What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Joe the Plumber endorsed Republican John McCain for president. Samuel J. Wurzelbacher gained national attention when Obama told him during a campaign stop that he wanted to "spread the wealth around." Their exchange about Obama's tax plan aired countless times on cable news programs, and McCain repeatedly cited Joe the Plumber in their third and final debate and again at campaign events. Fame brought media scrutiny to Wurzelbacher, who turned out to be an unlicensed plumber with unpaid back taxes. If memory serves me Obama recently got the endorsement of Colin Powell. So yeah, I guess Joe's endorsement of McCain is just as newsworthy. At the very least, it should tighten up the last few days of the campaign, right?

Obama and McCain fought for votes on critical ground in Pennsylvania, the only Democratic state McCain is still contesting on a national political map growing increasingly daunting. Or perhaps not. A poll by the Pew Research Center found Obama with a 16-point lead among registered voters. The survey said Obama had 52% and McCain 36%, with independent voters supporting the Democrat by a 48-31 margin. If McCain doesn't win the state's 21 electoral votes, it's hard to see how he can win the presidency since Obama is expected to pick up several of the states that helped re-elect President Bush four years ago. McCain needs one of the blue states to make up for expected losses in the red ones. I hate to quote Sarah Palin, but in this case, I'll make an exception. Say it ain't so, Joe. I thought your endorsement of McCain would surely put him over the top.

Economy - Try to keep up, it was a busy day. An impatient White House prodded banks and other financial companies to quit hoarding billions of dollars flowing into their vaults from Washington and start making more loans. Wall Street soared nearly 900 points on bargain-hunting and hopes of a hefty interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Consumer pessimism reached record levels in October amid rising unemployment, plunging home prices and shrinking retirement and investment accounts. So did you get all that? If not here it is in a nutshell. The White House wants banks to start lending...I won't hold my breath. Meanwhile, the Dow gained almost 900 points...big deal, it'll probably drop a thousand by the end of the week. And finally, consumer confidence is in the toilet...well, duh. We're in a global financial meltdown.

Software - The next version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 7, the software that defines the computing experience for most people, will nag users much less than its much-maligned predecessor, Vista. Well now, that would be nice wouldn't it? then again, I did enjoy those pitiful attempts at wooing users back with those snazzy TV ads that featured Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. The world's largest software maker also is making Word, Excel and other key elements of Office — its flagship "productivity" programs — able to run in a Web browser. The move is meant to help confront rivals such as Google that offer free word processing and spreadsheet programs online. Good luck with that. According to Microsoft, the upgraded torture device...ahem, I mean Windows 7, will be available to unwitting victims...ahem, I mean customers, sometime in early 2009.

Baseball - Game 5 of the Fall Classic was suspended in the bottom of the sixth inning last night due to rain after the Tampa Bay Rays, managed to score a tying run against the Philadelphia Phillies. Makes sense until you consider that it started raining 3 innings earlier. Some have speculated that Major League Baseball officials weren't terribly interested in an early end to the series, which is what probably would have happened under normal circumstances. You see, the Phillies were up 3 games to 1, and 2 to 1 after 5 innings (which is enough to make a game official) under rather persistent rain...not mist or sprinkles, but full on rain. Despite this, baseball officials allowed the game to continue, and Tampa scored the tying run in the top of the 6th inning, at which time the game was then stopped...in a 2-2 tie. The game was supposed to conclude tonight, but it go rained out again. This is what happens when you try to play baseball in Philadelphia at the end of October. It's call the onset of winter. Now if the Rays manage to pull of this win, the last 2 games would be played in Tampa. That's got to tick off Phillies fans.