Even more bad news for John McCain: RealClearPolitics now projects a total of 313 electoral votes “solid” or “leaning” Barack Obama, with only 270 needed to win. Florida and Colorado have now moved from “toss-up” to “leaning Obama.” The victory parties may begin early in the evening November 4 if Florida really does break decisively toward Obama – without it, John McCain is completely out of options. To add insult to injury, FiveThirtyEight.com’s statistical analysis now gives Obama a 94.9% probability of winning the election, and a 53.67% chance of an Obama landslide (375 electoral votes or more).
Just did a little web searching… I knew it had to be out there, and sure enough I was right. Someone created a T-shirt with Che Guevara’s hair, beard, and beret Photoshopped onto Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s head. You can see it here. In case you don’t get the humor behind this, Bush and Paulson announced that the government was buying shares of 9 of the nation’s largest banks. $250 billion worth. Che was president of Cuba’s nationalized bank system in the early 1960s.
Happy birthday to regular blog reader Tom, who is having fun celebrating his birthday by painting a house today.
Mpact Memphis’ Mpact Maker Awards will be handed out this Thursday night, October 16, at Jack Robinson Gallery (44 Huling) from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. These awards recognize young leaders in the community. The event will be emceed by Maney from Q107.5’s morning show. Free food and drinks. Free for Mpact members, $15 non-members.
Thanks to all who have given me ideas for categories for my new Saving Consumers Time review site. A few notes: First of all, I tried to come up with a decent list of digital-to-analog converters for old “rabbit ears” TVs that otherwise won’t work after February 17, 2009. I really couldn’t come up with a decent list from online sources. The ones that were highly rated were just too expensive. Those that were in the right price range (no more than $60) were pretty bad – only one had a 4-star rating on Amazon (out of 5), and then the list quickly went down into the dumps. There’s no way I could make a decent review page out of that sorry bunch of converters. My advice would be to go to Best Buy, and do not pay more than $60 before tax.
One other note: I can’t review services on the site. One reader asked which is best, Comcast cable or BellSouth DSL for Internet access. Here’s the thing: A product is the same product whether you live in Memphis or Maine. Services, on the other hand, can vary. When Time-Warner provided cable Internet in Memphis, I never had a problem at any place I lived Downtown or Midtown. On the other hand, friends in East Memphis had all kinds of problems and eventually had to get rid of it. I just can’t give consistent recommendations for high-speed Internet service, or any other service, such as cell phone carriers, for example.
It looks like my next review will be single-serve coffee makers, for people who are tired of driving through Starbucks every morning and want to save some money while still enjoying their cup of coffee (rather than sharing a pot of bland coffee with the rest of an office). I’m busy this week, but it should be up within 3-4 days.
See you at the SMA meeting at Safari tonight at 6, and trivia at the Saucer after that.