Yes, I know (because everyone's phoning or e-mailing me) that I was just on CNN talking about the nexus of humor and politics. That's from an interview I did a few weeks ago that they just decided to use. If anyone recorded it, you could make my mother very happy by sending me a clip. I hate watching myself on camera but mothers like that kind of thing.
On the 'net, you can find several hundred maps of the U.S. with states indicated as red, blue and toss-up to denote who's likely to capture which electoral votes. The maps vary a lot, especially around the swingable states, but every one I've seen has Barack Obama well over the 300 mark.
With one exception. Over on DailyKos, they reproduce this map which they say is from Bill O'Reilly. It has Obama at 183, McCain at 189 and the rest marked as too close to call.
In order to make this happen, O'Reilly's crew had to do things like declare Iowa too close. Every poll out there has Obama more than ten points ahead in Iowa and McCain has pretty much conceded the state. But I guess O'Reilly needs to give his audience something to hold onto. If that's the idea, he's not doing a very good job. I couldn't find this map in the non-subscription section of the O'Reilly website...but they do reproduce the Real Clear Politics electoral map which currently has Obama at 311. So apparently O'Reilly thinks that two mutually-exclusive polls are credible enough to present. They report, you decide.
And I note that visitors to that site have apparently decided what they want to believe. An online poll asks them to predict who'll win. As of this moment, Obama has 32% and McCain has 68%.
Condolences go out to the Reiners. Estelle Reiner — wife, mother, actress and vocalist — has died at the age of 94. She and husband Carl were married nearly 65 years and they sure looked like one of the happiest couples you ever saw. Late in life, she had a grand career singing cabaret in local clubs...and she had that memorable, funniest line in the 1989 movie, When Harry Met Sally, directed by her son Rob. A lovely lady.
October 28, 2008
