http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-09-29-income-gap-census_N.htm?obref=obnetwork
The above link is a very good article by USA Today featuring some recent census data. Among other things, it points out something very relevant to the next election:
"Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had higher poverty rates than the national average, many of them in the South, such as Mississippi (21.2%), Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana (each with 17.3%). That's compared with 19 states and the District of Columbia that ranked above U.S. poverty in 2007."
NOTE: This post is both on my Xanga site and the smaller blog I've started up on my Kizyr for Obama page.
In 1936, Democrat FDR took every state except for Vermont and Maine.In 1972, Republican Nixon took every state except for Massachusetts and Washington DC.In 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter swept the entire South (except Virginia), while Republican Gerald Ford won the West Coast.In 1992 and 1996, Democrat Bill Clinton took half the southern states.
There's a simple point I'm trying to make here. It's very easy when trying to predict the outcome of an election to assume one state will go one way, and another state will go another. It's easy to assume that, say, Utah, Texas, and the entire Southeast are eternally Republican, and the West Coast and Northeast are eternally Democratic, that cities are always Democratic and small towns are always Republican.
Things aren't set in stone. And the fact that, now, Barack Obama is winning over many supporters across the entire country, that the Republicans are scrambling in places like North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa, and Missouri, should tell us something.
And the fact that things can always change should motivate you to vote, even if you're in a so-called "Solid Blue" or "Solid Red" state. KF
Update for October 31, 4 days to Election Day.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
This was Obama's best week yet in the Chance for Change model, with Barack winning all 10,000 simulated elections with an expected vote total of 366, the highest ever. The fewest votes Barack received in any election was 294, 24 more than the 270 needed to win. The most was 431. But we're not ready to relax yet.
We entered poll results from 45 states this week, of which ten materially affected the outcome. Of these, six were favorable to Obama.
In one of the biggest surprises this week, polls show the race becoming competitive in McCain's home state of Arizona. McCain had a 21 point lead last week, but only a single point lead this week. It does not look like an outlier. This red, red state is now a battleground. Obama is campaigning there, and the Republicans are running robocalls. Imagine that. We think Arizona will likely go for its favorite son, but wouldn't it be delicious?
Obama's one-point lead in Florida last week has grown to four points this week. This crucial state has volleyed back and forth all season but Obama seems to have built a durable lead, either tied or ahead in all of the last twelve polls, leading by as much as seven. Remember, if McCain loses Florida or Ohio, there is almost no possible path to 270 votes.
Obama led by a single point last week in Georgia but trails by three this week. Georgia has had record turnout in the early vote, with more than 1.5 million Georgians casting their ballots as of this week. By most accounts, Democrats have dominated the early voters. If Georgia falls to Obama, it could turn out to be a very long night for the McCain camp.
Indiana remains a squeaker. Obama's four point lead last week evaporated; now the Hoosier state is dead even at 47 all.
Obama had a four point lead in Montana last week but trails by three this week. It's only three votes, but could be highly symbolic. Not as delicious as Arizona, but still sweet.
McCain has hopes for New Hampshire, the state that revived his comatose primary campaign. McCain trailed by one point last week, but trails by eleven in this week's poll. This one is diverging and looks pretty solid for Obama.
New Mexico was tied last week, but Obama has opened up a 17 point lead. This is probably bigger than the actual lead, but it's not out of the question. Another poll this week has him up by ten.
North Carolina will be another state to watch early on election night. Obama trailed by two in last week's poll, but is up by two this week. They've been polling the heck out of the Tarheel state this week, but most of the polls have Obama in the lead.
Obama is hanging onto the lead in our home state of Ohio, up by four this week, down from a twelve point lead last week. It's still close in Ohio, but Obama leads by three to nine points in every poll taken since October 23. That's ten straight polls.
Finally, the surprise development of the election, the movement of the Commonwealth of Virginia from a reliable Republican stronghold to blue-state status appears to be complete. McCain was down by two last week but trails by nine in this week's poll. In what is becoming a familiar pattern, Obama has led in every poll since October 2 - that's 24 straight polls.
