Mitt Romney’s chances of winning presidential election were boosted today by two polls which gave him a slender lead over Barack Obama.
Polls by Gallup and Rasmussen both gave Mitt Romney 49% of the national vote, ahead of Barack Obama on 48%, flying in the face of other polls which had appeared to show the President in the driving seat over the weekend.
The slim advantage could allow Mitt Romney to snatch victory in the key swing states which he needs to win in order to carry him to the White House.
The odds had appeared to be stacking up against Mitt Romney winning on Tuesday. Among political journalists, campaign reporters and most pollsters, there was a congealing conventional wisdom that President Barack Obama was about to be re-elected, particularly after Hurricane Sandy.
On Sunday, a raft of new national polls from Pew put Barack Obama up three, and NBC/Wall Street Journal, which gave him a one-point advantage. Fox, GWU/Politico and ABC/Washington Post found a tie nationally.
Rasmussen poll released on Monday
The Gallup poll, released at lunchtime on Monday, was the first since the firm suspended operations during Sandy, and showed a small swing to Obama. Its last poll before the hurricane gave Mitt Romney 51% of the vote with the President on 46%.
Both candidates were plunged into frantic activity on the last full day of campaigning before Tuesday’s election.
Gallup poll released on Monday
Barack Obama scheduled appearances in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa alongside A-list celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z, while Romney planned a whistle-stop tour of four different swing states – Florida, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.
The fact that both men included Ohio on their itineraries shows the crucial importance of the state, which both campaigns consider almost indispensable to their victory hopes.
Barack Obama is counting on former President Bill Clinton and Bruce Springsteen, top surrogates for his campaign, to carry his message.
But he also has enlisted an army of A-list performers and public figures – from Lady Gaga to Billie Jean King, from Jay-Z to Crosby, Stills and Nash – to promote his re-election.
The Obama campaign provided a who’s-who of 181 actors, musicians, authors, athletes, mayors, Congress members, and more that fit any and all demographic groups in the president’s target zone.
All are being deployed to carry his message to television and radio in the waning days of a nip-and-tuck campaign.
On Saturday, Stevie Wonder played an unannounced concert for voters waiting in line to vote early in Cleveland.
Stevie Wonder opened a rally for Barack Obama by rocking the arena at the University of Cincinnati with a rendition of Keep on Running.
Stevie Wonder opened a rally for Barack Obama by rocking the arena at the University of Cincinnati with a rendition of Keep on Running
Songwriter John Legend, actor Laurence Fishburne, and congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis from Georgia were among those who went to Ohio to lead a Souls to the Polls effort with local churches.
The list includes some of Hollywood’s big names – Samuel L. Jackson, Anne Hathaway, and Scarlett Johansson – who were talking to Top 40 radio stations.
Samuel L. Jackson and comedian Chris Rock were on stations with primarily African American audiences urging voters to go to the polls Tuesday.
Danny DeVito and members of the FX sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have canvassed neighborhoods in Wisconsin, made phone calls and visited colleges in the state.
A new research has found that people who walk with a slouched body posture are more likely to feel depressed.
A study from San Francisco State University found that a slouched or despondent body posture can lead to decreased energy and feelings of depression.
But researchers found that mood and energy levels can be increased simply by changing the body posture to an upright position.
Professor of Health Education Erik Peper, writing in the journal Biofeedback, said: “When you choose to put your body in a different mode, it’s harder to drop into depression.”
Previous research has found that exercise and movement can increase energy and happiness. But Erik Peper said these feelings can also be achieved by people sitting in more upright body positions.
He said if people start introducing more body movements into their daily life, it can boost energy levels and improve quality of life.
“It’s very similar to the principle of <<fake it till you make it>> – you can convince your body to have more energy.”
A total of 110 students were asked to walk down a hallway in a slouched position and then skip down the hallway.
Following the exercise, the students were asked to rate their energy levels.
The entire group found that walking in a slouched position decreased energy levels but skipping increased energy.
Students also answered questionnaires to rate how depressed they felt.
Those who felt more depressed reported lower energy levels after slouched walking than those who did not feel depressed.
Slouching has also been linked to causing career problems. Those who walk slouched are perceived as being not vital, reports NBC News.
It is also linked to an increased risk of death and disease, making people look heavier, cutting off circulation and stressing people out.
New York’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into hundreds of complaints of prices being increased in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Eric Schneiderman said the largest number of complaints concerned increased fuel prices, but other emergency supplies were also affected.
“Price gouging” of essential consumer goods is forbidden under New York law.
More than one million people in New Jersey and New York are still without power a week after the storm hit.
Although fuel supplies are reaching petrol stations across the region, around one-quarter are still closed in metropolitan New York.
At the weekend, long queues of cars and people carrying red canisters built up at petrol stations.
As a result of the storm, 8.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, prompting a surge in demand for generators and hotel rooms. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
Eric Schneiderman said that consumers had contacted him to report “possible gouging for emergency supplies like generators, hotels raising rates due to ‘high demand’, as well as increased prices for food and water”.
New York’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into hundreds of complaints of prices being increased in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
In a statement, the attorney general said that under New York state law, retailers were not allowed to charge “unconscionably excessive prices” for goods required for personal, family or household purposes when there was an abnormal disruption of the market.
He pledged to do “everything we can to stop to stop unscrupulous individuals from taking advantage of New Yorkers trying to rebuild their lives”.
Transport authorities opened more subway lines on Monday, as more commuters returned to work and one million students returned to school for the first time since the storm.
But platforms were teeming with travelers, trains were overcrowded and limited bus services struggled to meet the demand for services into New York City.
Hundreds of people joined queues early on Monday for the Jersey City ferry service to New York.
As overnight temperatures fell close to freezing, forecasters warned of a new storm approaching the US east coast.
