Don't Panic (part 2)

Gateway Pundit offers a timely reminder:

It's not like this is the first time we've seen this.
Polls always have the democrat ahead.

In 2000 CNN had Al Gore ahead of George Bush 51-40 in October:

We all know how that turned out with Bush winning a close election despite attempts by the Goracle to steal the election.

All these stories you are hearing about how the election is over and Obama is inevitable are gross overstatements designed to suppress Republican voter turnout. You need to just ignore it, and make certain that you get to the polls on November 4th no matter what you hear in the media.

Make no mistake - this election is neck and neck, and most polls are closing in on that reality now. The ones that don't are still trying to influence and are misleading, whether by intent or accident. A look at the most reputable polls shows that the race is once again within the margin of error. For example, Rasmussen shows several major swing states are within five points (down from as much as eight); the Battleground poll shows Obama by one point. Gallup shows Obama by 7-10, depending on how you swizzle the numbers, but take another look at the chart above to see how important that is at this point in the race. We know for a fact that these polls are weighted in favor of Democrats -- they always are -- and that they'll come around to more accurate numbers in the days immediately before the election. Just hang in there.

Here's the other thing you need to keep in perspective - history tells us that Obama should have a comfy double digit lead. In a normal election cycle with a struggling economy, an unpopular sitting President, and an unpopular war, the challenger from the opposing party should be way ahead. The fact that Barack Obama hasn't closed the deal is a huge indicator that people have some major concerns about him, whether it's the experience thing, the associations thing, the deceit thing, or whatever. By all rights, he should have at least a 10-12 point lead, but he doesn't. That alone is a big indicator of how close the race is.

So, don't worry about what you hear - those are attempts to influence the outcome by keeping GOP voters home. We saw it happen in Florida in 2000, when media reports called the state for Gore before the polls even closed in the heavily Republican panhandle. We'll never know how many thousands of GOPers stayed home because they thought the state was already done, but think how much hassle could have been avoided if all of those people had gone to vote anyway. Keep that in mind this election day - don't let anything stop you from exercising your right to vote!

Bottom line: don't panic! This is not a done deal.

There's my two cents.