dole was very close in the polls to clinton at this time 1996.

it seems like a candidate is most popular right after he is thrust into the limelight.

i expect the difference between bush and kerry to decline from +2% or so in favor of Kerry (which is what it seems to be right now - see newsweek poll taken on january 29-30) to +8% in favor of bush by election time.

i also remember that bush was clobbering gore in the polls this time in 2000 but obviously by election time they were neck and neck.

Actually, I found this article quite distressing, despite the fact that I am a cranky radical in the sea of reaction that is East Tennessee, and should welcome any small piece of good news.

Why ? Because, in a classic example of the mass media's overwhelming capacity to frame political reality, each of the quoted interviewees cited entirely stock reasons for supporting Kerry and
Clark, and not supporting Dean (not that I am a
Dean partisan) -- Kerry's got the momentum, Clark's a four-star general, Dean shoots from the hip. Sigh. Yawn.