Over the course of the day I want to hit some of what appear to have been the fundamentals in the race, what created the terrain on which all the blocking-and-tackling and tactics took place. They’re far from unknown but with all the screaming and shouting of the last month, they’re sometimes overlooked. One big thing: the impact of intense labor fights in Wisconsin and especially Ohio and the clear stand against labor taken by Mitt Romney. In Ohio at least, there’s little doubt he’s paying a big price. Here’s the story.
California says it’s going to reveal the donors to Americans For Responsible Leadership, an obscure Arizona group that suddenly dropped $11 million on two California ballot initiatives. The backstory on the group here.
GOP chair in Connecticut, on Linda McMahon urging black voters to vote for her and Obama: “Some Republicans may not favor this tactic, but I’m confident that we will close ranks by Tuesday because there is so much at stake.”
I always find this time in a campaign fascinating and surreal. I remember it from 2000, 2004, 2008. Little memories. I think Joe Lieberman and Al Gore getting a cheesesteak in Philly in 2000 in the middle of the night? My experience of it is a certain way because I experienced it as a reporter. Sometime, perhaps yesterday, the campaign took that turn into something like a fugue state. Read More
Listening to a story from a friend this evening. Guy in a social setting talking to a group of Wall Street heavyweights. Every single one in the room certain Romney wins. Has Ohio locked. Has the whole thing tied up. No doubt.
TPM (non?) Reader JJR checks in …
Josh, the fact that you are implying that some votes are better than others is disgusting – beyond cynical, actually quite racist, classist, oligarchist, shameless… I could go on, but why ask for pears from a peach tree?
I mentioned earlier today that there were lots of anecdotal reports about pro-GOP SuperPACs dumping money in places where there don’t seem to be seriously contested elections. Dallas, Chicago, just places where it’s really hard to figure there’s any real bang for the buck, to put it mildly. Read More
TPM Reader BC tries to unskew that Politico reasoning …
There, now i fixed it…. totally makes sense now?!
“If Governor Mitt Romany wins, he will be the popular choice of Caucasians, really really white people, married women and highly under educated rural whites. That’s what the polling has consistently shown in the final days of the campaign. It looks more likely than not that he will lose independents, and it’s possible he will get a lower percentage of Hispanic voters than George W. Bush got of whites voters in 2000. A broad mandate this is not.”