The latest Reuters/Zogby poll now has McCain leading Obama by 5 percentage points, reversing Obama’s recent lead by more than that margin just a few days ago.
As I’ve said to Obama supporters and now say to McCain supporters, these polls mean little. Once the conventions are held, then they will mean more. But the only opinions that count are those that happen to be dominant on election day.
What strikes me, though, is the utter volatility of American opinion. It can careen wildly from week to week. A single faux pas or a clever zinger can seemingly sway an election. That’s a climate ripe for demagoguery and thus, potentially, tyranny.
Certainly the day to day persuasion of the electorate is what a campaign is all about. It looks like Obama is no longer inevitable and McCain has gained momentum. (By the way, note the bias in the linked article, which gives excuses for Obama and tries to refute McCain’s debating points.) I worry, though, on another level, that we have lost some of the old virtues of citizenship that took self-government more seriously.
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