From Talking Points Memo:

Today’s Gallup tracking poll shows Barack Obama retaking the national lead over Hillary Clinton, after the Jeremiah Wright scandal had badly damaged his numbers and put him behind for nearly a week.

Um, forgive me for being stupid, but isn’t it more likely that polls are totally useless? Last week, according to this poll, 49% of “likely Democratic voters” favored Hillary, and only 42% favored Obama. This week, 48% favor Obama, and 45% favor Hillary. As the interpreters of Gallup see it, last week thousands of Americans saw the clips of the Reverend Wright and said, “Obama knows a scary black guy! I can’t vote for him!” Then this week, thousands of Americans said, “Obama acknowledged that he knows a scary black guy! Now I’m going to vote for him again!” To be fair, 3% of those people are still thinking, “Hillary doesn’t seem to know any scary black guys.”

The Wright “scandal” (which I’m still not convinced that it ever really was a scandal with anyone but the media) was at least based in reality … Obama does know the Reverend Wright, and we do have a clip of him saying “God damn America.” (I believe that Wright’s comments were simply ten seconds of expressed frustration in a long and noble career, but then again, my employers have always complimented me on my ability to “think outside the box.”) Point being, if this poll is correct, what are these swing Democrats going to do when the Republicans start completely inventing things that Obama has done wrong, a la Les Swiftboatees? We’re so fucked!