Are the Pennsylvania Polls Wrong?

This is the polling trend for Pennsylvania.
Yet this is what people are saying about the race there: “I don’t believe there’s a double-digit lead.” “The history of the presidential elections here is different.” “The polls don’t necessarily reflect what will happen on Election Day. We’re not a state that’s accustomed to huge blowouts.” And so [...]

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Putting the Election in Historical Context

“This is 1964 territory,” Andrew Sullivan writes. Except…it isn’t. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson received about 16 million more total votes than Barry Goldwater did, relegating Goldwater to a mere 52 electoral college votes (collected solely from the Deep South and his native Arizona). Barack Obama is not going to beat John McCain so dramatically. It’s [...]

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Great Moments on Canvassing History

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”
Woman turns back [...]

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Did I Read That Correctly?

Will Wilkinson describes ACORN as a group that “dilute[s] the quality of voters” (presumably by trying to register more of them). Is there a way I’m supposed to interpret that that isn’t, you know, racist?

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Thoughts on the Third Debate

I. Ta-Nehisi Coates made a very good point during his liveblog:
You just heard why John McCain will lose. He pivoted from an attack on ACORN and Ayers to his campaign getting the economy back on track. Worst segue ever. The two don’t line up. Ayers and ACORN don’t take you to a larger campaign theme. [...]

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Fact of the Day

Sarah Palin named her most recently born son Trig Paxson Van Palin…because “Van Palin” sounds like the band Van Halen. It’s true.

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Great Moments in Focus Group History

“Well, I don’t know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I’m sick of paying for health insurance at work and that’s why I’m supporting Barack.”
“I’m gonna hate [Barack Obama] the minute I vote for him. He’s gonna be a bad president. But I won’t ever vote [...]

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In Praise of “They” for the Singular Subject

Via Andrew Sullivan, Anatoly Liberman does not approve of “they” replacing “he/she” for a singular subject. Maybe it’s because I just woke up, but I’m finding his lengthy argument unbearably pretentious and eyeroll-inducing. I’m still not sure of his actual point, if indeed he has one beyond mere curmudgeonliness. Sullivan offers that he often uses [...]

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How the Nobel Committee Made Me a Nationalist

America, Fuck Yeah.

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Quote of the Day

Sean Quinn of FiveThirtyEight does not like Tennessee very much:
By the way, a special shout out for an absolutely horrible experience on the campus of Belmont University. I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a less welcoming place. We hated this campus and the staff here so much that we left to watch the debate [...]

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