TampaYankee

The Wicked Which of the West survives. Don't expect her to have learned anything. Without her wacko show she'd be sitting in the last seat of the last row of the backbenchers section dreaming of the exciting days of watching butter being carved.

Watch for LV or Phoenix to become the new USA Porn Capital.

The Fat Lady sang!! At this time Obama has taken all swing states except NC which went to Romney, and Florida which remains too close to call at this hour but with Obama in the lead. The electoral vote count stands at Obama 303, Romney 203 with 29 remaining in Florida. Either way it is a healthy win for Obama. Some might say a landslide. Obama has taken the lead in the popular votes by over a milliion. The Senate majority has been retained and possibly strengthened. That looked to be an impossible feat a year ago. The House remains mired in right wing wackos -- the only disappointment tonight. All in all it was a good night. The good news is that I won't die a bitter old bastard... not tonight anyway.

Epi, Great reports. Thanks for sharing you experiences in wonderful Colombia. Thanks also for sharing the pics of your friends.

One of the major networks reported that the American election for President has been followed very closely at the detail level all around the world. Surprising to us maybe but they went on to say that everyone looks to the US as a paragon that most everyone aspires to for their own country -- even though they may have specific policy differences and disagreements. So they follow what goes on here. Interesting that Pakistan is the only listed country that prefers Romney over Obama. Also interesting that Iran is MIA.

When I started this Landslide thread just prior to the first debate Nate Silver was prognosticating the electoral vote at 320 for Obama and 218 for Romney. On this eve of the election Nate is prognosticating 315 for Obama and 223 for Romney with a probability of 92% that Obama will be re-elected. I believe this represents a great Obama recovery after a lot of hard work to climb back in the race. Obama lost some margin in the popular vote however Nate says that the National polls and the swing state polls have lined up in consistency, with Obama ahead slightly ahead in the average of the National polls too. This is all great news if it materializes at the polls tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a brutal day. Already we have gotten previews of the long lines to be encountered. We still await for the voter intimidation tactics. The Dems say that poll 'watchers' (True The Vote) have targeted mostly minority precincts (83%) 'vote integrity' checks. They claim a million 'watchers' will be on hand. The Dems have asked the DOJ to have observers on hand to monitor the pricincts for fair elections. They will have their own observers too. It will be a long day for all involved. Let's hope the true will of the people is heard whatever that will is. I'm betting that is for four more years.

Just caught the first two episodes last night. Overwritten in the comic book style but I could snuggle down with him for a lifetime. That might not be all that long for me but I would burn brightly.

Be careful what you are willing to accept. Hitler brought pride and prosperity to the economically faltering Weimar Republic. They hailed him as a great leader too.

I did more than hope. I contributed to her opponent's campaign -- twice. I placed bets on about ten horses in these races. Most are looking good down the stretch.

It's completely irrelevant.

I caught Romney making two campaign stops today: Ohio and Colorado. At the first, Ohio, I saw, first, a tight shot on Mrs. Romney with a broad smile on her face panning back and forth over the crowd. I looked more closely and it appeared that she was close to bursting out in tears, literally, and not tears of joy. There was no mistaking it to the close observer. The camera shot opened up to reveal Mitt standing to her left. He was beaming at her with deep love and affection... and an air of resignation. She introduced him with all the right words and pride of someone who thought he would make the best President to lead the country the next four years. He started his campaign speech with the usual talking points. Neither of them had fire or fervor in their words. The scene in Colorado was an exact replica in every way and I mean exactly. It was easy to see that they knew. That it was all over. That any hope to the contrary was beyond all practical reason. That there was too much to overcome in the last weekend by shear will and determination. They owed it to their campaign workers and base to keep on moving forward in their campaign schedule to the bitter end just as McCain and Palin did that last weekend. They put on their best faces and met their supporters for a last set of bittersweet embraces. Of course everyone still has to vote to make this true. That part has to come on Tuesday. Much will be written about this campaign: the forsaking his history, the secret tax returns, the Swiss bank accounts and Cayman investments, the rush to the extreme right, the never ending flip-flops, even on a daily basis, the never ending faux pas including his trip abroad, the bald faced lies and deceptions, and more. The historians will draw one set of conclusions, the Right another, the GOP establishment a third, maybe. The blame game has already started. Christy is the present target although cooler heads will know that it started before Sandy. In fact it never really materialized. Yes, there was a turn around in Romney fortunes after the first debate but he never really captured a solid lead or even a tie. Obama was on the surge again - a tepid surge - after the last two debates. In the end Romney himself will get most of the blame. Many will overlook the real cause -- the GOP has become to extreme to appeal to the modern United States demographics. I predict the base has not learned the lesson but that the establishment has. It will be interesting to see how these two settle their differences in the near future.

Pretty much says it all.

Romney has turned out to be a very funny fellow I have only recently come to appreciate. I've reached the point in this election -- I think it is called burnout -- where I don't get upset at the lies, half-truths and promises of Romney and his minions as I see them on TV. I actually break out laughing now at their outlandish remarks. I guess I've really bought into the Obama win, assuming it doesn't get stolen at the polls through voter intimidation, dirty tricks and ballot counting shenanigans. Watching out for these occurences is about the only positive use for lawyers. (There had to be one.)

Hito, you need to spend some time in the microfiche archives of a great American library surveying American newspapers, great and small, over the last 250 years to get an idea of how impartial those organs of information were. It was quite eye-opening for me, from an historical perspective. If you are interested in American History it is a very interesting and informative excursion.

