

Sen. John McCain’s great, great grandfather, William Alexander McCain (1812-1863), fought for the Confederacy and owned a 2,000-acre plantation named Waverly in Teoc. The family dealt in the slave trade, and, according to official records, held at least 52 slaves on the family’s plantation. The enslaved Africans were likely used as servants, for labor, and for breeding more slaves..

William McCain’s son, and Sen. John McCain’s great grandfathe r, John Sidney McCain (1851-1934), eventually assumed the duty of running the family’s plantation.

W.A. “Bill” McCain IV, a white McCain cousin, and his wife Edwina, are the current owners of the land. Both told the South Florida Times that they attend the reunions. They also said the McCain campaign had asked them not to speak to the media about the reunions, or about why the senator has never acknowledged the family gatherings.

In addition to distancing himself from his black family members, John McCain has taken several positions on issues that have put him at odds with members of the larger black community.

While running for the Republican Party nomination in 2000, he sided with protesters who were calling for the rebel battle flag to be removed from the South Carolina statehouse, only to alter that position later.

"Some view it as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of heritage,” John McCain said of the flag. "Personally, I see th e battle flag as a symbol of heritage. I have ancestors who have fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves. I believe they fought honorably.’’

Novelist Elizabeth Spencer, another white cousin of John McCain, noted the slaves the family owned in the family’s memoirs, Landscapes of the Heart. Sen. McCain has acknowledged reading the book, but claims to have only glossed over entries about their slaves.

“That’s crazy,” said Spencer, who also attends the reunions in Teoc. “No one had to tell us, because we all knew about the slaves. I may not vote, because I don’t want anyone to think that I have an issue with John, but I don’t want to see him become president because I think Obama is entirely adequate, and it’s time for a Democrat.’’

Spencer acknowledged donating money to the Obama campaign and to what she called “Democratic causes.”

Sen. John McCain was born in 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a segregated military installation in the P anama Canal, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Navy. His family returned to the states shortly after his birth; where he went on to attend segregated schools in the Teoc community and elsewhere around the country.

He served in the Navy, where he was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, before being released and eventually running for Congress.

After he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, McCain voted against the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in 1983. When he arrived in the U.S. Senate in 1986, he joined North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms in opposing the holiday again, and voted in 1994 to cut funding to the commission that marketed it.

John McCain also aligned himself with former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham.

Mecham was the governor in McCain’s home state of Arizona from January 1987 to April 1988, when he was impeached and removed from office for campaign finance violations. As a state senator and governor, Mecham publ icly used racial slurs against black people and other minorities. He was also a member of the John Birch Society, which opposes civil rights legislation. In 1986, Mecham campaigned for governor on a promise to rescind the state’s recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which he did in 1987.

Earlier this year, during the 40th anniversary recognition of King’s assassination, McCain, by this time a presidential candidate, said he was wrong for opposing the national King holiday.

Politics in America has long been steeped in the dynamics of the country’s myriad cultures, diverse ethnicities, and varying religious beliefs. Several of Sen. McCain’s black relatives say Obama’s candidacy represents progress.

“He is denying his black and white relatives in Teoc,” said Joyce McCain, 54,. “I think he may not want the country to know his family’s full history, but times have changed and we need to move on, and that’s why I’m supporting Obama.”

EJones@sfltimes.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photo: Lillie McCain, left, and her husband, Jack Vickers, right, pose with Joe McCain, center, during this year’s family reunion.
Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 October 2008 )

SPOTTED: SERENA & COMMON SURFING

Serena Williams and Common were spotted doing some surfing in Hawaii on Monday. According to the paps, the couple were having a ball surfing and Serena was better than Common at it. LOL (more…)

Could Mike Ditka have derailed Barack Obama's ascendancy?

Barack Obama's easy win in the 2004 Illinois Senate race catapulted him to national fame and set him on his current path toward the White House. It was a convincing victory that is now but a footnote in the career of the Democratic presidential nominee. But that victory wasn't as assured as it appears in retrospect. For a few days in the summer of '04 there was the very real possibility that the Republican opponent in Obama's first major election battle race would be Chicago Bears coaching legend Mike Ditka.

Jack Ryan had won the Republican primary that year, but dropped out of the race after the release of embarrassing papers from his high-profile divorce with actress Jeri Ryan. The vacancy left GOP leaders in the state scrambling to find a replacement. With fears that the election was all but lost, Republicans wanted a major name to turn the tide. Ditka was that name.

For days the press played up the "will he or won't he" stories about Ditka's possible candidacy. The Drudge Report even said that Ditka would declare his entry into the race. But, in the end, Ditka rebuffed the offer, saying he didn't want to go through the rigors of a campaign or give up his lucrative jobs as an NFL analyst at ESPN or as an endorser of a casino and car dealership.

There's no way to know whether Ditka would have won but, remember, Obama was still a virtual unknown in Illinois in June of '04. Had Ditka run and won, Obama most-assuredly wouldn't be running for president today. Either way, the Hall of Famer almost certainly would have received more than the 27% of votes that eventual nominee Alan Keyes garnered in November. And you know he'd have locked up the endorsements of these three potential voters.

Powell endorses Obama, chides McCain campaign tone

WASHINGTON – Colin Powell, a Republican who was President Bush's first secretary of state, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president Sunday and criticized the tone of Republican John McCain's campaign.

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said either candidate, both of them senators, is qualified to be commander in chief. But he said Obama is better suited to handle the nation's economic problems as well as help improve its standing in the world.

"It isn't easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that," Powell, interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," said of his longtime friend, the Arizona senator.

But, he added: "I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain."

Powell's endorsement has been much anticipated because he is a Republican with impressive foreign policy credentials, a subject on which Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, is weak. Powell is a Republican centrist who is popular among moderate voters.

At the same time, Powell is a black man and Obama would be the nation's first black president. Powell said he was cognizant of the racial aspect of his endorsement, but said that was not the dominant factor in his decision. If it was, he said, he would have made the endorsement months ago.

Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and McCain's and Palin's decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers. A co-founder of the Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for nonfatal bombings during the Vietnam War-era, Ayers is now a college professor who lives in Obama's Chicago neighborhood. He and Obama also served together on civic boards in Chicago.

"This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign," Powell said. "But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?"

Powell said McCain's choice of Palin raised questions about judgment.

"I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States," Powell said.

McCain seemed dismissive of Powell's endorsement, saying he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

"Well, I've always admired and respected Gen. Powell. We're longtime friends. This doesn't come as a surprise," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Asked whether Powell's endorsement would undercut his campaign's assertion that Obama is not ready to lead, McCain said: "Well, again, we have a very, we have a respectful disagreement, and I think the American people will pay close attention to our message for the future and keeping America secure."

Obama called Powell to thank him for the endorsement, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"I am beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of Gen. Colin Powell," Obama said in remarks prepared for a rally in Fayetteville, N.C. "Gen. Powell has defended this nation bravely, and he has embodied our highest ideals through his long and distinguished public service. ...And he knows, as we do, that this is a moment where we all need to come together as one nation — young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Republican and Democrat."

Powell said he remains a Republican, even though he sees the party moving too far to the right. Powell supports abortion rights and affirmative action, and said McCain and Palin, both opponents of abortion, could put two more conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

"I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration," Powell said.

Powell, 71, gained popularity while serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's top military commander, during the first Gulf war under President George H.W. Bush. After retiring from the military, speculation mounted that he would run for president in 1996 — perhaps becoming the nation's first black president — but Powell opted against it.

As secretary of state, he helped make the case before the United Nations for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, launched in March 2003.

Powell said the nation's economic crisis provided a "final exam" of sorts for both Obama and McCain.

"In the case of Mr. McCain I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having," Powell said. "Almost everyday there was a different approach to the problem and that concerned me, sensing that he doesn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had."

In contrast, Powell said Obama "displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this. ..."

"I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well," Powell said.

Powell said he does not plan to campaign for Obama.

___

On the Net:

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com

In Chicago, ex-radical better known as a scholar

CHICAGO – These days, Bill Ayers doesn't want to talk about the Weathermen, the Vietnam-era radical group he helped found that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol.

That doesn't mean the man who has become a political headache for Barack Obama is hiding his past. In fact, all you need to do is stand outside Ayers' office at the University of Illinois in Chicago to be confronted with it.

Ayers' connection to the Weather Underground is plastered on his door. A postcard for a documentary on the group shows an old mugshot of Ayers. Nearby is cover art from Ayers' 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days."

But also affixed to the door is the title that reflects how Ayers, now 63, has become known in the past two decades in Chicago: distinguished professor.

"He gives of himself greatly to his students. He gives of his time, his energies, his commitment," said Pamela Quiroz, an associate professor who works in the college of education with Ayers. "He is just a superb individual."

Quiroz is among more than 3,200 people, mostly academics, who have signed an online petition protesting the "demonization" of Ayers during the campaign for the White House.

John McCain's camp has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists," citing, among other things, a 1995 meet-the-candidate coffee that Ayers hosted at his home for Obama when the younger man launched his political career by running for state Senate. The two also served together on a Chicago school reform group and a charity board.

The subject flared up again during Wednesday's final presidential debate when McCain said Obama needs to explain the full extent of his relationship with Ayers, whom he called "an old, washed-up terrorist."

By all accounts, the two men were not close, and Obama has repeatedly denounced Ayers' radical activities.

Ayers has declined repeated requests for interviews. This week, he opened his front door a crack to tell an Associated Press reporter, "I'm not talking, thanks."

Ayers' beige stone rowhouse on Chicago's South Side is just a few blocks from Obama's home. He lives there with his wife, former fellow radical Bernardine Dohrn. Now a law professor at Northwestern University, Dohrn was a fugitive for years with her husband until they surrendered in 1980 and charges against him were dropped because of government misconduct, which included FBI break-ins, wiretaps and opening of mail.

Although Ayers has refashioned his life from street-level revolutionary to intellectual, he has not entirely renounced his past.

When "Fugitive Days" was published, a photo accompanying a Chicago Magazine article showed him stepping on an American flag. He also told The New York Times, in an interview that appeared coincidentally on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

The Weather Underground claimed responsibility for bombings in the early 1970s at the U.S. Capitol, a Pentagon restroom and New York City police headquarters. No one was injured. In 1970, a Greenwich Village townhouse that the group was using to build a bomb blew up, killing three members, including Ayers' girlfriend. The bomb, Ayers wrote in his memoir, was packed with screws and nails.

Had it been detonated, he admitted, it would have done "some serious work beyond the blast, tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people, too." It belied the group's claims that its targets were buildings, not people. "We did go off track ... and that was wrong," Ayers told the AP when his book came out.

"I'm not a terrorist," he said at the time. "We tried to sound a piercing alarm that was unruly, difficult and, sometimes, probably wrong. ... I describe what led some people in despair and anger to take some very extreme measures."

Still, in Chicago, he is known more for his work in education, which has earned praise from Mayor Richard Daley, whose own father, the iron-fisted mayor of this city during the Vietnam era, famously sent police to do battle with anti-war demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. This spring, when Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign first raised Ayers' relationship with Obama, the younger Daley issued a statement defending him.

"I also know Bill Ayers," Daley said. "He worked with me in shaping our now nationally renowned school reform program. He is a nationally recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community."

Ayers has a doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York and has written or edited more than a dozen books, most about teaching. Ayers is on sabbatical this academic year but still spends time at his university office.

In an opinion piece this week in The Wall Street Journal, Sol Stern, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who is writing a book on Ayers and social justice teaching, challenged the notion that Ayers is a reformed revolutionary. Stern said he has read most of Ayers' work and concluded: "His hatred of America is as virulent as when he planted a bomb at the Pentagon."

Scott Snyder, a UIC junior in chemical engineering who describes himself as a conservative, said he is uncomfortable with Ayers working at a public university.

"The majority of taxpayers probably would not appreciate their money being spent to somebody with a history of disrespecting numerous public institutions within the United States," Snyder said. "He spent his life sticking it to the man, where now he is employed by the man."

UIC education professor Bill Schubert, who has known Ayers since he sat on the university committee that hired him in 1987, said the Ayers he knows is a Chicago Cubs fan and a good cook who invites colleagues, students and others over to his home for dinner.

But mostly Ayers is a good teacher, said Schubert, who recently wrote a letter about Ayers that he initially circulated among friends when questions about him began to mount. The piece, titled "The Bill Ayers I Know," has since made its way to the Web and extols Ayers' scholarly work and his commitment to teaching.

"I feel like I'm telling factual information about him," Schubert said, "and I am saying that he's a good colleague and friend."

Still, Ayers' past is a delicate matter. Schubert wanted to discuss only Ayers the educator, not Ayers the radical. Asked how he reconciled the two, Schubert paused for a long moment, then said: "That's a question that's too complicated to answer, I think, because it's dependent on different conceptions of what he did."

Robert Becker, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at UIC, is, at 60, a member of Ayers' generation but doesn't share his politics.

"He's unrepentant. He took a violent route along with his wife, and is lucky he didn't blow himself up," Becker said. That said, he added that he does not believe Ayers' past disqualifies him from a position on campus: "I'm a pretty conservative person, and I'm not going to deny him the right to be a member of the faculty. I believe that departments should hire who they feel is best for their departments."

Janise Hurtig, a researcher at the university who has known Ayers for about eight years, said he strongly backed a project she and another educator worked on that offers adult writing workshops in Chicago neighborhoods. If the renewed publicity about Ayers' past has weighed on him, Hurtig said, she hasn't noticed.

"He and Bernardine are very thoughtful and reflective about their past, and it's their past," she said.

Ayers had been invited to speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at an education conference Nov. 15, but the school canceled those plans Friday because of safety concerns.

Marjorie Kostelnik, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences, said the decision was based on e-mails and phone calls the university's threat assessment group had received. She did not describe the communications as threats but said they left officials concerned about safety.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and others had urged the university to rescind its invitation.

"Bill Ayers is a well-known radical who should never have been invited," Heineman said Friday. "The people of Nebraska are outraged."

Celebrities with John McCain

'Right thing to do'

Not all of Hollywood is supporting the Democratic Party this November.

Among those opening checkbooks for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings, are Wilford Brimley, the mustached actor known for his Quaker Oats commercials and famous line, "It's the right thing to do." (Before acting, Mr. Brimley was Howard Hughes' bodyguard).

Also supporting the Arizona Republican are Dick Van Patten; William Barron Hilton (famous of late for being Paris Hilton's grandfather); and Rip Torn, who played Artie on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show."

Our Hollywood insider says "this is just the beginning. You can look for other big names to hop on board the StraightTalk Express," referring to Mr. McCain's campaign bus. Among the notables she says lean right:

Britney Spears, Drew Carey, Bo Derek, Tom Selleck, Shirley Temple Black, Clint Eastwood, Ben Stein, Kim Alexis, Scott Baio, Adam Baldwin, Robert Conrad, Alice Cooper, Shannen Doherty, Robert Duvall, Jamie Farr, Kelsey Grammer, Dean Jones, Jimmy Dean, Shirley Jones, Don King, Heather Locklear, Chuck Norris, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mickey Rooney, Jessica Simpson, Grace Slick, Tony Danza, Kurt Russell, Pat Sajak, Stephen Baldwin, Rick Schroder, Hilary Duff, Cheryl Ladd, Marilyn Manson, Marie Osmond and Bruce Willis.

a more indepth roster of McCain's Celebrity backers

From this list of McCain backers attending a McCain event were:

-Dean Cain (Clark from Lois and Clark - Superman; Hope and Faith, etc)
-James Caan (Godfather I and II, Get Smart, Las Vegas, etc)
-Jon Voight (National Treasure I and II, Tomb Raider, etc)...and
father
of Angelina Jolie
-Robert Davi (Profiler, Die Hard, etc)
-Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk)
-Adam Carolla (The Man Show)
-Lacy Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls, Daddy Daycare, etc)
-Angie Harmon (Law & Order, Agent Cody Banks, etc)
-Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live)
-Gerald McRaney (Simon & Simon, Major Dad)
-Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men, Hot Shots, Pretty in Pink)
-Lorenzo Lamas (The Bold and the Beautiful, Renegade, Falcon Crest)
-Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Avenging Angel)
-Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond)
-George Newbern (Father of the Bride, Friends, Justice League - Voice)
-Robert Duvall (The Godfather and The Godfather II, Secondhand Lions,
Deep Impact, God's and Generals, etc).
-Jerry Bruckheimer (producer of wildly popular television shows such
as
CSI, Cold Case, and Without a Trace, and films such as Pirates of the
Caribbean)
-Gary Sinese (Forest Gump, CSI:NY, etc)
-Steven Baldwin (Bio Dome, Midnight Clear, etc)
-Wilford Brimley (The Firm, The Natural, etc
-Craig T. Nelson (Coach, The Incredibles)
-Gail O’Grady (NYPD Blue, American Dreams, etc)
-Jason Sehorn (NY Giants)
-David Zucker (Producer of Airplane, Superhero Movie, etc)
-Lionel Chetwynd (documentary writer/producer)

A few names at the RNC Convention...

-Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Men in Black II, etc)
-Joe Pantoliano (The Fugative, US Marshalls, Daredevil, Sopranos, etc)
-Tim Daly (Wings, Private Practice, The Associate, etc but supports Obama)

According to Variety, a few more McCain backers...

-Tom Selleck (Magnum P.I., Friends, etc)
-Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, etc)
-Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Dirty Harry, etc)

According to Sports Illustrated, a few more celebrity backers of
McCain...

-Curt Shilling (Boston Red Socks Pitcher)
-Chuck Liddell (Ultimate Fighting Championship star)

Two more celebrities that shouldn't surprise anyone...

-Sylvester Stallone backed McCain on the 700 Club about 6 months ago,
and he remains a backer.
-Chuck Norris was on Fox News this morning and backed McCain and
Palin.

-Rip Torn was on the contribution list for John McCain, as was Dick
Van
Patton.

-Adam Sandler was a contributer for Guliani, but that doesn't
necessarily mean he supports McCain. The same can be said for Pat
Sajack (of Wheel of Fortune), who supported Fred Thompson.

Other McCain contributers on official records include (some may be on
previous lists):
*(NOTE: unless specifically identified, contibuters gave to McCain
only)*
-Troy Aikman (NFL)
-Mario Andretti (racecar driver)
-George Brodenheimer (ESPN President)
-Pat Boone (actor)
-David Brandon (Dominoes CEO)
-Jerry Bruckheimer (film and tv producer)
-August Busch III (Anheuser - Busch Chairman)
-Pete Coors (Coors Chairman)
-Richard DeVos (Orlando Magic Owner)
-David Dorman (AT&T CEO)
-Clint Eastwood (actor)
-Larry Ellison (Oracle chairman and CEO)
-John Elway (NFL)
-Carly Fiorina (former HP chairman and CEO)
-Roger Goodell (NFL commissioner)
-Kelsey Grammer (actor)
-Mike Helton (NASCAR president)
-Rick Hilton (Paris Hilton's dad)
-William Barron Hilton (Paris Hilton's Grandfather and HIlton co-
chairman)
-Charles Hilliday (Du Pont chairman and CEO)
-Robert Kraft (New England Patiots owner)
-Alan Lacy (Sears CEO)
-Edward Liddy (Alstate chairman and CEO)
-Peter McGowen (San Francisco Giants owner)
-Lorne Michaels (producer)
-Jack Nicklaus (golf champion)
-Arnold Palmer (golf champion)
-Richard Parsons (Time Warner chairman) - wow...interesting
-Richard Petty (NASCAR driver)
-Colin Powell (former Secretary of State)
-Steven Reinemund (Pepsico chairman and CEO)
-Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of Chicago White Socks and Bulls)...gave money
to both but twice as much to McCain
-Curt Shilling (MLB)
-Ricard Shulze (Best Buy chairman)
-Ivan seidenberg (Verizon chairman and CEO)...gave money to both
parties but overwhelmingly more to McCain
-Gary Sinese (actor)
-Harry Sloan (MGM chairman)
-Frederick Smith (Fed Ex CEO)
-Alex Spanos (San Diego Chargers owner)
-Ben Stein (actor, producer, and businessman)
-George Steinbrenner (Yankees owner)
-Darrel Waltrip (NASCAR driver and sportscaster)

This was just from the McCain donations...party donations not
included.

Painting the Electoral College map blue

Twenty-eight days to go and the most recent polls show Sen. Barack Obama continues to widen his lead against Sen. John McCain.

The Electoral College map that used to be a wash of red (with a few exceptions like the West Coast and the Northeast) is starting to look like the Smurfs are progressively marching across the country. (In other words, the map is turning a Democratic blue.)

The latest NBC/WSJ poll has Obama up six points with registered voters, 49%-43%. Just two weeks ago, that lead was within the margin of error at 2 points.

A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll has Obama even higher, with an 8-point lead (53%-45%). That's double the 4-point lead Obama held in their poll taken last month.

And, in today's Gallup Daily Tracking poll, registered voters prefer Obama 51% to McCain's 42%. Gallup points out the importance of this:

The nine-percentage point lead in Oct. 4-6 tracking matches Obama's highest to date for the campaign, and the highest for either candidate.

Our own Yahoo! News Political Dashboard highlights the difference -- what used to be GOP safe havens, like Florida and North Carolina, are now trending toward Obama territory.

How does a map that looked so red in November 2004 look so blue October 2008?

Poll: Obama Gains in States That Went for Bush

On the eve of the penultimate presidential debate, a new TIME/CNN poll shows John McCain still struggling in states won by George W. Bush in 2004, a sign that last week's vice-presidential debate had little effect on voter opinion.

In North Carolina, which Bush won by more than 12 percentage points in both 2000 and 2004, McCain and Obama are locked in a dead heat, with each candidate garnering the support of 49% of likely voters. In Indiana, which Bush won by 21 points in 2004 and 16 points in 2000, McCain maintains a slight 5-point lead over Obama, with 51% of likely voters, compared with Obama's 46%.

