"Always Subtract Seven Percent"

Democrats, despite knowing better, can't resist dancing before they cross the end line. In the article at the link above, Andrew Hacker details some of the ways in which voter turnout is or can be depressed, nearly all of which are likely to cost Obama votes. Hacker suggests that "always subtract seven percent" should be posted on the wall of every Democratic precinct office, where James Carville's "It's the Economy, Stupid" hung for Clinton.

In that spirit, I went to 270towin.com's interactive electoral map and polling site and subtracted 7 points from Obama in every state.

My resulting map (not sure if this will display for everyone) has Obama squeaking by, 277-261.

http://www.270towin.com/

But I'll go down with the sinking ship and reiterate my belief that McCain will win a very close, ugly, dirty election.

Doomed to Repeat

"Historians Against the War" organized in September 2003 to oppose the lies, distortions, and misuses of history that led us into the war in Iraq. (We at The War Room are proud to have organized against the war in Fall 2002.) H.A.W. has been controversial from the start - not just because of its ideas, but because of the very notion of historians - educators who study the past - taking active roles in political issues of the present. Some of our academic colleagues believe that we have no business taking such a public stand. These are the same quibbles, of course, that were heard about ministers during the civil rights movement and Vietnam and that were brilliantly refuted by Martin Luther King, Jr. Take a look at H.A.W.'s website and sign up!

This cartoon is by Josh Brown, from his 'Life During Wartime' strip, at the above link.

Into the Darkness

It's that season, folks - short days, cold nights, leaves blowing off the trees, knives flashing on the campaign trail. The economy's melting down and our two wars are getting nastier by the day. So what are the campaigns doing? Resurrecting old scandals, twisting old words, fanning old hatreds. Here in the Great Red Intermountain West, we don't get TV ads, but you can look at them all on the official websites (and notice that McCain's smart enough to put Sarah Palin's smiling face up front) --

http://www.johnmccain.com/

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

I love that the Obama people had their 13-minute Keating 5 film all ready to go for the day when McCain decided it was time to paint Obama as a crazy radical - (and by the way, my friends, have you noticed that he's black?)