Non-numbers state-of-race summary from Josh Marshall

Talking Points Memo State-of-Race

Note:  Josh has invited all to share full articles.  For my money, he’s one of the most accurate, even-keeled Dem writers out there.

Three snippets:

Democrats in high-level campaign positions seem increasingly optimistic about their chances pretty much in spite of themselves. That’s been my sense from the beginning of early voting and that mood has built over the course of this last week. I’d say it’s best described as optimism they’re trying not to express and almost wish they didn’t feel.

I’ve been a bit surprised how bullish Democrats have seemed in the last couple days about their campaigns. One briefing that was described to me had the Democrats in a solid position across the Blue Wall states while the southern tier states are all in real contention, with North Carolina the best shot followed by Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, in that order.

There’s simply no doubt at this point that Democrats have a decisively better ground operation than Republicans in really all the swing states. I don’t think this is up for debate anymore. If it’s a razor-thin race, that matters a lot and I suspect that fact is increasingly figuring into people’s relative optimism or pessimism. That scenario is why you build a strong ground operation. Again, it only matters if it’s really, really close.

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Full article is worth reading.