The latest wrinkle in the Prop. 8 whodunit blame game comes from FiveThirtyEight's adorkable Nate Silver, who breaks down the demographics on the California vote. "Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California's black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly", he claims. Instead, he says the numbers place the blame at the feet of older voters across all demographics:
Point: Wachovia reports 23.9 billion dollar losses for third quarter.
Counterpoint: Barack Obama ahead 10 points in polls.
Point: Dow drops another 400 points this afternoon.
Counterpoint: Someone finally tries to arrest Karl Rove. Unfortunately it's just a crazy Code Pink lady, so that's a toss-up.
Conclusion: Prepare for the end of times, son!
Matt Drudge is sort of stuck in a weird place in time right now: four years ago he was able to sway MSM stories with the spin on his site, with his Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that derailed the Kerry campaign. And a lot of conservatives, and (non-conservatives!) still go to the "Republican Huffington Post" to hear how one of the big new media outlets is calling the presidential race.
But now that it's obvious to even the most loyal McCain supporters that their candidate is trailing behind in the polls, how does a guy like Matt Drudge both accurately report the facts while creating his own narrative?
Is it even possible for Matt Drudge to remain relevant after the credit crisis boosted Obama so far ahead in the polls that there seems to be no turning back?
CONTINUED »
The dissemination of video information on Internet has grown a billion fold since the 2004 elections, when YouTube hadn't even been put out yet. Zomg. Can you imagine what the polling places in Florida during the 2000 contests would have looked like if they were taped on the cellphone of everyone at the polling place? You would have seen grandma be all "No, I'm pretty sure I voted for that Al fellow" as her hanging chad gets quickly shuffled away. Then there would be a whole Marvel-style alternate universe where the past eight years never happened and Richard Branson had already taken us on his marvelous spaceship to colonize the moon.
But back to reality, citizen journalism as watchdogs are exactly what PBS and YouTube hope to achieve with their 'Video Your Vote' campaign, which encourages voters to "solicit, organize, stream and broadcast user-generated video from polling places around the nation on election day."
So if you see something, say something. And then post it on your blog, Twitter it, and give everyone a big old Facebook status update of any nefarious dealings at your local polling place.
Good news Democrats! Looks like your man Barack Obama is pulling a six point lead in Ohio, a crucial swing state that has always been won by the guy who becomes president. Hmm…there must be a better way of phrasing that…okay, if you don't win in Ohio, you are pretty f*cked. The only way you are more f*cked is if you don't win in Florida, or if you do win in Florida but some old people get confused and don't punch their ballots all the way in and you see where this joke is going so let's stop here.
Anyway, according to Washington Post and ABC, 51% of voters polled in Ohio said they would vote for Barack, while only 45% said they planned on punching it for McCain and Tina Fey.
Where have we seen numbers like that before? Oh that's right, the sales results for Halloween presidential costumes on Amazon:
CONTINUED »
ABC News and The Washington Post stand accused of purposefully withholding the results of their latest polling, which revealed Barack Obama commands an eight point lead over John McCain among registered voters. This is interesting, because the media is supposed to have it in the bag for Obama, and one wouldn't be wrong for thinking even the "unbiased" pollsters wouldn't want this information embargoed. [Media Matters]
STAND BACK, POLLSTERS! ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FNC, and the AP are suing, um, the State of South Dakota(?) and asking a federal judge to strike down a law there that prohibits exit polling within 100 feet of a voting place. Their argument? The law violates First Amendment protections because it infringes upon news organizations' ability to gather information about elections and politics. [E&P] As if a few extra feet are the problem with exit polling.
Don’t you love when a news story could possibly be part of a larger phenomenon you’ve never heard of? We do!
Some are wondering if Barack Obama’s loss last night was due to the Bradley Effect.
Haven’t heard of it? Then you haven't been watching enough cable news!
Not to make you feel stupid, but the phenomenon is the propensity for white people to pretend (while responding to exit polls or otherwise) to be voting for a black candidate during polling because they don’t want to seem racist. And when it’s just them and the curtain, they’re all, "Psych! I really am racist because there’s nothing more racist that supporting a non-black candidate for separate and unique political reasons."
But we exaggerate. And conflate. A lot of stuff went down in New Hampshire this weekend. CONTINUED »
There’s no better cure for the Mondays than looking for jobs, and no better cure for hating your job than reading job listings. Each week, we remind you that as bad your job is, it could be a lot worse.
While perusing Craigslist this morning – as we are sometimes wont to do – we discovered that a certain high-profile celebrity chef is in need of a full-time entry level helper! (Qualifications include "able to use Blackberry.") Naturally, we couldn't help but wonder which epicurean master was desirous of some top-notch minimum wage assistance. So we decided to put it to a poll!
Black people. They truly are amazing, aren't they? In addition to owning and running several successful (black-owned!) businesses, Harlem residents are, apparently, able to look past the color of the presidential hopefuls' skin and vote purely based on the merits of their campaigns. As such, 57% of residents polled said they favored Hillary Clinton (as compared to 179% who said they'd be voting for Obama) in the 2008 election. The deciding factor? Obama's complete and total lack of experience. (And, we imagine, the fact that it's still not entirely clear where he stands on social security reform just about everything).
