What's the deal with the Illinois GOP?

[VIDEO] Been quite a while since we've heard from Jeff Berkowitz in these parts. He talks to Dan Proft and this interview aired this week on Illinois Channel. Proft is a Chicago radio host and in 2010 a Republican candidate for Governor and he's with Berkowitz to discuss the future of the Republican brand in this state.

To bounce off of this subject, this past weekend I sent a tweet to the Illinois Republican Party asking them what happened to their website. Basically over the weekend their website was down and by Monday their site was back up. I already knew that this state's Republicans are in bad shape but hopefully not bad enough shape that they couldn't keep their website up!

Needless to say in light of this month's general election that the Republican Party in this state and nationally has some soul searching. Next January, the General Assembly will see a Democratic supermajority and there is bellyaching about the Republican caucus who's leadership largely hasn't changed. Many say it needs to but no one stepped up in the House and the one who stepped up in the Senate lost his bid.

Also a former Governor, Jim Edgar, talked about the recent GOP campaign of repudiating our house speaker. It doesn't appear he agrees with that campaign and obviously it didn't get them anywhere this year.

Now, I could attribute this to my own idea that Republicans suck. That's an oversimplification of course, but they're just not that competitive in this state. It's been like that for over a decade and it needs to change. In a recent article from Reason, Illinois is compared to California as we're both essentially one-party states. However, Illinois is said to have worse financial issues that California and the "Sunshine State" is up there as far as financial woes.

The question to ask here is how did Republicans become as ineffective in California as they seem to be here in this state?

Capitol Fax: Rep. Ford indicted for bank fraud

This is unbelievable and a lot of people seem to like this young man who represents Chicago's west side. I can accept this as a mistake and unfortunately a very costly one as indicated by the indictment:

LaShawn K. Ford, an Illinois State Representative who also invested in real estate in Chicago, was indicted today on federal bank fraud and related charges for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a $500,000 increase and a two-year extension on a line of credit from the failed ShoreBank and obtaining multiple advances by making false statements about his intended use of the funds.

Ford, 40, of Chicago, who operated Ford Desired Real Estate, Inc., and also invested personally in real estate, purportedly obtained bank funds to rehabilitate specific investment properties in the city, but instead used the funds to pay unrelated expenses, including, car loans, credit cards, other mortgages held at ShoreBank, payments to a casino in Hammond, Ind., and for his 2006 campaign for Illinois State Representative, the indictment alleges. The charges do not involve Ford’s position as a state legislator after he was first elected in 2006. Ford represents Illinois’ 8th House District, which includes portions of Chicago’s west side and several western suburbs in Cook County.

Unbelievable! Although let's be clear he didn't use the credit line the way he should have. Some will just make this a case of "the man" chasing down another brother!

A case of irony here ShoreBank is a failed bank shutdown by the FDIC and is now Urban Partnership Bank. Some conservatives - well the Tea Party - protested ShoreBank before they were shut down because of perceived favorable treatment by the Obama administration.

ArchitectureChicago PLUS: A Theater Vanishes: The Two McClurgs

ArchitectureChicago PLUS: A Theater Vanishes: The Two McClurgs

Years ago, my parents brought me here to see the film Mississippi Burning that starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. They starred as FBI agents who were sent to Mississippi to investigate the disappearance and murder of three civil rights workers. It was based on a true story at that!

I'm sad to see that this place is being redeveloped and at that there is another theater AMC River East nearby where people can see the latest Hollywood release. I must ask however, how did my parents find out about this place?

Capitalism, Part 2

Recently I watched this legendary movie entitled Wall Street. Story of a young stock broker who in the beginning of this film was struggling but got hooked up with the right connection and suddenly was rising high. It came at a cost however when he finds himself getting arrested for insider trading right after he pulled a fast one on his connection.

The message of this movie was regarding greed or at least the 1980s version of greedy excess. Charlie Sheen played Bud the young stock broker and Gordon was played by Michael Douglass who was Bud's connection into the higher echelons of the financial world. Bud had it all, but he decided to pull a fast one on Gordon when he found out what Gordon attempted to do!

A friend shared the film with me to show how it goes in corporate America. I really laughed when Bud was arrested in his office, the man who gave him the office went from "I knew you were something special" to "I always knew you were trouble". Turned his back on him just like that!

