Nearly five months after the 2008 election, there’s no sign that either Norm Coleman or Al Franken will definitively be declared the winner in the race for one of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seats, allowing him to spend the next six years in Washington.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters in an interview that it could be many months before all legal challenges are exhausted. “I don’t think we’re going to see the end to this matter any time soon,” McConnell said.

For those who have forgotten about this cliff-hanger: Coleman, the Democrat-turned-Republican first-term senator running for reelection, lagged behind Democratic comedian-author-Franken by only 225 votes after a recount of nearly 2.4 million ballots cast for the two.

Legal challenges followed and the two candidates are awaiting a ruling any day now by a three-judge panel in Minnesota.

But McConnell said that won’t be the end of it. He said Coleman is likely to employ a Bush v. Gore argument and try to convince the courts that there needs to be a uniform standard of counting ballots throughout the state.

It “will be litigated out not only in state court but potentially in federal court as well,” McConnell predicted.

Asked whether he was concerned that Minnesota is going so long without a full team in the U.S. Senate, McConnell replied, “Yeah, it’s a shame.”

In the meantime, Democrats are two votes short of a filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate that’s needed to advance most major legislation, instead of the one vote short they would be if Franken was declared the winner based on his narrow margin.

Senator Dick Durbin, the number-two Democrat in the Senate, is getting impatient.

“There reaches a point where Minnesota is entitled to two senators and if it keeps coming up Al Franken the winner, Al Franken the winner,  I think it’s time for the national Republican Party to move on.” Asked whether he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid might just try to seat Franken at some point soon, Durbin replied,  ”I’m not ready to say that.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Mitch Dumke (Franken and Reid meeting in January.)

WASHINGTON - The polls and pundits may be giving Sarah Palin a bad rap, but the Republican vice presidential candidate from Alaska has one staunch defender.

“I think she’s been treated very poorly in the press,” said Cindy McCain in an interview with CNN’s Larry King.

The wife of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain dismissed any idea that Palin has been a drag on the Republican ticket.

“She has done nothing but help this ticket. The size of the crowds she gets, the inspiration, the ability to get her message out, to get our message out. She is truly a remarkable woman,” McCain said.

As for the flap over the $150,000 the Republican Party spent on new clothes for Palin, how silly can the press be?

“With all that’s going on now, with our economy being where it is and we’re in two wars and everything else that’s going on worldwide I thought it was really a very silly thing to be upset about,” Cindy McCain said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Palin and McCains wave at rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania in October.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Joe Biden would bet his daughter’s graduate tuition on winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania, but he said he was not so sure of Ohio, Indiana or Missouri.

Speaking to reporters en route to a rally, the Democratic vice presidential candidate was upbeat about Tuesday’s election. But he would not say if he expected Barack Obama to win.

“I am superstitious and so I am not going to comment on us winning or losing,” he said.

Asked about battleground states, the Delaware senator was most optimistic about Pennsylvania, where he was born nearly 66 years ago in a hardscrabble town called Scranton.

“I don’t want to bet on Ohio or Missouri. Indiana I don’t want to bet on either. I think we can win all three. Am I ready to bet my daughter’s graduation tuition on it? Nope. If I had to bet it on Pennsylvania, I would bet it.”

“Look, it’s self-evident: Democrats have not done well in those states. But there’s something in the air, guys.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Biden waves at a rally in Florida in October) 

WASHINGTON - A flier warning that Republicans could try to intimidate voters on Tuesday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania drew a sharp rebuke from John McCain’s camp.

The flier circulating in Lancaster County tells voters to be on alert for attempts to challenge their eligibility, according to McCain backer and former Sen. John Danforth.

He said the flier warns students and “people of color” they could be targeted, and some people might be told they cannot vote if they did not cast a ballot in the primaries, are delinquent on child support or have outstanding parking tickets.

Danforth said the idea that Republicans will attempt to intimidate voters is “absolutely false.”

“These are practices that are flatly repudiated by the McCain-Palin campaign,” he told reporters via conference call.

“It’s possible to create a lot of smoke by alleging things that are just flatly untrue and are not happening,” he added.

McCain backers are concerned, however, about the potential for voter fraud. Danforth mentioned the community group ACORN, which Republicans seized on after workers were accused of faking thousands of voter registrations.

See something suspicious? The McCain camp has set up a phone line for voters to report fraud, intimidation or other problems at the polls.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg (Voters arrive to cast absentee ballots in Maryland)

DALLAS - Yale Economist Ray Fair’s econometric forecasting model for presidential elections gives an almost 4-point spread to Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in Tuesday’s White House election.

The model, based on data going back almost a century, has just been updated after Thursday’s release of figures showing U.S. economic output shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter as the
biggest pullback by consumers since 1980 overwhelmed an increase in government spending.

On his web site, Fair says in a two-party presidential race, the Democratic candidate can expect 51.91 percent of the vote while the candidate for the incumbent White House party — the Republican Party — is seen garnering 48.09 percent.

“The current situation is unusual in that the economy since the end of the third quarter appears to have gotten much worse. People may perceive the economy to be worse than the economic values through the third quarter indicate, which, other things being equal, suggests that the vote equation may overpredict the Republican share,” Fair says.

“But for what it is worth, the final vote prediction is 48.09 percent of the two-party vote for the Republicans. The Republican share of the two-party House vote is predicted to be 44.24 percent.”

The financial crisis is seen as the main reason for Obama’s lead in virtually every national poll heading into the election and Thursday’s data adds to the gloom. The drop in gross domestic product was widely expected but the decline was not as sharp as expected.

