I've been watching Huff Post's electoral map all day too. Finally just a little while ago they made Ohio blue again and now Obama is back to 275. Feeling better every minute!

I knew he'd come around sometime.

will be a completely different story.

Though I don't know for sure because I'm not privy to the strategy sessions, I think that the likely scenario is that President Obama was sandbagging.

There were many reasons for putting in a sub-par performance. To be clear, I don't think Obama "lost" the debate but he definitely didn't shine and while Romney certainly didn't win any awards for honesty, he came out on top.

The reasons?

The expectations for Romney are stratospheric for the next debate. The right-wingers are going to be expecting a knock-out punch and when it's not delivered, Romney is going to be in deep shit poll-wise as they realize that they really did vote to put a show pony into a horse race. If Obama can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!

Also, the right-wing PACs were getting ready to pull money out of the Presidential election to focus on the Senate race. The Senate is VERY important because it's likely that the House will remain in the GOP's hands even while they lose a significant number of seats. President Obama is keeping the PAC money focused on him as the Republicans try to convince themselves that they have a chance.

That would require Obama to have been playing "chicken" with his reelection, suckering the 'Licans and then flipping them like a judo master.

That doesn't sound like the cautious-to-a-fault Obama we all know.

Just sayin'.

that concern has been put to rest, from my point of view. Biden was awesome. He'd make a great president. Obama will be just as impassioned-we hope and pray-and the rest will be history.

from this side of the pond the mind boggles that the US has so many stupid people that they would vote for a guy worth a quarter of a billion dollars who won't show his tax returns; meanwhile these same people either are or will be dependent on social services for their very survival, the same services Romney wants to gut.

It's stunning.

the degree of wealth worship and the really bizarre race/class divisions we have here until you've lived it. As far as I can tell it's unique in the developed world, and it leads to some really weird stuff, like Ayn Rand zealots tied at the hip to fundamentalist Christians, and working class white people supporting top-down class warriors like Romney. The left here is divided into people who care about issues like gay marriage, abortion, and little else, and traditional, economic leftists, who have lost control of the Democratic Party, nominally the instrument of the workers. So things here don't make sense to you folks overseas, where "leftism" still means, by and large, what it always meant. Personally, I think the way things are here can't continue as is for much longer; it just doesn't make sense for anyone with an income of less than, say, 70k or so to support Romney, or any other Republican who can make it through their primaries, but we'll see.

Almost scary how much ground Romney has made up in only 10 days.

very scary.

the potential effect of Latino voters. Even with all his caveats, it's something to watch for - and hope - for.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/oct-13-arizona-and-the-spanish-speaking-vote/

I couldn't believe it.
I wondered what planet they were from.

We have our share of "issue" voters too. They have a right to vote just like I do and makes me want to slap the hell out of them.

Some black preachers are just as sleazy as some of the white ones.

I heard last week on on I think Sharpton's radio show that there is some group of fundie black ministers out there with a group whose goal is to get 25% of black voters to vote for Rmoney.

I expect that these opportunists are most likely paid plants (maybe getting the mortgages taken care of on their store-fronts in exchange for this nonsense).

and their extended networks, perhaps.

I have often wondered what completely alternative universe they inhabit in their minds. If only they could just move there.

The Republican leaning Winston-Salem paper today came out endorsing
Obama. In 2008 they endorsed McCain. http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/oct/14/obama-best-choice-president-ar-2689120/

The latest poll (High Point http://www.digtriad.com/politics/article/249608/289/UNCHPU-Poll-Presidental-Race-Tightens-In-NC) shows
Obama with a 1 pt lead.

Jill Biden was here (Cary, NC) last week. Michelle is coming on Tuesday to Chapel Hill.

The Obama campaign is putting a LOT of energy into GOTV in NC.
I think there's at least a 50% chance of turning NC blue again.