We also entered results from 28 senate races this week, of which five showed significant movement. The race in Georgia has opened up a bit, with incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss improving his lead over challenger Jim Martin from two points to five. A recent poll in Louisiana shows incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu's lead over John Kennedy shrinking from ten points last week to a single point this week. It's highly doubtful that the race is actually this close, since other recent polls show Landrieu up ten to twenty points - and the poll showing her up by one was conducted on behalf of the Kennedy campaign. Minnesota continues to entertain, with Al Franken opening up a five point lead over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. The race in Mississippi between Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ronnie Musgrove has taken a turn in Wicker's direction. Wicker's one point lead last week has swollen to eleven. In what is becoming one of the ugliest senate campaigns in the country, North Carolina Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole has fallen behind her Democratic challenger Kay Hagan by six points, after trailing last week by one. Dole ran an ad this week that implied that Kay Hagan, a former Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian church elder, is in fact an atheist. Hagan responded by accusing Dole of "bearing false witness against a fellow Christian." While we've been keeping our eye on the main event, we've forgotten all the entertaining sideshows going on in the senate races. It's a nice break.
The upshot is, there's a much better chance that the Democrats will achieve a 57 seat majority, but less of a chance that they'll get 60 seats.
PRESIDENT:
You have heard it ad naseum for almost a year and a half that this election is important. Well, damnit, it is the most important election of our lifetime. We live in a tumultuous time, but our nation is still the greatest on earth. We have the strongest economy, strongest military and most innovative and creative citizens. We are a compassionate and practical people. We have our faults, but I am proud to be an American. Regardless of who wins or loses I will support them as President but on the flipside of that token I also retain my right to either man if I feel they are wrong on an issue. Dissent is a sacred right that we should all be more willing to exercise.
Now getting down to business, we have two very different candidates with very contrasting styles and views on how the country should be governed. When voting for President I consider three leadership qualities- intelligence, temperament and political philosophy. Barack Obama is superior in all three areas from my point of view. He is one of the most intelligent candidates we have ever had for President. Obama not only excels at understanding the issues that face the country but he understands what needs to be done in order to put our country back on track. McCain has failed to lay out his vision in this election and instead chose to make his campaign about being anti Obama.
Also, Obama is an intellectual. He is, in many respects, a post modern thinker. He understands that the world is not divided in terms of black and white or good and evil but that we live in many shades of gray. This realization allows him to consider multiple options as opposed to the simplistic nature of someone like President Bush, who appears to make decisions based on an absolutist philosophy that it is either my way or the highway. Bush prematurely follows one course in his mind and sticks to that decision regardless of whether or not it is working out. I think Obama will reflect on his decisions and if something appears to not be working out as previously planned, he will adjust accordingly.
McCain, on the other hand, is unlike either Bush or Obama. Where Obama is reflective and Bush is simplistic, McCain is a reactionary and extremely erratic. His enemies in the GOP have criticized him for this behavior for years. McCain is unpredictable and his positions do not always coincide intellectually with his other positions. In fact, McCain often makes illogical decisions out of anger. For example, McCain came out against the first Bush tax cuts because he said, and correctly so, that they moved the country’s tax burden from the upper class to the middle class. Sounds right, except McCain has always stated he believed in the fundamentals of trickle-down economics, which these Bush tax cuts were implementing. Basically, McCain was still pissed after his loss to Bush in the 2000 primary so he made a decision not based on what he thought but out of vengeance. McCain now supports Bush economic policies that he supported before he was pissed off and didn’t support. Basically, he was wrong before he was right but now he is wrong again.
In terms of temperament, Obama is far the better choice to lead our great nation. Obama has discipline, focus and is steady under pressure. This has been strikingly clear in the campaign. Whereas the McCain campaign has jumped from one theme to another, Obama has consistently delivered his policy positions and contrasted himself with McCain by showing that McCain will only continue Bush policies. You may not agree with either, but you have to admit it that Obama rarely strayed off message.
McCain first made his campaign about his biography. When he realized that he was becoming Bob Dole of 1996 he changed his theme to that of experience. Then he chose an inexperienced running mate so he had to make his campaign about change (the maverick’s mavericky maverick). Once it was obvious that the change mantle couldn’t be wrestled from Obama, McCain made his campaign about attacking Obama’s character. Once the voters responded negatively to that, he made his campaign about Democratic policies, which he calls socialism. McCain’s lack of discipline was only outpaced by his anger. As I mentioned above, McCain lurches from position to position when he is pissed and he gets pissed a lot. All of this makes for a bad leader and a poorly managed campaign.
