How to do it

David Axelrod, the Senior Advisor to US President Barack Obama, and who knows a thing or two about elections, told a gathering of reporters before voting ended in Massachusetts yesterday, that "he thought Brown ran a very good campaign, saying that 'as a practitioner, my hat's off to him'." (AP via Breitbart)

Leaving aside the wisdom of making such a statement when your own party's candidate is presumably still fighting for her political life, this endorsement of Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Massachusetts' campaigning skills, is praise indeed.

I've touched on this over at Fivethirtyeight.com in the comments to this article, as well as in two postings yesterday [here and here].

Over at Intrade, if you think there's a chance that Democratic candidate Martha Coakley has in fact won the election, a $50 bet right now will net you $250 (you can buy a contract at 19.9). I admit, if I'd backed the Republican a week ago, I'd be sorely tempted to hedge by taking this up.