Free Republic

This is looking uglier & uglier: Obama/Biden 353 McCain/Palin 185

Key Obama Blue 234 McCain Red 179 Too close to call Purple 125

What changed recently, other than McCain doing very well in Florida, for RealClear to move Florida back to toss-up? Obama now ahead in electoral map. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=5

McCain expands lead with slight shift in polls.

Might want to pin this post high and save it in your bookmarks. As most junkies know, the # McCain must reach is 270 out of 538 available votes. However, for those new to politics, many don't know this. As such, I thought I would give a "guide" as to how to get there. In the coming days you'll see a lot of "map analysis", the best of which is probably provided by John King of CNN. You'll see some optimistic McCain maps and some optimistic Obama maps. It should be noted that despite that, much has remained the same...

There are no nonpartisan state polls today for anything. PPP (D) released a poll of Ohio showing it tied at 45% each. Ohio is no doubt going to be a huge battleground again. In Gallup's national tracking poll, Obama and McCain are tied at 45% each. In Rassmusen's tracking poll, Obama is barely ahead, 47% to 45%.A quirk of the schedule this year may benefit the Republicans. Normally each candidate gets a bounce in the polls after his convention. However, the Democratic convention is followed immediately by John McCain's birthday, which will put him back in the spotlight and then...

With their appeal to independents, Barack Obama and John McCain may scramble the electoral map in November. Others want to go further and throw out the Electoral College completely, replacing this "complicated" and "undemocratic" system with a direct, nationwide popular vote for the presidency. Despite its democratic allure, it's a bad idea. Backers of the popular vote do not seek to amend the Constitution; they know this is a nonstarter. Instead, a growing "National Popular Vote" (NPV) movement wants state legislatures to instruct their electors to vote for the winner of the greatest number of popular votes in the national...

Dukakis calls for end to Electoral College Dave Wedge By Dave Wedge Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Calling it “critically important” to eliminate the Electoral College system, former Bay State Gov. Michael Dukakis called on lawmakers to join a growing number of states supporting a switch to a national popular vote to elect the president. “I think it is high time we got rid of the Electoral College and elected our presidents the way we elect every other elected official in the country - by a vote of the people,” Dukakis wrote in a letter e-mailed to state lawmakers yesterday. “The...

What? Barack Obama just creamed John McCain in the nationwide popular vote, but McCain prevails because he won in the Electoral College? What? California went for a Republican for the first time since 1988, giving McCain a decisive 55 electoral votes? Neither scenario is implausible. The referendum in California to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage seems certain to bring out hundreds of thousands of conservative voters. And if enough irate Hillary Clinton voters carry out their threats to sit out the election or even vote for McCain, ol’ Mac would be in clover. Some...

This November, a Democratic victory will probably hinge on the Electoral College votes of a handful of swing states. Howard Dean's pollster examines 17 fall battlegrounds, one by one. Thanks to John Adams and James Madison, an American presidential election really does begin and end with the Electoral College. Didn't 2000 tell us that? (Well, it ended with Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor, but you get the drift.) Critics scoff and call it an antiquated and unfair system (it is). Many Democrats -- notably, this year, Obama backers -- would like their party to stop thinking in terms of...