He’s posting updates to the Twitter page of the county Elections Office. Those updates are also available at the county’s elections Web site. Not much information from Slocum so far, although he has been able to confirm that it is, indeed, cold and crowded in D.C. today.

It may be that he’s had trouble posting due to an overloaded cell phone network. We’ll follow up with him to find out.

Slocum has also posted some photos taken with this iPhone on his Flickr page.

On a “local spirit” note, we overheard a mother today telling her young daughter, who looked to be about 3 years old, over lunch at Pancho Villa in San Mateo that when they get home tonight they’ll bake an apple pie as part of Obama Dinner Night.

Meanwhile, Obama’s speech today showed that Rep. Jackie Speier may have been spot-on when we spoke to her last week about how the new president would proceed with his economic stimulus plan.

We asked her whether she was concerned Obama would buckle in response to Republican complaints about major deficit spending. She said Obama has learned from history that going small would be a mistake:

“He is a real student of history, both in his reference to the ‘team of rivals’ that Lincoln was famous for and for his study of FDR’s approach to dealing with the Great Depression.

If we have learned anything from that time, it is that after the stock market dissolved in 1929, fiscal and monetary policies became very restrictive, and that sent us into the Great Depression.

“And it wasn’t until the policies of the New Deal were instituted later that the country began to pull out of it. I think he’s really reading history and wants to makes sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes.”

In his inaugural address, Obama made Speier look quite prescient:

“Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

McCain and running mate Sarah Palin have made a major issue of Ayers recently on the campaign trail, but McCain didn’t bring up the subject during the second debate, despite the urging of many Republicans.

Afterward, Obama and running mate Joe Biden subtly and then not-so-subtly taunted McCain for lacking the gumption to bring up the association to Obama’s face. McCain practically boiled with rage when Charles Gibson of ABC News repeated what Obama had said.

Now that McCain’s been provoked, will he talk about Ayers? Perhaps moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS, whose June interview with Wes Clark has made him a member of Talking Points Memo’s “Tire Swing” club, will bring it up on his own.

Either way, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, isn’t particularly concerned. When we spoke with her last week, she said the country’s desperate economic condition has rendered the Ayers issue irrelevant. People just aren’t interested, she said.

“I think it’s meaningless,” said Eshoo (pictured above). “I don’t think the American people are in the mood for the day-in and day-out junk of campaigns. They are worried sick about their own state of affairs and that the country is practically on its knees right now.”

“In the context of the stock market dropping,” she continued, “do you think that anyone in this country — even if they know who Bill Ayers is — cares?”

Some people clearly do care. But there’s mounting evidence that the attacks on Barack Obama’s character just aren’t working.

As for why McCain hasn’t brought it up in a debate, Eshoo thinks “he’s embarrassed to — he knows that in a candidate forum he would embarrass himself.”

McCain has had occasion to look feel embarassed recently, though for other reasons.

But we think that embarassment won’t stop him from referring to Ayers tonight. It’s desperation mode for the McCain campaign. The only reason he won’t bring it up is if his campaign has decided it would do more harm than good, politically.

Didn’t have time to post this Insider item here on Friday. Since it previewed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s appearance Sunday at a GOP fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency SFO in Burlingame, we’ll run it in a shorter, modified form with some additional comments thrown in.

First, a couple things we noticed from MediaNews (and San Jose Mercury News) reporter Mary Ann Ostrom’s account of the event.

According to Ostrom, Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel introduced Palin to the crowd by saying, in part, “Sarah Palin carries the flag of outrage … for each of us who cries out, ‘We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore.’”

Whuh? What are Tom and these people he’s referring to mad about? The last eight years of leadership under President George W. Bush? The Congress that’s been led by a Republican majority for six out of the past eight years? (And effectively filibustered by a Republican minority the past two years, on those occasions when Congressional Democrats weren’t kowtowing to the president’s demands.)

Tom and Sarah’s being mad about the status quo in Washington makes about as much sense as John McCain’s declaring that Obama is “angry,” when McCain lately has looked like he’s about to pop at the seams.

Palin reportedly got a good laugh during the fundraiser with a line about Tina Fey, who’s been parodying her recently on “Saturday Night Live,” saying she’s giving Tina Fey good “job security.”

Except not really, because Tina Fey has been playing her on “SNL,” a show for which she no longer works. In a broad sense, you could argue that Fey’s crushing portrayals of Palin have elevated her already brilliant career to new heights. But it’s not like she was scuffling. She’s won a slew of Emmys and Golden Globes for her new show, “30 Rock,” though TV ratings remain low. It’s a minor point, but we can’t resist the urge not to give Palin credit for anything.

Before the event, we offered some suggestions for Palin supporters who wanted to bring signs: “Moose. It’s what’s for dinner.” “Hockey moms do it without protection.” “Peninsulans 4 empty catchphrases.” “Seriously, we’re having moose. Dig in.”

Below are a few examples of what people, pro- and anti-Palin alike, actually came up with.

On a separate note, we pointed out following Thursday’s vice presidential debate between Palin and Sen. Joe Biden that you could tell the McCain camp tried hard to come up with a zinger for Palin that would resonate with viewers of Thursday’s debate and dominate the postdebate spin sessions.

Their best shot appeared to be “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” (Palin seemed to telegraph her team’s intentions when she immediately went on to quote Ronald Reagan’s famous quip to Jimmy Carter, “There you go again.”)

But Palin’s attempt at lighthearted chops-busting fell with a bit of thud, partly because of her hurried delivery and partly due to the fact that it was followed, in a way that seemed overdone, by the Reagan line and “doggone it.” It felt shoehorned into the discussion.

The Insider got the impression of someone who’s got a really good card but, fearing she won’t get another good chance to play it, plays it too early, in a situation that doesn’t quite call for it.

The problem with trying to rehearse lines like that is they are, at their best, unrehearsed. In a 1989 interview with Jim Lehrer, Reagan claimed he came up with his iconic takedown of Carter on the spot.

“Saturday Night Live” took note of her scriptoquips as well. When Fey, as Palin, walks out and shakes Joe Biden’s hand, she says, “Hey, can I call you Joe? Okay, ’cause I’ve practiced a couple zingers where i call you Joe.”

(That was probably the best skit of the night, but “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals” gave it some good competition.)

In fairness to Palin, she held up pretty well against Biden, though her winking, aw-shucks delivery — as a substitute for actual information — wore thin by the end. Some (Republicans) would even say she won the debate, while others (everybody else) would disagree. But most people would at least agree that it was closely contested.