It's not the age of the man that bothers me, it's the age of his ideas - Sally Church

Long, long time till November, but I won't be surprised to see this rise even higher... - Internet's Tad

Every one of these polls is different. - Francine Hardaway

Promising but can't get overconfident. I'd rather pretend it's the other way around and continue to hustle. - AJ Kohn

Francine, this poll was taken yesterday and the day before, if I read correctly. I haven't seen another one this new. - Kevin Hessel

+++ to Sally! I sure wish we could have the McCain of 2000 vs Obama. - Internet's Tad

This seems in big contrast to most other polls that have a five-percent difference... and as Tad said, it's a long way til November... - Chris Reed

RCP graph: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls... - AJ Kohn

Tad: I think he's time has gone - this race reminds me of Bob Dole vs Bill Clinton - Sally Church

You're right, don't get overconfident, it's a long way to November, and it's just one poll, but I'm also a believer in enjoying big moments. This is a big moment. Wow. I have goosebumps. Exciting!! (And it totally makes sense. McC is all over the map trying to find some position that works, and none of them are working.) - Dave Winer

Dewey defeats Truman - 1948. Lest we forget. I don't follow polls. Why should I care which way others vote. I vote my own mind. - Michael Tefft

Michael - polls just let those who agree with them get excited. :) - Internet's Tad

McCain is at risk every time he opens his mouth without a script -- and often when he is using a script as well. He is not getting sharper with age. - Sean McBride

And you think Obama speaks without a script or being heavily rehearsed ahead of time? (57 States?) - Michael Tefft

Obama is one of the most talented orators ever to come down the pike, with or without a script, and is able to think and speak on his feet with eloquence and precision. McCain is almost as scary as Bush when doing public speaking -- he could fall off the wire at any moment. Just my personal impression, of course. - Sean McBride

Sadly back in 2000 McCain sounded much, much more intelligent than Bush. I really wish he hadn't sold his soul for the radical elements of the Republican party, especially his stances re: torture and the fringe far-right Christian groups. - Internet's Tad

Oratory does not get the job done. My vote goes to the man whom I believe best serves the interests of our country. I don't think being able to make a great speech is the most important skill for a President. - Michael Tefft

One man supports torture, destruction of civil rights, intolerance, and a continuation of the destruction of the country, not to mention putting us further and further into debt with China... - Internet's Tad

Repairing our standing in the world is important for a lot of reasons. That's not going to happen with McCain (e.g. - supports torture, follow them to the gates of hell etc.) - AJ Kohn

I really do think being a great communicator is at least 30% of the job skill requirements. A president has veto power, military command, and the bully pulpit. And that bully pulpit can be used to do pretty amazing things. The ability to give a great speech is arguably the most useful gift a potus can have. - Andrew from fftogo

A large majority of Americans believe that the United States is on the wrong course, and that the Iraq War (on track to cost several trillions of dollars) was a mistake (some national security experts believe that it is the worst foreign policy disaster in American history). McCain has promised to continue and even expand on these unpopular policies, which probably makes him unelectable. It's surprising that the Republican Party ended up with such a weak (and often mentally confused) candidate. Barack Obama opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. (Hillary Clinton was also undone by her support for the war.) - Sean McBride

I think things might well change by November. As Obama is more and more called upon to show substance instead of charisma he comes up as just another of the classic Democrats - the kind that have been getting stomped in most elections (other than Clinton). Obama is basically jimmy Carter with an actual personality. However his inexperience and the trail of slime balls he has worked with in his Chicago days might well bring his run to a halt. - Soulhuntre

Soulhuntre, I couldn't agree more. Well, except for the fact that Obama is basically Jimmy Carter. As tough as it may be to accomplish, I think Obama is far worse than Carter. But, if there's a silver lining, it lies in the fact that Carter was a one-term president. Obama promises to duplicate that. - Gregory Pittman from twhirl

You know, Obama's a lot of things. Jimmy Carter isn't one of them, even if the GOP would like to conjure images of gas lines and a decaying economy. That's where we are NOW, under the Bush administration. - Chris Baskind

Chris -- the Carter analogy seems much more apropos to Bush than to Obama, if one is thinking about the price of oil and the state of the economy. McCain supporters are grasping at straws with these kinds of statements and are exposing the intellectual weakness of McCain himself. - Sean McBride

mccain WAS the best the gop could do. the other candidates were mostly religious fanatics. only way obama can lose is to do something monumentally stupid. - Internet's Tad from fftogo

Tad -- it's too bad that a foreign policy realist and traditional Republican centrist like Chuck Hagel didn't have a shot at the nomination. Now he's being mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama, which sounds like a good matchup to me. You're right about the religious fanatics among the Republicans -- they have mortally damaged the party. - Sean McBride

Obama's foriegn policy is a carbon copy of Carters. Ont he bright side, a one term Obama presidency will do much good. It will stop the whining about the 200 election, show people that the Democracts really don't have a plan for leadership AND should shut up all the people who spend so much time claiming the USA is a nation of racists. I say should, but it won't. Any failure on Obamas part will be blamed on the racism of others and any criticism of him or his policies will be considered racially motivated. - Soulhuntre

To be fair, the religious zealots in the Republican party are well balanced by the extreme leftists and anti-democracy / capitalism types in the Democratic party :) - Soulhuntre

Sean: I'd be rather pleased if Obama picked Hagel for his VP. I'm *really* interested to see who McCain picks - if he picks someone sane, or someone who firms up his connection with the religious fanatics. - David Worrell

Soulhuntre, why do you couple democracy with capitalism? For heaven's sake, it exists from even before capitalism and it exists in countries where capitalism is a bad word. Thankfully, world is much diverse than market <b>fundamentalism</b>. - Krishnan Subramanian