MSNBC's Brewer: PA Senate race with Dem ahead by 13 points is “tight,” but TN Senate race with Republican ahead by 12 is “all but over”


On the November 5 edition of MSNBC News Live, anchor Contessa Brewer described the Pennsylvania senatorial race between incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum (R) and Democratic challenger Robert Casey Jr. as “tight” and “right down to the wire” just before citing the latest MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon poll showing Casey ahead of Santorum by 13 percentage points (52-39 with a +/- 4 margin of error). Yet moments later, while an onscreen graphic showed the latest Mason-Dixon/Tennessee Papers poll, which put Tennessee Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker ahead of his Democratic challenger, Rep. Harold Ford Jr., by 12 percentage points (50-38 with a +/- 4 margin of error), Brewer pronounced that race “all but over.”

From the 12 p.m. ET segment of the November 5 edition of MSNBC's MSNBC News Live:

BREWER: In the meantime, on to other news of the day, and of course, we are following for you big politics, big races, and in Pennsylvania, it's tight, right down to the wire there. The latest MSNBC/McClatchy poll shows incumbent Rick Santorum still trailing his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey. Right now, Casey is ahead by 13 percentage points.

[...]

BREWER: The final four, Montana, Missouri, Virginia, and Tennessee -- well, at least it used to be. Now, the Tennessee race may be out of the mix, with polls showing a strong resurgence by Republican Bob Corker. That race looks all but over for Democratic Congressman Harold Ford. Ah, but don't count out a wild card here; let's bring in the panel.

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