The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

As I promised about a week ago, whenever I see a shift in some state poll data which could potentially alter the state of the race, even if to the slightest degree, I'll update my electoral college projections. So here I am to do just that. Since there's less than a week to go until the election and it appears as if polling is about to slow some due to Hurricane Sandy, I thought I'd release one more update before my final one on the morning of the election. As stated in my last such update, I will order the states for each candidate from the state they're most likely to win to the state which is most likely to wind up being a toss-up. Solid Obama - all of these states (and D.C.) should go Obama's direction by at the very least, the upper single digits and in many cases, well over 10 points. I don't see any way that Romney wins any of these 17 states (including D.C.). 1. Washington, D.C.: 3 electoral votes (3 overall) 2. Hawaii: 4 (7) 3. Vermont: 3 (10) 4.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case in the fall months, a devastating hurricane struck the U.S. just recently - this time along the northeastern part of the country by way of one Hurricane Sandy. What's also been common in light of these devastating hurricanes is at least one religious leader going off the deep end with comments explaining exactly why that particular hurricane took place. Preacher and sexiest man this side of nowhere - John McTernan - is just the latest such person to enlighten the masses with his infinite wisdom regarding natural disasters. In a blog on his website, McTernan wrote: "Just last August, Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans seven years later, on the exact day of Hurricane Katrina. Both hit during the week of the homosexual event called Southern Decadence in New Orleans!" That's not all! Oh no... Since Hurricane Sandy struck the U.S. 21 years after what was called "The Perfect Storm," and the number 3 is considered to be q

Former George W. Bush Secretary of State, Colin Powell (a Republican), just recently endorsed President Obama for next week's election. In response to this, Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu had the following exchange with Piers Morgan on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight : Sununu: "...And frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama." Morgan: "What reason would that be?" Sununu: "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him." Based on Sununu's logic, does this mean he endorsed Mitt Romney because, "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States..."? I didn't think so... Idiot... http://thinkprogress.

In a recent Rolling Stone  interview, the following was written: "...executive editor Eric Bates told Obama that he had asked his six-year old if there was anything she wanted him to say to the president ... She said: 'Tell him. You can do it.' Obama replied: 'You know, kids have good instincts. They look at the other guy and say, 'Well, that's a bullsh**ter, I can tell.'" Of course, upon hearing about this, many in the conservative community said things such as the following: "That's really presidential..." "What a good way to set an example for the children..." "I've never heard a president utter such a word in an interview before..." "It takes one to know one, Mr. President..." "Just like what you've been giving us for four years?" That's right. Barack Obama is the first president in the history of our country to use what is coined a swear word. No other president has

Initially, many liberals panicked at the sight of the Gallup presidential election tracking poll and many conservatives jumped with glee. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has held a steady lead in the Gallup poll and has been shown to lead President Barack Obama by as many as 7 points (52-45) within the past week or so. He's led the president by between roughly 3 and 7 points for quite some time. Of course the media has loved this poll for story, controversy, argument and ratings purposes - especially when Romney's lead was 7. However, as some began to wonder and then notice, it appeared as if, along with Rasmussen, Gallup's poll results didn't quite fit in with all the others, which have had the two candidates essentially tied. Numbers geeks such as Nate Silver began dismissing the Gallup poll as an outlier. This may have prompted Gallup to release more detailed information regarding their sample and they recently did just that. Pretty much all the numbe

As I promised a few days ago, whenever I see a shift in some state poll data which could potentially alter the state of the race, even if to the slightest degree, I'll update my electoral college projections. So here I am to do just that. As there's just a little over a week left until the election, I'm guessing I'll have 2-3 more updates, with the final one being the morning of election day. As stated in my last such update, I will order the states for each candidate from the state they're most likely to win to the state which is most likely to wind up being a toss-up. Solid Obama - all of these states (and D.C.) should go Obama's direction by at the very least, the upper single digits and in many cases, well over 10 points. I don't see any way that Romney wins any of these 17 states (including D.C.). 1. Washington, D.C.: 3 electoral votes (3 overall) 2. Hawaii: 4 (7) 3. Vermont: 3 (10) 4. New York: 29 (39) 5. Illinois: 20 (59) 6. Maryland: 10 (69)

