Good Blog Coverage of the Presidential Election

Talking Points Memo.  I'm sure many readers already know this site, but I expect many of those abroad do not.  It's a useful and intelligent site, that also doesn't mince words with respect to the Imprudent Wing of the Republocrat Party.  Meanwhile, as several readers pointed out, people outside the U.S. prefer Obama over McCain by a 4-1 margin, though, interestingly, one out of five have no preference or think it makes no difference--which it probably does not on most foreign policy issues, except war with Iran.  But perhaps some of those outside the U.S. don't realize that McCain is the candidate of endless war.

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, this fellow has some good advice on campaign strategy for Obama.  (Warning to the sensitive:  he's mad and uses naughty words.)  I just sent an e-mail to one of my colleagues, who knows Obama well from his years teaching here at Chicago, as follows:

Could you ask your friend Barack Obama to start running a real, slash-and-burn campaign against the war-monger McCain and the ignorant yahoo and serial liar Palin.  Maybe he could hire this guy:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Being nice and high-minded ain’t working, and I’m scared for my kids.

Thanks!

What is very worrisome about the polls is that there is some evidence that respondents overstate their support for African-American candidates when asked, but when they actually vote, latent or not-so-latent racism kicks in and they don't follow through with that professed support.  That probably wouldn't matter if Obama had a 10-point lead in most national polls; but right now, he's either behind 3 or 4 points or up 1 or 2 points in the national polls.  It's unbelievable.  (Even in New Jersey, heart of blue territory, Obama is up by only six points over McCain!)

SOME TIPS FROM READERS:  Alex Sinha points to an interesting site containing detailed analysis of poll results and their meaning.  And Joshua Robison points me to a useful, skeptical discussion of whether or not polling results on Obama are over-stating his results perhaps because of his race.