Is Another Split in Electoral College and Popular Vote Developing?

Could be. Look at these two items:

"It's almost as if the McCain campaign is conceding the popular vote," Chuck Todd observed on Meet the Press. "We're seeing a lot of tightening in places that while Obama probably won't carry them, he's not going to lose by large margins. That means the McCain path is solely now an electoral college path, and if he wins the electoral college, it's hard to see how he actually wins the popular vote."

Marc Ambinder elaborates: "Whatever happens, Barack Obama is likely to do much better in red states than John Kerry did and will drive up turnout in blue states... The upshot is, frankly, that Obama has a better chance to get more total votes than McCain simply by virtue of where he is already competitive and how large and distributed his GOTV machine is. Now -- in all likelihood -- if this vote does materialize, it won't somehow skip the battleground states unless they really are in a different dimension."

These guys are a little late to the party. Back on September 15th I wrote this:

Popular Vote: The electoral vote total would suggest an easy win by McCain in the popular vote as well, but I think there's an excellent chance that we'll have a split decision again this year with the electoral vote going to McCain and the popular vote going to Obama. A couple of things could influence that:

• Some of the very populous states that Obama will win such as California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts he'll win very big. The urban vote is likely to give him large margins of victory in those states. Conversely, McCain is not likely to win as big in other states - they'll be much closer. With large margins in some big states and close margins in many others, Obama could win the popular vote. If that happens, the cries that McCain's presidency is illegitimate will begin the moment the race is called. There will also be a move to amend the constitution to eliminate the electoral college, a move that will fail.
• Secondly, if McCain is doing very well early in the evening, especially if there are early calls in his favor for states like Florida, Ohio and especially Pennsylvania, Republicans in the west might just figure the race is over, McCain wins, and they don't need to make a late trip to the polls. That could also skew vote totals to Obama.
• With that second point in mind and looking at 2000 as an example, I expect the networks to make quick calls on any state Obama will win and slow calls on any state McCain will win. I also expect to hear about exit polls showing Obama winning some states that will in fact go to McCain (the "Bradley effect").

A loss in both the electoral college and the popular vote would cause the heads of the Obama partisans to explode. A loss in the electoral college but a decisive win in the popular vote would cause mass suicides around the country. If that happens, don't walk under any bridges or tall buildings. It'll be raining Democrats.

For sheer entertainment value, I can't think of anything that would be more fun than McCain winning the presidency while Obama gets a big win in popular vote. Get some popcorn and a Coke and sit back and enjoy it.