We’re going to find out in around 72 hours time if the Selzer approach is right, if it is then I think we will see this outside of Iowa and that portends a bigly Harris victory and makes playing the spreads attractive but if I am wrong then you could end up in the poorhouse which makes spread betting so exciting.
Comments
I am not so sure that this Selzer poll is an outlier. Iowa has passed, against popular wishes, a draconian anti-abortion law. Women are pissed.
I may well be wish-projecting, but I think the pollsters have got it horribly wrong again:
1. There are no shy Trump voters. Any correction for this is wrong. Indeed, there may be GOPers who are scared to admit they are not voting for him (I see significant numbers of properties with GOP Senate race signs but no Trump signs) or scared to admit they are voting for Harris. My non-scientific hunch is this is overstating Trump by as much as 3%
2. The pollster have the wrong electorate - there is a massive surge in both woman and young voters. This too, benefits Harris.
Check out this projection from a Gen-Z organization getting out the first-time eligible voters: https://x.com/voterstomorrow/status/1852437651934126526?s=61
FWIW, and I am fully prepared for the egg on my face come the end of the week, I think:
1. Harris will sweep the recognized swing states with the possible exception of AZ
2. She may well take IA and OH (abortion-related) and even, though less likely, TX
3. She could get very close in FL but I doubt it falls
4. I would not be surprised if there were some totally shocking results from States that have enacted the worst anti-abortion bills
5. GOP takes the Senate (alas), but Dems take the House.
All in all, I think it is a comfortable Harris win, with her EC range 300-420, depending on just how wrong the pollsters are.
Some of us have been pointing out the emphasis that past vote ignores those coming into the pool of voters, either young voters or those who normally sit it out. The polling is bound to be off when you only ask a subset of actual voters. If those ignored skew significantly one way, the outcomes are frankly going to be utter shite.
This time, the polls are much narrower and people expect it to be very close or for Trump to edge it.
Have the polls got it wrong, again? And it will actually be a Kamala walkover?
[My gut still says Trump wins]
The right are going to be a hornery bunch when Trump loses. Vance wiill try to rouse them. He deserves to be thrown to the wolves though. His cats and dogs stuff - picked up by Trump for God knows what reasons - was a cornerstone of the ridicule that Trump suffered.
It's more about pollsters trying to adjust their techniques on the basis of the mistakes they made at the last election.
And making a whole new set of mistakes.
Selzer just ignores all of that and goes from first principles.
Pretty hard to do that nationally - though if other pollsters weren't churning out quite so many polls (partly, TBF, for the use of the campaigns), they could probably do something similar.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypgjg2jrpo
Fill in the answer to your taste.
FPT: The nature of the African Slave Trade was that coastal tribes were sometimes middlemen, where they would raid other tribes and sell their captives to the European slave traders, or would take members of other tribes as slaves as tribute.
The Yoruba wiki article mentions both Yoruba enslaved, and the Yoruba as enslavers. Some major places were built on a slave economy, such as (not Yoruba but an example) Kano.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_people
It's not really my specialist subject, so I tend to limit comments to pointing out that it is more complicated than "reparations NOW, paid to US, NOW" or "nothing to do with us, Guv".
I'm quite impressed with how Justin Welby and CofE are dealing with it, over a period of years and carefully, for the longer term.
We can't discuss Leon's holidays all the time.
Even the famous Corbyn youthquake in 2017 turned out to be nothing of the sort when the stats came in.
Hopefully it’s a clear win one way or the other.
But they are seriously pissed by Dobbs and being encouraged to the polls by a GOTV operation for the ages.
I believe.
I’d be wary of assuming that high turnout favours one side or the other.
The 15 minute video is a follow up to the previous one I posted some weeks ago about Planning and Street Size in Tokyo.
My thought is that perhaps we need K-Cars or something similar in the UK, to try and deal further with the oversized domestic vehicles we have in many places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV6c2p3PQQA
https://www.youtube.com/live/qYJwq64aQ0M?si=s64CWtuFOkAAMg_y
To play fair, Starmer was a mere lawyer and public servant and Foot a journalist, so we can’t expect them to be able to clothe themselves, or their families.
