Slipping in Polls = Flipping on Rules

Since Senator Obama is still having issues with electability, he’s decided to try to go back to groups he threw under the bus and see if he can get enough votes to shove him to the 50% line.

First, there is this series of telling polls by Rasmussen Reports.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when “leaners” are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%.

source: 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

This is because they also find:

It’s worth noting that there are far more uncommitted voters at this point in Election 2008 than there were four years ago. The Election 2004 Presidential Tracking Poll showed that 92% of voters were committed to either President Bush or Senator Kerry on July 24, 2004. Only 8% were uncommitted.

This year, 37% of the uncommitted voters plan to vote for a Democratic Congressional candidate while 22% say they’ll vote for the GOP. But, when asked which way they’re leaning in the race for the White House, 26% say McCain and 19% say Obama. Twenty percent (20%) say they still prefer a third-party candidate.

and this:

The first nationwide survey since Barack Obama returned from his highly publicized travels in Europe and the Middle East finds that the trip had little or no impact on the U.S. presidential race.

and this:

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the nation’s voters say they’ve seen news coverage of the McCain campaign commercial that includes images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and suggests that Barack Obama is a celebrity just like them. Of those, just 22% say the ad was racist while 63% say it was not.

However, Obama’s comment that his Republican opponent will try to scare people because Obama does not look like all the other presidents on dollar bills was seen as racist by 53%. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree.

So, now we see another flip by the Obama campaign. I guess he’s decided that some of the voters he threw under the bus during the primary are necessary for an Obama win.  He wants to seat the Florida and Michigan Delegation restored to one vote.

Obama Asks Panel to Restore Votes

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE  AUG. 4, 2008

Senator Barack Obama has asked the credentials committee of the Democratic Party to give full voting rights to delegates from Florida and Michigan at the national convention in Denver.
The request is likely to be granted because it comes from Mr. Obama, the all-but-certain nominee, who now controls the party apparatus.
After Florida and Michigan held early primaries in violation of party rules, the party punished them by saying their delegations would not be seated at the convention. In May, the rules committee agreed to let the delegates have half a vote each.
Mr. Obama’s request is likely to cause consternation among party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar. Restoring full voting rights will essentially be giving a green light to other states to ignore the primary calendar next election.
The credentials committee is scheduled to meet Aug. 24, the day before the convention begins

I know I’m a cynic, but something tells me this move is not to restore the democratic party to its one man-one vote principle.  They must have had time to restack the deck in these states and now feel secure enough to let them vote.  Could this be part of the negotiations with Hillary?  I would love to figure out what went in to this complete reversal.  I’m sure he must feel secure in the nomination if he’s agreeing to this change at this point.

The bigger question, however, goes to Howard Dean and Donna Brazile and all those folks that were pushing the rules like they’d been handed down on stone tablets to Charlton Heston on movie set,  how are you going to spin this?

I’ve spent the last day watching a hurricane develop south of me.  If you look at the sky above my house you’ll see mostly blue sky.  However there are some very low lying clouds with a hint of darkness spinning back towards the Southeast.  These little spinning clouds are harbingers of something bigger picking up steam just out of sight of the little kathouse in the ninth ward.  I’m wondering if folks in Colorado see something similar around Denver.