Informed Speculation

Last weekend it was Mick, Keith, Charlie, and Ronnie, and this weekend…Obama: Senator Barack Obama got a rock star’s reception Saturday at a venue that’s usually much less welcoming of Democrats — the Texas Capitol. Several hundred people filled the Texas House chamber to hear the possible presidential candidate speak at the 11th annual Texas [...]

USC is down BIG in the third quarter: Oregon State 30, USC 10, as of this writing. Meanwhile, my two favorite teams face off…ordinarily, I would be beside myself with trash talking, predicting a Texas Tech upset of Texas, and the game IS at Lubbock…but this team is just not that good. Prediction: Texas 27, [...]

Revealed at last, along with the fact that he has uncovered two nuclear tests by North Korea: HAROLD Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for [...]

Earlier, I argued that you can start from a base of +3 for the Democrats in the Senate; that would indicate that the Democrats must go three out of four in Tennessee, Virginia, Montana, and Missouri.  It seems more likely than not that the Republicans will hold Virginia, though it’s not a sure thing by [...]

…is that Sherrod Brown is the next Senator from Ohio.  DeWine, thy goose be cooked…Santorum and Chafee are well-advised to start considering their next career moves, too…so you start from a base of Dems +3 in the Senate…the rest I won’t call…yet…

And even more encouraging, he reaches the 50% level…so says the latest Rasmussen…

There can be no two ways about it, whether you’re a fan of the president (as I am) or one of his many detractors: the plain fact is that our North Korean policy has been an abject failure.  Clearly, we will get no help from China or South Korea; the situation, once again, falls into [...]

And since it’s from the great Tim Blair, the content’s pretty damn good, too…

Iraq’s Prime Minister has apparently been given a strong dose of medicine, because he was making nice today (while Rumsfeld sniped at critics): After a tense week in U.S.-Iraqi relations, the Iraqi prime minister and the U.S. ambassador issued a rare joint statement Friday in which Iraq reaffirmed its commitment to a “good and strong” [...]

No doubt knowing full well that no one will do a damn thing about it: US President George W Bush says the international community must “redouble” efforts to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. He spoke after reports Iran had stepped up work to enrich uranium by activating a second cascade of centrifuges at its Natanz [...]

Name of Lane Hudson, it seems…that contradicts the storyline that it was disgruntled Republicans (gay or otherwise) behind the leak (though there was more than one leak – remember, the emails went to media outlets many months prior to being ‘broken’ by stopsexpredators.com, the bogus blog set up by Hudson, and ABC News)…

3rd quarter GDP growth: 1.6%…still, so far, it has been a soft landing…let’s keep our fingers crossed…

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: As we take a snapshot of the electoral landscape from the perspective of twelve days out, our best guess is that Democrats are on track to net 21 to 26 seats in the House, 4 to 6 seats in the Senate, and 5 to 7 governorships. We place slightly more confidence [...]

The latest Rasmussen has Kean and Menendez all tied up, and the CBS News/NY Times poll has Menendez by a single point.  Ominous fact for Menendez: when asked the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the name ‘Robert Menendez’, 21% of likely voters say ‘corruption’.  Wow…

One of the mysteries of that Mark Foley business (you remember, right? That thing that changed the entire world that no one cares about anymore?) has been resolved: it was indeed a liberal activist who planted the messages at the bogus blog stopsexpredators.blogspot.com that started the whole ball of wax. A liberal gay rights group said [...]

If that’s not a teaser, then I give up…read about it here…

…of those who think Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is in the palm of Sadr.  Aparisim Ghosh writes: Does Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have the political spine to deal with Iraq’s No. 1 problem — the Shi’ite militias? There’s a growing suspicion in Baghdad that he does not. Having promised, for the umpteenth time, to [...]

He’s not through mouthing off yet: Iraq’s prime minister said on Thursday he could get violence under control in six months, half the time U.S. generals say they need, provided Washington gave him more weaponry and more say over his own forces. In sharp criticism of the handling of Iraq’s security by the United States, [...]

Allen up 3, Corker and Ford tied…

I know, I know, most all of you are sick of hearing about it, but it was a great evening, and believe me when I say that there is still a bit of a buzz in the air (it’s one of those shows that gets better the more you think about it). In any event, [...]