However on no grounds does that mean a Harris landslide as ABC also has Trump doing better with hispanic voters than he did in 2016 and 2020 and with black men than he did in 2016 and 2020.
It is perfectly possible therefore Harris wins mostly more white than the US average Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday but Trump wins Hispanic heavy Nevada, Arizona and maybe even New Mexico and Black heavy North Carolina and Georgia ie all states George W Bush won, giving a Harris scrape home win 271-267
https://www.270towin.com/
PB will be wall to wall Scotland coverage.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/spain-storm-disaster-sanchez-faces-mounting-criticism-over-response/
Just to clarify - have you changed your opinion that "this feels like an outlier"?
I think the enthusiasm gap and the female vote are going to deliver this for Harris. She might not win Iowa, or even every swing state, but I think it’ll be enough.
1) I want it to be true so my initial betting view is to be sceptical
but
2) Ann Selzer is the gold standard, she knows what she is doing
"Riot fear delayed Southport ricin charge statement"
Will they express their disappointment at the ballot box in 2028? They will if they can. But that assumes a free and fair election. Trump has given us plenty of reason to believe that if he wins, 2024 may be the last time America has anything resembling that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/opinion/trump-musk-mike-johnson.html
She has already offered Lord Houchen of High Leven, the Tees Valley mayor who did not back either candidate, the deputy leadership.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/kemi-badenoch-makes-history-as-new-tory-leader-rzgjpzkn9
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car
Somewhere around a third of cars sold in Japan meet this specification, which comes with significant tax advantages.
He makes Bobby J look like a model of probity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Tees_Valley_mayoral_election
I read on twitter (I know) that the Generalitat Valenciana led by PP went into coalition with Vox, and part of their price was public service cuts including to the flood warning service. I bet these wankers aren't speaking face to face with the punters.
Ben Houchen makes T. Dan Smith look honest and competent...
Sunday Times page 13
I think he has problems at the edges, but we shall see.
(1) Her low propensities seriously outvoting his.
(2) Independents breaking heavily for her.
(3) Far more Republicans defecting/abstaining than Democrats.
These are the ingredients of the big Harris win if it happens. I sense it will but I'll take any win.
Its quite funny how you insist "atheists" do this or that without being one yourself based on your own suppositions and prejudices.
For an atheist, religion is just fiction. I have no more principled an objection to going to a Christmas Carol service, or Nativity, than I would a principled objection going to a performance of Les Misérables or Wicked.
I'll as happily go to a singalong of Oh Come All Ye Faithful as I will Defying Gravity.
There's no principled reason why you need to believe fiction is real to enjoy it.
Atheists up and down the country will enjoy Christmas Carols this year like every year. Because we're not miserable shits.
Whereas young (and elderly) women concerned about their freedom is a change from 2020.
We've always had arrangements which nudge for particular uses or penalise others, whether cyclecars, mopeds, 3 wheelers or others, and I think there's a spot for something about K-car size with limited length and power - say the Smart Car slot.
At a time of a more elderly population mix, and a move back to town centre living, it would be a good inexpensive option for people who don't want a full-size vehicle.
https://www.kathysvegankitchen.com/vegan-blt/
HYUFD would probably be surprised by the number of atheists in the weekly pew numbers. I don't suppose there are lots of them, but there will be more than zero.
https://sw1politics.com/2024/11/02/labours-one-word-plan-to-defeat-badenoch/
As for the latter, why would I go to Church? I'll go if I'm invited, eg for a wedding, and have no more an objection to that than any other venue. I'll also go to see my kids perform in Brownies/Guides which is hosted by the Church and their Christmas services has religious elements to it.
You claimed we object in principle to religious services and won't go to carols etc - that's bollocks. I'll go to a religious service, I'll just think of it as the same as any other fiction - a work of fiction not to be taken seriously.
Of course you may be correct on both metrics
I don't go in for ancient wisdom
I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious, it means that they're worthy
I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords, but the lyrics are dodgy
And yes, I have all of the usual objections
To the miseducation of children who, in tax-exempt institutions
Are taught to externalise blame and to feel ashamed
And to judge things as plain right or wrong
But I quite like the songs
Sorry about the reference to tax exempt institutions, no desire to trigger you!
A bit of camel wrangling was required to land the part.