In the crucial swing state of Ohio, which Bush won by slight margins in both 2000 and 2004, McCain trails Obama by 3 points, with the support of 47% of voters, compared with Obama's 50%. Obama also holds a statistically significant 8-point lead over McCain in New Hampshire and a 5-point lead in Wisconsin, two states that Democrat John Kerry was able to win in 2004.

As a result of the new survey, CNN now considers New Hampshire and Wisconsin to be Obama-leaning states, after previously being considered toss-ups. North Carolina is now considered a toss-up, after previously being categorized as a McCain-leaning state.

The polls were conducted between Oct. 3 and 6, after last Thursday's debate. They have a margin of error of +/- 3.5 to 4 percentage points.

Last week, the McCain campaign reacted to a polling downturn by shuttering its operation in the state of Michigan and redistributing staff to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Maine, where electoral votes are distributed by congressional district. In a conference call last week, Mike DuHaime, the McCain campaign's political director, acknowledged that the national mood and Obama's deep pockets had put previously solid Republican states like Indiana in play.

"I do think just the overall environment right now that we face is one of the worst environments for any Republican in probably 35 years," DuHaime said. "Any time you have that, you have states move within that margin."

After two grueling years, only two major events remain in the 2008 presidential campaign: a town-hall forum Tuesday in Tennessee and a debate on Oct. 15 in New York. In a nod to the dwindling window of opportunity, McCain again sharpened his attacks on Obama during a stump speech Monday in New Mexico, charging that Obama harbors a "back story" on every issue that needs to be explored.

"All people want to know is, what has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America?" McCain said. "In short, who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults."

Campaigning in North Carolina, Obama countered by charging that McCain and his aides were "gambling that they can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance."

KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

Learn more at http://www.keatingeconomics...

Obama Leading McCain in New Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota Polls

Oct. 6

(Bloomberg) -- Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican presidential nominee John McCain in battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, according to new polls.

Obama, an Illinois senator, leads 49 percent to 42 percent among Ohio voters, according to a Columbus Dispatch poll of 2,262 likely voters released yesterday.

The survey, conducted Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, shows a change from a poll by the newspaper before the parties' nominating conventions, when McCain had a single percentage-point advantage. The state is crucial to the Arizona senator's campaign, because no Republican has won the presidency without carrying Ohio.

Polls in Ohio ``are showing increased support for Barack Obama,'' because voters are paying attention to McCain's support for privatizing Social Security, backing ``job-killing trade agreements,'' and his backing of deregulation of the banking system, Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said on ABC's ``This Week'' program yesterday.

A Minnesota poll of 1,084 likely voters published by the Star Tribune newspaper shows Obama leading 55-37 percent over McCain. The poll was conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said the Star Tribune poll is ``notoriously not accurate,'' and said a separate earlier poll found McCain favored by 1 percentage point.

``Minnesota is a Democrat-leaning state, but not so much that it's implausible for a Republican to win here,'' Pawlenty said on ``This Week.''

Pennsylvania Poll

In Pennsylvania, Obama has a 50 percent to 40 percent lead over McCain, according to a Morning Call/Muhlenberg College tracking poll.

The Muhlenberg College poll surveyed 597 likely voters and was conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3. The results of the three state polls were outside the margin for error.

The presidential race in Colorado remains a tie, according to a poll released by the Denver Post yesterday.

National polls also show that Obama is maintaining a lead over McCain.

Obama led McCain 49 percent to 42 percent among registered voters surveyed Sept. 27-29 by the Pew Research Center. In a mid- September poll, the candidates were in a statistical dead heat.

In a CBS News poll conducted Sept. 27-30, Obama led 50 percent to 41 percent among likely voters. The margin increased 4 percentage points from a CBS/New York Times survey a week earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Stern in Washington at cstern3@bloomberg.net

OJ SIMPON FOUND GUILTY 10/03/08

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O. J. Simpson Found Guilty in Robbery Trial

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson was found guilty late Friday on all 12 counts stemming from a confrontation in a hotel room last year, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

O.J. Simpson, left, hugged his friend Thomas Scotto after he was found guilty at his trial in Las Vegas. His sister Carmelita Durio is at right.

The verdict, which comes 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend, concluded a four-week trial that many have seen as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome.

Mr. Simpson now faces 15 years to life for the kidnapping charge as well as a minimum of at least another 10 years in prison on the other charges. His attorney, Yale Galanter, said he would appeal.

The football Hall of Fame inductee showed little emotion as the verdicts were read and the judge denied him bail. As his sister, Carmelita, wept and fainted in the front row, he was led away in handcuffs. Mr. Simpson is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5.

“He’s extremely upset, extremely emotional,” said Mr. Galanter of the demeanor of his client after being removed from the courtroom. “We knew this was going to be very difficult, we knew the jury was going to be very difficult, we knew the jurisdiction would be very difficult.”

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the case, said his office would not comment on the case until after sentencing. None of the jurors spoke to the media on Friday.

The charges arose after Mr. Simpson led five cohorts on a raid of a Palace Station Hotel-Casino room and departed with hundreds of memorabilia items related to the sports careers of Mr. Simpson and three other athletes.

The items were in the possession of two memorabilia dealers, Bruce L. Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, who were led to believe that a prospective buyer was coming to browse the goods. Instead, Mr. Simpson and his group burst into the room. According to several witnesses, at least one gun was brandished.

