The Inquisitr » election

Exit polls show economy number one election issue (update: Obama up)

Duncan Riley — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:55:40 +0000

The media has behaved itself this election with a self imposed 5pm embargo on exit polls. Those results are now slowly coming out (well update the post if we get more data).

According to AP, the polls found six in 10 voters name the economy as the top issue, and none of the other issues – energy, Iraq, terrorism or health care – was picked by more than one in 10. Half of voters said the economy was poor and nearly all the rest said it was not good. Half of voters are very worried the economic crisis will harm their family’s finances and a third were somewhat worried. More than half oppose the $700 billion government bail-out plan. Two-thirds of voters were worried about being able to afford health care.

CBS notes that “President Bush may have been an albatross Senator McCain couldn’t overcome. Over 70 percent of voters said they disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. But voters are even more disillusioned with Congress. The disapproval rating for Congress stood at 73 percent.”

Click here for Live Election results.

UPDATE: more data released, according to the polls, Obama is up in Pennsylvania, Virgina, Ohio and Florida, but behind in North Carolina.

UPDATE 2: Full numbers via Huffpost

The states looking good for Obama:

Florida: 52 percent to 44 percent
Iowa: 52 percent to 48 percent
Missouri: 52 percent to 48 percent
North Carolina: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Hampshire: 57 percent to 43 percent
Nevada: 55 percent to 45 percent
Pennsylvania: 57 percent to 42 percent
Ohio: 54 percent to 45 percent
Wisconsin: 58 percent to 42 percent
Indiana: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Mexico: 56 percent to 43 percent
Minnesota: 60 percent to 39 percent
Michigan: 60 percent to 39 percent

The states where McCain is leading in exit polls:

Georgia: 51 percent to 47 percent
West Virginia: 45 percent to 55 percent

Track the election results live online

Duncan Riley — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:20:25 +0000

As polls start to close, America turns online for live election results. The first polls close at 6pm EST (3pm PST, 10am AEST) with results available shortly there after. The next President should be known by 9pm EST at the earliest, but much later if the race is tighter than what the polls are suggesting.

Here’s a choice mix where you can get the latest election updates and election results.

Vote total and results by state
(swapped to MSNBC. Hit the refresh button for the latest results)

Live election results coverage

MSNBC

John McCain live channel

Barack Obama Live channel

Mercenary firm offers to watch you while you vote

Steven Hodson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:47:04 +0000

While Blackwater maybe the most recognized name when it comes to mercenary security contracting firms but they definitely aren’t alone and it looks like one; Evergreen, is looking for new business this voting season. According to Oregon’s News Register Evergreen president Tom Wiggins believes there could be potential conflict that could occur on November 4th. Citing that there has never been a more heated battle in the race for president he sent an e-mail to local election supervisors in Oregon with a sale’s pitch

The company, he said, ‘proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.’

So, a company with strong ties to the American military and with experience in the Middle East and the jungles of South America now wants to help a local government stand guard against rabble rousers at the local polling station. The interesting thing is that Oregon is a vote by mail state where residents only have to return their ballots to the polling stations by 8PM on November 4th. It is kind of hard to see how that could turn into such a rowdy mess that your would need mercenary hired security firms to keep any kind of peace.

Thank goodnes that someone over there in that dangerous state full of rabble rowsers told Evergreen what they could do with the offer.

Meebo Gets Set For Comedy Central Integration

JR — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:23:52 +0000

Web-based messaging platform Meebo has scored a big deal for election night. The company has signed on with Comedy Central to provide embedded chat rooms on its indecision2008.com site for use by the network next Tuesday.

The rooms will host “live user commentary” during the election and the days that follow. Comedy Central will then utilize some of those comments within its on-air coverage. On-air promotion is expected to begin on November 4.

Comedy Central sees Election Day as no laughing matter The cable network already has bloggers on tap to discuss all the day’s news, including comedian Patton Oswalt, who’ll live blog starting at 7:30 p.m.

Meebo isn’t getting paid for the service, CNET reports — at least, not directly. Its advertising-based model will no doubt see a serious jump in impressions for the night. Certainly the company is also hoping some users will impressed enough with the chat rooms to find future external uses for the service.

