Bellwethers

Blah blah blah oversampling. But wait, there's more! Two encouraging tidbits have come my way in the past 24 hours.

• A veteran of many presidential campaigns who's stumped for a lot of folks told us today that he's (or she's, I ain't sayin' who 'twas) never seen anything like the crowds or enthusiasm he's seeing at Romney/Ryan events. If people are so cold on Romney, how come they're showing up in huge numbers to hear him?

Particularly this person says people respond incredibly to the town hall style meetings Ryan is doing -- the ones where he pulls out his slide show and just levels with people about our financial status. Apparently people walk away enthusiastic -- because they think they have real data with which to speak to friends and family -- but ALSO they just appreciated being leveled with and spoken to like mature adults.
We're also told that the Romney campaign's internal polling shows the race tightening, not Obama building his lead as was being reported this morning.

Then:

• One of my Spies Formerly in Government is in town. Spy went to visit his (or her) old agency and caught up with his old Deputy, of whom he was very fond in spite of their total political and ideological incompatibility. Deputy is super-liberal, but voting for Romney. HATES the Obama people with a blood passion. He says they're incompetent, arrogant and have no respect for law. They routinely ask people to break the law, and if you tell them what they're doing is illegal they just go around you. They take no one's opinion into account no matter their level of experience and are unwilling to learn anything.

(It was actually sort of interesting hearing a conversation among several folks who used to work in cabinet agencies in various administrations. They were agreed that the liberal "non-political" staffers like working for Republicans even if they prefer liberal policies. Glad someone at least finally put two and two together.)