Nothing else matters
I'm not too concerned about national polls. It's just more important to watch the electoral map and I think Kerry can pull that off.

That is, if the election is on the up-and-up.

How the election might be stolen or manipulated is the topic of discussion from www.inthesetimes.com.

"First is the likelihood of an October surprise. Bush's brain, Karl Rove, is widely believed to have a nasty trick or two up his sleeve. Pakistan may have trapped Osama bin Laden in an Afghan cave and could be planning to produce him just before November 2--three years after our leader promised to bring him in "dead or alive." A few months ago, Mideast press reports warned that trucks hired by the United States were shipping weapons of mass destruction into Iraq--for timely discovery. And the way has been prepared to postpone the election if we suffer another terror attack.

Second, 98 million U.S. ballots will go into computers that could be used to falsify the results--with no paper record available for recounts.

There is some evidence that voting machines turned elections in Georgia and Minnesota in 2002. A week before the Georgia vote, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed popular Democratic Sen. Max Cleland ahead by 5 points. He lost to rabid rightist Saxby Chambliss by 7 points--an inexplicable 12-point swing. Georgia was the first state to use electronic voting devices almost exclusively. In Minnesota, Sen. Paul Wellstone was a shoo-in for reelection when he died in a plane crash. Democratic former Vice President Walter Mondale replaced him and led significantly just days before the election, but Republican Norm Coleman won by an unexpected 11 points on Election Day.

With more states using electronic machines lacking paper records and more Republican electoral tomfoolery afoot in Florida this year, Kerry may need a strong turnout in the honestly counted states to prevail."

All of that is scary and of course, you can't put it beyond the thugs in charge to give the collective finger to the US populace. Let's repeat: all they care about is maintaining their power. Nothing else matters.