Contrasted with McCain’s hot temper has been Obama’s calm demeanor. As nasty as the attacks against him have been in this campaign, Obama has been able to remain focused on the task at hand and had the uncanny ability to emotionally brush off the most egregious of attacks. That does not mean Obama does not respond to attacks, he has been as good as Bill Clinton in terms of counter punching, but he has done so with a grace that makes him appear above the political fray. Obama does not lurch from one position to the other like John McCain- Obama thoughtfully approaches each task and carefully constructs the appropriate response- kind of like you would want a President to do.
Finally, I support Obama because he shares my political philosophies. Obama feels that the middle class is the driving force that makes our country great and wants to make sure middle class Americans pay LESS TAXES, have health care and are protected from foreign threats. Obama also recognizes the importance of making college affordable so that our nation can remain economically and intellectually competitive. In addition, Obama will address our nation’s dependence on outdated modes of energy. Fossil fuels are a way of the past and if our country is going to remain self sufficient then we must invest in renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. Obama realizes that we cannot achieve this over night so his plan also has a contingency to bridge us to this clean and energy efficient future- he will permit environmentally safe domestic drilling, force oil and gas companies to use their millions of acres of federally leased land and common sense exploration of nuclear power options.
PRESIDENTIAL PREDICTION
This has been one hell of a long election but I do not think election night will be long. I predict Obama will blow John McCain out next Tuesday and he will do so early. Obama will get 338 electoral votes with wins in states like Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico and Iowa. We will all know that the results in the West are irrelevant after we get the results from Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. I think McCain will get 200 electoral votes with close wins in North Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to name just a few.
Even if McCain were able to close the gap and win in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia he would still not have 270. If McCain somehow pulled those early upsets, he would still need to come from behind in both Nevada and New Mexico or Colorado and one of those two. If McCain did manage to close the gap in the polls in the last few days he would still be up shits creek because he has been getting trounced by Obama’s far superior ground game in early voting states. McCain also lacks the election day get out the vote grassroots to get lukewarm supporters to the polls. McCain is simply too far behind. I will not go to bed Tuesday night until I know Obama has won this election but I have a feeling that I will be well rested come Wednesday morning.
If you want to play with the electoral map and see for yourself then I recommend you go to Politico’s electoral polling map to get a read on where states currently stand and then go to a really interesting interactive map I found on the net.
Politico- http://www.politico.com/convention/swingstate.html
Interactive Map- http://www.270towin.com/
Update for October 24, 11 days to Election Day.
HOLDING STEADY - HOLDING MY BREATH
Our model is still predicting an Obama win. Out of 10,000 simulated elections based on the latest state-by-state polls, Obama won all 10,000. The fewest number of electoral votes he garnered was 290, with a median of 351 and a maximum of 430. A comfortable margin. So, why aren't we comfortable?
Maybe because there's so much at stake. Perhaps it's because the last two elections were so close, and yet fell short. Or maybe it's because McCain is really starting to scare us (Palin crossed that line weeks ago).
We entered new poll results from 31 states, of which ten had an impact on the election. Five moved in Obama's direction, and five moved in McCain's direction. But all states are not created equal...
Florida continues to shuttle back and forth between Obama and McCain. Our poll from last week put McCain ahead, 49% to 47%, while this week's poll has Obama up by one, 48% to 47%. That was enough to nearly double Barack's chances, from 32% to 60%.
In an interesting twist, our poll for Georgia has Obama ahead by one. McCain led by six last week. Remember that this state was once considered competitive, but then fell off the battleground list. Should we trust this result? Perhaps not. Other polls taken during the same period have McCain up by a margin ranging from two to six points. So this is probably an outlier.
The reliable Republican stronghold of Indiana is showing signs of edging back into the tossup category. Our poll this week has Obama up by four points, compared with a five-point deficit last week. There is no scenario for John McCain to win that doesn't include Florida, Ohio, and Indiana. I think we can expect to see some campaign stops for the McCain campaign in this usually reliably red state.
