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Okay, I just saw this ad last night and again this morning and frankly, I can't even concentrate on what he's saying because his face is so orange.
Shame you can't get past the orange face, because what you just posted is quite the rare bird: a McCain ad that doesn't attack Obama.
That ad looks like the campaign he should have been running all along. Unfortunately, back in July he went and put a Karl Rove protégé in charge of his campaign... so now when his campaign does go and try to look the way it ideally should've, it's a case of too little too late.
Perhaps Mac was listening on Monday, when Joe Biden said Mac would probably spend the rest of his life regretting the way he's run his campaign.
I guess what I meant to say is that even when they try a different tactic, his face is orange and he's concentrating too much on the teleprompter. His strategists are floundering and aren't really paying attention to what will work for him, not what works in theory.
I woke up this morning to a text message. My friend Tim, who hosted me while I was out campaigning in New Hampshire, was letting me know Democrats were probably going to take both their Senate & gubernatorial races. That inspired me to take a look at what's going on down-ticket in the yellow states and a few others, which I'm going to share since I'm caffeinated with nothing to do. That, and this category includes some of the more interesting races nationally.
(This is going to get long and wonky, so feel free to skip this)
Why does this matter? State races affect turnout, which can influence the presidential race, and vice versa. It gives some insight as to what to expect from the battleground states. Political types talk about "coat tails," and we can see just how long Obama's might be.
All my data comes from Pollster. So for my purposes, their yellow states are mostly what I used. I trust RealClearPolitics about as much... but none of their people gave me an A on a student government internship back in the day. Anyway, on to what I found perusing the undercard.
States without a gubernatorial/Senate race Nevada: Obama +2.2 Ohio1: Obama +2.5 Florida1: Obama +5.5 Pennsylvania1: Obama +14.8 1 I included FL & PA not because they're swing states, but because it's said one can't become President without winning at least two of these three.
States with a Senate race West Virginia President: McCain +2.8 Senate: Rockefeller (D) +28
Virginia: President: Obama +6.4 Senate: Warner (D) +26
New Mexico2: President: Obama +7.5 Senate: Udall (D) +16
2 NM is particularly interesting this year. Outgoing Republican Pete Domenici is retiring. The three members of the state's House delegation (2Rs & 1D) ran for the open seat. Under state law, an incumbent can't simultaneously run for both House & Senate. As a result, all three NM House seats will see turnover this election.
States with a Gubernatorial race North Dakota: President: McCain 43.7/Obama 43.3 Gov: Hoeven (R) +48
Missouri3: President: Obama 47.9 - McCain 47.8 Gov: Nixon (D) +48 3 It's also been said that Missouri is the bellwether state. It's voted with the winner of every presidential election during probably any of our lifetimes.
States with Senate & Gubernatorial races North Carolina: President: Obama +1.8 Senate45: Hagan (D) 45.9 / Dole (R) 41.0 / Cole (Libertarian) 5.7 Gov5: McCrory (R) 44.1 / Perdue (D) 43.1 / Munger (Libertarian) 3.4 4 This is one of the most interesting Senate races in the country. At the beginning of the year, it seemed that incumbent Elizabeth Dole would be a shoo-in for re-election. 5 Of all the places to have an ascendant Libertarian Party... North Carolina? Really?
Summary I looked at a thirteen states, eight of which had big races down-ticket.
Every state without a down-ticket race (NV, OH, FL & PA) favors Obama. Two of these are yellow states.
The "coat tails" theory seems to be in effect, at least for the most part. McCain leads in the 2/9 states that have a down-ticket Republican leading. He is the only candidate ahead in a state where the opposing party is winning down-ticket. He's leading by less than three in West Virginia, which would probably be in most polls' margin of error. Sen. Rockefeller (D) has a 28-point lead, which helps to explain why that one is so close. Obama leads in the 4/9 states where the down-ticket Democrats have a lead.
That leaves us with Missouri and North Carolina. Both promise to be close, regardless of the winner. Even when I give McCain the benefit of the doubt in both, the CNN Electoral Map calculator says Obama wins the Electoral College, 338-200. However, I'm not going to stick a fork in McCain just yet. I suspect there's still an October Surprise lurking out there...
McCain seemed to be acting like a concerned grandparent who would allow people to lay back and let him take care of all the problems (which his party helped create).
