Monday Open Thread [10.8.12]

According the the New York Times, Vice President Biden is at a Delaware hotel for three days of debate camp starting today. I wondered how that could possibly be, since the Vice President does have a nice empty house in Wilmington to use. And then I finally got to the end of the article on the Obama campaign's reaction to the listless debate and noticed this timely correction posted this morning:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was moving into a Delaware hotel for three days of debate preparations. He will actually spend the nights at his home in Wilmington.
Damn. I was preparing a Scavenger Hunt along the lines of "Where in DE is the Vice President?" Oh well.

The Polling Report [10.8.12]

A lot of polling firms went quiet in the middle of the week in order to go into the field fresh on Thursday to gauge the debate impact. Romney has definitely gotten a bump, but what is encouraging is that it is not at the expense of Obama. Obama's numbers are holding, so Romney is just picking up undecideds. We should get a clearer picture of the battleground since Mitt Romney lied his way to a debate win last Wednesday. Indeed, I have a question for Republicans and conservatives. If you have to lie about your policies, plans and ideologies in order to win, what does that tell you? In some polls, notably the PPP poll out of Virginia last night, the Romney lies only served to make him more likable among Democrats and Independents, and they allowed Romney to win the debate. Interestingly though, while Virginia independents think Romney won the debate 71-17, it doesn't mean they are voting for him. They are splitting their vote at 46% a piece. And while more Democrats may find Romney likeable now than before, they are not voting for him.

Thursday Open Thread [10.4.12]

By doing well last night, Romney reversed the expectations game for the next debate. He will be expected to be great again, and Obama will be expected to collapse to the ground in fear. But this next debate is the town-hall format. That was Obama's best debate last time, and it is something Romney does not do well, i.e. relating to the common folk. One final point to last night's debate: if Democrats and the President were complacent, they are not any more. Actually, that was the biggest danger to the election: Democratic complacency because we expect to win. Well, that is no longer a problem.

The Polling Report [10.4.12]

Some interesting things in those snap polls (and if you want to talk about skewed polls, Republicans, did you know that the CNN poll did not poll anyone under the age of 50 or of color?). First, the CBS poll found that 69% thought President Obama cares about their needs and problems, which is up from 53% before the debate. Second, the favorable / unfavorable numbers of both candidates remained unchanged after the debate. Indeed, while Romney won, he was an absolute and complete asshole during it. How many times did he interrupt Jim Lehrer and the President? And his "I get to have the last word" reaked of privileged entitlement. Peter Hamby of CNN tweeted: "So if [Romney] didn't fix his favorables with this debate, it means his victory was worth ZERO." And now onto the state of the race where it really matters:

Wednesday Open Thread [10.3.12]

"As to Romney: It’s a mark of the fundamental vapidity of his campaign that his people think he can win with mere zingers. That isn’t Romney’s problem. His problem is that people don’t see any authenticity to the man, and basically (and perhaps, ergo) don’t like the person they see. They should be using this debate as a way to address those two deficits. Zingers won’t do that. I’d also bet you dollars to doughnuts that these zingers are written to please the right-wingers watching. That is his same-old problem, thinking that if he’s winning over the right, he’s winning over America." And that is why he fails. (using my best Yoda voice).

The Polling Report [10.3.12] — Dominique is no longer laughing Edition

Our resident racist Sarah Palin fan laughed at the notion that President Obama could be winning 350 electoral votes yesterday. Well, new polling released yesterday puts the President within 3 votes of that benchmark, and there is more bad news for her and her illiterate bigoted ilk: Romney is losing support in red states. New Polls out of Missouri and Louisiana show tightening races in those states. Here is our new map today: