As you know Survey USA has been one of the more reliable pollsters out there. In Massachussetts, before Super Tuesday, SurveyUSA had Hillary Clinton defeating Barack Obama 56-39, and the actual results were 56-41. SurveyUSA's latest polls have Obama doing well in head to head matchups against McCain. Although Hillary does better than Obama in states like Ohio, Missouri, and Florida, its pretty clear that Obama runs better overall. However, one thing that concerns me is that Obama has consistently performed poorly against McCain in Massachussetts.In the latest poll, he only leads 48-46, and last month he was down 50-45. Massachussets is supposedly the bluest of blue states, and despite the endorsements of Deval Patrick, Teddy Kennedy, and John Kerry, coupled with the fact that its an electorate that should have been favorable for him even in last month's primary, Obama continues to struggle here.

Could Obama's struggles be related to Deval Patrick's struggles as Governor? Deval Patrick basically ran the same campaign that Obama is running now, as Deval also relied on Obama's current campaign manager. The similarities between their campaign became apparent when it was learned that Obama borrowed heavily from his speeches.

The Massachussetts electorate has seen this same style of campaign and has even voted for it, yet once the hype died down, and reality set in, they have been disappointed with the results. I guess the larger point I am trying to make is what happens to Obama when the hype dies down?

Although he currently polls extremely well, I'm a little skeptical right now because Obama has largely been able to define himself. When outside parties jump in to define him negatively, and regardless of how you feel about Clinton, she has not attacked Obama the way the GOP will attack him,  will his current poll numbers stay the same? I'm a little worried about what his number s might look like once everything settles down.