Electoral Map Update

With Obama having leads in important swing states Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Virginia, and Obama gaining on McCain in Ohio, the election looks more and more likely to swing in Obama's favour. Check out this article for more info.

Here's the newest update of the Electoral map, courtesy of CNN:

(Click the picture for a more interactive approach.)

According to this map, 160 electoral votes are "Safe Obama (Dark Blue)," 90 "Lean Obama (Light Blue)," 99 are "tossups (Yellow)," 64 "Lean McCain (Pink)," and 125 are "Safe McCain (Red)."

This brings the Safe/Lean score to a 250- 189 lead for Obama. 270 electoral votes are needed to clinch the presidency.

So what happens if Obama wins the four states listed at the top of the article, all of which he is currently leading? 306 electoral votes go to Obama, with only 232 left for McCain, if he wins the remaining "tossup states" (Colorado, Wisonsin, Ohio, and New Hampshire.) This would give Obama the biggest election victory since incumbent Bill Clinton's 379-159 over Bob Dole.

I don't think Obama will win that cleanly, but as the first vice-presidential debate looms, it looks like McCain is falling into a deeper and deeper hole.

The Great Debate...Debate?

Canada is stupid. That's not something you hear too often, what with our average test scores consistently higher than that of our neighbors to the south, the U.S. So why is Canada stupid? Because whoever is in charge of scheduling decided to air the first English debate between the five prime-ministerial candidates tomorrow night, at the exact same time that vice presidential candidates Tina Fey...er, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden face off.

OR

So which debate should we watch? Well, if you're American, the answer is easy. You watch your own debate, you don't care about a country with one tenth your population. But Canadians have a different issue.

On one hand, this is the only real chance Canadian voters have to see their Candidates face off, with Green Party candidate Elizabeth May sneaking into the battle with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Conservative), Stephane Dion (Liberal), Jack Layton (NDP), and Gilles Duceppe (Bloc.)

On the one hand, the two vice-presidential candidates seem to bring a much more interesting debate to the table, even if Canadians have no effect on the outcome.

From an Associated Press article:

Green party leader Elizabeth May is urging Canadians to pay attention to their own election.

"It's extremely unfortunate timing," May said of the schedule. "I'm hoping that people will decide to watch the Canadian debate live and check out YouTube later for whatever exciting moments there are between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin."

Sorry Ms. May, but the American debate is too intriguing to pass up. Myself, I'll be tivoing the Canadian debate while I watch the American one. With Joe Biden, who can't seem to stop saying dumb things in the press, ("Hillary Clinton is as qualified, if not more qualified, than me to be vice president,") and Sarah Palin continuing to perform extremely poorly in interviews, the dumb things said in this debate could be very Youtube or SNL-worthy quotes.

G-d bless Tivo.

A look at Sarah Palin and the 2008 Election

As an aspiring journalist, I pride myself on coming up with creative headlines (hence the pop-culture reference in this one,) and leads, as well as witty sentences. But, even though blogger Bill Tancer of Time Magazine thought of it first, I have to say this.

"I doubt that any of us have ever considered any of our past vice-presidential candidates a sex symbol."

Tancer couldn't be more right. And even though, at 44, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's looks are declining, one thing cannot be contested. She used to be hot.

Exhibit A:

Not bad eh? Taken in 1984, the photo shows Palin as an attractive 20-year old woman. She even finished second in the race for 1984 Miss Alaska, taking the "Miss Congeniality" title. Not only was she attractive, she was also a sportscaster for KTUU-TV in Anchorage. A hot female sportscaster. Can't get much better than that. So I'll admit. I am very attracted to Sarah Palin.

Let me rephrase that. I am attracted to who was then known as Sarah Heath. That is, 1980s Sarah Palin. The current Sarah Palin, not so much. Not only is she getting old, she stands for almost everything I'm opposed to, from being pro-life to just being pro-McCain. She is the republican vice presidential nominee, despite much better options (Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney,) being available. If John McCain wants to pry Hillary voters away from Obama, all the power to him. He will not be successful.

