August 20th, 2008
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(NOTE: This post from early this morning has been bumped up to gain wider readership of updates based on data released later in the day.)
A new Zogby poll commissioned by the British wire service Reuters SHOWS John McCain with a lead of 5 percentage points over Barack Obama.
The poll, which was conducted Thursday through Saturday, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Perhaps the most surprising element of the survey is McCain’s 9-point lead on the question of which candidate can better handle the economy.
Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg POLL conducted Friday through Monday has Obama up by 2 points, which is within the margin of error.
UPDATE: The latest Gallup and Rasmussen daily tracking polls have Obama up by one point, which is tantamount to a dead heat.
UPDATE II: A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released tonight SHOWS Obama leading by three points.
UPDATE III: Here’s why Obama’s still in pretty good shape, even taking into account the new polls released today in which McCain is said to have gained ground:
If we give McCain all the electoral votes from the states where he’s running strongly, and all the electoral votes from the states that are only leaning his way, and two-thirds of the electoral votes from the states considered toss-ups at this time — and even one-third of the electoral votes from states that currently are leaning toward Obama — McCain still loses the election.
Remember, folks, the electoral votes are what count, not the national polls. Ask Al Gore about that.
UPDATE IV: The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also SHOWS that voters, by a six-to-one margin, see McCain as the more negative campaigner.
This relates to a POST I had earlier today on “The smear gap,” and ANOTHER ONE on lame excuses for McCain’s negative campaign.
UPDATE V: There’s also a new CBS/New York Times poll out tonight, and it SHOWS Obama up by three points.
August 20th, 2008
This one links John McCain to former political wunderkind Ralph Reed, a crony of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff:
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August 20th, 2008
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The word from such establishment pundits as Andrea Mitchell, Roger Simon, David Brooks and Howard Fineman is that John McCain is just a prince of a guy who’s been forced into unseemly campaign tactics by the liberal media and those low-life bloggers.
It’s a….it’s a darn….I’m sorry, but this situation is so tragic that I can hardly keep my composure long enough to address the matter. I’m afraid you’ll have to read about it HERE.
August 20th, 2008
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A scientific survey released today shows that most Americans are fed up with politicians exploiting patriotism “in a cheap and empty way” and prefer Barack Obama’s framing of patriotism as activism over John McCain’s more traditional approach of honoring the nation’s past.
Yet, while majorities consider both presidential candidates to be patriotic, McCain leads Obama on that score by 18 percentage points.
The story is HERE.
August 20th, 2008
 
I guess they figure THIS is a public service.
Funny, but they didn’t say anything about the Twin Cities airport men’s room during the Republican Convention.
August 20th, 2008
As this video suggests, Rudy Giuliani’s keynote address is likely to follow his patented formula of noun-verb-September 11th-noun-verb-September 11th:
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August 20th, 2008
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek SAYS a study of campaign ads shows that John McCain resorts to false smears more than does Barack Obama.
August 20th, 2008
Barack Obama’s campaign is running this ad in heavy rotation in battleground states in an effort to diminish John McCain’s standing on the issue voters say is most important to them:
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August 20th, 2008
 
So, it SEEMS that Hillary is out of the running.
Oh, well. She was a long shot, anyway.
Or was Obama’s use of a masculine pronoun just a decoy? Some folks are saying he’ll pick Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
UPDATE: Ralph Nader SAYS it will be Hillary, after all.
