Four More Years But For Whoah....Wait a Second. (2024 General Election Forecast, Take Four)

Folks, the tide has turned. Kamala Harris has had an amazing month of good fortune and better politics. For the first few months of this year I assumed that voters would eventually reconcile themselves to the fact that they had to choose between two old declining men and enough of them would choose the one who wasn't evil. 

But Father Time came for Joe Biden a little faster than I expected. Remarkably, he recognized that this was true, or at least the fact that the public believed it was true, so he stepped aside in favor of his vice-president. Then the institutional party rallied behind this decision. Since becoming the presumptive nominee, she has made a very popular choice for running mate, posted incredible fundraising numbers and staged a string of flawless campaign rallies. 

Now America has a choice between an old man, malevolent in being, choleric in temperament and declining in his faculties or a woman in the prime of life, upbeat in bearing and riding a wave of good sentiment that should carry through her convention. When the dust settles around Labor Day, this could be looking like the best presidential election cycle for Democrats since 2008.

But let's not get over our skis just yet. Harris hasn't done an interview, press conference or debate yet. A lot can go wrong and it's inevitable that a she will have a bad press cycle or two between now and November 5th. But for now, she is the favorite. And her opponent seems incapable of adjusting to this reality. 

The electoral college favors the Republican party. A few bad bounces could lead to another 2016 where Trump rides a lucky streak to the White House. He can win Pennsylvania and I'm not lighting any cigars until  that state is called on Election Night (Or the day after. Maybe Thursday. Seriously, folks, margins matter in PA. Let's get this done in a timely manner.)

I. The Roads to 270.

The colored chart at the top of this post is a list of every electoral contest from deepest blue DC to brightest red Wyoming. I don't do toss-ups, because that's boring. But any state or district in a pale color could reasonably won by either party. The darker shades are "safe." But I use that term a little more loosely than more serious outlets. They are safe for now. They are safe in a close election. I'll move the bricks around as polling and prediction markets shift. 

A. The Safe Blue 226.

Just a month ago, team Trump was eyeing Minnesota and Virginia. Trump himself was making noise about New Jersey. (That last one was never going to happen.) But for now, I thin those states are off the board. Unless something horrible happens in the next 87 days, Harris-Walz will win at least 20 contests worth 226 electoral votes.

B. The Swinging 93.

i. Michigan. This state is trending blue and I'd be shocked if Harris doesn't win it. Polymarket gives Harris as 62% chance of winning it. Until that gets over 70%, I'll leave it where it is. (Five Thirty Eight has not yet turned their forecast back on which is embarrassing).

ii. Wisconsin. Also trending blue, but not quite as fast as MI. Polymaket has it 56/44.

iii. Pennsylvania: WI and MI get Harris to 251. From there the clearest path is Pennsylvania, which gets her to exactly 270. The most recent polls have looked good there and I think Harris will probably win it. But let's face it 270 to 268 is a terrifying proposition. Especially for the 270 members of the electoral college in the states that vote for Biden. (And their alternates-thank God the electors have alternates.)

iv. Nevada.  If there is one state to flip because of the switch from Biden to Harris, it is this one. Biden was polling terribly there and Trump was polling weirdly well there all year long. I guess they like casino owners, even lousy ones. But Harris stepping in has led to a swift endorsement by the big culinary union there and it looks like the Reid machine will carry this one over the line for now. If I owned a polling company, I would spend a lot of money on this state the next two months. If Harris doesn't win PA, she probably has to win Nevada.

v. Georgia. After Pennsylvania, this state is most likely to put Harris over the top. If she wins the 251 states, plus NV and GA, she'll be at 273. A slightly less terrifying scenario than 270 to 268.

vi. North Carolina.  If I had to predict the closest margin in this election, I would pick NC. The Dems have only carried it once in the last 11 cycles but the state is nudging its way leftward and the Republicans, God love them, have nominated an absolute nutter to be their candidate for governor. It was the only state that Trump won by a narrow margin in 2020 and I hope this year it will fall the other way.

vii. Arizona.  This is another state that was very close last time and in which the Party of Lincoln has chosen a full-blown lunatic for the senate race. She will lose. But for some reason, this state feels like a reach for Harris. Polymarket still favors Trump there and I'm not ready to bet against that. Picking Kelly for Veep would have helped, of course. But I don't think AZ will be the tipping point state, so it's probably not worth worrying about. And Harris certainly has a chance to win, especially if Trump keeps making his cognitive decline so obvious.

