This has been a year where historical trends have been ignored. I think stories like this serve to demoralize the subject of the story whether its Dem's or Republicans. Predicting bad news and losses serve as fodder to the opponent to influence readers into believing that all hope is lost and it actually suppresses the vote! No one will even bother to come out and vote for a losing cause. I say to everyone ignore the pundits ignore history become more like the Tea Party and ignore the facts. Set your own narrative march to the beat of your own drum. VOTE early, VOTE your conscious, VOTE your choice, whatever you do make sure you VOTE. Do not let anyone stop you this is actually what lets your voice be heard VOTE!

PS Please ignore the comments posted by Todd pollard today do not give him the benefit of an arguement, let's be civil and comment by voting. Glad to see the moderators finally looked at the blog and deleted an inflamatory comment.

I have been v. impressed with Chris Coons and Joe Sestak.

Two very bright candidates. Sometimes it gets lost with all the loud mouthing going on, but these two I think would be great additions to the Senate.

btw, who caused the deficit? The Republicans.

Who brought the deficit down? The Democrats.

Q: Is that socialism?

The Portland Press Herald, which is now owned by a rightwinger publisher, came out this weekend and endorsed the supremely unqualified Republican running against incumbant Democrat Pingree for the House, solely for the purpose of giving the House to the Republicans. This is pretty shocking news, given all that Pingree has accomplished for the state and veterans, and given how dim her challenger is. To my mind, "voter confidence" and "corporate power" are two separate indicators, and "voter confidence" may be the one of lesser importance. The corporate forces against the Democratic Party may trump the public's inclination to support the President and the new administration. We'll see. I'm voting for Libby Mitchell and Pingree this time, and I am boycotting (yes, once again) Portland Press Herald and their advertisers.

"Big losses"...?

Thanks for the reality check regarding the "big picture".

No one needs a reality check more than the average First Reader.

Here's my over-under for the election next Tuesday;

Congress; Repubs 45 seats

Senate; Repubs 6 seats

The 2006 index rating is extremely important because it is much closer in time to 2010 than the other elections. As such, it shows that fewer seats may change over despite a relatively large negative index rating.

Also -36 today might very well be -31 even -28/29 by next Tuesday. The Democrats will push back harder than in previous off-years. Remember the Gingrich takeover was largely the result of the perception that the Democrats had been in power too long and that malaise had set in. The perception this time around is that the Dems have just begun to address the major problems they inherited. I'm not saying either preception was or is true but the perception matters because it influences voter trends.

Whether there are modest or huge gains for the Republicans in this election, we should all remember that many of the races will be won and lost by narrow margins. This is still a pretty evenly divided country politically --- and no mandate should be read into election results.

It seems to me that "conventional wisdom" and predicting outcomes has been off the mark since the start of the 2008 presidential campaign--Hillary Clinton, the inevitable democratic nominee; McCain's campaign is dead in the water. As shown by the rise of the Tea Party candidates, this election may not be what we're used to seeing; it will be far from a traditional and predictable election.

Having gridlock is just failure. Having no changes being implemented is just to fail. Returning to ‘more of the same’ is just totally failing. Only when supporting the continuation of the changes in progress while still pressuring for adjustment and fine tuning is there any hope to realize what we voted for in 2008. Otherwise we will just be returned to having only Special Interests and the select few once more substantially gaining and the majority again being given only apathy, the costs and an abundance of subterfuge.

Whether Tea Party or regular Republican, there are those who strongly, both overtly and covertly, support them with deceptive efforts and substantial money and who intend again, as they did with Bush-Cheney and the Republican Party, to use them as their ‘puppets’ to once more ‘pull their strings’ and insure total concentration on benefit for only Special Interests and the select few. The scripted propaganda, the scare tactics, the deceptive, exaggerated and emotionally charged appeals, the misinformation all being offered without conscience and boldly and arrogantly, sometimes even cutely, always irresponsibly having only a focus on their political ambitions, all being aimed to rationalize and justify a return to ‘more of the same’ that cost us so much and literally caused the problems. The proof is in seeing the end results and in recognizing the costs as under their rule only the few always gain and the majority, including the total middle-class, continually loose.

It really is now up to the voters to see the truth and to reject the deception aimed to emotionally sway and manipulate public opinion for the benefit of just the few. We really can’t relent in putting the pressure on our government to fine tune, adjust and implement the greatly needed changes and we absolutely can’t allow ourselves to be conned into accepting putting the changes aside, going back to ‘more of the same’ that caused the problems and cost us so much and then be so naive as to think those who aggressively fought all change and who would totally benefit from ‘more of the same’ would ever allow meaningful change. It is best to work with what we have instead of ever trusting to start over.

Dear Christian, I need your help…. I am very concern that we are blinded by half truths and deceiving ourselves with standing up for biblical truths.  If we are voting for a candidate because they stand for our Christian values such as homosexuality or abortion…. But if we are holding those two biblical truths to say whether a candidate is upholding our Christian values, then we need to check what the bible says about lying, adultery and bearing false witness against our neighbor.  We also need to check ourselves when it comes to separating church from government as for a government to hold biblical truths, it must take care of its people meaning health care for all, meaning when my neighbor loses their job the government is to help them… Base of the above statement some candidates does not deserve our support as the bible does not make distinction between one sin over the other.

Just goes to show that despite the national news media (NBC,CBS, ABC,NEWSWEEK,ECT.) being so pro Democrat and liberal that a great many Americans are tired of big government, big deficit spending, socialism, and czars (see Webster for defination of czar).

With all the reports that the senate and some governor races are "tightening" or slipping back to the Dems, I wonder if the same could be happening in some of those marginal house races.

It ain't over til it's over. Yesterday Newsweek reported still more positive news for the President and Democratic enthusiasm. The public may be waking up to the facts that the President and Democrats in congress saved us from a depression with only resistance from the Republicans.

I believe when all is said and done next week the Rep will win the house and have a majority of only a few votes and the Dems will keep the Senate by a few votes. You can tell that both parties are scared and do not know what will happen. Listen to Rush and Hannity and you can tell by what they are saying that they are not sure what will happen, as they were months ago. Rush is now urging Dem voters to stay home or vote Rep so that Hilary can run for the WH is 2012. A commercial is out urging Hispanic voters to stay home and not vote. Has anyone ever heard of such nonsense in the past? Whether you like Obama or not, what has the Rep party done for this country for the past two years? NOTHING. They have fought against EVERYTHING that Obama has tried to do. Rush and Hannity and the others fought against him the day he won the election (let alone after he got sworn in!). What did they do for this country when they had complete control for six of Bush's eight years? Ran up the deficit, got us in a war that has cost thousands of lives, no energy policy, no drilling policy, no health care policy, no immigration policy, no secure borders. The things they are now saying Obama is not doing. All people need to vote this upcoming election. For whomever you think is best and not what a sound bite or thirty second commercial or lie a politician (and they all lie) is going to say to you.

deficits only matter if you are not in power, ask reagan and then ask the republicans about doubling the budget and the deficit under bush

hmmm just how long does the statue of limitations run on blaming bush. Maybe it's time for the boys in office to grow up, look in the mirror and realize they are part of the problem.

If you want to play the 'blame game' this all started in the 40s with Roosevelt. He proved then what we are still paying for, nothing comes free, the tax payer always loses, and that government is a bad return on investment.

Hey Hawkeye when does the statute for limitations run out on the truth? Are you saying you would take crap for someone elses screw up day after day when you had nothing to do with it? What bugs me is how does saving the banking industry, the auto industry (plus the millions of jobs with it) and getting health care for 34 million Americans equate to doing a bad job? I like Americans but my god you can be down right stupid at times. Although you will never let yourself understand it I will point it out anyway. With Bill Clinton (Democrats) you had a surplus and your national debt was shrinking. With Bush (Republicans) you ran up trillions of dollars worth of debt, in what 8 years. Now how in the name of blazes can you expect someone to fix everything in 2 years?? THINK FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

Maybe the Democrats did not listen to the American people? Same reason why MSNBC have such low ratings.

Round 1

Dem 5 Rep 2

Round 2

Dem 4 Rep 3

Round 3

Dem 7 Rep 0

Dem wins by TKO in 4 round