For those of you that are worried about recent fluctuations in tracking polls, take heart. Polls don't always tell us the complete story of what's going on out there. What you should be looking at is how the battle is being fought. What may be different? Which candidate is taking the battle to the other? Who is playing defense? And most importantly, who is on the offensive?

Today we have this story which is quite meaningful--"Obama makes bid in 7 longtime Republican states."  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_make s_bid_in_7_longtime_0804.html

Alaska is young. Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have growing populations and many black voters. Montana has seen recent Democratic inroads, and North Dakota has sent only Democrats to Congress since 1986. Indiana borders Barack Obama's home state.

http://www.ppic.org/...

There was bad news out of California today for Barack Obama. A new poll by Public Policy Institute of California, just released, shows Obama leading by 15%. What's even worse, the poll gives Obama just 50% of the vote.

The McCain camp was obviously delighted by these results. One McCain backer who couldn't control his happiness was overheard saying: "I was so sure we would be down 17 points, so to have it 15 is just great."

John McCain even managed to pry himself loose from a Britney Spears commercial to remark that this proves California is in play: "Who would have ever thought that 35% of all of California supports me." This is truly a miracle.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/ 2008/latestpolls/index.html

CNN has just released a poll showing Obama with a 51-44 lead. This is huge because Obama has now broken the 50% mark. It also comes on the heels of a Gallup poll which had given McCain a 4 point advantage. Many observers believed the Gallup poll was unreliable because it utilized a flawed likely voter model. In any event this new CNN poll seems a lot more in line with almost all the other national polls that have come out in the past 2 months.

The Obama camp has launched a new all-out drive to win over the Latino vote. Frank Sanchez, the chairman of the Obama for America National Hispanic Leadership Council, said the unprecedented effort will focus on paid advertising, online organizing, increased staffing in Latino communities and organizing surrogates to hit the campaign trail.

This is a significant develpoment as it comes at a time when polls show Obama with a growing lead with this group, which is the largest growing demographic in America. Hence, Obama seems to be working on consolidating the strong support he already has with Latino's while attempting to expand it even further.

Obama advisers launched the effort at the Democratic National Committee along with Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar and a handful of other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_o n_re_mi_ea/iraq

The surge keeps working and it worked again this morning, but don't tell it to the 57 people who were killed in Bagdad and Kirkuk today by suicide bombers who apparently weren't told how the surge has made Iraq a much safer place. Don't tell it to the 300 who were wounded. Some may never walk or see again, but at least they know they will be living in a nice, safe Iraq thanks to folks like George Bush and John McCain who made life better for them with a surge.

One wounded Iraq resident seemed to sum up his feelings about the surge quite vividly: "I heard women and children crying and shouting and I saw burned women as dead bodies lied in pools of blood on the street," Mustapha Abdullah, a 32-year-old man who was injured in the stomach and legs, said from the hospital where he was being treated.

McCain talks about the surge all the time, because it is, in his mind,  the only positive thing that he is capable of talking about.

He can't talk about the economy, much, because people may start to notice which party has been in charge of the economy for so many years.

He can't talk about his knowledge of the economy, because people may begin to notice that there isn't any discernible knowledge there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_o n_el_pr/obama_bill_clinton

Bill Clinton said today that he's ready and eager to campaign for Barack Obama whenever they feel they need him. If this doesn't signal something to the minds of the Puma's, then I don't know what will. If Bill can put aside the harshness of the primaries, then why can't everyone else? It's time to get down to the business of electing a democratic President.

The former President stated: "I told him that whenever he wanted me to do it, I was ready, and so it's basically on their timetable," Clinton said. He also had indicated: he had a "good talk" with Obama on the phone and is eager to get out on the road for the Illinois senator.

Everyone knows that Bill can be great on the stump, so this is going to help give the Obama campaign more momentum in the coming weeks. It's nice to know you can have a former President on your side and not have to run away from one like John McCain has to do a daily basis.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1284.xml?Rele aseID=1192&What=&strArea=;&s trTime=0

In a turnaround from some recent polls showing a much closer race, a poll released today by Qunnipiac opens some daylight for Obama as it shows him with a strong 9 point lead nationally. Obama's lead is built on his strong support from young people, Afro-Americans and women as Quinnipiac reports below:

With commanding leads among women and young voters and near unanimous support from black voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a 50 - 41 percent lead over Arizona Sen. John McCain, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of likely voters released today.

Independent voters split 44 - 44 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Sen. McCain has a slight 47 - 44 percent edge among men voters and a larger 49 - 42 percent lead among white voters.