Semi-random picture of the day

[barondave]

Deer in Belvedere
Belvedere, CA 9/6/08
At the MN-StF meeting yesterday (thanks again sraun and iraunink), I was reminded that I really haven't posted much since the RNC/political interviews. Some of this has been Real Life (tm) imposing on me, some of it has been a mild cold knocking out some of my extra time, but mostly it's because there's so much of it.

The picture above was taken at my uncle's house in Belvedere, as we were driving back. It was the second deer I'd seen up in the hills.

In other Clean Sweep News:

Congrats to lollardfish for his nice article on being the parent of a child with Down's Syndrome in today's Strib.

Six people share my name in the US. I'm not related to any of them.

The conservative news media really screwed up the analysis of both the Obama/McCain debate and the Biden/Palin debate. Most pundits called them essentially even, with slight winners going to whichever candidate you supported. Polls since then show that Obama really trounced McCain and that Palin may have played to the extremist "base" but turned off most everyone else while Biden did exceptionally well. Nationally, Obama/Biden is at least 10 pts ahead, and the Strib poll of today has Minnesota going for Obama 55-37. The national trend has been unchanged or increasing for Obama for a couple of weeks and is well outside the margin of error. Today's Strib poll is a major change and should be taken with a grain of salt, but does seem to reflect just how well Biden did in his debate. Minnesota has a nasty right-wing streak sometimes, but even the sphincter conservatives aren't so dumb as to want Palin anywhere near The Button.

After 4 weeks, I'm tied for first in the football pool conducted by the bar across the street. Let's see how I do today. One of my strategies: Unless an obvious mismatch, pick the Viking's opponent to win. If the Vikings win, I'm happy because the Vikings won. If the other team wins, I'm happy because I picked them in the pool. I picked the New Orleans to win at home tomorrow.

Comments

[radparker.livejournal.com]

I love your football strategy! Heh.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Nice photo.

I think the biggest factor in the recent polling swings is the economy/bailout situation.

Indirectly, the debacle on Wall Street probably affected the way people responded to the debates too. Standard Republican talking points suddenly sounded incredibly lame. Harping on Democrats wanting to raise your taxes sounds sort of silly when the Republican administration has just demanded a $700 billion bailout of their buddies on Wall Street. Ditto for "let the market work" and "get the government regulators off their backs."