CONTAINING LINKS TO 1280 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS
     COMMENTS: Stock Market Buying Spree Falls Short

The economy or the election? The election or the economy? On a day when ABC and CBS both decided to lead from Wall Street because the stock market enjoyed an 11% surge in buying, Campaign '08 still managed to come out on top. All three newscasts used both of their stump correspondents. NBC kicked off with Barack Obama and followed with John McCain. CBS and ABC chose the reverse pecking order, so McCain marginally qualified as Story of the Day.

Ron Claiborne on ABC found himself a little carried away by the Republican's exuberance: "He is really becoming aggressive…and he also doing some of the most aggressive and spirited campaigning since he started running…McCain was swinging for the fences…in the final days of this long campaign McCain has become especially aggressive…much more fired up these days."

As for the substance of McCain's argument, CBS' Chip Reid concluded that the issue he is counting on is "taxes." McCain interpreted the pledge by Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden that households earning less than $150,000 annually would get a cut in taxes as a loophole in Barack Obama's promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year: "Are you getting an idea of what is on their mind? A little sneak peek? It is interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down." CBS' Dean Reynolds found taxes to be the lone area of Barack Obama's campaign where he noticed "a sense of vulnerability." Obama "pointedly included" in the list of those eligible for a tax cut under his plan "99.9% of plumbers." McCain's focus on taxes was undercut by ABC News' tracking poll, noted George Stephanopoulos: "Obama still maintains a ten-point lead on the issue of taxes." Citing his own candidate Bill Clinton's victorious platform back in 1992, he generalized that "when Democrats win on taxes, they tend to win elections."

That vaunted aggressiveness on the stump notwithstanding, ABC's Claiborne pointed out that "on the ground McCain has not nearly as many troops in the field as Obama." He counted 35 field offices to 50 in North Carolina; 75 paid staffers to 500 in Florida. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell consulted McCain's aides about their get out the vote effort. They called it "a lean but motivated ground game."


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