As far as "speaking in numbers," it'll drive a man or woman mad to follow this election year by the fresh crop of new numbers and poll results hitting the news cycles and blogospheres every morning when the sun rises, but (as pitiful as it is) I can't help myself.

This morning (Tuesday, September 16th) Rasmussen put Obama and McCain in a deadlocked 47% tie. For the past three days, Obama has plateaued at 47%, while McCain has come down two points over the past two days. Last week, the Senators were also tied up at 48% and it seems that this neck-to-neck race is going to run its course all the way to November. Unless, of course, someone trips up and the "American public" (of whom the Rasmussen gathers these results) reacts in drastic fashion to the left or to the right.

The Palin factor has put a lot of traffic on that "road" that looked "pretty clear" for Obama more than three weeks ago and it will be even more interesting to see how these numbers move around after the market fallout from yesterday starts to sink into the political emotions of the American voter.

Personally, I admire Obama's dedication to the "thinking man's" campaign. However, I'm not placing any bets that he can pull it off in November if he keeps up the "positive politics" angle against the refined, polished, and incredibly effective Republican assault he's going to be up against for the next fifty or sixty days before we go to the booths.

As much as I hate to say it, the Obama/Biden ticket, as devoted as they claim to be on a "real discussion of the issues", may have to put their own gloves and fight back sooner or later or they're going to find themselves knocked out when it's all said and done.