Here is where things stand:
- Kerry holds a commanding lead in the battleground states, according to post-debate polling.
- Undecideds break heavily for the challenger, especially in Presidential Elections. This will only serve to further increase Kerry's lead in the battleground states.
- According to Real Clear Politics, which regularly fishes for pro-Bush polls, Bush is under 47.5 in states worth 277 electoral votes. It will be very difficult for him to win any of these states, including Ohio where he rarely travels anymore. He is under 49 in states worth 316 electoral votes, and over 50 in states worth only 202 electoral votes.
- According to the most recent polls from the fifteen polling firms that have conducted polls entirely after the third debate, Bush is only at 47.3% simple mean to Kerry's 45.9% simple mean. The median is Bush 47, Kerry 46. In the history of Presidential elections since there was public polling, no incumbent has amassed a large enough percentage of undecideds to hold on to such a small lead.
A lot can change in 11 days, and Mr. Bush may yet win convincingly. But we must not repeat the mistake of 2000 by refusing to acknowledge the possibility that a narrow Bush win, especially if it depends on Florida, rests on the systematic disenfranchisement of minority voters. And the media must not treat such a suspect win as a validation of skewed reporting that has consistently overstated Mr. Bush's popular support.
- GOP-funded company caught shredding Dem registrations and lying to potential voters in a half-dozen states.
- Minority and elderly absentee voters fooled into relinquishing their ballots.
- College students nationwide tricked into changing their political registration and polling places.
- Elderly Ohio voters wrongly informed that their polling places have been changed.
- Minnesota voters told it's too late to register, even though the state allows voter registration all the way up to election day.
- Disgraced South Dakota dirty trickster Larry Russell brought on board by the GOP to bring his special brand of voter fraud to Ohio.
- The most aggressive voter-intimidation campaign waged by the GOP since the Civil Rights era. (Including massive pre-emptive voter registration challenges designed solely to gum up the works and make it more difficult to vote.)
Prepared for such tactics, the Kerry campaign and allied groups have created a widespread legal network to reveal, challenge, and thwart such attempts at stealing the election. However, the polling narrative in the corporate media is one hole that they are unable to plug. We must try to plug it ourselves.
Email the four talking points I listed at the top of this page to as many news outlets as possible in order to make the case that either Kerry is winning or the election is tied. The key is to destroy the "Bush is leading" narrative, and dismantle consent to a potentially stolen election. This is not as important as GOTV, but it is important. Destroy the lie that is the narrative. There will be no consent to a stolen election this time.
