McCain Campaign staff saying “We don’t see a path”
November 4, 2008
News Flash from FoxNews. Details to come.
UPDATE 10:00pm EST: Here is the video. McCain campaign on verge of conceding defeat.
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2008 Election Day live blogging
November 4, 2008
All day today, we’ll be updating this post with new information from across the country regarding the election results. Stay tuned to Opinion Times for the latest information.
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URGENT UPDATE 10:00pm EST: CARL CAMERON OF FOXNEWS IS REPORTING THAT MCCAIN CAMPAIGN STAFF SAYS THEY DO NOT SEE A PATH TO VICTORY
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UPDATE 1: Intimidation in Philadelphia: Fox News’ Rick Leventhal confronts a person who seems to be a Black Panther in uniform providing “security” at a polling place in Philadelphia. Reports of voter intimidation from across West Philadelphia were reported beginning in the morning when the polls opened in Pennsylvania.
UPDATE 2: News from Minnesota. It may be closer than first thought. From Mark Ambinder:
A reader writes:
I’m a student at Carleton College who has contributed (financially and with my time) to the Obama campaign. I just got an automated call from Jeff Blodgett, the chair of the MN campaign. The text of the call was:
“Hello, this is Jeff Blodgett from the Minnesota for Obama campaign. Our initial data shows this election is significantly closer than the polls predicted. We are putting out an urgent call for volunteers… We are organized groups to knock on doors at five P.M., or earlier if you can, for our final GOTV operation.” This was followed by different numbers to call based on your residence.
UPDATE 3: CNN’s Rick Sanchez berates Joe “The Plummer” Wurzelbacher for his support of John McCain.
7:30pm EST: CNN can’t get ratings, so it’s turning to The Force. In one of the oddest uses of technology we have seen in television, Wolf Blitzer is speaking to a hologram in studio. What is up with that? It comes across as desperation. When you can’t attract an audience with good reporting, just call up R2 D2 for backup.
7:47pm EST: I just got word from Indiana, and turnout is huge. Republicans I am talking to don’t exactly know what to make of it. They estimate up to 70% turnout. That would be good for Obama. It’s going to be close in Indiana or an upset.
8:45pm EST: David Axelrod gives his early take on the election. Matthews, Olberman and Maddow fawn.
9:30pm EST: FoxNews All Stars give their take on new Democrat majorities. Are we a Center Left country now? “No,” they say. But Washington will be.
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OpinionTimes.com official Electoral Map prediction
November 4, 2008
Yes, I have weeded through as many polls as I can, studied carefully all the various situations in each state, and I have come to the conclusion that we just don’t know what will happen today.
Clearly Barack Obama is the odds on favorite to become President on January 20, 2009. But there are trends out there which suggest that John McCain has some momentum coming into today. Here are some factors to consider as you watch the results come in tonight:
- Early Voting is becoming a more important factor in elections than ever. What was the mind of voters in the last month as they submitted their ballots? Did Obama’s strong lead during that time give him the edge? Did young voters vote in greater numbers? What was the ACORN effect if any?
- Will Pennsylvania materialize for McCain? If so, he still may not win the election.
- If Obama wins Florida or Ohio, the election is over. I don’t see any way for McCain to pull out a victory without these two states.
- But there is no guarantee McCain wins if he grabs Florida and Ohio. Virginia will likely fall into Obama’s hands. Then Pennsylvania becomes crucial for a McCain victory if he can pull out a surprise win in Colorado.
- Polls in Minnesota, which does not have substantial early voting, began to tighten this last week. McCain may have a chance there. If McCain wins a stunning upset in there, he will likely win the Presidency.
- Republican turnout will be better than expected. There is something happening which is organic in the conservative grassroots for which the media never accounts. And McCain’s campaign came so late into the grassroots game, their organization is merely riding the wave that the Sarah Palin nomination whipped up. This will bring Ohio and Florida into McCain’s grasp. Will it also bring states like Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia into play?
So, without further ado, here is my electoral map projecting Barack Obama grabs 291 electoral votes on his way to the White House. McCain gathers a respectable 247. But I am crossing my fingers for good things from Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia.
Click on the map to go to my Real Clear Politics Electoral Map page where you can play with the numbers yourself.
Click “read more” to see a larger version of the map
Sphere: Related ContentObama wants to build a “civilian national security force”
November 1, 2008
One must wonder what he means by the funding of a “civilian national security force.”
..and we wonder as well if voters are waking up to the huge government on its way if Obama becomes President.
It’s a far cry from Ronald Reagan.
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Are our Obama emotions getting the best of us?
November 1, 2008
I read Myth of the Rational Voter
If Caplan is correct, this voter represents the worst of his hypothesis.
With polling prior to Tuesday’s election indicating an Obama win, one wants to sit back and curse the Republicans who lead the Congress for the six years prior to 2006. But in actuality, the strong defeats in 2006 and the impending continued expansion of liberal governance in 2008 indicate an electorate seeking conservative solutions. Why else would the American public be on the verge of re-electing a Congress with the lowest approval ratings in the history of that stastic? It’s because no true conservative leader has arisen to lead a renewed passion for the principles of Ronald Reagan.
