The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Many Republicans are elated of the news that the Gallup tracking poll today has Mitt Romney ahead of Barack Obama by 7 points - 52 to 45. It's over, right? I'm sorry to disappoint some of my Republican friends, but I wouldn't get overly excited about that poll result just yet. It is true that as of today, according to Gallup, Romney leads Obama by 7 points among likely voters - 52% to 45%. However, even in light of this, stats nerd Nate Silver gives the president a 65.7% chance of winning the election, compared to just a 34.3% chance for Romney. He bases these numbers on all the polls, trends, weighting for biases, history, along with other numbers with regard to the economy. Including this Gallup poll, he still gives President Obama close to a two-thirds chance of winning the election in close to three weeks. So, Gallup has Romney in a commanding lead, yet a stats expert only gives the Republican nominee about a one-thirds chance of winning on November 6th. What gives? ...

Mittens Romney has stated that he plans on cutting taxes by 20% for all Americans, including the wealthiest of Americans. On NBC's Meet The Press  Sunday morning, Romney said the following: "Well I can tell you that people at the high end, high-income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. Those numbers are going to come down. Otherwise they'd get a tax break, and I want to make sure people understand, despite what the Democrats said at their convention, I am not reducing taxes on high-income taxpayers. I'm bringing down the rate of taxation, but also bringing down deductions and exemptions at the high end so that the revenues stay the same, the taxes people pay stay the same -- the middle income people are going to get a break, but at the high end the tax coming in stays the same..." Eh, what? Under him, the wealthiest of Americans, like everyone else, will see their taxes decrease, but won't be receiving any tax cuts and their ta...