I don't necessarily look down on greed, but certainly we would look at a personally differently if they did whatever they could to get more. We could be talking about money and we could be talking about food. It could be anything that is very necessary.

My friend and I have talked about how today's titans take care of themselves and then forget about the people who toil under them. The titans may live in expensive pieces of real estate while the people under them may never get that luxury. Then the question comes up - How much is enough?

Everyone has an answer. We could talk about wealth and say you don't need two or more houses. We could also say you don't need all that money. The question is who are we to decide who has enough. The ones who are asking the questions about having enough wealth has very little themselves.

I could aspire to be a Mitt Romney although I have no idea if I'll ever get there. My aspirations isn't necessary regarding wealth, but certainly regarding attaining the middle-class lifestyle that I grew up in. To be comfortable enough to not be force to scrimp and save ever dime I earn. It seems easier said than done, I'm sure but it is what it is.

While it seems as if the past election was about the economy, the past election was about a rich man running for president. It wasn't Romney's time for that reason especially in an environment where we're asking the question about how much is enough. Obama had ads up about the rich paying their "fair share" of taxes and there are people out there who have buttons stating "tax the rich".

BTW, since I mentioned Wall Street there was a sequel release in 2010 called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. An interesting update and certainly mentions today's young people's issues with regards to their debts. It could have been an update that addresses the real estate bubble but it doesn't appear to do that although it does touch upon some of the themes of the original.

It makes me wonder if there is a film today that could show the times we live in. One film comes to mind entitled The Company Men. People getting laid off so that the executives in the higher eschelons can think more about themselves than those under them. Surely there are other examples than that.

Still while I may continue to have faith in this system we call capitalism, sometimes we do have to take note of its various downsides.

What's the deal with Jesse Jr?

Since it came out in the news this past summer, I followed as closely as I could the medical leave of Jesse Jackson Jr. Jackson was my congressman for the past decade until the recent redistricting placed me in Bobby Rush's congressional district. That story seemed to have some weaves and turns it was unbelievable.

It was a while before the public found out that Jesse Jr. had been on medical leave. It was a while still until we found out that he had been out of Congress due to exhaustion. Then still a while until we found out that he had been diagnosed with bipolar depression.

There had been a lot of speculation as to the nature of his disorder such as his gastric bypass. Then eventually it turned to the Blago scandal as Jesse Jr. had found himself embroiled in that corruption. The feds even after they got Blago didn't stop digging and there had been an associate who continued to be questioned about it. The associate being a banker who helped the former Congressman fund raise.

And now what should've been a promising career had been clipped. Before the Thanksgiving holiday Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. had resigned his Congressional seat. Jackson himself had won the seat in a special election against Mel Reynolds in 1995 after Reynolds himself was forced to resign after becoming embroiled in a sex scandal. Now there will be a special election to follow Jackson.

It's interesting that after a whole lot of secrecy he's out and it appears his staff were even left in the cold. It's unfortunate that both he and his wife - Sandi - who is a Chicago Alderman are under the federal radar mainly for misusing campaign funds.

All the same, who knows what would've happened if he had stayed away from Blago's senate seat sale. Would he still have a congressional seat had he not aspired to the US Senate in the wake of Obama ascension to the Presidency?

Also, in his resignation letter he's indicated that he's continuing to cooperate with the feds so who knows how long it will take to get him into court. One part of that process appears complete. Why resign from Congress if you're not concerned that the feds have very little on you in the first place?

Ward Room: The Party of Lincoln -- Again

In the wake of Mitt Romney's loss for the Presidency almost two weeks ago, we have heard or seen lots of analysis of why the Republican party didn't gain the White House. It involves the demographic changes this nation is seeing. In fact we can see evidence of this in the previous post as far as Illinois goes.

So here's the anaylsis (again) from Ed McClelland:

There’s an argument in the movie Lincoln about whether the Republican Party was intended to be a progressive or a conservative outfit. Francis Preston Blair, who boasts that he founded the party in his living room, insists that it’s conservative and anti-slavery, but shouldn’t be taken over by radical abolitionists. President Lincoln, who is trying to persuade Blair to support a constitutional amendment banning slavery, obviously wants it to be progressive.

