You gotta be joking.  He race-baits and wades in slime and flings sewage, without regard to posterity, and you think he's in Arizona for posterity?  

I tell you why he's in Arizona.  Because Obama goaded him.  Because POWPOW is that kind of a person - "bring it on", "I'll show *him*", "we've got him where we want him" kind of an asshole.  Obama goaded him and sure enough POWPOW took the bait.  Pathetic.

Well, he does have to get there by sometime on Tuesday so a camera can record him voting. So this may not be quite as desperate as it seems, although if it is at midnight in AZ anything he says won't make the papers in any battleground state, so I guess it is a sign of desperation!

Come on - he's headed home to vote.  How rare can it be to have a final rally in the home state?

"You gotta be joking.  He race-baits and wades in slime and flings sewage, without regard to posterity, and you think he's in Arizona for posterity? "

Translation: Clinton and McCain dared to oppose the One.

Indeed, the first true thing jacob has said in months:  Obama, who everyone thought was some kind of weird super-idealistic liberal conscience candidate, who everyone thought was going to check out politely along with Kucinich, Richardson, Biden et al, who everyone thought would stand back and wait his "turn," has defeated the mighty Clinton machine and is poised to defeat the Republican machine in its latest manifestion.  Not a bad piece of work, all in all.

What sdemuth said. He had to be there anyway, why not squeeze in an event? In a way I think it's only right, even, that a candidate wraps it up with an event for his home staters.

So, that took about three minutes of Googling.

query.nytimes.com/.../fullpage.html

THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Democrats; Clinton Rallies Supporters for Final 'Long Walk'

Published: November 2, 1992

"Mr. Clinton chose to visit traditionally Republican areas today as he began a final swing for support that will take him into a nine-state, 4,100-mile campaign blitz, beginning at 7 A.M. Monday in Philadelphia and ending at 10 A.M. Tuesday with his return to Little Rock, Ark."

So Bill wrapped up his election campaign in Arkansas. Can't have been a good sign for him, eh? ;-)

Gwen wrote that. They should give her Meet the Press.

boatsrwood: Don't even joke about that. After her repeatedly abysmal performance as moderator to the VP debates, I'm surprised Washington Week hasn't dumped her. (And, as per always, I qualify that by pointing out that I'm a liberal democrat and am still disgusted by her liberal bias and generally all-around shoddy journalism.)

Still, yeah, a final Arizona rally doesn't necessary mean what we might hope. It could just be like Obama's Iowa rally a couple of days back, coming full circle, thanking the people who got your campaign started, etc, etc, etc.

But janus, McCain did the coming-full-circle thing, with a specifically coming-full-circle-from-our-start-in-1999 speech, yesterday.

Sure, every candidate comes home to vote. Usually, as in the 1992 article, on Election Day. But holding one's last pre-election rally in one's home state does bespeak nervousness. Then again, if Gore had paid enough attention to Tennessee to win his home state, he'd have won the 2000 election.

Rhubarbs - True, McCain did already do a coming-full-circle speech. I was just saying that doing another might not bespeak the desperation that was implied by the post.

Then again, Schmidt (or perhaps someone more level-headed in the campaign who's thinking about McCain's image post-election) is probably acutely conscious of the reality that by the time the polls close in Arizona, the eastern seaboard victories will already be known, as will McCain's failure to flip must-win Pennsylvania, and that can't help but depress Republican turnout...

"After her repeatedly abysmal performance as moderator to the VP debates, I'm surprised Washington Week hasn't dumped her."

Her abysmal performance consisted in allowing herself to be intimidated by Palin.