With only three days to the big unveiling, the candidates are essentially tied for the Presidential election. The Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll [4] released this morning has (of likely voters) 47% backing Obama and 46% backing Romney. The two statistics fall within the realm of statistical noise implying there is no difference and that is why so much time is now being spent in the battleground states; especially since the same poll has Obama leading on electoral college votes and such a huge swathe of 'undecideds' who remain very balanced. The closeness of the race does raise the concern about Bush-Gore-like hanging-chad discord and as we have discussed in the past (the 70-percent [5], the 3.5 class society [6], and the Political Black Swan [7]). The chances of social unrest at a close decision are non-negligible in the current environment and should not be dismissed; though we are not sure that Bill Maher's 'comedic' sentiment is really helping: "If you're thinking about voting for Mitt Romney, I would like to make this one plea: black people know who you are and they will come after you."
The Reuters/Ipsos Electoral Map - too close to call...
[8]
and Bill Maher's take on things...
How does that old saying go? "it's funny, 'coz it's false?"