Last-minute push in governor's race - Cincinnati.com

When the votes are counted on Tuesday night, some races might be blowouts, over and done with not long after the sun has set, but the Ohio governor's race is not likely to be one of those.

That was evident by the frenetic pace of campaigning Saturday by both candidates - Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland and Republican challenger John Kasich.

Every poll in the past two weeks - and the sense among party leaders on both sides - is that the race is too close to call and will come down Tuesday to one thing and one thing only - which candidate and his party organizations can push the most voters out to the polls.

That is why, on Saturday, both candidates raced around like men whose hair was on fire, targeting key areas where they hope to fire up the masses, Republican and Democrat.

• Quiz: Election oddities
• Best, worst political ads

For Strickland, that meant a swing through the Youngstown suburb of Boardman, the northeast Ohio city of Canton and a rally in Columbus, with the one Democrat many believe is most likely to light a fire under Democratic voters - former President Bill Clinton.

And, Sunday, in Cleveland, Strickland will campaign with President Obama; and later in the day, with Vice President Biden, in a further effort to gin up excitement among Democrats.

In Columbus late Saturday afternoon, at a Teamsters local hall, Clinton outlasted a group of college Republicans who heckled him and Strickland, waiving signs saying "Failure".

"That's a metaphor for what's wrong with this election,'' Clinton said, gesturing toward a protestor with a megaphone. "If I didn't have anything to say, I'd scream too."

Clinton told the Columbus crowd of about 600 that, during Strickland's term, Ohio increased its higher education rating from 27th to 5th in the nation, and now boasts the lowest business taxes in the Midwest.

"This man is a great governor, and you have to re-elect him,'' Clinton said. "He is a great governor and a great man."

For his part, Strickland said his GOP opponent wants to get rid of renewable energy standards - an example, the Democratic governor said, of the choice between moving "into the future or retreat back into the past."

While Clinton and Strickland were stumping for Democratic votes, Kasich - the former Columbus-area congressman and House Budget chairman - spent his entire day in the southwest corner of the state, the one area that any Republican running statewide must win and win big to seal a victory on election night.

Kasich - with his wife Karen and their 10-year-old twin daughters, Reese and Emma in tow - raced around southwest Ohio in an SUV, stopping at Republican Party get-out-the-vote centers in Butler County's Fairfield Township, Kenwood in Hamilton County, and in Lebanon, the seat of Warren County.

And, in the middle of the day, the Kasich SUV roared down I-71 to Cincinnati's riverfront park at Sawyer Point, to make a previously unscheduled stop at a tea party "Remember in November" rally.

Each one of those areas will be critical for Kasich on Tuesday.

Six years ago, it was those very areas that saw a pumped-up GOP turnout at the polls. That gave President George W. Bush the edge to win Ohio's electoral votes and a second term in the White House.

"When people come and tell you have to keep working, that's kind of insulting to you,'' Kasich told a group of about 60 volunteers at the Fairfield Township office, most of whom have been working for weeks calling thousands of like-minded voters.

"I know you have been working,'' Kasich said. "I am as grateful as a person can be for the faith and trust you have placed in me."

David Kern, the Liberty Township resident who became Butler County GOP chairman earlier this year, said he has seen "literally hundreds of people who have never been involved in politics before come forward. These people have a fire in their belly."

At all of his get-out-the-vote center stops Saturday, Kasich spoke only briefly and then lingered for a while posing for pictures with GOP volunteers before hopping in the SUV to be driven to the next stop.

At the Hamilton County GOP Victory office behind the Kenwood Towne Center on Galbraith Road, Kasich struck briefly on what has become a theme lately of his campaign - that he has been the victim of unfair attacks by Strickland and his Democratic allies.

"They are running a campaign of fear; we are running a campaign of hope,'' Kasich told the GOP volunteers at Kenwood.

The one stop Saturday that was not on the Kasich campaign's announced schedule was the trip to Sawyer Point for a short speech that closed the Cincinnati Tea Party's "Remember in November" rally, which drew about 200 people.

"I love the tea party!" he proclaimed to the applauding crowd, saying the movement "gets a rap because we don't take cues from the elite."

While Strickland is campaigning in Cleveland and Toledo Sunday with Obama and Biden, Kasich will be in the Columbus area, going door-to-door with local Republican candidates in strong GOP suburbs like Worthington and New Albany.

