NEWS: Arlen Specter (R-PA) Switches To Democrats

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter has announced that he will be switching parties from Republican to Democrat, giving the party 60 votes (when Al Franken) of Minnesota is seated in June.

Specter had faced a difficult Republican primary election in 2010 as he seeks a record 6th United States Senate term, this time as a Democrat! He has had higher approval ratings among Democrats than Republicans for quite awhile, and this confirms it.

Obama Leads In Most Polls of 3 Largest Battleground States

TPM Election Central has an update highlighting the latest polls in the largest states (with the most electoral votes) still at play in the presidential election with 6 days left: Florida (27 votes), Pennsylvania (21) and Ohio (20).

Florida

Oct 29 Quinnipiac: Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 45%

Oct 28 LAT/Bloomberg: Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 43%

Oct 27 Datamar: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 44%

Oct 27 Rasmussen: Obama (D) 51%, McCain (R) 47%

Oct 27 Suffolk: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 44%

Oct 27 Zogby: Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 47%

Oct 24 Str. Vision (R): McCain (R) 48%, Obama (D) 46%


Ohio

Oct 29 Quinnipiac: Obama (D) 51%, McCain (R) 42%

Oct 28 LAT/Bloomberg: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 40%

Oct 28 SurveyUSA: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 45%

Oct 27 Rasmussen: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 45%

Oct 27 Zogby: Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 45%

Oct 26 Univ. of Akron: Obama (D) 45%, McCain (R) 41%

Oct 25 Univ. of Cincinnati: Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 46%

Oct 24 PPP (D): Obama (D) 51%, McCain (R) 44%

Oct 24 Str. Vision (R): McCain (R) 48%, Obama (D) 45%


Pennsylvania

Oct 29 Quinnipiac: Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 41%

Oct 28 Rasmussen: Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 46%

Oct 28 Muhlenberg Tracker: Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 41%

Oct 27 Temple Univ.: Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 41%

Oct 27 Muhlenberg Tracker: Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 40%

Oct 26 Muhlenberg Tracker: Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 40%

Oct 25 Muhlenberg Tracker: Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 41%

Oct 24 Muhlenberg Tracker: Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 40%

Oct 24 Str. Vision (R): Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 43%

It should be noted that four years ago John Kerry was blown out in Florida (by nearly 400,000 votes out of 8 million), won Pennsylvania (by 145,000 votes out of nearly 6 million) and barely lost Ohio (by 120,000 votes out of 5.5 million).

Obama only needs to win every state John Kerry won plus 18 more electoral votes in order to win the Presidential election. This could happen by winning either OH or FL or any combination of Iowa (7), New Mexico (5), Virginia (13), North Carolina (15), Colorado (9) in which he currently leads.

This Is Why I Am Confident Obama Will Win

This great graphic from DailyKos highlights the change in polling in favor of Barack Obama from September 19th through October 23rd in the eight Big Ten battleground states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota. Obama is now leading stronly (over 50%) in every single one of the battleground states, and several of them have early voting! By election day, an estimated one-third of all Americans will have voted already.

Do you really think McCain can make up the difference in all of these states in a dozen days? I don't.

POLL: Obama Leads in FL, OH, PA

TPM Elelection Central has this report on a Quiinnipiac poll which shows that Barack Obama is leading John McCain in three "swing states" of Florida (27 electoral votes), Pennsylvania (21 electoral votes) and Ohio (20 electoral votes). In 2004, if John Kerry had won Ohio he would have been elected president.

Florida
Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 43%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Ohio
Obama (D) 48%, McCain (R) 42%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Pennsylvania
Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 40%
Margin of error: ±2.5%

This is the first poll to show Obama leading in Florida. If the election were held today, Barack Obama would be elected President. Unfortunately, exactly four years ago, John Kerry was also polling ahead of George W. Bush (and we all know what happened in November 2004!)

Barack's New Ad in Pennsylvania