the 941

There’s a lot of hype surrounding McCain’s recent bounce in the national polls. A quick reminder: the popular vote means absolutely nothing. George W. Bush eked out a 271-266 victory in the electoral college while losing the popular vote to Al Gore by about 540,000 votes. We all know this election, like the last few, is going to come down to a small number of swing states.

So how is the electoral map shaping up?

FiveThirtyEight.com, the most sophisticated polling analysis website out there, broke down the numbers and found the election is essentially a dead heat. They suggest McCain will win 274-264, but practically any shift in the map towards Obama would put him over the top.

And new polls have Obama looking good in Virginia, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina; McCain appears to be gaining ground in Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey. Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada have been polling all over the place and are complete toss-ups. In other words, this is anyone’s game.

Personally, my money is still on Obama. I reckon polls are underestimating his ability to get the vote out, and an ailing economy will hurt McCain. Both candidates will be playing hardball in the upcoming debates, and my guess is Obama will look and sound better to undecided voters.

Any takers?

edit: I spoke too soon - Obama’s already back on top in the polls.

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I like to check in with my friend Michael Ruhlman every week or so. And by friend, I mean a guy who writes books I read and admire. And by check in, I mean read his blog. It’s always full of great food info, but this past week he’s been breaking some great news, as well. Here’s the Ruhlman Rundown:

• Tony Bourdain’s yearbook photos (I can call him Tony because I am his friend, too).
• Alinea, The Cookbook — one of the most important and innovative chefs in the country (Chicago’s Grant Achatz) worked with his friends and partners to write, photograph, design and self-print a massive, obscenely beautiful cookbook. And it only costs $50. Take that, Ferran Adria.

In other news:

• Swedish typo poisons stupid home cooks
• National Geographic gets into food with a beautiful new interactive site full of maps, photos and cheese-o’-the-month clubs.
• French scientists use particle accelerators to authenticate vintage wines. I’ll take my 1914 Petrus with a side of mini-black hole, thanks.
• Fish to eat. Fish not to eat. Grouper is a no-no.
• The US government can — and does! — forbid producers from testing for Mad Cow.
• Forget about innovative and exciting food, why can’t Bay area restaurants have bathrooms like this?
• Ikea good for more than just cheap wood crap.
• Still want your food news and info from a newspaper? Too bad.

Thanks to Grub Street, SeriousEats, Grinder.

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About 1,700 Sarasotans filled Booker High School’s auditorium yesterday to hear Senator Joe Biden speak. The Democratic vice presidential nominee demonstrated that the campaign will be harshening their criticisms of John McCain and Sarah Palin for the final two months leading up to the election as he cited McCain’s campaign manager’s recent comment that this election is “not about the issues.” Keeping with Barack Obama’s pledge at the Democratic National Convention to not suggest John McCain takes his positions for political purposes, Biden said it’s not that McCain’s campaign doesn’t care, but that they “just don’t get it.”

Portraying McCain as out of touch with everyday Americans’ lives has recently become a central theme of the Obama campaign. In contrast, Biden spoke at length about his and Obama’s families, morals and working-class roots in an effort to challenge depictions of Obama as a arugula-eating, Harvard-attending elitist.

Asked by an audience member how the campaign will debate Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s aptness to be president amidst cries of sexism from the McCain campaign, Biden said, “The answer is one word: with respect. She is the governor of a state. I’m assuming as a governor of a state she is qualified. Our disagreements will be based on her views. We’ll make our differences known and that’s what we’ll debate.”

Other key themes of the night were women’s issues, health care, jobs and education.

Bradenton.com has 27 minutes of Q&A.

And a new poll has Obama up by one in Florida.

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Obama’s recent pick made a town hall-style appearance at the school last night. Pictures courtesy of CL intern Kerem Ozkan. Look out for his commentary in an upcoming post.

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It’s always important to do what you think is right. Unless you can predict that doing what you think is wrong will bring about an event that is more right than your initial wrong was wrong. And, uh, consult a psychologist beforehand. A team of psychologists, and a panel of ethical philosophers.

Let me start over.

I cringe whenever someone’s personal life is brought into the political arena. I don’t think Obama’s pastor, Clinton’s blow job, or George Bush’s history with alcoholism/cocaine should have anything to do with their electability. My feelings on the subject are expressed nicely by Noam Chomsky:

 ”If we had a free market of the kind economists discuss, in which informed consumers make rational choices, General Motors would post on television the characteristics of the cars they’re selling. They don’t do that. What they do is try to create illusions, using complicated graphics, a famous actress driving up to heaven, or something like that. The point is to delude and marginalize the public, so that uninformed consumers will make irrational choices. When you market candidates, it’s the same thing - keep away from the issues, that’s too dangerous because the public doesn’t agree with you on the issues. So what you have is character, trivialities, personal issues - somebody’s pastor says something, Clinton made a mistake when she talked about Bosnia.”

So part of me wants to spraypaint “Who cares?” over every headline about Bristol Palin’s extramarital pregnancy. That’s what I think is right. Sure, it exposes some hypocrisy when it comes to ultra-conservative issues, but we should hope Sarah Palin doesn’t have absolute control over her daughter. Besides, we’re not electing kings or gods, idols of perfection who will bring us into the next decade like Jason leading the Argonauts. We’re hiring people to do the things we asked of them on election day — servants, basically. If I run an Apple store and I hire someone to sell Apple computers, I don’t care if she uses a PC at home as long as she knows her stuff.

So I don’t think the pregnancy should matter. But, I do want McCain to lose, and I know that the (specious and irrelevant) appearance of hypocrisy could alienate conservative voters. So when I see those headlines, I feel that they’re wrong but I still want them to succeed in their missions. It’s like hiring brutal mercenaries to help you overthrow a brutal tyrant. Or stealing from the rich to help the poor. Or pulling out a terrorist’s fingernails. No wait, I’m actually against that. Goddamn, ethics are hard.

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