Monday, Kasich will return to Cincinnati for an election-eve rally at a Lunken Airport hangar with U.S. Senate candidate Rob Portman and House Minority Leader John Boehner, who will become House speaker if the GOP takes control of the House Tuesday.

Reporter Quan Truong contributed.

• Blog: Politics Extra
• Elections 2010 coverage
• Voters Guide

View the original article here

Apple iPhone Leapfrogs RIM BlackBerry in Smartphone Rankings - eWeek

Apple, Research In Motion and Android phone producers such as Samsung put in strong performances during a third quarter that showed smartphone sales to be very much dictating the global handset market. The handset market also seems to be rewarding phone vendors that are constantly innovating and producing the strongest possible portfolio of smartphones.  

The launch of the iPhone 4 helped Apple, according to Oct. 28 reports from research firms IDC and Strategy Analytics, join the list of top-five performers for the first time. Apple, such as competitor RIM, only contributes smartphones to the handheld market, and both vendors posted highest-growth rates among the top five vendors during the quarter.  

?The mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest-growing firms,? Kevin Restivo, an IDC senior research analyst, said in a statement. ?Vendors that aren?t developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future.?  

Nokia has learned this lesson well. While the long-time market leader, Nokia saw its volumes grow below the market average for the ninth consecutive quarter, despite posting ?record smartphone shipments of 26 million units,? according to Strategy Analytics. Looking to again be a serious smartphone contender, Nokia has introduced four high-end models, the N8, C7, C6-01 and E7, which it hopes will significantly impact its fourth quarter.  

?The N8, C7 and C6-01 will be attacking Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung, while the E7 will set its sights on RIM, HTC and others,? wrote Analyst Neil Mawston, author of the Strategy Analytics report.  

LG Electronics, Mawston points out, saw shipments shrink 10 percent compared to a year ago, and ?like Motorola and Sony Ericsson before it, has missed much of the boom in premium 3G smartphones,? causing it ?financial pain.? As competitors such as Samsung begin releasing 3G tablets, Mawston warned, ?LG must be careful not to repeat this error.?  

Samsung, with its line of Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet, was quick to jump on the Android craze, and consequently shipped 71.4 million units during the quarter?an all-time high for the company. It also more than doubled the number of converged mobile devices, or smartphones, it shipped. During the fourth quarter, it will bring still more smartphones to market, though its Wave 2 will launch with Bada, its in-house OS.  

IDC estimated that the global handset market grew 14.6 percent during the quarter, with a total of 340.5 million shipments, which Strategy Analytics put the figure slightly lower, at 327 million.  

Again, according to IDC, market leader Nokia shipped 110.4 million handsets, to claim 32.4 percent market share and was followed by Samsung, with shipments of 71.4 million units for 21 percent market share. Third-place LG shipped 28.4 million units, for 8.3 percent of the market, and Apple, jumping ahead of RIM to claim fourth position, shipped 14.1 million units to claim 4.1 percent market share?and post a remarkable 90.5 percent year-on-year growth.  

Fifth-place RIM, with 3.6 percent of the market, shipped 12.4 million units, for a year-on-year growth of 45.9 percent. While IDC reports that RIM shipped a record number of units during the quarter, and showed particular growth in Latin America, in the U.S., Strategy Analytics highlighted that its ?relatively weak touchphone portfolio for consumer users? has challenged the company, particularly following a lukewarm response to the Torch. 

With its fellow top vendors, RIM will need to proceed smartly though the fourth quarter, or risk being chucked off the list.  

?There is a long tail of second-tier players emerging who are knocking on the doors of the top five players,? Strategy Analytics? Mawston warned. ?ZTE, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei and Alcatel are all shipping volumes that are within touch distance of the leading group.?  

ZTE in particular is growing at an above-average rate, Mawston noted, and ?stands a good chance of entering the top five in coming quarters.?   

View the original article here

Obama returns to home turf to rally party spirits - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;Campaign 2010 | HEADLONG DASH TO FINISH

CHICAGO — President Obama embarked on a last-ditch campaign marathon yesterday in a bid to blunt the political rebuke expected to be delivered by voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections, urging dispirited Americans to give Democrats more time to deliver on the promise of change the president made two years ago.

“For those of you who were so excited two years ago, I just want to remind you this: Two years ago was not about me,’’ the president said to volunteers at a get-out-the-vote canvassing event in Philadelphia yesterday morning. “It was about you and it was about this country. And I said then that change was going to be hard . . . We can’t move backwards now. We’ve got to keep moving forward.’’