The economy is widely anticipated to contract again in the fourth quarter which would meet the classic definition of a recession — and history shows that recessions are hard on incumbent parties in the United States.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

By Freddy Builes

TURBACO, Colombia - A former mayor of this coastal town is such as fan of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama that he plans to hold a mock election to allow Colombians to vote for the Democrat.

Silvio Carrasquilla plastered the front of his house with pictures of Obama, campaign slogans and U.S. flags.

“We want to show the moral support that Obama has here,” said 28-year-old Carrasquilla, who was mayor from 2004 to 2008. “I got the idea when people who saw the house started asking if there was some way for them to vote.”

On U.S. election day Nov 4., they will be able to cast a ballot at four voting booths set up around Turbaco, a mostly Afro-Colombian town near the Caribbean resort of Cartagena.

Win or lose in the United States, Barack Obama could really hit the jackpot in Colombia.

A provincial lottery has printed the smiling face of Obama on its tickets, hoping to boost sales while paying homage to the U.S. presidential candidate.

The average weekly top prize: just under $300,000.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credits: Reuters/Freddy Builes and Albeiro Lopera.

DALLAS - Catholics for Obama has just launched a web site as the Nov. 4 White House race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain enters its final laps.

Catholics, who account for close to a quarter of the U.S. adult population, comprise a key religious group that both sides have tried to woo. In closely contested swing states such as Ohio or Florida the Catholic vote could make a difference.

The web site is sure to stoke controversy in Catholic circles with this statement: “Is Barack Obama really pro-life? The answer is ‘yes.’ Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, Senator Obama has spent his entire career striving for the common good. He supports health care programs that will cover all Americans, a living wage for working families, and solutions that allow distressed families to stay in their homes.” 

It goes on to say that Obama, a strong advocate like his party of abortion rights, will reduce the number of abortions by promoting health care for pregnant women and infant care.

Abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in America and official Catholic doctrine on the matter is clear: the church regards it as murder.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, a senior American in the Vatican, recently said the Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death’” because of its choices on bioethical questions and abortion.

Echoing several U.S. bishops, Burke accused the Democratic Party’s most high-profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — of misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion. 

McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are both staunchly opposed to abortion rights and the Republican Party often does well with conservative Catholics who vote largely on this issue.

But the flock itself is far more divided on the issue which can help Obama build on the leads he already has in most national polls with Catholic voters.

Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young. Obama speaks at campaign rally in Miami, Oct. 21, 2008.

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MIAMI - One thing Barack Obama does know — he can beat his Republican rival John McCain in a dancing contest.

In an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show via satellite from Miami, Obama stood before a crowd of cheering supporters and showed off his dance moves to James Brown’s big hit “Get Up Offa That Thing”. 

After boogying to the music played from Ellen’s studio, Obama conceded that his wife Michelle is a better dancer.

“But I’m convinced I’m a better dancer than John McCain,” he said about his 72-year-old rival in the race for the White House.

Even though Obama appeared self confident as he shook his hips and moved to the beat, before the taping began he showed a bit of uncertainty.

“When I dance, don’t make fun of me,” he pleaded with the supporters crowded behind him as he stood to face the camera.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young  (Obama arrives at an event in Florida Oct. 21)

It’s no surprise that Michelle Obama will be rooting for her husband, Barack Obama, when the Democratic presidential candidate squares off against Republican John McCain in their final debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York tonight.

What is a little startling, however, is that sitting right next to her will be Lilibet Hagel, the wife of Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.

The Obama campaign said Lilibet Hagel, a Republican who has endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, will attend the debate as Michelle Obama’s “special guest.”

Sen. Hagel, who considered running for president himself, is sometimes mentioned as a possible Republican secretary of state, though it would seem unlikely — but not inconceivable — that Obama might pick him for a Cabinet spot if the Democrat wins.

The decision to seat Hagel’s wife next to Michelle Obama may be designed to appeal to Republicans and independents as the U.S. presidential race enters its final three weeks.

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- - Photo credit: Reuters/Ali Jarekji (Obama stands next to Hagel during a visit to Amman, Jordan in July 2008)

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday sought to allay concerns of gun owners in his state who fear Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would push for greater restrictions on firearms.
 
“There is probably no governor, I would say, in the United States of America, who has a stronger, better record in the support of the Second Amendment than does Governor Ted Strickland and I’m proud of that,” Strickland told a rally in Chillicothe as he warmed up the crowd ahead of a speech by Obama.
 
Strickland, whose battleground state is a focus of intensive campaigning by Obama and Republican John McCain, said he spoke directly to Obama about the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment.
 
“If you are a sportsman, if you are a gun owner, if you are someone that honors and respects the Second Amendment, you have nothing to fear from Barack Obama,” the Democratic governor said at a rally in the rural southern part of his state.
 
In June, after the Supreme Court struck down a strict gun control law in Washington, Obama said he supports the Second Amendment protection.
 
But he also added that he identifies with some living in inner cities who seek “common sense, effective safety measures” to try reduce gun violence in crime-ravaged communities.
 
In April, Obama’s comments to a closed-door fund-raiser in San Francisco saying small town voters would “cling” to their guns and religion because they were “bitter” over their economic conditions caused a storm of criticism.
 
McCain endeared himself to Americans in favor of the right to bear arms by picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who enjoys hunting and who, according to former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, knows how to “field-dress a moose.”
 
Palin might differ with Strickland on which governor is a bigger champion of the Second Amendment. 

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi (Guns are seen inside a display case at the Cabela’s store in Fort Worth, Texas June 26, 2008)