According to the National Weather Service, the coastal storm could reach South and North Carolina late on Tuesday before spreading northwards, strengthening as it moves up towards New Jersey with gusts of up to 50 mph (80 km/h) by Thursday.
“Prepare for more outages,” Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina told Associated Press.
Justin Bieber unveiled a large inking of an owl on his left forearm, while on stage in Philadelphia.
This is the second tattoo Justin Bieber has obtained in a matter of weeks.
At the start of last month Justin Bieber revealed a crown design on his upper chest on the right side on his Twitter page, before explaining the reasons behind the etching.
He tweeted: “New tattoo its a crown if you couldn’t tell.”
Justin Bieber unveiled a large inking of an owl on his left forearm, while on stage in Philadelphia
Despite his tender age the teen has a collection of tattoos.
Justin Bieber underwent his first inking of a bird on his hip at the tender age of 16, and followed it with the Hebrew word for Jesus on his ribcage when he and his dad opted to get matching tattoos during a trip to Israel.
Continuing with his collection of religious tattoos, Justin Bieber later had an image of Jesus etched onto his left leg.
In March Justin Bieber had a praying hand inking etched onto his leg, which is thought to represent the power of prayer and the Almighty.
And in July he debuted a tattoo on his right arm – the Japanese Kanji symbol for music.
Florida is suffering from a bottleneck of voters ahead of Election Day, with some waiting up to nine hours to cast their ballots.
On Saturday – the last day of early voting – residents there were either forced to wait in long lines for up to nine hours or turned away from the polls altogether.
Despite the ordeal, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he would not be extending the early voting hours.
Rick Scott told WSVN-TV: “People are getting out to vote, they’re voting absentee, they’re voting early voting. I’m focused on making sure that we have fair, honest elections.”
Also in Florida, some voters reported receiving fake letters that claimed their citizenship status was being questioned.
“The Sarasota County of Elections has received information from the Florida Division of Elections regarding your citizenship status, bringing into question your eligibility as a registered voter,” reads the letter signed by Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent.
Kathy Dent said the letter is fake and that her signature was forged. Most of the letters appeared to be targeting Republicans, according to election officials.
The Florida situation was just one case of voting irregularities popping up in key swing states where people have already begun casting their ballots, drawing concern among both Democrats and Republicans that their opponent’s party could be trying to illegally sway the election.
Reported voting problems include claims of faulty polling machines, late-arriving absentee ballots, voter intimidation, forged absentee applications and lengthy lines outside polling locations.
Democrats say the long lines outside early voting sites, some of which kept people waiting at least eight hours before they could cast a ballot, are effectively suppressing voter turnout in areas highly populated by minorities.
The period for early voting in Florida is shorter than it was in 2008.
Florida is suffering from a bottleneck of voters ahead of Election Day, with some waiting up to nine hours to cast their ballots
Meanwhile in New Hampshire, another battleground state, a few out-of-state voters have complained that their absentee ballots haven’t yet arrived in the mail.
Some voters have discovered that their ballots were lost in the mail, while others are still waiting for them to arrive.
New Hampshire voter Pamela Keilig didn’t find out until last week that her application for an absentee ballot was lost in the mail. She is now planning to make the 75-minute drive across state lines to cast her vote on Tuesday, according to ABC News.
While some in the Granite state anxiously await the arrival of their ballots in the mail, many Iowa voters have received out-of-state voting ballots that they never requested.
Recipients of unwanted mail notified the state and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation pulled the applications for the ballots to find out where they originated. Investigators discovered that the signatures on the applications had been forge and the state is still investigating the matter.
Absentee ballots have also caused some problems in Ohio, where many voters failed to put enough postage on their ballots before returning them to the state.
Some of the ballots were thicker than others, due to additional ballot questions concerning local issues in some counties, and required more than the standard 45-cent stamps.
U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Patricia Licata said with or without the right postage, the ballots will be mailed, however.
Outside of the potential for human error in the voting process, election officials are also concerned about the possibility of technological glitches.
Republicans, in particular, are concerned about voting machines in six states, including the hotly contested states of Ohio and Colorado.
The Republican National Committee wrote a letter to election officials claiming that voters have reported that some machines were switching their votes for Mitt Romney to votes for President Barack Obama.
RNC spokesman Tim Miller said a “few dozen” people had run into machine problems and he didn’t accuse anyone of wrongdoing.
Democrats, on the other hand, are pointing fingers at Republicans and accusing them of trying to suppress minority turnout at the polls.
Robert Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, issued a memo Friday that linked Mitt Romney’s campaign to efforts to send people to polling centers to challenge voter eligibility.
Democrats are also upset over Spanish-language billboard ads in Pennsylvania that instructed voters to show ID at the polls, even though that won’t be required in the upcoming election.
A national poll of more than 36,000 voters in 27 states forecasts that Barack Obama will win re-election by two percentage points and 303 electoral college votes to Mitt Romney’s 235.
In what it bills as “one of the most extensive polls ever conducted”, British-based YouGov conducted its survey via the internet between October 31stand November 3rd.
The survey included all the battleground states along with the largest states such as New York, California and Texas.
The figures are much more optimistic for Barack Obama than other polls conducted over the weekend.
ABC/Washington Post, Rasmussen, George Washington University/Politico, and Fox News polls all found the race as tied. NBC/Wall Street Journal gave Barack Obama a one-point advantage.
YouGov projects that Barack Obama will win 18 states comfortably, giving him a base of 237 electoral college votes, 33 short of his target. Mitt Romney is projected to win 24 base states, giving him 191 electoral college votes, 79 short of victory.
There are 110 electoral college votes up for grabs in the remaining nine states, with Barack Obama needing to win just under a third of them and Mitt Romney needing almost three-quarters of them.
But Peter Kellner, president of YouGov, hedged his bets by saying that “while the President looks set for re-election, a Romney victory cannot be ruled out”.