The presence of a weapon adds years to the minimum sentences for nine of the 12 charges, which also included conspiracy to commit robbery and kidnapping, burglary, robbery, assault and coercion.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for 13 hours, mulling weeks of testimony as well as hours of surreptitious audio recordings of the planning and execution of the event by Thomas Riccio, a memorabilia auctioneer who arranged the confrontation.

There were no blacks among the jurors, a concern of the defense that Mr. Simpson’s attorneys said would likely be part of an appeal.

Convicted alongside Mr. Simpson, 61, was Clarence Stewart, 54, one of the five men who accompanied Mr. Simpson in the raid. Mr. Stewart faces the same sentences.

Throughout the trial, Mr. Stewart’s attorney E. Brent Bryson asked repeatedly for Mr. Stewart to receive a separate trial because associating with Mr. Simpson was poisonous to the defense. Each of his severance motions was denied.

“If there was ever a trial in the history of American jurisprudence that should have been severed, it was obviously this trial,” a stunned and dazed Mr. Bryson said. “There’s a spillover effect here. There’s a gentleman by the name of O.J. Simpson who was sitting across the table. Mr. Simpson has a certain history that followed him into the courtroom and, unfortunately, it engulfed Mr. Stewart also.”

Mr. Simpson’s defense was that he sought only to retrieve personal keepsakes such as ceremonial footballs from his Hall of Fame N.F.L. career and photographs of his family that were taken from his home years ago. Mr. Roger told the jury that he should have filed a civil lawsuit to regain the items if they were, in fact, stolen from him.

“We don’t want people going into rooms to take property,” said Mr. Roger in his closing arguments on Thursday. “That is robbery. You don’t go in and get a gun and demand property from people.”

Four of the 24 witnesses who testified were the other men who had accompanied Mr. Simpson and Mr. Stewart, all of whom have accepted plea deals from prosecutors in exchange for testimony. Two of them, Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, carried guns in the incident, and one, Mr. McClinton, testified that he did so at Mr. Simpson’s request.

Mr. Simpson said he did not know that the two would carry weapons and never saw any guns displayed during the incident.

This Simpson trial failed to capture the intense public interest that turned his 1995 trial into the so-called Trial of the Century. That spectacle, in which he was acquitted of stabbing to death his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, became a racial touchstone and turned a list of legal analysts including Greta Van Susteren, Jeffrey Toobin and Star Jones into television stars. Few of the media stars involved in that case flocked to this one — Vanity Fair’s Dominick Dunne was a notable exception — and even Marcia Clark, the former prosecutor who failed to convict Mr. Simpson in 1995, did not appear despite securing media credentials to report for Entertainment Tonight.

Indeed, this case played out against the backdrop of a nation obsessed by a presidential election campaign and the nation’s economic crisis. But the current trial also featured victims who were far less sympathetic, two middle-aged memorabilia dealers who both attempted to profit from their roles in this case by trying to sell their stories to the tabloid media.

The defense focused much of its efforts on discrediting Mr. Fromong, Mr. Beardsley and the four men who assisted Mr. Simpson and Mr. Stewart in the alleged robbery. On several occasions, Simpson attorneys Yale Galanter and Gabriel Grasso caught those witnesses in apparent contradictions, such as when Mr. Fromong insisted he did not try to sell his story despite audio recordings immediately after the incident in which Mr. Fromong is heard saying, “I’ll have ‘Inside Edition’ down here tomorrow. I told them I want big money.”

While Mr. Simpson’s famous acquittal in the 1994 murders was never discussed during the trial, it hung over the proceedings. Jurors were quizzed extensively before their selection about their views of the divisive 1995 trial, and references were made in some of the audio recordings to the fact that Mr. Simpson owes the estate of Ms. Simpson and Mr. Goldman $33.5 million because in 1997 he was held liable in a civil lawsuit for the deaths.

Mr. Galanter attacked that issue in his closing, noting that Mr. Riccio’s recorder had picked up police officers at the crime scene seeming to exult in their chance to prosecute Mr. Simpson. He also noted that Mr. Riccio alone testified that he had made more than $200,000 in fees from the news media in exchange for interviews and rights to his recordings.

“This case has never been about a search for the true facts,” Mr. Galanter said. “This case has taken on a life of its own because Mr. Simpson’s involved. You know that, I know that, every cooperator, every person with a gun, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney’s office, was only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson.”

Wretched at Wrigley

CHICAGO – The morgue was empty, except for the two men smacking dirt off shoes.

They stood to the side, away from the Chicago Cubs lockers, and struck each pair with a steel brush, thwack-thwack, thwack-thwack, like a drumbeat to which the Cubs marched out.

First there was Jim Edmonds, in his 17th major-league season, and he said he was ashamed. And then came Rich Harden, the pitcher, who said he barely could watch the carnage. And finally the rest of them: Derrek Lee and Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot and Aramis Ramirez, the Cubs’ infield from right to left, all culprits in the messiest, ugliest, most harrowing defeat of the year, the one that reinforced the suffocating sense of doom that chokes Wrigley Field every time it’s graced with baseball in October.

This was no curse. Just a disaster.

The 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night left the Cubs with an 0-2 deficit in the National League Division Series and the task of winning three consecutive games – including the next two at Dodger Stadium – to save their season. The overwhelming favorite in the NL – the 97-win juggernaut, the team upon which destiny was smiling, the one that would break the championship drought before it reached 100 years – self-destructed in spectacular fashion.

“It’s embarrassing,” outfielder Alfonso Soriano said. “Everybody’s upset. We had the best team in the regular season. Now we play like we don’t know how to play the game.”

