Today’s Campaign Trail

It’s not enough for candidates to give speeches, kiss babies, and buy TV ads to campaign these days. New requisites include appearances on Oprah, The Daily Show, Dr. Phil, and late night comedy shows.
Now, with less than two weeks to go until the election, Senator Kerry has the urge to go hunting.
The things people do to day to get votes. Are there any voters that would really be swayed by a candidate taking a hunting trip?

Doesn’t Control The Market

Funny quote from today’s local paper:

McGhee Tyson Airport representatives Wednesday expressed concern over a report that Independence Air may be facing bankruptcy, while noting that all airlines are facing financial difficulties because of hefty oil prices.
. . .
“We have no way we can do anything about the price of oil,” said Danni Varlan, coordinator of East Tennesseans for Airfare Competition, a nonprofit group formed to recruit a low-fare carrier to the area.

I’d been wondering why people kept taking about weird things like OPEC and supply/demand when discussing the price of oil. Here I had thought that ETAC controlled the price of oil. I’m glad this mystery has finally been cleared up.

Tennessee Polling Disparity

Zogby continues to buck the polling trend in Tennessee:

On the heels of other statewide polls showing President Bush with double-digit leads in Tennessee, a new Internet-based poll shows the president and Sen. John Kerry in a virtual dead heat in the state.
The poll was conducted Oct. 13-18 by New York-based Zogby International and included Internet survey results of 922 ”likely voters” in Tennessee. Of those polled, about 50% said they would vote for Bush, and about 48% said they would vote for Kerry. The margin for error in the poll was 3.1 percentage points, making the results a virtual tie.

We’ll soon find out how well Zogby’s new Internet-based polling fares compared to traditional telephone polling. There’s quite a gap between the two.