Kdogg, this is a long post but this is a few things considering Indaina in the national and state elections.
Its interesting in Indiana. Mitch Daniels beat out Democrat Joe Kernan who was Lt. Gov when the very popular governor died in office. Mitch was the white house budget director for W. and ran his campaign by making Joe look like an elites liberal who isn't as proud of America as he should be in the 2004 race. History of Joe is he was poor went to Vietnam and was one of the last POW's released. Mitch was an old school millionaire who went to Harvard and came out of daddy Bush's pockets. Although he sold a state highway to a German Company and privatized our government the Dems put up a weak candidate, Jill Long-Thompson, and know are hoping she will ride the Obama coat tails.
Obama is organized here and is with in 3% of winning according the polls. Indiana has overwhelmingly went republican, at times over 20%, in the presidential race since LBJ.
Summarizing up my long post and tyeing it all in together. If you recall the primary election Hilary was supposed to win by over 8% but Gary area took over 12 hours to count as they always have poor turn out but were running out of ballots that day. Obama lost but by under 1%. Before the Gary results were in she was winning by 6%.
I went and voted early this saturday and the lines here were longer than I've ever seen. Looks like people are motivated to make a difference this year.
Too bad TN like likely go to McCain (but maybe, just maybe it will be closer than predicted.)
Thanks for the Indiana backstory. That's the kind of info I was hoping for in responses.
Obama is holding a rally here in Madison on Thursday, on the Capitol Square, at noon - which the campaign expressly says is set up for people to attend on their lunch hours. A UW law professor blogger is saying "Just to forewarn you, it's going to be nothing like anything you've ever seen before."
Like nothing I've ever seen before? Just about four years ago, and just a few blocks away, Kerry had a rally of 80K people crammed into about five city blocks. I saw a crowd the size of Bonnaroo crammed into a half-mile stretch the last time a presidential candidate visited, but this rally is supposed to top that? I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see about that...
I went and voted early this saturday and the lines here were longer than I've ever seen. Looks like people are motivated to make a difference this year.
Too bad TN like likely go to McCain (but maybe, just maybe it will be closer than predicted.)
I think this may come down to GOTV with younger crowds and if the votes will be counted.
Oh man, I'm loving this "real" America nonsense that Palin and the right wing nut jobs have been spewing lately. The Daily Show's take on it on Monday was priceless.
In the meantime, "the president hasn’t appeared at a single rally on behalf of a Republican House or Senate candidate this cycle" while he raised "$40 million less than he raised last cycle and $4 million less than Barack Obama raised last month." www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14799.html
I hear Arnold Schwarzenegger will be campaigning on behalf of McCain at just one single event, in Ohio on Halloween. Didn't he endorse McCain back before his state's primary? I thought he was a GOP big gun on the campaign trail? Wasn't he AWOL at the GOP convention too? Those things, taken together, seem mildly suspicious to me. Could this be heading towards another prominent defection?
I remembered Nickelodeon does a "Kids Pick the President" election every four years, but I didn't realize it was already over until I Googled it. There were about 2.25 million votes cast, with Obama winning 51-49.
^^^they say, in any other state, that Ahnold would be a democrat. I don't see a defection coming, but he is FAR from the GOP platform on many things.
True, but he's typically been more visible the last few election years. It's one thing that he's farther away ideologically, but I think it's another that he's this far away campaign-wise. He's definitely got enough individual sway to abandon the GOP if he wants to, whether as a Democrat or an Independent. I don't think that's impossible. Definitely not this year, but perhaps a bit further down the road.
Just read a ridiculous article about the whole Ayers situation with Obama, and it actually did the opposite of what I felt the author was trying to accomplish. I just sympathized for Ayers more than hated him.
It's fox news, I know. I just love the slogan after reading the article. It's so one-sided it's ridiculous. Sure, what Ayers did was wrong, but what he says in that article doesn't make him a bad American. Personally, I agree with Ayers in this article. The drug war is pointless, and sometimes Marxism and Anarchy seem to be the answer. I'm not saying it is, but isn't the point of living in this country to be able to express yourself freely? I know we're told to hate anarchists and marxists/commies, but the beauty of living in a free world is to express those beliefs and at least have the option to hear them. What's so wrong with opening yourself to some radical ideas every once in a while? Isn't that a good thing? Meh...