Obama 297
image description
   
Romney 241
image description
Senate
Dem 49
image description
Ties 3
GOP 48
image description
  • Strongly Dem (194)
  • Likely Dem (56)
  • Barely Dem (47)
  • Exactly tied (0)
  • Barely GOP (50)
  • Likely GOP (47)
  • Strongly GOP (144)
270 Electoral votes needed to win Map algorithm explained
New polls: CO FL OH VA
Dem pickups: (None)
GOP pickups: FL IN IA NC
PW logo Christie Pegged for Keynote Speech Dancing Around the Issues
Romney Takes the Gloves Off Republicans Still Not Sold on Romney
Menendez Leads by Double-Digits in New Jersey Quote of the Day

News from the Votemaster

Obama's Attacks on Bain Appear to be Working

Taking a cue from the Republicans' swiftboating of John Kerry in 2004, Obama has been relentlessly hitting Romney on his supposed strength: his knowledge of business and how the economy works. Increasing evidence is showing that the approach is working. Four in 10 voters in the swing states have said that information they have gotten in the past week (presumably from Obama's ads attacking Romney for outsourcing jobs) has made them less likely to vote for him. The feedback loop here--run negative ads, voters like Romney less--is just going to encourage more negative ads from Obama, which, in turn will stimulate more negative ads from Romney. It will be downhill all the way to November.

And maybe beyond it. Stu Rothenberg points out that whoever wins may find the well so poisoned that governing is completely impossible. When the new Congress assembles in January, the only thing on anybody's mind may be the the 2014 elections (well, maybe not--the long-range thinkers in Congress may be focused on the 2016 elections). Solving the country's problems may simply not be on the agenda.

Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act

Congressional Democrats trying to pass the DISCLOSE Act, which would require organizations involved in political campaigns to disclose their donors was killed by a Republican filibuster yesterday, as expected. The attempt to pass it was simply done so that Democrats can say Republicans are against transparency (which, oddly enough, used to be something Republicans pushed). In a way, the vote was like the many votes the House has taken to repeal Obamacare. They are for show only as everyone knows the bill is going nowhere.

R.I.P. Independent Journalism

Reporters love scoops and politicians love staying on message and the two are coming together in an unholy way. More and more, politicians are giving interviews subject to the condition that the politician or campaign gets to edit the story before it is published. Needless to say, anything critical or off message is going to meet the backspace key head on. Allowing the people being reported on to censor the news is deadly to independent journalism but, sadly, it has become the new normal.

Americans Woefully Ignorant about Government

Lack of incisive journalism isn't the only reason our political discourse is of such a low level. One third of Americans can't name even one of the three branches of government and another third can name only one of them. Not only do the citizens not know very much, but they don't care either: the U.S. ranks 120th out of 169 democracies in the world in voter turnout. Add to this the Citizen United decision, which allows billionaires to spend millions of dollars on attack ads aimed at a very uninformed and unengaged electorate, and this probably does not augur well for the future of democracy in America unless something is done.

The usual proposal is to improve the schools. Everyone agrees they need improvement, but the devil is in the details. Democrats say we need to improve the public schools by paying teachers more to make the profession more attractive and by reducing class sizes. Republicans say what is needed is more charter schools, rigorous testing, and curbing the power of teachers' unions. Result: nothing gets done.

Can Your Mom Run Your SuperPAC?

By law, superPACs cannot coordinate with the candidate they are supporting. So what happens when the person running a candidate's superPAC is the candidate's mother? This situation has occurred in the WA-01 Democratic primary, where the mother of one of the candidates, Laura Ruderman, is funding and running a superPAC aimed at destroying one of Ruderman's Opponents, Suzan DelBene. Situations like this make a mockery of the election laws.

Today's Presidential Polls

State Obama Romney   Start End Pollster
Colorado 45% 44%   Jul 09 Jul 13 Purple Strategies
Florida 45% 48%   Jul 09 Jul 13 Purple Strategies
Ohio 48% 45%   Jul 09 Jul 13 Purple Strategies
Virginia 46% 44%   Jul 09 Jul 13 Purple Strategies

Email a link to a friend or share:

---The Votemaster

Previous Headlines

Jul16 Ron Paul Loses in Nebraska
Jul16 Conservatives Now Calling for Romney to Release Tax Returns
Jul16 Obama Campaigns in Virginia; Romney Sends Surrogates
Jul16 Are Americans Overtaxed?
Jul16 Who's Side Are You On?
Jul16 Ron Paul Loses in Nebraska
Jul16 Conservatives Now Calling for Romney to Release Tax Returns
Jul16 Obama Campaigns in Virginia; Romney Sends Surrogates
Jul16 Are Americans Overtaxed?
Jul16 Who's Side Are You On?
Jul15 Republican Governor May or May Not Have Called for Romney to Release Tax Returns
Jul15 A Look at How Polling Works
Jul15 Green Party Nominates Massachusetts Doctor for President
Jul14 Romney Again Refuses to Release More Tax Returns
Jul14 Boomlet for Condoleezza Rice as Veep Continues
Jul14 Senators McCain and Kyl Endorse Flake in Arizona Primary
Jul13 Cruz Leading Dewhurst in Texas Republican Primary
Jul13 Romney Calls Obama a Liar
Jul13 Republicans Worry That Romney Is Being Swiftboated
Jul13 A New Gap: Marriage
Jul13 Over 5 Million Felons Are Disenfranchised
Jul12 Flake Having a Tougher than Expected Primary in Arizona
Jul12 Scott Brown Raises $5 million in Second Quarter
Jul12 House Republicans Vote to Repeal Obamacare--Again
Jul12 Voters Would Accept Black, Female, Catholic,or Hispanic President
Jul12 iPhone App Now Available
Jul11 Hovde Narrowly Edges Thompson in Wisconsin Senatorial Primary
Jul11 Missouri Republican Primary Gets Nasty
Jul11 Obama Has More Cash in the Bank than Romney
Jul11 Karl Rove's Groups Expect to Spend $70 Million on Senate Races
Jul11 Florida and Iowa Blocking Former Felons from Voting
Jul10 Polling Drought Continues Unabated
Jul10 Obama Wants to Keep Bush Tax Cuts Only for Incomes below $250,000
Jul10 Romney Raises $106 million in June
Jul10 Ron Paul's Last Hurrah
Jul10 House Ethics Panel Votes to Investigate Shelley Berkley
Jul10 Tension Reported at the Supreme Court
Jul09 Obama Ahead in Swing States
Jul09 Democrats Pound Romney on Tax Returns and Off-Shore Bank Accounts
Jul09 Jobs for Men Do Not Return after a Recession
Jul09 How Wise Are Crowds?
Jul08 Karl Rove's Group Starts $25 Million Ad Campaign Attacking Obama on Economy
Jul08 Romney Considering Both the Rich and the Poor as Veep
Jul08 Congressman Barney Frank Marries His Long-Time Partner
Jul07 Poor Jobs Report Announced
Jul07 Romney Begins Preparing for the Fall Debates
Jul07 Christie Self Eliminates from Consideration as Veep
Jul06 Competitive Senate Primaries Ahead
Jul06 It's All Over but the Shoutin'
Jul06 Who Cares?