The Republican Jewish Coalition is taking responsibility for those calls to Jewish voters that asked offensive questions about Barack Obama.

Ben Smith reports:

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf of Senator John McCain, sponsored the poll to “understand why Barack Obama continues to have a problem among Jewish voters,” the group’s executive director, Matt Brooks, told Politico. …

“What we did is test, in standard polling methodology, a number of factual issues that have been reported on in the press and are policy positions to see how they’re resonating in the Jewish community,” said Brooks. “The notion that this is a ‘push poll’ is offensive to us.”

Brooks said the RJC, whose board includes advisors and fundraisers for Senator John McCain, had placed 750 calls to Jewish voters in five states: Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

As I said earlier today, this didn’t look like a push poll, although the campaign the RJC launches based on the questions it’s asking may be just as repugnant.

Sarah Palin is having trouble keeping her stories straight about why she fired her public safety director in Trooper-Gate.

At one point, she went so far as to say she hadn’t fired him at all: he’d quit. But now, with help from the McCain campaign, she’s come up with a new justification for what is again being called a firing: insubordination.

And what, you ask, did he do that was supposedly insubordinate? He was too aggressive in trying to go after sex offenders, specifically child molesters. Seriously.

It seems that with the latest economic meltdown John McCain finally realized he had to start running as a populist. This morning he hit all six network talk shows to share the talking points like so much wealth …

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Terry McAuliffe will be campaigning for Obama across Virginia (where McAuliffe also happens to be considering running for governor).

The Indoor Tanning Association comes to Sarah Palin’s defense (via Yglesias):

While partisan bloggers and the sun scare industry will use this as an opportunity to undermine Gov. Palin and demonize the indoor tanning industry, the fact is that Governor Palin’s decision to get UV light from a tanning bed positively impacts her health.

“Moderate amounts of indoor tanning allow Governor Palin to experience the many health benefits that come with exposure to UV light,” said Dan Humiston, President of the Indoor Tanning Association. “Especially in dreary northern locations like Alaska, indoor tanning can help guard against wintertime depression and ward off diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency.”

“Kudos to Governor Palin for standing up to dermatologists and other members of the sun scare industry who are trying to frighten Americans away from UV light.”

Late Update: Hmmm … is the Dan Humiston quoted above also the Dan Humiston (R) who ran for Congress in New York this year? So it appears. (Thanks to TPM Reader JL for the link.)