The final Gallup poll of Americans’ voting intentions for Congress shows Republicans continuing to hold a substantial lead over Democrats among likely voters, a lead large enough to suggest that regardless of turnout, the Republicans will win more than the 40 seats needed to gain control of the House.
With only two days to go before the Nov. 2 midterm elections, Gallup’s results show the Republican candidate favored by 52-55 percent of likely voters while only 40-42 percent support the Democratic Party’s candidates, depending on turnout. If the voter turnout reaches 45 percent, Gallup’s analysis shows Republicans with a 55 percent to 40 percent lead over Democrats, with only 5 percent undecided.
The 15-point lead among likely voters is higher than only a 4-point lead among registered voters, who only favor Republicans by 48-44 percent, although all the trends point to more Republican enthusiasm to vote. Many Democrats who supported President Barack Obama in 2008 are not happy with the direction of the country, and many independents who voted for Obama say they are defecting to the GOP.
It turned into a veritable love fest on the Washington Mall today when way more than 60,000 people showed up to the Restore Sanity rally put on by the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. The point was that divisions in Washington and on cable TV exaggerate the true picture in the country, and cooler heads should prevail to solve real problems.
I remember eight long years George W. Bush, the worst president ever, and a Republican Congress in charge in Washington, when nothing worked. Do you? Does it matter what party is in power? Nah…
Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck has filed a two-count complaint against The Partnership for Ohio’s Future, an affiliate of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
Arenbeck charges that the Partnership is “not truly independent, but rather has been coordinated with the Republican candidates, their agents, committees, parties and their de facto coordinated national campaign being directed by Karl Rove.”
He also charges that when the Partnership claims in its advertising that it’s “not authorized by a candidate or a candidate’s committee” that they are making an illegal “false statement.”
I can see it now, the proclamation in big letters for all who came to Legion Field in Birmingham to see: “Football Capital of the South.” I used to think it referred to Birmingham. Now I understand it means the state of Alabama.
The Alabama Crimson Tide finished last year as No. 1 in all the college football world and on the way, running back Mark Ingram won the Heisman Trophy. This week, atop the BCS standings in the No. 1 spot is none other than the Auburn Tigers.
And judging from the comments from the talking heads on ESPN, radio sports shows and in print, the front runner — and not by just a head — for this year’s Heisman award is AU quarterback Cam Newton. In fact, if the voting were held today, Newton would win by a landslide!
It’s a well-known fact that in Alabama, football is the bomb, the most important thing in the state that lags behind in almost every other category (although not at the bottom of the numerous lists — thank God for Mississippi). If the two top college football programs in the state of Alabama win the national championship in successive years … and the top player from those No. 1 teams are back-to-back Heisman winners, no one can argue with the Legion Field proclamation. It will be obvious that Alabama is the “Football Capital of the South.”
And while we are talking about Alabama and Auburn, let’s talk Iron Bowl.
With six days to go until what may prove to be a disastrous election for the American people and those in my home state of Alabama, the public opinion numbers are not moving anywhere but to the right, according to poll after poll.
Gerald Johnston, director of the Capital Survey Research Center in Montgomery, said in a telephone interview that the ethics scandal brewing about Tuscaloosa Republican dermatologist Robert Bentley — now all over the television news and the Web — is not having an effect on public opinion.
When asked if the scandal was convincing any potential voters in Alabama to vote for the Democrat, Ron Sparks, instead of Bentley, Johnston said, “No. There’s no movement at all.”
His numbers confirm story after story we’ve published on the news page over the past few months.
John Oliver and Jason Jones sit back and wait for the partisans on the bus on the way to the Rally for Sanity in DC to tear each other apart for the cameras.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
