Let's Talk Sense

Let's Talk Sense... is an e-mail newsletter mainly devoted to electoral politics---especially to psephology (the study of elections)---examining campaigns, their tactics and the targeted electorate. It also includes analysis of national politics, including projections of election outcomes state-by-state. In 1994 LTS... won a national contest sponsored by the Hotline, a daily political digest published in Washington D.C. LTS... picked 54 of the 60 closest races in America, and was the only contestant, among several thousand, to correctly predict the takeover of Congress by Republicans, forecasting a pickup of 50 seats. In 2000, Let’s Talk Sense… was the closest by a wide margin in forecasting both the electoral votes as well as the popular vote totals for the presidential race. In 2002, Let’s Talk Sense…was the only publication to state that the Republicans would capture the senate. On election day, LTS... picked 33 of 34 races, missing only South Dakota, which was decided by 550 votes. No other publication was even close, either year.

There is special focus on New Mexico. The goal is to examine questions logically and think through the issues of the day. Asking the questions: "Does the popular media analysis (of a given issue) make sense? Or is it thoughtless sensationalism?" are key starting points for most of what is found in Let's Talk Sense.... Of the nearly 23,000 subscribers, more than 5,600 are from southeastern New Mexico, out of a total of some 18,000 New Mexicans statewide. Nearly 5,000 subscribers are from out of state, with nearly 100 outside the United States.

The title "Let's Talk Sense..." (also referred to as "LTS...") is taken from a 1952 speech by Adlai Stevenson when he accepted the Democrat nomination for President. He said,

"Let's talk sense to the American people. Let's tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains... Let's tell them that...the walls of ignorance...must be stormed directly by the hosts of courage, of morality and of vision, standing shoulder to shoulder, unafraid of ugly truth, contemptuous of lies, half truths, circuses and demagoguery."

NOTE: Senator Adair is no particular admirer of Adlai Stevenson, and would not have voted for him in his two contests against Eisenhower (Senator Adair was as yet unborn during the first contest, and was two years old during the 1956 campaign), however he believes the rhetoric cited above is often apropos in discussing American politics. And it is his constant, continual goal to talk sense to the people of New Mexico.