I doubt Mainers will be much better disposed toward the GOP ticket. How many look at Sarah Palin and say "Damn, that should be Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins up there instead of this thing Karl Rove foisted on us?"

Gov. Palin is a sad example of hate speech and fear mongering. There's a ton of vicious hatemongering on both sides-- perpetrated mostly by people OUTSIDE bothe McCain and Obama camps. (Both camps are being negative, but the harshest stuff on right & left is OUTSIDE the candidates reach & control!) (eg Talk Radio). Poor McCain defends Obama to his town hall audience in Minnesota on Friday & gets booed-- but points for McCain for trying to stop viciousness there!
I support Obama and I grew up in Chicago 1962-1975... before Obama and Farrakhan. I oppose Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers-- and Barack Obama does too. He hates being endorsed by Farrakhan. Farrakhan is a RACIST just like the KKK and Obama knows this. Just because someone endorses YOU doesn't mean that you accept their support or that you are like them. David Duke is probably voting for McCain- what can Mccain do?! Obama is an anti-Farrakhan leader. Obama's faith is deeply Christian and non-Marxist. Bill Ayers as an academic (urban policy and education - 40 years past blowing things up.) Obama was on two nonprofit anti-poverty boards with Ayers years ago- not because he loves Ayers, but because the boards helped people. One was Waler Annenberg's board (Republican conservative Annenberg). We are on UN Committees with dictators & we tolerate their fascism to advance our agenda. Obama tolerated Ayers. To smear Obama with Ayers is rank McCarthyism - "guilt by association".
Hey, it is just the McCain camp deciding to try to change the conversation from how we are going to save out investments, pension & mortgages to crazyyy talk about irrelevant radicals from 40 years ago and crazy Muslim hate-preachers. I hate HATE. You guys hear it 24/7 on Talk Radio- irrational fear and hate of "socialism". Remember "The Paranoid Style of American Politics" (R. Hofstadter). Paranoia fueled by fear. It makes voters do stupid things, like boo their candidate in Minnesota. Foprcing McCain to lash out negatively. .
President Obama and Senator McCain after January 20 will work together to straighten out the mess. McCain is good for help in the Senate & bipartisan leadership there! Obama will talk to him & call on him. After Jan 20th as a Senate leader will be McCain's finest hour!

Bluebeard, agree with your statements except for the last paragraph. I don't think McCain will be very effective or happy as a senator after losing, very likely getting blown away in the election,although I agree Obama will try and reach out to him. Whatever you can say about McCain, he has always been an honorable guy and the turn this campaign has taken must be disturbing to him. He quipped in the 2000 primary race that he "didn't want to be President in the worst way." Yet the events and the political hacks and surrogates in his campaign have pushed him into doing just that. All the McCain-Palin campaign is doing now is attempting to demonize Obama and simultaneously celebratizing Palin. She is the new Princess Di. I'm not even sure that the aim is political. It may be an attempt to set her up, not for another run in 2012, but for an entertainment/talk show type career post election. Going back to Juneau and arguing about funding sewer repairs in Fairbanks just isn't going to seem all that after what she's experienced. When McCain realizes this, and he may already have, he is going to feel very ill-used. I think.