polling update

In New Hampshire, Kerry is closing in on Dean. "Dean.... leads Kerry by 6 percentage points [the margin of error is 5 points] in a 10/17-19 survey by Suffolk University for WDHD-TV, a slightly smaller margin from a September poll. Dean was favored by 25 percent while Kerry... was backed by 19 percent. Dean led 26 percent to 17 percent last month." This trend is similar to other polls saying Dean's lead is narrowing and Kerry's positivies are back up. Maybe he finally decided to campaign instead of just announcing that he is running for president.

Meanwhile, "Wesley Clark was at 11 percent, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman at 8 percent, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt at 7 percent, and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards at 4 percent. Carol Moseley Braun was at 1 percent, along with Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Al Sharpton was at 0 percent. About 23 percent in the poll were undecided." Remember that Dean is from neighboring VT and Kerry is from MA, and both have done tons of ads already (trust me I have to watch them even in Massachusetts).

Lieberman and Edwards have spent some serious time and money in New Hampshire, with branded cars and buses and town hall meetings. Clark has been up about 4 times in his life, spent only as much money as a campaign office, flights up and rental cars can buy. Yet he is in double digits and free from the burdens of campaigning in Iowa, where Kerry just sent out job offers for Iowa field hands.