Last night on David Gregory's Race for the White House he had on the McCain camps top economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin. (Most famous for boasting that McCain invented made the Blackberry possible.) Gregory confronted him with some pretty bleak polling data and Holtz-Eakin, in what is now standard operating procedure for the McCain campaign, straight out lied. (Or showed complete ignorance. They never seem to care which, so long as they get out the prescribed talking point...)
If you look at the only poll, the only poll, that called the 2004 presidential election right, the Investors Business Daily, this is a 2 point race...
emphasis his...
Let's go to the videotape...
okay, not a videotape, but here's the Real Clear Politics final poll average from 2004.
Looking at that now, and knowing Bush won 51% to 48%, those polls look incredibly accurate. (And frankly, I can't believe I was so sure Kerry was going to win!)
So what the hell is Holtz-Eakin smoking? And why didn't Gregory throw it back in his face? Surely he knew what most of the polls were saying going into the final weeks in 2004.
So now, let's take a look at the most recent RCP average . (I couldn't make the graph as pretty, but the numbers are downright friggin beautiful..)
Okay, no over confidence please! We all know anything can happen. Joe Biden, Barney Frank and some other Dems are doing their best to give McCain ammo for his final week of campaigning.
But let's not forget that this year it's been the Republican surrogates who have taken the cake for stupidity and attacks that seem to be falling flat with the voters. So I leave you with Holtz-Eakins final words with Gregory yesterday after discussing McCain's maverickyness.
Barack Obama has never displayed one moment of leadership. When (has) he said to his party or political backers "no I won't do that for you? ...and without that he is truly untested and dangerous.
What a dick...
Here's the link to the Holtz-Eakin interview. The poll discussion comes about 4:20 in, but frankly, I wouldn't waste your time looking at him blather on.