Palin Agrees With Cheney That Veep Belongs to Neither the Executive Nor Legislative Branch

Asked whether she agrees with Dick Cheney that the Vice President belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government, Sarah Palin incredibly said yes.

You may recall that a while back Cheney told Congress that his office is not fully part of either branch to exempt it from an executive order regulating federal agencies' handling of sensitive national security information. This claim was discredited by everyone from the news media to the President himself. It was so preposterous that Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel mockingly proposed withholding appropriations for the Office of the Vice President until Cheney decided which branch he belonged to.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides unequivocally that the Vice President is part of the Executive Branch. One would have thought the Republican nominee for Vice President would have taken the time to read it.

McCain to Abandon Michigan

John McCain knows he's in trouble. National polls put him roughly 6 points behind Barack Obama, and if the election were held today, he'd lose by a landslide in the Electoral College. So with just over a month until election day, campaign manager Rick Davis has confirmed that McCain is pulling out of the Great Lakes State.

Republican sources say that McCain will no longer air TV ads and or continue direct mail and other outreach in Michigan, but will instead redirect staff and resources to states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida, which the campaign believes to be more competitive. As the latest polls show McCain behind in Ohio and Florida, and well-behind in Wisconsin, they clearly have their work cut out for them. Particularly when one considers that as the electoral map currently stands (353 to 185), McCain could win all three states and still lose handily.

Quinnipiac: Obama Up Big in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania

New surveys by Quinnipiac University show Barack Obama building commanding leads in the battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Boosted by his performance in Friday's presidential debate and Sarah Palin's declining favorability, Obama now bests John McCain by 51 percent to 43 percent in Florida, 50 percent to 42 percent in Ohio, and 54 percent to 39 percent in Pennsylvania.

"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century."

As it stands, Real Clear Politics shows Obama trouncing McCain in its Electoral College projection, 348 to 190.