Upset For McCain?

As the media begins to fantasize about an Obama victory next Tuesday night, here are a couple of things you should be reading right now:

From Commentary Magazine comes ten reasons why McCain might win. You should read them all, but #9 is the one I would like to highlight for a moment.

9) The fire lit under Obama’s young supporters in the winter was largely due to Iraq and his opposition to the war. The stunning decline in violence and the departure of Iraq from the front page has put out the fire, to the extent that, like the young woman who made a sexy video calling herself Obama Girl and then didn’t vote in the New York primary because she went to get a manicure, they might not want to stand on line on Tuesday.

It articulates well with this story.

U.S. deaths in Iraq fell in October to their lowest monthly level of the war, matching the record low of 13 fatalities suffered in July. Iraqi deaths fell to their lowest monthly levels of the year.

Without the fervor of the anti-war sentiment, there is a significant chance the younger voters may not care enough about the economy to stand in line for an hour or two. Think about it, many of them already live in their parents' home and do not worry about their future.

The other piece I would recommend I found at Advance Indiana, claimed to be written by a Hillary supporter that also worked for Obama. (It apparently originated on RedState.Com, but they are experiencing server troubles at the time of this writing.) Again, it's worth the time to read the entire piece, but here is the part I want to highlight:

The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it.

If we are to believe this, we could be in for a shock after the votes are counted. It's certainly possible, so it will be important for all people that are not comfortable with Obama in the White House, to vote. Do not rely on the media to tell you who has won the election before the results are known.