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If I can count correctly, todays polls are the first to reflect McCain's decision to suspend his campaign.

This is turning into a slaughter.  

by ATinNM on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 02:54:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A slaughter isn't enough. to even begin to unwind this stuff, people should face trial for crimes against the constitution, including half the USSC.

There should be an augean scale clearout

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:11:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The entire Bush administration needs to be shipped to the Hague to stand trial for War Crimes.

Not Going to Happen.

Even the "augean scale clearout" isn't going to happen.  The US is going to be dealing with Bushies in the Federal Bureaucracy for decades to come.  

Most likely for the rest of my life.  sigh

by ATinNM on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:27:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
One can hope that enough of them are authoritarian followers that, if their side is defeated and they are left without support, they'll lose their nerve and either quit, or convert.
by Zwackus on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 05:38:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  We don't know if this lead is going to hold up.

Still need ten Senate seats.

If we can hold the ones Nate has us winning, and then add Hagan, Franken, and Lunsford, we'll have made it to 60 if you count Lieberman.  I kind of think Obama's going to at least get close enough in NC to allow Hagan to pull it off.  And I kind of think Franken's going to pull it off in Minnesota.

Lunsford's race in Kentucky will be tough, but the capacity is there.  He ought to hammer McConnell on the economy and Wall Street.

Need Musgrove to come through in Mississippi to get to 61.  We already know from polling that it can be done, but it's a damned hard one.

Things are moving though.  Watch the race in Georgia between Chambliss and Martin.  I think the race tightening there, if it does, will be what tells you we've got a real shot at 60 seats (without Lieberman).  I don't think we can win that seat, but a loss in the mid- to high-single digits probably means we get the above ones.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:28:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, you're right. Even assuming that McCain has dropped over the event horizon, the Senate seats matter as well. Jeez, why is it so hard to win 10 more seats. Repugs should be falling over everywhere.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:58:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The second hardest task in US politics is knocking off an incumbent Senator.  It is almost impossible.  (And Lord knows I've helped try.)  

Second, if you look at the map on Pollster.com (here) and look at the solid McCain states (2 Senators per state) that translates into a bedrock of 35 GOP Senate seats with a potential maximum of 40.

There's very little slop available.

by ATinNM on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:20:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The Senate races are actually moving even faster for us than the presidential.

Kay Hagan, for example, shot up to a six-point lead in North Carolina while Obama began coming in at a tie or perhaps a slight lead.  My guess is that Hagan may be approaching double digits now, and that Obama might -- might -- be seeing something akin to the Virginia numbers from last week.

Certainly if Obama wins the state, I expect Hagan to win handily.  All he's really got to do is keep it close enough to the point that he can't drag on her at all.  She might even help him get over the finish line.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:28:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, first round to fully reflect the suspension.  First round to reflect one day's worth of polling on the debate.  Gallup and R2K are picking up an Obama bounce last night.  We'll see if it continues with Ras and Diageo picking it up tomorrow.

If it spreads out to a 10- or 12-point lead, I think we can start talking about a slaughter.

That said, a seven-point win is a pretty big win looking at the last twenty years or so.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:19:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
With the Pacific Coast, New England, and the ACELA states going Obama the national trackers may be skewing higher than a reasonable EV count.  Countering this is the McCain dominance in the deep south.  

We need to start giving more emphasis on the state polls.  Tis there where: rubber meet road.

by ATinNM on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 03:54:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
We need more state polls from the good pollsters.  Ras pretty reliably gets us a poll per week from the big states.  SUSA needs to get off its ass.  So does Quinnipiac.

Nate's got Obama above 80% to win now, with 325 EVs on average.  Florida has flipped, along with Indiana.  (That's actually 349 EVs.)  North Carolina and Missouri are down to 1.1 and 1.7 leads for McCain, respectively.

Impossible not to love that the incredible trend has continued.  Look at this damned thing:



Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:17:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Did some figuring from the information on the Pollster.com site.

They have:

Solid Dem: 229 EVs.

Battleground:

Colorado (9,) Florida (27,) Indiana (11,) Minnesota (10,) New Hampshire (3,) Nevada (5,) Ohio (20,) Pennsylvania (21,) Virginia (13) for a total of 119 EVs.

Need to tip:

Missouri (11) and W. Virginia (5) for 16.

Outside Chance:

Montana (3,) North Dakota (3,) and Nebraska 2nd Congressional (1) for 7.

Giving an estimated Upper Limit of 371 EVs as of today.

In theory Obama could take Texas (34) and Arizona (10) with a massive AA turnout and if the Latino vote swings hard for a grand total of 415 EVs.  But that, as far as I can see is it.

by ATinNM on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:37:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ultimately, I think we're going to get Virginia and Colorado.  (I suspect we're seeing the same thing in VA that we saw in the primaries: Slightly underestimated turnout for young people and significantly underestimated turnout and share of black folks.)  I think Minnesota, Pennsylvania and NH come home (should look better in all three once we get some more polling).

It gets tougher after that, but that gets us to 286.

I think we're better than 50/50 to take Nevada.  That brings us to 291.

The rest -- your guess is as good as mine.  We'd need about 75% of the Latino vote to put Tejas in play and balance out the white vote.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:48:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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