Such an outcome, however, “would need YouGov’s figures – and those of almost all other pollsters – to be systematically wrong”.
Latest national poll shows Barack Obama will win re-election by 2 percentage points and 303 electoral college votes to Mitt Romney’s 235
YouGov identified the following as sources of possible error: a late swing towards Mitt Romney; different turnout to what the pollsters predicted; inaccurate methodology; or response rates that over-represent Barack Obama’s support.
Peter Kelner said: “We are predicting that Obama is going to hang on to the presidency, but by a smaller margin than in 2008. It’s even possible that Obama will narrowly lose the nationwide popular vote and still win the electoral college.
“Mitt Romney could win one million more votes than Obama across American and still lose the election. There have been elections when the winner of the popular vote has lost the Electoral College, most recently in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote, but still lost the election to George W Bush.
“In such a tight race, no doubt the Democrats are not only concerned about losing the White House, but are also worried about the cloud that could hang over Obama’s second term if he does not win the popular vote. Whatever happens tomorrow, this will undeniably be an historic election.”
Barack Obama maintains a polling edge in all-important Ohio with a 2.8% lead in the RealClearPolitics average. Mitt Romney leads by 1.4% and 0.3% in Florida and Virginia respectively – two swing states he must win if he is to oust Barack Obama.
But the Romney campaign remains strikingly confident that a surge in Republican turnout and a swing among late-deciding voters will put them over the top.
Rich Beeson, Mitt Romney’s political director, told Fox News on Sunday: “There’s an intensity factor out there on the side of the Republicans, that is a significant gap and we see it out on the ground.
“We see it when people are knocking on the doors, we see it when people are making the phone calls and again, it gets back to the simple fact that Governor Romney is out there talking about big things and big change, not about small things.”
There were “two numbers to keep in mind” he said.
“One is independents. Independents are going decide this race in all of these states. Governor Romney consistently leads among independents because they have seen his message, for creating 12 million jobs, real recovery and strengthening the middle class.
“The second number is you’ve got an incumbent president who has been running for this job for the last four years since the day he got elected, will have raised and spent over $1 billion and he is stuck well below 50, at 48, 47, 46, in all of these polls.
“When you’re an incumbent under 50, and well under 50, that’s a bad place to be.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended his praise for President Barack Obama’s support after Hurricane Sandy, but said he would stick with his Republican ticket and vote for Mitt Romney in this Tuesday’s election.
“The fact of the matter is what New Jerseyans expect from their governor is to work for them, not to work for any particular political party,” Chris Christie told Israel’s Channel 2 television in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
“I’m a Republican and I have endorsed Mitt Romney, I support him and I intend to vote for him on Tuesday,” said Chris Christie, interviewed in his home state by a visiting Israeli television reporter.
Chris Christie, a popular governor widely seen as a possible Republican contender in 2016, had frustrated some in the Romney campaign who feared he had given what could be a critical boost to Barack Obama, a Democrat.
He referred to Barack Obama’s pledge of federal aid during a visit to help New Jersey recover from the storm that knocked out power to some 2.4 million of its residents and said: “If the president of United States comes here and he’s willing to help my people and he does it then I’m gonna say nice things about him because he’s earned it.”
Barack Obama “provided help to my people at one of the worst crises that this state has ever faced”, Chris Christie added.
“When somebody does a good job, they deserve credit.”
“Anybody who is upset in the Republican Party about this, they haven’t been to New Jersey. Come see the destruction, come see the loss.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he would stick with his Republican ticket and vote for Mitt Romney
Chris Christie’s reaffirmation of support for Mitt Romney comes after the typically-brash governor spent a significant amount of time this week praising the President for his handling of the Hurricane Sandy aftermath.
Barack Obama visited New Jersey on Wednesday, taking a helicopter tour of the damaged areas with Christie before walking around the town of Brigantine and talking to survivors.
“I want to thank the president for coming here today [Wednesday, October 31st]. It’s really important to have the president of the United States acknowledge all the suffering that’s going on here in New Jersey and I appreciate it very much.”
Barack Obama returned the kind words, telling the crowds of beleaguered New Jersey residents who had gathered that their Republican governor was “working overtime to make sure that as soon as possible everybody can get back to normal”.
Governor Chris Christie changed his partisan tune after the storm, regularly singing President Barack Obama’s praises in relation to the federal aid given toward disaster relief support.
“The president has been outstanding in this and so have the folks at FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency],” Chris Christie told the Today Show on Tuesday.
He later told news anchor Soledad O’Brien that President Barack Obama “has been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state, and not once did he bring up the election”.
VP Joe Biden, who has previously misremembered what state and what century he was in, now seems to have forgotten that Barack Obama is the president.
Speaking to a crowd of 1,200 people at a high school in Lakewood, Ohio, Joe Biden was slamming a “pernicious” Mitt Romney ad claiming that Jeep will move jobs out of Ohio to China.
The vice-president said that the ad claimed that “President Clinton bankrupted Chrysler so that Italians could buy it to ship jobs overseas to China”.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the U.S. and left office in January 2001. Barack Obama became the 44th president in January 2009 and for the past nearly 4 years Joe Biden has served as his vice-president.
In Joe Biden’s defence, there was perhaps a Freudian element to the slip. Bill Clinton, who previously enjoyed testy relations with Barack Obama, has been mobilized by the current president to be his most prominent campaigner and the two men made joint appearances in Virginia on Saturday and New Hampshire on Sunday.
Joe Biden’s gaffes are numerous and legendary in political circles. He recently referred to Tim Kaine, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and the current Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia, as “Tom”.
VP Joe Biden, who has previously misremembered what state and what century he was in, now seems to have forgotten that Barack Obama is the president
On a previous stop in Ohio, Joe Biden complained to an audience in the town of Marion about television ads “here in Iowa”. In Danville, Virginia, he declared: “We can win North Carolina!”
