News

• According to a New York Times report today, the McCain campaign’s hope for a comeback in this election rests on grabbing the electoral vote-rich state of Pennsylvania. Despite independent polls showing a double-digit advantage for Obama, McCain’s surrogates claim the spread is only within seven or eight percent. While Pennsylvania is, according to McCain’s logic, the Republicans’ best hope of turning a blue state red, many red states are more realistically within grasp of the Democrats. Colorado, Nevada and Iowa have all begun to lean Democrat, giving McCain little hope of winning the White House. Will this trend reverse before Election Day?

Technology

• Apple announced fourth quarter earnings Tuesday, reporting a $1.14 billion profit. Steve Jobs made a rare appearance during the earnings call, making some interesting comments related to some of Apple’s ambitions toward netbooks, which are computers designed solely for surfing the Web. Jobs also made some glowing comments about the company’s booming mobile phone business, which surpassed Research In Motion’s own Blackberry, the once undisputed ruler of smart phones.

Politics

• In case you haven’t noticed, Barack Obama is kicking some new media butt as well as mopping up those electoral votes. This month saw the release of an Obama iPhone app, which connects supporters to information from the campaign. Social networking has also played a prominent role in Obama’s campaign. But nothing compares to this: The Obama campaign has launched a Barack o’ lantern initiative, urging supports to carve campaign messages into pumpkins this Halloween. Pictured below is my friend Braniff’s pumpkin. I’m uncertain what role Turtle, the cat, played in the construction, but I assume he watches over the pumpkin in case it falls prey to McCain trick-or-treaters.