I've never seen anything like that. In the process of five days, there has been roughly a 10-point swing (from McCain +4 to Obama +6 on the daily results). And it may be even wider, given Gallup's commentary and R2K's internals for the last few days Something shifted in the race early this week around Sunday or Monday, and whatever it was, it had some serious force behind it.
Palin's favorables are also tanking in the Great Orange Satan poll, and others have said they're starting to pick it up too:
What the hell's going on? Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Uh huh.
The Orange Satan has been tingling with rumours that an uber-scandal is in the offing. I think it's just as likely that McRunningJoke is seething with misogyny at being upstaged. He didn't really think this through, and when Her Imperiousness made her speech about a Palin/McCain administration he decided to remind her who the boss man is.
My guess is the press will try to swing it back to the middle regardless, just for newsworthiness. But if there's the mother of all scandals brewing next week, that's going to be fun to watch.
I won't apologise for wanting to see Palin's political career destroyed over the next month or so. If that doesn't happen she'll be back in 2012, and 2016, and she'll keep coming back until she gets the top job.
The planet really can't afford that, so it's going to be better for everyone (excepting wolves and polar bears) if she goes back to fishing, flirting, and mismanaging car washes.
It's not like they have to hold the event in a stadium park someone's back yard wherever.
I haven't heard of this rumor. Any idea what it's about?
Scandals are fun. Where's Vicky Iseman? I want to know if he was sleeping with her in exchange for voting her way. (And it would make for some wicked signage playing on the "Drill, Baby, Drill" slogan.) Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
The cancellations are real and can't just be explained by the weather, because some of the events were indoors. They've disappeared from the official website schedule, but beyond that it's all guesswork.
As other people have pointed out, Palin isn't being allowed out solo, which is just slightly unusual for an election.
Either way, I'm grateful to McCain. Palin's-mother-from-Bobby's-World accent makes me want to throw things at my teevee, so not having to listen to her is welcome. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Perhaps the voting public aren't as anaesthetised by the box in the corner of the room as the media like to think they are. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Also, there was that interview. Only the kookiest wingnuts could have seen that and decided she was ready for the job. Everyone else will have been imagining a giant flashing red 'WTF?'
From the GOS/R2K poll: And McCain's net-favorable/unfavorable ratings are starting to sink too (now -1), while Obama's (+19) and Biden's (+13) have been pretty stable over the election cycle across all polls. McCain's have fallen from rough parity with Obama (+17) to negative territory in eight days.
Caribou Barbie's continue to sink (now -7); in fact, she's going to be in Bush territory if she doesn't pull it up soon.
A few things: The sudden sharp focus on the economy should have an impact too, and, again, that's going to impact the Rust Belt, where the economy sucks more than it does in (say) Virginia or Colorado.
I think the Wildlife ad may be having an effect in the Rust Belt, where I now find it's been running for perhaps a week or two. Notice the state polling has had larger shifts in Michigan, Penn, Ohio, and Indiana than elsewhere.
Obama's slaughtering McCain in Iowa. (We all saw that coming. Iowa never seemed to belong among the swing states.) New Mexico snapped back after the GOP convention, and now Obama's beginning to show signs of slaughtering McCain there, especially as he's running up the score ridiculously among Latinos.
Colorado seems to be snapping back into the typical modest Obama lead after showing a modest McCain lead following the conventions, and it may actually be moving into slaughter territory, if the InsiderAdvantage poll is to be believed (it showed a pretty sharp movement from +3 Obama to +10 Obama as the national polls were shifting, although I'm not a fan of InsiderAdvantage).
Virginia seems to have returned to its normal state of a tie when you throw out the garbage polling firms and stick with the big dogs. And North Carolina has returned to a tight race. (Tighter, actually. And for the first time Obama's hit the high-40s. I didn't expect that until undecideds began breaking -- and I didn't think he could get beyond about 47% on election day -- but he might actually be able to win it.) Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Obama is persuading people at the moment. McCain isn't.
Until we get some behind-the-numbers numbers ;-) we can't be sure how Obama is doing it. My guesses are:
Rasmussen South -- yes, South -- Carolina (June):
McCain 51 (48) Obama 45 (39)
That's a net of three points for Obama. McCain's over 50%, and I don't think we can get it, but this certainly bodes well for other contests and lends credibility to the tight race in North Carolina.
Ras's tracker is officially out of touch with his state polling. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
I'm of the opinion after each candidate has consolidated his base the remainder decide using non-party criteria. Of these the most persuasive is personal contacts and discussions. Put it this way: an undecided (or ignorant) person who communicates with an Obama supporter is more likely to support Obama and the more an undecided's social group is for Obama the more likely to move to Obama.
It's very easy for the US public to pay attention to bullshit ("Isn't Sarah Palin cute? Don't you LOVE that accent?) when the biggest problems (war, kids getting their limbs blown off, people losing their homes, etc.) affect a relatively small percentage of the population and the MSM doesn't hammer on any one subject. This past week it's been ALL STOCKMARKET with language like DEPRESSION and PANIC and now Joe/Josephine Blow is remembering Grandpa's tales about people starving, and the public suddenly wants someone in office who can DO SOMETHING, unlike the current Pres. Retard.
How much confidence does Bush give ANYONE? LOL! In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
