HEY MAN, SLOW DOWN!

This week's Time has some Gore-related polls out, including puting him up against bush:

--Suppose the 2004 election for President were being held today, and you had to choose between Al Gore, the Democrat, and George W. Bush, the Republican. for whom would you vote?

Gore -- 40%
Bush -- 57%

And as with all presidential polls held almost two years before an election, this poll mean . . . altogether now, folks . . . absolutely nothing!

What strikes me are that these poll numbers are almost identical to Gore vs Bush poll numbers from this time in 1998, right after Dubya was reelected as Texas Governor. (I remember this because at the time, former highschool classmate Robb "Bush will save us" McFadden sent me an email with those numbers) In fact, if I recall, Smirk was polling about 18% ahead at that time. Someone remind me, who won the popular vote in 2000? After all, that's a poll of about 100 million adult Americans.

Keep in mind that the Republicans control the entire federal government right now, so if things go badly, they can't pass the buck, and that could certainly affect Dim Son's reelection hopes.

Anyway, the point is that it's a loooong time before campaign 2004 becomes serious. I know that Time wants to sell magazines, but as readers let's not take crap like this too seriously right now. Given that according to their polling, 81% of Democrats are "not familiar with" Howard Dean, yes, it's early.