Apologies if this has already been diaried to death. My question is: assuming there is a record number of early voting taking place and taking Obama's enduring lead in the polls into account: (for example)
Meanwhile, the early voting trends have gone in Democratic presidential nominee Obama's favour. According to a poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Centre, Obama is leading 53 percent to John McCain's 34 percent among those who have already voted.
...who cares if polls show a tightening occuring on or just before election day? As election day approaches, shouldn't absolute poll numbers become less and less significant considering the number of people who have already voted?
The situation is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's dwindling hopes of winning the Democratic Primary in terms of pledged delegates with the final races in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina. In fact, it's even worse this time for McCain, since Hillary's argument for Obama being "unelectable" would presumably now be much easier to refute.