Obama had a wide lead last week in Missouri, made all the more believable by the huge crowds he drew in St. Louis and Kansas City. But this week it's back on the tossup list, with both candidates drawing 48% of the poll responses. This is another case of conflicting polls. Others polls from the same period have results ranging from a one-point McCain lead to a six-point Obama lead. So our man probably still holds the advantage.
Montana seems to be back in play. Our poll this week shows Obama ahead by four, up from a five-point deficit last week. In what seems to be a theme, we have conflicting results in this state too, with other polls from the same period showing McCain in the lead by four to five points.
New Hampshire is another state with some hinkiness in the numbers. We used a Zogby poll of 466 likely voters showing Obama up by one. But other polls show Obama up by four to five points. This one still looks good for Obama.
You'll see the campaigns cross paths in New Mexico. While every poll for the last six weeks has shown Obama ahead, this week we have a poll showing the race tied at 46 all. We really believe that Obama is still well ahead of McCain in New Mexico, but this poll gives McCain new hope for these five votes.
North Carolina has been crazy all season and this week continues the trend. Our poll this week has McCain up by two, the first poll in two weeks showing a clear lead for McCain.
Obama's lead in Virginia may be softening, with this week's poll showing him up by just two points. But, guess what? Other recent polls show him with a four- to ten-point lead.
All of these are of secondary importance compared with the poll in Ohio showing Obama leading, 53% to 41%. And there are other polls showing Obama up in our Buckeye state. Obama can win without Ohio, but McCain cannot. As long as Ohio is firmly in the Obama column, the election is his.
The Senate results this week are unremarkable. There's a slight shift in the race in Alaska, as Ted Stevens' corruption trial goes into its final stages. Kay Hagan still clings to a slight edge over Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. Neither of these affect our projection.
Today, for the first time, Obama has a tiny lead in the polling average in North Carolina. Early voting has been overwhelmingly for Obama. That margin will narrow to a few percentage points come Election Day. Obama's average polling lead is only 0.8 points, well within the margin of error, and McCain certainly could still stage a comeback in the state, but Obama's chances in North Carolina are better than even.
This is astonishing. North Carolinians haven't voted Democratic for president since 1976, when they sided with the Democratic governor of Georgia. In 2004, they went for Bush by double digits even though their own Senator, John Edwards, was on the ticket against him. A Democratic African-American Senator from a midwestern state carrying North Carolina would be epochal.
North Carolina is a big chunk of change, electorally speaking. With 15 votes, it's tied for 9th biggest state in the Electoral College. If Obama were to take North Carolina, he would win even if McCain's crazed assault on Pennsylvania succeeded in carrying the state for the Republicans, and even if Florida, Ohio, Nevada, and Missouri all shifted back to McCain. Obama's chances have never looked so good.
Update for October 17, 18 days to Election Day.
STILL ON TOP...BUT MY FINGERNAILS ARE BITTEN TO THE QUICK
We entered new poll results from 38 states, only four of which had an impact on the race. Of these, one was favorable for Obama and three for McCain. Bottom line: Obama still wins 99.99% of all our simulated elections, with an average of 332 electoral votes.
Obama gave up a three point lead in Florida to trail McCain by two, 47% to 49%, in the latest poll. We gave Obama a 79% chance of winning Florida last week; this week it's down to 32%. The Obama ground game is formidable in Florida, and the air war is raging to capture the 27 electoral votes at stake.
Obama's lead in Missouri, where he was up by a single point last week, has grown to six points. These are eleven votes once thought to be comfortably in the McCain tally. We're sure that the McCain staffers are looking at the poll numbers and watching the throng of 100,000 cheering for Obama in St. Louis and wondering from where they'll pull resources to fortify the Show-Me state.
Ohio is one of the few states that is still dead even for all practical purposes. Obama led by two last week, but this week's poll is tied at 49% each. That's just two percent undecided or voting for third parties. We're watching the ad campaigns here in the Buckeye state and we can tell you neither campaign will concede these twenty votes without exhausting their last campaign dollar. But it's quite clear that McCain is not fixed for a war of attrition (more on this below the fold). Persuasion is not what will carry this state - it'll go to whoever gets out the vote.