For the first hundred years of the Republican Party’s existence, Lincoln’s vision was ascendant. Republicans were in the forefront of the great social issue of the 19th and 20th centuries: abolitionism, environmentalism, women’s suffrage, civil rights. The Democrats, a confederation of Southern whites and Northern Catholics, were the socially conservative party. William Jennings Bryan, who lost three presidential elections on the Democratic ticket, ended his career by defending creationism at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Even in the 1970s, most of the judges who signed on to Roe v. Wade were Republican appointees. And President Ford supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

By then, though, the Republican Party had begun to change, into a party of reaction, whose purpose was resisting the social movements of the 1960s: civil rights, feminism, pacifism, environmentalism. The Republicans basically switched bases with the Democrats, becoming the party of the South and Northern white ethnics -- a coalition assembled by Richard Nixon, whose “Southern Strategy” made the Republicans the dominant party of the 1970s and 1980s.

Mitt Romney’s defeat demonstrated that this iteration of the Republican Party has run its course. The changes that began in the 1960s have become ingrained in American life. Campaigning against them marks the Republicans as a party of memory, not a party of hope or progress. Even conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root admitted, on the Fox News website, that the Republicans have lost the culture wars, and need to give up on a political solution to the abortion issue.

Seriously, the real answer is to run candidates who are fiscally conservative and principled, but socially moderate and modern. The GOP needs candidates that say “Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. I will uphold it, even though my personal views are pro-life. And I will ALWAYS support exceptions for rape, incest, and when a mother’s life is in danger. Period.” The issue is off the table -- forever. What's left? The economy and jobs -- winning issues for the GOP.

That explain why an image of the Lincoln movie poster is shown in this post. This analysis makes sense to me in fact.

I consider myself pro-life, but my position isn't exactly ban all abortions. Social issues don't matter to me at this point primarily because I have a different set of issues. Jobs being one of them. I may not be able to stake a solid claim on abortion primarily because I'm not going out of my way to have children and have never been in a situation where there had been an unwanted pregnancy. Though for abortion all I can say is that hey whether the child is unborn or not it's not THERE fault that they're in the situation their in. I try to remember that.

Another piece of analysis is that Republicans must find a way to attract people of other ethnicity into their party. It doesn't matter if they're Black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Chinese or whatever. Also how do they attract more women to their party?

There is some soul searching to do there, where to start? Start with their history as the party of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States?

Demographics of the Illinois General Assembly

Illinois State Capitol

Ed McClelland over at the Ward Room notes the racial and gender breakdown of the Illinois General Assembly:

In the House, only 24 of the 71 Democrats elected this year are white guys. There are 31 women, 18 African-Americans and six Latinos. (Some of these categories overlap, obviously.) Of the 47 Republicans, 36 are white guys, and 11 are white women.

In the Senate, white guys do a lot better. They make up half the 40 Democratic senators elected this year. The Democrats have 10 African-Americans, four Latinos and 11 women.

Of the 19 Republican senators, 15 are white men and four are white women.

So overall, white men make up 39.6 percent of the Democratic legislators in Springfield -- almost exactly their proportion in the state as a whole -- and 77.2 percent of the Republicans.

Hat-tip Capitol Fax and there are already 21 comments to the posting there already. One more quote from Ward Room I do wonder what this means:

David Wasserman, House editor for the Cook Political Report, told CNN that the racial and gender polarization in Washington means that “both parties are distilling to their core, and they are living in parallel universes.” 

That seems to be true in Springfield as well, except than in Illinois, the Democrats’ universe is a lot bigger.

Well I can see that politics right now are quite polarizing today!

Capitalism

Over four years ago I wrote a post about Karl Marx. That post proclaimed my faith in capitalism with the belief that the individual could succeed the best under such a system than Marx's capitalist system. It's still my belief although it's still easy to complain about the excesses and abuse that the practitioners of this system utilizes.

A friend of mine and myself talked about why some of the rich here in this nation owns and they complain about being forced to provide health care to their workers in their companies. That is often a complain about many who aren't in the higher echelons of our economic brackets. Do they need to own big houses or serveral houses or even several cars or even their net worth?

