On This Day In 1980, Carter Led Reagan By Eight Points

Cheer up, all you poll watchers.

This isn't over yet.

There have been only 2 instances in the past 14 elections, from 1952 to 2004, when the presidential candidate ahead in Gallup polling a week or so before the election did not win the national popular vote: in 2000 (George W. Bush) and 1980 (Jimmy Carter). And in only one of these, in 1980, did the candidate who was behind (Ronald Reagan) pull ahead in both the popular vote and the Electoral College and thus win the election.

Scroll down at the link for results dating back to 1952. While Reagan trailed Carter by eight points among registered voters in the Gallup survey on October 26, 1980, he won going away by 10 points.

Is the same likely to occur this year? Probably not, but keep in mind things are very volatile right now and plenty of embarrassing revelations are making people take notice of what's going on. Granted, while the media was also biased in 1980, it wasn't nearly as bad as the pro-Obama media has been this year. Plus, as inept as Carter was, he didn't have nearly as much baggage as Obama does.

McCain has plenty of work to do, as he trails in a number of battleground states, but despite the efforts of the media to declare the race over, there are still eight days to go.

Is John McCain the next Ronald Reagan? Far from it. But Barack Obama shapes up as being far more to the left than Jimmy Carter, truly a frightening scenario.

For what it's worth, the IBD/TIPP poll has Obama up 46.5-43.3% with 10.1% still undecided. The RCP average has Obama up 7.3 average, but that's skewed by dubious NY Times and Newsweek polls. Today's Rasmussen poll has Obama up by five. Not insurmountable, but very little time to work with.

Maybe if Obama's friends at the Los Angeles Times release that potentially explosive video they're sitting on, things could shift.