Is it really an election about fear? Ted Cruz thinks the midterms are about making a GOP-led Senate as conservative as the GOP-led House. The first orders of business, Cruz says, along with repealing Obamacare should be a series of hearings “looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.” Via the Washington Post.
New York Times‘ Nate Cohn says GOP’s early-voting lead in Colorado will be very difficult to overcome. Eli Stokols writes at KDVR.com that there’s still a reasonable chance that Democrats will catch up.
Nate Silver says we’re almost to the point where the polls would just have to be plain wrong for the Democrats to hold the Senate. He puts the GOP’s chance at 72 percent. Via fivethirtyeight.com
The marijuana midterms: Alaska, Oregon and D.C. voting on legalization; Florida on medical marijuana. The story on each race. Via Vox.
P.J. O’Rourke writes — and who would argue? — that Election Day is far scarier than Halloween. Via the Daily Beast.
Amy Davidson wonders what is the lure of yet another Bush as president. She writes in the New Yorker: “The odd idea is that, after one mediocre Bush Presidency and one failed one, it would be a matter of simple fairness to try a third. This can’t be what we call equal opportunity in America.”
Obama knew how dangerous it was to get involved in another Middle East war. But in trying a limited approach against ISIS, he is stuck again, Fred Kaplan writes, with allies who don’t help and potential allies whose interests conflict with our interests and another war for which there seems to be no good way out. Via Slate.
The Independent Journal Review — the website that is a cross between BuzzFeed and RedState — is winning the conservative Internet. Via the New York Times.