There was some excitement last week with at least one poll showing Obama with an eight point lead in West Virginia, but the latest poll shows McCain up by two. It's only five votes, but taking West Virginia would definitely send a message.
We had twelve new poll results in the senate races. Four showed significant movement. Democrat Mark Udall has lengthened his lead over Republican Bob Schaffer in Colorado, from two points to eleven points. Al Franken, the Democratic candidate in Minnesota continues to lead incumbent Norm Coleman by two, down from six last week. Democrat Kay Hagen's lead over Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina fell from five points to two points. Finally, Jeff Merkley, the Democratic challenger in Oregon is tied with incumbent Gordon Smith, having led in last week's poll by five. The upshot is, the expected number of senators in the Democratic caucus has dropped from 59 to 58, but there is still a 10% chance that the Democrats will pick up a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, and a 90% chance that they'll capture at least 57 seats.
OpEdNews has been the site of choice to post the growing list of major and minor newspaper endorsements for Obama. The Editorials are quoted generally in full, with interspliced commentaries from major editors and commentators, explaining what is behind the Editorials.
Part I Obama's Editorial Endorsements: including Washington Post, Fidel Castro, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, & more!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-s-Endorsements-The-by-Stephen-Fox-081016-633.html
*******
Part II Editorial Page Endorsements of Obama Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francsico Chronicle, Los Angeles Times
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Editorial-Page-Endorsement-by-Stephen-Fox-081017-544.html
********
Part III New Endorsements: Salt Lake City Tribune, Bangor and Brunswick, Maine, Philadelphia, Miami, Portland, Kansas City
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Endorsements-Salt-Lake-Ci-by-Stephen-Fox-081018-476.html
More Obama Endorsements IV: Sacramento, Katie Couric, Malaysia, Houston Chronicle, Detroit, Waco Tx (sort of)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/More-Obama-Endorsements-IV-by-Stephen-Fox-081019-492.html
Update for October 10, 25 days to Election Day.
IN THE BAG?
This is a first. In 10,000 simulated elections, Barack Obama won every single time. That's 100%. The number of electoral votes ranged from 272 to 392, with an expected total of 349. I won't belive it until Fox News calls it, but it looks pretty good for our man.
We put in new results from 19 states, of which six had a significant impact on the race. Five out of those six favored Obama.
Obama lengthened his lead in Colorado, from a single point advantage to six points, cracking the 50% barrier. There were two recent polls from Colorado, both with identical 51%-45% results, with a total sample size of nearly 1500 likely voters. That's a solid Obama lead.
Minnesota flipped from McCain (by one point) to Obama (by seven). There were four new polls since last week, all showing Obama in the lead, ranging from one to eighteen points. We feel comfortable that the poll we used was not out of line.
Missouri also flipped from McCain by two to Obama by one. McCain has led consistently, if narrowly, in this state until recently. Several other polls have Obama even with or ahead of McCain.
Every one of four new polls in Virginia has Obama in the lead, by as little as one point and by as much as twelve points. We used a poll of 917 likely voters showing Obama in the lead, 51% to 43%. I would never have predicted it, but Virginia looks very Obama-friendly just 3-1/2 weeks before the election.
In the biggest surprise, and probably the reason for the 100% result this week, is a recent poll from West Virginia showing Obama leading 51% to 42%! This is an exact reversal from last week's poll, and takes five votes out of McCain's tally and puts them reliably in Obama's. It's the first poll I've seen from West Virginia with Obama in the lead, and it could be an outlier, but who knows? This could be a surprise on election night as well. We do know that if they call the Virginias for Obmama early on election night that McCain had better unfold the concession speech.
We entered four new results from senate races, only two of which impacted the overall results. Ted Stevens, indicted senator from Alaska, has taken back the lead from challenger Mark Begich by a single point. We're speculating that the Good People of the North recognize the inevitable outcome of the presidential race, and are planning to cast a vote for Stevens just to prove a point, although what point that might be, we can't say.
In an interesting development in Minnesota, Al Franken has taken the lead over Norm Coleman, benefitting from a strong showing by independent Dean Barkley, who is drawing 17% of the responses. The state that elected Jesse Ventura might just elect Al Franken to the senate.
