How is this possible? McCain shows a slight edge over both Democratic candidates in current Gallup poll, although within margin-of-error. But that there is still some doubt over which party will take the White House says
something. I don't know what it says, but I don't like it.

Is it because Clinton and Obama spend too much time talking about their near enemy, instead of the far one? Is it a cumulative effect of the negative attacks? When Steve Clemons addressed McCain's likely foreign policy, I felt it was just too depressing to read, since it allowed the possibility of McCain winning.

With the economy tanking and war persisting, what possible edge could McCain have over our candidates? Perhaps we see a curmudgeon effect, with some respondents saying they support McCain only because they think their Democratic candidate won't make it past the convention. There is some evidence of such, with the "what-if" question yielding a non-trivial percentage saying they would back McCain absent Hillary (28%, Gallup) and some, but fewer, Obama supporters saying that (19%).

Whether either camp would follow through on this kind of threat is not predicted by the poll, but for there to be even a close question invites election fraud in close states.

Let's recap the current situation: 4,000 American dead in Iraq (plus all those wounded), oil at well over $100/bbl, Dow stagnant since 2001, Katrina, climate, energy, constitutional violations, surveillance, politicized Justice, contempt of Congress, outsourced government as well as business, incompetent government when not outsourced, the growing impatience of the rest of the world with our clueless diplomacy, aw, hell, that should be enough.

And McCain is not a laughingstock?