http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765…

remains the stronger Presidential candidate. McCain is on the defensive, now more than ever with the current economic situation and the bailout attempt on Wall Street's behalf, responsibility for which most will say lies more with the GOP than with the Dems.

McCain didn't do himself any favors when he said Andrew Cuomo would be a good choice to replace Christopher Cox to run the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Obama has gone off the radar screen (the media appear to be hiding Biden to hide his successive gaffes). But the economy no doubt has given him a boost and can be inferred from the Winner-Take-All graph from Iowa Electronic Markets. Look for Obama to rise as well in the Vote Share graph if the economy continues to be bad news or if McCain flounders on Friday.

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres08…

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres08…

I have no problem with the polls as they are presented, as long as what they saying is the true belief of the pollsters or a partisan attempt to skew the numbers to help their candidate.

What would upset me if finding out that some of these pollsters were deliberately weighting the data to make it appear Obama was ahead to inflict more mental anguish on election day to democrats when they lose.

We witnessed this sick form of schadenfreude in a number of past elections and I, for one, think it is tantamount to teasing an animal with food that the tormentor has no intention of giving to the poor, unknowing mutt, drooling and wagging it’s tail in anticipation of a treat it will never have.

For me as an Obama supporter, it's another recent datapoint heralding good news. However, these tracking polls have flipped twice in the last 41 days, and there's no reason to believe they won't do the same over the next 41. Anyone who has begun to think the dice are cast at this point hasn't been paying attention. Elections are won through the Electoral College, and not by national numbers (as we Democrats were so rudely reminded of in 2000) so I won't be betting any money on Intrade just yet.