"The 2012 presidential election could be effectively settled shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, when all polls will have closed in three of the biggest battleground states: Florida, Virginia and Ohio. Quick projections of a sweep of these competitive states by either President Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney probably would mean that candidate will win the White House. If there’s a split decision or if some of these races remain unsettled for hours, the election’s outcome could stretch into tomorrow. Challenges to ballot tallies -- like in Florida in 2000 -- could delay the call for days or weeks. Throw out the national polls, which show a close race. U.S. elections are won in the Electoral College, where each state receives votes equaling the total of their two U.S. senators and their number of House representatives, which are apportioned on the basis of population. The candidate taking the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013, will be the one who garners at least 270 electoral votes. For Obama, early wins in Florida or both Virginia and Ohio probably would cement his re-election, given the other states he is heavily favored to carry that include New York and California. Early projections of victories in Florida and Virginia would get Romney off to a good start. An upset victory for him in Pennsylvania, where polls close at 8 p.m. EST, would signal he’s likely to defeat Obama nationwide." (Bloomberg)
"Anderson Cooper got his own October Surprise last week — his afternoon talk show is going out of business at the end of the season. The show, renamed 'Anderson Cooper Live' in September, was the victim of poor ratings and higher-than-normal costs. 'It was a very expensive show,' said one insider — $20 to $25 million a month, according to reliable estimates versus $10 to $15 million for an average show. The company producing the show — Telepictures, an arm of Time Warner — was actually losing money on it, unusual for a syndicated daytime show, according to sources, with little chance of getting into the black any time soon. The announcement last Monday came just hours ahead of Hurricane Sandy striking the East Coast and the news hardly made a dent. While some questioned the timing, it was, at least in part, dictated by the contracts local stations — like Ch. 5 here, which airs the show weekdays at noon — had with Cooper’s syndicator. Telepictures had to tell stations by Oct. 31 if Cooper would be back in fall 2013 — and to the surprise of many, the syndicator said, 'no.' 'The stations loved the show,' says the insider. 'It was a perfect lead-in to the early news. They were shocked.' It was Cooper, according to another source, who insisted that Telepictures announce immediately that the show was ending — not something that is customarily done in October, because the show still has seven months to run." (NYPost)
"Hang onto your handbags: the battle between the Burches is heating up. Tory Burch sued its namesake designer’s ex-husband, Chris Burch, today, accusing him of systematically stealing the fashion label’s secrets as he prepared last fall to launch C. Wonder, his own downmarket retail chain.Allegedly misusing his position as co-chairman of Tory Burch while developing C. Wonder, the suit charges that Chris Burch 'repeatedly asked for and was given full and complete access to competitively sensitive information about the company and its best-selling products.' A spokesperson for Chris Burch — who last month sued the Tory Burch label for allegedly blocking his efforts to sell his 28-percent stake in the company for upwards of $600 million — couldn’t immediately be reached to comment on the charges, filed late Monday in Delaware Chancery Court. Tory and Chris Burch started the company in 2004 and separated a year later before getting divorced in 2007. According to the Monday suit, Chris Burch used competitive information at Tory Burch to knock off its distinctive fashions and accessories, such as large-buttoned sweaters and handbags and wallets that bear big, brass-lettered logos. In addition to familiar-looking merchandise, Tory Burch claimed it was surprised by the look of C. Wonder’s first store, which opened in Soho in October 2011. 'The store copied the Tory Burch brand image — from the lacquered front doors, to the store fixtures, to the furnishings, area rugs and wall treatments, to the packaging design, to the merchandising,' the suit alleged." (NYPost)
"Election Day is finally here! Campaign volunteers are going door to door across the country to get out the vote, lines are spilling into the street at polling places nationwide, and little children are running to find ballots wrapped in paper below a glistening Voting Tree. It's all very exciting, except for one thing: We pretty much already know who is going to win. Not for certain, mind you. But the polls are not ambiguous. The Real Clear Politics poll average has Obama winning 303 electoral votes. Nate Silver has Obama accruing 314.6 electoral votes and gives him a 91.6 percent chance of winning the election. Not only that, but, thanks to Hurricane Sandy/Chris Christie or something else (Pitbull?), Obama has the momentum. Nevertheless, Romney's White House hopes aren't completely toast. Here are five ways he can pull off an upset." (NYMag)
"Ten days ago, in Nashua, New Hampshire, Barack Obama gave what had become his standard, sluggish 2012 appeal to a passive crowd of 8,000 voters. A week later, up the road in Concord, though, the confidence of 2008 was back. The crowd of 14,000 had that old Hopey and Changey buzz. Standing stage left were the Davids Axelrod and Plouffe looking very happy to be on the verge of another victory. He closed the campaign with Jay Z, who is obviously now a socialist. What had changed in the interceding week? Had Sandy jolted Barack Obama back in line, even as it had, to borrow Nate Silver's observation,'blown Romney off course'? Mitt Romney campaigned in the state Saturday, too, making an appearance in Portsmouth. The corporation running the campaign, Romney Victory, is made up of a bunch of people, too. Many of them were at the rally with the realities of the electoral college mapped on their weary but still smiling faces. 'I've watched this go from a start to a movement,' Romney told the crowd of 2000. Campaigning in the state back in January (it seems like eons ago), Romney had been the fun candidate, the confident alternative to Rick Santorum; that's when he was just developing his shtick for breaking into patriotic hymns. Now he seemed practiced, tired. Then last night he held one final rally in Manchester at the local arena with Kid Rock." (TheAwl)
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