"ABC News makes some sweeping assumptions today about the presidential race based on the most recent ABC News/Washington Post polling data. ABC's bold conclusion -- ricocheting around the media echo chamber -- that President Bush made clear gains last month is somewhat baffling considering the poll shows Bush actually lost some ground over the past 30 days." http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2004/08/31/polls_bush/index.html

The common thread with these polling articles always seems to be that as soon as one major news outlet makes their conclusion about what the numbers mean, everyone else repeats it. This isn't just an echo chamber -- it's viral marketing.

Yesterday I was in downtown Seattle, and got on the wrong bus. Not being in any particular hurry, I decided to see where it took me, and ended up in West Seattle.

After wandering around a bit, I came across a nice-looking sushi restaraunt called Mashiko. I wasn't really in the mood for sushi, but none of the other restaraunts were appealing, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I'm taking a long-term view, and asking this question:

• with which major party candidate do we have the best chance of seeing real, positive changes in the American political system within my lifetime?