There are even more new polls out and they show the same basic trend: Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on the descent, Republican Sen. John McCain on the ascent, Clinton supporters not yet on board, independent voters inching towards McCain — yet the environment and historical trends (a party that had the White House for 8 years usually loses it) should be absolutely poisonous for a Republican this year. The best quick summary is HERE.
One of the two will have to do something to break closeness of the race. In 2004 the Democrats thought they had a great convention but it didn’t turn out that way as the days passed, the polling numbers came out, and the GOP could comment on the Democratic convention. Are the Democrats ready for what’s going to follow? If this summer is any indication the answer is likely….no.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.