Guest post by Scott Hopkins
Remember a week or two ago when stories of panicky Democrats started surfacing, fretting about an election that seemed to be slipping from their grasps yet again, thanks to McCain’s VP pick and convention bounce? I doubt we’ll be hearing such things again for a while thanks to graphs like this:
It’s not just Gallup…Obama is now up in all the tracking polls for the first time.
The traumatic financial news that kicked off the week probably would have hurt the incumbent party candidate no matter what, but it’s hard to imagine McCain’s handling of the situation being much worse, with his “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” being an especially nice Hooveresque rhetorical gift to Obama and Biden that has reverberated through the week. If McCain loses, that “fundamental” statement may well be looked at as the turning point.
It also doesn’t hurt that Barack has successfully found his inner Clinton and steadfastly held onto his lunch bucket right when it has mattered most.
And it seems that McCain’s pains on this front aren’t near over. Krugman has an amazing quote by McCain from an article written in the Sept/Oct issue of the actuary magazine Contingencies:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
Indeed, if only the health care industry was regulated like the banking industry. Timing really is everything.
The first debate next week could prove to be decisive, either solidifying or reversing the current trend. But for now, Barack is clearly back in the driver’s seat.
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