Two more recurring polls, one updated daily, the other consolidating other National polls (state polls are generally held as more accurate). Last link is to an article on interpreting polls. mjh

Rasmussen Reports Prez track 2004

Presidential Tracking Poll: Bush-Kerry
Updated Daily by Noon Eastern

Election 2004

Presidential Ballot
Bush 47.8%
Kerry 46.2%
Other 1.8%
Not Sure 4.2%

Friday September 10, 2004–The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows President George W. Bush with 48% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 46%. The Tracking Poll is updated daily by noon Eastern.

This is the first report based entirely upon interviews conducted after both the Republican Convention and the holiday weekend. Looking back, the Friday after the Democratic National Convention, Senator Kerry was ahead by an identical 48-46 margin.

White House 2004

PollingReport.com National Trial Heat Summary

NCPP – National Council on Public Polls
20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results
Second Edition
Sheldon R. Gawiser, Ph.D. and G. Evans Witt

The Wall Street Journal’s Flash-based map of battleground states based on Zogby International Polls.

Health Insurance Costs Soar, Workers Hit By Kim Dixon, Reuters

Health insurance premiums rose five times faster than U.S. workers’ salaries this year, according to a survey released on Thursday that also showed slippage in the percentage of American workers covered by employer health plans. …

The percentage of people receiving health-care coverage at work dropped 1 percentage point to 61 percent in 2004 from a recent peak of 65 percent in 2001, the Kaiser study found.

“As a consequence, we estimate that there are at least 5 million fewer jobs providing health insurance in 2004 than in 2001,” the report said. …

The Kaiser survey comes soon after the U.S. Census Bureau in August reported more people went without health insurance in 2003, with about 15.6 percent of the population, or 45 million Americans, lacking any coverage.

Health care costs are rising and our Fearful Leader has figured out why: frivolous lawsuits. And, gasp, the Democrats have a, shudder, Trial Lawyer on their ticket. The Party of Lincoln prefers to ignore that Lincoln was a trial lawyer. Anyway, notice Bush has exploited this issue for a long time, in spite of the facts. Facts, we don’t need no stinking facts. mjh

FactCheck.org President Uses Dubious Statistics on Costs of Malpractice Lawsuits
Two Congressional agencies dispute findings that caps on damage awards produce big savings in medical costs.

The President holds out the prospect of major cost savings if Congress will pass a law limiting what injured patients can collect in lawsuits. He wants a cap of $250,000 on any damages for ‘pain and suffering’� and other non-economic damages. His administration projects savings to the entire economy of between $60 billion and $108 billion per year in health-care costs, including $28 billion or more to federal taxpayers.

But both the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office criticize the 1996 study the Bush administration uses as their main support. These nonpartisan agencies suggest savings — if any — would be relatively small.

News Breaks Against Bush (washingtonpost.com) By Dan Froomkin

Conflation Watch

Here’s how Scott McClellan handled the questions about the milestone yesterday:

Q Senator Kerry is calling it a tragic milestone, reaching 1,000 deaths in Iraq.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we remember, honor and mourn the loss of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending freedom. And we also remember those who lost their lives on September 11th. The best way to honor all those who have lost their life in the war on terrorism is to continue to wage a broad war and spread freedom throughout a dangerous part of the world so that we can transform that region of the world and make the world a safer place, and make America more secure.

Q And you’re convinced each one of those lives is worth it, Scott?

MR. McCLELLAN: Each one — well, let me say, when I say we remember, honor, mourn the loss of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we do so for those in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also remember those who lost their lives on September 11th, nearly three years ago today. And that’s why I said it’s important that we continue to wage a broad war on terrorism and that we work to spread freedom throughout the Middle East and transform that region so that we defeat the ideologies of hatred and tyranny.

Q But the question is, for — each of those families lost someone, a loved one, and each one of those is worth it — that’s the question.

MR. McCLELLAN: Mark, I think — I think of the cost we paid on September 11th, and September 11th changed the equation, as you’ve heard the President say.
—
Headlines blare the news that the death toll in Iraq has crossed the 1,000 milestone.

There are also big headlines about Bush’s record $422 billion budget deficit and the multi-trillion-dollar deficit projections for the future.

Then there are all the stories about Vice President Cheney’s jaw-dropping statement yesterday that a Kerry victory would result in more terrorist attacks. Even his own staff is qualifying it.

Bush’s spotty National Guard record during the Vietnam War is turning into a full-fledged media conflagration, with more stories out today and “60 Minutes” weighing in tonight.

Plus, Sen.Bob Graham (D-Fla.) is all over the media charging Bush with covering up evidence that might have linked Saudi Arabia to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

And while the mainstream press is not putting stock in unauthorized biographer Kitty Kelley’s hazily sourced allegations of past drug use by Bush, everybody — at least everybody on the Internet — seems to be talking about it.

It certainly isn’t like the carefully scripted weeks of yore.

[mjh: details on all of this at the link above]

Remarks by the Vice President and Mrs. Cheney Followed by Question and Answer at a Town Hall Meeting

[I]t’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice. Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we’ll get hit again. That we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we’ll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind set if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we’re not really at war. — Dick Cheney

Fear is the Power, Lies the Fuel

President will face strong pressure for increase to pay for economic agenda By Tom Raum, Associated Press

NEW YORK — At their national convention, Republicans were long on rhetoric and short on specifics on how to pay for an economic agenda in a second Bush administration.

One reason is that President Bush could end up having to back a tax increase, just as his father did.

But nobody wanted to spoil the Madison Square Garden party by mentioning such unpleasantries. After all, Republicans are insisting that Democrat John Kerry is the candidate who will increase taxes. …

“Taxes are going up next year no matter who wins the presidency in November,” concluded conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, who advised both Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush.

“It’s out of the hands of politicians,” Bartlett said.

The annual $400 billion deficit leaves little room to maneuver. The shortfall was exacerbated by two earlier tax cuts that Bush pushed through as well as rising costs for Iraq, Afghanistan, homeland security and a major expansion Medicare.

Furthermore, the Federal Reserve has embarked on a course of raising interest rates from their recent 40-year lows. Higher interest rates combined with a continued weak dollar will put more pressure on the government’s balance sheet. …

At the convention, Bush was silent on how to pay for any of his second-term proposals.

“A presidential election is a contest for the future,” Bush told the party faithful. But on the economic front, most convention speakers could not help but look back to what Vice President Dick Cheney celebrated as “the greatest tax reduction in a generation.”

Republicans like to suggest that Bush is following in the path of Reagan, who pushed through Congress the then-biggest tax cut in U.S. history in 1981.

What they usually neglect to mention is that the following year, Reagan reluctantly signed one of the biggest tax increases in history.

Flat wages, spotty job market greet workers for Labor Day by LEIGH STROPE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A spotty job market and stagnant paychecks cloud this Labor Day holiday for many workers, highlighting the importance of pocketbook issues in the presidential election.

“Working harder and enjoying it less,” said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics, summing up the state of working America. …

Nearly two-thirds of 1,050 full-time workers in a Labor Day survey by Harris Interactive and Kronos Inc. said they have increased job responsibilities in the past six months. One-third said they were working longer hours and 62 percent claimed they had not received a pay raise.

In a poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs, a third of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the amount of stress at work. Other leading complaints included advancement opportunities and health and retirement benefits.