Obama and the polls

As I lustily watch the polls, the Huffington Post knows just how to dampen my fire.

In 2000 and 2004, many widely distributed and quoted polls showed different numbers than the ones on election night. Now, the race is hotly contested in many key states and there are more issues at play than the numbers could possibly account for.

I don't want to say that it's too late for an incident to knock Obama off the top, but as we draw nearer to the election, it would have to be a doozy to have a great impact on the numbers (knock on wood). Few things other than concrete evidence of some sort of anti-American conspiracy, illegitimate child(ren), or murder charges could shake up the campaign at this late stage.

In other words, I'm not worried about something happening in the here and now. I'm more worried about race and the Bradley effect and how (and if) that changed poll numbers. Race is a complicated issue - this is the first election on the national stage where it's been in the forefront. Are there enough Americans trying to seem PC to swing poll numbers? At this point, anything is possible, I guess. However, pictures like this one make me think.

Presumably, we'll have to wait for after the election to see if race played as big a role as it seems like it could, but I'll be sleeping more soundly on November 5th.