Electoral College August 18

++We should have seen some movement toward the Republican ticket as they head to their convention. With all the propaganda coming out, how does it look?

++Nate Silver and his computer models. August 18th Obama 300 Romney 238. Obama chances 69.6%
Popular Vote Obama 50.8% Romney 48.2%

++Electoral Vote. Obama 284 to Romney 241. They have Romney picking up Florida, Iowa and North Carolina. I see North Carolina which is being bombarded by Romney and Superpac ads wall to wall. I doubt Florida unless Governor Scott can scrub the voter list of all Hispanics, Seniors and African-Americans. Iowa is right about even with voter registration today showing close to parity of the parties. But Iowans do not like Romney as evidenced in the primaries and he came out against the wind tax cut infuriating the senior Republican senator. 

++TPM Polltracker has Obama 275 to Romney's 191.

We should expect a raft of polls this week before the GOP convention. So we can measure the bounce--which historically should be five points. I don;t get a sense this year that the electorate is as volatile as 2008 when we saw greater changes near the end of the election cycle.

The person who claims Romney sold the Vice Presidency to the Koch Brothers was Republican operative Roger Stone. Paul Ryan is the Koch Brothers' favorite congress critter.

Nate the Great factors in several economic measures into his election model. He points out that the Dow closed the week at 13,275.20,only a few points short of its high just before the economic collapse. This marks six weeks of gains. The S&P is up 19% this year and 76% since President Obama took office. While a good sign for the President's re-election, Nate the Great says these numbers affect other economic indicators and may point to a larger recovery in the near future.