Ignore the Horserace Polls

Paul Begala: “Quick readers’ guide to the 2012 polls: until the final two weeks, ignore the head-to-head horserace… Instead of obsessing about who’s up and who’s down, look at how folks view the direction of the country. When the ‘right direction’ number creeps up close to 50%, the incumbent is going to win. But when it plunges, get ready to back the moving van up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. At this writing, that all-important indicator is a middling 31% — almost precisely equidistant from both an outright rejection of Obama and an incumbent’s safe reelection.”