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Friday, October 31, 2008

McCain ahead??

Drudge has a banner headline tonight which cites the Zogby poll Friday results which show McCain ahead by 1 percent. This sample of 500 folks is the first national poll since mid September that shows McCain ahead. Could it really be true? Is this a harbinger of the big swing towards McCain now that Obama has been outed as a true socialist? Most likely, this is nothing but statistical noise. McCain has been getting closer to Obama in the last week, but he has remained clearly behind.

My hope has always been that the undecided voters would break strongly towards McCain and that those who have waivered all through the campaign would also move back to support McCain. After all, the focus of the election for many months has been a yes/no vote on Obama. Did he have the experience? Could he manage foreign policy? Would his tax increases destroy what is left of the economy? For his part, McCain was a known quantity. People generally felt safe with McCain running the military and foreign policy even if they disagreed with him on Iraq. This means that those who remained undecided in the face of the massive and seemingly endless media campaigns for Obama were resistant to him as their candidate. Even those who at various times were for and then against Obama were also somewhat resistant to his candidacy. If the recent share the wealth pitch from Obama raises fears that he would make more moves towards socialism, it may prove to be enough to dissuade these undecided or wavering voters that they cannot vote for Obama. It would be a massive move in one direction at the last minute, just like the one that elected Reagan over Carter in 1980.

Let's hope it happens.

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