Washington, Oct.20 (ANI): Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has added over 150 million dollars in September to his campaign kitty.

His campaign released this figure on Sunday, a day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission.

According to a FOX News report, Obama's money is fueling a vast campaign operation in an expanding field of competitive states. It also has underwritten a wave of both national and targeted video advertising unseen before in a presidential contest.

Campaign manager David Plouffe, in an e-mail to supporters Sunday morning, said the campaign had added 632,000 new donors in September, for a total of 3.1 million contributors to the campaign. He said the average donation was 86 dollars.

The Democratic National Committee, moments later, announced that it raised 49.9 million dollars and had 27.5 million dollars in the bank at the start of October.

The party has been raising money through joint fundraising events with Obama and can use the money to assist his candidacy.

Obama's numbers are possible because he opted out of the public financing system for the fall campaign. McCain, the Republican nominee, chose to participate in the system, which limits him to 84 million dollars for the September-October stretch before the election.

Obama's monthly figure pushed his total fundraising to 605 million dollars. No presidential candidate has ever run such an expensive campaign. His campaign raised 65 million dollars in August, his previous best.

Earlier, Obama had initially promised to accept public financing if McCain did, but changed his mind after setting primary fundraising records.

His extraordinary fundraising is bound to set a new standard in politics that could doom the taxpayer-paid system. With his money, and a favorable political wind at his back, Obama has secured his foothold in states that have voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past. But he has also been able to expand the contest to reliably Republican states, forcing McCain and the Republican Party to spend their money defensively. (ANI)

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Washington, Oct.20 (ANI): Aides to Barack Obama and John McCain are being briefed on national security threats well before inauguration day.

For the first time in American history, according to Fox News, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is vetting members of the next administration in an effort to make sure that staff members of John McCain or Barack Obama are ready to handle any national security threats, which ever one of them takes over as president.

Though no specific threats are evident at this time, some members of the intelligence community say terror groups love to target countries during transition periods. They point to terror attacks that came as Gordon Brown took over as Britain's new prime minister, and the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2003, that happened just before a major election there as examples of the vulnerability of new administrations.

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten reportedly held a meeting this week with senior White House staffers and representatives from both the McCain and Obama camps. The goal was to make sure everyone knows of the latest threats and has the information they need before inauguration day on January 20, 2009.

"One of them is going to win the election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues as they take over office. So, it's only prudent for us to make sure that we get them the information that we think they need," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said during her Friday briefing.

This year, the presidential transition coordinating council-brought together by President Bush-has gotten started at its earliest date ever with the aim of preventing the next president from being caught in the same dilemma Bush faced on September 11. 2001.he incoming administration will have more than 1,100 political appointees that will have to be approved by the Senate. That takes time.

Obama's team has reportedly given special emphasis to not only being ready for national security threats but also being seen as being ready-as a message to anyone who would hope to take advantage of the transition of power.

Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta is heading up about a dozen different groups to organize the future potential administration.

On the other side of the ticket, dozens of potential McCain staffers are also undergoing FBI vetting, though transition planning on the McCain side is believed to be occurring on a much smaller scale than the Obama camp. (ANI)

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Fayetteville (North Carolina, US), Oct.20 (ANI): Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has rubbished the McCain campaign's oft-repeated charge that he is promoting a brand of socialism and welfare that could have dangerous implications for the future of the United States.

Taking McCain head on at a rally here on Sunday, Obama forcefully, called McCain's tactics "the oldest trick in the book," a scare tactic, and nothing more than name calling.

"Socialism!" he said incredulously to a crowd of more than 10,000. "It's kind of hard to figure how Warren Buffet endorsed me. Colin Powell endorses me and John McCain thinks I'm passing socialism," he said with more than a hint of disbelief.

Obama repeated what he has been saying all along-that he would implement a tax cut for those making under 250,000 dollars - 95 percent of Americans.

"John McCain thinks that giving these Americans a break is socialism. Well I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that," Fox News quoted Obama, as saying.

Obama said that if McCain wanted to have a debate about redistributing wealth, he was ready for it.

