From Bruce J. Miller: Sunday evening, Fox news anchor Shepard Smith said that people were lining up to vote, and that "bad weather was unable" to keep them from voting. He quoted McCain campaign manager Rick Davis as having said, during an interview on ABC's "This Week," that John McCain would have to win 5 of the following 6 states in order to win the election: Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Smith repeated this with great emphasis, expressing skepticism that this could be done. It was actually George Stephanopoulos who asserted this necessity and Davis said "yeah" but quickly added that he thought his candidate was surging ahead in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Brit Hume talked about how McCain must win Pennsylvania. Karl Rove said that McCain needs to "diminish returns" from the SW part of that state, and "increase" them in traditional Republican areas like the suburbs of Philadelphia. He did not spell out exactly how McCain might accomplish this "diminishment." Fox showed poll data from Florida, claiming that McCain is way ahead among Hispanics and seniors, implying strongly that McCain is likely to win in that state. All in all, one does not get the impression from watching any network or cable channel, Fox included, that McCain is very likely to win. In a surprising moment-a sort of stifled aside that could have been easily missed-Tom Brokaw alluded to Republican election fraud: MR. BROKAW: And, Chuck, as you talk to the campaigns and to the Obama campaign particularly, where are they worried about the system working against them? They can be organized and organized and organized, but secretaries of state, voting machines-- MR. TODD: Right. MR. BROKAW: --and, and, and the manipulation that can come on Election Day? MR. TODD: Well, I think they're worried about places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Less so, Florida. I think they think places where there has early vote and there has been a loose rules on absentee voting, they feel pretty good about. But take a state like Pennsylvania. Michele and I were talking about this before. This is a state with no early voting. They haven't been able to bank any votes. They've banked votes in North Carolina, they've banked votes in Florida. They haven't been able to do it there in Pennsylvania. There's a little bit of nerve-racking there. I've heard from some Democrats who are worried that Obama hasn't handed out enough money for the city get out the vote operations, hasn't done enough there. Ohio, of course, they're worried a little bit about the same thing. There was a loosening of the early vote rules there, but not enough. So those two states in particular, I think, will have them staying up late on Monday night into Tuesday morning. Perhaps the truth is finally bubbling up from below. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
