will be a monumental improvement over the current administration. I haven’t decided which one to vote for yet, but I’ll be walking out of the voting booth with a smile either way. The Bush years have been an unrelenting disaster on nearly every issue, large and small.

… when you where at the bottom of the tank shark.

typical sharky post… no logic, only goes with the stories that back his OPINION, and is completely contrived out of typical “i only see the facts i like” conservatives.

Finally I feel like Obama is not very bright

now i ask, WTF? Seriously?…

didn’t hurt Bush’s election attempts, and Obama is head and shoulders smarter than that nitwit ever was.

like i read/heard somewhere yesterday…give the guy two weeks and he is guaranteed to make a dumb comment

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," he said. "I mean, that’s a storybook, man."

But—and the "but" was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect "a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate," and added: "I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic."

great site by nate silver (of baseball prospectus fame)

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/do-voters-like-joe-biden.html

As speculation grows around who John McCain will select as his vice presidential running mate next week, Republican National Committee officials said Tuesday that McCain is no longer considering former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge.

Several sources at the RNC told FOX News that in the last 36 hours, senior McCain advisers and aides have told RNC officials that McCain "got the message" last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/19/rnc-mccain-wont-choose-abortion-supporting-running-mate/

fwiw – from RNC not from mccain

also in article:

(National Review Editor Rich) Lowry said he thinks the safest choice for McCain is Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whom he described as "kind of dull" but a reliable choice to satisfy the Republican base.

so basically i think its down to
-romney (problem is that hes a mormon – and like something i read on national review regarding a pro-choice running mate, it just comes down to how much conservatives can stomach mccain/whoever his choice is…or how much they wont vote for obama. interesting choice because he is a businessman, has huge fundraising potential and knows economics, something mccain self-professes to know know much about)
-lowry (dont know a lot about him…)
-huckabee (darkhorse – would be interesting b/c it locks up evangelical voters imo + huckabee is fairly well liked by the base IIRC. read in the last few days where someone said the VP part of the ticket should be for evening things out – well huckabee and the others would probably meet this requirement. this is the most interesting of the 3 choices imo just from my perspective – the effect he could have on voting at least…)

Sharky, you check the site electoral-vote.com as an extra resource. They take the polls from the past week and show the electoral map. They currently have Obama 264, McCain 261, and Virginia too close to call. The blogger has some liberal leanings but he tries to keep the front page objective.

Real Clear Politics General Election:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html
8/04 to 8/19:
obama: 44.9
mccain: 43.7

obama: +1.2%

real clear politics electoral college:
electoral count: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=5
obama: 228 (solid: 183) – 45 leaning
mccain: 178 (solid: 139) – 39 leaning
toss up: 132

electoral count (no toss up states): http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=10
mccain: 274
obama: 264

Pollster.com averages: http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/08-us-pres-ge-mvo.php
obama: 45.7
mccain: 43.2

Well, now we definitely know Obama’s going to win.

Because Sharky came on here several times last year, and said at various times that Romney, Huckabee, and Fred Thompson would all win the Republican nomination, but none of them did.

It’s pretty clear to me that his predictive powers are lacking, to say the least.