Scout mentioned in a comment she was feeling downbeat about the election. I've been downbeat myself.

Real Clear Politics, however, shines a little sunlight through the clouds. If any of you read that AP article, New Poll Smiles on Kerry, you may have gotten the impression that Kerry had the momentum.

And you may have gotten that impression because that was the sub-hed: Despite tie, momentum is with Democrat. Odd that a poll showing a tie could be spun so glowingly.

RealClearPolitics digests the most recent polls and discovers that, in fact, the momentum recently has been with Bush, completely erasing the Edwards microbounce.

For some more hopeful analysis, try this den Beste piece. He's predicting a "masterstroke" for Bush soon.

Similarly, The American Digest thinks this campaign has so far been like the Afghanistan campaign, where a lot of damage is being done to the opposing forces, hollowing them out, weakening them for a coming onslaught, but the battlelines aren't moving... yet.

I'm not sure I'm persuaded by either, but they're certainly interesting pieces.

And if none of that gives you hope, then maybe this will. We gots Jon Voight on our side. (Maybe.) (Skip down to end of transcript.)

Jon Voight. Hey, not too shabby. I shoulda known he was conservative-leaning based on his performance in Anaconda. I know he was "the bad guy," but let's face it, that hunter he was playing was so Republican it hurt. And, of course, he was much more interesting than the progressive-liberal girlie-men types on that boat.

I cried when he died at the end. He was a man with a dream. A dream of catching a 70 foot long anaconda, and then... uhh, I don't know. It was never really clear. What the hell do you do with a 70 foot long anaconda? You can get a Leno and Letterman appearance, sure, but it's not as if you can get rich by owning a big snake.