C. The Safe Red 219.

I have written somewhat cautiously so far. I am very encouraged by the current state of the race. But I know there are limits to the popularity of the Democratic party and I'm not about to discount the possibility of attacks on Kamala Harris sticking with a certain kind of "independent voter" who think the President of the United States should be man, just the way more sensible folks believe that James Bond should always be a man. (Or God, if that's your thing.)

Part of my caution stems from the fact that I don't see Harris flipping any big states that Trump won in 2020. Florida could wind up being close. But it makes little senses for Harris to commit the kind of resources it would probably take for her to win there. Texas was fairly close last time, but I don't seeing it moving nearly five points to the left in a second consecutive cycle.  Ohio might be closer than last time and that's good news for Sherrod Brown's senate campaign. But it's not flipping Blue

One persistent prediction I have made is that Florida will again vote to the left of Texas this time. And I think they will both be Red in the end, whether by one point or five.  (The last time TX voted to the left of FL was 1988-when Dukakis-Bentsen lost FL by 22 points but Texas by 12 and 1/2 points. Good job, Lloyd!)

Other than NC, it's hard to see where Harris picks off a state that voted for Trump twice. She might win both of Maine's congressional districts, but that's hardly a trivial effect on the election. If we're talking about a blow out, then Iowa and Alaska could become kind of, sort of close. But if we're worried about that in November, then this will be a good cycle indeed.

II. The Bottom Line.

This election will be decided in seven states worth a total of 93 electoral votes. Kamala Harris needs to win 44 of those 91 votes. Trump needs to win 51 to win outright or 50 to get a 269-269 tie and force it to the House of Representatives*. 

The contours of this are shaped by how the three Blue Wall states vote. 

A. Harris has 3 Paths to winning at least 44 of these votes:

a. The Blue Wall: WI+MI+PA (exactly 44)

b. The Hybrid: Any two Blue Wall States plus NV+ GA or NC (47)

c. The Southern Belles:  NV+AZ+ GA + NC (49)

I do not see the Southern Strategy working. If Harris gets swept in the Rust Belt states, she probably does not win all four southern states. But stranger things have happened.

B. Trump's Needs A Rust Belt Swing State to get to 270:

The good news is that Trump has to win at least one of the Blue Wall states. The bad news is that winning one or more of them gives him several paths to 270.

If Trump wins one of the three Blue swing states, he has the following paths:

If Pennsylvania,  he is up to 238 and he needs either: 

a. North Carolina and Georgia 

b. North Carolina or Georgia plus NV and Arizona.

If Michigan, he is up to 235 and he needs: 

a. North Carolina and Georgia and NV or Arizona.

If Wisconsin, he's up to 229 and needs: 

a. North Carolina and Georgia and Arizona.

If Trump wins any two of the Blue Wall states, he's up to at least 244 and needs to get 26 more. 

a. Georgia plus North Carolina  

b. Georgia OR North Carolina plus Nevada AND Arizona.

If Trump wins any two of the Blue Wall states and one of them is Pennsylvania then he's up to at least 248 and needs to get 22 more. 

a. Georgia and North Carolina

b. Georgia or North Carolina plus Arizona or Nevada.

If Trump wins Pennsylvania and Michigan but not Wisconsin, then he's up to at least 253 and needs to get 17 more. 

a. Georgia or North Carolina plus Arizona or Nevada.

b. Arizona and Nevada.

If Trump wins All  Three of the Rust Belt states, he's up to at least 263 and needs to get 7 more. 

a. Any of the four southern swing states would probably work. House of Representatives. Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia or Arizona would give him a clean win. Nevada would make it a 269 to 269 tie, which means that Trump probably gets elected president by the House of Representatives*. 

Four More Years But For Whoah....Wait a Second. (2024 General Election Forecast, Take Three)

 Kamala Harris has had a very good week. Nearly everything in the news this week has been good for her and today we saw the first meaningful polls conducted entirely after Biden's withdrawal on Sunday. The results were quite good. To put it simply, the race went from favoring Trump and trending his way, to more or less a dead heat.

Not every week will go this smoothly. But for the moment, she has reenergized Democratic voters and independents seem glad to not have to choose between two very old men.

I. Veep Stakes Update.

I still think the VP choice will be one of the five that I wrote about in my last post. But it has been fun to watch them and a couple longshots jockey for position.  I'm adjusting my ratings based on the week that was and a sharper sense of where the Electoral College will likely tip.

The Top Tier:

1. Governor Josh Shapiro. He's had a strong audition. And Pennsylvania is the most important swing state because it has the most electoral votes. He's still not quite my favorite, but he's certainly unobjectionable and the logic of picking the guy most likely to get you to 270 is pretty hard to counter.

