We are three days away from one of the two most consequential elections in my lifetime (along with 1980). So, it's time to go out on a limb and make my predictions for what is likely going to happen.
Presidency
Mitt Romney will be elected the next President of the United States.
No President since Franklin Roosevelt has won reelection with the unemployment rate above 7.2%. No President ever has won reelection with a smaller share of the vote than he got when originally elected to the Presidency... and no one anywhere argues that Obama will get more than the 52.9% of the vote he got in 2008.
The country has been in a sour mood for about four years now. Obama will pay the price, just like McCain did in 2008. They will have both paid the price for denying that the country is in dire economic straights. The big difference between McCain and Obama is that Obama is in charge of the country's troubles.
Yes, there are a couple of polls (Quinnipiac and Marist) that show Obama with a substantial lead. However, those polls have unrealistic turnout models. They are both projecting Democrat turnout at or above the record 2008 levels, when people who have never voted before, and may never vote again, turned out to elect America's first black President. We are not going to see an 8 point Democrat advantage in turnout this year. Averaging the 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 turnouts gives the GOP a 1% advantage in turnout. This would turn Obama's 5% lead in the Quinnipiac poll into a 4% Romney lead. In addition, in every poll, Romney is leading among independent voters.
Romney will get somewhere between 271 and 331 votes. I have a bunch of very realistic models that predict this range. It will definitely not be a landslide like Nixon or Reagan. But unseating a sitting President will be enough to give him the mandate he needs to get the economy back on track.
There is a small chance that Romney will win the popular vote, but Obama will win the electoral vote. This is an increasingly popular fantasy with the mainstream media, who are desperate to see Obama re-elected. This scenario had some credibility 2 to 3 weeks ago. But probably no longer.
House
Republicans will retain control of the House. There is no question about this at all.
The GOP could lose up to 5 seats. If Romney wins, they could gain up to 5 seats.
Given their advantage with the last redistricting, the GOP should easily pick up 20 to 25 seats.
They won't.
It demonstrates how incompetent the House GOP "leadership" really is.
Senate
The Senate should have been a blowout in favor of the GOP this year. There are twice as many Democrat seats up for grabs than Republican seats, and the country is in a sour mood. Unfortunately, like 2010, the GOP nominated many of the wrong people.
In 2010, the GOP nominated and won with great people like Rand Paul. However, they also got their ass kicked with the witch from Delaware and the religious kook from Nevada.
If the various Tea Parties want to have a sustained positive influence on the country, they need to be able to distinguish between GREAT reformers like Rand Paul and self-serving kooks like Christine O'Donnell.
This year, the GOP could have easily won Senate races in Indiana and Missouri. Yet, the are struggling because the GOP candidates in both states made idiotic comments about rape. It's a message to the Tea Parties -- not to be more "moderate", but to be more discerning (selective) about the people they support.
The Senate will be tight -- a small Democrat majority is very likely, but a small Republican majority is still possible, in spite of the GOP's idiocy.
My prediction is that the Democrats will barely retain control.
