Now that we have official election results from nearly every state, we wanted to offer some closing thoughts on election 2012. So here are 10 bite-sized nuggets, an appetizer for your holiday feasts. As a programming note, we’re taking the next two weeks off to recharge for the next cycle....
Category: 2012 Senate
Post-election book will break down 2012
The University of Virginia Center for Politics is pleased to announce that its latest post-election book, Barack Obama and the New America: The 2012 Election and the Changing Face of Politics, is in final production, with a targeted release date of mid-January 2013. Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato...
12 FROM ’12: SOME TAKEAWAYS FROM A WILD ELECTION
Programming note: The Crystal Ball is taking the week off for Thanksgiving next week, but we’ll be back with another edition on Thursday, Nov. 29. So what can we glean from last week’s election? Plenty. Here are 12 takeaways from the 2012 election, presented in bite-sized pieces. One note: all...
PROJECTION: OBAMA WILL LIKELY WIN SECOND TERM
With a slight, unexpected lift provided by Hurricane Sandy, Mother Nature’s October surprise, President Barack Obama appears poised to win his second term tomorrow. Our final Electoral College projection has the president winning the key swing states of Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin and topping Mitt Romney,...
PRESIDENT TOO CLOSE TO CALL; DEMOCRATS HOLD SENATE EDGE PRIOR TO FINAL WEEKEND
Final predictions in Electoral College, other races, coming Monday
Remarkably, after a year of intense campaigning, this election is not in the bag for either major-party candidate. It remains on the edge of the butter knife; the state polling averages tilt the Electoral College slightly to President Obama, and the RealClearPolitics national polling average moved into an exact tie...
THREE’S A CROWD: WHERE THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATES MIGHT HAVE AN IMPACT
American electoral history is mainly a story of two parties. But every now and then, a third party or independent candidate makes a significant imprint on an election. In recent years, the main impact of third-party candidacies has been to play the role of spoiler, hurting one major-party candidate more...
President and Senate: Where we stand now
There are a lot of fishy things going on in the presidential race. An incumbent president’s approval rating is historically a good indicator of how he will do on Election Day. By this measurement, President Obama should be in decent shape: according to the RealClearPolitics average from mid-day Wednesday, Obama’s...
The presidential race: Where does it go from here?
If the presidential race seems like it’s hard to get a grip on, that’s because it is -- the contest has gone through at least three distinct phases at this point, and where it might go over the final three weeks seems to be anyone’s guess. In the lead-up to...
RATINGS CHANGES: OBAMA’S DEBATE DISASTER MOVES THE NEEDLE
Two months ago, we said that “barring a major blunder by either candidate,” the presidential debates were unlikely to be all that decisive. After one debate, it’s fair to say that while President Obama didn’t make an obvious verbal gaffe during his first debate with Mitt Romney, Obama’s entire, listless...
Election Tilts toward Obama, Senate Democrats
Three weeks after the Democratic National Convention, we see little indication that the lead President Barack Obama took after it has faded. Obama is leading Mitt Romney by about four percentage points nationally, according to an average of national horserace surveys, and his edge has trickled down to the swing...
Notes on the State of Politics
The Little Things Matter Many politicians may not want to admit it, but much of political success is built on timing and luck. In what is probably going to be a close election on Nov. 6, every small turn of fortune for each candidate could serve as the little push...
WHAT WILL BE THE NEXT SENATE SHOCKER?
In nearly every Senate election going back 40 years, there’s been at least one jaw-dropping outcome on Election Day -- the election of a candidate few saw winning until the closing days of the campaign, if even then. So the question in this year’s Senate races may not be if...
Rating changes: Two new toss-ups
Wisconsin now a presidential toss-up Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan hasn’t appeared to have had much of a polling impact nationally -- at least not yet -- but it has seemed to move the needle in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin. Four Wisconsin polls have come out since the...
THOMPSON WIN BOOSTS SENATE REPUBLICANS
For the second straight week, the Crystal Ball is moving a toss-up Senate race to the Republican column. Now that ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson has captured the Republican nomination in Wisconsin -- winning with 34% of the vote in a crowded, four-way field -- we are installing him as a slight...
AKIN FAVORED IN MISSOURI
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) got the opponent she wanted. But she still enters the general election season as an underdog. Now that the Missouri Senate primary is complete, we are downgrading the incumbent Democrat’s chances from toss-up to leans Republican. Tuesday night’s surprise Republican primary winner, Rep. Todd Akin, has...