Yes, I did say, the LA TIMES.
Not exactly a right-wing bastion, that. But even they admit it.
OTB has the details and links. [1] And James says, also;
“Interesting. Kerry has had a couple of bad weeks and, presumably, Bush will gain further momentum from the convention. Still, absent major new developments, the effects of the Swift Boat controversy should diminish over time. Bush is going to refocus the race and give voters a reason to give him a second term; the convention speech is his next best opportunity.”
It strikes me that this large a poling shift means that voters who had previously decided to vote for Kerry have shifted… this isn’t just the rather smallish group of undecideds, here. This is a ground shift.
I wonder about a bounce from the convention, now. I had thought perhaps four points, a few weeks ago, but given the size of the shift being reported here, I have to wonder if, following the convention, it’ll be quite so large as that, even. I could be wrong, here, and in fact I hope I am. But I have my doubts.
Other side of the coin, here is that popularity, like infamy tends to feed on itself. The momentum has shifted… at a bedrock level. That much of a shift going into the convention may very well cause many to have a second look at the president… even those who had decided to vote for Kerry a few weeks ago.