Another thing I don't like about Palin is her skill in making choices. Say what you want about her voting for drilling in the ANWR (Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve,) she clearly has not made good choices in naming her kids: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig. Only celebrities should have the right to give their kids stupid names like these. And she can't control her own daughter, 17-year-old Bristol, who is unmarried and five-months pregnant, how will she control the country?

In choosing a vice-presidential candidate, the presidential candidate should always look at the one-heartbeat-away factor. If something were to happen to McCain, could Palin lead the country? No. Not even close. Now on the other side, if something were to happen to Barack Obama, would Joe Biden be able to lead the country? I really do think so.

Case closed? Not quite. According to USA Today's Electoral Vote Tracker, the Democrats have 248 electoral votes on lockdown, to the Republicans' 135. For those who don't know, a presidential candidate needs 270 to win. Now let's examine this deeper.

States Obama-Biden have on lockdown: Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, , Rode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and D.C.

States McCain-Palin have on lockdown: Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakotas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Indianapolis, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Which leaves the following "swing" states open: Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and New Hampshire.

Out of the leftover, no-locked down states, these should go to Obama: New Mexico, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

And these should go to McCain: Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Arkansas, Lousiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia.

After those states have been awarded, the new electoral vote tally? 264-227, Obama. Based on common knowledge/assumptions, Obama is a mere SIX electoral votes from being Amerca's next president. Where will he get these votes? Two states seem to jump to mind, the only two I did not award to either candidate. Ohio and Florida, both huge players in the controversial 2000 election, where the Dems won the popular vote but failed to lock down the presidency.

Do I think Obama will win Florida? Yes. Do I think Obama will win Ohio? Again, yes. But this means nothing. Not only am I Canadian, I haven't done nearly as much research as hundreds of political analysts from our neighbours to the south. The fact of the matter is, with a dead heat in Ohio and a slight Obama lead in Florida shown in recent polls, an Obama victory seems imminent (and deserved.)

Should make for an interesting two months.

Obama-Biden 08!

Wow that was a long speech. I don't know how politicians do it, but Barack Obama, president of the US in just a couple of months, just spent about an hour delivering one hell of an acceptance speech.

Pundits wondered if his speech could top his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when John Kerry was officially awarded the nomination. Anyways, as one can assume, Obama's speech talked mostly about his family's struggles when he was a child, how he overcame poverty and all that to be the man he is today.

Compelling stuff, but most of us that have been following the election have been hearing the same things for about eight months. Regardless, it was very cool seeing him deliver the acceptance speech, with over 80,000 people watching at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Must've been a shitload of security there.

Another point that Obama kept driving in is that voting for John McCain would be voting for another term of Bush-Cheney, because they share similar, if not identical, views on almost everything. He then stated "eight is enough," meaning that eight years is enough suffering, and Americnas don't deserve anymore of the same kind of politicians running their country. This sent the crowd into furious repetitive chants of that phrase, "eight is enough!" There were actually an insane amount of standing ovations and cheers from the crowd, not an irregular occurrence at an Obama speech.

It seems like Obama will make a great president, and Senator Joe Biden a great vice, even though I have no American citizenship, I look forward to eight (not only four) years of the most powerful country in the world being run by someone that actually knows how to run a country.

If you are American and you're reading this, you know what to do.

This Really Was a Lazy Sunday

Shit. Another whole day wasted. It could've been that I woke up at 1, only to realize it was 2 (daylight savings time.) Or it could've been that the entire city was covered with a layer of snow, making me WAY too lazy to do anything productive. And so came a day full of playing video games.

Onto the Album of the Day, Outlandos d'Amour. My favorite album from my second favorite artist, it's stocked with very catchy, very listenable tracks. The first three are three of the greatest songs that start an album, (Next to You, So Lonely, and Roxanne.) There are fa few other great songs on the album, so if you don't own it already, download or buy it ASAP.

