2004 Presidential Election
Did the President's convention bounce scare you? Are you amazed that John Kerry is still hanging on? Remember the only poll that matters starts in a few weeks with early voting and concludes at 7:00 p.m. PST on November 2nd. So make sure you are registered and that those around you are also. Gently approach those you know that haven't decided yet (very hard to find). Try to encourage young people, single women, minority voters, and other groups that have been identified as apathetic over the last few election cycles. Put up a yard sign, do some phoning, walk the neighborhoods distributing literature, and send $25 or so to the candidate(s) of your choice.
Electoral-vote.com: "The biweekly Zogby poll of 16 battleground states taken Aug 30 to Sept 3 has now been released. It was taken during the RNC and many people were polled before Bush's acceptance speech, so it does not full reflect the post convention bounce (but see below). Neverthless, it is more recent than any other round of battleground state polls. Briefly summarized, it shows that Bush is gaining, but still has a ways to go. He now leads in four states compared to only two states in the Aug. 17-21 poll. In three of these states, West Virginia, Tennessee, and all-important Ohio, his lead is outside the margin of error. In Ohio it is a whopping 11%. On the other hand, Kerry's lead in Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington is also outside the margin of error. In Florida, Nevada, and Missouri, Kerry leads slightly, but the map shows them as tied because the numbers round to the same integer. I have gotten e-mail from some people who don't trust Zogby, either because he uses a new technology (normalized Internet polling) or because they don't like his results or because he is personally a Democrat. The technology is indeed new, but telephone polling wasn't trusted when it first came out (sometimes with justification as in the 1936 Literary Digest poll), but it eventually became the norm. Like all pollsters, Zogby normalizes his results to make sure he has correctly weighted for first-time male voters, single white women 25-35, African-American grandmothers, etc. It was for precisely this failure to correct the raw data that Rasmussen chastised Time and Newsweek Monday."
Taegan Goddard: "Missouri - Bush 48%, Kerry 42% (Rasmussen); Arizona - Bush 54%, Kerry 38% (Arizona Republic); Oregon - Bush 46%, Kerry 45% (Riley Research)."
A Curious Stranger is angry that Dick Cheney is so obvious about exploiting terrorism in the President's re-election bid. On the other hand, I believe the President is wise to drive the debate towards his positives and polls have consistently shown high numbers for his performance in the War on Terror. Will the voters become engaged in time for meaningful debate?
Blogs for Bush defends Zell Miller against Jimmy Carter on the basis of national security.
TalkLeft has a post with many links about the President's National Guard service. All of this is timely due to a piece planned for 60 Minutes II tonight.
Opinions You Should Have: "Today, shortly after Bill Clinton, fresh from surgery, started breathing on his own, John Kerry willingly went on Clinton's discarded respirator in hopes of 'resuscitating his campaign.'"
10:19:02 AM 
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