The Houston Chronicle continues to report on the back-room preparations for the 2010 elections in Texas. As we have previously noted multiple times (among them here and here), how the election cycle unfolds really revolves around what happens in the governor's race. There seems to be little doubt that Perry is going to try for an unprecedented third term, but there are a few things still up in the air:

Now that the McCain/Palin ticket found the bottom of the downward spiral to an electoral defeat of Mondale proportions, journalists, campaign operatives, and others looking to make names for themselves are all sagely pointing the finger of blame at Sarah Palin. Granted, she made things easier; I will enjoy few things more than seeing her consigned to the Dan Quayle Institute of Forgotten Novelty Candidates. One thing that she did not do, however, was cost the Republicans the election.

Why are you paying so much attention to your television? Watching minute-by-minute changes in Idaho won't change who ends up winning the presidential election. And inauguration still won't happen until next year. Just make an early night of it and pick up the paper tomorrow.

What, you're going to bite your nails and watch anyway? Yeah, we will too. To give a little order to your Election Night madness, here's the Blue's guide to national races this year.

I wanted to introduce this post with a riddle, but the punchline was too juicy not to use in the subject heading. The New York Times decided to go through the FEC reports from McCain/Palin 2008 and see what they could find. Highlights:

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staffer. It was Amy Strozzi, Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment."

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Alaska governor Sarah Palin has not gotten very good press for her first few days in her new role as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Some has revolved around the TrooperGate scandal she's at the epicenter of in her state. Some has revolved around her incredibly short time in public office and absolute lack of experience or qualification to be a heartbeat away from the role of President of the United States. And some, against the urging of Republicans and Democrats throughout America, has focused on Sarah Palin's children.

We are in agreement with Senator Obama that a candidate's family should be off limits to political attacks. But the way the McCain campaign has dealt with the issue are much more of a story than Palin's kids ever were. So to cover the subject and be done with it, here are the two things you should know about it, from the mainstream media themselves:

When party lines are drawn and an election looks close, the end result often hinges on turnout. Much has been made about the enthusiasm of Obama supporters compared to the collective apathy of McCain backers. Still, the polls say it's close. Having known this all along, the Obama campaign has something up their sleeve: organizing African-American turnout. Sure, this is no secret, but will all of this organizing make a difference or is it all a mirage? The answer is, it's real.

On December 26, 2004 the water off the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand began receding. Some people recognized the receding sea as a warning and headed toward higher ground. Many others oblivious to the imminent danger ventured out on to the coast to investigate the rare sight. What followed was a deadly tsunami that swept up and killed close to a quarter million people. The warning signs were there, but few too many people understood what was about to happen.

While the Texas state races are heating up, there's one national congressional seat that should be getting more attention. Democratic challenger Larry Joe Doherty looks to be making a strong contention for the seat held by incumbent congressman Michael McCaul (R) in Congressional District 10.