The Real Clear Politics Average has Obama at +.08

Obama peaked last week at +6.9 at Real Clear Politics.

And note, the current +.08 average includes the CNN poll that is as of 8/31 so still hasn't taken the RNC into consideration.  Two of the other polls only include statistics through part of the RNC with the remaining two including poll data post-RNC.

It will be really interesting to see where the numbers go by the end of next week when things from both the DNC and RNC have settled and even more interesting once the debates start.

It's almost as if they voted for economic depression and war

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We aren't even in a recession where do you get depression from?

"We have an infrastructure crisis.  Nonstop television showed us in New Orleans when the levees broke, and Minneapolis when the bridge collapsed.  But the governors and the mayors of this country every day see at an operational level bridges that are rusting away, and tracks that can't carry high speed trains, and power transmission lines that can't keep up with demand, and airports that need new runways, and water lines that need backup systems, and sewage plants that leak into the rivers and the oceans."

"If we continue to ignore these problems we are going to suffer more collapses, more human tragedies, and more economic pain, and that's just in the short term.  Over the long run we really are going to risk losing our place as the world's leading super power."

"China, Japan, India, Dubai, Malaysia, Europe, all of them are investing in modern infrastructure at higher rates that we are here in the United States.  But Congress is setting back and resting on its accomplishments of past generations, our parents' generation.  And they can only go on this way for so long before the rest of the world starts to pass us by.  And we are here to say we cannot let that happen.  We cannot hand our children a country that is crumbling from neglect."

An Obama supporter agreeing with Al?  I'm shocked I tell you.

My point was he could have left off the entire footnote and not used the word unbiased.  The only reason not to do so was because of personal bias.

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Or because he wanted to make sure some asswipe didn't accuse him of having a bias for posting an anti-Palin link.

I didn't agree with Al because I'm an Obama supporter, I agreed with him because he's right.

Point for the great William McCormick!

Vinny, good point, as usual.  It's true, and what's more, as you alluded in your first post on the subject, this time we're not running some dead wood like Gore or Kerry - we have Barack Obama - a guy who is great on his own, not just, you know, "He's not Bush!".

But I suspect that the "he's not Bush" angle is just a percaution.  Like... you know... there's a lot of conservative who are even willing to admit that Bush was wrong, and despite my (naive?) belief that people won't get hung up on petty things, I suspect there is a small margin of voters who are hung up on, you know, Obama is black, or he has a funny name, or they got an e-mail saying he's muslim, or they hear over and over on Hannity about how he hates America and white people and is best friends with terrorists, etc...  So, in the face of that?  You know?  By the way, he's not Bush.

Also, point of fact, in many ways, McCain is NOT Bush!  He's not beholden to God first, nation second.  He's not beholden to special interests.  Right there?  Just on those two grounds, I have a lot of respect for the guy, and while I wouldn't vote for him, I consider him a decent and honorable person and candidate.  However, his voting record shows that he does support the same policies that Bush supported, so... you know, when it comes down to it, while you wouldn't get what I considered to be horrifying religious trappings of Bush in a McCain Presidency, you would get the same policies.

It's true, and what's more, as you alluded in your first post on the subject, this time we're not running some dead wood like Gore or Kerry - we have Barack Obama - a guy who is great on his own, not just, you know, "He's not Bush!"

Exactly.  I think a lot of it is it's a quick easy way to position it...and a safe way to do so (bc Bush is so unpopular at this point). And old habits die hard.

Oh, by the way, Michael - to back up your graph with a personal story - back in late 2004 I came down with a massive balls-out MSRA infection - my body was filled with it.  Almost died.  I was in the hospital for two weeks, and they had to do a surgury on my leg to get it out and I had to learn to walk again, etc.

I had health coverage at the time - I was working as a retail manager then - had Blue Cross, whose coverage policy stated that you pay 10% of your hospital stay.  My bill getting out of the hospital?  $12,000.

Now, on one hand, sure!  Not bad - I really almost died, so that's a small price to pay to save my life.  (Most disgusting for an atheist like me?  Coming to at one point and hearing a priest reading me last rights - "just in case" as my dad later told me...)

But where was I going to get $12,000 dollars?  I was living pretty hand to mouth back then.  So I charged it.  So, now I'm still, 4 years later, basically just paying the interest on that ammount.

Funny thing - the month after I got out of the hospital I went to work for a giant Health Care company - whereby the same event would have cost me $5, so... you know... there ARE solutions in the private sector that the government can (and is, by the way) look at.  (Yeah, I met the H&HS guy at one convention.  The government is watching...)