10 days- Strong McCain

With 50 days away from the election, McCain was winning Mississippi by 52.9% to 42.9%. Although the numbers have changed to McCain ahead by 50.3% to 40.8%, McCain still maintains his strong 10 point lead in the magnolia state. (For statistics click here)

In the two big senate races, only one can be considered a tight race. The first race between Cochran (R) and Fleming (D), can be called a landslide for Cochran who has increased his lead over Fleming by 58.5% to 33.5%. On the other hand, the race between Wicker (R) and Musgrove (D) is actually tightening with Wickers former 7 point lead closing to merley a 2 point lead. Wicker only leads Musgrove by 47.1% to 45.6%. This election will be an interesting one to watch, because if more democratics come out to vote for Musgrove, we could see a smaller gap between both Cochran and Fleming and McCain and Obama. Although this could be the case, the opposite is true also. Because of all the supporters for McCain and Cochran, Wicker may be able to ride on the coatails of these two races and pick up more votes to ensure a victory in the state. (For statistics click here)

50 days ago, the vice presidential candidates did not seem to matter as much as they do with 10 days left. Where as 64% of Mississippi voters have a favorable view of Palin, only 41% have a favorable view of Biden. Palin's favoribility rate is higher than Biden while her unfavorability rate is lower. Palin is unfavored by just 33% of the Mississippi voters, whereas Biden is unfavored by 52% of the voters. If this race depended on the VP pick, McCain would win by a landslide. (For statistics click here)

Because 83% of Mississippi voters think that the economy is getting worse, the economy remains the top issue for these voters, and contrary to the rest of the nation, they trust that McCain would handle it better by 54% to 43%. These voters believe it is more important to grow the economy than to close the gap between the rich and the poor, and it is because of this that McCain is viewed more favorably on the issue of economics than Obama. While 67% of voters believe that McCain shares the view that growing the economy should be a priority over closing the gap between the rich and the poor, only 25% of voters believe that this is Obamas top priority. (For statistics click here)

With these numbers, the history of the state that has been previously talked about, and McCains consistent lead in this state, it is only reasonable to assume that Mississppi is SOLID McCAIN!

Number of voters increase!

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20081020/NEWS01/810200302/1002

Mississippi beats Florida!

While Mississippians may have been excited to host the first presidential debate at Ole Miss, this excitement may have been outshadowed by the Ole Miss football team. Ole Miss pulled off a miracle and beat the no. 4 ranked Florida on Saturday, the day after the presidential election at Ole Miss. With the debate not having as much spirit and fire as hoped, and the football team having more spirit and fire than was hoped for, the victory for Ole Miss may have been in football rather than politics.

Who won the debate at the University of Mississippi?

After watching the first presidential debate, it is safe to say that each candidate has a solid foot in the door to becoming the next President of the United States. Depending on who you ask, both Obama and McCain gave impressive arguments for both the main topics of National Security and the Economy.
While the polls suggests that Obama actually won the first presidential debate, these polls do not neccisarily mean victory for the candidate who came out on top. In the first presidential debate in 2004, Kerry won by the same numbers that Obama did, but later his support dropped 5 points. While there has not been a drop in Obama's support, it is clear that neither polling or debates are solid predictors of who is going to win the election.
Obama did an exceptional job as always, getting his point across to the average American. He made his plans easy to understand, and by doing this he may have appealed to more independent voters than he had originally. On the same note though, John McCain did a remarkable job in getting his attack message across that Obama is inexpierenced, and the safety of this country should not be in the hands of a man who will be doing "on the job training."
This debate has shown the true colors of both the candidates, and they did a remarkable job of reiterating the same messages that they have been campaigning with the entire election. If the candidates continue debating in this manner the voters will have to decide whether they are going to vote with a man who can relate issues to voters, or with a man who says he has the expierence to lead a country.
Either way, this debate did nothing more than re-state everything the candidates have already been saying. In the next two debates, both candidates, McCain especially, need to find new strategies to speak about the issues at hand or else they are both going to come off sounding repetitious and eventually the voters will stop listening to what they have to say.

African Americans doubt in Obama

After reading this article, it may be safe to say that Obama is on the same level as McCain when it comes to the support of the black vote in Mississippi. Obama's campaign is focusing on getting out the black vote, so that he can tae victory in southern states like Mississippi, that have almost never been won by a Democratic Presidential candidate. While Obama may be right when he suggests that the support of the black vote may put him over the top in some states, Mississippi is not one of them. His efforts to many of the black voters in mississippi have proven to be the same as any other politician running for President, he is all talk and no action. Obama may have a hard time trying to convince the black mississippi voters that he is any different than the next politician, and with this obstacle, Obama's efforts to get out the black vote may proove to be a failire. If Obama does not do more to connect with the small town black voters in places such as Canton Mississippi, his over reliance on the black vote in Mississippi will lead him to a big dissapointment.

Presidential Debate in Mississippi- Ratings fall short

The much anticipated presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama which took place at the University of Mississippi, was about 10 million viewers short of the first presidential debate in 2004 between Bush and Kerry. With McCain not making his decision of whether he would attend the debate until the morning of due to the economic crisis on Wall Street, and with the debate being on a friday night (one of the lowest tv- viewing nights of the week), it is understandable that this debate was not as widely viewed as previous presidential debates (see this website).