While most sites that we (the liberal left wing blogosphere) visit pegs Barack Obama's electoral victory somewhere between 330-353.9 (357 here on Kos) most of the main stream media have been hesitant to put Obama over 270.
There are a few of problems with this
- if you are going to have a really cool interactive map that is based on polling, then it should reflect the current polling.
- by putting Obama over the top, it would put a nail in the coffin of "would-be" McCain voters waiting to see how the tide will break.
- if Obama was clearly over 270 it would demoralize the Republican base, keeping them at home on Nov 4th and allow Obama to get not only a electoral victory, but a popular vote mandate that we haven't seen since
Clinton Carter (thanks MMColo ).
Before the debate on Wed, Wolf Blitzer on CNN updated the CNN electoral map conceding Virginia to Obama putting him 7 electoral votes over the necessary 270 to win the presidency. He did caution that this only reflects if the contest were held today.
UPDATE: Before I was finish posting this diary, the NY Times (whose electoral map looks a lot like CNN's updated theirs to include VA in Obama's column. So between this 10am this morning and 6pm they wised up.
However all the other major media outlets (including CNN until Wed) keep Obama at bay with only 264. Giving the republicans and their followers a glimpse of hope.
Here are the maps from the following sources.
CBS News Obama 259- McCain 163
MSNBC Obama 264 - McGetoffmylawn 174
Faux News Obama 228 - McSame 200
The news website doesn't carry an electoral map, but Papa Bear does...pretty delusional
New York Times Obama 277 - McGrumpy 185
USA Today Obama 248 McBreshofFethAir 135
Washington Post Obama 207 - McNut 158
CNN Obama 277 - McPOW 174