In less than 72 hours (knock on wood), all of our questions will be answered; and perhaps none are more pressing than whether Nate Silver—the gay-sounding, compulsive-gambling, legacy-destroying math wizard—floats.
Among those arguing that he is, in fact, buoyant are:
Contrarily, most observers—including fact-checkers and editorial boards, political scientists and statisticians, the CEOs of Chrysler and GM, David Axelrod's mustache, bookmakers and futures traders, madman Jim Cramer, the Alliance of Magicians, and zoophile Newt Gingrich—say they're full of shit.
I'm moving it to "Tossup" for now; the truth will set us free soon enough.
In the meantime, we should probably help get out the vote—just in case.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe; House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA); Roundtable: Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker (D), Joe Scarborough (MSNBC), GOP Strategist Mike Murphy, Savannah Guthrie (NBC News) and Tom Brokaw (NBC News).
Face the Nation: Pollsters Anna Greenberg, Leslie Sanchez, Stuart Rothenberg, Larry Sabato and Anthony Salvanto; Roundtable: Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal), David Gergen (CNN), Rich Lowry (National Review), Dee Dee Myers (Vanity Fair) and John Dickerson (CBS News).
This Week: White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe; Romney Campaign Senior Adviser Ed Gillespie; Roundtable: George Will (Washington Post), Cokie Roberts (ABC News), Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, GOP Strategist Matthew Dowd and Ronald Brownstein (National Journal).
Fox News Sunday: Romney Campaign Political Director Rich Beeson; Obama Campaign Senior Adviser David Axelrod; Roundtable: Brit Hume (Fox News), Democratic Strategist Joe Trippi, GOP Strategist Karl Rove and Jeff Zeleny (New York Times).
State of the Union: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D); Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH); Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R); Reliable Sources: Ryan Lizza (The New Yorker); George Washington University Prof. Frank Sesno; Bill Press (Current TV); Debra Saunders (San Francisco Chronicle); Pollster Larry Sabato; Sarah Lacy (PandoDaily.com).
The Chris The Chris Matthews Show: John Heilemann (New York Magazine); Howard Fineman (Huffington Post), Joy Reid (TheGrio.com); Gloria Borger (CNN).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson; Princeton University Prof. Sean Wilentz; Author Edmund Morris; Institut Francais des Relations Internationales Co-Founder Dominique Moisi; Journalist Rula Jabreal; National University of Singapore Prof. Kishore Mahbubani; Ari Shavit (Haaretz).
Up with Chris Hayes: Author Sasha Issenberg; Evan Wolfson (Freedom to Marry); Mason Tvert (SaferCHOICE.org); Kim Barker (ProPublica); Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Nation); Joy Reid (TheGrio.com); Josh Barro (Blomberg News); Bob Herbert (Demos.org); Suman Raghunathan (Progressive States Network).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an interview with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) (preview); an interview with author and historian David McCullough (preview); and, an interview with Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart likened Ohio's 18 electoral votes to "the precious."
The Daily Show
Monday: Martha Raddatz (ABC News)
Tuesday: Live Election Coverage
Wednesday: Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight)
Thursday: TBD
And Stephen Colbert examined the electoral implications of Hurricane Sandy.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight)
Tuesday: Live Election Coverage
Wednesday: Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin
Thursday: Kevin Sheppard ("The Iran Job")
Elsewhere...
Rush Limbaugh launched a broadside against RNC keynote speaker Chris Christie over his palling around with President Obama.
With Sandy still too raw for anyone to start make political points, there has been no backlash from Republicans about his alliance with Obama only six days from election day. Christie has said politics do not matter to him at the moment. But on Monday, even before Christie lavishly praised the president’s handling of the storm as "outstanding", the right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh called the governor "fat" and "a fool".
Meanwhile...
Bill O'Reilly picked up where John Sununu left off during an interview with Arthel Neville—who is black.
O'REILLY: General Powell has been, in his books, quite candid about him using affirmative action to succeed, alright? And Barack Obama did use affirmative action to, you know, be educated and something like that. Do you think that there's any racial business here?
NEVILLE: No. No. No. No.
O’REILLY: And I'm not saying that in a pejorative — I'm not saying that in a negative — but a connection — the general and the president came up the same way. . . . You don’t think shared experience enters into General Powell's endorsement?
NEVILLE: You're telling me that if President Obama had not done a good job that Colin Powell — General Powell — would have supported President Obama regardless? Absolutely not true.
O'REILLY: No I'm saying that he might be cutting him a little more slack.
And, in other news…
The winner of this week's "Name That Rape" contest is Washington GOP congressional candidate John Koster.
"Incest is so rare, I mean, it's so rare. But the rape thing… you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?"
Serenity now!
- Trix