McCain Set to End Campaign With Biggest Hurdles in Modern Era

[Chimichurri]

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain goes into the campaign's final weekend a bigger underdog than any victorious candidate in a modern election.

With four days until Election Day, national polls show his Democratic rival Barack Obama leading by an average of 6 percentage points, and battleground polls show Obama ahead in more than enough states to win the decisive 270 Electoral College votes.

``This election is cooked and done, it's in the warming tray,'' said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

McCain ``is as desperate as a candidate can be,'' said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. ``Less than five days to go and McCain's trailing in half a dozen states of which he can't afford to lose any: Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina.''

Illinois Senator Obama yesterday highlighted new government figures showing the sharpest contraction of the economy since 2001, a harbinger of what could be the worst recession since 1981-82. Arizona Senator McCain, meanwhile, was mum on the latest economic news showing the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent pace from July to September.

`Final Nail'

Those latest figures, Sabato said, are ``the final nail in McCain's coffin.''

To be sure, surprise events in the final days of the last two elections swayed those races. In 2000, a drunk-driving report on Republican George W. Bush, who had been leading in polls by a few points, may have cost him the popular vote. A taped message from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden four years later -- when Democrat John Kerry and Bush were running about even -- likely cinched Bush's re-election.

Yet in both cases, the spread in the polls wasn't as wide as it is between McCain, 72, and Obama, 47, who also has enjoyed a threefold cash advantage.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ag17JxMZqRw4&refer=home

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I hope McCain and the Rovians have no way of suppressing votes to squeak by a winner this time.When I hear the right wing pundits talk about their "internal" numbers making this close, I can't help but wonder how they're gonna try to pull this off. Bush and the repubs have a lot to lose if the Dems take office.

If McCain ends up the winner, do you think the electorate will care?

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

1. From their mouths to God's ears!

[Bicoastal]

2. They're saying their "internals are close" to insure people actually vote for em...

...losing candidates do this all the time.

[yellowcanine]

3. The Fat Lady is standing by the piano singing warmup scales.

[dpbrown]

4. If they trot out the bin Laden boogieman again this election, don't you think people will know?

When bin Laden is all you've got, aren't you a pathetic loser?

[sweetpotato]

5. Their internal numbers come from using Karl's "math"

Remember how in 2006 Rove said that the Republicans would win the majority of the congressional races even though the polls showed something completely different? And Rove said it was because he was using *his math* to make this determination. Remember how it turned out?

Rove needs some new math.

[Zorra]

6. I'm still wary of the "Miracle of Our Lady of the Black Box". n/t