JAMES CARVILLE

Manager of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign; CNN political contributor

Extraordinary youth turnout will surprise many, but it shouldn't. Young voters will vote overwhelmingly Democratic up and down the ballot in record numbers. As for a surprise on Tuesday, the combination of Ralph Nader and Bob Barr's votes will affect the outcome of the presidential election in one or more states. We know that Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000 by siphoning off votes in Florida. The outcome of this election will not be affected -- Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. But how large will his electoral margin be? Much has been said about the "Bradley effect." I don't necessarily buy it, but why wouldn't voters who won't vote for an African American or a Republican (the GOP brand is at an all-time low), vote for a third-party candidate? Two states where they may have an impact are Georgia and Montana. Only Barr is on the ballot in Georgia, but in a state that only recently became a toss-up, his home-state support could tip the state's 15 electoral votes to either candidate. Their impact on even just a few states will surprise many.

"CALLER: You can't go backward, you gotta go forward.

RUSH: No. It's like I've been telling you out there, Steven, one step at a time. We drag Yosemite Sam across the finish line, and then after that we deal with the next set of difficulties, challenges, or what have you. One step at a time. Stay focused. All that right now is irrelevant rigmarole. I hope you feel better having vented it. Sometimes that can be therapeutic. But we're all dealt the hand that we're dealt, and we all have to play that hand as it's played. And right now we cannot afford Barack Obama. I'll tell you another reason you need to vote McCain is because voting Republican is going to help down the ballot, and we cannot, gosh, folks, you think Obama would be bad, you let Obama in there with 60 Democrat Senate seats, and that's when we've got some really serious work to do that would be very, very, very hard."



His audience is now 12 times the circulation of The New York Times, he tells me. 'And you can add up CNN, MSNBC and Fox, and my audience is 20 times that. They have no pretence of objectivity. They are activists now and they make no bones about it. CNN, MSNBC and Fox all opinionise. Like I do. They acknowledge this, and so it has become a battle between the two medias. The liberal media see this Obama candidacy as historic because race is a big deal to them. They think this country committed Original Sin. I actually believe that most of their support for Obama is that they are creaming in their jeans about the historical nature of the campaign. They want to be a part of it.They want to make it happen. They want a stake in it. They want to be able to say they did it if Obama wins.'