I think he should do about the same (54%). I don't perceive the Republicans much at all in MN. Obama should dominate up north and carry the cities.

I also sense a bit of disappointment in the Republican base that might keep them from turning out.

I am currently working on adding event to the game. This would mostly be candidates answering questions.

I could use some input:

1) How should the questions be?
  a) Questions about the party platform. Correct answers improve you poll numbers
  b) Questions about issues: Answers affect states poll numbers differently. Example strong conservative answers would help in conservative states and detract in liberal states.

2) I need some help finding questions. What questions would you like to see in the game?

Thanks for your help :-)

CNN's poll (which has more republicans than democrats) gave Obama a comfortable lead. This is more than I thought he would get.

Still Obama will not be able to capitalize as much from this as Romney did in the first debate.

The election will stay close and now it will come down to the work the candidates do in the key states.

Going into the final sprint Obama has a slight advantage. His job is to hold on to that advantage and take back some of the ground he lost after the first debate.

Romndy needs to keep trying to break of chunks of Obama's lead and not stagnate.

My full comments as usual on http://www.yourelection.net

I did work some on the election game during the debates using the debates as inspiration on how to work these into the game. More on that also in the post.

My first reaction is that this was a win on points by Obama. Romney did not shine... but no face plants.

It was the squiggles that dominated the debate for me, though. Amazing how much power a small group of people have.

This debate is on a much lower key than the last, more civil. The interrupting and in-your-face of the last debate is missing. It is not as entertaining as the sporting events going on on the other channels.

It is, though, more enjoyable to watch. Solidly stated arguments.

Still something more for intellectuals.

Romney is averaging negative on the squiggles this time...

Damn there I go looking at those squiggles again!

It is funny how obsessed you can get watching the squiggles on cnn. One almost really believes that this is how *everyone* is rating the debate. I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a small group of people.

I am really interested in how this debate goes. This is the tie-breaker.

Right now Obama seems very aggressive. How will Romney respond?

I doubt the needle moves much either way unless someone faceplants, which I consider extremely unlikely.

Faceplant! I love it, but you are absolutely right.

Both candidates could very well play it conservatively. No risks and hope the other side blunders or faceplants :-)

That is of course if both side feel comfortable where they are in the polls. If one side is uncomfortable they might be more willing to take risks.

I am predicting that they will both play it safe.

Updated the game again to day. Added two new features:

1) Cancel button for actions (in case you change your mind)
2) Action information include the actual cost of an action

Over all Obama definitely had the advantage in this debate, just a slight one but he should stop the slide he took after the last debate.

One for Romney, one slightly for Obama will make the third debate very interesting or maybe not if both play it conservatively.

My full comments on the second debate at http://www.yourelection.net

CNN this time is admitting right upfront that their poll is Republican biased.

That makes it difficult to really look at the results objectively.

The quality of the debates is improving.  This debate was also lively and intense. Both candidates were present this time.

From what I saw Obama held his own this time and even put Romney on the ropes.

One major misstep from Romney was his mistake on what the president said in the Rose Garden.

Watching CNN, my impression is that they want to avoid this, but it seems that this is going to get a lot more attention than the rest of the debate.

Other than that there was no decisive winner. Since Obama did much better than the last debate he should look more like the winner this time.

I forgot to mention it but I updated the game again last Monday. I made some minor improvements to the selection of campaign activities and added a line graph to show past poll result.

The next update should be finished by Sunday or at the latest the middle of next week.

Plans are to add information about the selected action (cost) to the state pop ups and to add a "cancel" button so that if you want to change your actions, you can.

Simply put the vice presidential debate was better because it captured peoples attention. Biden was aggressive and that makes it interesting. No one is really interested in a civil, intellectual debate. They want to see action.

We more or less know the positions of the two campaigns. We want to see who is feistier, who can win the fight. We are looking for leaders that are strong and give us the impression that they will stand up for what we want.

Biden went after Ryan (and went a little overboard), Ryan held his own and countered Biden's attacks. That made it interesting and exciting to watch.

The snap poll also show that the debate was more or less a tie. Biden may have soothed the democratic base and Ryan did not screw up the Romney lead from the last debate, but in the end this debate will not have much of an effect.

The next debates on the other had could be decisive. It could be a cliff hanger until November

More of my comments on the debate at http://www.yourelection.net

Just got finished watching the debate and my first impression is that it was much more lively than the first debate.

The quality of the discussion was also better than the former debate.

Joe Biden was feisty, went overboard a little, but put energy into the event.

Ryan held his own, no-deer-in-headlights moments. He did although have problems holding his own. Maybe you could just say he was calmer.

What will go over better we'll have to see.

All-in-all an interesting and energetic event.

Following the debate and the commentaries afterwards by the "experts" on cnn, it is quite clear that Romney won this debate and won it quite clearly. The flash polls are clear. Even the democratic pundits give Romney the win.

I am not sure what affect this will have for Romney. He seems to have difficulties taking advantage of the wins he has had. Still it will throw a wrench in President Obama's campaign.

Romney will need to build off this success and avoid any further gaffs. Obama will need to work harder on the Presidents performance in the future debates.

My complete thoughts about the debate can be found at www.yourelection.net

I have CNN on and a notebook for the rest.

That is very likely.

It is better to play it safe and hope your opponent messes up than to take a risk and hope to score.

I guess its like a boxing match, where both boxers spend more time covering up and avoiding hits than attacking.

Hi, I just looked and there is one election to join at the moment.

In general, if you don't find an election to join create your own. We always need people to create elections.

Thanks
Craig

For me this also seems like the usual playing-it-down tactic used to lower expectations and make it easier for a candidate to claim victory in a debate even if it is a break even tie.

The way it was "leaked" to the press and the wording seem a little strange to me, but I still think it is unlikely that this was really leaked.

On the other hand, just not blundering in the debate is too little for Romney at the moment. He needs to pull off a noticeable victory to swing things around.

Well we'll soon see what happens...

For those of you with a smart phone, I just updated the election game. It now has a smart phone friendly version. No extra URL. The game should notice its being shown on a mobile device and adjust itself.

Let me know what you think!

I had them in the very first alpha version of the game. They added enough complexity to the game that I put the idea on ice for the time being.

How would you like to see third party candidates in the game?

This recent "gaff" by Romney may in itself not be that damaging, but it has been preceded by a few lest serious "gaff" and these keep adding up.

This "gaff" is boarder-line, though, and it is very close to sticking to him for the rest of the campaign.

Also I am not sure that his press conference helped him much. It might just have made the matters worse.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.