She told him she had to be out by nine because she was needed in the kitchen.

You two are hilarious! I had lots of laughs with all the binders-of-women memes out today. I wanted to post my favorite one here, but for some reason I can't get the attachment to upload. You can find the original at http://www.facebook.com/mexwotd. It's Bill Clinton stepping out on stage with a big, happy smile while Obama stands at the podium with his head down and his hand to his forehead. Caption reads: "Did someone say binders full of women???"

No, I was not referring to you or any comment you made.

Actually, I have a healthy amount of respect for that particular poster, who used lots of links and quotes from authoritative sources to support her position. As for the statement of victory, yes, it may have been impulsive but on the other hand, it's usually customary to declare victory if the opposition has fled the field.

Perhaps...but what was won?

In other news, for those who won't be in shock when someone who "wins" the popular vote, but looses the actual race occurs, my curmudgeon-y father forwarded this site to me. They link to the actual polls. An avg of the last 14 days of ALL the polls is not appropriate, but, it is much better than the CNN map which I found to be clumsy getting to the data. With this link, you can "create your own map" and change the states which ever color you please if you don't believe there assessment. Pretty slick if you ask me.

Take it for what it is worth, just thought it was a neat tool.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls ... e_map.html

Yes, I've been watching RCP for several months now. They tend to have a GOP bias if any but are generally a good resource. Another place with a nifty map is 270towin.com

Romney seems to be gathering steam lately, I'll grant you that. But the trouble is that he would have to win most of the big battleground states, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania to get enough electoral votes. That could happen but seems unlikely. Most of the solid blue states are very solid (pushing 60/40) while many of the solid red states are not that solid, maybe 52/48. It doesn't take much of a stumble over the next couple of weeks to lose that kind of lead and a challenger in any race is far more likely to stumble.

We'll see. Personally I'm not too concerned either way. Four years from now we're still going to be complaining about incompetence in Washington and we're still going to have a huge deficit, debt, and no one will like paying taxes. At least if all goes according to plan I'll be retired on a beach by then.

Hopefully people who want to make up their own minds by reading opposing viewpoints. Let's face it, we won't be changing any minds among the active participants, so there's no real winning or losing there. I'm just content to de-FUD stuff so people can make up their own minds based on the facts, not the FUD.

You don't have to grant me anything.

270towin is interesting, but where is the polling data?

It should be pointed out an incumbent usually needs 50% or more to put that state on lock down. If they go in under 50, they know they are most likely in trouble. Most undecided voters are that way (besides usually being attention whores) for a reason when an incumbent is involved. Most who go to polls undecided tend not to vote for the incumbent, but rather for the challenger. Speaking in general, un-scientific terms. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Look under "Polls"

That may all be true. But the National Debt chart I've posted elsewhere a couple of times does suggest that the person occupying the Oval Office can and often does have an effect on which direction the it will be headed.

Sure. Clearly someone is in control of our government finances. But I believe it has been a very long time since those finances were managed responsibly by either party. And I'm not sure that now is the time to make the changes that ultimately need to be done. We need to cut spending and maybe even raise taxes so that everything is in balance again. But in the midst of a recession is not the time for that. In that sense I think Obama's plan in more responsible because it raises taxes on those who can afford it. The GOP principles are preferable to me over the long term though.

I also think the world has changed and we will never see the same kind of growth we saw over the last 50 years or so, at least not in the US or Europe. I think the next century will be Asia-focused. We are well-placed to ride along on that trend but only if we actually build better ties with China, India, and the other big players. Neither party seems to understand that.