From Mary Katherine Ham.

In order to turn Ohio blue, as Obama wishes to do, he would need to increase urban turn-out, which is probable, while retaining Kerry’s wins in a handful of southern and eastern counties. One of those counties is Belmont County, which went for Kerry 52-46 percent. Another is Athens, which went for Kerry 63-36 percent; Jefferson, 52-47 for Kerry; Mahonig, 62-36 for Kerry; Stark, 50-48 for Kerry. The raw number margins in those counties were not huge, with most of Kerry’s payload coming in Cuyahoga and surrounding counties, but it would seem Obama would need to retain most of those margins to flip the state.

Unfortunately for Obama, Belmont is the highest coal-producing county in the state. Athens, Jefferson, Mahonig and Stark are also home to some of Ohio’s 3,000 mining jobs and an estimated 11 coal industry spin-off jobs that each of the mining jobs represents. Now, wouldn’t voting for Obama be decidedly against these people’s interests?

Well said here by Roger Simon:

But bias, bad as it may be, is not the real problem. Everybody has a bias. We all know that. It’s when bias creates dishonesty that the dry rot sets in. The media has been essentially dishonest in its non-investigation of Obama for what now is several years. With all their vast resources, they have given us virtually no reportage on his years at Harvard and Columbia and he is about to become President of the United States.

And this dishonesty, clearly perceived by the public even as it will likely elect Obama, is what accounts for a great deal of the economic woes of the mainstream media today. That same public know the NYT, LAT and WaPo are no longer reliable sources. The Washinton Post’s — clearly the best of the three - earnings plummeting 86% in the third quarter of this year is no longer a surprise, nor is it entirely related to the overall economic meltdown.

It will be interesting to see if there is a shift in their coverage in the aftermath of the election. My guess is that it will take some time for that ship to right itself, if it ever does. The embarrassment factor would be too great - even if it would satisfy some of their shareholders.

The McCain-Palin campaign knows that both the polls and MSM have been part of the Obama-Dem propoganda to suppress GOP vote. Here is their warning about tomorrow:

As we have seen in previous election cycles, the exit poll results do leak early and that ends up influencing the coverage of the race before even the first state polls close at 6:00 PM Eastern.

However, we want to remind the campaign that the media’s own post-election study of the exit polls in 2004 showed that the exit polls overstate the Democratic candidate’s support. Therefore, we would discourage a rush to judgment based on the exit polls and wait until there has been a representative sampling of actual tabulated results from a variety of counties and precincts in a state.

Here are the key points to keep in mind when the exit poll data starts being leaked:

1. Historically, exit polls have tended to overstate the Democratic vote.

2. The exit polls are likely to overstate the Obama vote because Obama voters are more likely to participate in the exit poll.

3. The exit polls have tended to skew most Democratic in years where there is high turnout and high vote interest like in 1992 and 2004.

4. It is not just the national exit poll that skews Democratic, but each of the state exit polls also suffers from the same Democratic leanings.

5. The results of the exit polls are also influenced by the demographics of the voters who conduct the exit polls.

After the 2004 election, the National Election Pool completed a study investigating why the exit polls that year showed John Kerry over performing 5.5 net points better than the actual results showed him to have done. Their conclusion was that the primary reason the exit polls was that Kerry voters and Democrats were more likely to participate in the exit polls.

“Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average Within Precinct Error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters. There has been partisan overstatements in previous elections, more often overstating the Democrat, but occasionally overstating the Republican.

We believe that this will hold true this year. The recent Fox News survey showed that 46% of Obama voters said they were very likely to participate in the exit polls, while just 35% of McCain supporters are.

In fact, even the 2004 exit poll report noted that higher turnout nationally and higher levels of voter interest in both 1992 and 2004 correlated with greater Within Precinct Error.

The overstating of the Democratic vote did not only occur in the national exit polls, but also occurred in the state exit polls. The 2004 exit poll report cited that the Kerry vote was overstated by more than one standard error in 26 states, while the Bush vote was overstated in just four states. So we should also expect the individual state exit polls on Tuesday to be more Democratic as well.

So given that turnout is expected to be even higher than 2004 and that Democrats are more likely to participate in the exit polls, this means we should expect greater fluctuation and variation in the exit polls from the actual election results.

The 2004 exit poll report also showed that the greatest error in the exit poll came in precincts where the interviewer was younger. The completion rates were lower and the refusal rates and Within Precinct Error was higher when the interviewers were under the age of 35.[6] Complicating this is that nearly half the interviewers were under the age of 35, including 35% who were 18-24 and another 15% were 25-34.

Conclusions

Based on the previous exit poll results, we should expect once again that Tuesday’s exit poll data could overstate the Obama vote and under represent the McCain vote.

It is important that the campaign make sure the media realizes this, so that when the exit polls do leak, people do not overreact to the early exit poll data. Rather than looking at the exit polls, we should wait until we start seeing actual election results from key precincts and counties to gauge who won the election.

They almost got it done in 2000 when they announced over an hour before they closed polls in Florida. They will look to do the same tomorrow. Looks for them to exit poll heavily Dem districts, etc. Its an attempt to keep Central Time Zone voters at home in Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado.

