So many polling diaries have popped up that this may have been diaried,  but I can't see it. The Mason-Dixon poll that came out today has the race in Arizona very close.
McClatchy article on various state polls

Looking at the detailed information for Arizona (pdf) it shows something surprising: Obama is leading the Hispanic vote in this state 53% to Clinton's 37%. Clinton is leading the older vote, plus the women's vote.

I had thought that Obama had a slim chance of winning in Arizona but it does seem doable for his campaign. As an Edwards fan I am not one of the super enthusiastic Obama fans, but I'm picking him over Clinton and it does seem that my vote on Tuesday can actually mean something.

The Rasmussen poll has always been on the high side of the Bush polling, and he's been at his lowest of 34 the last three days. Today's polling gives him a new low in the job approval world: 33.  

Just 33% of American adults now Approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his duties as President. Prior to this past week, the President’s ratings had never slipped below 35% and had only reached that level for a day or two at a time. Now, his Job Approval has been at the 35% level or below for six straight days.

The latest ARG poll also has him at the low of 31%. I'm wondering how soon these two polls will have him below 30%?

In 2003 a young soldier died in Iraq, but there was a mystery. Alyssa Peterson was a local Flagstaff girl who was one of our first war fatalities. Alyssa was also best friend to the daughter of one of my friends. We talked about what could have happened. She was shot with a service rifle. Was it murder or suicide? What happened? Well finally someone  searched for an answer.

Army specialist Alyssa Peterson was an Arabic speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at the Tal-afar airbase in far northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border....Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.

God, I hate these people. So what happened to her?

I've been too busy these last few days to post any comments in the various discussions about Kos' wealth and Un-Republican attitude about money - you know, if you have money you have to be a Republican. This isn't a surprise to me. I was used as an example of how us Kossacks are deluded fools who Kos is screwing over.

Yes, sweet-faced Kos is a monster. According to the folks at Donkey Cons (do I have to link to it?) he's making over $800,000 a year. What a fiend that Kos is! So, how am I involved with all of Kos' ill-gotten gains? I am one of the poor dupes who is not getting a cut of all that filthy lucre. Yeah, they had to pick me out of the crowd. Me, who rarely posts, but wrote one recommended diary from a little event in Vegas called YearlyKos:

Remember when I posted about "Erin in Flagstaff," one of the ultimate losers who attended YearlyKos? Some people thought I was being mean-spirited. But what share of the $832,000 revenue stream does Erin get at her blog? Hmmm?

WTF??? more...

Poor Carnacki. Yes, I'm having fun here at YearlyKos. I feel like quite the gushing school girl, but this has been amazing. Somehow, I've introduced myself to people I never thought I would talk to.

First, I was trying to figure out where the conference center was and I saw one of the convention members. We're all wearing orange (what else?) lanyards and he looked like a nice guy. As he's giving me instructions, my brain kicks in and I think he could possibly be Jerome Armstrong. Sure enough, he was. I'm so lucky I had my copy of "Crashing the Gate" in my backpack.

As I get closer to the conference area I see some orange-lanyarded folks and stop to ask if I'm getting near the registration desk. Geez, I'm talking to John Aravosis from Americablog. I intelligently blurt out, "You're John from...um...aren't you?" Yes, he was.

Oh, but that wasn't the highlight...oh no...

They're taking away the New Deal and giving us a Raw Deal, but hey, we are offering a Reel Deal - the Reel Deal Film Festival, that is. For those of you who love political documentaries this is right up your alley.

On June 3, in Flagstaff, Arizona, the Reel Deal Film Festival, organized by the Flagstaff DFA, will be held from 11:00am to 11:00pm. Not only will we have movies, we will have DFA-approved candidates to talk about the themes in those movies. Shoot, there's lots to talk about when you show a film like "The Big Buy."

If you're going to be in the area on June 3rd read more...

As a liberal pinko traitor who believes that conservatism is the bane of this fine country I am working locally to make a difference nationally.  Working with my local DFA group I want to see Rick Renzi removed as Representative for my district, which is Arizona CD 1.

There have been several Democratic candidates throwing their hat in the campaign ring.  Jack Jackson, Jr the candidate most likely to win dropped out. His reason? Not raising enough money (see earlier diary by Nonpartisan).

Luckily, Jackson dropping out doesn't disappoint me. I personally know one of the other candidates running. Mike Cacciopoli (pronounced kuh-chop-uh- lee) is one of our local DFAers. Moving to Flagstaff last year, he and his partner showed up at our meetup and immediately fit in with our group. Long discussions over the state of the country and the corrupt Republicans running it led to Mike deciding not to sit back and watch the CD1 race, but to do his best to take down Renzi. He joined the fight.

Well, Bush is definitely in trouble.  Today's Rasmussen poll has him at 41% approval.  His lowest showing ever. He's even losing some Republican support.

Wednesday October 26, 2005--Forty-one percent (41%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. This is the lowest level recorded ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports.

Among Republicans, the President's Approval Rating has fallen to 73%, matching the lowest level ever recorded.

For most of his time in office, the President's Approval Rating among Republicans has been in the high-80s.

Overall, 59% of Americans Disapprove, including 44% who strongly disapprove. That is the highest percentage to Strongly Disapprove of his job performance.

I think we'll see this lower even more in the next few months as Fitzmas takes its toll.

For those of us in Arizona, we've had reason to be proud of one thing about our local politics and that's the Clean Elections Act. This act keeps special interest money out of political campaigns and allows people who are NOT millionaires to run for office.  Well, you can guess, it's under attack.

