PPP has a new poll out today showing Barack Obama beating John McCain by 11 points in Ohio, or 50-39. In March, PPP showed McCain beating Obama by 49-41.

For all the talk about the economy, Iraq is still a central issue in the 2008 election. And the most important issue in Iraq is the future relationship between the US and the Iraqi government. This question was driven home by what many interpreted as a gaffe by McCain when he said "it doesn't matter" when US troops return home. As he has said before, John McCain envisions a permanent and large-scale occupation along the lines of Korea and Germany. Hw also imagines that occupation to be peaceful and blessed by the Iraqi government and Iraqi people as a whole.

John McCain suffers from low enthusiasm in his own party. A Diageo poll today found that 45% of Republicans are dissatisfied with John McCain as their nominee (30% of Dems are dissatisfied with Obama). This is three months after he clinched the nomination, so there should be no holdover hard feelings. Republicans just don't like him. They may vote for him, but they may stay home and they probably won't do the extra legwork for him.

No, I don't mean this in terms of age or "oldness." I mean this in terms of campaign style. Fred Thompson threw away what could have been a sure nomination. All the GOP bigwigs loved him. He was a true conservative Republican, Southern and breathed gravitas. He was, as many hopeful Republicans claimed, a "Southern-fried Reagan." Here in East Tennessee there were Fred 08 stickers everywhere.

For all the talk of John McCain eating into the Democratic base, siphoning off angry Hillary Clinton supporters, the latest Rasmussen poll gives that whole meme the kabosh. John McCain secures the support of six percent of Democrats. That's right: 6.

Receiving daily emails from David Plouffe, Campaign Manager for Barack Obama, I often wondered who the hell he was.  I couldn't even pronounce his name and I never heard a peep about him in the media. It was always David Axelrod or Bill Burton, but never David Plouffe.

The best indication of party consolidation behind Barack Obama is the immediate bounce he received today in the Rasmussen Presidential Election tracking poll. According to Rasmussen, Obama now leads McCain by 8 points: 48-40, by far the largest ever. With leaners included, it's 50-43.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c ontent/politics/election_20082/2008_pres idential_election/daily_presidential_tra cking_poll

There is a peculiar new breed of troll around here and many other progressive blog. This troll serves one purpose: to foment discontent between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters and encourage angry Democrats to support John McCain. Never mind that polling shows the number of "McCainocrats" to be very small by historical standards, the new Operation Chaos types will try anyway.

I call these folks Astrotrolls, because their styles are so predictable. So how do we identify this new breed of Astrotroll