>>>>>http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/
>>>>>
>>>>>The Friday-Sunday poll, mostly conducted as Obama was returning from his much-publicized overseas trip and released just this hour, shows McCain now ahead 49%-45% among voters that Gallup believes are most likely to go to the polls in November. In late June, he was behind among likely voters, 50%-44%.
>>>>>
>>>>>The title should be 'USA TODAY/Gallup Poll'
>>>>
>>>>I heard this last night. What I just found, thanks to your link, is that "likely voters" isn't people who say they plan to vote, but a more complicated measure. I suspect that in this election, it will turn out to be less meaningful than usual, as many people how are not generally likely to vote have been engaged this year.
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>It will be nice if we see the same turnout in the election that we saw in the primary... Unprecedented number of people voting for a change, regardless of which candidate wins the election.
>>
>>We'll see how many really want change. They won't be voting for McCain, that's for sure, other than him being Not Bush. I also expect a huge turnout in November.
>>
>>You want to know what I am really hoping? Yeah, I know, I'm naive (not being sarcastic this time). I just want them to run as who they really are. To me the appeal of both candidates was that they were their own men. They had something to say and the great mass of disgusted, depoliticized people in the middle of the ideology spectrum responded. They (we) saw a glimpse of something different, in both candidates. I hope it wasn't just an illusion. I hope we don't wind up on January 20 swearing in the guy who had cleverer handlers.
>
>That's a very good point. Who is to say that the image and policies presented before the election are really each candidate's goals or something they present to the public in order to get elected? Are candidates just so power greedy that they will promise anything to gain the greatest number of votes or are they playing a game with a true intention of doing really what they feel in their hearts is best for this country but espousing those views wouldn't get them elected? If that is the case, is it fair to the public? Isn't it just another way of manipulating the system? Or does the benefit to the greater good in their minds after election outweigh the methods of getting there? Or are their current promises and policies what they really plan to put into effect? With McCain, if he did a 180 from his years in service, it would be questioned. With Obama, he doesn't have enough history to judge. They have both refined their positions (to put it midly) over the past few months.

It's good to see you putting things midly <g> again. You really did seem like you were over there with John H. and the other unreconstructed for a while.

Obama is to an extent an empty vessel, as his detractors allege. Pour into the vessel your hopes and dreams and they will fit. Very thin record. My instinct, which I rely on, is that there is something unusual about him that goes beyond the glitz. I don't think we get candidates like this all the time. The great ones almost always do it young. You could look it up ((c) Casey Stengel).