WHY IT'S NOT 2008

Robert Creamer at the Huffington Post yesterday, trying to buck up the Democratic troops:

Two years ago today, just two months before the 2008 Election, John McCain led Barack Obama for president in the compilation of national polls assembled by Pollster.com. The Democratic polling project at Democracy Corps had McCain up by two points. As everyone knows, on Election Day Obama beat McCain 53% to 46%. A lot can change in 56 days.

Democratic National Committee chair Tim Kaine on Jon Stewart's show last night, doing the same thing:

Let me tell you something: The average of polls after Labor Day 2008 had the president down to John McCain.

But there are a couple of huge difference between 2008 and now (besides the obvious fact that the good GOP polls that September were a temporary blip, not a long-term trend):

In 2008, after Labor Day, the financial crisis hit, which sent the economy into a dive off a cliff, and we knew that this was because of Republican policies. Also, after Labor Day, we gradually began to realize that the Republican vice presidential candidate (whose rousing speech had caused the temporary GOP poll uptick) wasn't just a plucky ideologue -- she was an appallingly ignorant, demagogic nutjob.

This year, the economy is already at the bottom of that cliff, and we've known for years that it went into freefall because of Republican policies. And it's been obvious for months that a significant percentage of GOP candidates are appallingly ignorant, demagogic nutjobs.

And still the Republicans are ahead. So we're going to need some new deus ex machinas this time.