2. Governor Roy Cooper.  Same logic as above with the added twist that Harris is said to be on very good terms with him. NC has 3 fewer EC votes than Pennsylvania and that might cost Cooper the nod here. But he's definitely getting a long hard look.

3. Senator Mark Kelly. You know what overcomes the stigma of being short and bald? Being an astronaut. Kelly is probably the best national candidate. He will be a great contrast with JD Vance. I also like the way that he and his wife are going for the job without being unseemly about it. 

The Stretches.

4. Governor Tim Walz. If Minnesota is in play, then the Democrats are probably losing. But Walz will play well in WI and MI too. He's probably had the best television appearances this week, largely driven by a simple motto "Take care of your neighbors and stop being weird." That plays really well and is a nice reprieve from almost a decade dominated by Trumpism.

5. Governor Gretchen Whitmer.  I still think she's a great candidate. But she has said she doesn't want it and I think both she and Harris buy into the notion that they shouldn't put two women on the ticket. Let me push back against that idea for a moment. Can you imagine a voter who says, "I will vote for a woman but only so long as her vice-president is a man." If you find that unlikely, then you probably understand why I don't really buy this argument. 

But the issue is probably more subtle than this. So she has to be considered a long shot. But I do think that's a shame.

The Bad Ideas.

6. Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He's great on television. And it would be fun to watch him debate JD Vance. But...no. He's too young. He needs to get a bigger job before I can take him seriously. In 2032 he will be 50 years old. That seems like a good time to run.

7. Governor J.B. Pritzker.  Well if you really want someone to balance a ticket, I guess Kamala + JB weigh about the same as Trump + Vance. But let's not take that too literally.  Pritzker has been a pretty good governor of Illinois but he's a little smarmy and picking him will bring 14 weeks of Trump making fat jokes and (more importantly) talking about Chicago in the most ridiculous ways ever.

II. The Roads to 270.

As discussed last time, I think Harris is pretty locked in for 226 electoral votes. I think she is favored in Michigan (15) and slightly favored in Wisconsin (10).   That gets us to 251.  The last 19 are the interesting part. There are 2 ways to get there.

1. Win Pennsylvania. That gets Harris up to exactly 270.  If Shapiro is picked, this is probably why.

2. Win North Carolina or Georgia plus one more state. GA and NC both have 16 electoral votes, so winning one gets us to 267 and we need just one more state.  Winning both would get us there. The  other options are Nevada (6), Arizona (11).

III. My Updated Forecast.

So I am optimistic. The race has been joined and I hope things go well. But I understand that the GOP has an Electoral College advantage. The betting markets still favor Trump. 

I'm not ready to say Harris is the favorite. We need to see more polls. We need to know her roommate. But I started by saying it was a good week, and I am going to move Wisconsin from light red to light blue. 

Onward and Upward.

We're Doing this, America. We're Doing This Again.

 

The first debate of the 2024 general election is tonight. This is very early for a general election debate but this debate is important because we are likely to only get one more after tonight. 

It's also important because I think tonight will be the night that the average American finally accepts the fact that this election will be between the same two guys as last time. So I want to get a few thoughts out there.

1. Expectations.

The first debate is always bad for the incumbent. Trump got his ass kicked. Obama got his ass kicked. W got his ass kicked. GHW Bush came in third. Reagan did so poorly that concerns about his age came back out in the public. Only Bill Clinton held his own. Nixon didn't do any debates.

My explanation for this is that sitting presidents are not used to being on a stage with someone who must be treated as an equal. They are to used to having people defer to them and it disorients them when an opponent pushes back on everything they say.

But tonight might be different. For one thing, these are both men who have been president. And for another, Donald Trump lives in a bubble of ass-kissing sycophants way bigger than the West Wing of the White House.  Biden also has the advantage of not being crazy.

The Republicans have spent four years telling their voters that Joe Biden is a drooling moron. About a week ago they realized this was a mistake and have since been speculating that Biden will be hyped on something or other. (Some say Gatorade, other say prescription drugs. I wish I was making this up but we really do live in a very dumb time.

Biden does have to avoid looking old. He will probably have at least one moment where he looks confused or uses the wrong name, gets a fact wrong or maybe embellishes the truth a little. That's not great. But the guy at the other podium will be ranting and swearing and lying.

II. Questions That Should Be Asked.

1. To Donald Trump, "Who won the 2020 election for president?" Joe Biden's response better begin with something like, "He's not man enough to admit he lost."

2. To Joe Biden, "Should voters have any cause for concern related to your age and physical health. (Biden will have some canned line ready for this but it's a valid question. I'd like both of them to have to answer it.)

