Coleman's motion seeking to resolve the duplicate ballot issue during the canvass was denied.  

The court upheld the state canvassing board's determination that the issue was better resolved in an election contest, because it involves messy evidentiary questions.

The court did not reach the merits.

Here's the link to the order.  Its the first document, the Order issued 12/24/2008.

Earlier in the day the court issued an order extending the time for the identification and counting of improperly rejected absentee ballots to January 4, 2009.  Assuming that the absentees break for Al, as expected, the Court's order on duplicate ballots substantially increases the likelihood that the Al will be certified as the winner, which carries a strong presumption of correctness.  This strengthens Al's standing in any contest proceeding.

Perhaps someone from the Franken campaign is reading and can explain this further, but if I am reading their blog post correctly, Al may be in much better shape than it may appear.

In their campaign blog post, they make the following statement

Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 4 votes. Many media outlets are calculating the margin by a different method, relying on raw data from the Secretary of State’s website to conclude that Coleman holds a lead of a few hundred votes. However, that calculation leaves out a Minneapolis precinct of 2,029 votes which is still being counted. It also assumes that every challenge will be upheld by the state canvassing board, whereas our calculation assumes that the original call by the impartial election judge will stand. So, if the judge calls it for Franken, we say it’s a Franken ballot. Likewise, if the judge calls it for Coleman, we treat it as a Coleman ballot - even if we have challenged it.

Ok, so I'm still in pollster.com withdrawal and have nothing else to obsess on, but this is still a fun and significant fact.

Barack's national popular vote total has exceeded 67 million.

His margin over Bush's 2004 popular vote total is now more than 5 million.

The national turnout is now at least 127.5 million, also exceeding the total turnout in 2004 by better than 5 million.

And for some reason, the kos map figures are not up to date.

Details below the fold.

David Broder gets a lot of grief around here, and for good reason.  His Kumbaya "can't we all get along" no matter the cost to liberal principles approach to bipartisanship drives me and most Kossacks crazy.

But at election times, he sometimes reminds me of why he was described over three decades ago in "Boys on the Bus" as "the mark" -- the reporter who gives the best sense of what is happening out there in the political process.  He does this by occasionally cranking out some of the best campaign field reporting in the business.

Today was such a day. Old Dave went out to Wayne County, Ohio, a county that went for Bush by 61%.  But starting in 2006, the red started to leak out of this  county, when Ted Strickland beat Ken Blackwell there > en route to a landslide and Sherrod Brown got 48% of the vote -- the latter a particularly astonishing number given Brown's stellar progressive pedigree.

Survey USA just released new numbers for Oregon

OR -- O 57 -- McC -- 40 (LV -- MoE 4.1%)

You may ask why I am calling attention to a poll that will not in the least surprise any followers of this site.  Stay with me for a bit, while I give you some other numbers.

OR Senate - Pollster trend estimate

Merkley 44.6
Smith   39.8

WA Governor -- Pollster trend estimate

Rossi - 48.5
Gregoire -- 47.6

This won't be long, but it will be important.

I'm planning on taking the week before the election off, and then Monday and election day to devote to victory in Virginia.  That's seven vacation days, plus four weekend days, a total of eleven days full time for Barack and Joe.  I will be working weekends between now and then canvassing, in addition to the other work I have already done.

How about you?  Have you checked your leave balance lately?  How many days can you spare? Every one will bring Barack and Joe closer to the White House.

I believe very strongly that Barack should do as many town halls with McCain as his schedule permits.  I think that Barack has more to gain from these fora and that McCain has more to lose.  To encourage the campaign to take advantage of this opportunity, I have created a group. on barackobama.com called Obama/McCain Town Halls -- Just Do It.

Here's the link

http://my.barackobama.com/...

I write this diary to encourage all to join my group.  My rationale is below the fold:

DENVER, CO -- Following up on his comment that  " we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace and it's got to be fixed,"
McCain expanded on his criticism of a program that has kept millions of seniors out of homeless shelters by calling for the repeal of the Fifth Commandment, which reads as follows:

(Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you")

"Here's some straight talk.  Why should God expect us to honor our parents?  It's rank socialism.  Throw e'm out in the street I say."  

McCain also noted that Medicare works the same way as Social Security, with the working children of senior citizens  forced to pay for their health care.  "It is an absolute disgrace that parents health is maintained at the expense of their children in their later years.  Think how much money our children could save if they didn't have to keep their parents alive.  Think how much we could reduce health care costs

Barack should be eager to do town halls with McSame for the following reasons

1.  527s  -- One of Barack's biggest challenges is that he is not well known to low information voters.  Those are the voters most vulnerable to being misled by vicious emails, You Tube cherry picking, and 527 ads.  The best way to counter whatever slime that creeps into people's minds from these sources is for those people to see Barack in action as much as possible.  The more they see him in unfiltered settings, the more they will see that he in no way resembles the twisted caricatures the RWNM will seek to draw.

2.  McSame Ovexposure -- I am convinced that McSame -- prickly, thin-skinned, petulant, angry, soul that he is -- will not wear well once the public gets to see him at length.  By putting his sour personality  on national television, it will force his slavish press corps to talk about it and also put it on display for the public - which will come to dislike him, if not as much as we do, enough to realize that he does NOT have the temperament to be President.

