The Reverse Bradley Effect

The Really: Republicans secretly going to vote for Obama?

My 85 year old mother just told me she early voted for "that one." Not unexpected since she almost always votes Democratic but she very much wanted to vote for Hillary. She was upset that she may never get a chance to vote for a woman for President in her lifetime. But she seemed very comfortable with her vote.

But if a pollster had asked her who she was going to vote for, she might have said undecided. There was nothing undecided about it.

John McCain's Gambling: The Big Double Down

The Really: John McCain's Maverick sensibility extends to his love of gambling?

A New York Times article today investigates his political and personal gambles with lobbyists and contributors.

For much of his adult life, Mr. McCain has gambled as often as once a month, friends and associates said, traveling to Las Vegas for weekend betting marathons. Former senior campaign officials said they worried about Mr. McCain’s patronage of casinos, given the power he wields over the industry. The officials, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We were always concerned about appearances,” one former official said. “If you go around saying that appearances matter, then they matter.”

The former official said he would tell Mr. McCain: “Do we really have to go to a casino? I don’t think it’s a good idea. The base doesn’t like it. It doesn’t look good. And good things don’t happen in casinos at midnight.”

“You worry too much,” Mr. McCain would respond, the official said.

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Atlantic blog back from July 2008.

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From a 2005 New Yorker Article:
Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight. “Craps is addictive,” McCain remarked, and he headed for the fifteen-dollar-minimum-bet tables.

Also: On the day of the largest point drop at the Dow in US history, Obama in a campaign speech mentioned McCain's gambling and maverick impulse as a reason not to vote for him in 2008.