The odds makers at BetCRIS.com told Gambling911.com on Wednesday that John McCain will win the US Presidency. That was the daring prediction of BetCRIS.com CEO Mickey Richardson.
"He will win. We see the action coming in now on McCain," Richardson told us.
In fact, Richardson received a phone call during our conversation. Someone was requesting to place a $25,000 bet on the Republicans taking the White House in November. BetCRIS.com is offering bets on whether a Democrat or Republican will become the next US President.
At press time, the Republicans were now listed with +160 odds to win while the Democrats were at -200 (down from -250).
John McCain pulled ahead of Barack Obama for the first time today in several key battleground states and in a fresh national poll, posing a central question for Democratic strategists: why is this 71-year-old Republican in such a "change" election year doing so well?, the Times of London asked.
The answer:
In July Mr McCain revamped his campaign team and put Steve Schmidt, the architect of President Bush's relentless "flip-flop" campaign that so damaged John Kerry in 2004, in charge of daily strategy. He stopped the Arizona senator's freewheeling, and sometimes error-strewn, sessions with the press. The message was sharpened, the Bush model was adopted and they went to work on Mr Obama. For the past month Mr McCain has released a barrage of negative advertisements against his young rival, painting him as feckless, obsessed by celebrity and too inexperienced to lead. They stated erroneously that Mr Obama would raise taxes for working families. The commercials hit at the core of voter concerns about Mr Obama. Polls suggested that many more related to the values and background of Mr McCain.
In the past month Mr McCain has wiped out what had been a roughly eight-point lead enjoyed by Mr Obama nationally, and yesterday he was placed five points ahead in a Reuters/Zogby survey.
Bookmaker.com also was among the first to predict that Joe Biden would be chosen as the Democratic running mate to Obama and Tom Ridge the running mate to McCain.
Comments
It's Christmas for Schmidt (and McCain)