WSJ Pronounces Obama Campaign Dead

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece entitled "Why Obama Can't Close the Sale", the writers lament Obama's inability to secure a lead over John McCain.

True, Mr. Obama enjoys several advantages. Republicans are struggling nationwide in head-to-head contests. Democrats lead in voter registration, and have a well-funded presidential candidate.

Yet Americans have not committed to Mr. Obama. Why?

Poor Republicans, if only writing of Obama's weakness would make it so. As I review five different national polls released yesterday (Gallup, Rasmussen, USA Today, Hotline, and CBS News), I see Americans are "not committed" to Obama to the tune of a 6 to 9 point lead over Senator McCain. The Rasmussen write-up notes that "this is the highest level of support enjoyed by Obama at any point in Election 2008". The CBS News poll notes that Obama now has sizable leads among women and independents and has pulled even with McCain among male voters. That same CBS News poll notes that Obama leads McCain in "enthusiastic" supports 67% to just 25%.

Since the national head to head vote doesn't actually matter, I'm looking forward to seeing post-convention swing state polls over the next few days. I'm expecting Obama's bounce to have put him back in the lead in key states such as Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and perhaps even Florida and Virginia. Even after these state polls show Obama with a healthy lead in the electoral vote projections, I still expect that the WSJ will continue to clutch onto their own version of reality where Obama can't get any traction in this race.

I acknowledge there is obviously a lot of time between now and election day for Senator McCain to reclaim the lead from Senator Obama. This race is far from over. That said I would argue that a respected publication like the WSJ should be at least somewhat honest as to the current state of the race. This opinion piece is pure Republican spin and is full of unsupported claims. How about a little bit of data to support the litany of claims made in the piece?