My only answer to that is to say that is not for us to decide. In my case, I can only dream of having those luxuries. That's not to say I would want to buy so much stuff because I have the money. Whether my earnings are middle-class or wealthy, my goal is only to live simply and that I could live without having a big house or anything else the wealthy could want.

As I've stated capitalism is hard and it's doubtful anyone can truly succeed under Marxism because it's hard for me to see how better off the individual will be. Under capitalism at least the individual can find their worth as a worker or entrepreneur. Besides capitalism is all about what you put into the system you can't get a lot if you have very little to offer.


While I may have great faith in the capitalist system, this is not to say that capitalism doesn't have its faults. We're seeing some of it's faults come out into the light. Even when times are good, surely we've seen some of it's faults during those times as well.

Still there is one question that must be answered. How does an individual make out under a socialist system? At this moment I'm having a hard time seeing that.

Posting from the Blogger app on the iPad...

I had posted about this at my other blog Electric Moleskine. Just uploaded an updated blogger app that is functional for both the iPad and iPhone. What's shown below is how the app appears from the iPad.

The next question is how often will I use this app whether iPad or iPhone. My Moleskine blog is essentially my mobile blog but at least it's easy to switch blogs as necessary!

Silver!

I have an interest and have a lot to learn about buying silver. It's an easy investment to make, but it's something that one must do their homework on. Besides my concern when it comes to buying this precious metal is whether or not one finds themselves buying a fake from an unscrupulous seller.

Another concern I have is getting the best deal in purchasing silver. I don't make enough money as it is anyway and that means making my money count on such investments. Is it important to own silver and pay more than necessary to own such a precious metal.

In looking up any advice on this subject the main suggestion anyone has on buying this precious metal is to shop around for the best deals. As stated earlier do some homework! That's my current plan so far and just as everyone else hopefully I can find the best deals for me!

BTW, I got to get a handle on silver as a hedge against inflation. Besides the economy isn't doing so great right now and items do cost money. Still it's great to know that money is held up in something and the longer you hold that silver hopefully the more value it had when it's time to have to exchange it for cash money.

Marathon Pundit: Three election contests--three atrocious results

I intended to link to this post but plain forgot!

John Ruberry talks about three elections out of Cook County that didn't provide a good results.

The most well known of them was of State Rep Derrick Smith. He had been pinched for soliciting and taking a bribe by the feds earlier this year. He had also been kicked out of the Illinois State House of Representatives, but he refused to vacate his place on the ballot. Democratic leaders had put another man on the ballot as a member of a third party for voters to consider, but the voters of that district voted Smith back to his own seat anyway. Sadly the IL constitution prohibits expelling someone from the House again for the same reasons that they were already expelled.

Another well known election was that of Jesse Jackson Jr. In spite of not making any public appearances since it was revealed that he was under medical leave this past summer, he was able to be re-elected to his congressional seat. He hadn't campaigned at all during the course of the general election, but it seems people were for whatever reason very willing to send him right back to Congress!

The least well known is of a Cook County Judge. She was retained to the bench on Tuesday but she had to go to court the next day to face charges of battery. In Illinois judges are elected and they do campaign but unlike running for an executive office or a legislative office it's hard to gauge the job they're doing. She wasn't recommended at all by any local bar association and has been chided for her general temperament.

While I'm sure there are many who aren't happy with who was sent back to the White House on Tuesday, we have even less reason to celebrate here in Cook County. Sheesh!

Sun-Times: Jim Oberweis finally wins an election

[VIDEO] In this state there were three elections that didn't provide a good result. It's unfortunate but has been known to happen when an undeserving pol retains or wins an office in a situation where they shouldn't. It happened with Rod Blagojevich in 2006 and he quickly found himself out of office in 2009.

Another election that hasn't been noticed was the election of Jim Oberweis to the Illinois State Senate. Oberweis who is associated with the dairy industry - an eponymous company sells ice cream and milk - has had several aborted attempts for elected office over the years. He ran for the US Senate one year, then Governor of Illinois, and then another attempt for the US Congress and lost all of those elections.

This was going to be the year and it seemed that he set his eyes down from the much higher profile offices he had sought in the past to a seat in the state Senate. Somehow Rich Miller didn't write about this election, but the Sun-Times didn't miss it:

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again . . . and again and again and again and again and again.

