Here's the most recent set of national polls. McCain is a longshot by just about any stretch of the imagination:
| RCP Average | 10/29 - 11/02 | -- | -- | 51.7 | 44.2 | Obama +7.5 |
| Marist | 11/02 - 11/02 | 635 LV | 4.0 | 53 | 44 | Obama +9 |
| FOX News | 11/01 - 11/02 | 971 LV | 3.0 | 50 | 43 | Obama +7 |
| NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl | 11/01 - 11/02 | 1011 LV | 3.1 | 51 | 43 | Obama +8 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 10/31 - 11/02 | 3000 LV | 2.0 | 52 | 46 | Obama +6 |
| Gallup | 10/31 - 11/02 | 2472 LV | 2.0 | 55 | 44 | Obama +11 |
| Diageo/Hotline | 10/31 - 11/02 | 887 LV | 3.3 | 50 | 45 | Obama +5 |
| Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby | 10/31 - 11/02 | 1201 LV | 2.9 | 51 | 44 | Obama +7 |
| CNN/Opinion Research | 10/30 - 11/01 | 714 LV | 3.5 | 53 | 46 | Obama +7 |
| CBS News | 10/30 - 11/01 | 607 LV | -- | 54 | 41 | Obama +13 |
| GWU/Battleground | 10/29 - 11/02 | 800 LV | 3.5 | 50 | 44 | Obama +6 |
| Pew Research | 10/29 - 11/01 | 2587 LV | 2.0 | 52 | 46 | Obama +6 |
| IBD/TIPP | 10/29 - 11/01 | 844 LV | 3.4 | 47 | 45 | Obama +2 |
| ABC News/Wash Post | 10/29 - 11/01 | 2172 LV | 2.5 | 54 | 43 | Obama +11 |
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