Well, as I wrote earlier in the day, now former defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was the least of the problems for the struggling Eagles. The Atlanta Falcons proved that today. Until the late part of the game, when it was already decided, I can't remember a time when the Eagles' defense was able to stop the Falcons' offense. Atlanta's first drive of the game lasted almost 9 minutes and their second drive propelled them to a 14-0 lead when the Eagles' offense had only possessed the ball for three plays. Philly had to play catch-up seemingly from the first snap of the game on their way to a 30-17 defeat. Rumor now has it that that head coach Andy Reid is thinking about benching Pro Bowl-quarterback Michael Vick in favor of rookie back-up Nick Foles. Reid must be on a choke collar if he's even thinking about doing that. The Eagles are 3-4, just fired their defensive coordinator a couple weeks ago scapegoating him as the central problem to the team. After a bye

Things became more interesting in the Legends division after this weekend's games and more awful in the Leaders division. With Michigan's 23-9 loss to Nebraska, the Wolverines are in a first-place tie in the Legends division at 3-1, with Nebraska now holding the tie-breaker advantage. Northwestern and Iowa each have two losses in-conference following the Wildcats' beatdown of the Hawkeyes. Michigan State and Minnesota are each two games back with three losses a piece. All six teams in the Legends division could potentially make bowl games. The Leaders division is like the Legend division's farm team. Its two leaders - Ohio State and Penn State - are bowl ineligible due to NCAA violations. The other four teams in the division are a combined 4-13 in conference play. The only one of those four to win this weekend was Indiana, when they defeated another Leaders division team - Illinois. Wisconsin will still likely play in the Big Ten Championship Game, yet lost to struggl

Shortly after the Philadelphia Eagles blew a 4th quarter lead against the Detroit Lions a couple weeks ago - their second such loss in consecutive weeks - defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was fired. Castillo took over the duties last year and his defense struggled in the first half of the season, before showing some signs of promise in the second half, especially the team's final four games. The club started off strong this year as well, winning three of their first four - in large part due to the play of their defense. However, it has felt as if the defense has regressed to the early stages of last year during their two recent losses to Pittsburgh and Detroit. Even in saying that, however, I don't feel this move was warranted. Overall, the Eagles' defense is ranked in the top half of the league in all major defensive categories. The problem has been with the offense and also the special teams. If anybody should have been fired, it should have been offensive coordinator

In a poll conducted by Sports Illustrated , 180 NFL players made their voices heard on who they felt was the most overrated player in the league. ...and the winner is? Tim Tebow, who received 34% of the vote. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and New York Jets starting quarterback Mark Sanchez tied for second with 8%. The Eagles Michael Vick and Ravens Ray Lewis finished 4th and 5th with 4% and 3% of the vote. I actually don't agree with the final four listed. Tony Romo and Michael Vick have been a bit turnover prone this year and Romo hasn't done much when it comes to the post-season. However, I still feel they're both very talented quarterbacks and wouldn't classify them as overrated. Ray Lewis is a future Hall of Famer. He's one of the best linebackers the game has ever seen. Of all the players on the list, he is the least deserving. I agree that Mark Sanchez has yet to achieve the expectations set by his high draft pick. However, the guy has come up big in th

During the final presidential debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney made quite the gaffe, making some wonder if he had ever looked at a globe or even knew what one was. During the debate, Romney said with regard to Syria and Iran's relationship, "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea." I'll give you a moment to look at a map or globe. Take your time. I'll play a short tune while you look. If Mitt Romney is reading this, I'll place "Stairway to Heaven" on repeat for a while. Okay, everyone not named Mitt Romney, have you found it? Good. Moving on... No, I'm not sure what Mitt Romney was talking about either. First off, there are two countries between Iran and Syria - those being Iraq and Turkey. Secondly, as Glenn Kessler - fact-checker at The Washington Post  wrote, "...Iran has about 1,500 miles of coastline along the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, leading to the Arabian Sea." The o