The bottom line is, The Democrats now have a ten percent chance of achieving a filibuster-proof sixty seat majority, providing independent senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut continue to caucus with the Democrats. But I hear Joe's leading a pretty lonely life these days.
>>>>>>>>>10/08/2008>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The national polls are instructive early in the fall presidential campaign season. They tell us whether a candidate has strength, momentum, a chance.
But as the campaign enters its final stage -- with election day less than a month away -- the numbers from the states start to matter. That's where the electoral votes start to pile up. So what of the battleground states? Forget about states, competitive or otherwise, that backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004.
The latest polls from all of them favor Democrat Barack Obama this year. (Indeed, the analysts at Real Clear Politics have in recent days moved four 2004 states Kerry states that were supposed to be battlegrounds this year -- Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- from "Leans Obama" status to "Solid Obama.")
What of the states that backed Republican George Bush in 2004? Where are they trending. Here's something to ponder:
In 2004, Bush secured the presidency with the electoral votes of: Colorado Florida Iowa Missouri Nevada New Mexico North Carolina Ohio Florida
As of today, the Real Clear Politics poll of polls for each state -- which averages all the recent surveys of voters -- has Obama winning every one of these battlegrounds. If the election were held today, and if the polls proved correct, Obama would win the Electoral College by a margin of 364 votes to 174 -- a split roughly parallel to that in the 1996 race between Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Bob Dole.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power" - Benito Mussolini
Virginia's 13 Democratic Electors have set up a website: www.VirginiaElectoralCollege.org. Please visit our site to learn more about the Electoral College nationwide and in Virginia, Virginia's Democratic candidates, your Democratic Electors, voting in Virginia, and upcoming events—and find out how you can help us turn Virginia blue this November!
I reckon that most of you folks, being interested in politics like me, are also keeping track of the polls. Rather than click through all of the different news websites to try to figure out where Barack stands in the electoral vote count, try one of these two sites on instead:
Electoral-vote.com is the original (as far as I can tell) website for determining hwo the electoral votes stack up. It is generally on-the-ball.
However, FiveThirtyEight.com (named for the number of electoral votes up for grabs) takes a slightly different (and yet, more elegant) tack. Instead of calculating EVs by the last polls taken, 538 instead gives each poll different weights depending on their methodologies, past performances, and how recently said polls were taken.
I prefer the latter, myself, but I could stare at statistics all day.
I know that the popular vote for the US election will turn out to be extremely tight. However, I anticipate that Senator Obama will win the electoral college by a narrow margin. Although McCain has selection Sarah Palin, that will not be enough to convince the female voters. God will ultimately choose the right leader for the USA. It's highly likely that that leader will be Senator Obama because he is genuine and his plans for change are believable. The Sarah Palin bubble is set to bust very soon.
The campaign knows only the electoral college is important. Phonebanking for me was either calling Pennsylvania voters or calling New York people who had said they wanted to volunteer...in swing states. The tools are still a little buggy but use them and give them feedback: they actually respond in about 24 hours.
We're winning this.
We hear about the latest polls in the media, which at one time favour Barack Obama and at other times they favour John McCain. Polls give a random snapshot of the mercurial mood of voters but they can be inaccurate predictors of the future, especially in a contest as close as this election.
I'm as guilty as anyone for using my blog space to spew and cry about the foul tactics of the Republican Party.
In the end, this election is going to come down to the electoral college votes in the swing states. Whether you live in a swing state or not, we must do everything we can to help these states turn BLUE for the Democratic Party.
BARACK AND JOE NEED THESE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES TO WIN THE ELECTION!!
Please, everyone, take action now. If you haven't done so already, go to the homepage on this website for your state. Find your local field office and call them to see what you can do to help. Maybe it's a phone bank or registering voters. Maybe it's a mail campaign, canvassing a neighborhood, hosting an event, or writing letters to the local and national press. Maybe it's driving voters to the polls on election day.
We need to do everything we can to win this election.
I think that this was a pretty astute pick by McCain. Unlike Obama, McCain really needs to shore up his base heading
into this convention, the Obama team orgainized and executed an energizing and even inspiring message for his supporters
and more importantly his party, and now the pressure is on McCain to follow, and energizing the republican base is best
achieved with a red meat social agenda, i.e. abortion and creationism (creationism?)
