It's not just the lead. Bush has wiped out Kerry's post-DNC lead (of 7 points) and has now surged ahead by 11.

That's 18 points (yeah, I know you can add). Granted, it's "early". But that is pretty good.

Beats the alternative.

True. But I think most of this support is temporary.

Anyone read this from Glenn Reynolds's MSNBC column?

But the Dukakis parallels are hard to escape. And, in fact, even some Democrats are making the comparison:

A friend of mine tracked me down a little while ago to relate a dream. He was walking through a big office that he realized was the headquarters of the Kerry campaign. He saw a door marked "Campaign Manager" and entered, to see Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, appropriately enough, sitting behind the desk. As he drew nearer, however, the woman suddenly ripped off her Cahill mask, behind which was ... Susan Estrich, Michael Dukakis' campaign manager! At that point, he woke up screaming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5886604/?#040903

Bound to be a little bounce back – but hey not to worry – he’ll make us proud during the debates.

Shoot, with Susan all of a sudden wearing make-up – almost humanlike – and with her seemingly conciliatory tonality on FNC (I guess cause Kerry was looking soooo good once upon a time a coupla weeks ago) I was about to give her a break – except for that rasp…

Pretty confident from my perch here in NC that we can count on 3-5% though I’m still a holdout for a minimum 10.

An oversampling of Republicans could be the conscious decision to attempt to plant a false sense of well-being in Republicans at large.

Get them lax, lazy, sated, and ensconced in the idea of an easy win so they let down their guard and all that.

The Kerry ticket has no chance of winning where I live either (just beneath 'concluding carrie').

Addison is another SC guy? Where are you?