3. To Joe Biden, "Tell the American people why withdrawing from Afghanistan benefitted them."

I could do an hour on this. Joe only needs to do a minute and a half.

4. To Donald Trump. "You are awfully fond of Vladimir Putin,  the House of Saud, Xi Jinping and Kim Jung Un. Do you believe it is important for America to promote democracy abroad?"

5. To Joe Biden. "Do you regret any of  the policy choices you made that led to the high inflation we experienced in 2022 and 2023?"

6. To Donald Trump, "One third of American women now live in states with total or near-total bans on abortion. This is because three of your appointees voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Do you think that was good for America?"

7. For both of them. "Why do you think tariffs on imports are a good idea? Why do both of you think that your tariffs work but the other guy's don't?

I'd also like to see them have to answer some of the questions for the naturalized citizenship test, but that's a bit too much to ask for.

III. The Response.

Hopefully Biden has a good night like he did on the State of the Union. Hopefully he avoids losing his cool at the loser eight feet away from him. Hopefully he smiles and looks up beat. Hopefully the American people remember how crazy and unpleasant Donald Trump is.

But both sides will declare victory. That's how they do. And if the polls are bad for Trump, he'll roll out his VP announcement to change the subject. 

 

Stable Boy (The Road to 270, Take 15)

With eight days to go, Joe Biden maintains a solid and substantial lead in the national polls. He leads in more than enough states to be elected president and I am more confident than ever that this will be the final result. Trump needs something to change the election, and it has not happened yet.  

But tonight I will focus on the unlikely. I will write about what a Trump victory would require and look like. 

More Americans have voted in the 2020 presidential election than voted in the 1956 presidential election. High turnout votes usually favor the Democrats and they almost always favor the candidate leading opinion polls. (The larger the vote total, the more representative the polls are.)

I. Three Ways Trump Can Win.

a. Another Systemic Polling Error.

Trump's victory caught most pollsters off guard last time because they didn't properly appreciate that the white electorate had fragmented into two halves-educated people that hated Trump and voters with less formal education, who found him appealing.  (For demographic purposes the dividing line seems to be a 4 year degree, so maybe in 2021 we should get together and form a United Caucasian College Fund. Pretty sure we could dupe a lot of Fox News Viewers into writing checks for that one.)

For Trump to win a second time, he might need another systemic polling error. Obviously, no one can predict what that would be. It is possible that turnout will be so high that it distorts the polling picture. Maybe Trump will over perform with Black voters or young voters. Maybe senior citizens will excuse his attacks against his apparent indifference to how many old people are dying from COVID. Maybe they will also excuse his repeated insinuations that Joe Biden has dementia or lacks the physical energy to run a vigorous campaign.

If this is the case, we'll probably know early. I think Ohio might be the place to watch. The vote swung from Obama by three in 2012 to Trump by eight in 2016. The polls this time suggest a dead heat. If he wins there early, it could be a sign that his coalition turned out in big numbers again. Biden doesn't need to win Ohio but he will want to hear the words "Too close to call" at some point after the polls close there next Tuesday.

b. Scraping Together 270.

Hillary Clinton won 232 electoral votes last time. Biden leads in all of her states, mostly by substantial margins. If the polls are accurate there, he will hold on to all of those states. He also looks very strong in Michigan and Wisconsin. If he wins those states, then Biden has 259 votes. 

Trump is the heavy or betting favorite in states worth 125 electoral votes. If the election is to be close, he will also win TX (38) and OH (18). Let's also give him IA (6) and Maine's 2nd District (1). 

That puts us at Biden 259, Trump 188. The remaining 91 electoral votes come from five states that Trump carried last time-FL (29), PA (20), GA (16), NC (15) and AZ (11) Biden just needs one of those states. Trump would have to sweep them.

I think that's a tall order. Pennsylvania and Arizona are likely to go for Biden. But a sweep is possible, and it's probably Trump's best chance of winning. 

c. Just One Upset.

As of tonight 538.com says that in 24% of its simulations, Trump wins at least one Clinton state. Some of those scenarios would reflect the kind of systemic polling error we already discussed. But in a really close race, one legitimate upset could put Trump over the top.

Let's back up to Biden being at 259. Instead of Trump sweeping the Big Five, he only wins four.

1. If Biden wins only AZ, Biden is at exactly 270. Trump just needs to win any Clinton state-NH, NV, MN or Maine.  Even Nebraska's 2nd district, where Biden currently polls quite well, would be enough to put Trump in the White House again.. 

2. If Biden wins NC, he is at 274 electoral votes. Trump would need to win one state, but if that state is NH, he would also need NE-2nd.

