Have the voters of Virginia finally woken up and realized that they don’t want a flaming racist for their senator? After weeks of polls showing George Allen (son of the famous Redskins coach; maybe the racism was ingrained in him by that team name) slightly ahead, now they’re showing him slightly behind. An average of five polls on Electoral-Vote.com is showing Democrat Jim Webb ahead, 49%-47%. I presume one of those is a CNN poll yesterday showing Webb 50%, Allen 46%. Those numbers could be affected further by a video yesterday showing Allen supporters tackling a heckler and slamming him to the ground. I don’t know how that will play with Virginians, but to my eyes it looked mighty thuggish, more befitting the third world or eastern Europe that a democracy.
It’s anybody’s guess which party will come out on top Tuesday, but it will hinge on five races in particular: Montana, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and New Jersey. Also worth bearing in mind: As of this writing, Electoral-Vote.com is predicting a 50-50 split, but that site counts Bernie Sanders as a Democrat. Technically, he’s an independent, but he always caucuses with the Dems.
This article appears in Chris Bell.