A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

It comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the Presidential campaign that Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for President. When Powell refrained from making an endorsement early on in the Presidential campaign season, it became clear--or should have become clear--that Powell would wait until the moment when he believed he could maximize the damage to the McCain campaign by endorsing Obama.

We will see if that plan works out. In the meantime, it is indisputable that Powell has become for Obama what Joe Lieberman, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have become for McCain (let's not kid ourselves; the pro forma campaigning that the Clintons have done for Obama notwithstanding, it is clear that they want him to lose--it is not for nothing that McCain made jokes at the recent Al Smith Dinner about the tepid support (at best) both Clintons have shown Obama during the course of the campaign. It is also not for nothing that Hillary Clinton laughed heartily and appreciatively at the jokes).

But of course, while endorsements are certainly important, endorsements have not really done all that much to move the polls. Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby shows McCain down by less than three points. More here. Given the right track/wrong track numbers and the apparent preference for Democrats in Congressional races, the fact that McCain is still hanging around is nothing short of extraordinary.

The endorsements will continue to flow in--some of them surprising, others less so. But the voters are marching to the beat of their own drummer. And the dictates of conventional wisdom notwithstanding, all of this might lead to a tremendous surprise on November 4th.