Republican Jim Oberweis, who after running for elected office five previous times, won a seat in the Illinois Senate in Tuesday’s election.

Oberweis, 66, chairman of Oberweis Dairy and founder of Oberweis Asset Management, took about 58 percent of Tuesday’s vote, and defeated Democratic challenger Corinne Pierog of St. Charles in the race.

Despite finally getting a win — after running unsuccessfully in previous races for governor and the U.S. House and Senate — Oberweis said the victory was bittersweet.

“It was a very disappointing evening, actually,” Oberweis said on Wednesday from his North Aurora office. “After last night’s results, I’m afraid it will be very difficult to accomplish anything in Springfield.”

 In there is a statement about Illinois politics. While nationally the Republicans retained their US House majority and lost ground in the Senate and lost a sure election to the White House, in Illinois Republicans still have difficulty gaining ground against Democrats. In fact a few Republican congressmen lost their seats Tuesday night. And in the state legislature Democrats have essentially won "veto-proof" majorities.

That means Democrats have a lot more power in Springfield. What that also means is that even though the Governor of this state is also Democratic, it seems that the top Democrats of this state still seem unable to get along very well. In spite of this Republicans were as unable to capitalize on this infighting as they were on the ethical lapses and even the stain of Rod Blagojevich.

The video above was an Oberweis as from one of his losing campaigns. He jumped on the issue of illegal immigration and quickly made him a controversial figure. Though I do wonder if it's a good thing that at this current moment that he really doen't have a lot of influence in the Illinois state Senate.

So far it seems like he wants to be more bipartisan and that's a good thing!

Larry Sabato was right

Via wptv.com

Yeah his likely prediction was the results of yesterday's Presidential election. Obama did it and it almost seemed as if the moment wasn't going in his direction.

Some on the right wing are going to pick the results of last night apart. As I'm writing this post my radio is tuned to Rush Limbaugh. We know he's going to pick apart last night's results. His answer is to run as a Conservative.

All the same, we have four more years of Obama. My sincere hope is that the next four years will be different from the first four. Will more get done the next four years and will Obama create a team that will get the economy running in the next four years.

Rush believes no one on the Republican side had successfully been able to articulate what really makes this nation great. No one has been able to articulate that this nation is great not because of it's government and the services it provides, but of individuals reaching their full potential.

Until 2016 this is what we will hear repeatedly, but who will be the next Ronald Reagan. It appears Republicans are still waiting to find him reborn.

Right now we have President Obama from 2013 to 2017. Let's hope for the best and if you're really not happy I would encourage you to find a way to get involved.

OK one more final prediction wargaming the electoral college

Vodkapundit takes a look at different scenarios for an electoral victory between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Some of these scenarios shown there are impossible. Besides Minnesota isn't going for a Republican nor is Oregon. Still some of these scenarios make sense for both men. And again, we won't know for sure until tomorrow!

UPDATE: One final presidential race prediction

An update to last Thursday's post. Looking at this piece by political scientist Larry Sabato President Obama could likely be re-elected tomorrow. Obama could win the electoral college vote with a margin of 42.

Well that's how close the election could go and we'll know for sure tomorrow who will win. Not many would be happy about the probability of an Obama victory and I'm sure many won't be too happy about the probability of a Romney victory. It was a while ago that it was decided by me that this will be a close election.

Tomorrow is the big day, we shall see how close or even how wide open it will be!

VIDEO: Inner City Blacks Fleeing Barack Obama and the Democrat-Liberal Agenda

[VIDEO] I'm going to give credit to RebelPundit, he goes into the heart of the "hood" to get the story. In this case, he's right in the heart of the far south side of Chicago which is basically Roseland. In fact, he films a memorial to the many youths you have been killed in Chicago. He also appears to be at the Bud Billiken Parade this past summer as well.

Consider this a prequel of sorts to a RebelPundit video I posted last night which showed a recent protest in downtown Chicago outside of a TV studio during an evening news cast. There are a group of Black out there who aren't very happy with the Democratic Party and do not see either the Tea Party or even the Republican Party coming into their community disrupting everything. They basically point at the Democratic machine!

