A little belatedly, a quick snapshot on the Pennsylvania House races and McCain’s double down in that state. And my take on Virginia after spending more than a week floating around Prince William County, which, together with Loudon County, are the lynchpins to Democratic victories in the state. Ruy Teixiera has a fascinating study out [...]

Tightening? That seems to be the question of the day. John McCain admits that he needs (and expects to have) the momentum on his side going into election day. The polls show that Obama’s big October spike seems to have plateaued. But the aforementioned tightening is not really in evidence with seven days to go. [...]

Marc Ambinder finds Sarah Palin’s silence on whether Ted Stevens should resign to be “curious,” and wonders: Why is it, exactly, that while Sen. McCain called for Sen. Ted Stevens to resign in the wake of his corruption convictions, Gov. Palin couldn’t bring herself to utter the word?  Will the media interpret this as a [...]

I don’t know which advance genius thought of an outdoor rally in Chester, Pennsylvania in late October but it’s freeezing here, pouring and knee-deep in mud. Obama, who spoke for more than 35 minutes before a dripping crowd of 9,000, with no umbrella, hat or gloves, should take a lesson from William Henry Harrison.

I’m told that the U.S. military casualty report for Iraq last week was…4 wounded. That is wonderful news (and, of course, we hope the wounds weren’t serious and our troops recover soon). But you’ve got to wonder why we have nearly 150,000 troops still on the ground there. Yes, there are continuing internecine conflicts–the Times [...]

Well, we’ve seen this sort of thing the entire campaign,occasionally from the Obama camp, relentlessly from McCain. Today’s edition of scrofulous mudslinging–aided and abetted by a banner headline from the Drudge Scourge–involves a wildly inaccurate reading of remarks that Barack Obama made in a 2001 radio interview. It turns out that he wasn’t criticizing the [...]

Obviously, the big draw in Leesburg this morning was Tito the Builder, aka Tito Munoz, aka defended of Joe the Plumber. If you had ever wanted to hear a crowd of Northern Virginian White People chant “Tito! Tito! Tito!” who weren’t looking for a Jackson brother encore, well, you missed your chance. But I managed [...]

Guilty on all counts. UPDATE: It’s hard to see how he can win after this, but does he realize that? And if he does win? AP notes: Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to [...]

For those who haven’t had quite enough, thank you, of the vagaries of democracy, there are two fascinating, maybe crucial, elections coming down the pike in early 2009–in Israel and Iran. (Actually 3: the regional elections in Iraq, scheduled for late January will be pretty important, too.) Now that Tzipi Livni has failed to form [...]