Roro80, ChrisWWW, christoofar, myself, mhlradio, and JSpencer have all been 'down rated' for our opinions by someone without the courage to simply argue against our positions…

You're a real class act 'zero'.

As for Thursday's debate, the buildup has been so great, it's hard for me to think it's going to be the entertainment spectacle we've all hoped for. That said, I hope for at least one Tina Fey moment. And Biden had better not give much ammo to the GOP, because they will spin and twist for all their worth with whatever they get anyway. Am I wrong?

Don't get caught up in any single poll or any snapshot in time, because change happens so quickly and dramatically. Two weeks ago on FiveThirtyEight, Obama was given slightly less than a 50% chance of winning the election after a huge bump in the polls for McCain from the convention. Today, that has swung around to an 85% chance to win.

Who knows? In two more weeks, it could swing entirely the other direction, with Obama on the short end of the stick. A crisis, a natural disaster, a scandal, an October surprise? In any case, don't pay too much attention to single daily tracking polls, watch the long-term trends instead.

And I also gotta razz Joe, and agree with elrod. He had to pick the one single poll that was favorable to McCain, when literally every single other poll over the past week has gone the other direction. Take those blinders off, Joe!

Also look for Biden’s words to be carefully vetted by GOPers since a gaffe by him, an inaccuracy or a flip comment will be an opening to shift the debate from the economy to a personality issue again and raise up Palin’s positives by tearing down Biden’s positives. In a sense, the debate tomorrow is more about Biden than Palin.

I think this is totally overestimating the effectiveness of GOP operatives. For better or worse, the story since the conventions has been Sarah Palin and, more recently, the economy. After the debate is over, I would predict that most of the analysis will focus on Palin's performance. Biden merely has to keep his gaffes below Red Alert level and the public & media fascination with Palin will continue unabated.

We now have Time, Pew, Rasmussen and Hotline showing Obama leading between 6-8 points. Research 2000 has Obama up 10 and Gallup has Obama up 4.

All of these polls were taken the same time. The only other poll to show Obama “only” leading by 4 is the WaPo/ABC poll, which mysteriously added 6 points more of white, married people compared to last week's sample (which had Obama up 9).

No, the election is not over and done with.

But there is no evidence yet that the recent boost for Obama has dissipated.

To Joe and everybody else out there: don't rely on a single poll – good or bad. Use the polling averages. There are different models out there – RCP, Pollster, 538. But they all recognize that pollsters get different results.

For that matter, I'd say the same thing about the Quinnipiac polls of FL, OH and PA. If Obama really was ahead by 8 in OH and FL and 15 in PA this race would be over. Now. But we need other poling evidence before we can be sure that Obama is up by that much.