In August, Joe Biden asked a Blacksburg, Virginia crowd: “Folks, where’s it written we cannot lead the world in the 20th Century in making automobiles?”
The 20th Century ended on December 31st 1999, nearly 27 years after Joe Biden first took his seat in the U.S. Senate and almost 9 years before he became vice-president.
Last week, Joe Biden joked about his gaffes while at the same time putting a slightly more favorable gloss on his mixing up Ohio and Iowa.
Speaking to campaign volunteers in Davenport, Iowa, Joe Biden said: “I’ve been living in Ohio like I used to live in Iowa. As a matter of fact, I got in trouble [with] the press, which never points out any mistake I make. I was in Ohio talking about it and saying <<it’s good to be here in Ohio>> and then I said <<and in Iowa>>.”
Wreck-It Ralph has scored an impressive weekend at the US box office with $49.1 million in ticket sales.
Disney animated film Wreck-It Ralph, about a video game villain who tries to become a hero, earned almost twice as much as the number two movie, Denzel Washington’s Flight.
Ben Affleck’s Argo, based on the true story of a 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, came third with $10.2 million.
Cinema attendance was up this week in areas hit by Hurricane Sandy.
Dave Hollis at Walt Disney Studios said audiences in areas affected by the storm were “very healthy” and had been boosted by school closures on Friday.
“In a nice way, Wreck-It Ralph ended up actually becoming an opportunity to relieve yourself from the reality that might be going on around you,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“I don’t know if it was a function of cabin fever or just escaping by getting into a movie theatre, but there was definitely a gravitating towards the theatre phenomenon.”
Last week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Wreck-It Ralph as one of 21 features eligible for next year’s best animated film Oscar.
Others include Brave, which has so far earned $235.8 million after 20 weeks on release, and Frankenweenie, which has brought in $33.3 million in North American ticket sales.
Wreck-It Ralph has scored an impressive weekend at the US box office with $49.1 million in ticket sales
The Man with the Iron Fists, starring Russell Crowe, brought in $8.2 milion to take the number four spot in this week’s Top 10.
Liam Neeson’s action film Taken 2 came fifth, while Cloud Atlas, in which Tom Hanks and Halle Berry play six different roles across 500 years, was ranked sixth.
Rounding off the Top 10 was Silent Hill: Revelation, the latest in the horror film franchise, which earned $3.3 million in ticket sales the weekend after Halloween.
Skyfall enjoyed another successful second weekend internationally, earning $156 million in overseas ticket sales.
The new James Bond film, starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem, will be released in the US and Canada on November 9th.
Kourtney Kardashian accidentally flashed a pair of Spanx when she stepped out for lunch in Miami on Sunday.
As she was dressed in a beach cover-up due to the warm weather, Kourtney Kardashian’s shapewear was visible when she turned to the side.
She’s not the only one who is a fan of Spanx as her sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian have also been spotted using the underwear to smooth out any lumps and bumps.
Kourtney Kardashian, 33, in fact had flashed a similar pair of the nude underwear during a photo shoot last week.
The star had been getting set to pose in a green gown when a gust of wind caused her to have something of a Marilyn Monroe moment.
Kourtney Kardashian accidentally flashed a pair of Spanx when she stepped out for lunch in Miami on Sunday
But it was a slightly less glamorous affair on Sunday as she headed for a meal with her partner Scott Disick and their two children Mason and Penelope.
Kourtney Kardashian carried little Penelope, who was shielded by a blanket, in a convertible car seat while Scott Disick took charge of 3-year-old Mason.
The reality star showed off her legs as she headed into the Florida eatery in her white and gold printed cover-up, which she teamed with matching flip flops and large round sunglasses.
The previous evening the happy couple had been seen going for a spin on Scott Disick’s black scooter.
If President Barack Obama will be out of a job in 48 hours, First Lady Michelle Obama could step into a new career as a chat show host.
TV executives believe Michelle Obama would be a natural to become a talk show host.
Michelle Obama has even been compared to Oprah Winfrey, the queen of chat show hosts and one of the most recognizable names in show business.
“Personally I would like to see her in the White House,” said Hilary Estey McLoughlin., president of syndication company behind the Ellen DeGeneres show.
“But if she were not going to be in the White House, I’d love to see her as the host of a show. She’s amazing.”
And former CNN president Jon Klein agreed that Michelle Obama would be snapped up by TV chiefs if her husband does not win a second term in office.
“Daytime syndicators are desperate for a new voice and she is tailor made for it,” he told TV Guide magazine.
“She’s thoughtful. She’s committed. She’s a working mom. She’d be a strong voice on issues important to her.”
If President Barack Obama will be out of a job in 48 hours, First Lady Michelle Obama could step into a new career as a chat show host
Since moving into the White House Michelle Obama has been one of the most visible of First Ladies with more TV appearances than any other.
Michelle Obama has regularly appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Even The View has been graced by Michelle Obama while her appearance on the Dr. Oz show helped her promote her campaign for healthy eating.
Michelle Obama became the first president’s wife to appear on a reality show when she took part in the Iron Chef series with ingredients from the White House garden being used in food preparation.
Hilary Estey McLoughlin, whose Telepictures Productions syndicates the Ellen DeGeneres show, even talks about Michelle Obama as someone to take over Oprah Winfrey’s crown as chat show queen.
“She reminds me of Oprah Winfrey as someone who has the ability to make people understand complex things in a simple way.”
The New York state Board of Elections is preparing for the worst as they are releasing information about possible back-up scenarios if the election turn out is significantly lower than expected because of damage from Hurricane Sandy.
If less than 25% of registered voters show up to polling stations on Tuesday, they are prepared to extend the voting deadline past Tuesday evening, meaning that New Yorkers may have two days to cast their ballots.
