Breaking News: Begich Wins Alaska Senate Race!

Anchorage Mayor, Democrat Mark Begich has won his race to unseat incumbent Republican, and convicted felon, Ted Stevens in the seemingly endless Alaska Senate contest. 

Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight.com, has concluded that Begich will be the winner of the Alaska contest when the few remaining votes are counted. 

As of this writing, Begich has stretched his lead over Stevens to 2,374 votes, with fewer than 15,000 ballots still to be counted. Most importantly, nearly all of the outstanding votes are from pro-Begich areas of the Last Frontier state.

We at ElectBlue concur with the awesomely brilliant analysis of Mr. Silver. We congratulate Senator-elect Begich on his victory. 

Well done, Mark!  (and Nate!)

Quote of the Day

"...you should absolutely not assume that just because someone has published a poll, they have any particular idea what they're doing. Pollsters should be treated as guilty until proven otherwise."

-- Nate Silver

                   Fivethirtyeight.com

Today's Tracking Polls: It's Still All Obama

Here are the tracking poll results for today, October 22nd.

Gallup Daily Tracking:  Obama 51%, McCain 42%

Rasmussen Daily Tracking:  Obama 51%, McCain 45%

Diageo/Hotline Daily Tracking:  Obama 47%, McCain 42%  

Research 2000 Daily Tracking:  Obama 51%, McCain 41%

Note: Readers who are interested in a thorough and thoughtful analysis of all of the current election cycle's daily tracking polls, their strengths and weaknesses, should read what Nate Silver has to say.

The McCain Stunt Meter

As we have pointed out in previous posts, the McCain campaign has a penchant for gimmickry whenever it hits a rough patch (a frequent occurrence lately). We are not alone in noticing this phenomenon. The ever-resourceful and brilliant Nate Silver at 538.com has not only noticed, but he has produced this insightful and entertaining 'stunt meter'.  

The stunt meter is funny and yet it's a bit scary in its implications. We just hope Nate doesn't get into copyright trouble with the geniuses at the Department of Homeland Security. You will recall their color-coded security alert chart (offered with absolute seriousness) which the McCain Stunt Meter closely resembles.

What will we do for cheap entertainment when the current in-charge crowd is booted out on November 4th?