Monthly Archives: October 2008

Yes, I know (because everyone's phoning or e-mailing me) that I was just on CNN talking about the nexus of humor and politics. That's from an interview I did a few weeks ago that they just decided to use. If anyone recorded it, you could make my mother very happy by sending me a clip. I hate watching myself on camera but mothers like that kind of thing.

On the 'net, you can find several hundred maps of the U.S. with states indicated as red, blue and toss-up to denote who's likely to capture which electoral votes. The maps vary a lot, especially around the swingable states, but every one I've seen has Barack Obama well over the 300 mark.

With one exception. Over on DailyKos, they reproduce this map which they say is from Bill O'Reilly. It has Obama at 183, McCain at 189 and the rest marked as too close to call.

In order to make this happen, O'Reilly's crew had to do things like declare Iowa too close. Every poll out there has Obama more than ten points ahead in Iowa and McCain has pretty much conceded the state. But I guess O'Reilly needs to give his audience something to hold onto. If that's the idea, he's not doing a very good job. I couldn't find this map in the non-subscription section of the O'Reilly website…but they do reproduce the Real Clear Politics electoral map which currently has Obama at 311. So apparently O'Reilly thinks that two mutually-exclusive polls are credible enough to present. They report, you decide.

And I note that visitors to that site have apparently decided what they want to believe. An online poll asks them to predict who'll win. As of this moment, Obama has 32% and McCain has 68%.

Condolences go out to the Reiners. Estelle Reiner — wife, mother, actress and vocalist — has died at the age of 94. She and husband Carl were married nearly 65 years and they sure looked like one of the happiest couples you ever saw. Late in life, she had a grand career singing cabaret in local clubs…and she had that memorable, funniest line in the 1989 movie, When Harry Met Sally, directed by her son Rob. A lovely lady.

Okay, let's have a contest to predict the outcome of the presidential race next week! The prize will be absolutely nothing but a mention on this blog and bragging rights.

How many electoral votes will Barack Obama receive? Take your best guess, put the number down as the subject in an e-mail and send it to…

• vote2008@newsfromme.com.

Only numerical guesses in the subject line will be counted. You can leave the body of the message blank except you should give me the name you want me to announce as the winner if you're the winner…and I may or may not announce some runners-up. I'm unpredictable that way.

You can enter as many times as you want but only one guess per e-mail and only your last e-mail will be counted. So if you send a guess on Friday and you change your mind later and send another one on Sunday, only your Sunday guess will count. All entries must be in our special e-mailbox by Midnight (Pacific Time) on Monday night/Tuesday morning. The winner will be the earliest vote received with the correct total…or the closest guess if no one hits it on the button. I will declare a winner whenever I think the final electoral total is official and unlikely to change.

Is that enough rules for you? Okay, I'll start. My guess is 349.

Here's the definitive electoral map. This will tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the election, including where they're high in the middle and round on both ends. Thanks to Scott Marinoff for the tip.

A few hundred years ago, back when this presidential campaign was just getting started, I directed you to a website which would be tracking the electoral votes and other polling goodies. This prompted the following e-mail, which I reproduced here, from one of my more Conservative readers…

I am not surprised that you linked to electoral-vote.com since that's another socialist (i.e., liberal) website run by another one of your Anti-American defeatists. I wouldn't trust a comma on that Obama Osama loving site. If you are as fair minded as some claim, why did not you link to election projection, which is run by a good, God-fearing American who also lists and analyzes the polls? Could it be that you do not live in the reality-based community of your mind and think you can trick Republicans into the same kind of defeatist mindset you favor for Iraq, making us believe we cannot win?

In response, I noted that the so-called "liberal" site then (June 20) had Obama at 317 and McCain at 194, whereas the site run by the "good, God-fearing American" had Obama at 349 and McCain at 189.

Today, one week before the election, the site run by the Conservative guy has Obama at 375 and McCain at 163 and is forecasting, and I quote: "Barack Obama will win this election in a landslide. He will capture at least 350 electoral votes and win the popular vote by 7% or more." The site run by the alleged socialist has Obama at 364 and McCain at 157. In fact, the site my above correspondent recommended has pretty consistently scored Obama higher than the one he called "that Obama Osama loving site."

My pal Gregg Berger has been mentioned often on this site as one of the top voice actors in the business and heard in many of our video links. He's set up a great MySpace page with interviews and fan stuff…and I'll just warn you that if you go there, audio will automatically play of Gregg's voice demo. Go give a listen to it and you'll hear how versatile and good he is. Here's the link.

I'm going to be a guest-type person at the National (the big Big Apple Con) in New York, November 14-16. Wonder of wonders, I'll be hosting a number of panels…probably a Jack Kirby panel (there's a first for me) with Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg, Herb Trimpe and maybe someone else. I'm also hosting a panel about Sgt. Rock and war comics in general with, among other folks, Russ Heath and Billy Tucci. There may be other panels. Details on the con can be found here. It was a lot of fun last year and I see no reason to believe this one will be any different.

And then, probably no conventions until February. I'll be guesting and moderating at the Wondercon in San Francisco, February 27 through March 1. This is also a fine convention that is well worth your attendance. Details on it may be read on this page.

Well, the one unexpected week of Creamy Tomato Soup at Souplantation has come to an end. I went over on Sunday and had a bowl and a half, which is about all my reduced-size stomach will accommodate. I also bought and froze a quart for later consumption. It isn't quite the same that way but it's something.

Basic Blogging Ethics require that I make full disclosure here: The Souplantation people decided I was responsible for much Internet chatter about their Creamy Tomato Soup, as well as the mention on The Big Bang Theory. As you all know, we are wholly susceptible to bribery here at newsfromme.com. Send me a big enough freebee and I'll start agreeing that Barack Obama is a Socialist with a fake birth certificate and that our nation's only hope for survival is to elect the McCain-Palin ticket, preferably with Palin in first position.

At the moment, I'm selling out for free soup. They're sending me coupons for lots of it and I shall redeem them next March when, they assure me, Creamy Tomato will reappear as Soup-of-the-Month. There are also apparently ongoing discussions of having it in the lineup more often, which would be nice.

That's all the Soup News for now. Stay tuned to this weblog for late-breaking developments in the soup world.