National

I said yesterday in one of the Hurricane threads that, while I detest the politics of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) otherwise, I find his response and handling of disasters to be spot on. His assholish schtick is exactly what is needed during these disaster, for there are always idiots who stay behind, ignore warnings, and then get in trouble requiring rescue, risking even more lives. These assholes who never listen to authorities need to be treated, publicly, like assholes, and Chris Christie does that, early and often. And I like it. Since his state has been ground zero for the landfall of Hurricane Superstorm Sandy, Governor Christie has been all over the national media last night and today. He just spoke to Matt Lauer this morning, and whe Lauer asked about the competence and efficiency of the federal response, Christie said it's been "great," noting that he spoke directly to President Obama at midnight and FEMA again this morning. Christie said Obama "has been outstanding." On CBS, Christie said "cooperation from the president of the United States has been outstanding. He deserves great credit."

Nate Silver notes the hurricane hitting the east coast means we'll likely see "a reduction in the number of polls issued over the coming days... And certainly, any polls in the states that are most in harm's way, including Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, will need to be interpreted with extreme caution." I still think we will see polls from Florida, Ohio and Colorado. Here is the current map. There is a poll out of Colorado and Florida slowing very slim 1 point Romney leads, 1 poll out of North Carolina showing the race tied, and new polls out of Ohio and New Hampshire showing consistent 3-4 point Obama leads. We also have a Senate Forecast Update today, showing the Democrats picking up a net of 1 seat, with the possibility of picking up a net of 2, to increase their number of seats to 55.

What damage do you have? Did you lose power? Listen to 1380 am, which is DELDOT's radio broadcast. They list current road closings and detours for all three counties, including signal outages at intersections. It seems that the Governor will announce at 8:30 if the Level 2 Driving Restriction will be lifted. To echo Lt. Governor Denn and Governor Markell, if you or someone you know are running into any storm-related recovery roadblocks or have unanswered questions, post it here and we will get the message to them.

Watch:

As of 5 am this morning, all of Delaware is under a Level 2 Driving restriction, which means only essential personnel are to be on the roads. In reality, with most businesses closed, all schools closed, all courts closed, it means "Stay home fool." Governor Markell stayed on Twitter for most of last night answering Delawarean's questions about various storm related topics, including trash collection, power issues, bridge closings, but he had this to say about the driving restrictions: "Driving restriction keeps as many people safe as possible. Even with a waiver, employers should exercise good judgement." Hey businesses, that is the Governor telling you to shut down and keep your employees safe. Follow his advice. Please use this thread to report all your storm observations and news, for as long as you have power. But most importantly, stay safe out there. For the latest news, follow the #SandyDE thread on Twitter. Another good source of information is WhereinDE's 1Source.

Here are some polls released on Saturday and Sunday. All very good for the President. Indeed, the Associated Press reports that President Obama "is poised to eke out a victory in the race for the 270 electoral votes needed to win re-election, having beaten back Republican Mitt Romney's attempts to convert momentum from the debates into support in all-important Ohio."

"While in a tight race with Obama for the popular vote, Romney continues to have fewer state-by-state paths than Obama to reach 270. Without Ohio's 18 electoral votes, Romney would need last-minute victories in nearly all the remaining up-for-grabs states and manage to pick off key states now leaning Obama's way, such as Iowa or Wisconsin."

Meanwhile, and interestingly, Gallup finds the composition of the electorate for the 2012 presidential election is looking quite similar to what it was in 2008. That is not good news for the Republicans. Here is the current map based on the recent polling in each state, with the most recent results since our last report posted below:

Hopefully we will not need it. MORE from Delaware Dem: Romney campaign confirms Romney's position on FEMA is to shut it down and return it to the states. Disasters like Hurricane Sandy, which will impact 10 states or more, would bankrupt all of them, and would lead to untold and unnecessary death that could be prevented.

I was traveling back from Connecticut yesterday and was preparing for the Hurricane Frankenstorm Sandy Halloween Apocalypse today, so here is your polling report with polls from the last two days. We have a lot of North Carolina polls today, and they are all over the place, but the average of them all puts the state is SLIM ROMNEY territory, but it is only a lead of 1.5 points. Florida too is in the Romney slim category, but also only a lead of 1.5 points. The rest of the swing states are in the Obama column. Indeed, Greg Sargent ran through the latest running polling averages (which, once again, we don't do here at the DL Polling Report) and finds President Obama leading in Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Iowa while Mitt Romney leads in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. The race is essentially tied in Colorado and New Hampshire.

"For the sake of argument, let's give the tied states to Romney. Here's the basic state of things: If you give Romney all the states where he is leading or tied in the averages -- Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, New Hampshire -- he is still short of 270. Meanwhile, if you give Obama just the states where he leads in the averages, he wins reelection."

Here is our map: