[SCENE: The United States of America, every New Year’s Eve since 2016.]PERSON #1: “Well, that was an awful year. Good riddance.”PERSON #2: “Yeah. I sure hope the new year is better.” [Clock strikes midnight.]THE NEW YEAR: “Hold my beer.” Because I’m not on Twitter, I’m not automatically creating a sort of personal record for posterity of the past week’s events… Read more »
Jonathan Sickinger of South Hadley, MA, a Democrat and Obama supporter who started following me due to my Pajamas Media Weather Nerd blog coverage of Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy, appears to have won the 3rd quadrennial Living Room Times Electoral College Contest with 538 points and a perfect prediction map. This “call” of the contest winner — “RIGHT NOW!” as… Read more »
Barack Obama re-elected, and by a comfortable margin both electorally and popularly. Nate Silver, and the concept of objective facts, vindicated against the Right’s ritual denialists. The Democratic Senate majority, which seemed doomed a year ago, expanded. Marijuana legalized in Colorado. Gay marriage legalized at the ballot box in Maine, Maryland and Washington (and an anti-gay marriage amendment defeated in… Read more »
My Election Day live-blog, live-chat & live results page is online and underway! Alternatively, you can view a less “conversational” version of the page — not “chat,” no @mentions, just Becky’s and my tweets & RTs. That’s the “live-tweeting only” page. Both pages will have live Electoral College Contest results alongside the live blog/chat window, like 4 years ago, assuming… Read more »
Big Bird on a horse, holding a bayonet in one hand & a binder in the other, riding from Iran to the sea via Syria. His war cry? “MALARKEY!” — Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) October 23, 2012 P.S. On another note, Nate Silver says Ohio now has a 50-50 chance of deciding the election. Compare that to the #2 through #9… Read more »
This is fascinating. Obama’s re-election next month is guaranteed if he can hold on and win the five contiguous states outlined in orange below, all of which, even after his precipitous decline since the Denver debate, he still leads by between 2.4% and 5.0% in the Real Clear Politics averages: That map gives Obama exactly 270 electoral votes. It assumes… Read more »
One of the greatest American political traditions took place last night: the Al Smith Dinner, at which both presidential candidates roast one another — and themselves — in front of an audience of wealthy coastal elites in New York City. Both Obama and Romney were hilarious. Here they are: I’d encourage you to watch both videos, but if you don’t… Read more »
[NOTE: In addition to entering the contest, please bookmark my Liveblog, Livechat & Live Results page, then come back Tuesday for election results and contest results!] With less than three weeks until the presidential election, the polls are open for my quadrennial blog contest to see who can best predict the Electoral College outcomes! It’s time to start playing with… Read more »
The first presidential debate is upon us, and the political world has temporarily descended on my city, Denver, and specifically on the university — indeed, the very arena — where I’ve spent so much blogging about basketball these last few years, the University of Denver’s Magness Arena. I don’t have credentials to attend the main event, but I did manage… Read more »
In 2009, my first full year working as an attorney, I was supporting a family of four on a single income. Because of the child tax credit, the mortgage and student loan deductions, and various other credits and deductions for which Becky and I qualified, I ultimately did not pay any federal income tax that year. I received a refund… Read more »