APPARENTLY SOME PEOPLE STILL CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE

In a three-way race with independent Ralph Nader, Bush was the choice of 49 percent, Kerry was picked by 45 percent and Nader by 4 percent.

[Most Nader-less polls have a dead-split, and a rise in negatives about Kerry among bushies - which I'm going to call as the result of a truly massive tv buy by Bush running in the tens of millions gushing forth, and what I believe is a very reasonable lag in the processing of the - shall we say, Al Qaida? affair. The Plame Affair had little immediate impact, but it definitely cracked open a supposedly unassailable Bush campaign.

Nader has polled as high as 7. But I have Green friends ready to beat up Nader voters. -PWP]