Whenever I see a shift in some state poll data which could potentially alter the state of the race, even if to the slightest degree, I'll update my electoral college projections. From this point forward, I will order the states for each candidate from the state they're most likely to win to the state which is most likely to wind up being a toss-up. Solid Obama - all of these states (and D.C.) should go Obama's direction by at the very least, the upper single digits and in many cases, well over 10 points. I don't see any way that Romney wins any of these 17 states (including D.C.). 1. Washington, D.C.: 3 electoral votes (3 overall) 2. Hawaii: 4 (7) 3. Vermont: 3 (10) 4. New York: 29 (39) 5. Illinois: 20 (59) 6. Maryland: 10 (69) 7. Delaware: 3 (72) 8. Rhode Island: 4 (76) 9. California: 55 (131) 10. Massachusetts: 11 (142) 11. Washington: 12 (154) 12. Maine: 4 (158) 13. New Jersey: 14 (172) 14. Connecticut: 7 (179) 15. New Mexico: 5 (184) 16. Oregon: 7

It's always flummoxed me why so many "Christians" opt to vote for Republican candidates over any other, Democratic ones in particular. Many religious leaders have seemingly brainwashed these individuals into thinking that if they vote for a candidate who is either pro-choice or pro-gay marriage (or both), they'll be voting against God's wishes. Those have been the two issues that these religious leaders have centered their political messages around. Forget war, education, the environment, the economy, etc. It's all about abortion and gay rights. This is the reason why many die-hard Christians won't vote for Democrats. On the other side of things, since Republican politicians have generally been more outspoken about their alleged Christian faith, this has also made the Republican candidates more attractive to them than the Democratic ones. Why a candidate's spoken words that he or she is a Christian is of greater importance than he or she illustrating t

I shouldn't be surprised by this anymore, but another Republican either already in or currently running for Congress has made an outrageous claim about rape. Earlier this year, Missouri Republican Senatorial candidate Todd Akin said that women can't get pregnant from what he termed "legitimate rape," because their vaginas had a magical power about them, which could block the passageway of the rapist's sperm and prevent pregnancy. Now it's Indiana Republican Senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock's turn to make such an asinine statement. When asked about abortion during a debate, Mourdock said: "The only exception I have to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." So, according to this man, women being raped is

While most feel Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got pummeled in last night's debate, he did leave the fourth and final debate on a bit of a high note - the man only lied 24 times in 41 minutes of speaking - an average of once every 1 minute 43 seconds). That makes last night's performance the most honest by the Romney/Ryan ticket this debate season. So, congratulations to Mitt for that fine performance. Without further ado, though, here's a list of the lies Romney told last night, followed by some fact-checking by one Igor Volsky and my wisecracks. 1) “Syria is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world. It’s their route to the sea.” Volsky: "Romney has his geography wrong. Syria doesn’t share a border with Iran and Iran has 1,500 miles of coastline leading to the Arabian Sea. It is also able to reach the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal." So it now appears as if Mitt isn't a whiz when it comes to math, history, geography, smiling or laughing. 2)

For any honest person who watched the debate last night will know, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney all but endorsed Barack Obama for a second-term as President of the United States. For those who didn't watch the debate, here's basically how it went: Obama: ::explains foreign policy position or what he's done with regard to foreign policy:: Romney: "Yeah, what he said." Obama: "I'm glad to know that you agree with what my administration and I have done with regard to this." Romney: ::changes subject to the economy and takes weak shot at Obama:: Obama: ::responds to the swipe and follows that with a lecture:: Romney: ::begins to sweat a great deal, checks his watch and prays to Joseph Smith that he's in a nightmare, before realizing he still has an hour and twenty minutes left of this same cycle, so he asks for a few towels, three pitchers of water and that everyone in the audience and at home close their e

As is always the case post-debate, both campaigns are attempting to spin things in their favor to the media. This is a much more difficult task for the Romney camp than the Obama one, since most sane people with an average IQ or better believe Obama won the debate and quite handily at that. Among undecided voters, a CBS snap poll showcased that 53% felt Obama won, while only 23% thought Governor Romney did. According to a CNN snap poll, the margin was smaller, but Obama still won by the final count of 48% to 40%. The sample leaned Republican by five points, so when taking that into consideration, Obama's victory was closer to 13%. In a PPP poll of swing state voters, Obama won by the final of 53% to 42%. If we don't even include the weighting for the bias in the CNN poll, the three polls average out to about a 16-point victory for the president. So, how are Republicans attempting to spin the debate in Romney's favor? By saying things like the following: "Ro

