Meaningless

In Polls, Kerry, Edwards Both Lead Bush

It's way too early for a 12-point lead in the polls to mean anything--so why does the fact that Kerry leads Bush 55 to 43, and that Edwards leads Bush 54 to 44, bring me such glee?

It shows that at least 55 percent of the "likely" electorate (as opposed to the registered electorate, where I imagine Bush would be beaten even more soundly) is willing, right now, to consider voting for someone other than Bush in November. This means that calling him out on his record of job "outsourcing" and unilateral military response to "imminent threats" can sway people. That's very encouraging.

Not so encouraging: extreme close-ups of John Spencer on last night's West Wing made him look ghoulish. And fair is fair--it was just as lame for Leo to echo John Kerry's insistence that every day after Vietnam must be harnessed to honor the memory of those who lost their lives as it was to hear him echo the Bush rationale for unilateral war last week. The episodes aren't downright rotten--it was fun to see Ryan show up Josh in the Oval Office, for instance, and CJ's rout on the Taylor Reid show was amusing--but the overall plot of the show seems to be adrift. Hopefully the return of Tim Matheson as the ex-VP next week will make things interesting. Any speculation on what story CJ has to spin because of Hoynes?