Democrats are hoping they can avoid the widely forecasted anti-incumbent wave that could overturn the party’s majority in the US House and seriously erode its advantage in the Senate.

But Obama’s choice of locations to deliver his closing argument was telling: He made stops in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, places where he enjoyed broad support in 2008, before wrapping up last night in Illinois, where his party is struggling to prevent his former Senate seat from falling into the hands of Republicans. Obama was scheduled to visit Cleveland today.

The Illinois Senate race, between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk, is at best a toss-up for Democrats, who need a strong turnout among their base to prevent the GOP from snatching a highly symbolic victory in Obama’s backyard.

In Pennsylvania, Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are in a close Senate race, though most pollsters give Toomey the edge. The Connecticut Senate race is faring better for Democrats; polls show Richard Blumenthal leading Republican Linda McMahon.

Obama supporters who are sticking with the president and backing Democrats this fall foresee difficult times ahead for the party after Tuesday’s vote.

“Absolutely — I’m worried,’’ said Jarrod Ayme, 23, of Chicago, who works for a nonprofit agency. “I’m worried that [the Democrats’] power is going to dwindle considerably.’’

The president last night revved up Democrats at a rally just a few blocks from Lake Michigan and a few miles from Grant Park, where two years ago he celebrated an overwhelming Democratic victory with 240,000 ecstatic supporters.

The euphoria of that 2008 night has faded, as the nation’s slow economic recovery has undermined the president’s campaign themes of hope and change, and hurt his popularity. He also has come under fire in some quarters for pushing through a health care insurance overhaul that Republicans are promising to roll back if they seize power.

“I was gone overseas for the first six months of his presidency, and when I got back the perception of him seemed to have totally changed. . . . So many people were pessimistic,’’ said Matti Scannell, 19, of Chicago, who traveled to Spain in 2009.

Democrats are fighting to hold onto threatened Senate seats in California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, Washington, and West Virginia. In Nevada, the majority leader of the US Senate, Harry Reid, is fighting to save his career against Republican Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle. Democratic seats in North Dakota, Arkansas, and Indiana have already been all but written off as lost.

The Republican House minority leader, John Boehner, who would likely become speaker if his party takes a US House majority on Tuesday, said yesterday that Republicans stand ready to bring more transparency to government and cut federal spending if voters entrust them with the reins of power. “We’ve tried it President Obama’s way,’’ said Boehner, in the weekly Republican address. “We’ve tried it Washington’s way. It hasn’t worked. It’s time to put the people back in charge.’’

Obama has been trying for weeks to build a firewall against Democratic losses by rallying supporters in states with close races, a strategy that led him back to his hometown.

The contest between Giannoulias, the state treasurer, and Kirk, a five-term congressman from the northern Chicago suburbs, is one of the closest Senate races in the country. Most of the polls suggest the race is a statistical tie, within the typical margin of error for opinion surveys.

The tight race “is a good metaphor for what’s going on nationally,’’ said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “You’ve got the president trying to bring the Democratic base — women, African-Americans, Hispanics — back to their candidates, trying to generate enthusiasm in a state the Democrats have dominated.’’

The seat Obama gave up when he won the presidency is open this fall; Roland Burris, who was appointed by then-governor Rod Blagojevich to serve out Obama’s unfinished term, declined to run again.

The campaign to replace Burris is between two men who are considered rising stars of their parties.

Giannoulias, (pronounced jeh-NOO-lee-us) a Boston University graduate, entered politics four years ago after helping manage Broadway Bank, a Chicago community lender founded by his father. In 2006, with support from then-senator Obama, Giannoulias, then just 30, became the nation’s youngest state treasurer.

But the private banking experience that was so helpful in his last race has been a liability this year. Broadway Bank failed in April and was taken over by the FDIC. And Giannoulias has been dogged by revelations that Broadway loaned $20 million to two Chicago felons, sometimes more colorfully described as “mob figures’’ in the local media, while Giannoulias was a senior loan officer.

Those embarrassments might have crushed Giannoulias’ campaign months ago if Kirk hadn’t evened the playing field by exaggerating his résumé.

Kirk, 51, apologized in the spring for making false statements about his 21-year Navy Reserve career, including the untrue claim that he had served in the Gulf War. He speaks contritely about learning “a painful lesson’’ from the episode, though he has resisted explaining why he overstated his record. He is the type of centrist Republican that typically has the best chance of winning in Democratic-leaning Illinois, specialists said.

