Silly Season
| Poll Call | Change | Who’s Up |
| Real Clear Politics Average | Romney -.6% | Obama +4.0% |
| Talking Points MemoPollTracker | Obama +.4% | Obama +6.0% |
| HuffingtonPost Pollster | Romney +.4 | Obama +1.8 |
| New York Times FiveThirtyEight | No change | Obama +2.8 |
| Memo Average | Romney +.2 | Obama +3.7 |
Obama, The All-Powerful
The campaign is in a bit of a silly season. Speaker Boehner’s office is blasting the President for not taking personal responsibility for the drought! Expect them to blame him for the dramatic cooling that takes place in autumn and the sudden falling of leaves from trees. A reporter from Business Insider made the mistake of taking a fundraising email seriously. And there’s a rumor going around that Paul Ryan profited from insider trading in 2008 that was quickly debunked. Polls don’t seem to show any major shift in favor of either side since the Ryan announcement, but since Obama was riding high, we expect them to tighten some more.
Missouri in Play?
A new poll shows Mitt Romney only up by one in Missouri, which is rather surprising because the same poll shows Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill losing by 11 percent. Missouri used to be a bellwether, but as the only swing state that went for John McCain, the Show-Me state lost that status.
Ryan Helps in Wisconsin
You know that Paul Ryan isn’t particularly popular beyond the GOP base today. And he isn’t getting great press in Florida. But I suppose this is good news for the Romney campaign: Wisconsin is a little more in play with Ryan on the ticket. One advantage Ryan has over Romney is that he actual has only one home state he could lose. Romney has as many as four — Massachusetts, Michigan, California and New Hampshire (not to mention Utah).
Debates Announced
The presidential debates and moderators have been announced. Two of the moderators are female, answering the plea of these teenage girls. Right-wing firebrand Michelle Malkin quickly called the moderators “left-erators, no doubt because none of them has a Fox News contact or an AM radio show. It’s actually a little toned down for Malkin. How about COMMIE-tators!
VERDICT: We’re assuming Romney never wanted to hear the words “less popular than Palin” in his life. But so far that’s what Paul Ryan appears to be. The day goes to the President.
Image credit : Copyright 2012, The Associated Press