VIDEO: Black Grassroots Activists Protest Obama Fundraiser, City Hall, ABC News in Chicago

[VIDEO] This video was forwarded to me by a Republican Committeeman in Chicago. Write-up about what happened were cross-posted at RebelPundit & Big Government. The American way of protest, finding a venue to rally.

What's depicted in the vid above is a protest outside of our local ABC affiliate studios near State & Lake last week. Black activists attacked WLS-TV as a mouthpiece for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They attacked demolitions of housing in the Black community that night and talked about how there isn't a lot of opportunity for youth in Black neighborhoods.

According to Mark Carter of the Broke Party, a newly formed group of black grassroots activists fed up with the destruction and blight brought on their community by the liberal agenda, the protest was “about bringing attention to the demolition of homes in Chicago’s black communities on the west and south sides.” These buildings, Carter says, “can still be saved, but the city is tearing them down,” leaving property values and the community in the gutter.

Carter told Breitbart News they chose the Obama fundraiser as the starting point for the protest in order to send a direct message to Rahm Emanuel and Washington, D.C. that they will not be voting on Tuesday for those politicians who are allowing their homes and community to be demolished.

In an effort to bring even further attention to the ongoing issues of the black community in Chicago, the protest ended up outside of ABC 7 News’s local broadcast studio on State Street. This studio can be viewed from the street and sidewalk. When the protesters arrived, they used a bullhorn to announce themselves and called on weather reporter Jerry Taft, seen through the window, not to pretend they weren’t there, prompting a wave from Taft to the protesters.

The protesters waved anti-union signs, anti-NAACP, anti-Rainbow Push, and signs reading "Rahm Hates Black People" in front of the studio as Kathy Brock and Alan Krashesky broadcasted the evening news. They demanded their voices be heard and criticized Emanuel for acting in cahoots with community-organizing front groups ACORN and ACTION Now to put properties in the community into the organizations’ hands. These actions by the Mayor and the corrupt “Chicago Machine” have ensured that construction work only goes to the unions, effectively keeping the residents of the community unemployed.

It's interesting how they threw the liberal word around. Rebel Pundit and Big Government are right-wing news outlets and blogs. They at least attack the right issues which are the dearth of coverage on what's really going on in inner city neighborhoods and more coverage on the politicians.

So how's the national Presidential race, so far...

This link was forwarded to me by Steve Bartin at Newsalert. Political scientist Larry Sabato has his take on not only the Presidential race but on US Senate races around the nation. For this post I'm keeping my focus on Romney v. Obama (and yes I intentially wrote it that way Obama is the champ and Romney is the challenger it is how they do it in boxing correct).

Remarkably, after a year of intense campaigning, this election is not in the bag for either major-party candidate. It remains on the edge of the butter knife; the state polling averages tilt the Electoral College slightly to President Obama, and the RealClearPolitics national polling average moved into an exact tie late Wednesday afternoon. On top of it all, a fierce Super Storm intervened, acting as a circuit-breaker that stopped campaigning dead in its tracks for several days in the election’s last week.

Have Obama’s presidential actions in the wake of the storm, so highly praised by Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, had an effect? Will Friday’s unemployment report — whatever it may show — push the small percentage of remaining undecideds off the fence and toward one of the candidates? This election is going down to the wire, and we will issue our final Electoral College predictions, as we often do, on Monday, the day before the election.

In our private conversations with Democratic and Republican leaders, we see two diametrically opposed visions of the electorate — almost parallel universes — and two visions of how the election will shake out. Unsurprisingly, the Democrats AND the Republicans are confident of victory for their party in what is a close presidential contest. Democrats see favorable demographics and sturdy leads in enough states to get Obama over the magic 270-vote mark, while Republicans discern rumblings of a 1980-style wave that will not only ruin Obama, but also drown Democratic Senate candidates and ruin the reputations of many pollsters, particularly on the state level.

We still see eight true battlegrounds right now, the same ones we have focused our readers on for over one year, with just one addition: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin (the latter added after Paul Ryan’s pick for VP).

Well I shall keep an eye out for the final electoral college prediction and then post it here. It will likely be one out of many from various sources. I wonder what the FiveThirtyEight blog's predictions are. In 2008 they were able to predict an Obama victory as well.

In the meanwhile check out the current Electoral College prediction map above.