The news comes just a day after neighboring New Jersey, which is considered the worst-hit of all of the East Coast because of the hurricane, announced that they will allow residents to email their votes in if they are unable to get to a polling station.
Election organizers are grappling with ways to make sure that the presidential election is not thwarted by any turnout issues stemming from Monday’s storm.
The New York board, which consists of two Democrats and two Republicans, will make the final decision Tuesday over whether or not they will hold a second day of voting.
They will be comparing this year’s turnout to that of previous elections, where typical turnout hovers around 60% of registered voters.
While power was restored to Manhattan on Friday, thousands remain in the dark. Progress is being made daily, but Governor Andrew Cuomo has urged utility companies to prioritize polling sites so that voters can cast their ballots safely.
“We’ve provided lists of poll sites to local utilities, and some of the voting machines do have battery backup,” board of elections spokesman Tom Connolly said.
“We are also planning to get generators to polling sites, but it’s not like we have an unlimited supply of generators.”
New York may extend voting for an extra day due to Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy, that barreled down on New Jersey and New York on October 29, has claimed 110 lives, displaced thousands and left millions without power for days.
Flooding, damaged roads and power outages have forced many Jerseyites from their homes and the electronic option will allow first responders who are working away from home and those displaced by the storm to cast their ballot.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his counterpart in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, have been reviewing how to prepare their respective states for November 6 – while simultaneously trying to restore electricity and access to food and water.
New Jersey will allow any state resident that has been displaced by the storm to qualify as an overseas voter, meaning they can submit their ballot by fax or email.
Governor Chris Christie also mandated that county clerks open their offices over the weekend to allow early voting and has called for paper ballots to be sent to polling stations still without power.
The odds appear to be stacking up against Mitt Romney winning the 2012 presidential election on Tuesday.
Among political journalists, campaign reporters and most pollsters, there’s a congealing conventional wisdom that President Barack Obama is about to be re-elected.
On Sunday, new national polls from Pew put Barack Obama up three, and NBC/Wall Street Journal, which gave him a one-point advantage. Fox, Rasmussen,GWU/Politico and ABC/Washington Post finds a tie nationally.
More worrying for Mitt Romney is the state polls, particularly in Ohio, where the RealClearPolitics average has Barack Obama with a lead of 2.8%.
If everything goes Mitt Romney’s way on election day it is possible he could achieve out a victory that would stun Democrats and turn the polling world upside down.
Based on conversations with the Romney campaign, including a frank discussion with a senior Mitt Romney adviser, here’s how they see the Republican nominee winning.
Of course, campaign aides spin reporters because they want their optimistic scenarios to become part of a media narrative that helps drive voters. They are also part of a self-reinforcing campaign bubble in which belief in eventual victory is a prerequisite of getting through grueling days.
But the adviser quoted here, for what it is worth, correctly identified to me weeks beforehand that the first debate would be a game-changing moment for Mitt Romney, has always predicted a very close race and is honest enough to identify states such as Nevada which Romney probably won’t win.
If we look at the 2008 electoral college map, when Barack Obama beat Senator John McCain by an electoral college landslide of 365 to 173 (and seven percentage points in the popular vote), we can view the terrain on which the 2012 contest is being fought.
The distribution of electoral college votes (which are based on congressional districts and U.S. Senate seats) has changed slightly in 2012 to produce this map. Because of the changes, Barack Obama’s advantage has shrunk to 359 to 179 in the electoral college. The winner needs 270 votes. So for Mitt Romney to win, he needs to take 91 electoral college votes from the states that Barack Obama won in 2008.
We can immediately give one vote in Nebraska (based on winning a congressional district) and 11 in Indiana to Mitt Romney. Barack Obama is not campaigning for those. Next up is 15 in North Carolina. Barack Obama won it by just 14,000 votes in 2008 and early voting patterns indicate he’s probably going to lose there.
Then we have Florida – its 29 votes are a huge prize. The latest Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald poll has Barack Obama being crushed by six points there. That’s the next state Mitt Romney needs. The Romney adviser was very confident, saying: “North Carolina’s baked. Florida’s baked.”
From there, it gets more difficult. Virginia, with 13 votes, is tighter than Florida but, again, early voting patterns suggest Mitt Romney will win it, though not by much. The Romney adviser said that “Virginia’s baked” though he added that it was “much closer than Florida”.
At this point, the Obama campaign would be really sweating. But so too would Mitt Romney’s team. We’d be down to Ohio, just as President George W. Bush was in 2004. This year, it has 18 electoral college votes.
If Mitt Romney bags Ohio, he’s on 266 electoral college votes and has multiple opportunities to get the four more he needs. Colorado’s nine, New Hampshire’s four, Iowa’s six and Wisconsin’s 10 look most likely. It’s very hard to see Mitt Romney winning Florida, Virginia and Ohio and Barack Obama keeping the White House.
Mitt Romney’s aides seem very bullish about Iowa – more so, even, than Colorado, where they say he took a hit in their internal polling with women independents after Barack Obama’s handling of Hurricane Sandy. The latest Des Moines Register poll gives Barack Obama a five-point advantage. But the Romney campaigns that the same poll put Barack Obama up 17 in 2008 and he won the state by 10 points.
How Mitt Romney can still win US presidential election
Privately, the Romney campaign has effectively conceded Nevada, which has six votes.
“Nevada, we’ll probably fall short,” said the Romney adviser.
“That’s just tough.”
Mitt Romney hasn’t travelled there since October 24th, just as Barack Obama has stayed away from North Carolina.
More remarkably, the adviser said that Minnesota, 10 votes, and Pennsylvania, 20 votes, were distinct possibilities. He even predicted a possible win in Minnesota.
Pennsylvania is intriguing. There’s a Susquehanna poll that puts the two candidates dead level. Barack Obama has to be a heavy favorite – no Republican presidential candidate has won there since George H.W. Bush in 1988
But the Obama campaign has sent Bill Clinton to do four events in Pennsylvania on the eve of Election Day. After Barack Obama himself – and perhaps even ahead of Obama – Clinton is their most valuable campaign resource. There is clearly some worry there.
