Most Americans are Behind Obama
It seems that most Americans are willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fixing the nation’s seriously broken economy. Two separate polls show that a significant chunk of the U.S. population are behind the president and that they laud his efforts to reach across party lines to achieve his goals. A month after Obama ascended to the White House, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that an overwhelming two-thirds of Americans approve of his job performance, support his administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package and are behind his plan for reversing home foreclosures. A New York Times/CBS News poll, found that 63 percent approve of the job he’s doing, while more than 75 percent of Americans are optimistic about the next four years with him as president. That poll also found that about 75 percent of respondents, including 61 percent of Republicans, said Obama has been trying to work with Republicans. Sixty-three percent said Republicans opposed the economic stimulus package for political reasons rather than policy concerns.
Obama Pledges to Cut Deficit by Half 
Tomorrow night, when President Barack Obama addresses the joint session of Congress, everyone will be waiting to hear how he plans to keep his pledge to cut the U.S. budget deficit by half during his first term. Read on.

Citizens of Tobago Head to the Polls
Tobago, part of the Caribbean’s Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is set to hold elections Monday. The vote will determine if the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) would win a third consecutive term. The party is up against the new Tobago Organization of the People (TOP), a group led by minority leader Ashworth Jack. Both sides believe they’ll win and bring positive changes to Tobago. The PNM promises to encourage economic diversification, and the TOP hopes to reduce wasteful spending. About 45,000 voters are expected to come out to the polls.
Opposition Won’t Back Down From Mugabe
Zimbabwe opposition leaders will meet with longtime leader Robert Mugabe in an attempt to finalize plans for a unified government, reports CNN. The opposition won’t settle for anything but equal power, with the ability to help citizens of the struggling nation. “We cannot go into position of authority without the attendant and consequent power to enable us to deliver on change, food and jobs…. We cannot commit political suicide by entering into a government limping and in pain. It’s like swallowing poison and we become the victims,” opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa told CNN. Mugabe has said publically that Monday’s meeting will be the last one, and that he would form a government without the opposition if the meeting didn’t produce an agreement. The two sides, Mugabe and Movement of Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, actually signed a power-sharing deal last September (following two elections, and accusations of government-sponsored violence and political intimidation) but have since been unable to come to agreement with specifics about cabinet appointments. Back then, the talks were mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. He along with current President Kgalema Motlanthe and Mozambique leader Armando Guebuza will also attend Monday’s meeting to aid the negotiations

Now is not the time to get comfortable. That’s the message Barack Obama is sending out to voters.  “We can’t afford to slow down, or sit back, or let up, for one day, for one minute, for one second in this last week,” the Democratic presidential nominee told supporters in Florida. “Not now. Not now,” Obama said. “We’ve got to work hard.”  And according to The Associated Press, Obama has a point considering “the slippery nature of polls, the Democrats’ history of heartbreak, the still-to-be-determined effect of race, the desire not to jinx himself.” Despite all the polling pointing in his favor, there is still a feeling in his campaign that anything can happen on Election Day.   Click here for BET.com’s Election Day coverage.

Bra-stuffing senator is allegedly taped accepting bribes.

She was allegedly caught on tape stuffing bribe money into her bra. Now, federal authorities are investigating who else may have been involved in the scandal. Embattled Boston area state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson – an eight-term incumbent – was arrested at her Roxbury home and charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes, including 10 $100 bills that she was videotaped allegedly stuffing into her bra during a meeting at a tony Boston restaurant last June, reports ABC News. The federal probe into the embattled Massachusetts state senator has expanded to include three Boston City Council members, the state senate president and several state liquor board officials, according to ABC News.  Hours after Wilkerson’s arrest, Boston City Hall was hit with a number of subpoenas and FBI agents assigned to the public corruption unit interviewed City Council President Maureen Feeney and Councilor Chuck Turner. A spokesman for Feeney denied any wrongdoing on the part of the council president. ABC was unable to reach Turner for comment.Former Virginia governor asks for voting-hour extension. Former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, who is now mayor of Richmond, Va., is asking the state to extend voting hours to accommodate the record number of voters who are expected to show up at polling places next Tuesday. “Let’s do everything we can now,” he told local media. Wilder is recommending that voting hours be extended three hours, until 10 p.m.  The NAACP also earlier this week filed a lawsuit against Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine that claimed Virginia was not ready to handle the onslaught of new voters. The venerable civil rights group also wants extended voting hours as well as voting machines to be switched around to precincts most likely to have long waiting lines.  State officials say they are prepared to handle all voters who show up on Tuesday. A federal judge hears the NAACP case in Richmond later today.   

NAACP sues Va. over voting preparedness

. The Virginia NAACP sued Gov. Tim Kaine and state election officials on Monday, claiming that the state is “inadequately prepared”  to handle the record numbers of voters expected to turn out in next week’s presidential election. The complaint was filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Richmond and says state officials have not set up enough polling sites to keep up with the turnout. “The allocation of polling place resources is plainly irrational, non-uniform and likely discriminatory,” the suit states. Read the rest here.

Voters throughout the South are overwhelming the polls

. Unprecedented numbers of early voters in Florida and other southern states are prompting election officials to add equipment, extend schedules and urge patience. About 150,000 people cast ballots in Florida, a key swing state, on Monday and Tuesday, the first two days of early voting. The Sunshine State is again a focal point of the election, with its 27 prized electoral votes up for grabs – 10 percent of the 270 needed to clinch the election. The state’s disputed election in 2000 gave the presidency to George W. Bush. This year, Republican John McCain and Democrat Obama are locked in head-to-head battle. The excitement over this year’s election has prompted hundreds of early voters to line up to cast their ballots in states nationwide, including in several key battleground states like Florida, Ohio and Nevada. Voters in every state can cast early ballots and results won’t be released until Nov. 4. About a third of the entire electorate is expected to vote early this year. In North Carolina, which also has 15 electoral votes, more than a half-million people have cast ballots, prompting at least one county to add several days to the schedule at a handful of sites. Metro Atlanta polling sites are reporting thousands of voters piling into the centers each day, with two-hour waits in some places. Georgia has 15 electoral votes up for grabs, and early voting there has doubled since that of 2004, officials report. Some 825,000 had cast their ballots by Wednesday, which amounts to about 15 percent of Georgia’s registered voters, The Associated Press reports.

Obama stretches on McCain.

After several months of a virtual tie, Sen. Barack Obama has begun to surge past his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain. The latest Associated Press poll shows that the thin man from Illinois is really beginning to strike a cord with his message of change. Obama now has a 7-point margin among likely voters, the poll reveals. The shift is notable, given that the two men have been shadowing each other in polls even before their respective party conventions. Until now – as the public is bombarded with news of a financial tsunami, rising job losses and an intra-Republican implosion ignited by a vice presidential candidate who daily provides late-night comedians with enough material for a lifetime – Obama and McCain have traded skimpy 1- to 3-point leads that fall within the margin of error. And aside from his 48 -to 41 lead, Obama is pummeling McCain in several key battleground states, such as Florida, Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Associated Press reports that Republican leaders are beginning to bend McCain’s ear over concerns that his candidacy could be dissolving. On the other hand, Democrats are expressing optimism that Obama’s 7 points could swell in coming weeks as Nov. 4 gets closer. “We have a light optimism,” said David Redlawsk, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who teaches political science at the University of Iowa. “We’ve already learned in the last several weeks that we can be whipsawed back very, very quickly.”