I had run a perfect record with my debate predictions through the first three, but that streak came to an end tonight and I'm perfectly okay with it.  In the first debate, as history has showcased, I thought the challenger - Mitt Romney in this case - would likely be perceived as winning the debate. According to a CBS snap poll of undecided voters, Romney did upend the president by the final count of 46% to 22%. With all the momentum Romney garnered from the first debate, I felt that his running mate - Paul Ryan - would be rather cautious in his approach and this would give Vice President Joe Biden the edge. The final result, according to the CBS snap poll was Biden with 50% and Ryan with 31%. President Obama needed a bounce-back in the second debate and I felt he'd alter his approach quite drastically and see positive results. CBS' poll showed Obama did win by a final of 37% to 30%. Leading up to tonight, I thought both candidates would play things a bit mor

Courtesy of fact-checker Politifact.com and some nerds with time on their hands, a study was just released which showcases that of the two tickets in this year's presidential election, the Republican one is far less honest than the Democratic one. Unlike many I know, I won't just stand by my talking point. I will back it up with evidence. I know - there's a shocker, right? If one isn't familiar with Politifact.com, they separate their honesty grades in the following six categories: 1) True (completely true), 2) Mostly True, 3) Half True, 4) Mostly False, 5) False and 6 ) Pants On Fire (a statement that went above and beyond even just calling it completely false). Since President Obama has been in office for going on four years, he and Biden have a much greater number of overall grades - 505 at this point, whereas Romney and Ryan have a collected 223 such grades. To this point, of all 505 Obama and Biden statements that have been graded by the site, 227 of them are

I didn't see the dog memo that has obviously been passed around in Republican circles. Missouri Senatorial candidate Todd Akin recently compared his opponent - Claire McCaskill - to a dog. Now, word has broke that Iowa Congressman Steve King said the following at a town hall in May and just recently stood by those statements, in comparing immigrants to dogs: "You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we've got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet. We've got the vigor from the planet to come to America." I haven't personally seen this Republican dog memo, but in addition to comparing women and immigrants to them, I have a feeling the following dog comparisons were made in the memo: Muslims - "Don't Muslims eat dogs? Isn't that what is taught in that book of theirs? The Corn or whatever it's called? Well, you are what you eat, right? So, if that's true, they must be dogs!" Bl

I just read that the sexiest man in America - Donald Trump - has a "big" announcement to make about the president tonight which could alter the state of the election. What is this announcement? Vegas odds are as follows: 500 to 1 - The president's real name is Danny. Upon being born in Kenya and realizing he'd one day like to run for president of the United States, he swapped identities with a twin brother he has named Barack. 250 to 1 - When tripping acid with Trump one time, the president thought he saw Donna Summer and asked her (meaning Trump) if she (he) wanted to make out. 100 to 1 - Trump will release pictures of he being the one killing Osama bin Laden - with a spork and a toupee that transforms into a dinosaur named Spike. 50 to 1 - He'll let it be known that the president was actually the one to impregnate Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film "Junior." 6.9 to 1 - Mr. Rat-hair will say "April Fool's...in October!" and then

I would like to congratulate Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In his first debate, he told 27 lies in 38 minutes - an average of one every 1 minute 24 seconds. In the Vice Presidential debate, Romney's running mate Paul Ryan told 24 lies in 40 minutes - an average of one every 1 minute 40 seconds. Last Tuesday night, Romney took the gold through the first three debates when he told 31 lies in 41 minutes - an average of one every 1 minute 19 seconds. So me of the following headlines could be seen in articles around the web last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with regard to Mitt Romney's fibs at the debate: "Presidential Debate: Romney Lied 31 Times" "Romney's 'binder full of women' story was a lie" "Public taking greater notice of Mitt Romney's lies" "All False statements involving Mitt Romney" "Romney the Liar" Without wasting any more precious time, here are the 31 lies Romney told