So that’s the electoral college arithmetic. There is not too much difference between the way the two campaigns view it.
The more difficult case to make is how Mitt Romney’s vote is lifted so that on the spectrum of Barack Obama states to capture (the order in terms of confidence seems to be Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada and Michigan) it is a tide that rises above the Ohio threshold.
For that, several things have to happen: the battleground polls have to be wrong; undecideds have to vote for Mitt Romney; Romney’s turnout has to be very high; Barack Obama’s vote has to be depressed.
Can so many polls be wrong? The short answer is yes. It is worth remembering that in January 2008 virtually no one in the political world believed that Hillary Clinton could win the New Hampshire primary over Barack Obama, fresh off his Iowa victory. But win it she did.
This year, apart from Gallup and Rasmussen, pollsters have consistently over-sampled Democrats compared to Republicans.
The Romney adviser said: “The samples that they’re using are geared towards 2008 results. So you get Democrats plus four on Pew, you’ve got Democrats plus eight on PPP.
“It’s going to be a Republican plus one or Republicans plus two election. It’s not 2008, it’s not 2004, it’s not 2000. It’s a new election. It’s 2012 and a completely different dynamic. Every election we re-write history on turnout.
“Gallup looked at it a week ago and decided it was going to be a more Republican electorate and they had it right.”
The closer you get to an election, the more likely undecideds are to break against the incumbent. Mitt Romney will also have voter enthusiasm on his side. Whether that’s enough, remains an open question but the Romney campaign thinks so.
“What’s going on here is when you have intensity and momentum,” said the Romney adviser.
“You ask voters who they’re voting for and they say 48, 47 points Obama. And then you look at the people who are eight, nine,10 on the intensity scale, Republicans have a high single digits to low double digits advantage.
“That’s what you see in the early voting. We keep narrowing the gap of the early vote advantage in some of these states. That trend line goes right into election day when you just don’t want to get in the way of a Republican heading into the polls.”
Certainly, in Florida, North Carolina and Colorado, the early voting evidence is encouraging for Mitt Romney supporters. In Ohio, the picture is more mixed. The Romney adviser predicted a win in Ohio by as little at 20,000 votes. In 2004, George W. Bush won it by 119,00 votes and in 2008 Barack Obama won it by 262,000.
It appears that Mitt Romney was damaged by Hurricane Sandy – he was virtually absent from the television screens for four days, the discussion turned away from jobs and the economy and Barack Obama’s double act with Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey burnished his bipartisan credentials.
But the Romney adviser said that this has been turned around.
“Sandy didn’t flip us with independents but it narrowed. Then on Friday we got back in business with the <<revenge>> ad. Finally, we got back into business.
“Then Mitt just hit it in speech after speech and it got people back, particularly independents. Again saw Obama as divisive, petty, the negative partisan guy that they’d been seeing since the November 2nd debate.”
Can the Romney campaign envisage Barack Obama winning? The adviser responded: “I don’t see it. But his easiest path to that would be Ohio.
“He takes Ohio because Democratic men, hardworking lower middle class men, we don’t get the margin we think we’re getting. He somehow ekes it out. He gets Nevada, he gets Colorado, he gets New Hampshire. That’s probably the scenario.”
The Obama campaign believes that is indeed the scenario that will deliver them the White House. On Tuesday, we will know which of the two very different versions – almost parallel universes – of this race presented by the two campaign worlds will be the one that represents reality.
Sharon Osbourne has revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy after learning she carries a gene which increases the risk of developing breast cancer.
“I’ve had cancer before and I didn’t want to live under that cloud: I decided to just take everything off,” Sharon Osbourne told Hello! magazine.
Sharon Osbourne, 60, was previously diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002.
The wife of rock star Ozzy Osbourne, she rose to fame on the reality show The Osbournes, and went on to join the judging panel of the UK version of The X Factor and, more recently, America’s Got Talent.
Sharon Osbourne quit the US show – produced by Simon Cowell – in September after a reported dispute with TV network NBC.
Sharon Osbourne has revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy
One of the current hosts of daytime show The Talk, she told Hello! magazine that she underwent 13 hours of surgery, and said: “The odds are not in my favor.”
“For me, it wasn’t a big decision, it was a no-brainer.”
“I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl.
“I didn’t even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time.”
Earlier this year, Sharon Osbourne became a grandmother for the first time, after her son Jack and wife Lisa Stelly had a daughter, Pearl. Jack Osbourne, 26, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this year.
In 2004, in conjunction with Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Sharon Osbourne set up her own cancer foundation, to support people who are suffering from colon cancer but cannot afford healthcare.
Rivals Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are approaching the final day of their election battle in a frantic fight for swing state votes.
Each of them spent Sunday addressing crowds across the country, with Mitt Romney speaking in Pennsylvania, a state his aides insist he can now win on Tuesday.
Barack Obama held rallies in New Hampshire and Florida and carried on to Ohio and Colorado in the evening.
Analysts say the election will come down to a handful of swing states.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are running almost neck-and-neck in national polls, but polls of many key battlegrounds show Obama narrowly ahead.
However, neither camp is exuding absolute confidence.
The campaign has been most intense in Ohio, which no Republican has ever lost and still made it to the White House.
On Monday morning, Barack Obama is scheduled to appear in Madison, Wisconsin, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, before going on to Iowa and Ohio.
Mitt Romney is due in Florida – where polls suggest he is ahead – in Virginia, New Hampshire and Ohio.
A final poll published on Sunday by Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch gave Barack Obama a 2% lead – 50% to 48% – over his rival, within the margin of error.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are approaching the final day of their election battle in a frantic fight for swing state votes
Both candidates visited the Buckeye State on Sunday, with Mitt Romney telling crowds in Cleveland that Barack Obama has failed in his pledge to be a “post-partisan” president and criticizing his record.