“Mark Kirk is not a hyper-partisan,’’ said Gabe Rubin, 18, of Skokie, who stood for hours in an eye-watering cold wind demonstrating for the Kirk campaign outside a debate last week. “I want someone who votes what he believes is best for his constituents, not what his party tells him to vote.’’

Kirk’s campaign office did not respond to several messages for an interview.

Throughout the hard-fought campaign, the candidates have eagerly exploited each other’s missteps.

“All the campaign ads begin with smears,’’ said John Brehm, a University of Chicago political science professor. “It’s been pretty dirty. Though perhaps I shouldn’t use the word ‘dirty,’ because what they’re saying about each other is true.’’

The tone of the race has been so relentlessly negative that Giannoulias surprised campaign watchers last week by promising to run only positive ads in the final days. His prohibition on attacks did not extend to debates — the two candidates exchanged unpleasantries in person last Wednesday in their final televised forum.

On Friday, Giannoulias and his mother canvassed on the busy streets of Boystown, a Chicago district with a large gay population. A jovial Giannoulias said his campaign’s field operation was ready. “Turnout in this city is going to be through the roof,’’ he predicted.

He will need a large turnout from the city’s Democratic base to win, and to save the president from an embarrassing rejection by the people who know him best.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.Waiting for Twitter to feed in the latest...

View the original article here

Lewis Stifles Giants and Gives Rangers a Boost - New York Times

Fans were urged to make some Texas-sized noise and to sing along to “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” Just in case anyone had forgotten, the 106th World Series had shifted to the Lone Star State, where subtlety is a four-letter word.

That fits the profile of the Texas Rangers, who matched the spectacle surrounding their first World Series home game with a 4-2 victory against the Giants in Game 3 that was anything but understated. Yet another stifling pitching performance from Colby Lewis, coupled with booming home runs by Mitch Moreland and Josh Hamilton, restored the sizzle to a series that seemed to have lost its sheen when it left an apoplectic San Francisco on Thursday.

The Rangers found World Series games here so much fun that they assured their fans of seeing a full complement, with the ace Cliff Lee lined up for a Game 5 start Monday that will play a pivotal role in determining whether Texas will become the first pennant winner to overcome a 2-0 deficit since the 1996 Yankees. Game 4, with Madison Bumgarner of San Francisco scheduled to face the Rangers’ Tommy Hunter, is set for Sunday night.

The underbelly of the Rangers’ bullpen, battered for 11 of the Giants’ 20 runs, may as well head for the concession stands when Lewis is on the mound. He has become their designated stopper, winning his last three starts, all after losses. Two of those came in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees, who were baffled by his extraordinary command and deceptive slider.

Yet the perception still existed that no way was Lewis — Colby Lewis? — morphing into an ace. Lewis allowed late bases-empty homers to Cody Ross (seventh inning) and to Andres Torres (eighth), and in four playoff outings he is 3-0 with a 1.71 earned run average.

The opinion that Lewis would be nervous heading into his start Saturday, with the Rangers trailing in the series, 2-0, was understandable if also, to him, a bit laughable. Want to know what pressure feels like? Try taking your family to Japan and telling them to trust you. Want to know what pitching in front of a rollicking capacity crowd feels like? Try making two opening day starts for the Hiroshima Carp.

“I think that’s what kind of helps me coming back here with the noise and the celebration and everybody cheering and stuff like that,” Lewis said.

There was noise and celebration and plenty of stuff like that at Rangers Ballpark, where the night unofficially began with the beloved former catcher — and current Washington National — Ivan Rodriguez catching (blocking, actually) the ceremonial first pitch from Nolan Ryan.

Many among the largest crowd in stadium history — 52,419 — came decked out in claw T-shirts and antlers headgear, the battle cry of a team that ever so slightly has intruded into a local sports scene dominated by the football team down the street. One fan held aloft a sign that deftly summarized the region’s feelings: “Who Needs Cowboys When We Have Rangers.” For 39 seasons, this bustling suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth has waited for Saturday, and its team did not disappoint.

Standing between the Rangers and relevance again was the San Francisco left-hander Jonathan Sanchez, who rarely produces a start that is merely average. He either dominates (Game 1, division series) or implodes (Game 6, N.L.C.S.), which is what he seemed to be saying Friday when asked about that brief appearance in Philadelphia.