Meanwhile, we're just thrilled to see that Harlem's ethnically diverse residents have such discerning heads on their non-Caucasian shoulders. Now, if only Bill O'Reilly were equally as clairvoyant…
When Lindsay Lohan rehab release rumors first surfaced, we asked what you thought would happen to our favorite firecrotch upon being let loose onto the L.A. club scene.
Thirty-four percent of you guessed that Lindsay Lohan wouldn’t last a week out of rehab. Well, Lindsay Lohan doesn’t think she’s going to survive too long without drugs either. She is planning on returning to Cirque Lodge rehab center. She told this week’s OK!,
I'm going back to shoot Dare to Love Me, but I plan on returning to Utah so I can stay focused and avoid other distractions.
To bad our poll did not offer “sell story to b-level tabloid, make false promises of redemption” as an option.
Ed Felsenthal, the Assistant Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, is likely to become the new editor of Men’s Journal.
Between Wenner and Murdoch, we’d take disability leave. But between a rock and a hard place, which would you choose?
There were plenty of memorable moments from last night's Gossip Girl. But which was the finest of them all?
We tossed around a few ideas ("Wow! The unnamed Asian friend knows all about science and engineering. Quelle surprise!" and "Ha. The date-rapist managed to seal the deal with the slutty Princeton rep") before settling on what we firmly believe to be the cream of the crop.
So take the poll, let us know which moment was your absolute favorite, and feel free to berate us for leaving out the slutty gym-clothes field hockey melée in the comments.
Earlier, we made the astonishing discovery that personal politics and overall attractiveness are not always inextricably linked. As a result, many of us are willing to throw caution to the wind, tacitly avoid the Roe v. Wade debate or even look the other way on trivial issues like nuclear armament and mass genocide all in the name of sheer physical attraction. So we thought, why start looking at other foreign leaders when we've got some bona fide eye candy right here in the United States of America? And that's when we decided it was time to take a look at the real running mates: the prospective first ladies.
In that spirit, we humbly present to you the women most likely to relocate to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. come inauguration time. So, ignoring for a moment which one is married to pint-sized marionette Dennis Kucinich (Elizabeth!) which one has a tongue ring (Elizabeth, again!) which one loves her dog almost as much as her Louis Vuitton bag (Judith Stish Ross Nathan Giuliani!) please judge them all on a completely superficial looks-only basis.
The poll to follow, but be forewarned that we've eliminated Elizabeth Edwards and William Jefferson Clinton from contention because cancer jokes aren't very funny and we didn't trust ourselves to write about Bill without resorting to a "close, but no cigar" quip.
Lindsay Lohan is set to leave her $30,000 a month hotel, Cirque Lodge Rehab Center, this weekend. Clearly, we’re not soothsayers, so we’ll leave it up to you to predict what will happen to our favorite party girl:
And now we interrupt you with a blind-item update. Thanks to an astute (and completely anonymous!) tipster we've added a late-breaking entry to the poll about the "struggling new glossy" who can't even afford to pay its outstanding photo bills.
In fact, it's so obvious, we're practically kicking ourselves for not immediately coming up with it ourselves.
"Radar [has] no mention of the story on their site," notes our source, "and aren't they supposed to be all media/celeb/gossip focused?"
They are, indeed!
So back to the polls, kids. Vote safely. Vote often. Vote…for Radar.
Earlier:
• Yo’ Magazine’s So Poor…It Just Bought An Imitation Of A Fake Rolex
Today in the Land of the Sort-Of Blind, Ben Widdicombe tantalizes us with a teaser about a certain anonymous celeb weekly that's short on profits (and, presumably, also on readers). Naturally, we're stumped (Kidding! It's totally Cocktail) so we figured we'd put this one up to a vote.
So which glossy is so broke it can't even afford to go to the free clinic? Which tab needs to take out a second mortgage just to pay its Wireimage bill? Who's about to get their celeb weekly ass kicked by the thugs consummate professionals over at x17 Patrick McMullen?
If you think you know the answer, vote below! And if you don't, just pick whichever mag you hate the most.
And now we interrupt you with an exciting, mid-afternoon news brief: Intern Joe has a date! Tonight! With a pretty young thing he met at a bar (whose name rhymes with "The Schlock.") Huzzah! The only problem is, Joe has a closet full of clothes, and not a thing to wear. And that's where all of you come in.
You see, we've ransacked Joe's closet, and it turns out he owns approximately five (negligibly) presentable outfits. (Not bad for an unpaid intern!) So we figured we'd list the various options, put it up to a reader's poll, and force Joe to wear whichever ensemble gets the highest number of votes.
So choose carefully, and remember: Joe's romantic future is in your hands.
President Bush and his White House staffers are reveling in the news that W. is not the least popular president of all time. Unfortunately for Dubya, he's still the second most unpopular, trailing only the president who was responsible for the Watergate scandal and forced to resign in disgrace. By one percentage point.
Finally, some good polling news for George W. Bush: A new Rasmussen Poll shows that he isn't the most unpopular president of all time.
That distinction belongs, at least for the moment, to Richard Nixon, who is viewed unfavorably by 60 percent of the country.
The bad news for Bush: He's trailing Nixon by only one percentage point. And with 564 days left in his presidency, he's still got plenty of time to catch up.
But hey, at least Bush hasn't engaged in any "dirty tricks" like outing a CIA agent, , ordering some sort of high level White House cover-up, arranging for another senior official to take the blame, then commuting the sentence of the man ostensibly responsible.
Oh, wait.
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