Tidal wave?

Doubting that Democrats will win


Signs in my old neighborhood--Wetterling is a Democrat who forever lost a young son after a bizarre 1989 abduction incident. Bachmann is a scary wingnut Republican who said, ``God called me to run for the United States Congress''

A friend from way back in the day from my old home town in Minnesota wrote yesterday,

I saw that Wetterling was up 8 points about two weeks ago and now she's down 10 points. What the hell is going on in St. Cloud? Is she really fading or is this just bad polling? Some pollsters are now saying that the tide turned over the weekend and we may see a pretty substantial shift toward the Democrats on Tuesday. Somehow Wetterling can't seem to ride the wave.

Actually, the detailed map and nationwide summary of polling data at Majority Watch shows Wetterling and Bachmann in a dead heat. (In another much-watched Minnesota contest Republican incumbant Gil Gutknecht is up by 3 over his challenger.)

However, even if the Ds lose these races, the interesting thing from this map is w/o election fraud on a truly massive scale, the Republicans are DEAD in the House. They are 21 seats down before you even get to the contested races. Of the 60 contested, the Ds would break 33-27, even giving the Rs the ties, all the weak Rs and half the weak Ds (sorry Patty, Minnesota is a pretty damn red state outside the central Twin Cities). That looks like about a 25-seat majority for the Democrats. I guess you'd call that a tidal wave.

But I worry about election fraud--mainly extreme, massive voter suppression and ballot non-counting in many of these races. Will that be what saves Karl Rove and his boys? Rove has said that he has figures that ``add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House'' and that he is ``entitled to the math''. What does Rove know that the rest of us don't?

Meanwhile, here's one race I really like: OH 15th: Kilroy (D-challenger) 53%, Pryce (R-incumbent in R leadership) 41%. This woman Deborah Pryce is a piece of work, ick! I wrote about her insane remarks on Iraq back in June. She is one of many, many Republicans who richly deserve defeat at the ballot box. If she pulls out a remarkable victory in this Ohio district, red flags of fraud will be waving.