battle bots

a battleground state is one that – since the get-go – has been identified as where a tight race will occur. a state is considered a “tossup” if it’s still too close to call. what began as a list of some 17 battleground states is now down to just 11: florida, hawaii, iowa, michigan, minnesota, nevada, new hampshire, new mexico, ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin.

according to the washington post today, bush has solid leads in 23 states with 197 electoral votes and is favored in four more, which could bring him to 227. kerry is equally solid in 13 states with 178 electoral votes and is favored in five states, which would bring him to 232. it takes 270 electoral votes to win.

i am lucky enough to be embedded in one of the 6 most critical states in the election. these are the states that with 79 electoral votes, could determine the winner of this election: wisconsin, florida, ohio, minnesota, iowa and new mexico (each of these is considered a tossup at this point).

i couldn’t have picked a better vantage point for this intoxicating election. live from madison, with 53 hours until the polls close, here’s what i can tell you:

• parties and partisan orgs are kicked into way-high gear
• election campaigners are exhausted but pumped
• voters are feeling bombarded, saturated, fatigued
• each of the two major parties is confident it’s going to take the state

you may or may not have heard that campaign workers of all stripes have been shuffling around the country based on numbers and urgency. with wisconsin on everyone’s short list, the past weeks have seen a steady increase of volunteers from out-of-state. this weekend alone, thousands of people from minnesota, illinois, missouri and others have been pouring into wisconsin and iowa. most of this is being coordinated by this group, a phenomenal org that’s feeding progressives into where they are needed.

the latest shift of canvassers left this office minutes ago. they were fired up by some words of truth: the clock ticks loudly, this is going to be a fucking squeaker, every single solitary vote counts, go get ‘em...

we just heard that the green bay packers beat the washington red skins (nice name, ‘eh?) – legend has it that if the red skins win their last game before the election, the incumbent president will win. one of the sports channels even broadcasted kerry’s face on the bottom of the screen next to the packers score. talk about suspicion! but it works for me. oh so sorry mr. bush!