3. If Biden wins GA, he is at 275 EV. Trump needs NV or MN.

4. If Biden wins PA, he is at 279 EV.  Trump would need to win MN or NV plus NH.

5. If Biden wins FL, he is at 288 EV. Trump would need to sweep MN, NV and NH.

Each of these scenarios is unlikely and most of them can be mooted if Biden wins Iowa. Polls look good for Biden in Iowa this week but the demographics are tough for him. The state is VERY white.

II. Happier Thoughts.

The simple truth is that all of the above scenarios are unlikely. Biden's lead is stable and nothing the Trump team has trotted out to attack him has worked. Most of the states that we look at stand in just about the same place as last week, with on exception...

Florida. The polling in Florida continues to suggest a close race. Five Thirty Eight has Biden winning 66% of the time, by an average of two points. JHK has him winning 75% of the time, by an average of three and a half points. Biden leads the Real Clear Politics average by 1.8 points.

But this week, MASSIVE numbers of voters voted early. And all kinds of political prognisticators have been diving the meaning of the totals of ballots cast by registered Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. The mail voted favored the Democrats by wide margins. The in-person vote went the the Republicans by a more narrow margin. Polls suggest that the independents have been favoring Biden, but that might change on election day.

For what it's worth, the betting markets moved towards Trump as the week progressed. I still favor Biden, but it will be close.

Most of the other states have been stable this week. 

State	Elect Votes	2016 Margin	Predictit Price	538 Margin	538 %
New Hampshire	4	0.37%	77 (None)	10.2 (-0.1)	87 (None)
Nevada	6	2.42%	75 (None)	7.9 (+0.7)	91 (+3)
Minnesota	6	1.51%	76 (+1)	7.9 (-0.7)	92 (None)
Michigan	16	-0.22	69 (None)	8.4 (+0.4)	94 (+2)
Pennsylvania	20	-0.72%	62 (-6)	5.1 (-1.0)	84 (-3)
Wisconsin	10	-0.76%	66 (-2)	6.7 (None)	89 (+2)
Nebraska-2	1	-2.00%	N/a	4.7 (-0.5)	78 (-1)
Florida	29	-1.19%	46 (-6)	2.3 (-0.9)	66 (-5)
Arizona	11	-3.50%	58 (+1)	2.5 (-0.6)	66 (-3)
North Carolina	15	-3.66%	51 (None)	2.(-0.5)	65 (-3)
Georgia	16	-5.10%	42 (+1)	-0.4 (-0.3)	47 (-3)
Ohio	18	-8.07%	31 (-6)	-1 (-0.9)	42(-7)
Iowa	6	-9.41%	39 (+4)	-0.1 (-0.9)	49 (+6)
Maine-2	1	-10.29%	N/a	0.2 (-0.2)	52 (-1)
Texas	38	-8.98%	31 (+4)	-2.4 (+0.2)	33 (None)
Alaska	3	-14.73%	14 (-2)	-7.7 (-0.8)	18 (-4)
South Carolina	3	-14.27%	10 (-1)	-8.3 (-0.4)	9 (-2)
Montana	3	-20.23%	11 (+1)	-8.8 (+1.1)	12 (+1)

III. The Forecasts.

1. FiveThirtyEight. Biden is at 87 percent, down one from a week ago.

2. The Economist. Biden is at 95 percent, up from 92 percent a week ago. And their nerd is getting chesty on Twitter. He seems to think he beat Nate Silver to being aggressive here. He has Biden winning 355 Electoral Votes-that's a sweep of the Big Five, plus Georgia and Iowa.

3. Sabato Crystal Ball. Biden 290, Trump 163, Toss-up 85. Unchanged.

4. 270 to Win. Biden 290, Trump 163, Toss-up 85. Unchanged.

This is two weeks in a row that Sabato and 270 have it exactly the same.  Biden wins WI/MI/PA plus AZ. FL, GA, NC and IA are toss-ups. I'm beginning to think they may have it "right", if you think cautiously.

5. JHK Forecasts. Biden at 88.3%, Unchanged from last week. (I told you things were stable.)  They have Biden winning 352 votes. That's the Sabato 290+FL, NC and GA.  

6. Plural Vote. . Biden at 69.4%. That's down 3.7% from last week. By average outcome of each competition, their map is Biden 352, Trump 186. But their most common outcome is Biden 308, Trump 232. I think that's the Sabato 290 plus Ohio. 

That's quirky. I do not see Biden winning OH but losing both FL and NC.

7. Betting Markets. Predictit has Biden up 60%-40%. That's down 1.9 percent from last week. The international markets listed on Real Clear Politics favor Biden 64.5% to 35.5%.

