Hope.

Rove Calls the Election...

...for Barack Obama, 338 to 200.

Sullydog's 2008 EV Prediction

Here's my prediction, based on the most recent polling. My research materials included 538.com, electoral-vote.com, rcp, pollster.com, cnn and msnbc. Obama wins the Kerry states + FL, IA, NM, CO, NV, NC and VA. He does NOT win OH, IN, MO, MT, AZ (gimme a break), ND or any contested district in NE.

Greetings From Chicago

Hi, guys. I'm a little out of the loop this week. I'm attending the Scientific Assembly and Research Forum of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Chicago. Good times!

I hope you guys will pick up the slack, keep posting, maybe ignite an argument or two. I can't believe that, on our very own blog, Tep and Chan and Mr. Cookie can't get into a flame war.

My observation of the day: Palin's being called a "Diva" and a rogue candidate, and there's every indication that McCain's campaign can't shoot straight. Somebody tell me again...why should we even think about letting these two bozos run our country?

100K in St. Louis!

Wow!

School Daze

McCain sez education is the "civil rights issue of the 21st century." Sounds smart. I'm not sure exactly what it means.

McCain looks kinda creepy. Obama has clearly thought about the education issue, and gives a pretty sharp answer. His speech is more fluid again, too.

Craven Is The Word

Over on the Stump, Noam Scheiber alerts us to Matt Dowd's comments on McCain's "craven" VEEP pick. Take a look and follow the link.

"Craven" is the best way to describe it.

This, for me, should be the gist of it for the electorate. In a desperate bid to solidify his base and pander to the XX half of the electorate, McCain put the entire nation at risk by choosing Sarah Palin.

"Country first," indeed.

"Honor," indeed.

Yes, McCain has bragged of being "the biggest deregulator you ever saw." His economic "plans" are disjointed and ad hoc at best. Unlike the thin gruel of the Ayers association, McCain's Keating Five involvement shows that he's been on the wrong side of issues that have tremendous currency. Even now, he continues to repackage the utter failure that is Reagonomics for the electorate. His obstinate subscription to the Bush foreign policy is a huge black eye, and his repeated references to some undefined, mystical "Victory" in Iraq hints at a disturbing Quixotic neurosis. His campaign has been disorganized, flat-footed, tactical (if you'll forgive) rather than strategic, and in some ways more malevant even than the Rove playbook. Last week his campaign had to pull back from incitations to violence.

And the man is fairly starting to dodder.

But forget all that. Palin alone disqualifies McCain, at the most fundamental level, to be Commander in Chief. In a crunch, at a time of crisis, HE PUT HIMSELF AHEAD OF HIS COUNTRY, and showed that he could not be trusted to make decisions for the nation. Not only should he not be President, he should retire from public life altogether, in disgrace.

McCain is a man I once admired. Now I am ashamed of him.

(copied to Talkbackers.)

Hitchens Endorses Obama...

...with his usual rabid eloquence.

Another Electoral Simulator

If you like Nate Silver's site*, where he runs a simulated election 10,000x/day based on a detailed model driven by careful polling analysis, then you'll probably like this site, too. It's probably less elaborate and accurate, but unlike Nate's site it will run a simulation right in front of you in about 15 seconds, which is kind of a cool in a quasi-interactive, time-wasting sort of way.

*Some of us don't just like Nate's site. For some of us, it's like crack.

We All Have a Hand in the Meltdown...

...but there is a silver lining.

Great stuff, as usual, from Fareed Zakaria.