The Week in the US Presidential Election

What a busy week it's been for the US Presidential Elections:

• Former US Secretary of State and registered Republican Colin Powell has made news by publicly endorsing Democratic Presidential candidate Baracak Obama. This is a huge bonus for Obama's campaign and a big blow for McCain's, as Powell is a hugely respected politician. It's not a huge surprise, as Powell is a fairly moderate Republican, and has often supported liberal and centrist causes such as gun control and is even pro-choice. Read more about his endorsement here.
• On a related note, well known Republican satirist (he wrote Thank You For Smoking!), author and columnist Christopher Buckley has also endorsed Obama, leading to his resignation at Republican magazine National Review, the very publication his own father William F. Buckley Jr. founded. Read Buckley's endorsement here and his explanation of his resignation here. (He's a great writer, I would recommend reading them.)
• Sarah Palin appeared on Saturday Night Live. Cynical move to win votes or a good-natured poking fun of herself? You can decide by watching it here, I couldn't bring myself to.
• The Third Presidential Debate was on Tuesday, read the transcript here (or you can watch it on youtube.) There were some pretty excruciating moments from McCain, asked why Sarah Palin would make a better running-mate than Joe Biden, one of his reasons was "Her husband's a pretty tough guy". I kid you not. He also thinks it's okay to use airquotes when referring to women's health. Can you believe this guy used to be pro-choice? It's nice to know though that Obama supports women's reproductive rights, even though he's in favour of late-term abortions except for when the mother's health is in danger (late-term abortions are also carried out when the fetus is not viable outside the womb). They discussed a lot of other issues, of course, but that's something I feel passionate about.

There's plenty more news where that came from! To keep up on the US Presidential Elections, I strongly urge you to watch The Daily Show, on at 10.30 Tuesday-Friday on C4. Okay, so it's a comedy show, but it's more reliable than CNN, Fox or even TV3. Plus Jon Stewart is a total hottie! Don't agree with me? Okay, I'll shut up now.

I know I should write something about the NZ elections... But it's too depressing. Get your news from scoop.co.nz instead.

BTW, I am completely addicted to The Living Room Candidate, which has an archive of pretty much all the presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to the present. Why don't presidential campaigns have jingles anymore?

Also, I have made some changes to the layout of the blog. Feedback please! I want to make it look as good as possible but I'm not sure what good looks like.