It’s August and there are still acres of newsprint and hours of newstime to be filled. Something has to be published or aired. And in any case everyone agrees that we need a new storyline, right? So what’s it to be? The obvious answer – and the one selected by thirsty hacks desperate for any refreshment during the dog days of summer – is Why isn’t Barack Obama Doing Better? Happily a couple of national tracking polls have popped up that show McCain and Obama more or less tied. Juicy stuff that will furnish at least a week’s worth of breathless commentary… And nor is it just conservatives who are slyly arguing that not winning by more means Obama is actually losing, some liberals are also getting just a teensy bit jittery.
Elsewhere my friend Toby Harnden offers ten possible reasons for this apparent tightening. The one I find most persuasive is, I think, that it’s August folks…
And how close is the race really? McCain may have enjoyed his best week of the campaign but he still has some work to do.
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