Monday's weekend roundup

Quote of the Day
CO GOP Senate Candidate Pete Coors on Terrorism and Axis of Evil: "Clearly, we should be more worried today, actually, about Iran and North Dakota than we are -- North Korea -- than we are about Iraq" (Meet the Press, 10/10/04)

Gee I didn't know North Dakota was something to worry about. I guess this is why the state wants to drop the "North" in its name, so idiot potential senators don't confuse it with a communist dictatorship.

Another fun quote from the debate: "You see no inconsistency between sponsoring male nude revues and fetish balls, and opposing gay adoption and gay marriage?" -- NBC's Tim Russert, to Coors

On a more serious and sad note, Christopher Reeve (who had a child in my college graduating class) died Sunday of heart failure. A publicist said Reeve "fell into a coma Saturday" after going into cardiac arrest. He was 52. He gave so many hope and courage for his stance. I think he became Superman after the accident that left him paralyzied.

Don't forget Poll[and]!

An AP/Ipsos poll shows John Kerry leading Pres. Bush among LVs 50%-46% with Nader receiving 2% (release). A Time poll shows Bush leading Kerry 47%-46% among LVs and Kerry leading Bush 44%-43% among RVs. Meanwhile ABC shows the exact opposite, I will have to check out Ruy's site to find out which one is more accurate. In the meantime, I will just take the average and say 48 a piece.

An ABC News presidential tracker shows Bush leading Kerry among LVs 50%-46%, with Ralph Nader at 1%. Among RVs, Bush leads 48%-47% and Nader has 1%. An ABC News poll of RVs shows 44% believe Kerry won the debate, compared to 41% who said Bush. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll also of RVs shows 47% believe Kerry won compared to 45% for Bush.

Update on UT's 2nd Congressional District

Matheson put out a second ad on the same theme: he's the only memeber of the Utah delegation that opposes new nuclear testing. It was a good ad, but I personally like the first one better. The first one has him with a scientist testing the water and Jim out in Southern Utah looking around vigilantly, to represent in a second or two what he does in congress years on end- look out for his constituents. He seemed firm and resolute in both. The second one is more scary if the 50's nuclear testing stock footage and horror-movie piano soundtrack.

Jim is running against the delegation in his ad, there is no mention of Swallow or his party or anything. Swallow by contrast, is a cookie-cutter conservative running a cookie-cutter campaign, and he is down 32 points because of it.

Even though they are more conservative than he is, Southern Utahns like all the hard work Matheson has done for them in the last 3 years, despite being in the minority party and all that.

Update on UT Governor's race

A couple days ago I asked how it was possible that the Governor's race could swing by 15 points in a matter of days when nothing really happened on the outside? Well it didn't. Valley Research pulled a Gallup (and oversampled GOPers) to get different numbers. The whole Gallup thing is like USNews' college rankings; they tweak the model every year so there can be a new number one to sell more magazines, just like how USATODAY et al do that for the Presidental race.

From now on, I am going to only trust Dan Jones when it comes to Utah races. I always thought he was the best, but was willing to give other polling firms a try. Well, blew their wad.

Bottom line: the race is still tied or with very slight Huntsman lead. It still means it will be an uphill battle for Jim's brother Scott, but at least it isn't over already.