Today in Missouri.

From the NY Post:

Barack Obama’s record is as devoid of substance today as it was when his campaign began. Behind his soaring eloquence lies a tissue-thin resume and some disturbing personal associations.

Moreover, he and his running-mate, Joe Biden, represent a Democratic Party overly obligated to special interests like trial lawyers and rapacious public-employee unions.

Even as the economy is being rocked, Obama advocates a fundamental rewriting of the tax code that - far from cutting taxes for “95 percent” of Americans, as he promises - would dramatically raise tax rates, coupled with $650 billion in tax-credit-driven hikes in entitlement and other spending.

And that is likely just the starting point - with the Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid Congress pushing hard to enhance the handouts while raising taxes further and slashing defense spending.

In the PA, OH and WVA coal mines. From Hot Air.

Perhaps it is here where the MSM is guiltiest of conspiracy. From the tireless Gateway Pundit:

Barack Obama is Still the Great Unknown

1. Occidental College records — Not released
2. Columbia College records — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — not available, locked down by faculty
4. Harvard College records — Not released, locked down by faculty
5. Selective Service Registration — Not released
6. Medical records — Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule — “not available”
8. Law practice client list — Not released
9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate - - Not released
10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth — Not
released
11. Harvard Law Review articles published — None
12. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
13. Record of baptism– Not released or “not available”
14. Illinois State Senate records–”not available”.
15. US Senate record — mediocre yet the most liberal.
Hat Tip Dan Freidman

One need only look to the actions of elected state democrat officials in Ohio who illegally used their positions to invade the privacy of Joe the Plumber.

So Stasi. So Gestapo.

Oh, lets channel Hogan’s Heroes for effect.

“Vee haf wayz uf getting zee infomashun vee need.”

I guess its not the same old song and dance afterall.

From Michelle Malkin.

From conservative David Frum. Its not been better stated.

10) No elected official in American life has contributed more to the security of the nation than John McCain. Latterly, McCain was the most senior and most forceful advocate of the strategy that has saved the day in Iraq. For that reason alone, he deserves your vote.

9) McCain has over 25 years defended the interests of the taxpayer, not only speaking for lower taxes (that’s easy) but fighting for the essential precondition of lower taxes, less government spending.

McCain’s healthcare plan is the first and essential step toward a market-based approach. If competition is to work, individuals must buy their own care. Barack Obama praises the employer-based system. But Obama knows full well that the employer-based system is dying – he’s just propping up its carcass until the time is ripe to insert full government control in its place.

7) As a man, McCain is more pragmatic and more open to compromise in substance (and not just in verbal formulas) than Barack Obama. It’s a bad reflection on the McCain campaign that it has allowed the less ideological candidate to be depicted as the hot-head – and the more ideological Obama to position himself as the moderate. But the failures of the campaign are reasons to punish the campaign managers, not the country.

6) The combination of a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and federal control of the nation’s financial system is dangerous to prosperity and freedom. Even if I weren’t a conservative, I’d believe that this government bailout makes balanced government indispensable.

5) To borrow an argument from Mona Charen: The best thing about a president with a military background is that he has learned not to show too much deference to generals. Let’s not forget: The brass hats were against the surge!

4) This country hungers for moderate answers on social questions form abortion to stem cells to same-sex marriage. McCain’s split-the-difference instincts offer the hope of social peace. Obama’s 100% down-the-line social liberalism will provoke reaction that will aggravate and sustain these social controveries, when we need to find compromises that can allay them.

3) McCain’s victory would be the most surprising come-from-behind victory in American political history. It would prove that money and endorsements are not everything. That is healthy for American democracy.

2) McCain has never compromised on free trade. Never. Not to win a primary, not to win a vote. Never.

1) John McCain is white, the son and grandson of admirals, married to a wealthy heiress – and yet he has experienced degrees of suffering, despair, and defeat that not one in a million of us can imagine. Barack Obama wears a black skin and carries an exotic name. In the United States, people of darker color have faced oppression and discrimination for centuries. But in Barack Obama’s own life, he has known nothing but an easy and welcoming path to success since he was 18 years old. Privileged John McCain has known more absolute degradation than any man ever to contest the presidency. Obama was born in adversity, but he has smoothly risen to a place where he is most comfortable with those for whom things are most easy.

Frum’s been an open critic of Sarah Palin. But of the Govenor, he says this:

One final comment. As readers of this space know, I have been very critical of the selection of Sarah Palin. Yet I do not regard her as a reason to cast aside the principles of my life on voting day. She may not bring much knowledge to this ticket. Yet she is obviously no fool. Indeed, using the favored metric of Joe Biden (”I think I have a higher IQ than you”), my guess is that she would probably outscore the Democratic vice presidential candidate on a standardized aptitude test. To his credit, Biden has conscientiously worked to familiarize himself with the great questions of national policy. To her discredit, Palin has not. But on Tuesday, I will trust that she can learn. She has governed a state - and she did risk her career by defying the corrupt leaders of the Alaska Republican party.