A very quiet pre-election day here in Central California, particularly if you don’t watch the tube and get bombarded by the final ballot initiative ads. Yeah, there are some hot congressional and legislative races in the general vicinity, and close local races everywhere, but with well over half the votes cast by mail, it’s more like Oregon and Washington here than, say, Virginia. But there’s plenty of national political news and even more talk. Here’s a sample:
* If you missed NPR’s Morning Edition today, you missed hearing my pithy thoughts on the unprecedented visibility of abortion politics in this presidential contest.
* TAP’s Paul Waldman analyzes the Romney campaign’s potentially fatal mistake in turning a gaffe into a lie on Jeep-Jobs-To-China.
* Paul Ryan forgets he’s supposed to be “bipartisan;” engages in a bit of holy war in speech to Ralph Reed’s group.
* Steve Schmidt admits voter fraud largely a myth, solidifying his devil status among Tea Folk after his earlier smears of Our Sarah.
* Republicans hitting the refresh button constantly on Gallup site in hopes that its final tracking poll will reignite Mitt-mentum.
And in non-political news:
* Perfidious Albion: new study shows that Britain has at one point or another invaded 90% of the nations on the earth.
I’ll be back shortly, but if you’re antsy, check out this video of early voting lines in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday–the early voting day Jon Husted fought so hard to keep from happening. Truth be told, it reminds me of the lines to get into Invesco Field for Obama’s 2008 acceptance speech, give or take a few metal detectors.
UPDATE: Gallup’s final tracking poll (a 7-day average, or maybe it’s 4 days this time; hard to tell) narrows Mitt’s lead among LVs to one point (49/48), and boosts Obama’s lead among RVs to three points (49/46). Gallup’s analysis to come later; I’ll probably post on that.