8. Spider Stumbled.

No news is good news. Did I mention there was a debate last week? No one cared. But it did reduce the amount of polling for a couple days and some right-leaning pollsters like Trafalgar and Rasmussen might be crowding out the field slightly at the moment. But the people I trust mush (Harry Enten, Dave Wasserman, Nate Silver, Nate Cohn) all seem pretty confident that Biden's lead is solid. There are no warning signs in the district-level polls. 

Last week I moved Biden down from 91% to 89%.  Today I put him back at 91%. I think Biden's chances of winning are higher than ever. I think his chances of winning a blowout might be diminishing. Trump got good polls in Texas today and I think it's fair to conclude that Florida will likely be close.

I'm keeping my map unchanged from last week. Biden 351, Trump 187. As for the popular vote:

Candidate	Now	Change	10/19	10/12
Biden	52.44%	0.08	52.36	52.55
Trump	45.03%	0.01	45.02	45.19
Jorgensen	1.72%	-0.04	1.76	1.66
Hawkins	0.62%	-0.03	0.65	0.65
Other	0.19%	-0.01	-0.2	0.19

I'll be obsessively looking at the Florida data, because I can't help myself. But I like what I see, generally. And I want this to be over.

Biden will need to win one more Trump state to win office. He is currently favored in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida. 

There has been exc

4th General Election Forecast: Clinton 49.7, Trump 44.6, Johnson 4.1, McMullin 0.8, Stein 0.7 (Electoral College 322, Trump 216)

In about 48 hours, we will know the identity of the election winner. That winner will be Hillary Clinton. The margin will be similar to the election of 2012 but there are a handful of states that could go either way.  Trump would need to win every single one of them to get to 270 votes.  If you go to Predictit.com and buy shares in the states most likely to vote for Hillary, you can get 274 EV and the cheapest state would be Pennsylvania at 79 cents. Even if Trump pulls one truly significant upset in one of those states, Hillary could save the election by winning one of the other states where she is favored. Florida (69 cents) or North Carolina (61 cents) plus New Hampshire (76 cents).

But the elections could be close. If Nate Silver again correctly predicts every single contest this time, and his model does not change tomorrow, she will win 278 to 260. But consider that this includes Trump winning Nevada, because Nate's models, unlike betting markets, do not factor in the early vote. I think Hillary stands an excellent change of exceeding 300 Electoral Votes, but that's not guaranteed.

Trump's route to 270.

To build Trump's path to 270, one would expect to start him with the 206 Electoral Votes that Romney won in 2012. The day before the 2012 election I wrote a blog post called Romney has 5 Paths to 270 (and one to 269.)  This was based on my reading of the polls, the futures markets and the 2008 vote.  For each of those paths, I assumed that Romney would win flip North Carolina because it was his best chance of a pick up. He did flip NC back to red, but four years later it is the state most likely to flip back to blue.  So let's start Trump with 191 EV.  The only other Romney states he has a significant chance of losing are Arizona, Nebraska's 2nd congressional District and possibly Utah. But a close election would mean he turned out enough of his voters to hang on to the shaky red states. So he starts with 191. From that starting point he needs to add:

Three  Contests where he is favored:
1. Maine's 2nd congressional district, where he is currently the slight favorite. (192)
2. Iowa, where polls have shown him ahead for awhile. (198)
3. Ohio, where his anti-free trade positions and his support for the coal industry have resonated. (216)

These are the only contested states where he is the betting favorite.  I think he is likely to win all three of them, but I expect Ohio to be close.

Nothing Could Be More Floridian.
4. Not unlike Romney in the previous cycle, he almost certainly wins NC if he wins the presidency. But unlike last time, the polls and betting markets are against him, slightly. (231)
5. Florida, Florida, Florida.  I once thought FL would be an easier win for Trump than NC but today's early vote numbers looked great for Democrats. I really do favor Hillary here, but it's easy to go broke betting on the good sense of Floridians. (260)

The Last 10 Are the Hardest.
For weeks I assumed Donald's best path to 270 would involve Nevada and New Hampshire getting him to exactly 270. The NV numbers do not look good for Republicans and Hillary is also a heavy favorite in New Hampshire, which seems to be trending leftward as the Boston suburbs sprawl ever northward. This is still his best path, and you go to election night with the polls you have, not the polls you want. (270)

A Big 10 Upset.

If Trump fails to run the states listed above, he will need to pull a significant upset elsewhere. His best chances are in Big 10 Country:

A. If Trump wins Pennsylania (20 EV)  or Michigan (17 EV), he could win even if he lost North Carolina and New Hampshire. He also could win the election if he kept NC but lost both NV and NH.
Hillary's price on Predictit.com is 83 cents in PA and 79 in MI.

