Remember Dukakis when considering this summer’s polls
It is not over till it is over!
USATODAY-There’s a connection between two very different stories this morning.
One is a serious analysis about why current polls that show Democrat Barack Obama leading in the presidential race mean little and the other is a humorous tale about the senator going unrecognized even though his face seems to be on the cover of magazines and newspapers everywhere.
The analysis is on the Tribune’s The Swamp blog, where reporter Paul West writes that like Democrat Michael Dukakis, who had a lead in the polls in the summer of 1988:
Obama could lose, too, if he can’t make a convincing case to millions of undecided voters who regard him as a stranger, despite the fact that his name and face are recognized around the world.
His campaign manager seems to say as much, describing this summer as a rerun of 2007, when Obama was introducing himself to activists for the first time.
“In many ways, it feels like, let’s say, last July or August in Iowa for us,” says David Plouffe. “You look at these voters who are going to decide the election in these battleground states, and they know very little about him.”