Opensecrets.org–Money in politics data

Swing State Project

A project to analyze the key swing states in the 2004 Presidential election.

Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

Election 2004 Polls – Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

Electoral College Calculator – version 2.2

BBC NEWS

“Bush Relatives for Kerry” grew out of a series of conversations that took place between a group of people that have two things in common: they are all related to George Walker Bush, and they are all voting for John Kerry.

[Thanks, Sally]

From http://www.electoral-vote.com/

One issue that has been totally absent from the campaign is the Supreme Court. The median age of the justices is 71. No spring chickens here except for Clarence Thomas, a mere stripling at 56. Here are the current justices.

Breyer	Ginsburg	Kennedy	O’Connor	Rehnquist	Scalia	Souter	Stevens	Thomas

It is very likely than multiple vacancies will occur on the Court in the next four years. The court will undoubtedly have to rule on cases involving abortion, the Patriot Act, and other divisive issues. If you are an undecided voter, think carefully about which candidate would make better appointments to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, a president makes far more appointment to the appellate courts than to the Supreme Court, and they hear far more cases per year. If you approve of the appointments Bush has made to the appellate courts, surely you want to give him the chance to make more. If you don’t approve, maybe somebody else should be doing the appointing. The next president’s appointments could shape the country for decades to come. It is at least worth discussing. If you have a blog, this topic might even be worth blogging about.

I lifted this table from page 14 of 16 in The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters (Acrobat PDF). Is my intent to paint Bush supporters as ignorant — well, maybe, a little. However, I’d blame Bush himself — how well does he communicate if his most devoted supporters don’t know his positions? This is shocking. mjh

Foreign Policy in the Presidential Election CFR – Council on Foreign Relations

AOL Presidential Match Compare Overview

Compare Candidates

US News / Special: Decision 2004 | The Christian Science Monitor

This electoral map is special because it lets you divvy out the swing states. You decide. mjh