He said the Republican nominee's plan of giving tax breaks to those who don't need it and don't deserve it was completely flawed.

"Let's talk about the 100 million middle-class Americans who John McCain doesn't want to give a single dime of tax relief. Don't tell me that CEOs and oil companies deserve a tax break before the men and women who are working overtime day after day and still can't pay the bills," Obama said as the crowd cheered.

Obama asked those in the crowd to raise their hands if they made under 250,000 dollars and then promised them - nearly every single person in the arena - they would not see a dime of tax increases. For those making more than that, he promised to put rates back where they were under Bill Clinton's administration.

"We have tried it George Bush's way. We've given more and more to those with the most and hoped that prosperity would trickle down to everyone else. And guess what? It didn't work. So it's time try something new," he said. (ANI)

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Washington, Oct.20 (ANI): Both Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his republican rival John McCain are reportedly banking on every early vote they can secure in key battleground states to win their respective bids for the White House a fortnight from now.

According to Fox News, McCain is, however, more selectively working to lock in the early votes of his most iffy supporters, figuring the rest will make it to the polls sooner or later.oters in every state can now cast ballots through early voting or absentee voting programs. Results won't be released until November 4, but it seems the Democrats have been aggressive.

In Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, Democrats-or at least those living in heavily emocratic areas-are requesting and submitting ballots in large numbers. In Florida, Republicans hold an edge, while in Indiana, absentee voting has been split among Republican and Democratic areas.

President Bush won all six states in 2004, and McCain probably needs to win them all to claim the White House this year. The early voting snapshot, taken more than two weeks before Election Day, illustrates the strategies and strengths of both presidential campaigns.bama is pushing early voting on a grand scale, in speeches, e-mails, a Web site and even ads placed inside video games. Eighteen video games, including the extremely popular

"Guitar Hero" and "Madden 09," will feature in-game ads from the Obama campaign.epublicans, meanwhile, are targeting supporters who don't always vote in presidential elections, believing they can get more reliable voters to the polls on November 4.

Obama could win the absentee vote race in some competitive states, but Republicans are hoping McCain will more than make up the difference on Election Day.

Nationwide, about a third of the electorate is expected to vote early this year, thanks to expanded early voting provisions and fewer restrictions on absentee voting. That would be up from 22 percent in 2004 and 16 percent in 2000.

Absentee voting used to be reserved mainly for people who were unable to make it to the polls on Election Day, whether they were too sick to travel, away on business or serving in the military. This year, more than 30 states allow any registered voter to cast an early ballot, some in person and others by mail.

Election officials in many states report high demand for absentee ballots. As of last Wednesday, about 300,000 voters had requested absentee ballots in Iowa, with registered Democrats requesting about 60,000 more ballots than registered Republicans.

Early voting in Ohio has sparked controversy, with Republicans challenging the legality of a weeklong period at the start of October when Ohioans could register and vote on the same day. State and federal courts upheld the voting window, and some Democrats predicted tens of thousands of college students would register and vote for Obama all in one step.

But only 13,141 voters went to the polls during the period, leading Republicans to mockingly dub it "Golden Week."

In North Carolina, more than 200,000 voters went the polls in the first two days of early voting, last Thursday and Friday. Some 62 percent were registered Democrats while 22 percent were registered Republicans.

In Georgia, more than 540,000 ballots had already been cast as of Wednesday, eclipsing the total number of early voters in 2004. Georgia doesn't track absentee ballots by political party, but many of those votes were in the Democratic strongholds of metropolitan Atlanta.lso, black voters, who overwhelmingly support Obama, made up a disproportionately high percentage of Georgia's early voters, accounting for 37 percent. Blacks represent 29 percent of the state's 5.6 million registered voters.

Polls show Obama trailing McCain in Georgia, but a high turnout among black voters could make the race more competitive.

In Florida, a perennial battleground, voters had requested more than 1.6 million absentee ballots, with registered Republicans requesting about 220,000 more ballots than Democrats, according to numbers compiled by both political parties.

Early voting is becoming more popular because voters like the convenience, campaigns want to bank votes and election workers want to ease crowding on Election Day, Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, was quoted, as saying. (ANI)

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