Nate Silver, formerly of the New York Times, and now running the website 538, is considered a genius on statistics, and his predictions were spot on in 2012.
Therefore, his new prediction that the Republican Party will win six seats and a total majority of 51 in the US Senate gets a lot of publicity.
YES, it is possible what Silver projects, BUT saying that a party will win six seats and have a bare majority of 51, means that if he is off by one, then the Democrats keep the majority.
Silver may be brilliant, but he is not perfect by any means, anymore than anyone, so for Democrats to panic based on what he says seven and a half months before the midterm elections, is ridiculous!
If anything, it should make the Democrats work ever harder, and back with pride what they stand for, as there is nothing to be ashamed of, in backing ObamaCare.
Better to go down in principle, than abandon one’s beliefs, is the best advice.
Besides, foreign policy crises may intervene, and can turn things around dramatically, as it did in 1962, when the Cuban Missile Crisis in October affected the midterms, preventing a major loss of seats by the Democrats, the party of John F. Kennedy, who looked great in that crisis! The Democrats gained three seats in the Senate, and only lost four seats in the House of Representatives!
So, as Yogi Berra said, “it ain’t over until it’s over!”
Thanks, Professor for quoting one of the world’s best philosophers-Yogi Berra. Let’s hope that with Silver’s prognostications it doesn’t fulfill another Yogism: “De ja vu all over again” ; )
HAHA, again, Paul, you are so funny! LOL
WOW! Kennedy would be so ashamed of his party and even more ashamed of it’s lawless, failed, weak leader. So pitiful that anyone believes today’s Democratic party resembles anything worth saving, not that the Republicans are much better for the most part.
Dave, you show, again, total historical ignorance, seemingly not aware of the great hatred that JFK faced even before Dallas, and how he was pilloried for his religion, for his youth, for his indecisiveness for much of his term in office, with only the Cuban Missile Crisis redeeming him for many.
Obama’s equivalent moment was the killing of Osama bin Laden, who Bush II was unable to apprehend, but of course, you will not give credit to the first African American President, because of your own prejudices, bur remember that JFK had tremendous hatred facing him because he was Catholic!
Oh, Dave, and by the way, you seem not to realize how many Southerners, then as now, hated JFK and called him lawless because he took action on Civil Rights, and used a lot of executive orders. But of course, facts do not matter, do they, Dave?
Is this becoming a baseball website?
First Tommy Lasorda, now Berra?
As for your reply to Dave. Do you think you are painting him with a broad brush?
HAHA, I love baseball, JOB! LOL I was originally, as a kid, a baseball historian, before I became an historian of all history! LOL
As far as Dave is concerned, I am troubled by his ignorance and his narrow mindedness, as I do not like that in people, sorry to say!