It’s not the first time Meebo has turned to partner power to build its business, either. Just a couple of weeks ago, Meebo announced deals to use its messaging service on a host of third-party sites, such as Flixster, Bleacher Report, and Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids.

Meebo claims 40 million customers and 5 billion messages a month over its messaging platform. The company is based in Silicon Valley and has been around since 2005.

Meebo

Election 2008: Who’s Winning The Great Spam Race?

JR — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:37:21 +0000

Some new numbers are in about the Obama-McCain matchup — and we’re not talking last night’s debate.

Research from Secure Computing shows spammers are using Barack Obama’s name seven times more than John McCain’s in the subject lines of their junk mail. The data analyzed spam sent during the month of September. It found a spike in McCain mail around the time of the Republican convention — which balanced the race out a bit — but Obama has maintained his spam lead, the firm says.

Our favorite quoted spam subject lines from the study:

Jesus Endorses Obama; Four Horsemen Opt for McCain
Obama Ahead Amongst Voters With Similarly Weird Names

When it comes to the VP candidates, not surprisingly, Sarah Palin trumps Joe Biden in the spam-off — but not by as large of a margin as you might think. The ratio falls out to five Palin e-mails for every four Biden. In an interesting contrast, during that month, the ratio of news stories about Palin to Biden came out to 7:1. Spammers, seemingly, were not swayed.

Google In Quotes and Our Million Dollar Idea

JR — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:29:07 +0000

Google’s come up with a handy new tool to help you weigh various political figures’ stances (or at least what they’ve said in the media) on a variety of hot button topics. Google In Quotes pulls the latest direct quotes from news publications on any topic you want, for most any candidate you want. We’ve come up with our own million dollar idea for the technology — but first, a little about Google’s offering.

The default In Quotes choices, not surprisingly, are John McCain and Barack Obama. You can switch out with anyone from George Bush to Bill or Hillary Clinton, even Condoleeza Rice and Nancy Pelosi. And it’s not just limited to the U.S., either — a top-of-screen option lets you toggle over to an edition featuring British, Canadian, or Indian leaders.

In Quotes has a handful of obvious issues that you can click on — abortion, economy, health care — but it also lets you specify your own terms. You can then scroll through the list of quotes or hit the “spin” button to get a random one selected.

The site is a fun way to sift through political coverage specific to topics and candidates of your choosing. It doesn’t, of course, provide you a full spectrum of any person’s views, since you’re seeing only selected snippets from individual stories. A service such as The Boston Channel’s candidate comparison tool does a more all-encompassing job of laying out the candidates’ overall stances issue-by-issue (at least for the U.S. presidential campaign). As long as you use In Quotes with the understanding of what it can and cannot do, though, it’s an interesting tool that adds another layer to the political news experience.

Now, for our idea. The foundation is there. Next, we’d like to see the In Quotes Blogger Edition. Take the same concept, but switch out the players and the topics.

Just imagine the fun side-by-side comparisons could you drum up:

Here’s hoping Google decides to open source the code.

GOP Vetting Emporium

Duncan Riley — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:47:47 +0000

GOP Vetting Emporium | Funny Jokes at JibJab

From the guys at JibJab comes the Vetting commercial that was meant to be. Apologies for the dip into politics, but we think this is funny.

No related posts.

Perspctv Tries To Level The Election Playing Field

JR — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:14:03 +0000

A new Web startup is attempting to offer a balanced approach to election-based news.

Perspctv compiles mainstream media coverage along with blog reports and even Twitter mentions of John McCain and Barack Obama, letting you get more than just the typical voices. The front page of the site offers a quick glimpse at how often each candidate is currently mentioned in all the different media forms. Below, you can view the latest tweets, blogs posts, and news articles about either side.

The service has some other interesting features, such as a graphed timeline of candidates’ mentions in each medium over the months. Its creator says the aggregation is automatically updated continuously — thereby, in theory, avoiding any human-based bias in content selection. True to the claim, the site had tweets within the past minutes when we checked it out, as well as blogs and news articles within the past hour.

What it lacks in vowels, Perspctv makes up for in innovation. This could be an interesting tool for the Web-savvy crowd this election year — if, that is, people can remember how to spell its name.