Real Clear Politics on where the Electoral College is now
***MY COMMENTS BELOW ARE NOT FROM THE LINKED PAGE AND ARE INCLUDED AS A PREFACE***
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On RCP’s home page is a link to an NYT Op-Ed telling Obama supporters to stop worrying. Columnist Gail Collins writes:
“Cheer up, Obama-ites. You’re overreacting. I’ll answer all your questions as long as you promise to take deep breaths into this nice paper bag.”
[But the Obama-ites presumably say] “Have you seen the polls? He should be talking more about the economy! Why isn’t his campaign working harder?”
[And Collins answers] “If the Obama brain trust seems relatively serene compared with its seething base, it’s because they live in the Electoral College world, where the presidential race only takes place in a third of the country. They don’t care about national polls — a concept as quaint as measuring one’s wealth by caribou pelts. They worry about the undecided vote in Minnesota and Ohio and run their TV ads (about the economy) in places like Colorado and Michigan and Florida. If you live in California or New York or Texas, you don’t really have much of a feel for their level of effort because as far as they’re concerned, you’ve already voted.”
I admit, Collins had me worried and I’m still worried but Collins is a few days behind. Today’s RCP electoral map methodology credits 217 electoral votes to Obama, 216 to McCain and 105 as toss ups. The good news is below the map where recent state-by-state changes are shown. Click on “Click here for previous Electoral College Changes” and you will see the election trending toward McCain before your very eyes.
I don’t know about you but I’ll be checking this RCP page regularly from now on!!
-Memphis