.

Hey, man, guess what.  Dr. D feels like hitting the I/O button on the Mainframe and hearing that sweet, sweet hum as baseball's best blog revs back to life.  And don'tcha know it's a great feeling.  (Not that it wouldn't have lived with Bat571 in charge!  No disrespect brother.)

The Dr. D of two months ago used to always write what he enjoyed writing about.  I don't know if that's what they teach in college, but the Dr. D of today is gambling that it will work as well now as it did then...

Midterms tomorrow.  Here's a comments stub.  As we get back up and running, maybe we could use sort of an electrical check on the Mainframe's and the community's ability to run the way it always has?  :- )

One reason I think the Democrats could do well tomorrow and one for the Republicans:

.....

THE DONKEY WHO ISN'T CRYING WOLF THIS TIME

James, and many others, thought it would help to let up on the rac-ist, sex-ist, this-ist and that-ist rhetoric for awhile.  Seems to me that the party has done so to an extent, and this allows "air" for the populace to see Trump as less of a victim, or at least less of a counter-puncher, and to soak in his bellicosity.

We're all told you can't trust polls.  BUT!  How far can you mistrust them?  1 point?  3 points?  4?  I think the process is basically sound and forecasts like these can only be off so much.  These charts show the Democrats with a 202-194 lead in "settled" seat with 39 swing seats.  Republicans would do very well indeed to hang onto the house given the math.

.....

THE LAS VEGAS ODDSMAKER WHO FLIES BY THE SEAT OF HIS PANTS

This guy correctly predicted the 2016 election and makes a train-stoppingly convincing argument on the other side.  The gist of it is:

Back in 2016, I predicted a Donald Trump victory when no one else dared. Every poll showed Trump would lose the presidency to Hillary Clinton by a wide margin. So how did I know?

First: Size matters. You could see it in the rallies. Trump would attract eight-hour lines and overflow attendance at wild, intense rallies all over America.

Meanwhile, the attendees at Hillary’s rallies could have fit in my living room. The same held true across America. That was my first clue that Trump was going to pull a huge upset that few saw coming.

... I see Andrew Gillum, Florida’s Democratic candidate for governor, holding a rally with Bernie Sanders, and the place is empty. Barack Obama could not fill a high school gym in Milwaukee. I saw Joe Biden and Obama at separate events here in Las Vegas playing to small crowds. Meanwhile, I was opening speaker for President Trump’s event in September at the Las Vegas Convention Center — with thousands waiting in line for hours.

.

But don't miss the entire column.

In the meantime:  if you want to talk midterms, even a single-line potato in the pot, you know what to do!

Dr. D's single* line would be:  50-50 coin flip on Democrats winning enough of those 39 swing seats to take the House back; honestly have no idea which way to go.  The oddsmaker-dude's thinking has traction, but the Repubs need a lot of those swing seats.  Somebody help me out here?

Respectfully,

Jeff