There are so many great ways to make fun of Canadians.  These guys are real losers for failing to come up with any of them.  

Keep your stick on the ice, your legs together, don't get deked - Bob MacKenzie

McCain was not leading in the polls through the summer.  Obama led every day from mid-April through September 6, when McCain took the lead while basking in the glow of Palinmania.  Obama re-took the lead on September 18 and never looked back.  

It is not hard to tell what would have happened without Palin.  On August 28, when Palin was announced, Obama was rising in the polls and had just made a historic and incredibly well-received speech at the Convention.  The next day, the announcement of Sarah Palin took that event from the news.  For a few days, Obama continued to do well as the Palin choice was ridiculed, but still the speech and the Convention was erased from memory.  Then Palin's performance at the Convention turned it around for McCain and by the end of the next week, McCain was in the lead.  McCain took the lead because of Palin, and not in spite of her.

Had McCain made a more conventional choice for VP like Pawlenty, Obama probably would have broken away right then and there based on the successful Democratic Convention.  The Republican Convention would not have been a dynamic event, and would not have produced a significant counter-bounce.  The Palin Hail Mary bought McCain a couple of weeks of good polling, and then she was exposed and the polling came back down to Earth.  Either way, Obama would have won.

As to the economic crisis, Obama had the momentum before the crisis hit, and the economy was always the number 1 issue even before the crisis.  If the economic crisis had an impact, it was mostly because McCain's response to it was assinine and Obama's was reassuring.  That's what we call a superior candidate.

Yes, I still remember JA's post during the primary about how Obama had no path to winning the electoral college.  

And the one about Obama being the worst Democratic candidate since...

Didn't see that Indiana pickoff coming, did ya fella?

Surprising that you couldn't make a better case against the accuracy of R2K tracker.  Candidly, the fact that you were relegated to making these ticky-tacky points about the cross-tabs speaks well for the poll.

One of the good things that they did was air all of the dirty laundry of their cross tabs.  You point to cross-tabs that were 2, 2, and 5 points off.  On the racial breakdown, R2K nailed AA turnout, but overestimated Hispanic turnout.  The only point you make that is compelling is the independents/refused cross-tab, which always seemed incongruously high and ended up being so.

Also, the tracker fell down into the 5-8 point range well before the election, and so it did not fall in line at the last minute like many of the others, including Zogby.  On balance, the poll did pretty well.  The comparison to Zogby is not fair.  I suspect that if you had access to the cross-tabs of most other polls, you would come up with much better fodder to attack the poll.  

One thing that HAS been refuted is your prediction that turnout by party affiliation would be roughly even, with perhaps a small +2 or so edge to the Democrats.  R2K's +9 was much closer than your prediction.

I'm not sure what you want from Obama.  He's run several attack ads over the past few weeks.  Most of them seem effective to me.  I think the gloves are off.  I'm not engaging in any bluster, but as a donor I feel satisfied my money is being put to good use.

There's been a little bounce in his favor in Rasmussen and Gallup over the past few days. Overall, it seems to me the dynamics of the race haven't changed a lot since June.  RCP average on 6/11 was 4.6; on 7/11 it was 4.8; today (8/11) it's 4.8.  Remarkably stable race overall.  It's the idea that we're supposed to be up 15 that's misinformed.  That would be bigger than 1984, from memory.  Not going to happen with an open seat.

I'd love to see some polling out of OH and NV, where he is running issue-specific attack ads.

Chet Edwards is not a Blue Dog.

I would give anything to know engels' gender.  But I guess not knowing allows you, me, Senator McCain, and people of all genders and orientations to lust after engels equally.

We all know you will never leave here as long as engels is around.

You have to stay to continue the legacy of users with "purple" in their handles.

You were the Clown Prince of MyDD.  All the good ones are leaving.  Good luck.  

Might I encourage you to troll NoQuarter?  It's great fun.

Can I have your stuff?

I like this exit - leaving because your own diary made the rec list.  As Groucho Marx said: "I'd never belong to an organization that would accept ME as a member."

It's like a Dali painting.  You have to squint a little too.

What a horrible choice Lieberman was.  What were we trying to accomplish with that?

Who do you think is the wise choice this time?

Don't hurt him, Johnny Gentle!

I agree with you, except I like the electoral maps better when they look worse for Obama.  Obama is BAD! BAD! BAD!