B.  If Trump wins either Wisconsin or Minnesota (each with 10 EV), he could afford to love NV and NH. Hillary's price on Predictit.com is 86 cents in WI and 88 in MN.

When the first Comey letter came out 10 days ago, Predictwise.com gave Hillary a 91% of winning. That got down to 82% before starting to rebound. She is nearly back to where she was, standing at 89%. Trump has a tough road to 270. With a good result in NC and FL, the election may come to a merciful end a couple hours sooner than expected.

Forecast	Popular	Electoral	Changes
First (July 10th)	Clinton 50, Trump 44, Johnson 4, Stein 2.	Clinton 348-190	(From 2012) Clinton wins NC and NE-2
Second (Sep 26th)	Clinton 49, Trump 45, Johnson 4, Stein 2	Clinton 340-198	Trump wins IA, NE-2 & ME-2
Third (October 16th)	Clinton 50, Trump 43, Johnson 4, Stein 2, McMullin 1	Clinton 359-179	Clinton wins IA, NE-2, ME-2 & Arizona
Fourth (November 7th)	Clinton 50, Trump 44, Johnson 4, Stein 1, McMullin 1	Clinton 322-216	Trump wins AZ, IA, OH, NE-2, ME-2

Sometimes the Smallest Crimes Are the Most Revealing

In the 1997 Neil Labute film "In the Company of Men" there is an early scene that takes place in a men's room.  The film's villian, Aaron Eckhart leans on a sink while his co-worker and best friend occupies a stall. When the friend lowers his pants, about a dozen coins fall out of his pockets and spread out over the floor.  Eckhart teases him for a moment, then tells him not to worry about the coins. He stoops down to the floor and begins to pick up the scattered change.  When he's done he looks at the accumulated coins and picks out three or four coins, worth no more than 45 cents.  He puts them in his pocket and leaves the rest in his hand, presumably to return to his friend.

It's a small gesture, but very revealing. He's the kind of man who would steal a couple of dimes from his best friend. Over the course of the film, Eckhart becomes the clear villian and turns the friend into an unwitting henchman in a series of depraved acts against an innocent hearing-impaired woman.  The theft of those coinss is easy to miss on first viewing but it establishes so much about where these characters are headed.

Eight days ago tape surfaced of the Republican nominee for president bragging about being able to get away with extremely lewd behavior towards women because he is a celebrity. Since then at least nine women have come forward to describe outrageous, lascivious agression by Mr. Trump.  As a result, the campaign has descended into an argument about the meaning and boundaries of sexual assault versus behavior that is merely crude and boorish.  I find some of these women very credible and I believe he has committed multiple sexual assaults.  The accounts are horrific but they can't be independently verified.

Trump has responded, predictably, by assailing the veracity of the women's accounts and questioned both their character and (God help us) their physical attractiveness.  Just two weeks ago we learned that Mr. Trump once claimed losses of nearly a billion dollars on one year's tax returns and less than a week since he admitted that he used those losses to not pay taxes for many years afterwards.  This behavior was apparently legal under the convuluted tax code provisions in place at the time. In an oridinary election season, this would have been the defining moment of the campaign. But we have sunk only lower since then and there's little hope of a rebound.

But I write today to discuss a much smaller transgression. It is not a crime as serious as sexual assault or financial chicanery on the scale of Mr. Trump's tax dodge.  You can't even buy a pizza for the amount of money involved.  I write about this not becase I think it will change anyone's vote on October 15th. If you still intend to vote for the Republican nominee, it will take something unfathomable to change your mind.  But petty crimes are sometimes the most revealing.

One of the few bright spots of the 2016 media coverage has been the yeoman work of David Fahrenthold. Writing for the Washington Post, he has doggedly tracked down every charitable contribution that Trump has claimed ot make and every single line item on the tax returns of the Trump Foundation.  This week Mr. Faharenthold found an entry from 1989 for a donation to the Boy Scouts of America.  The donation was in the amount of  seven dollars.  It was annotated with the word "Membership".  Fahrenthold Tweeted this out to his followers and they pointed out that this number could have been for the membership fee for Donald Trump Jr. The younger Mr. Trump was 11 years old at the time of the donation.  The Boy Scouts of America did indeed confirm that the annual membership for their organization was seven dollars in 1989.

That's who Donald Trump is.  Rather than write a seven dollar check for his son's Boy Scout troop he wrote the check from his charitable foundation.  This is a very minor violation of the tax code.  But think of the families who have to scrape together the funds for their children to participate in extra cirricular activities. It is so revelaing of his character. Mr. Trump is a nasty, petty individual who will cut every corner to gain an advantage, however small.

