We just shot today’s episode of TPMtv, which is a run down of the big senate races. This won’t surprise anyone who’s closely watching the senate races. But if you’ve only been watching the presidential race, it’s all going to come down to three southern state races, all of which share a strong basic profile — Kentucky, with incumbent Mitch McConnell, Georgia with incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Mississippi, with appointed incumbent Roger Wicker.
None of the three Dems in these races has yet to get a public poll putting them in the lead. But each is very close, within a few points. And the incumbent, in each case, is under 50%. All of which is to say that each of these incumbents is in real trouble, though each probably has a thin advantage going into election day.
To get to 60, the Dems need to bag one of these three seats. Even with that, they’d need to pull out the Minnesota race, which looks promising but is still touch and go, and win all the ones where they’re favored but it’s still close. But when you’re watching on election night, keep an eye on those three races. They’ll be the tell.
Heading up the GOP voter suppression effort in Indiana is Secretary of State Todd Rokita. And he certainly doesn’t lack for experience. Rokita was one of the key GOP foot soldiers responsible for shutting down the Florida recount back in 2000.
The Christian Science Monitor has always been a unique institution, small but national in scope and with special, though distant from editorial, roots in the Christian Science movement. But today comes word that next April the CSM will cease daily publication and become a weekly with a strong focus on the web.
Certainly the first of many, though a bit different since they’re not a metro daily.
This is how John McCain ends up — finishing his presidential quest by arguing that allowing the Bush tax cuts to lapse will bring Socialism to America.
If only those generations of lefties had known it would be so easy.
And what happened to his being a terrorist?
Late Update: TPM Reader RN vents …
Socialism? Is that all they’ve got? Can someone shout to him, hey dude it’s 2008 – nobody under 45 even knows what that means! What’s going on with his campaign? Josh, please explain to us mere mortals out here in real America why John McCain is STILL, 7 days before election, trying to rally his base? Isn’t that what Sarah Palin is for? Imagine how close this race could have been if the old, moderate, John McCain had popped up after the convention? Imagine the breaking of the tire swing rope as every journalist in sight would have jumped on in sheer exultory delight that the Mac was
back. I want the guy to lose as bad as any Dem, but it’s almost getting painful, like watching a punch drunk fighter get mauled and the ref won’t call it.
A couple of McCain higher-ups have told me that Palin simply knew nothing about national and international issues. Which meant, as one such adviser said to me: ‘Letting Sarah be Sarah may not be such a good thing.’
From Robert Draper’s blogging of the week of the campaign for GQ.
Certainly some lavishly lurid campaign books are going to have some good material about this farce.
How do the polls stack up for Obama now compared to Kerry at the same time in 2004? Dramatically better, especially in battleground states.
I have to imagine the DSCC is already on this. But is there any Republican senate candidate in the country today who isn’t being pressed to answer whether or not they think Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) should resign?
Along those lines, you’re watching these races unfold in your own states. So you’ll probably see or read what’s asked and answered before we do. So if you see Republican senators in contested races getting asked this question — and especially if they answer, let us know.
Late Coleman Update: Norm Coleman tells Stevens to resign. No word on whether he’s telling himself to resign over the discount bachelor pad and free suits.
Late Update: Oh, yeah, Palin too. Is she getting asked?
Late Smackdown Update: Palin tells Stevens to take a hike.
Not only was Indiana’s minority-vote suppressing Secretary of State Todd Rokita one of the foot soldiers credited with shutting down the Florida recount. He’s also got a way with words that may reveal some of the mindset that leads to his penchant for vote suppression. Back in 2007 he said …
During a speech Thursday at a Republican event, Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote for Democrats.
“How can that be?” Rokita said. “Ninety to ten. Who’s the master and who’s the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?”