Interesting goings-on from the folks at The Tarrance Group and their famed "Battleground Poll."
Top-line is not terribly surprising: a close race, with Kerry up by a bit (49-47). But what really caught my eye was the response to the question: "When thinking about politics and government, do you consider yourself to be..." and then gives options for gradations of "conservatism" and "liberalism". The answers were as follows: Somewhat/very conservative: 60%; somewhat/very liberal 34%, with 3% moderate and 4% unsure/refused. Yowsa! 60-34% conservative to liberal?? Is that really where our country is at?
While the poll actually did match pretty well for party affiliation, this spread seemed pretty extreme to me...and if I'm in a "glass-half-full" mode, I think: "Hmmm...Kerry's up amongst a poll of pretty conservative people." That's got to be good news if as I'm hoping/theorizing, turnout among hardcore Democrats -- presumably somewhat more liberal -- is higher than expected.
So what do you think folks: Glass half full?