Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
Matt Yglesias offers these Pew poll results as a rejoinder to those of us who think a win for Obama isn’t a mandate for his policies. Says Matt, “The voters felt they had a choice between a liberal and a conservative, and felt they preferred the liberal and his policy agenda.” Well . . . [...]
Steven Taylor notes that, Barack Obama notwithstanding, change isn’t always a good thing. He breezed through the lines in Montgomery, Alabama. Speaking of optical scan ballots—thank goodness for them, or we would have likely had to wait for hours. Had we had to use voting machines (as we did in 2004), there would have been [...]
Somebody, whether Drudge or some other site, will likely leak the election results sometime this afternoon. While they’re impossible to ignore, you should do exactly that. Rasmussen reminds us: The bottom line is that in every state we polled–Colorado, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia– Democrats are a lot more eager to take exit [...]
Stories from RedState, Strata-Sphere and elsewhere that the massive early voting so far isn’t going overwhelmingly for Barack Obama as expected have Memeorandum abuzz. While it’s understandable that John McCain supporters are grasping for any good news they can find, the idea that California is “very tight,” let alone that “in the less liberal states [...]
My home county is routinely throwing out absentee ballots from overseas military because of a technicality in the law. Fairfax General Registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he had had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then-state [...]
A story in the print edition of Sports Illustrated on the sale of Brett Favre’s house in Green Bay captured my attention. I can’t find it online but it appears to have taken its cue from an October 2 piece in the Green Bay Press-Gazette. There’s no “for sale” sign in front of the ranch-style [...]
It never fails that, as Election Day draws close, the supporters of the candidate trailing in the polls start telling us that the polls aren’t accurate. Part of this is Pauline Kaelism, with most people associating with likeminded people and therefore floored that more than half the country could possibly prefer the other guy when [...]
Sarah Palin caused a bit of a flap earlier in the week when she told a North Carolina crowd that she loved visiting the “pro-America” parts of the country, leading WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin to quip, “No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.” The campaign circulated a longer report, courtesy of WSJ’s Elizabeth Holmes, [...]
Experts are preparing for a third straight presidential election with serious difficulties in administering and counting the votes. While the two campaigns Tuesday accused one another of trying to steal or suppress votes, experts in election administration are focusing on the old standbys: Faulty machines, questionable voter lists, last-minute litigation. The likely trouble spots, the [...]
Tonight’s third and final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama is the last scheduled opportunity for the candidates to make an impression on the voters. Election Day is less than three weeks away and, by the looks of things, McCain needs a miracle. According to the poll averages at RealClearPolitics, McCain is getting crushed. [...]
Victor Davis Hanson has a piece out today that I suspect will be the first of many of its kind. Intermixed with some excellent points about the perception of McCain campaign negativity, the politics of race, and scandalmongering, he aims this cheap shot at Republicans who have expressed dismay at McCain or even endorsed his [...]
The polls completed over the weekend vary wildly but Barack Obama is averaging a lead of 4.5 points over John McCain: Given that I predicted, before the Democratic Convention got underway, that Obama would get a bounce of “between four and five points,” I’m not terribly surprised. I would have predicted a similar bounce for [...]
John McCain has taken the lead for the first time in the RealClearPolitics Electoral College projection, with a 274 to 264 margin, when tossups are included. (Barack Obama’s still up 228 to 178 in states with solid margins.) Now, this is one projection. Electoral-Vote.com still has Virginia tied and therefore has the race at Obama [...]
Eric Cantor, a fourth-term Congressman from Richmond, Virginia, is being strongly considered as John McCain’s running mate, Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin report for Politico. Cantor, 45, has provided records to the running-mate search team of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the adviser said. With a Southern lilt and that belies his talent for raw politics, [...]
A young aide to Senator Jim Webb was found dead along a Virginia highway yesterday morning. Authorities in Botetourt County [Virginia] this [Tuesday] morning discovered the body of a well-known Democratic operative and U.S. Senate aide along U.S. 220, dead from an apparent gunshot wound. The body of Frederick W. Hutchins Jr., 26, of Roanoke [...]