Yeah, the same thing was said in '06, that everyone who took the polls seriously was a "Chicken Little". Well, guess what? The sky fell, and crushed the 'Pubs. Then everyone stood around in the wreckage and wondered what happened, before finding a convenient scapegoat (RINOs).
You want to ignore these warnings, then fine, go ahead. Sit back and blow them off. But don't come around here on Nov. 5th, when we're facing the grim prospect of a President-elect Obama, asking "Whoa hoppen? How could this happen?"
For the most part, the South has been solid for Republican candidates for the majority of recent elections. It's a must-have. We have to sweep it. If we lose a linchpin state like VA or NC, we're done. They're just that important. We can't afford to look the other way on things like this, "outlier" or not. McCain has to be working to hold what we've had in recent elections. They've been so close that we can't afford to lose many states that we've won before, especially since we're already looking at losing places like IA and NM and maybe CO. Use results like this poll as a motivation not to be complacent. We've got to campaign like we're behind, because we're not only fighting the 'Rats, but also their fifth-column allies in the media, their guerrilla warriors in the schools and universities, and the fickle nature of a somewhat intellectually lazy and uninformed electorate.
It's a 2-3 point race with 4 debates and over a month to go.
That's pretty darn close and no cause for panic. The national numbers will move quite a bit over the rest of the race, in both directions.