Barack Obama has brought passion (misguided though it may be) which the public dearly longs for. The woman above exemplifies the desire for that passion.
The answer to misguided, liberal programs being promoted by a well-spoken Messiah figure is well founded principles based in freedom promoted by someone who leads as a servant to ideals greater than him- or herself.
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain against the world
October 25, 2008
With polls showing disaster for John McCain, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard puts things in perspective:
[W]e can only echo the words of the 30-year-old Abraham Lincoln. On December 26, 1839, responding to the confident prediction of one of his political opponents “that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election” and that Lincoln’s opposition to the Van Buren forces was therefore bound to be in vain, Lincoln responded:
“Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. . . . The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. . . . Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all, we shall fail, be it so.”
As it happens, the Whig ticket Lincoln supported won that 1840 election. So might, against the odds, the party of Lincoln win this year.
Just another reason to stand firm and continue on.
Sphere: Related ContentObama’s “Truth Squad”: prosecutors gone wild?
September 29, 2008
Jennifer Joyce is the Circuit Attorney for the City of Saint Louis, Missouri. She has an important role as the chief prosecutor in that historic town. She states it right on her website:
You deserve to live, work and play in a historically rich, culturally fertile and safe city that respects the rights of all people. As the Circuit Attorney for St. Louis City, I take my responsibility as your prosecutor very seriously. I have a fundamental belief as a public law enforcement leader, that I must utilize all of the resources available to me to hold people accountable for their actions.
And, by God, she is going to in that important Presidential bell-weather state. Now, I don’t use God’s name in vain here. Joyce herself, joined by fellow Obama supporter and Saint Louis County Circuit Attorney, Bob McCullough, wants to make the religious point here. They have set out on a mission to hold the McCain campaign “accountable” when it comes to telling the truth in campaign ads, and they want everyone to know that Barack Obama is a Christian and wants to lower taxes for people making less than $250,000 a year. Here’s what she said in a recent interview (video after):
We want to keep this campaign focused on issues. Missourians don’t want to be distracted by these divisive character attacks.
Well, one would be inclined to think that McCain-supporting Missourians want to keep the issues in center focus as well. Let’s do a bit of truth-squad work as a service to help Ms. Joyce and Mr. McCullough as they seek accuracy: Read more
Sphere: Related ContentReid last minute attempt to sneak in drilling ban
September 25, 2008
UPDATE II: Specifics of the amendment are posted at Sen. Jim DeMint’s website. The ban specifically targets oil shale development. Reid’s specific proposal can be found here.
UPDATE, OPINIONTIMES.COM EXCLUSIVE: At the same time Harry Reid is attempting to renew the ban on oil exploration, an array of environmental groups will be submitting a lawsuit today or tomorrow to block the recent leases granted on the Roan Plateau in Colorado. The Roan Plateau has one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world.
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Harry Reid is attempting to sneak in a renewal of the ban on offshore drilling into spending legislation sources tell Opinion Times. Reid is offering an “economic stimulus” amendment to the Homeland Security section of the bill which would extend the decades old offshore drilling ban.
The continuing resolution which came to the Senate from the House yesterday had all oil exploration provisions removed by a vote of 370-58. It was a major victory for proponents of expanding energy exploration. the nearly 1 trillion barrels of oil available through oil shale reserves in the mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah was also lifted.
THIS JUST IN: Harry Reid and The Grinch were separated at birth.
Reid’s motivation is unclear, but it brings to mind Mitch McConnell’s question put to Colorado Senator Ken Salazar “at what price for gasoline would you open up energy exploration?” See below.
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McCain/Palin Troops beware: you may be sleeping too secure
September 17, 2008
OpinionTimes.com EDITORIAL:
The recently converted McCain supporters (once disaffected members of the Republican base) should be excited about the current McCain bump. But it will be all for naught if the McCain campaign doesn’t focus that energy on a strong effort to get like-minded voters to the polls. Just kiss it all goodbye without a grassroots effort which eclipses 2004. And Karl Rove (love him or hate him) isn’t running that show this time. Rick Davis is. He’s doing an excellent job with media response and has made some great decisions at the convention and with how to message the pick of Palin for VP. But his candidate is out there talking about setting up a commission to study the recent crisis among Wall Street firms as well as regulation of financial institutions. But he should be troubled that the ground game is only now forming with just a few weeks to go, and the McCain is once again drawing upon ideas which serve only to depress the base.
Consider: Read more
Sphere: Related ContentDisaster for McCain if he signs on to “Gang of 16″
September 16, 2008
RedState.com has a great editorial on the rumors that John McCain plains to sign on to the disasterous “Gang of 16″ energy “plan:”
For the past several months, John McCain has ridden the energy issue, moreso than any other single issue, to the top of the polls. Governor Palin, one of the nation’s leading proponents of domestic energy production, further solidifies John McCain as the candidate who takes the energy issue seriously. To endorse the Gang of 16 plan would undermine Senator McCain’s credibility on the issue. In addition to the terrible politics of the plan for Republicans, the plan itself is terrible, terrible policy.
Read more here.
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