The gaffes, the tragicomic sort patented by the Cubs, came with the fury of a god scorned. DeRosa botched a double-play ball at second base that would’ve allowed Carlos Zambrano to escape the second inning unscathed, and Lee followed with an uncharacteristic mangling of a ground ball at first base, and eventually a bases-clearing double from Russell Martin staked the Dodgers to a 5-0 advantage.

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Ramirez followed with an error in the fourth inning and Theriot with his own in the ninth, completing the trapezoid of ineptitude. Certainly no playoff team ever had seen all four of its infielders botch routine defensive plays in the same game.

History reserves some things for the Cubs.

“It’s like we might as well not have had gloves out there,” Lee said. “We just couldn’t catch the ball.”

So this is what becomes of the most promising Cubs season since, what, 1984? Maybe 1969? No. Probably 1945, a 98-win outfit managed by a man named Charlie Grimm, appropriately enough.

The city, panicking after a 7-2 loss to Los Angeles in Game 1, suffered through Thursday’s with the grace granted the familiar. They booed, sure, and each was deserved, whether for the errors or the clueless Kosuke Fukudome or even the comical moments when catcher Geovany Soto twice bounced throws back to Zambrano. One man braved the nippy weather and ran around bare-chested urging a nine-run rally in the ninth inning, only to see the Cubs manage two. The organist, bless his heart, tried to stir some action in the crowd of 42,136.

He might as well have been playing “Taps.”

“It wasn’t fun to watch,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, “I can tell you that.”

Piniella called Games 1 and 2 the two worst the Cubs had played all season, and it was tough to argue. The Cubs’ infield had been steady, if not spectacular, and to see it disappear like flash paper confused everybody.

“I’m not surprised,” Zambrano said. “I’m shocked.”

He was one of the first to leave, the unopened bottle of Champagne still in his locker. Irony a cruel witch, Zambrano, ever the live wire, actually was the most stable Cub in Game 2. He would recount his evening to friends and family via the Bluetooth headset in his ear, followed by Soriano and his 30-diamond necklace, Ramirez and his two suitcases and reliever Carlos Marmol and his black leather cap.

By that time, well past midnight, DeRosa was the only Cub still in uniform. The morgue was silent again. The six TVs in the room were off, the four ceiling fans whirring, wet towels all over the floor, Wrigley itself perhaps saying goodbye for the 93rd time in its 93 seasons without knowing the celebration of a World Series title.

On the back wall, a scrolling ticker, designed to keep the team abreast of that day’s top sports news, revealed its pixelated news. One item spooled through, taunting anyone who dare look:

Cubs have not won playoff game since Game 4 of NLCS in 2003, it read.

Underneath the ticker was a sign, spelled out in big, red capital letters, with an arrow pointing toward the door. It said EXIT.

Big audience for Joe Biden-Sarah Palin TV debate

NEW YORK - Who's running for president, anyway?

Far more people watched Thursday's vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin on television than watched the first presidential debate.

Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings in the nation's 55 biggest markets were up 42 percent from the same measurement of John McCain and Barack Obama's first encounter last Friday.

Nielsen's specific estimate of how many people watched Thursday night will be out later, but indications are it will be one of the most-watched political debates ever.

Curiosity over Palin's performance undoubtedly played a role, but don't discount timing: More people generally watch television on Thursdays than Fridays.

Vice Presidential Debate 2008 10/02 Palin Biden Debate 2008

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2. (Palin Get's Cut Off By The Moderator)



3. (Biden's "Ultimate Bridge To Nowhere" Remark)



4.



5.



6.



7 (Gay Marriage Rights For Same Sex Couples)



8.(War In Iraq / Foreign Policy)



9. (Nuclear Iran / Unstable Pakistan)



10. (Foreign Policy & Sitting Down Without Preconditions)



11. (Nuclear Proliferation / Arms Race / Foreign Policy)



12. (Foreign Policy / Foreign Intervention)



13. (What Would You Do If The President Died (For Extra Credit)



14. (What Does It Take To Be Vice President)



15. (Achilles Heel / Conventional Wisdom)



16.(Have You Ever Had To Change A Police View)



17. (Closing Statements)

McCain pulling out of Michigan

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republicans had been bullish on Michigan, hopeful that McCain's past success in the state in the 2000 primary combined with voter dissatisfaction with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and skepticism among blue-collar voters about Barack Obama could make it competitive.

McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin spent the night after the GOP convention at a large rally in Macomb County, just outside Detroit. The two returned later last month for another sizable event in Grand Rapids.

But recent polls there have shown Obama extending what had been a small lead, with the economic crisis damaging an already sagging GOP brand in a state whose economy is in tatters.

A McCain event planned for next week in Plymouth, Michigan, has been canceled.

Spike Lee film angers Italy's surviving partisans

Miracle at St. Anna (2008) movie trailer

Film director Spike Lee has set off a storm in Italy with a movie about black American soldiers fighting alongside Italian partisans in World War Two.

Surviving members of the resistance to the Nazi occupation of Italy have taken issue with "Miracle at St. Anna" ahead of the film's Italian release on Friday, distributing protest flyers and accusing Lee of distorting history.

Lee has said he wanted to set the record straight about the role played by black U.S. soldiers in the war. The film is based on a novel by James McBride and focuses on the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division which helped liberate Italy in 1944-45.

At the heart of the dispute is the film's depiction of an infamous 1944 massacre in the Tuscan town of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, where Nazi troops rounded up and killed 560 civilians.

In the film, the massacre is portrayed as a response to the actions of resistance fighters, with one of them betraying the town and colluding with the Nazis -- a version of events that has angered surviving partisans.