“He’s been divisive, blaming, attacking, dividing and – by the way – it’s not only Republicans that he refused to listen to, he also refused to listen to independent voices.”
Later on Sunday he spoke in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, his first visit there in the final stages of the campaign. Democrats say the Romney team’s last-minute decision to campaign in the state is a sign of desperation, but polls do show a tightening race.
“The people of America understand we’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” Mitt Romney told the crowd in Morrisville.
Barack Obama made another appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stevie Wonder opened a huge evening rally.
Earlier in the day at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, Barack Obama said: “We have come too far to turn back now.”
He said he would work across party lines to break the political gridlock in Washington, but would not compromise on priorities such as healthcare and college financial aid.
Activists have been stepping up efforts across the crucial swing states.
In Wisconsin, student volunteers have been putting in 14-hour days in an effort to deliver the state for Barack Obama.
An opinion poll on Sunday for ABC News and the Washington Post put the two candidates at 48%, with even voters who term themselves independents split evenly on 46%.
Mitt Romney remains favored among whites, seniors and evangelical Christians; Barack Obama among women, non-whites and young adults.
The president also remains slightly ahead in most of the nine-or-so swing states that will determine the election.
Opinion polls published on Saturday showed him well-placed in Iowa, Nevada and Ohio, but most remain within the polls’ own margins of error.
The election is run using an electoral college. Each state is given a number of votes based on its population. The candidate who wins 270 electoral college votes becomes president.
Pea and courgette soup with cheese straws. Try this simple, delicious and nutritious homemade vegetable soup for the chilliest autumn days.
INGREDIENTS (4 serves)
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely diced
3 medium courgettes
Finely grated zest and juice of ½ a lemon
300 g (10½oz) peas
1 .2 litres (2 pints) hot vegetable stock
A small handful of mint leaves
6 tbsp single cream
For the Cheddar straws
350 g (12 oz) pack ready-rolled puff pastry
6 tbsp finely grated Cheddar cheese
2 tsp smoked paprika
Pea and courgette soup with cheese straws
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Warm a large pan over a medium heat. Add the butter and onion and fry for 10 minutes. Grate the courgettes and place 4 tbsp in a bowl with the lemon zest and juice. Set aside. In a pan, stir-fry the peas and remaining courgettes for 2-3 minutes. Add stock and onion and bring to boil. Cook for 10-12 minutes and remove from heat. Shred the mint leaves and add to the pan with the cream. Blend until smooth and season. Return to the heat. Unroll the pastry, scatter over half the cheese and paprika, then fold in half. On a floured surface, roll to the thickness of a coin. Cut 1cm (½in) strips, then twist these 3-4 times. Lay on a baking sheet, scatter the remaining cheese and paprika over and bake for 12 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls with the courgettes. Serve with the cheese straws.
Plastic surgeons have discovered the formula behind what are considered beautiful legs – and it’s not just about length and slenderness.
From the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance to modern day there is one attribute that has consistently defined what is thought of as beautiful, they found: a straight line from the top of the thigh to the ankle.
Surgeons studied 600 pairs of legs over 12 year from magazines, live models, athletes, art and Barbie dolls – all those widely accepted as the most attractive in the western world.
“Not a single attractive leg was found to deviate from the vertical, and each was in absolute continuity with the thigh,” the study, published in the medical journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, revealed.
The study surmised that the attractiveness of long, straight, slender legs may be attributed to a sense of aesthetic harmony, which is “intensified by the blending of fragility, represented by thinness, and strength, represented by straightness”.
“The straightness of the legs of models who advertise leg stockings and lingerie is notable,” it added.
Plastic surgeons have discovered the formula behind what are considered beautiful legs
The second key to beautiful legs is the distribution of curves from the knee to the ankle. Legs considered beautiful were found to curve through the top two thirds of the calf when viewed in profile, while the front of the leg appeared almost straight.
The calf on the inside of the leg should have a well-defined convex curve, and another short concave curve as it descends into the ankle. The outside of the perfect leg has a much longer, smoother convex curve.
The study looked at depictions of beautiful legs from as early as 2,000 BC in Greece and found “the shape and distribution of the curves of such ancient legs are exactly the same as those of men and women models today!”.
Rumer Willis proved she certainly inherited her mother Demi Moore’s incredible body as she showed off her amazing physique while holidaying in Maui, Hawaii.
Showcasing her toned curves in all their glory, Rumer Willis, 24, complemented her golden tan with a purple and white polka dot bikini.
Although the high-waisted retro style of the two-piece wouldn’t be flattering on everyone, Rumer Willis looked positively stunning as she emerged from the sea after a dip.
And there was no doubt the brunette bore more than a passing resemblance to Demi Moore as she walked out of the ocean in a scene from 2002 movie, Charlie’s Angel’s: Full Throttle.
Rumer Willis showed off her amazing physique while holidaying in Maui
As well as inheriting her mother’s fantastic figure, it would seem Rumer Willis has also been the happy recipient of her looks.
She appeared to not be wearing even the merest scrap of make-up, and instead let her natural beauty shine through.
Rumer Willis looked happy and relaxed as she soaked up the sun on her vacation, and used the opportunity to catch up on a spot of reading as she kicked back underneath a sun lounger.
Despite undoubtedly impressing onlookers with her bikini body, the actress later covered up as she left the beach, putting on a bright green floral skirt and stylish Ray-Ban sunglasses as she chatted on the phone.
Nicole Scherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos step out onto the X Factor stage every week dressed to nines and fighting to be crowned the most fashionable judge.
And this week, both ladies put their best foot forward when it came to their style choices
Nicole Scherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos both looked stunning in totally different dresses, with Nicole opting
Nicole Scherzinger decided to bare some skin in a strapless black leather dress that hugged her enviable figure in all the right places.
