It feels like a landslide

No, there's nothing specific I can point at, nor even any combination of things that would prove such a thing. It's just a feeling I get based on growing Democratic desperation. There's something about the continued and repeated insistence that Kerry is even and climbing in the polls. They've been saying that for weeks now.

Even and climbing?

I mean, surely they can't both be true. If he were climbing, then sooner or later he'd be measurably, indisputably ahead, wouldn't he? But he isn't, and no one is seriously suggesting that he is. AP, ABC, Reuters, all the polls share a dogged determination to remind us that Kerry is, in fact, still in this race.

I have to wonder who's saying he isn't. It just doesn't feel right. Something isn't being reported.

ABC was recently reduced to reporting that Kerry leads among those likely voters who feel that the country is on the wrong track. Well, duh. Isn't that rather obvious? It isn't exactly a ringing endorsement that those who already feel that we're being governed badly are only 55-45 in Kerry's favor. Who are the other 45% for? Nader? Badnarik? Are they holding out hope for Howard Dean? (There are still a few Dean posters in my neighborhood.) Or for a deadlocked electoral college?

As I write ElectionProjection.com (openly partisan towards Bush) has Bush at 296; Electoral-vote.com (openly partisan towards Kerry) has Bush at "only" 281.

Meanwhile, Indian astrologers are convinced it'll be Kerry. "It is cosmic writ that George W. Bush cannot become president of United States again." Well, that's it then. Goodness knows their tech support is flawless, doubtless their soothsayers are too.

LATER: And now, speaking of soothsayers, OBL pops out of his cave with his review of Fahrenheit 911. I wonder what Michael Moore thinks of that? Jim Geraghty writes at NRO's "Kerry Spot":

I could be proven wrong, but I now have drastically revised my prediction of what's going to happen on election night. A Bush landslide is now exponentially more likely, as every voter walks into the voting booth with the topic of terrorism on his or her mind. It's far and away Bush's strongest issue.

There are times when America wants the eloquent, nuanced multilateral, French-speaking, consensus-building, flexible and cautious negotiator. And then there are times when the country wants the plain-spoken butt-kicking aggressive unilateralist cowboy. Guess which time this is?

Hm. I wonder how long before Terry McAuliffe suggests that Karl Rove arranged OBL's latest press release?

What? Walter Cronkite?