Seven Days

In what seems to be developing into a Ra^ther moment, the New York Times reported that a huge cache of explosives was missing form a nuclear facility. The spin is that the administration somehow failed to secure this material after the invasion. Disregarding the fact that the entire country is one big ammo dump, many are now pointing out that an embedded reporter with NBC was at the facility the day after the war started and the explosives were already gone. In addition, this was not simply an oversight about the matter. This pundit suggests that the Times deliberately misrepresented this fact. Base10 tends to agree.

A little late to add yesterday, but James Lileks was particularly spleeney yesterday in the Bleat. Here's one quote, but it just doesn't do it justice.

Hope is on the way! As I pass each sign I wonder what sort of Democrats my neighbors are. Normal ordinary Democrats who want the best for everyone, and have come to the conclusion that higher taxes, more education spending, increased environmental regulation, more government involvement in health care, and greater integration into the European-led global order is the way to move us forward? Probably.

Read the whole thing!

Base10 also perused the polls this morning. RealClearPolitics has a good collection of poll results with links. A significant majority have Bush ahead by anywhere from one to eight points. The LA Times has it as a tie and ABC/WAPO and the AP have Kerry ahead. Interestingly, the Rasmussen trackiing poll has Kerry ahead for the first time since August. Base10 tends to have some doubts about this. The Rasmussen tracking poll is a rolling average and would tend to not be smoother than a one-shot poll. It is a little unlikely that a tracking poll would show such a dramatic change in one day. RCP also has Bush ahead slightly in the Electoral vote count.

In what should be disturbing to the Kerry camp, the tradeable futures markets Tradesports has Bush in the lead by 56% to 44% (averageing the Bid ask price).