WASHINGTON — Barack Obama leads John McCain by his widest margin yet, according to a new Ipsos/McClatchy poll, as the two men enter their final debate Wednesday night, their last chance to reach tens of millions of voters at the same time.
Obama leads by 51 percent to 42 percent when voters are given a choice of only the two major-party candidates.
The last couple of presidential elections I've been very contemptuous of "how they won" post-campaign pieces. Both of those elections - one more than the other - were in "if a butterfly had flapped its wings" territory and therefore it was pretty stupid to over interpret the reasons behind the outcomes. If Obama does get into landslide territory in the popular vote, I'll be quite curious about how the Roger Simon types of the world explain it. Not that I think their explanations will necessarily be right, but I'll just be curious to see what they are. How will the center right punditocracy adapt?