I guess I should admit it upfront. We got the idea for this blog from Not Larry Sabato, who has done a yeoman's work blogging about the recent Virginia primaries. We suspect Not Larry will also blog poetic about the general elections.
So are we trying to steal Not Larry's thunder? Yes and no. America is all about ideas, and ideas need competition. Not Larry has an excellent blog and we are not trying to siphon people from his or her site - we are just trying to give all you political junkies out there another site to add to your favorites. I'm sure we'll agree with Not Larry on a lot of races, but we'll also disagree with him.
Some of you may have noticed that Not Larry put a high number of races in the "toss-up" category before the primaries. We think that's a cop-out. We are going to pick a side in every race based on the information we have, right or wrong. We don't think you all will care whether we get a few wrong. When we get closer to the election, we will also take a stab at what the point spreads will be. Like Not Larry, we reserve the right to change our ratings as new information comes along.
For those of you who want to remain anonymous, feel free to post your comments. If your posts are profane or consist of unsubstantiated rumors designed to ruin reputations, we will remove them. This is a family blog. :)
If you want to feed us information, feel free to e-mail us at notmarkrozell@hotmail.com. You will remain anonymous.
For those of you who don't understand the name we've given our blog: remember the little "fortune-telling" device that was popular in the 1980s and still has a high degree of popularity? For the uninitiated, the toy is shaped like an 8-ball and is meant to be shaken while you ask it a question. You then look at a little window on the bottom and it gives you its prediction. Here is an online version: http://www.funlol.com/funpages/magic8ball.html.
Why did we name our blog after this "magical" device? Because it says a lot about the process of predicting political victory. It's not scientific, and if it's anything like my own magic 8-ball, it's not always right. We're not going to sweat it though, because if the prognostication thing doesn't work out, we all have day jobs over here.
