Never one to miss an opportunity, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may run on the Republican ticket next mayoral election while still remaining a declared independent. Apparently, despite being an apostate to the national party, local borough GOP leaders are willing to let the still-popular mayor put his name on their line.
If you’re keeping score [...]

Whichever one of the Ten Commandments tells us not to bow down to idols, that’s the one we’ve been breaking with all the Abraham Lincoln worship lately.
There’s no way he was even half as popular amongst Northerners back in the 1860s (I still bump into Civil War kooks down South who HATE Lincoln more than [...]

In a few hours, Barack Hussein Obama will be President of the United States of America. This is an exceptional moment in U.S. history, not because Obama is the first black president (although that’s certainly noteworthy) but because we’re at one of those rare crossroads when we know the next four years will be of [...]

A full 21 points separate the two parties.

The bad news for the party? The base wants the party to become more conservative…
Most rank-and-file Republicans (59%) want to see the party move in a more conservative direction and another 28% want it to remain about the same. Only 12% would prefer to see the Republican Party [...]

They’re claiming the potential vote fraud, but I’m honestly surprised at how flimsy their reasoning is.
Because their entire case seems to be built on the idea that they can convince a judge that just because somebody voted early, that they can then vote again.
From Chesterton Tribune:
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A judge weighing whether [...]

TIME has the numbers.
In Nevada and North Carolina it favors Obama…
Cumulative early-vote totals in the Las Vegas area show ballots were cast by 31,875 Democrats and 13,371 Republicans through midday Monday. Republicans had the advantage in absentee balloting, 6,616 to 6,161 through noon Monday.
In the Reno area, a similar pattern occurred twice as many Democrats [...]

Remember those Hillary supporters who claimed they’d never support Obama?
Well, now Obama’s support among his base is stronger than McCain’s. That doesn’t mean Dems aren’t voting for McCain, but the numbers are falling much more in line with traditional base models.
FiveThirtyEight has the numbers:

DEMS/GOP – Pollster
86/87 – Rasmussen
88/83 – IBD-TIPP
87/89 – Research 2000
91/84 – ABC/Post
87/84 [...]

This according to Ipsos/McClatchy…
Washington, DC – A new Ipsos/McClatchy poll of undecided voters who watched last night’s second Presidential debate indicates that Barack Obama seems to be picking up momentum among the small number of voters who have not yet decided on a candidate.
Before the debate, these undecided voters leaned toward John McCain (Obama [...]

From the beginning I argued that Palin was a great pick for the base, but would prove to be ineffectual with Independents.
In fact, directly after Palin’s much ballyhooed speech, I said the following…
Why give a speech that was really designed to rally the Republican base when John McCain consistently gets more Republican support than Obama [...]

Why is Lilibet Hagel’s endorsement important?
Well, Nebraska splits its electoral votes evenly among 5 different areas, and Obama’s campaign has made a very concerted effort to try and win the Omaha area and its 1 electoral vote. Why? To avoid a 269-269 tie scenario, which is actually possible this season.
Long story short, an endorsement [...]

I wouldn’t usually write about this, but A) Hugh McColl, Jr. sounds like he has to be a fiscal conservative if he’s a banker and B) Bank of America appears to be one of those banks that’s apparently extremely well-managed and is weathering this crisis because of it.
What’s more, this editorial is in the Charlotte [...]

I like him. He’s mad all the time.
Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain
Cressbeckler 2012!

Obama – 50%
McCain – 45%
Obama gains one and McCain drops another point as we arrive at debate day.
A few things…

Gallup is currently showing a tie. However, Gallup takes a 3-day rolling average of registered voters, while Rasmussen takes a 5-day rolling average of likely voters. And, as I’ve been told, polling likely voters is usually [...]

Quite a swing from yesterday, as Gallup shows a tied race while Rasmussen shows Obama with a 3 point lead.

The details…
This update covers interviewing conducted Monday through Wednesday, and as such includes one night after McCain’s announcement that he was suspending election campaigning and flying to Washington to help seek a bipartisan solution to [...]

Obama – 49%
McCain – 46%
McCain drops another point today, and we won’t know what the fallout from him trying to cancel the debate will be yet.
Concerning the economy…
Tracking poll results are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The overwhelming majority of the interviews for today’s report were completed [...]

Rasmussen constantly adjusts their party ID numbers so their daily tracking polls portray an accurate view of the electorate as a whole…
The targets are not set arbitrarily. Rather, they are established based upon survey interviews with a separate sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding six weeks. A total of 500 nightly interviews are [...]

Obama – 48%
McCain – 47%
3 days in a row and the same spread.
More about the history of the race…
The underlying closeness of the race for the White House is highlighted by the fact that the candidates have been within three points of each other for 51 of the last 56 days. The only exceptions were [...]

Obama drops one and McCain adds one to make this one tighter going into the last several days before the debate on Friday.

Gallup looks at the leads…
From a broader perspective, the race has been relatively close all year, with neither candidate achieving as much as a 10-point lead. Obama’s record high nine-point lead came in [...]

Obama – 48%
McCain – 47%
The numbers stay the same today, as we head into our first debate week!
Rasmussen talks about how close this race has been…
The underlying closeness of the race is highlighted by the fact that the candidates have been within three points of each other for 50 of the last 55 days. The [...]

Obama – 48%
McCain – 47%
McCain drops a point, but the race remains extremely tight as news of the economic downturn slightly favors Obama.
Rasmussen has more…
Obama’s gains over the past week came as the focus shifted from the momentum generated at the Republican National Convention to the economic roller coaster ride that played out on Wall [...]