The poll on the presidential race in Georgia now mirrors the very tight senatorial race in Georgia.

Insider Advantage has just released its poll of Likely Voters in Georgia. Senator Obama is now within the margin of error of Senator McCain in that state.

McCain 49%
Obama 46%
10/9, 509 LV, 4%

This is incredible news for Senator Obama's campaign. Especially after a poll earlier today showing phenomenal results in West Virginia.

Since there was heavy turnout among African-Americans ( 30% of all early voters) who have already voted, the McCain camp should be very concerned.

Two polls on the senate race confirmed the very competitive race. One more poll on the Obama/McCain Georgia race should confirm this incredible surge by Senator Obama.

Let's Go Obama !

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/insideradv antage_ga_oh_109.php

You know things are not going well at the top of the ticket in a given state when major figures on the rest of the ballot start skipping rallies. Such was the case today, according to the Washington Post.

Crossposted at Motley Moose

Despite a public outcry and resounding condemnation from the chattering class (brilliantly documented by DCDemocrat) about whipping angry mobs to a near violent frenzy with devisive (and false) rhetoric, the McCain/Palin campaign reached an all new low today.

John McCain had a chance to do the right and honorable thing, which would have been to condemn the lunatics who shout out things like Traitor!, Terrorist! , Kill him!, or verbally accost African American members of the media. Up until today, he appeared to have chosen the slimy route instead, and by letting it go on, they've essentially encouraged the toxic behavior.  Both Obama and Biden have pushed back hard against the smears, and by all accounts they've done so effectively.

You can get a link to the report at:

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/10/10/1 6/Branchflowerreport.source.prod_affilia te.7.pdf

Now here is the smoke screen that the GOP is likely to play. They are likely to jump on finding number of 2 (page 8 of the report), which reads "Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads." They will try to say that it means she did nothing illegal.

The problem is that the report also finds that "Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating ... the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act ("any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of ... trust"). Same page of the report. Think about it carefully - the two conclusion are NOT mutually exclusive.

The other problem, is that Palin has said that neither she, her husband, or anyone in the Governor's office ever pressured Monegan to fire Trooper Wooten. This report, in no uncertain terms, says that this is not true. So at a minimum, Palin has publicly lied about the circumstances for firing Monegan.

Finally, Governor Palin has criticized the report because the report was not based on her testimony. Please - even Mr. Magoo can could see through this one!

No, you're not stupid.  But it's easy to overlook exactly why the Branchflower Report is damning for Palin.  Yes, the first finding says she abused her power, but the second finding says she was alright to fire Monegan, so what's the problem?  Well, here's the problem, from Page 66:

[Governor Palin] knowingly... permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired.  Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act.

...

Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit:  to get Trooper Wooten fired.  She had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act.

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in firing official, legislative panel rules

http://breakingnews.msnbc.com

I rarely read conservative columnists.  Not enough hours in the day to read writers I agree with.  For some reason this morning
I decided to read David Brooks column:

The Class War Before Palin

in which he laments about the current bent of the Republican Party.

Just heard it on the news. It is a bipartisan conclusion.

CNN has a short report. The pdf document is online. The first finding confirms that Governor Palin abused her power.

(sorry for the short diary)