The dress by Ermanno Scervino featured ruffles in the waistline which accentuated her great shape.
Nicole Scherzinger teamed up the sexy little black dress with shoes by Giuseppe Zanotti and got into the English spirit as she pinned a poppy on her neckline.
Meanwhile, Tulisa Contostavlos stole the spotlight with a feminine dress with lilac sequins all over designed by Jovani.
Nicole Scherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos step out onto the X Factor stage every week dressed to nines and fighting to be crowned the most fashionable judge
The mentor of the girls category let the eye-catching dress do all the taking as she left her long brown locks wavy and kept her make-up simple with a soft pink lip color.
They were joined on stage by their fellow judges, Gary Barlow and Louis Walsh, who both looked dapper in their signature suits as they helped the ladies down the steps in their stiletto heels.
Gary Barlow stayed true to his gentlemanly style and opted for a classic suit with a white shirt, while Louis kept his ensemble all black.
Despite looking glamorous and feminine in her great dress, Tulisa Contostavlos was upset she had to say goodbye to one of the girls she was mentoring, Lucy Spraggan.
The popular contestant decided to quit the show last week, and Tulisa Contostavlos took to Twitter to express her sadness.
“I’m so sorry to lose @lspraggan from the competition,” she wrote hours before the live show commenced.
“I have had a brilliant time working with her and I hope I can continue to mentor her in the future.
“I now count her as a friend. She is an amazing girl. I love ya lucy, get well soon and my thoughts are with you. Xx”
About 25 million people have already voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia, either by mail or in person. No votes will be counted until Tuesday but some key states are releasing the party affiliation of those who vote early.
As the East Coast tries to get back on its feet after the damage from Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey has announced that residents can vote by email in the upcoming presidential election.
Flooding, damaged roads and power outages have forced many Jerseyites from their homes and the electronic option will allow first responders who are working away from home and those displaced by the storm to cast their ballot.
Hurricane Sandy, that barreled down on New Jersey and New York on October 29, has claimed 110 lives, displaced thousands and left millions without power for days.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his counterpart in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have been reviewing how to prepare their respective states for November 6 – while simultaneously trying to restore electricity and access to food and water.
Both states have asked power companies to prioritize electricity to polling stations this coming Tuesday.
New Jersey will allow any state resident that has been displaced by the storm to qualify as an overseas voter, meaning they can submit their ballot by fax or email.
New Jersey residents told they can vote via email as the Northeast scrambles to prepare polling stations after Sandy
Governor Chris Christie also mandated that county clerks open their offices over the weekend to allow early voting and has called for paper ballots to be sent to polling stations still without power.
“Time on your hands? Tired of cleaning stuff up? Go there in person, you’ll get a ballot, you vote and hand it in and you’re done,” Chris Christie said at a press conference, encouraging residents to not let the storm prevent them from exercising their right to vote.
“There’s no reason why anybody shouldn’t vote. We’re going to have a full, fair, transparent, open voting process,” he added.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has tried to address the issue of polling station power availability but told reporters that the Board of Elections has jurisdiction over those centers.
“They have known for six days now that we were going to have some problems and hopefully they had backup plans anyway,” he said, casting some doubt on their preparedness though much of the city will likely have power by next Tuesday.
Many counties in upstate New York are still without power but officials have noted that paper ballots are primarily used, so the power outage should not impact a person’s ability to vote but access to polling stations might be a difficulty for many voters.
After the storm swept through the East Coast, local officials assessed the damage and some actually wondered if the destruction was severe enough to merit the postponement of the presidential election.
But the idea was dismissed given the limited geographic scope of the storm and the monumental impact of rescheduling the decision day for the U.S. Commander in Chief.
Changing the date of a national Election Day, which has never actually occurred before, can only occur by an act of Congress, according to legislation from 1845.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have been given a glimpse of village life in Papua New Guinea.
A choir of women in floral shirts and grass skirts welcomed the couple, who are on a tour to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, to Boera.
The Prince of Wales and the duchess of Cornwall were shown crafts, canoe building and an aid project before a state dinner in capital Port Moresby.
Prince Charles, colonel-in-chief of the local Royal Pacific Islands Regiment, earlier inspected a military parade.
Dressed in the forest green uniform of the regiment, he presented infantrymen with new colors at the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby.
In a speech, he introduced himself in the local Tok Pisin language as the “first child of Mrs. Queen”, which brought cheers and applause from the crowd of about 5,000 people.
His words translated as: “I bring you greetings from Her Majesty the Queen of Papua New Guinea and from all my family members during this celebration of the Diamond Jubilee.”
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have been given a glimpse of village life in Papua New Guinea
The event also included an open-air church service, in which prayers were said for the Queen, while the local culture was showcased in dance and music.
Tribes from across Papua New Guinea were present, including Huli men with their yellow painted faces and Asaro mudmen, with large false heads and bodies covered in grey clay.
The royal couple arrived on the island on Saturday on the first leg of a two-week tour of Commonwealth countries, which will also see them visit Australia and New Zealand.
It is the fourth time Prince Charles has visited Papua New Guinea but the first time for Camilla.
During a visit to the National Bird of Paradise and Orchid Garden, the Duchess of Cornwall was presented with a rare hybrid orchid named in her honor, the Dendrobium Camilla.
At Boera village, hundreds of residents turned out to greet Prince Charles and the duchess.
Jenny Lohia, 24, topless and dressed traditionally in a leaf skirt and body paintings, gave Camilla a peck on the cheek as she placed a necklace of shells around her neck as a welcoming present.
They royal couple were shown local painting, weaving and pottery and toured the aid project concerned with the replanting of coastal mangroves.
The couple were guests of honor at the state dinner later, which was hosted by governor general Sir Michael Ogio and his wife.
