The Election Front

In very good news, it appears larger numbers of Democrats have turned out for early voting in several states including but not limited to Iowa, Nevada, and Florida.

And in even better news, the Bush campaigns own internal polling numbers are giving them grief.

A Republican official said polling for Bush showed him in a weaker position than some published polls have indicated, both nationally and in battlegrounds. In many of the key states, the official said, Bush is below 50 percent, and he is ahead or behind within the margin of sampling error - a statistical tie.

"There's just no place where they're polling outside the margin of error so they can say, 'We have this state,' " the official said. "And they know that an incumbent needs to be outside the margin of error."

Also, Kerry is outpacing George Bush in newspaper endorsements, including 31 that endorsed Bush last time, while Bush has only received endorsements from two newspapers that endorsed Gore in 2000. Two recent major endorsements come from The Washington Post and The American Conservative. Also, the New Yorker has for the first time endorsed someone for president - John F. Kerry.