Tuesday, October 23, 2012

2 weeks left and Debate 3 reaction...

Some observations of this past week:
  1. CO & VA have been pretty solidly in the "Leaning Romney" category throughout.
  2. IA, OH & NH have been jumping in and out of the "Tossup" category from the "Leaning Obama" - NH more so.
  3. WI has been in the "Leaning Obama" category for over 24 hours  - still 68% Obama, but not "Solid"
To all objective observers any movement is in Romney's direction.

Last night's debate:
From the little I saw and the reactions I have read, Romney made a solid appeal to the "undecided" crowd.  He articulated a very pragmatic and nuanced perspective on our relations with China (it almost sounded like an article from the Economist) that softened some of his hawkish rhetoric (especially during the primaries) and related foreign policy to Americans' everyday lives.

I mentioned Zbignew Brzezinski on Facebook last night.  Though he did give Romney credit for his China statements, he viewed Obama as more comfortable with his knowledge and articulation of foreign policy.  As a Political Scientist (my MA emphasis was in International Relations) I agree.  Obama's performance will be applauded in policy-making and academic circles around the country; however, these same circles were surprised the Nixon won in 1972 because "everybody they knew had voted for McGovern."

Brzezinski viewed Romney's responses as "repeating prepared talking points" - he did not appear as comfortable with or knowledgeable of his foreign policy statements.  Whether Romney intended to or not, this approach will likely play better with the average voter.  American's notoriously care little about foreign policy or foreign affairs.  There are a variety of reasons, none of them having to do with intelligence or political engagement, that we are more parochial in our political knowledge.  Romney's statements related the nuanced world of foreign policy to domestic politics and the everyday concerns of Americans in a way that Obama did not.

If the two were giving presentations in my foreign policy or international relations class, Obama would likely get the better grade; however, put the two in my federal government class, and Romney would likely get the better grade.

Due to the less "hawkish" nature of his statements and his ability to frame his foreign policy in a way that is more immediate or tangible to most voters, I give Romney the "win" in debate 3.

Brad

p.s. - Yes, we all love teachers...now go vote (early and often for those in Chicago)















Tuesday, October 16, 2012

How many days? 21! Har Har, Hardee Har Har.

New feature today...a picture!  I hope it works:


According to Intrade, CO and VA really are too close to call...less than .5 separates the two candidates.

Senate: No change.

Tonight's debate:
Best case for Obama: He stops the rise of Romney in the polls - he has little to no chance of retaking FL, NC, MO or any other "battleground state"
Best case for Romney: The same Obama shows up for this debate that showed up for the first.  He takes a solid lead in VA & CO (a major polling firm has already stopped polling in VA - conceding it to Romney), take a "leaning" lead in OH, NH & IA, and puts PA & NV solidly into play.

I strongly recommend NOT watching the debate live...wait for tomorrow so that the "undecided voters" who ask the questions can be properly vetted (because CNN will make no effort to do so.)

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

4 weeks and counting...

This week's post was delayed due to my assuming my new job as Interim Dean for the School of Social Sciences and Human Services yesterday - just too busy to post yesterday!

After my post last week, my wife's uncle sent me this Updated Election Forecasting Model
I had seen it (and other models) before.  Though I respect social science modeling and predictions (I'm a Political Scientist myself) I have more faith in predictions that people put money behind.  "But aren't the scholars at CU putting their academic reputation on the line?" you may ask.  Yes, and no.  If they are wrong, they have margin of error, unforeseen variables, and anomalies to save their reputation.  Gamblers/investors lose their money if they are wrong - nothing to fall back on to save themselves.

Here's this weeks map.



Obama: 303
Romney: 235

The big news is Florida flipping into Romney's column.  Across the board there is some movement towards Romney, but not enough to even pull him into the 40% range in the swing states he is losing on this week's map.

Senate Partisan Caucusing prediction:
Democrats: 52
Republicans: 48

Indiana's Senate race is only 51% in the Republican column...53-47 is a possibility next week.






Tuesday, October 2, 2012

T-minus 5 weeks...UPDATE

I have been relying a lot on Facebook to keep people updated on my life.  However, this update is too long for a status - I need a blog.

I used to frequented a sports gambling site called TradeSports.com.  The format they used was of a futures exchange.  In addition to sporting events, they would have social, political, weather, and all other sorts of events to "bet" on.  I am not a gambler - and have never gambled in my life (except at Grandpa and Grandma Young's New Year's Eve parties) - but I found the gamblers at TradeSports more accurate than the pollsters.  In fact, their state-by-state electoral college prediction for 2004 was exactly right.

Tradesports.com went out of operation a few years ago; however, Intrade.com took over the non-sports side.  As of 10/1, the electoral college outcome looks like this:

2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map

Obama: 332
Romney: 206

Colorado, Florida and Virginia have been slipping slowly away from Obama over the past 24 hours; however, they remain above 65% likely to go Democratic.  Don't get to excited or disheartened about the map - 5 weeks is a long time in politics.  Also, the phrase "October Surprise" has nothing to do with the Great Pumpkin.

I hope to post these predictions every Monday until election day - and I'll link this over to Facebook so my friends can see it quickly.

Brad

**UPDATE**
The Senate is expected to go as follows:
Democrats: 50
Republicans: 48
Independent: 2 (Bernie Sanders, VT, caucuses with the Democrats.  The ME independent will likely caucus with them as well)

Partisan Caucusing prediction:

Democrats: 52
Republicans: 48