If you’ve been following the Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota than you know things have gotten strange and rather ugly for Coleman in recent days.

Yesterday a video was posted on MNpublius.com of investigative reporter’s attempting to ask Norm Coleman a question about money his wife received. As you can see, Coleman clearly did not want to answer these questions and was hurried into SUV’s to flee the scene.

In the final days of his competitive race, what is Norm Coleman hiding from?

And he’s funny as ever!

It’s the October Surprise we’ve all been waiting for.

It’s being reported that new footage has been released from John McCain’s captivity in Vietnam. This footage is from French TV and includes a short interview where McCain gets very emotional while sending a message to his wife.

I have not yet gotten confirmation about when this film was released or whether it’s actually brand new, but for many of us who have been expecting some new footage to surface: this is the October surprise.

Unless The Onion has bought The Washington Post, this is actually a real quote:

Palin said if she and husband Todd had had a sixth child, they had already picked a name for a boy joining siblings Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

“I always wanted a son named Zamboni,” she said.

She also calls herself an intellectual in the article. No word yet if she knows the definition of the word.

(h/t tmrly)

Now THIS is a closing argument.

Remember $400 haircuts? Let’s start doing some multiplication. First, Politico reports:

The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Despite the obvious hypocrisy of an average hockey mom spending $150 grand on clothing in the midst of an economic crisis, Huffington Post points out some harder numbers:

Palin’s fashion budget for several weeks was more than four times the median salary of an American plumber ($37,514). To put it another way: Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people.

And even those few Republicans who still have principles aren’t happy about this as Ambinder points out that $150,000 is “one good week of television time in Colorado.” Off the record Republicans are supposedly “utter[ly] disgusted.”

Yet somehow, we still live in a Conservative America. November 5th is going to be an interesting day.

Last night, Sens. McCain and Obama met for the Al Smith Dinner in New York City. Pretty funny stuff. Here’s the video series. Enjoy.

Obama - Part 1:

Obama - Part 2:

McCain - Part 1:

McCain - Part 2: