2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumOkay We Said That priority Should Be Given To PA if Romney Makes a stop well....
He is making a stop on Sunday holding a huge rally there because their internals have seen an opening.
Just to be safe dont you think POTUS should swing by
RNC,Plus robme and other groups have gone up with more than $13mill in ads there
now dont come calling me a troll I know my concern is duly noted . Just being cautious afterall its better to be safe than sorry.
blazeKing
(329 posts)It's about keeeping enthusiasm.
Also it's about manipulating the media.
YOu just know Joe Scarb. is going to say "Romney going to Pennsylvania, his polls MUST suggest that he has got this thing in the bag, now he just wants more".
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)Willard is desperate and the campaign is over. Sandy saw to that. Sandy and Chris Christie. Nobody is going to switch their vote to Willard just because he made a stop in PA. PA summers at the Jersey Shore. They know what's up.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)because he's trying everything he can to find a way to get to 270. He knows what States are in the bag and which ones are leaning away from him. He sees Obama taking OH, CO, IO, NH and probably VA and the only option he has is to hail mary into other States like PA and NV.
It's desperation, the Dems know it and won't likely get dragged into playing with him.
demgrrrll
(3,590 posts)David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)Chuck Todd is an idiot.
Romeny can't win without Pennsylvania now.
He's lost Ohio.
And with Iowa and Nevada gone, he can't get the 269 tie.
His only play is Pennsylvania and that's why they are dumping millions in advertising there now.
krawhitham
(4,644 posts)Alleycat
(1,117 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)He's not going to win PA. He's trying to replace Ohio's electoral votes, which they know to be lost.
Mutiny In Heaven
(550 posts)Running on empty, folks.
Doctor Jack
(3,072 posts)And it didn't do shit for him. I highly doubt 1 campaign stop by Romney is going to close the 6-8 point deficit he has there right now.
wisteria
(19,581 posts)to get out the vote for Obama.
peace13
(11,076 posts)Rove already has his eyes on it...don't kid yourself.
demgrrrll
(3,590 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)The delusional spin coming out of his campaign reminds me of the spin from the German Fuhrer that his military was consolidating its victories in April of 1945.
SingleSeatBiggerMeat
(220 posts)Watch.
He is such an idiot.
20895DEM
(100 posts)Look where his internals have got him thus far.
Mitt Romney's internals and campaign was called a "rolling calamity" not so long ago. His internal pollster said that they would not be governed by facts. So lets all get a fucking grip. If Mitt Romney's internals said it was daylight outside I would take a flashlight.
We all need to calm the fuck down, put on our big boy underpants and finish this fucking thing.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)wisteria
(19,581 posts)But, is doesn't hurt to be proactive.
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)And he's not just going there, they are dropping money like crazy there right now.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)Romney and his Super PACs have a ton of money to fling around, so it will be spent in their Wish List states.
Chichiri
(4,667 posts)Chichiri
(4,667 posts)...a single stop by Romney is going to overcome the momentum we have there.
RomneyLies
(3,333 posts)MjolnirTime
(1,800 posts)MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)Forget it.
AlinPA
(15,071 posts)appears to be at least 20-1 more ads for Romney than for the President. There is still 4 days to get some advertising going. Maybe Obama will use mailers directly to homes or radio.
abumbyanyothername
(2,711 posts)because he has already lost the ones that have.
TroyD
(4,551 posts)No he hasn't.
Don't get overconfident & complacent.
There are still attempts underway to steal Ohio & Florida.
Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)I hope Rmoney spends a fortune there.
scheming daemons
(25,487 posts)brooklynite
(94,571 posts)It's HUGE!
It's a GAME-CHANGER!
EEEEEK!
Now, where were we?
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)Don't be fooled. It's their only road to the White House.
It's not just a stop. This is their only option. And they are working it.
brooklynite
(94,571 posts)is a day they WON'T spend in Wisconsin...or Iowa...or Michigan...or Florida...or...
This is political tactics; nothing more.
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)It's Pennsylvania.
brooklynite
(94,571 posts)Personally, I'm happy with the strategic approach they're taking.
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)Cross talking. The only path "possible " path for Romney is a last gasp grab for Pennsylvania. He has no place left to go. It's where they are spending their last money.
Where did you get the "pull resources out of" notion? Sigh...
brooklynite
(94,571 posts)Ad buys have been made; volunteers have been assigned; rallies have been scheduled.
The only way to change the dynamics on our side is to move resources from another location. I would argue that no such change is necessary.
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)It should be a priority.
Romney lost Ohio weeks ago.
Iowa and Nevada are out of reach for Romney now so the 269 tie template won't work.
All of Romney's marbles will be on trying to take Pennsylvania and let the Party help him carry Florida, Virginia & North Carolina and Colorado.
Romney is dumping money into Pennsylvania right now.
We need to take it very seriously.
K&R.
fugop
(1,828 posts)... doesn't mean anyone is listening. We're getting bombarded here, with every commercial break packing ad after ad. We either fast forward, mute or go get some Halloween candy.
No one cares anymore, partly from Sandy and partly from burnout. Conventions, done. Debates, over. Voters, sick of ads. At this point, it is what it is. Mitt's desperate because in spite of the media telling him he's SURGING! for a month, he's right back where he was in the swings before the debates. All that money and he couldn't move the needle where it counts.
Pa. is gone. But he has to pretend.
yellowcanine
(35,699 posts)ShadowLiberal
(2,237 posts)ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)To find whatever pieces he needs to string this together.
It's a real longshot.
pb2
(8 posts)http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-e-voting-puts-vote-accuracy-risk-four-183125308.html
Exclusive: E-voting puts vote accuracy at risk in four key states
In four battleground states, glitches in electronic-voting machines could produce erroneous tallies that would be difficult to detect and potentially impossible to correct, a Monitor analysis finds.
By Mark Clayton | Christian Science Monitor Thu, Oct 25, 2012
Touch-screen electronic voting machines in at least four states pose a risk to the integrity of the 2012 presidential election, according to a Monitor analysis.
In four key battleground states Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado glitches in e-voting machines could produce incorrect or incomplete tallies that would be difficult to detect and all but impossible to correct because the machines have no paper record for officials to go back and check.
While many state officials laud the accuracy of e-voting machines, mechanical and software failures are not a new problem. What makes the risk more serious this year is that polls project a close election, and e-voting problems in any of the four states in question could affect who wins the presidency.
[RECOMMENDED: 3 views on whether US states should require voter ID]
"No matter how unlikely it seems now, there's a chance that this election will be so close that it could be flipped by a single voting machine problem in a single place in any one of those states," says Edward Felten, a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey who has analyzed e-voting machine weaknesses. "To avoid that, it's key to have a record of what the voter saw and that means having a paper ballot or other paper record."
Paper verification of votes has proved to be a vital backstop to ensure that voting-machine software is not corrupt and that programming errors did not affect the accuracy of electronic vote tallies. Voting machines have at times "lost" thousands of votes or even "flipped" votes from one candidate to another, and total breakdowns are not unheard of.
For example:
In 2006, some 18,000 votes were electronically "lost" by e-vote systems in a single Florida congressional race with no paper backup or ballots available to review.
In May 2011, voters in Pennsylvanias Venango County complained that paperless electronic touch-screen machines were "flipping their choices from one party to another," according to a report by Verified Voting, a nonprofit group in Carlsbad, Calif., that tracks voting machine use nationwide. After an inconclusive audit of election results, the county simply decided to use paper ballots counted by optical scanners in future elections.
In March, an e-voting system in Floridas Palm Beach County experienced a "synchronization problem in a municipal election. The election software attributed votes to the wrong contest and the wrong candidates won. Thankfully, paper ballots existed. After a court-ordered recount, results were changed and two losing candidates were declared winners.
More than 1,800 voting machine problems were reported to election protection hotlines during the 2008 general election, according to Verified Voting. Such election failures mattered far less in 2008 because Barack Obama won by a landslide. But this year, the loser might be likely to demand a recount if the winning margin is small. In states that still use Direct Recording Equipment (DRE) touch-screen voting equipment that lacks any paper verification that could be a problem.
"Without a paper trail there's no opportunity to check, so then you just have to rely on faith that the software is functioning properly and capturing votes properly," says Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting. "Maybe the machine is working OK right now. But if there is a bug or glitch, there's nothing to go back to."
After the controversy over "hanging chads" in Florida in the 2000 election, touch-screen e-voting machines proliferated nationwide as the Help America Vote Act of 2002 helped states pay for new equipment. Most states have since replaced e-systems that lack paper verification with paper ballots counted by optical scanners. While scanners can also fail, the paper ballots are there to be recounted.
But 17 states still use paperless DREs, according to Verified Voting. Among those, four are expected to see election results close enough to potentially demand a recount.
"Most of the country has gone to some sort of paper-based optical or electronic system," says Peter Lichtenheld, vice president of operations for Austin-based Hart InterCivic, one of four major voting machine companies in the US. "In counties that have decided to stay with older direct response equipment [DREs], they've put in people and procedures to make them more secure."
For example, most states now run preelection software tests on the machines to verify that they are counting correctly. The machines are "sealed" against tampering and, increasingly, they are monitored by surveillance cameras even in off-use periods. Memory cards in the machines should retain votes, even in a power failure, but have not always done so.
To critics, however, reliance on electronic methods alone as a backup means that the machines are, in essence, checking themselves. Only a paper document checked by the voter ensures that the vote was recorded correctly and is immune to system failures or even cyberattack.
In Pennsylvania, 50 of 68 counties have paperless equipment as their standard voting system, Verified Voting data show. Those machines serve some 7 million of about 8.5 million registered voters statewide.
In Virginia, 127 of 135 counties use paperless DREs, accounting for 3.7 million of the states 5 million registered voters, according to Verified Voting.
Colorado is shifting to mail-in paper ballots, but the transition isn't complete. Jefferson County, the states fourth most populous, is using paperless DREs as well as mailed ballots. So many of its 320,000-plus "active" registered voters will vote on the machines more than enough to tip a tight race, says Ms. Smith of Verified Voting.
In Florida, all counties are required by law to have paper backups for their voting machines by 2014. Even so, a small but potentially significant number of disabled voters statewide still will use paperless touch-screen machines this year. Although only a few thousand votes may be cast on those "accessibility" machines, it could still be enough to throw the race if the state's vote tally were to end up as close as it was in the 2000 presidential election, when George W. Bush controversially won by 537 votes.
State officials stand by the machines.
"These DREs have been one of the more reliable pieces of equipment we've had," says Donald Palmer, secretary of Virginia's Board of Elections, the state's most senior election official. "We haven't had any major problems with them."
In fact, Colorados Jefferson County recently had to conduct a recount in a congressional race, in which votes cast on paperless DREs were included. Significantly, both candidates accepted the result although there was no paper to confirm that the machines had recorded the votes correctly.
"We think we have the right processes in place to make sure everyone is able to vote and that their votes count," says Andrew Cole, a spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State's office.
Still, Princetons Professor Felten has put all four states on his top 10 states at risk of an e-voting meltdown. Among the factors going into the the list is the effectiveness of a states vote-audit laws.
California, for example, is lauded because its post-election audits draw statistical comparison between paper totals and voting machine tallies to ensure the machines are accurate. In contrast, Virginia has no post-election audit and limited provisions for a recount in state law in case machine vote-count problems are detected. Similarly, Florida state laws are such that a recount may not be permitted even if a machine is known to have malfunctioned.
"Florida's post-election audit law is absolutely atrocious and does not afford the voters any certainty that their votes have been accurately counted," says Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections in Floridas Leon County. "Because our laws only allow erroneous totals to be corrected on the basis of fraud, a machine could break down, but if there's no fraud, our laws would still not allow us to correct those erroneous totals."
The small number of voters who will use paperless DREs in the state limit the chances of an e-voting meltdown there, he acknowledges. But it is a concern. He notes that the blatant mistake made by e-voting machines in Palm Beach might have never been corrected had that been a statewide election, since there was no obvious fraud. "State law doesn't require it," he says.
"I'm hopeful," he adds, "that we can get through to 2014 without an election disaster like 2000 and finally get rid of all these [paperless] machines once and for all."
outsideworld
(601 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)the PA stop from mitt is more about raising money and downtickets. He doesn't really have a chance there.