I'm astonished. JLo never misses an opportunity to dress-to-show what she has... till now. She might as well have dressed as a monk.

Well, here it is, the Friday before election day. Usually by this time the handwriting is on the wall in the campaign war rooms. The internal polls show who is up and who is down and where the momentum is or is not. Both sides know. That does not mean that anyone gives up as hope springs eternal. I believe Obama has recouped much of what he lost in that first debate. The margins are narrower to be sure. He seems to have solid, if narrower, leads in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa. That is the election. There is no end run around that. I believe he will also take New Hampshire and Nevada... and I wouldn't be surprised if he eeked out Virginia too. Nate Silver has him at 303 Electoral College votes today. What momentum there is seems to be with Obama now. The landslide will not be so big but significant. Obama was coming back to win but there was still a little unease out there until Sandy. I think Hurricane Sandy helped some. It took any real or perceived momentum away from Romney. It basically sucked the oxygen out of his campaign for three days -- a lifetime at this point. It showed Obama in command being Presidential. It showed him working with GOP Governor Christy putting to rest the fabricated notion that he cannot work with the opposition. It showed him acting in a very concerned and compassionate way. It showed that Government (FEMA) has an important role to play in society. It highlighted that Romney has promised in the past to eliminate or down grade FEMA in line with the right wing agenda of dismantling government. All of that may not have swayed the bases much. However, I'm confident that it played very well to that group making up most undecided voters that are left at this point -- suburban mothers. I think they liked what they saw. I think they believe that government does have a role in society. This episode brought that home at the best time possible IMO. Romney has been campaigning like a candidate that knows he is losing -- the fabrication of stories that makes his campaign sound uber confident -- like pulling resources out of NC to move to states with closer contests. Of course, when the smoke actually cleared it turned out that only one person was being moved. All campaign offices were remaining in place with the same staffing. Or turning a good news auto story into a BIG LIE to move the Ohio numbers his way. Or the really confident move of burying his very conservative VP candidate in the Deep South to hide from reporters and the rest of the electorate. The list of examples is quite long. The good news continues. It appears that the Dems have a lock on the Senate. That is amazing considering how many seats were at risk and the uneasy times. The Tea Party continues to be the Dems best friends when it comes to keeping the Senate. Lugar would have been a shoe-in for reelection. The weirdo wacko extremists of today follow in the foot steps of Sharon Angle and the Delaware Witch lady who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2010 Senate races. The Fat Lady hasn't sang yet but I hear her clearing her pipes. Now comes the trench warfare stage: dirty tricks, voter intimidation and other shenanigans not to mention possible attempts to steal ballots or corrupt voting machines. What the GOP hasn't managed to do legislatively, some will try to do operationally. I have been extremely upset over this election, more so than any other in my life. I have viewed this election as a watershed event in the history of our nation, pitting the The New Deal and Great Society advancements against the return to the economy of the 20s, the social mores of the 50's and the Robber Barons of the 1880s. There is no doubt in my mind this GOP Congress and Romney would have taken us down that road. I think ultimately the demographics are against the wackos but they were a lot stronger this time than I ever would have anticipated. More disturbing is the complacency of so many Americans about what politicians are espousing and selling through overt mendacity and deceit. I never would have guessed the American people were so willing to overlook lies and tricks including overt attempts at legalized voter suppression in order to win elections. I, for one, don't understand how one can make an informed choice about a candidate that lies to your face and your neighbors face and tells you not to worry, just trust him. This does not give me confidence in the robustness of our electorate which is the basis of our democracy. Our government, our democracy, is much more fragile that I ever thought.

How is it that you know this to be true. Are you familiar with all of the Post Staff and employees? Also, it is true that the Post is not a communal or democratic organization. It's philosophical and organizational principles are dictated by the ownership directly or through a Chairman and Board of Directors and executed by a CEO. So when the Post 'supports' something it is these people who determine what that is. Of course this has never been the case, nor should it be necessarily. What is important is that the paper keep the news reporting objective, unbiased, and that they 'share' their 'viewpoint' only on the editorial page. Are you predicting the presence of an automatic 'Truthometer' on every street corner or Truth Serum added to our water with the flouride? Either of those would make Romney awfully uncomfortable.

No news here.

D'ump, a contraction of Donald Trump, continues to be the irrelevant racist blowhard he has demonstrated the whole last year. The best twitter I heard of was the guy who offered a million dollars to anyone who would net the squirrel that perpetually sits on Trump's head and determine if it is dead or alive and if the latter then if it is hostage.

One should never count his chickens before they have hatched. Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. I could go on but the groans are turning into howels. I agree, you Tarheels should vote early and often.

Well, now is the time to reflect on Obama's unnecessary announcement (before the election) and how great everybody thought it was. Personally, I'd much prefer having a few additional percent of the voters in NC and VA at this time. It very well might flip NC blue and cement VA as blue. It's almost always better to take a longer view if one can be afforded. Frankly, I'm pissed. This is another unforced error by the Obama campaign and his supporters.

Comic genius, nothing less.

Amazingly the Salt Lake City paper endorsed Obama !! Truly an LDS miracle!!!

There are more revealing pics of Buster, I have seen them in the past. Not great shape but he was.

There is no more traction there, sadly to say. Everyone has heard about his taxes and foreign accounts and secrecy. It has already cut where it had traction. The only effect would be to motivate those who already decided against him for whatever reason.