Viewpoint: Texas is now a Toss-Up!?!

This sounds unbelieveable.  Texas, a state that has been firmly Republican territory for a long time, this year, could go to the Democrats?

This seemingly wild idea, actually comes from a site that is not known for it's wild, unsubstantiated ideas.  This comes from Real Clear Politics, who are usually somewhat conservative, at least in a cultural sense, when it comes to election predictions.  By comparison, Politico, NBC News, CBS News and CNN are still firmly placing it on the Republican side, although Politico, CBS News and CNN are all saying that it's only leaning Republican right now. 

The current scorecards for the race to the White House are very interesting.  All of them have Biden leading.  Real Clear Politics makes it 222-115, with both Florida's 29 Electoral College votes, and Texas' 38 Electoral College votes up for grabs.  If Biden were to win both of those states, then Trump has no way to win.

By comparison, Politico scores it 268-203, NBC News scores it 231-201, CBS News 248-188, and CNN scores it 232-205.  As of writing this, neither ABC News or FOX News currently have a scorecard for the race to the White House. 

It would be completely shocking, if the Democrats did indeed take Texas, even by just a handful of votes.  The Republican Party losing their single biggest block of Electoral College votes?  To many of us seasoned political observers, it seems to be anything from unlikely to impossible.  But Politico have noticed something.

In 2012, Mitt Romney won Texas by 16 points.  In 2016, Trump won it by just 9 points.  It's getting closer and closer.  Currently, Real Clear Politics has it listed as a tie for this year at 45% each on their polling average, but that just means that right now, it's too close to call, which considering Texas' history as a Republican and their one reliable source for a big pile of Electoral College votes, the fact that it could, just could go to the Democrats, will shake everything up if that happens.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Amanpour to leave CNN.

TV Newser is reporting the worst kept secret of the week.  Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN to join ABC News in the US as anchor of “This Week”, the weekly political and public affairs programme.

This will mean that Amanpour will finish at the end of April before Christiane takes over on This Week in August.

When Amanpour does finish, CNN should move Connect The World to 8pm, and put World One on at 9pm, before Back|Story at 10pm, all times are UK by the way.

David Duchovny enters rehab for sex addiction

ABC News in the US is reporting that actor and star of Californication David Duchovny has voluntarly entered rehab for "sex addiction". The former X-Files and Red Shoe Diaries star is married to actress Tea Leoni, who has starred in A League Of Their Own, Jurassic Park 3 and Fun With Dick And Jane, and has two kids.

Usually, these kinds of moves are a pre-emptive strike against a bad story coming out in the press. However, this could simply be a case of life imitating art, as in Californication, Duchovny plays a sex-mad writer. Perhaps he's having difficulty getting out of character. Either way, we'll have to wait and see what news breaks on this front.

Can't say I'm overly interested in the story though. However it is interesting, because David Duchovny has not had a major history of entering rehab, unlike some Hollywood starlets that could be mentioned.

Big Surprise! Another Republican under investigation.

ABC News is reporting that Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is under investigation by both the FBI and IRS.

Another story of Republican political corruption that Fox News will probably gloss over. But you can guarantee that they wouldn't do that if it was a Democrat being investigated. It would be all over every programme they could.