“You know,” he said, “everybody is going to have bad days and good days.”

It started out good for Sanchez, who was uncharacteristically efficient in a 10-pitch first inning, but then it turned bad, in a second inning that he would soon like to forget. The Rangers’ poor situational hitting (4 for 21 with runners in scoring position through two games) was seemingly doomed to fail them once more, when with one out Jeff Francoeur could not drive in Nelson Cruz from third. Sanchez then walked the No. 8 hitter Bengie Molina, which is a smart play in National League ballparks, where the designated hitter is not used and the pitcher usually bats ninth.

Batting ninth for Texas was Moreland, a rookie left-handed hitter with a .342 average in 12 playoff games — and only 20 regular-season at-bats against left-handers. In the A.L.C.S., Moreland terrorized Yankees pitchers with his ability to grind out long at-bats, to foul off pitches, and that strategy can be particularly effective against wild pitchers like Sanchez. With a 2-2 count, Moreland fouled off four straight pitches — two sliders, two changeups — before mashing a fastball deep into the right-field seats. Ross, patrolling right field, hardly moved as the ball soared above.

The Rangers led, 3-0, their first advantage since the third inning of Game 1, and the score stayed that way as Lewis silenced the Giants through the middle innings, mowing down 14 of 16 batters. He ended up pitching seven and two-thirds innings, before Darren O’Day got one out and Neftali Feliz got the final three.

Sanchez briefly teetered, putting runners on base in the third and fourth, before with two outs and the bases empty in the fifth allowing a 426-foot blast to Hamilton that cleared both bullpens in right-center field.

As Hamilton rounded the bases, four people deliriously waving Texas flags ran onto the berm, reminding everyone — again, in case they had forgotten — how baseball is played in these parts.

View the original article here

Will HP, Dell, Sony answer 11-inch MacBook Air? - CNET

Neither Dell nor Hewlett-Packard nor Sony have laptops that compete directly with the 2.3-pound, 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Is this a new market segment that those three laptop leaders and others will have to address?

Sony has the Vaio Y series, but that hardly compares to the 11.6-inch MacBook Air.

(Credit: Sony)

Apple has a knack for creating new markets, the iPad being the most recent example. Though not as groundbreaking or broadly market-defining as the iPad, the smaller Air is clearly unique: wrapped in aluminum, while considerably lighter than a typical 3-pound 11.6-inch laptop. And it packs higher-end silicon--and better performance--than Netbooks. (I spent some time in three different Apple Stores in the Los Angeles area right after the new Airs were announced, and from what I saw, the 11.6-inch MBA elicited the most oohs and aahs--hands down.)

I would submit that the Air has wedged itself (pun intended) into an elite sub-2.5-pound laptop segment where little direct competition currently exists. There are hordes of 10-inch class Netbooks out there. But, again, a $350 Windows 7-based Netbook is a very different class of laptop. Then there are products like Dell's 11.6-inch Inspiron M101z. But that is a low-end plastic Netbook-class product.

2010 MacBook Air

(Credit: Apple)

Lenovo--though not listed up top--warrants an honorable mention with its IdeaPad U160 11.6-inch laptop, which has the screen measurements to match the 11.6-inch Air but is about a pound heavier and for all intents and purposes is a fairly conventional Intel Core i series-based laptop that's been squeezed into a tight form factor. And Acer has the 11.6-inch TimeLineX series, but this is three pounds and really not in the same class as the Air.

As pointed out in a previous post, Sony has its Vaio X, Y, and Z series, but the former is a Netbook and the latter two are 13-inch designs, which are not nearly as sleek and small (at 4 and 3 pounds, respectively) as the 11.6-inch Air, albeit the Vaio is competitively priced and offers faster Core i series processors and higher-end Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics. But, again, size is the key metric for comparison.

So, who might offer some direct competition? Sony has the technological wherewithal and design sense to come up with a sub-2.5-pound non-Netbook design. If for no other reason than they've done it before. Ditto for Dell in the design sense department. It could downsize the Adamo. But, then, I have to wonder if Dell still has the stomach or incentive to go toe to toe with Apple again, since its Adamo--though stunning--has not generated the excitement of an Apple product.

A design like the Sony Vaio X with more robust silicon would compete well with the 11.6-inch Air.

