McCain campaign predicts greatest comeback ever - of all time even

Who didn't tear up when Rudy finally got his chance and was sent in to play for Notre Dame?

Who didn't get a shot of adrenalin when Adrian awoke from a coma and whispered in Rocky's ear, "I want you to do one thing for me. . . WIN!"

Who didn't feel that same sense of excitement when Joe the Plumber got on stage yesterday and.....

Yeah, that doesn't quite follow.

Halloween

Anyway.  It's Halloween and the polls are somewhat spooky for the McCain campaign.  But John likes the roll of underdog.  He's said it many times.  He is the underdog.  "Big time" - as Dick Cheney would say.

How bad are the polls?

They're kind of like the dancers from Michael Jackson's Thriller video: spooky-looking yet synchronized.  They all say the same thing.  Although unlike the video, there are no instances of limbs falling off.

Close to midnight

Bloomberg's not pulling any punches.  It's remote.  It's a longshot.  They report McCain "goes into the campaign's final weekend a bigger underdog than any victorious candidate in a modern election."

But they know that history is made all the time.  Some just may recall that the 2000 election was somewhat historic.

Polls

Gallup's daily tracking poll shows Obama strengthening his lead with an eight point margin, 51 - 43 percent.  In their expanded likely voter model, Obama has a nine point edge, 52 - 43 percent.

The latest Washington Post/ABC News tracking poll shows the same thing.  Obama up by nine points, 53 - 44 percent.

CNN's poll of polls gives Obama a seven point edge, 50 - 43 percent.  And RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Obama up 50 - 43.5 percent.

Internal polls

No way, Jose.  The polls are wrong says McCain campaign manager Rick Davis.  He says internal polls show something completely different.  They've had their best ten days of polling since the election Davis says.

Spin?  Well, Davis makes the case for the discrepancy between public and private polling by pointing out that Obama campaigned in Iowa today.

"Iowa’s a good example," Davis said. "Public polling had it at 12 points. Our own data now has us dead even in the state of Iowa. And we understand Barack Obama probably has very similar polling. He’s now on his way back to Iowa as one of his last campaign stops."

Good news, but...

Newsweek's Howard Fineman agrees that Obama spending time at this late stage in Iowa is a positive for McCain -- although only calling it a "glimmer of good news."

"But that is cold comfort for McCain, given what seems to be happening everywhere else on the map. African-American and new-voter registrations have turned both North Carolina and now Georgia into tossup states and put Obama ahead in Virginia. If Obama is able to convert all three, we’ll be talking blowout on election night. Even if Obama wins only one of them, he makes the rest of the map close to impossible for McCain."

No buts

But if you listen to the McCain team, it's entirely possible.

"We are witnessing, I believe, probably one of the greatest comebacks that you've seen since John McCain won the primary," Davis said.

Dewey

Pollster Stu Rothenberg agrees, kind of.  He tells Bloomberg that a comeback like this would certainly be historic.

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