Below the fold is the email I just received and what us Arizonans (Zonies for you Californians) can do.  This is important.  Please take time to fight for this.

This morning was our county democratic party elections (rural Arizona county).  As a member of the nominating committee I pushed to get some DFA and progressive types on the slate.  Sure enough, they were voted in this morning. Whoo hoo!

Not only that, I am now one of 22 new state committee members of the Democratic Party.  At least six of us are DFAers.  Though, to be honest, our county party in Arizona is made up of progressive sorts, so this was incredibly easy to do.

If you are interested in achieving something like this, please, please, please, pleeeeeeease become a precinct captain/committee person. I got myself elected this last year and that put me in position to volunteer to be a candidate for the state party. I wouldn't have been able to do this without having that elected PC status.

January 22 is the first meeting of the state party down in Phoenix.  I do hope that a lot of the new members come from the DFA.  Anyone here planning to be at the meeting?

I'm a "Holy Tearer" today and my job is to pick up the tear sheets from two precincts in Flagstaff, AZ and deliver them to the Dem party.

My precinct was packed. There was NO parking in the church parking lot at 7:20. It's taking about a half hour to vote. The poll inspector was a co-worker of mine several years ago and she said she'd never seen anything like it.

The other precinct wasn't as busy (a low voter turnout precinct), but to the poll-workers they said it was busier than normal.

May AZ turn blue. If Coconino county can get a 70% turnout that just may happen!

MSNBC has a question asking who will be more agressive going after Bin Laden.  Kerry is winning by a large amount. Hmmm...has this already been diaried?  Sorry if it is, I didn't see it in the last 50 diaries.

By the way, whomever suggested we use the term Kos instead of Freep, I like it!

Link to vote

C-Span will be rebroadcasting an interview with Jon Stewart later tonight at 11:35 EDT. I just finished watching it and thought Stewart was funny and smart.  This was filmed on the 14th, which I think was the day before his Crossfire appearance.  

Stewart was asked tons of questions about his views on the media.  What was especially entertaining was the crowd at the interview.  Many of them were reporters.  It's amazing that people of the media were asking Stewart his opinion about politics and the state of affairs in the world.  Even more amazing was Stewart's intelligent answers - often given with a punchline.

I also laughed at his dig of the NY Post and Rupert Murdoch.  Anyway, if it's Saturday night and you ain't got nobody, well, you got C-Span.

With all the tracking polls, national polls, and state polls being reported here at Kos, I've begun to see a trend.  Women are supporting Bush more than men?  When the Newsweek (or was it Time?) poll reported that we all scoffed, yet several other polls have it skewing this way.  Is the gender gap going to be backwards this year?  Is it a real trend or just some god-awful polling?  I don't want to believe it, but what if Bush is somehow winning women over?

If the gender gap goes screwy this year what could be causing it?  Does the Bush fear factor kind of campaigning work and some women are susceptible to it?  As a woman I so don't want to think women could be so blind.  

The reverse to this gender gap is that Kerry is receiving more support from men in these strange polls.  Does Kerry's "we'll kill the terrorists" comment help or does it have to do more with the possibility of a draft?  

Okay, I'm confused.  Any thoughts on this one?

PS: I thought the title "Women Like Bush" may not be appropriate...unless you're Mary Cheney. ;-)

Oh, this is good.  A poll coming out Tuesday has Bush's lead slipping and it's now a 5 point difference.  Bush's performance in the debates played a large part in his losing ground.

Bush 49%
Kerry 44%

From the AZ Republic

We're a battleground state again!  I'd like to come up with some intelligent commentary about this turn of events, but all I can come up with is, "Whoo hoo!"

More....

Well, we managed to do it.  Our local DFA put on a big event today.  It also takes place tomorrow.  We call it Democracy Weekend.  

We did lots of fundraising so we could afford to put this on.  We are renting Heritage Square (where Kerry spoke) and the Orpheum (an independent theatre).  Our goal?  To register voters before the Monday deadline.  We did good too.  Over 100 registrations, multiple early ballot requests, and lots of kudos from the community.

We have bands playing, booths manned by different activist organizations, and speakers talking about various issues. Ttoday we had Eleanor Eisenberg from the ACLU talk about the danger our civil liberties face, plus Stu Starkey, who is running against John McCain, discussed No Child Left Behind (he teaches 8th grade in a poor school district of Phoenix). Stu had the crowd cheering for him.  

More below the fold....

Early voting began in Arizona today and I went down to my election office and cast my vote.  A co-worker went with me and I saw several other dedicated Democrats, even one who is on the ballot for state legislature, at the election office.  So, Kerry is leading here in Flagstaff and so is Paul Babbitt.

It feels great.
I voted, I voted, I voted, voted, voted
I voted, I voted, I voted, voted, voted,
I voted I voted
I just want it noted...
I VOTED!
</stops dancing and chanting around the room>

Dr. Donald Johansen was a special guest at NAU and gave a talk tonight on campus about the origins of the human species.  Dr. Johansen was the paleo-anthropologist who found "Lucy", our long-ago ancestor, in Africa in 1974.

So, here's this world famous scientist talking about our family background and how close we are to chimpanzees genetically, structurally, emotionally, etc., etc. So his next slide is an example of how close we are.  

Yep.  He used Bush as the example. The image he used can be found here.  The audience erupted in a roar of laughter and then cheered and applauded.

Aaaah...I love science. ;-)