(Credit: Sony)

And HP? I've followed HP-Compaq laptop design since Compaq acquired DEC's Hi-Note Ultra line--one of the first truly ultraslim laptops. The closest thing HP had to the Air in its consumer line was the 13-inch Envy, but that has been discontinued in favor of larger, bulkier 14-inch and 17-inch Envys. (Though refurbished Envy 13s are still available.) Let me add that, like the Dell M101z, I don't think that the 11.6-inch HP Pavilion dm1z series is in the same class as the Air.

On the business side, HP and Compaq (which HP later acquired) have produced a long line of light, 12-inch form factor business laptops, currently branded as the EliteBook 2540p--which is a rugged, military-specced ultraportable. If HP tweaked the 2540p's design so it no longer accommodated a built-in optical drive, dropped the thickness below 0.8 inches, and offered a different choice of processors, it would have a serious competitor to the Air.

But this may be just wishful thinking. Maybe Apple, once again, will find itself happily flying solo where others dare not go.

View the original article here

Nevadans hold their nose in this race - Minneapolis Star Tribune

HENDERSON, NEV. - The knock on the front door elicited the annoyed yapping of an unseen dog, followed by the appearance of a gray-haired man busily eating chips from a bag. His callers were two union workers, canvassing the neighborhood on behalf of Democrats, especially Sen. Harry Reid.

The man said that he knew Reid -- and that Reid was an idiot. So was his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle. In fact, said the man, a retired steelworker named Mario Mari, he might very well choose a third option: the phantom candidate known as None of the Above.

"This country is going down," Mari said before closing the door to a bleak Nevada landscape, where jobs are few and foreclosures many.

This is the up-for-grabs Third Congressional District, the most populous in Nevada and the most contested in this state's contentious Senate race, sprawling across the dry terrain to form a kind of martini glass around the olive of downtown Las Vegas. It is here in this packed suburban stretch of terra cotta roofs and crushed-rock yards that the battle for the country's direction is being waged.

The two candidates could not be more ideologically different. But in these last frantic days of an extremely tight and unpleasant campaign, one with implications for the balance of power in Washington, they are united by the same problem: The voters of Nevada do not particularly like either of them.

"More people in Nevada dislike these candidates than like them," said Ryan Erwin, a Republican consultant in Las Vegas. As a result, he said, "It's going to be about which side is going to persuade voters that the other candidate is worse."

Different views

On one side, the incumbent of two dozen years: Reid, 70, the Senate majority leader, a close ally of President Obama and, behind the scenes, a flinty old-school Nevadan. But if a microphone appears, he assumes the persona of a wan undertaker whose own pulse needs to be checked.

On the other side, the challenger from out of nowhere: Angle, 61, an anti-Obama Tea Party standard-bearer. A former schoolteacher, state legislator and competitive weight lifter, she has choice words for Washington and curious words for the rest of the country, as when she suggested that Islamic religious law had taken hold in two American communities. But if a microphone appears, she begins to play hide-and-seek: She hides, reporters seek.

Although Angle usually flees microphones, she speaks clearly through her campaign commercials, which question the source of Reid's wealth and portray him as a calcified Obama toady who all but invites thuggish undocumented immigrants to your family's Thanksgiving.

In their own ways, then, both candidates are asking the same plaintive question in this close race: What are you thinking, Nevada?

Some Republicans fear losing a powerful ally in Washington -- no matter that his name is Reid -- at a time when Nevada is in precarious economic shape. And Angle's relationship with Republicans in Washington is complicated. She eyes them warily, while they fret that their overt help might offend her Tea Party supporters.

Even so, Angle is not above accepting the help of the Republican establishment, whether by receiving significant financial support from, say, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina or promoting an event with Sen. John McCain of Arizona. She melds the inside with the outside, as when, during a recent appearance with Newt Gingrich, she told her supporters that she wanted to cut any federal spending not provided for in the Constitution.

Being herself

Angle's candor caused advisers to suggest that she lie low in these last days, so low that reporters have relied on the Twitter messages of a Democrat dressed as a chicken to track Angle's whereabouts.

But Angle's outlandish comments and harsh commercials -- juxtaposing menacing dark-skinned men with anxious white people -- have not affected her ability to raise and spend money. From July 1 to Oct. 13, her campaign spent $16.9 million, well more than the $11.2 million spent by the Reid campaign.

Well aware that polls show Angle slightly ahead, Reid has been forced to shed his dour Washington persona and stump like a challenger.

View the original article here