It is a common trait among unsavory types.  The boxing promoter Don King has been sued numerous times for having defrauded boxers out of various sums of money. Hector "Macho" Commacho was once called to testify at one of these trials and he testified to a variety of penny-ante ways that King swindled him out of money over a period of years.  Asked at one point why he thought Mr. King would behave that way, Commacho said "Because Don King would rather steal a nickel than earn a dollar."

That case was settled out of court and Don King kept untold millions, some earned, some stolen a nickel or two at time. Don King is a prominent supporter of Donald Trump's campaign for president. They have been friends for a long time, going back to various boxing events held at Donald Trump's casinos in Atlantic City. They did a lot of business together and somehow never ended up in court against one another.  I guess they got along in bussiness

In 1966 Don King was convicted of non-neligent homicde. He did nearly four years in prison.  His victim, Sam Garrett worked for King at an illegal gambling den.  King stomped him to death because he owed him $600.

What to Expect When You're Not Expecting Much: Preview of the Vice-Presidential Debate

The only conventional thing about the 2016 race is that both major party nominees picked safe, solid, dull running mates.  Trump chose Pence to shore up his bona fides with the Christian conservative base.  Hillary chose Kaine to put Virginia out of reach and to strengthen her ability to reach Spanish speakers.  By November 9th, Tim Kaine will know the name of every morning DJ on every Spanish language radio station in the country. That same day, Mike Pence can begin to daydream about being a top tier contender for the 2020 Republican nomination.  But first they have  a job to do tonight.

Pence's first job is to stop the bleeding.  At the start of the first presidential debate, Predictwise.com had the race at 68% Hillary, 32% Trump. Eight days later it's up to 81% Hillary, 19% Trump. Almost every poll since the debate has moved in a Democratic direction, and the news this week has been about Trump (probably) not paying income taxes for 18 years and his ill-considered comments implying that getting PTSD has something to do with a lack of strength.  (For the record I think that off-the -cuff comment was less egregious than some of his other gaffes this year, but it will hurt him with some demographics that he can't afford to lose.)

Pence has to convince people that voting for Trump is not insane.  He must be the voice and face of reason. I expect that he will use words like "conservative" and "responsible" a lot.  He will also hit the high notes when trying to scare people about refugees from Syria and the "dangers" of the world we live in. He can lean pretty far to the right, because that's where his credibility is deepest and even far-right is better than the unstable mess of a half-personality at the top of his ticket.

Kaine is playing with the lead and he's on his home turf of Virginia.  He's also a pretty cagey debater and I expect him to be very well prepared.   A couple days ago the Republican party released a video implying that Kaine was some how to blame for the crimes committed by his clients when he was a public defender.  I'm very curious to see if Pence brings that up because I remember watching one of the debates when Kaine ran for governor of Virginia.  His idiot opponent, George Allen, brought up this line of attack and walked right into a trap.  Tim Kaine's response was that anyone who loves to lecture people about the Constitution ought to know that it includes the right to counsel and that any lawyer given that role has a duty to zealously represent their client, no matter how serious the crimes they are charged with.  If this comes up tonight, I expect Kaine to throw the name John Adams back in Pence's face.

I hope that Kaine at least goes after Pence on two important points: one is the disastrous decision to defund Planned Parenthood in Indiana.  There were real consequences to that decision including a spike in HIV transmissions and (of course) unwanted pregnancies.  Kaine should also raise the issue of Climate Change to show that even a potty-trained Republican can't be trusted to tell the truth aobu the most important issue facing our long term future.


But I don't think either candidate will be especially aggressive. Pence knows that Kaine is loaded for bear on the issue of being a public defender. His target is Hillary.  The GOP web site prematurely updated to show that Pence won tonight's debate about 2 hours before it began.  Those talking points list that Pence won on the economy and by highlighting Hillary's scandals. So that's the game plan.  Trump was actually coherent on trade during the first 15 minutes of the presidential debate.  We'll probably get more of that, especially since Kaine was a TPP supporter up until being chosen by Hillary. So we'll get that and probably a lot about emails and at least one Benghazi for old time's sake. Kaine will defend her, and I expect he will leave a very good impression on the viewing public.

This won't matter much.  In 2016 all of the celebrity rests on the top half of each ticket. Tonight will be a fleeting glimpse of a world run by boring but generally competent people.  The insults will be few and the inspiration rarer still.  That probably means a small audience and almost no movement in the polls.  But fear not, we're just five days away from the 2nd Hillary-Trump debate.