The pictures the JT wouldn't show you

Partisans with signs chanting outside the Johnson Building Thursday

OK, we'll admit the obvious up front: We didn't go downtown while ABC-TV was broadcasting its evening news show with Charlie Gibson from Downtown Thursday night. Instead, we stayed home and watched the broadcast, hoping to see Racine get some positive national publicity. Yeah, so much for that idea.

But we knew -- from the Journal Times' story -- that election partisans crowded the street in front of the building. Reporter Stephanie Brien described how only the Obama supporters could be heard up on the balcony where the broadcast was to be made, and how police closed two blocks of Main Street because ABC producers thought car horns would disrupt the broadcast, and how Police Chief Kurt Wahlen was "amazed" when the crowd acceded to his request for quiet during the broadcast.

But despite the JT's report of a chanting crowd -- perhaps as many as 300 Obama supporters and 25 McCainiacs, is what we've heard -- the newspaper didn't run any pictures of them. The local photographer who sent us these pictures said she asked the JT's photographer on the scene what he thought of the crowd, and he replied that he thought they were "rude."

So, lesson noted: If you want your picture in the paper, don't be rude... or carry an Obama sign.

McCain trumps local interview; polls go for Obama

Three new polls show Democrat Barack Obama opening up bigger leads over Republican John McCain in Wisconsin, even as the latter spends more time in the state.

McCain and his vice presidential running-mate Sarah Palin will be campaigning together in Waukesha Thursday morning, before she then goes off to Ohio and he to Mosinee near Wausau. McCain will stay in the state overnight, holding a rally in La Crosse Friday morning.

Sometime Thursday, McCain will be interviewed by Charlie Gibson of ABC-TV's World News, who is broadcasting the 5:30 national news program from Racine. At least that's what we hear from Doug Nicholson, owner of the Ivanhoe Pub, who was scheduled to be interviewed by Gibson ... but has now been cancelled in favor of the presidential candidate himself. Oh, well. Doug tells us the McCain interview will take place in Milwaukee ... so no return engagement in Racine for McCain this time.

And now the three polls, all of which come up with a 10-point lead for Obama:

The WISC-TV poll, conducted Sunday and Monday, shows Obama 51% of the likely vote to McCain's 41%.

The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey puts the race at 54% to 44%.

SurveyUSA's poll for WGBA-TV in Green Bay has it 52% to 42%, with Obama leading everywhere except Greater Milwaukee and among Pro-Life voters.