I'd be more circumspect in relying on the RCP (RealClearPolitics) polling averages.
RCP is selective in choosing which polls to use for their averages. Take for example VA which according to the RCP latest average is now 0,7 in McCain's favor. This average includes a poll done by
VCU 05/12 - 05/18 852 RV 44 36 McCain +8.0

But the same average does not include the following poll done by
SurveyUSA 05/16 - 05/18 600 RV 42 49 Obama +7.0

How bizarre. I've been following RCP for a while, this latest poll manipulation confirms to me, and many others, that RCP is a republican leaning site

So, McCain is using a surrogate to attack Obama for attacking him with, umm, surrogates?

Oooookay...

John McCain's campaign is demanding that the Obama camp condemn remarks yesterday by Gen. Wesley Clark on CBS' Face The Nation, in which Clark said that McCain's having been shot down in Vietnam was not a qualification to be president.

Of course, what Clark said is indisputably true; getting shot down doesn't qualify you to be president. Saying this doesn't mean you're not a hero and that your service isn't honorable; it just means that it doesn't automatically make you presidential material. A simple statement of fact. Obama absolutely should ignore the McSame campaign's feigned outrage.

I used to love Clark (voted for him in 2004) but have sort of cooled on him a bit.

What do you guys think is the case against him for VP?

Obama's campaign should answer, "So what's their problem? Do they want to explain how getting shot down IS a qualification for President? Do they want to argue that GENERAL Clark lacks standing to comment on military matters? Either way we look forward with great curiosity to hearing their explanation."

I watched Face the Nation live yesterday and Bob Schieffer was specifically implying that flying a fighter and getting shot down in some way made McCain more likely to become a good President. Wesley Clark responded that it was largely irrelevent as a qualification. I think Schieffer's remark is the one that deserves rebuke. It was a ridiculous statement on his part.

Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham was a vastly superior fighter pilot in Vietnam than John McCain becoming the first Ace of the war.

Where is Duke Cunningham right now? Sitting in prison for taking bribes as a congressman.

George H. W. Bush was trained as a pilot, was shot down and then had a largely ineffective presidency.

George W. Bush was trained as a jet fighter pilot and he's the consensus choice for the most incompetent president in American history.

Does being a jet fighter pilot in fact qualify you to be a corrupt, ineffective and incompetent politician? There is at least history to support that conclusion but to tell you the truth, I think it is probably irrelevent to your qualifications as a politician and leader.

Just what Wesley Clark said.

[Wes Clark] seemed like sort of a stiff.

Yep.  I found him disappointing that way, too, in his 2004 mini-run.

But stiffness is a little-to-no handicap for a VP candidate (see: Mondale, Gore).  OTOH, it is a big handicap eight years later when it's their "turn" to run for president (see: Mondale, Gore).

Regarding McCain's event in PA, there is an interesting post at Daily Kos on the rec list about how it's set up, and whether it qualifies as a town hall meeting... along with some info about the company who is hosting it.

"The event will be portrayed as McCain appealing to "working class voters" and probably will have some construction equipment in the background. The stagecraft will be "blue collar" but make no mistake about it. This is a right wing corporation that broke the law on multiple occasions and was paying workers wages below that of the minimum wage..."

Back to the SUSA poll. I know they are supposed to be the "gold standard" but I'm starting to wonder if this is mostly due to a few good calls during the primary season and not because they actually are a quality polling outfit. They're latest VA poll might be spot-on, I don't know, but like a lot of their other more recent polls showing a swing towards McCain, the underlying cross-tabs show huge swings in demographics from the previous polls that showed better numbers for Obama. Maybe the earlier ones were wrong and these more recent ones are correct - I don't know. But whatever the case, they got something wrong somewhere along the line.

As for this most recent VA poll, I'm going to call this a big time outlier. As others have noted, it shows 25% of the black vote going to McCain. Huh? Again, huh????? When you compare this poll to their may poll, the "race demos" stayed mostly the same - except for blacks. In May, McCain won whites 53-36...this month he's up 54-41. Slight improvement for Obama but pretty close to the same. The Hispanic and "Other" numbers are almost exactly the same when you look at the May and June polls. But in May, Obama won black voters - representing 18% of those polled - 92-7. This month he's only up 75-24%? (blacks represent 18% this month as well) No way. No freaking way. Outlier, outlier, outlier...flawed sample, flawed sample, flawed sample.

Unlike other recent SUSA state polls, their party ID/ideology numbers remained pretty much the same in VA between their May and June polls. But like their recent Ohio poll, there was a huge shift towards McCain among male voters. In May, Obama won them barely, 48-44. This month he's down 58-40. Nah...that's flawed...or May was flawed. Again, something is wrong with one of them.

I think the reason for most of these variations - except the black vote numbers, which are just unexplainable - is in the geography. In May, 30% of those polled were from Northeast VA, versus 27% from the Shenandoah Valley. In June, Northeast dropped to 27% while the Shenandoah increased to 29%. I don't have any census figures handy but I have to think the May numbers were closer to reality. As for the breakdown in those regions, Obama gets smacked both months in the Shenandoah, as expected, although he did a bit better in June. But in June, his numbers in the Northeast dropped to 59-36, from 66-27 in May. Any Northeast Virginians out there who can speak to this shift? Is it real?

I just don't know about SUSA anymore these days. These wacky shifts in demographics in all of these states in one month's time just don't seem possible.

I want to know if the Afghanistan/Pakistan border project which didn't fly was based on actionable intelligence or not?

Welcome to Obama's next war.

RE: Wes Clark.

Not only is Wesley Clark right in saying this, Democrats should be screaming this from rooftops. John McCain's military record doesn't mean he's more prepared to be President. In fact, if McCain thinks it does and since he mentions it at every turn, I'd say it's fair game. I's also say it really does quite the opposite.

If you look at it honestly, his time as a POW, FIVE YEARS, makes him UNFIT to have his finger on the proverbial nuclear trigger. He's mentally unstable, as
even the AZ GOP is saying out loud.