Now back to the blog. Tuesday's Mississippi primary is coming up, and although only 33 delegates are up for grabs, it's pretty much all there is to keep us entertained till Pennsylvania's April 22nd primary. It looks like if nothing resolved regarding Michigan and Florida, neither candidate may be able to achieve the required 2,025 delgates.

For those of you who don't know, Michigan and Florida tried to attract some more attention my moving ahead their primaries, staging them before the date they were allowed to. This proved completely useless, because it did more harm by good, and all delegates won in those states were ruled ineligible. Now there's a lot of controversy over this, and some are even suggesting a mail-in ballot.

The Habs also played today, and I'm sad to say I predicted they would lose, and they did, 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. If you check out Habs Express, you'll see on the right side bar that myself, and the lucky coin I flip before each Habs game, are both 6-0 over the last 6 games. My fellow writers of Habs express refuse to go against their home team, unrealistically predicting a Habs victory every game. That is why they are 4-2 and I am in first. We are a good team, but you can't expect us to win EVERY game.

Anyways I should go start winding down, because based on the weather outside it looks like it'll take me 3 hours to get to school. Good night, to keep checking back often, and don't forget to comment.

Good Night.

Kanye, Be Quiet...I Want to Sleep

It's only a quarter to one and my eyes are already closing. Granted, it was a long day and a long week, and I did spend about three hours at a very long, very boring dinner. Regardless, this blog is a commitment and since I stick to my commitments, (I hate all of you, stop laughing...) this post will be written.

I just coughed up a lung. I'm exhausted, but the dulcid tones of Kanye West's Late Registration (today's Album of the Day) are keeping me awake. The 2005 album is actually pretty good, and the fact that I used to play it constantly back in '05 whenever I played Roller Coaster Tycoon gives me a certain feeling of nostalgia.

The day in general was pretty boring...not just for me, but for the rest of the world. The next relevant Presidential Primary (Pennsylvania,) isn't for another three weeks, so we that are following the Democratic race have to claw our fingernails and wait. In sports, the only relevant thing going on for three weeks is hockey, and even that doesn't provide the constant daily interest that Football and Baseball do.

So hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting, the Habs play an afternoon game in L.A, but I'll be missing most of it for the "5th annual Rogers Sportsnet Sports Journalism Workshop" at Concordia. So good-bye for now, and remember, keep checking up on me.

Barack Obama is Distracting Me From Studying

As I sit at my desk trying to find a balance between Research Methods and Microeconomics, both the sound of The Beatles' Revolver and the constant refreshing of CNN's website are proving to be very distracting.

Granted, Revolver is arguably the greatest album of all time. Track-to-track, there is not one second where I am bored in the slightest. The same cannot be said for some of their earlier albums, laden with cutesy covers of annoying 60's songs. It's not all bad though, Revolver is just amazing.

Now the Fab Four are not the only people distracting me right now. Today is "Critical Tuesday," and even though I am Canadian and have absolutely no say in the election, the primaries in Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas, and Ohio are both very interesting and very distracting. John McCain has essentially locked up the GOP nomination, but what's really keeping me distracted is the race for delegates in Ohio and Texas for the Democrats.

Now for those of you who don't know me personally, I am a big Obama supporter. I know you might want to know why, but I'm gonna leave all that for a later post. The point is the race is very tight in Texas and Ohio, and the constant refreshing of CNN.com is keeping me very busy, yet I still decide to write this.

Now this was just sort of an introductory post, just to tell you what's on my mind right now (Yellow Submarine is so catchy,) but hopefully I'll be updating this blog daily, so keep checking back for more of my musings. Future posts will tell you more about myself, because in this one you didn't really get to know me. So if you like what you read, and want to hear more, keep coming back.