By Andy
[Note from Steve: Andy sent this to me last night, but I had turned in early, have been away all day, and neglected to leave him the keys. Thus he is kind of annoyed at me for making him less timely than he was. Trust me, he was very, very timely. He's practically a Minuteman. Any tardiness is purely my fault.]
It’s been nearly two weeks since I last wrote, wherein I stated that the election (in my honest assessment) is over due to the large lead Obama had on 10/22 in Virginia and Iowa and the opinion that the media is just trying to milk the final weeks because they really don’t want you to believe the race is really over. A big thanks to Charles Harris who provided us with that great Howard Fineman quote from 2000 .
Since that time, I’ve had numerous fires to put out at my day job and then spent five days home sick with the worst cold I’ve had in over five years. This resulted in my first ever ear infection since 1982 and as a parent, I can tell you that your kid IS NOT overreacting when they’re screaming like a raving lunatic when they have one. Add in the resultant vertigo (long story) and the fact that I accidentally shaved off my beard (don’t ask) and it’s easy to see that my life has been quite a mess lately.
During my days home, I tried my best to write, and have outlined some stuff (completely non-political) that should be rolling out within a week. The big silver lining in being sick, however, was that I happened to be at home just when the stock market had it’s most recent (and by far) worst collapse wherein I dedicated hours pouring over old issues of Fortune Magazine, Business 2.0 (G-d, I miss that one), and checking out the free section of Motley Fool , trying my best to hunt for quick money makers and great long term values. Set forth below are the list of companies (by ticker) that I’ve taken a chance on. Some are solid picks and many I had never heard of until last week. I’ll write about my mostly unorthodox methodology in my next entry.
AIG – acquired at $2.00
C – acquired at $12.19
FMD – acquired at$1.76
GE – acquired at $17.81
ICO – acquired at $4.40
PRFT – acquired at $4.21
SLT – acquired at $5.90
SNDK – acquired at $8.14
SOV– acquired at $2.25
USU – acquired at $3.50
ZIXI – acquired at $1.80
For the remainder of this entry, I’d like to offer my prediction on the election results. There’s no surprises here and I wanted to personally send out condolences to Mr. Obama on the passing of his grandmother. I can’t say whether there will be any last minute groundswell of support for Obama because of her passing, but if there is, it would only serve to make his electoral count a genuine landslide as opposed to a decisive mandate.
My prediction is as follows:
Obama will win all of the John Kerry states from 2004 … comfortably and without problems.
EV Count: 252
Next up, Obama will pick up 39 more EV’s with wins in Virginia, New Mexico, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado. Note that CNN is presently predicting that Obama will win these states as well.
EV Count: 291
This leaves the battleground states of MT, ND, MO, IN, OH, NC, FL and AZ (if you ask the Obama folks). Just going by gut, I say that Obama wins Ohio, North Carolina and Florida and loses all others. This assumes no voter fraud like we had in 2004 and adds another 62 EV’s for a:
Final EV Count: 353.
… and that’s all I have to say about that.
If you’re reading this, take a moment and share your EV prediction. Even if you think McCain will win, go ahead and post away. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!!
–Andrew Baharlias
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