Lee, who is in Italy promoting the film, has responded to the criticism in his characteristically feisty manner.

"I would not allow anybody to tell me how to make a film, be it a partisan or the president of the United States," Lee told a news conference in Florence on Wednesday after a preview screening, according to Italian media.

"This simply shows that in Italy the wound is still open. ... It is up to Italians to come to grips with their past, not up to me or James McBride or the film," he said.

Members of the ANPI association of resistance fighters were not amused.

"For Spike Lee the partisans who 'hit and then ran away' were responsible for the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre," ANPI said on its website.

"Before shooting his film, the director should have read the truth about that horrible slaughter," it said, posting a copy of the 2005 verdict of an Italian military tribunal which convicted 10 ex-Nazi officers for the murders.

Obama Backers Worry His Race Will Hurt Him in `Middletown, USA'

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Hurley Goodall knows what it's like to be first and black.

He has white Democratic voters in Muncie, Indiana, to thank for breaking a barrier when he was elected to the General Assembly 30 years ago.

``I am different, they know me,'' said Goodall, 81, who also was Muncie's first black firefighter. ``I am just as black, but they know me personally.''

What worries Goodall is whether those same white voters in this town in the heart of the Rust Belt will feel the same way about Barack Obama.

Race is a powerful subtext of this presidential election, and its impact is largely hidden, with few white voters willing to acknowledge openly that they won't vote for Obama because he is black.

It is a phenomenon documented when Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who was black, lost the race for governor of California in 1982 after polls had projected him a winner, leading experts to conclude that white voters didn't want to acknowledge their racial attitudes.

Whether that effect will be in play for Obama in states like Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan remains an important open question in the campaign.

A poll released Sept. 20 conducted for the Associated Press and Yahoo News found that Obama's support would be as much as six percentage points higher if there were no racial prejudice among whites.

Comfort Level

When he first ran for office, Goodall overcame similar sentiments, and found that white voters became more comfortable with him over time.

During the course of the campaign, Illinois Senator Obama, 47, found that he could win over white voters, particularly when he could campaign for weeks instead of days.

Indiana has been reliably Republican in presidential politics since 1964, when it voted Democratic in Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory. Obama's campaign said that it could win in Indiana and recent polls show a close race against John McCain.

To win, however, Obama will have to break through in a state with a history of racial division. Many analysts say that the troubled state of the economy under Republican President George W. Bush could trump racial animus and deliver votes to Obama.

Sandra Barrett, 69, said she will back Obama because ``I have lost over half my pension. I blame Bush and the current crowd.''

McCain Supporters

Goodall isn't so sure other whites will feel the same way. He estimates that ``more than half'' of Muncie's poor white Democrats will vote for McCain. ``If they do better than that, it will surprise me,'' said Goodall, who went to work in the neighborhood foundry at age 16 during World War II. ``I know them all, but when it comes to race, I don't trust them and they supported me every time I've ran.''

Michael Carpenter, a 65-year-old tour-bus driver, might be one of those people. He says he's leaning toward McCain, citing the Arizona senator's Navy experience and Obama's race. Blacks ``have an ax to grind, and they are going to grind it,'' he said. ``If he gets elected, this country is in for some real troubles.''

This town, with its once booming auto parts plants, had been the picture of America's successful transformation from the farm to the factory. It became known as ``Middletown, USA,'' after a husband-and-wife sociologist team arrived in the 1920s to study how Muncie's residents coped with the transition from the agrarian to the industrial economy.

Blacks Ignored

The study largely ignored Muncie's black population, said Jim Connolly, director of Middletown Studies at Ball State University in Muncie, a stark omission, given the role race has played in the city's politics.

``There's no way race couldn't be a factor because it's been such a powerful force in this town for so long,'' said Connolly.

Earlier this month, Dennis Tyler, Muncie's current state representative, called Obama's national operatives to raise alarms about registered white Democrats claiming to be undecided on the presidential race. ``Now, he may not want to tell you because he's black, but you've got to figure that that's part of it,'' said Tyler.

Obama might benefit from the area's financial distress as polls show that a majority of voters believe he would be better at handling the economy. He also is familiar to Hoosier voters; roughly 25 percent of the state receives Chicago television.

Lost Jobs

Muncie could use the help. The town is shedding jobs and residents, with the population down to 65,000 today from 80,000 in the early 1980s. Its last automotive parts factory, BorgWarner Inc., will be shuttered next April, taking with it almost 800 jobs.

More than a fourth of Muncie's residents live below the poverty level. Half of the students at Muncie Central High -- the school that lost to the Hickory Huskers in the basketball movie ``Hoosiers'' -- receive subsidized lunches.

In May's Democratic primary, about 10 percent of whites in the state said that race was important to them, said Joe Losco, a Ball State political science professor.

``That doesn't bode well,'' for Obama's chances to carry the state in November when that many people think race is an important factor, Losco said.

Democrats Concerned

After canvassing white Democratic neighborhoods earlier this month, local Democrats grew concerned that race was playing a bigger role than they have previously expected.

``Who's going to look at you and say, `I am just not going to vote for him because he's a black man,''' said Tyler, who knocks on doors for a couple of hours every day, asking voters to fill out their absentee ballots. ``Nobody is going to tell you that.''

Sue Errington, the county's state senator, said she heard more racial arguments against Obama in the Democratic primary, when she was on the other side, stumping for Hillary Clinton, a New York senator.

Those same voters now ``raise the experience issue,'' Errington said, ``but you know it's something else.''

``It's harder to address the underlying issues when they won't bring it up themselves,'' she said.