THE UNICORN RIDER CAN BARELY EVEN WIN REGISTEREDS?:

NBC/WSJ Poll: '08 race turns into a dead heat (Mark Murray, 9/09/08, NBC News)

[O]bama holds a narrow one-point lead over McCain (47-46 percent), which is down from his three-point advantage in August (45-42 percent) and six-point edge in July (47-41 percent).

The findings from this survey — which was conducted of 860 registered voters from Sept. 6-8...

Nonvoters are the Democratic base.

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And you can see why their shifting to just trying to defend the Gore/Kerry states:
Montana: McCain Surges Ahead by Double-Digits (Rasmussen, September 09, 2008)

John McCain has opened a double digit lead over Barack Obama in Montana. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Treasure State finds McCain leading by eleven, 53% to 42% (demographic crosstabs available for Premium Members).

McCain leaps ahead in NC (WTVD, September 09, 2008)

In an election for President of the United States in North Carolina Tuesday, Republican John McCain suddenly and breathtakingly surges to a 20-point win over Democrat Barack Obama, 58% to 38%, according to this latest exclusive SurveyUSA election poll conducted for ABC11-WTVD.

In 3 previous SurveyUSA NC tracking polls, McCain had led by 8, 5, and 4 points.

The notion they'd be competitive in the West and South was always lunatic. The only remaining question is can he hold the Rust Belt.

And if Mr. Obama was a pretty inept candidate with a lead, the desperation that's setting in isn't helping any, Obama Puts Different Twist on Lipstick (Amy Chozick, 9/09/08, WSJ: Washington Wire)

Barack Obama says the John McCain-Sarah Palin policies don’t represent change, they’re “just calling the same thing something different.”

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Obama said during a town-hall style event here Tuesday night.

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Obama is back on defense (NEDRA PICKLER, 9/09/08, Associated Press)

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has found himself in a position he hasn't been in during many long months of campaigning - on defense against Republican rival John McCain.

With just over seven weeks left in the race, the candidates are running even in most polls, money and, it seems, even rank-and-file enthusiasm - all fronts where Obama had led for months.

At the same time, Iraq, the issue that anti-war Obama successfully used during the primaries, has faded to the background. The economy is voters' primary concern but, on that topic, too, McCain has made gains to start leveling the playing field.

Quietly, Obama Campaign Calls In The Cavalry (Marc Ambinder, 09 Sep 2008, Atlantic Monthly)

[A]fter a year of telling donors not to contribute to 527 groups, of encouraging strategists not to form them and of suggesting that outside messaging efforts would not be welcome in Obama's Democratic Party, Obama's strategists have changed their approach.

An Obama adviser privy to the campaign's internal thinking on the matter says that,with less than two months before the election and with the realization that Republicans have achieved financial parity with Democrats, they hope that Democratic allies -- what another campaign aide termed "the cavalry" -- will come to Obama's aid.

The Obama campaign can't ask donors to form outside groups; it can only communicate, through the public and the media, with body language, tells and hints.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 9, 2008 6:13 PM