In the late late night and the early early morning,

TWO BLUE-RIBBON POSTS
AT HUGH HEWITT

Late Sunday night:

Today marks the 41st anniversary of the day John McCain was shot down over Hanoi.

Beldar provides a snippet from the story of that "filthy, crippled, broken man," John McCain, prisoner in Hanoi, who found that "...all I had left of my dignity was the faith of my fathers. It was enough." Beldar sums up:

Now, I don't doubt that Barack Obama loves America, nor that his own very different experiences and such challenges as he's faced have shaped his character. But gentle friends, I have also read Barack Obama's book, "Dreams from My Father." And in it, you will search in vain for any chapters containing feelings or epiphanies about America that are remotely comparable to what I've just quoted here.

Monday morning, present day:

Duane Paterson has a few words about polling, as done for public consumption by news orgnanizations, versus that done for private consumption, by contractors hired to find out what's actually going on (like, for instance, political campaigns, who are known to do "internal polling" separate from what the public hears about, which sometimes leads a candidate to make moves that the conventional wisdom considers odd -- like campaigning in states that they are thought to have a lock on). This comes from a pseudonymous contributor to the VirginiaVirtucon blog, but it's food for thought. (Or are we just kidding ourselves? We'll know in another week.) The contributor relays the findings of...

...a statistician for a well-regarded private polling company, ...retained to do a few Presidential polls for targeted states on behalf of a union...

They did Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Missouri. After mocking the hell out of the voter id spreads used by Rassmussen, Zogby, etc. (and this is coming from a committed Dem who will be voting for Barry O) she said the results of their polling lead her to believe that McCain will definitely win FL, OH, NC, MO and NV. She says Obama definitely wins New Mexico. She said that Colorado and New Hampshire were absolute dead heats. She said she thinks there is a 55% chance Obama holds on in Pennsylvania and a 75% chance McCain wins Virginia. She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing Obama leading Virginia...

...her companies [sic] conclusion is that the election will come down to Colorado, New Hampshire and the Republican leaning district in Maine, which in her opinion might very well decide the Presidency...

She said she has very little doubt that the public polling is part of a “concerted voter suppression effort” by the MSM. She said IBD/TIPP was the only outfit doing public polling that was “worth a bucket of warm piss”.

Do we dare pin our hopes on the "inside story" as provided by somebody who can't spell "company's"? Come November 5, remember where you heard this first-- then laugh, cry, scream, upchuck, or whatever seems to be appropriate.

SATIRE ALERT

Over at Iowahawk, where satire reigns (and rains) supreme, all 6' 7" of our correspondent slams into surprisingly diminutive (5' 7" according to his mug-shots) bomb-boob Bill Ayers.

But first you have to read one of Iowahawk's rare moments of no-B.S.-or-funny-stuff rants on the Politics of Personal Plumber Destruction to which Ohioan Joe Wurzelbacher has been subjected. Iowahawk is NOT AMUSED, nor are his loyal readers, who volunteered some pretty cool graphics to convey their solidarity in the "I AM JOE" movement.




By contrast, Iowahawk believes that bomber Billy deserves to be pasted, and so he is, right here. Laugh till you piddle -- and then pay it forward, or whatever.








By a mile, my favorite slice of video from this election year:




GOOD NEWS

MURTHA'S GOIN' DOWN?

I've made my contributions to this election very selective, equally divided between the presidential race and one congressional seat in Pennsylvania. It's taken a long time for any polling data to surface, and not all of it (any of it??? the perennial question) has been reliable. But as of this moment, it looks like my guy, Lt. Col. BILL RUSSELL, USAR (ret.), survivor of the September 11 Pentagon attack and veteran of both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, might just pick off that fat-assed sad-sack, war profiteer, Abscammer, slanderer of his fellow-Marines Congressman John"Mad Jack, Pork Rind" Murtha.

At age 75, it's time for Mad Jack to take up his sizeable spot on the front-porch swing at the home, drink Aricept cocktails, and contemplate his sins.

Please, dear God, in 2008, one point for the good guys.