John Tabin's tip sheet
on the main site is a great place to look if you want to get a
sense of how the election is going once the returns start coming
in. He outlines what you're likely to see in the event of a
McCain upset, decisive Obama victory, or inconclusive long night.
But, for the sake of posterity and to perhaps make a fool of
myself, I'll share with you my last round of pre-election
predictions.
Barack Obama will win the presidency with results similar to Bill
Clinton's in 1992 -- it will be relatively close, within five
points, in the popular vote but he'll win 300 + votes in the
Electoral College. Obama will hold on to all the 2004 Kerry
states and flip Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, and even
Ohio and Florida, though both states have seen some movement in
McCain's favor in recent days. McCain, however, will pull it out
in Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia, the Dakotas, and his home
state of Arizona. Montana could be spoiled by Ron Paul -- he's on
the ballot there against his wishes -- and Bob Barr, but I'm
still going to call it for McCain.
Barr will run ahead of Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia
McKinney to become the first Libertarian presidential candidate
to finish third since Dr. Paul in 1988. I don't think he'll break
Ed Clark's record as top Libertarian vote-getter (Clark got
nearly a million votes for 1.1 percent in 1980), but I do think
Baldwin will break Howard Phillips' 1996 record as the
Constitution Party's top vote-getter.
Democrats will pick up Republican-held Senate seats in Virginia,
New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, New Hampshire (it gives me no
pleasure to say), Alaska, and North Carolina. Mitch McConnell
will hang on in Kentucky and Roger Wicker in Mississippi. Saxby
Chambliss may end up in a runoff in Georgia, but will ultimately
prevail. Susan Collins in Maine has joined the ranks of the safe
Republicans, despite the Democrats' efforts to challenge her.
Republicans will pick up no Democratic-held seats.
That leaves Norm Coleman in Minnesota. He seemed to be pulling
away around the time of the GOP convention, then Al Franken took
the lead after the Wall Street meltdown. Things seem to be
trending in Coleman's favor once again. But he's still an
incumbent below 50 percent. Even allowing for some of Mickey
Kaus' seasaw theory, if Obama's victory margin is greater than 10
Coleman is done. If McCain can hold Obama to single digits,
Coleman will be re-elected.
The Democrats are going to win 20 to 30 Republican-held seats in
the House, but there Republicans will have some offsetting picks.
Republicans are going to retake the Tom DeLay and Mark Foley
seats, beat Paul Kanjorski in Pennsylvania, and even give John
Murtha a scare. Tom McClintock will pull the football away from
Democrat Charlie Brown in John Doolittle's California district.
But I think Don Young, Chris Shays, Joe Knollenberg, Michelle
Bachmann, and Tom Feeney are some of the incumbents who are going
to fall short while the GOP bleeds open seats. If there were
fewer retirements and the Republicans could have focused all
their resources on marginal districts the Democrats won in 2006,
things wouldn't be nearly this bad.
Read 'em and weep. If you don't like them or they turn out to be
wildly wrong, I'll refund all of the money you paid for them.