I joined the Carter Campaign in 1975 at the age of 19.  For one week, I shared an office with Hamilton at the Peachtree Street HQ in Atlanta at the Lipshutz law firm.  When I joined there were 35 people on the payroll.

Hamilton was a brilliant strategist, a man of great humanity, and a wicked and quick sense of humor.  He had a way of making everyone feel included, welcome, and valued.  He was also very loyal.  After the transition was over, I left Washington to finish college.  Two years later, in 1979, when I wanted to come back to DC and could get no action out of the White House Personnel Office, I wrote to Hamilton and then they found me a position.

Did you know? Barack has written off the state? At least according to Howard Wolfson on Faux News Sunday. But apparently the campaign has not gotten the news, so we have a lot of work to do and fast. After all, if Howard Wolfson said it -- it MUST be true.

So our twelve offices
in West Virginia must be closed immediately, and all staff put on leave.  Out-of-state volunteers -- get back on the bus.  There is nothing for you to do.

Everyone who has signed up for GOTV in West Virginia -- turn around and head for home - it isn't happening.

And what about the fifty events.  C'mon people -- get with the program.  Cancel them immediately.

      This is a follow up to my earlier post on canvassing in West Philly.  I and my friend arrived on Friday night.  We got to the office on Saturday to find about half a dozen people waiting to start canvassing.  They gave us a brief orientation, had our packets ready. complete with maps of the area we were to canvass, and in short order we were out in the field

      We split up and did opposite sides of the street (canvassing packets are set up in pairs, with one packet being the odd numbers and one packet the even). Logistically, this was easy canvassing -- very closely packed row houses and apartments. Our first day was a slightly more affluent neighborhood than our second.  Many of the houses were very well maintained, but some were pretty run down.  This is not a wealthy neighborhood by any stretch of the imagination

     We were very well received.  Many of the people were very enthusiastic and happy to see us.  About 80% of the people we talked to were for Obama, a few undecided and a few who did not want to talk to us.  We saw a few Obama signs in windows.  

Dave in DC

Up early, so I thought I'd post an update on Clinton's delusion that she has found a silver bullet with which to slay Obama and some reaction. From First Read, it appears that Clinton's "I'm Not Bitter" campaign is not exactly lighting any cigarettes on Tobacco Road

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/

In considering the strum and drang over Jeremiah Wright, two things came to mind

1.  Has anyone on any media outlet shown any evidence that Barack Obama has ever uttered or held any of the hateful thoughts that have received so much attention.

2.  Has any MSM outlet played so much as a phoneme from the sermon of Dr. Wright that actually DID influence Barack, namely "Audacity  to Hope"?  If they have, I certainly haven't heard it.  You should listen to it. It is beautiful and nothing like the "greatest hits" video now making the rounds:

I made calls this weekend for Barack in Wisconsin.  It was a nightmare.  If the calling I did is any indication, he is going to get absolutely slaughtered.  After talking to some of these people I can understand how Joe McCarthy could get elected from this state.  I even had one person who said he was considering Barack, but that he and his wife had agreed that whichever campaign called them would NOT get their vote.  Hostile people who expect you to know every nuance of the candidate's position on the issues, but whose votes you wouldn't get in a million years even if you did know it.

One or two supporters, lots of hangups and Republicans.  

Please treat this as an open thread to share your phone banking experiences.  

Dave in DC

Well, I've been waiting for the right moment to introduce this, and I guess now that Barack has caught Hillary in both the Gallup (46-45) and Rasmussen (49-37) tracking polls, and has an eight state/territory winning streak going, this is as good a time as any.

I've been thinking that Hillary needs a new campaign song.  Bill, of course, rocked out to "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" by Fleetwood Mac.  But, at the moment, Hillary's best days don't seem to be in the future.  They seem to be in the past.  So, without further adieu, I present my humble proposal for a new song that pretty well must sum up how the Clinton camp feels about now  (with apologies to Paul and John).

Yesterday
His poll numbers were so far away
Now it looks as though they're up to stay
Oh how I long
For Yesterday
(more below)

With my usual luck, someone will have posted something on this before I finish composing, but I'll take a shot anyway.

This was a surprise to me, given that Pelosi is in the tank for Wynn, and Hiatt's generally pro establishment lean, but the Post endorsed Edwards today.  Some excerpts

". . . She is a bright, tough-minded and well-funded candidate whose criticisms of the incumbent are mostly on target."

The article disses both Edwards and Wynn on the war stating they both "want to withdraw U.S. troops according to an irresponsibly quick and rigid timetable."

But it goes on to call Donna an "effective and energetic advocate for a range of liberal causes -- the environment, higher minimum wages, stemming domestic violence, campaign finance reform. "
More below the fold

http://rasmussenreports.com/...

Just saw this poll and no one had posted it when I started writing, so thought I'd put it up.  MoE 3%.  

Also, I wanted to put out some thoughts about the advantages of running against McCain in the fall. More below the fold.