No Panic From Banking Crisis as McCain Momentum Holds

Gallup reports that surveys from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday show little change in public perceptions of the economy:

An examination of single-night interviewing from Monday night, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 500 points and Sunday's financial calamities dominated the news, does not reflect a dramatic downturn in either views of the current economy nor perceptions about the direction of the economy.

As the week progresses, Americans' views of the economy may change further - particularly if the Dow Jones average continues to fall, or if further problems in the banking industry are reflected in the news. For the moment, however, Gallup's tracking data do not suggest that Monday's financial news caused an immediate downturn in the American public's views of the economy.

We'll probably see the numbers on the "getting worse" measure go up just a few points over the next few days.

Yet, considering the scale of turmoil in the markets, Gallup's numbers indicate that negative perceptions of the economy have probably topped out for the year. Of course, the lefties are milking any and all perceptions of crisis for all they're worth.

Meanwhile, the McCain/Palin ticket is leading Obam/Biden 227/207 in the Electoral College projection at RealClearPolitics, with 104 votes up for grabs in toss-up states. Also, Rasmussen has McCain leading Obama by one point in a statistical dead-heat tracking poll, although Sarah Palin beats Joseph Biden 47 to 44 percent a hypothetical head-to-head race for the presidency.

The election's shaping up to be largely a rerun of the key battlegrounds state contests we saw in 2004, with Ohio likely to be a must-wing state for both campaigns (and McCain's holding a lead there, 48 to 44 percent, in weekend polling).

All of this must be painful for the Democrats (either that or they're fooling themselves on the prospects for a comeback amid the market shocks), and the clock's ticking down for Obama's long-awaited game changer. If economic crisis on Wall Street's not doing it for "The One," it's doubtful that anything will.